MediaWiki extensions manual
Lock Down English Pages
Release status: beta
Implementation User rights
Description Prevents non-staff users from editing the English interface messages
Author(s) Jack Phoenix
Latest version 0.3.0 (2020-07-29)
MediaWiki 1.39.4+
License Public domain
Download
Example ShoutWiki's Interface Messages Wiki
Hooks used
  • userCan
Quarterly downloads 2 (Ranked 168th)
Translate the LockDownEnglishPages extension if it is available at translatewiki.net

Lock Down English Pages is a MediaWiki extension that prevents users who are not members of the staff group but who have the editinterface user right from editing English interface messages (pages in the MediaWiki namespace that either have the /en suffix or no slash character at all).

This extension was written by Jack Phoenix for ShoutWiki to fix ShoutWiki bug #54.

Installation

  • Download and place the file(s) in a directory called LockDownEnglishPages in your extensions/ folder.
  • Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file: 
    wfLoadExtension( 'LockDownEnglishPages' );
  • Yes Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Explanation of the logic

The extension checks that:

  1. the page we're trying to edit is in the NS_MEDIAWIKI namespace
  2. that we have the 'editinterface' user right (which sysops by default have)
  3. that we are not a member of the staff group and
  4. that $action is 'edit'

Then it proceeds to check the current title. If the current title has either /en or alternatively no / at all in its title, editing will be prevented.

Rationale

ShoutWiki's custom extensions and other things are translatable via the Interface Messages Wiki (where the MessageCommons extension is installed). We are rather liberal with the administrator rights over there, but since administrators (by default) have the editinterface user right, they may accidentally mess up the English pages, in case if they forget to add their language's language code to the page URL (i.e. they want to edit MediaWiki:Foo/fr but they accidentally end up editing MediaWiki:Foo, the English message). This extension prevents translators from accidentally messing up the English interface messages by disallowing them to edit those messages.

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