After learning how to create a MediaWiki page, you can organize your pages into namespaces. Namespaces in MediaWiki are similar to categories in that when you create pages and they can be stored in certain page locations. For example, You can have “How to?” pages stored in the “Help” namespace, or you can have discussions stored in the “Talk” namespace.
The image to the right shows the available namespaces that are built into MediaWiki. Most of your MediaWiki pages will go into the “MediaWiki” Namespace. This article will explain what each namespace is for and how to create a “Help” and “Talk” namespace.
MediaWiki Built-in namespaces
MediaWiki by default has its own built-in namespaces. Two namespaces do not contain any editabe pages, the “Special” and “Media” namespaces. The rest of the namespaces are premade for organizing the pages. The following table explains what each namespace is for.
| Namespaces with pages | |
|---|---|
| Name | Description |
| Main | This namespace is for storing the main content of the wiki. its also called the “main namespace” or “mainspace“. |
| Talk | The talk is a part of the “Main” namespace. This is reserved for discussions. |
| User | This namespace us reserved for user pages. This contains user article updates, recent changes, and information about the users wiki contribution. |
| User talk | This is a discussion namespace designed for discussions between registered users. |
| Project | The “Project” namespace is designed for development related information about the wiki. |
| Project talk | Similar to the “Project” namespace, this name space will have discussions between users about the development of the site. |
| File | Every image, video and other file that is stored in the “Media” namespace will have a page created individually for it. This is the namespace that stores the page that is created for media. |
| File talk | This namespace is for discussions related to the File namespace. |
| MediaWiki | The “MediaWiki” namespace contains the files such as CSS, skin edit, and other system configuration pages. |
| MediaWiki talk | This is a discussion namespace for discussing issues with the “MediaWiki” namespace. |
| Template | Store wiki templates or text that add functionality to other pages. |
| Template talk | Discussion based of the “Template” namespace. |
| Help | Stores Frequently asked questions or other “How to?” related information. |
| Help talk | This is for discussing the “Help” namespace pages. |
| Category | This contains lists of pages that are a part of categories. |
| Category talk | Discussion based off of the “Category” namespace. |
| Namespaces with no pages | |
| Special | Special pages, reports, and other pages that are a part of the operation of the wiki are a part of this namespace. These are not editable pages. |
| Media | This namespace is particular for storing files like video and images. |
Adding pages to a namespace
The following steps will explain how to create a MediaWiki page in a namespace by using the search feature.
- Log into MediaWiki.
- On the left hand side click special pages.
Select All pages from the Lists of pages section.
You can see all the available namespaces in the drop list where it says “Namespaces:“.
- To create a page in a specific namespace, in the search box to the top right of your mediawiki, type the namespace followed by a colon (:) and then the page name. Like the following:
namespace:Your Page Name
In this example, we will create a page in the Help namespace. The following will be searched:
Help:FAQ
Click Go.
In the search results, You should see “There were no results matching the query“.
Click the link in the “Create the page . . .” to create the page.
Add the content and Save the page.
Now the new page will contain the Namespace in the title to identify the page in the particular namespace.
Go back to the special pages and Select All pages from the Lists of pages section.
When you look at the Help Namespace you will see your new page listed in the “Help” Namespace section.
Creating Talk namespace pages
This section is to give a step by step in how to create a discussion in the Talk namespace through the page Edit Discussion table.
- Log into MediaWiki.
Edit a page you want to create a discussion on.
Click the discussion tab at the top left.
You should see the “Create Talk page” showing the name of the Talk.
Add the content for the discussion and Save the page.
Go back to the special pages and Select All pages from the Lists of pages section.
Select the “Talk” namespace from the Namespace drop box and click Go.
Now the discussion will show up in the “Talk” namespace.
