WikiDB/Features

Note: This page is still fairly incomplete. I will add to it as I remember things.

• To see features planned for future versions, see WikiDB/Roadmap.
• To suggest new features, please use WikiDB/Feature requests.

Current features

The following features are currently working (or mostly working). Please see the Tutorial first - some of these features may be a little unclear until you understand what the extension does.

Data

• Data may be defined on any page in the wiki.
• The new <data> tag can be used to replace infobox templates. The result is identical, but the data is also added to the appropriate table.
• You can define data without defining any kind of table structure.
• Data may be typed, but all typing is loose, and does not affect the stored data.
• Individual fields may contain multiple values, e.g. a Student record for a joint-honours student may need to contain multiple values in the Course field. See the defining data page for more detail.

Table definitions

• Support for multiple table namespaces for easy separation of data.
• Table definitions can include standard wiki markup for ease of annotating their use.
• Aliases may be defined for fields, so that common naming mistakes or legacy data can be seamlessly mapped to the correct field.
• Fields can be typed and, where appropriate, a range can be specified.
• An extensible type mechanism allows new custom field types to be added. For example, you could create an 'ISBN' data type that only allowed valid ISBN numbers. The data types can be as complex as you want.
• The data page shows you how the data looks when formatted to the tables current specification
• Table pages that are redirects automatically map to the target table. All data that points to a redirect actually ends up in the table it redirects to.

Queries

You can use the <repeat> tag to perform queries.

• The tag can be used on any page in the wiki.
• You can specify the criteria by which the results should be filtered in a variety of ways.
• You can specify one or more fields to sort on.
• Fields can be sorted in ascending or descending order.
• The contents of the tag are repeated for each row returned by the query, with {{{fields}}} replaced by their data.
• Default values may be specified for fields, to be displayed if there is no data.
• If the tag has no contents, the results are displayed in a standard format.
• You can specify <header> and <footer> sections to make custom tables.
• You can also live-query a table via the 'data' tab, for quick, ad-hoc searches.

Interface

• New 'data' tab for table pages, which shows you all the data defined for that table. This tab is available even if no table definition is defined.
• Special:AllTables lists all defined tables on the wiki.
• Special:UndefinedTables lists tables that do not exist, but for which data has been defined.
• Special:EmptyTables lists tables that have a definition but no data.