Category Tutorial
Contents
What Are Categories
Categories are tags and keywords the Wiki uses to classify pages. Using the Dynamic Page List code (more on this later), it is trivially easy to create lists based on categories. For example, to list all characters currently enlisted in the Union, one could list all pages containing the Characters, Union and Enlisted categories.
How To Use Categories
To use categories, all you have to do is put them in double brackets in your pages-- anywhere on the pages, but at the end is better to find them easily. For example: [[Category:Characters]] or [[Category:Union]].
Can I Use More Than One?
YES! In fact, you SHOULD! Characters should at the very least have two-- Characters and their appropriate faction. They can have three or four-- for their rank, and if they get dropped. They can have five, six, seven, for if people create their own categories for groups!
How Do I Make My Own?
Insert your custom category in your character or group page. There, you're done! It's created automatically.
Available Categories
'News File is the category for the MUSH's rules and such. You shouldn't be using it unless you're staff. Characters is the category for... well, characters! Union, Confederacy, Syndicate and Unaffiliated are the categories for factions. Enlisted, Ally and Last Chancer are the categories for ranks. Dropped is the category for dropped characters. Groups is the category for group pages, such as Heaven or Hell. Disbanded is the category for former group pages, such as Province of Luanjian. This list will be updated as more categories become ingrained in the core of the Wiki.
Other Categories
Many people may create their own categories. For example, groups would tend to have their own categories-- for example, [[Category:Heaven or Hell]] in order for their group pages to be able to easily create a membership list based on who is using the category. These will not be listed here, though, due to their player-created nature.
Dynamic Page List
For the full tutorial, go here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DynamicPageList_(Wikimedia)
Dynamic Page List is the code extension we use to create automatically updating lists of pages with certain categories, as made obviousl in the Character Index. The way it works is like this:
<DynamicPageList> category = Characters category = Union notcategory = Dropped </DynamicPageList>
The above code would create a list of all Union Characters that are not Dropped. There are many many more flags which can be used to create lists, available on the full tutorial page.
