Vanipedia Tech-team Immediate Projects

Immediate Projects

1. Create an extension in Vanisource for comparing different editions of books using the HTML Diff engine

Skills - PHP

Earlier versions of MediaWiki were shipped with an html diff engine which was used to visually compare different revisions of pages. However this engine was removed from the Mediawiki core after version 1.15.( see this and this) We had built a custom extension called ‘Edition Compare’ which used this engine to visually show a diff between 2 different pages. This was helping us to show the changes that were made in different editions of the printed books (e g. 1972 edition of Bhagavad-Gita & 1983 edition of Bhagavad-Gita.) As this module is no longer available within MediaWiki, our Edition Compare feature is now broken and needs to be rebuilt using the library.

2. Develop in Vaniquotes the Complete Compilations and Goals extensions

Skills - PHP or Javascript

The ‘Goals’ extension and the ‘Complete Compilations’ extension are internal tools which facilitated us to have a very streamlined process for compiling quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s teachings in Vaniquotes. However due to a dependency on the Semantic Mediawiki extension, as soon as the extension was upgraded, these 2 custom modules ceased to work. We need to rebuild these 2 extensions to facilitate the further development of Vaniquotes.

3. Evaluate and discuss the pros and cons of combining our multiple wikis into a single wiki

Skills - Mediawiki administration

Currently each of our wikis has its own domain. We need to evaluate if it is better to centralise the project to help improve site ranking, or if it is beneficial to leave things as they are.

4. Create a Plan of Action and implement the Translate extension for MediaWiki.

Skills - Mediawiki administration

MediaWiki has a translate extension which facilitates translation of wiki content to several different languages. Vanipedia needs this multi-language presence as soon as possible.

5. Write Wiki Bots for performing administrative functions

Skills - Python

Bots for maintenance and administrative tasks are required to be developed, to automate time consuming manual tasks.

6. Implementing SEO procedures

Skills - System administration

Vanipedia has never had the qualified staff to work on SEO. Thus our rankings most probably are not the best they could be.