4 This document describes the XML format used to represent information about external sites known to a MediaWiki installation. This information about external sites is used to allow "inter-wiki" links, cross-language navigation, as well as close integration via direct access to the other site's web API or even directly to their database.
6 Lists of external sites can be imported and exported using the *importSites.php* and *exportSites.php* scripts. In the database, external sites are described by the `sites` and `site_ids` tables.
8 The formal specification of the format used by *importSites.php* and *exportSites.php* can be found in the *sitelist-1.0.xsd* file. Below is an example and a brief description of what the individual XML elements and attributes mean:
13 <globalid>acme.com</globalid>
14 <localid type="interwiki">acme</localid>
16 <path type="link">http://acme.com/</path>
17 <source>meta.wikimedia.org</source>
19 <site type="mediawiki">
20 <globalid>de.wikidik.example</globalid>
21 <localid type="equivalent">de</localid>
22 <group>Dictionary</group>
24 <path type="page_path">http://acme.com/</path>
30 The XML elements are used as follows:
32 - `sites`: The root element, containing a set of site tags. May have a `version` attribute with the value `1.0`.
33 - `site`: A site entry, representing an external website. May have a `type` attribute with one of the following values:
34 + `unknown`: (default) any website
35 + `mediawiki`: A MediaWiki site
36 - `globalid`: A unique identifier for the site. For a given site, the same unique global ID must be used across all wikis in a wiki farm (aka wiki family).
37 - `localid`: An identifier for the site, for use on the local wiki. Multiple local IDs may be assigned to a given site. The same local ID can be used to refer to different sites by different wikis on the same farm/family. The `localid` element may have a type attribute with one of the following values:
38 + `interwiki`: Used as an "interwiki" link prefix, for creating cross-wiki links.
39 + `equivalent`: Used as a "language" link prefix, for cross-linking equivalent content in different languages.
40 - `group`: The site group (e.g. wiki family) the site belongs to.
41 - `path`: A URL template for accessing resources on the site. Several paths may be defined for a given site, for accessing different kinds of resources, identified by the `type` attribute, using one of the following values:
42 + `link`: Generic URL template, often the document root.
43 + `page_path`: (for `mediawiki` sites) URL template for wiki pages (corresponds to the target wiki's `$wgArticlePath` setting)
44 + `file_path`: (for `mediawiki` sites) URL pattern for application entry points and resources (corresponds to the target wiki's `$wgScriptPath` setting).
45 - `forward`: Whether using a prefix defined by a `localid` tag in the URL will cause the request to be redirected to the corresponding page on the target wiki (currently unused). E.g. whether <http://wiki.acme.com/wiki/foo:Buzz> should be forwarded to <http://wiki.foo.com/read/Buzz>. (CAVEAT: not yet implement, can be specified but has no effect)