Wiki Editing Hints
Getting started
- If you have some knowledge to share about Qt, then this wiki is the place to share it. But restrict your articles to Qt related topics
- Please make sure that the page you want to create doesn't already exist. Use the search field on the top right for this purpose. If there is already a page on that topic, it will show up in the search results.
- Since this is a wiki, you can edit all of the contents on most pages.
- If there is no such page you can create one by clicking the link Create the page "search term" on this wiki! in the search results.
- Don't pollute the history of a page by doing tests; use the Sandbox instead.
How to edit a page
The Qt wiki is powered by MediaWiki, the wiki engine used by Wikipedia and many other wikis around the web.
When editing a page, there is a toolbar that allows the insertion of the most common syntax elements. The wiki code syntax is pretty straightforward and you can write it directly without using the toolbar. Have a look at the MediaWiki cheatsheet for a quick reference.
Please, remember to always use the preview option to check your edits before you save, to prevent polluting the version history with needless entries fixing errors.
How to make your pages easy to use
Help fellow developers find the great insights you're sharing by following a few simple guidelines:
Write like you're coding
Good wikis, like good code, are easy to scan and maintain. Each article should cover one topic (much like a class). Each paragraph should cover a single aspect of the topic (like a function).
Use headers for scannability
Long articles are easier to read if you add some informative headers. Please use the MediaWiki heading level (==) for your introduction and then === and ==== levels to outline your discussion. (The editor includes buttons for them.) Try to write your headers so they outline what you have to say all by themselves, because you can then:
Add a table of Contents
When readers find your article, they will scan the first page to figure out if it's what they're looking for. If your article is not much longer than one page, all you need to do is write it. If it's much longer than that, use a table of content to show the reader what's to come. Your opening paragraph plus table of content should be all the reader needs to know whether to click down or click away.
A table of contents is added automatically as soon as you included three headings, regardless of their depth. Sometimes you don't want to have a table of contents generated (e.g. because the page you create is a table of contents) you can put the magic word __NOTOC__ at the beginning of you page.
Add categories
Add category tags to insert a link to your article in the appropriate summary pages. By adding your article to existing categories you help readers find your content.
If you want to create a new category and summary page, just tag your article to a category that does not yet exist like so: [[Category:Wiki Help]]
Collaboration
Wikis are meant for collaborative editing. To make it as easy as possible for everybody please follow some basic rules:
- Discuss your pages on the Talk subpage that can be reached via the top toolbar
- Write in an understandable, informative, but not too formal language.
- Structure your pages with subheadings and a healthy number of paragraphs for easier understanding and better reading.
- Explain acronyms, at least at first use.
- Use meaningful but straight to the point page names.
- Don't mindlessly throw away other people's work.
- Use [[Category:...]] to group pages by topic.
Category pages
Whenever you create a new category for your page the wiki software will create a landing page for it. This page is editable just like any other page. Just click on the link displayed on your page and edit away. All pages within the respective category will be displayed on this page. Why not start it with an introduction to the topic?
Templates
One can make use of the MediaWiki Templates. This page summarizes the current state of available Templates:
| Template Name | You type | You get | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Template:DocLink creates a link to the doc.qt.io reference documentation |
|
| |
| Template:LangLinks creates a list of predefined language links so that you can easily see what languages are available for the page specified | {{LangLinks|base=Download Data from URL}} | bg de el es fr it ja ko pt ru zh | |
| Template:LangSwitch does the same as LangLinks but for the same page the template is inserted. It checks all available language subpages and inserts a link. For this template you don't need to specify any parameters. | {{LangSwitch}} | ||
| Template:Ambox inserts a notification box | {{Ambox|text=Some notification text}} |
| |
| Template:WarningBox inserts a warning box | {{WarningBox|text=Some warning text}} |
| |
| Template:Cleanup inserts a notice that the article needs improvement, and puts the article in Category:Articles needing cleanup. You can specify the reason for the tag. | {{Cleanup|reason=The text is too repetitive.}} |
| |
| Template:Delete inserts a notice that the article is nominated for deletion, and puts the article in Category:Delete. You can specify the reason for the tag. | {{Delete|reason=This page is empty.}} |
|
Multi-language articles
When creating new articles the first language should always be English (reference language). When translating an article you just append the ISO-639-1 language code separated by a slash to the URL and hit Enter. The Wiki now tells you that the page can be created.
Example:
Tables
The Mediawiki help page on Tables is useful reading to anyone who edits tables.
Code highlighting
The wiki uses the standard GeSHi syntax highlighter.
The only customisation made, has been to add the <code> tag to the highlighted list handled by GeSHi. The default language is set to C++/Qt toolkit. You can change the language with the lang="" attribute.
For example, you can use these settings:
- Javascript/QML : <code lang="javascript">
- Qt .pro : <code lang="make">
- Command Lines : <code lang="bash">
- XML : <code lang="xml">
Notice that in order to have code highlighted inline in a paragraph do this:
... the following highlighted text <code inline>void mySuperFunkyFunc(const char*)</code> should stay in the same paragraph ...
Displays as:
... the following highlighted text void mySuperFunkyFunc(const char*) should stay in the same paragraph ...
Without inline:
... the following highlighted text
void mySuperFunkyFunc(const char*)
creates a new paragraph ...