Extension:DiscussionTools

MediaWiki extensions manual

DiscussionTools Release status: stable
Implementation	User interface
Description	Tools to enhance discussion pages
Author(s)	Wikimedia Editing team
Latest version	continuous updates
Compatibility policy	Snapshots releases along with MediaWiki. Master is not backward compatible.
Database changes	Yes
Tables	discussiontools_items discussiontools_item_ids discussiontools_item_pages discussiontools_item_revisions discussiontools_subscription
License	MIT License
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Browse repository (Phabricator · GitHub) Gerrit code review Git commit log Download source tarball
Help	Help:DiscussionTools
Parameters $wgDiscussionToolsReplyIndentation $wgDiscussionToolsBeta $wgDiscussionTools_visualenhancements $wgDiscussionToolsEnablePermalinksBackend $wgDiscussionToolsEnableThanks $wgDiscussionToolsTimestampFormatSwitchTime $wgDiscussionToolsShowFeedbackLinks $wgDiscussionToolsTalkPageParserCacheExpiry $wgDiscussionTools_visualenhancements_pageframe $wgDiscussionToolsAutoTopicSubEditor $wgDiscussionToolsConflictingGadgetName $wgDiscussionTools_visualenhancements_reply $wgDiscussionToolsEnablePermalinksFrontend $wgDiscussionTools_visualenhancements_reply_icon_languages
Hooks used ApiMain::moduleManager BeforeCreateEchoEvent BeforeDisplayNoArticleText BeforePageDisplay ChangeTagsListActive DiscussionToolsAddOverflowMenuItems EchoGetBundleRules EchoGetEventsForRevision GetActionName GetBetaFeaturePreferences GetDoubleUnderscoreIDs GetPreferences ListDefinedTags LoadExtensionSchemaUpdates OutputPageBeforeHTML OutputPageParserOutput ParserAfterTidy ParserOutputPostCacheTransform RecentChange_save ResourceLoaderGetConfigVars RevisionDataUpdates SidebarBeforeOutput SkinTemplateNavigation::Universal
Hooks provided DiscussionToolsAddOverflowMenuItems DiscussionToolsTermsOfUseMessages
Translate the DiscussionTools extension
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

The Discussion Tools extension is a set of tools to enhance discussion pages. As of 2024, it is being built by the Editing team as part of the talk pages project .

User documentation is at Help:DiscussionTools .

Some features can be disabled on individual pages and sections as described at Help:DiscussionTools/Magic words and markup .

Features

Main pages: Talk pages project/Feature summary and Extension:DiscussionTools/Comparison

Dependencies

• Extension:VisualEditor
• Extension:Linter
• Extension:Echo (optional). Only required if you want to use the topic subscriptions feature and user ping.

Installation

This extension comes with MediaWiki 1.40 and later, so you do not need to download it. The remaining configuration instructions must still be followed.

• Install the dependencies.
• Download and move the extracted DiscussionTools folder to your extensions/ directory.
  Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:

  cd extensions/
  git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools
  

• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'DiscussionTools' );
  

• Run the update script which will automatically create the necessary database tables that this extension needs.
• Also in LocalSettings.php, ensure that you have a timezone set and $wgFragmentMode set to html5.
• Configure as required.
• Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration

Setting name	Default value	Description
$wgDiscussionToolsEnable	true	Enable DiscussionTools on talk pages.
$wgDiscussionToolsBeta	false	Make DiscussionTools a beta feature .
$wgDiscussionToolsEnable2017Wikitext	false	Enable the 2017 wikitext editor for wikitext replies (not yet supported).
$wgDiscussionToolsEnablePermalinksBackend	true	Enable the permalinks backend (Special:GoToComment). See Extension:DiscussionTools/How it works#Permanent links.
$wgDiscussionToolsReplyIndentation	'invisible'	Reply indentation syntax to use: 'invisible' (use <dl><dd> tags to output : in wikitext) or 'bullet' (use <ul><li> tags to output * in wikitext).
$wgDiscussionToolsShowFeedbackLinks	false	MW 1.40+ Show "Share feedback about this feature" links in the footer of reply tool and new topic tool.
$wgDiscussionToolsConflictingGadgetName	'convenientDiscussions'	Internal name of the Convenient Discussions gadget, which conflicts with the reply tool. Reply tool will be unavailable when the user has this gadget enabled.

API

Editing

Action	Human readable	Description	Internal?
discussiontoolscompare	compare	Get information about comment changes between two page revisions.	internal
discussiontoolsedit	edit	Post a message on a discussion page.
discussiontoolsfindcomment	find comment	Find a comment by its ID or name.
discussiontoolspageinfo	page info	Returns metadata required to initialize the discussion tools.	internal
discussiontoolspreview	preview	Preview a message on a discussion page.	internal

Subscriptions

Action	Human readable	Description	Internal?
discussiontoolsgetsubscriptions	get subscriptions	Get the subscription statuses of given topics.
discussiontoolssubscribe	subscribe	Subscribe (or unsubscribe) to receive notifications about a topic.

Special pages

• Special:DiscussionToolsDebug
• Special:FindComment
• Special:GoToComment
• Special:TopicSubscriptions

Integration with other extensions

DiscussionTools can integrate with PlaceNewSection to put the location of where added new topics will begin to be placed.

It can also integrate with AutoModerator to enable community-configured reversion of Machine Language-scored bad edits.

See also

• Extension:DiscussionTools/How it works – technical information