docs/skin.txt

   1 skin.txt
   2
   3 MediaWiki's default skin is called Monobook, after the black-and-white photo of
   4 a book, in the page background. This skin has been the default since MediaWiki
   5 1.3 (2004). It is used on Wikipedia, and is popular on other sites.
   6
   7 There are three legacy skins which were introduced before MediaWiki 1.3:
   8
   9 * Standard (a.k.a. Classic): The old default skin written by Lee Crocker
  10 during the phase 3 rewrite, in 2002.
  11
  12 * Nostalgia: A skin which looks like Wikipedia did in its first year (2001).
  13 This skin is now used for the old Wikipedia snapshot at
  14 http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/
  15
  16 * Cologne Blue: A nicer-looking alternative to Standard.
  17
  18
  19 And there are four Monobook-derived skins which have been introduced since 1.3:
  20
  21 * MySkin: Monobook without the CSS. The idea is that you customise it using user
  22 or site CSS (see below)
  23
  24 * Chick: A lightweight Monobook skin with no sidebar, the sidebar links are
  25 given at the bottom of the page instead, as in the unstyled MySkin.
  26
  27 * Simple: A lightweight skin with a simple white-background sidebar and no
  28 top bar.
  29
  30 * Modern: An attractive blue/grey theme with sidebar and top bar.
  31
  32
  33 == Custom CSS/JS ==
  34
  35 It is possible to customise the site CSS and JavaScript without editing any
  36 source files. This is done by editing some pages on the wiki:
  37
  38 * [[MediaWiki:Common.css]] -- for skin-independent CSS
  39 * [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]], [[MediaWiki:Simple.css]], etc. -- for
  40 skin-dependent CSS
  41 * [[MediaWiki:Common.js]], [[MediaWiki:Monobook.js]], etc. -- for custom
  42 site JavaScript
  43
  44 These can also be customised on a per-user basis, by editing
  45 [[User:<name>/monobook.css]], [[User:<name>/monobook.js]], etc.
  46
  47 This feature has led to a wide variety of "user styles" becoming available,
  48 which change the appearance of Monobook or MySkin:
  49
  50 http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Gallery_of_user_styles
  51
  52 If you want a different look for your wiki, that gallery is a good place to start.
  53
  54 == Drop-in custom skins ==
  55
  56 If you put a file in MediaWiki's skins directory, ending in .php, the name of
  57 the file will automatically be added as a skin name, and the file will be
  58 expected to contain a class called Skin<name> with the skin class. You can then
  59 make that skin the default by adding to LocalSettings.php:
  60
  61 $wgDefaultSkin = '<name>';
  62
  63 You can also disable dropped-in or core skins using:
  64
  65 $wgSkipSkins[] = '<name>';
  66
  67 This technique is used by the more ambitious MediaWiki site operators, to
  68 create complex custom skins for their wikis. It should be preferred over
  69 editing the core Monobook skin directly.
  70
  71 See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skinning for more information.
  72
  73 == Extension skins ==
  74
  75 It is now possible (since MediaWiki 1.12) to write a skin as a standard
  76 MediaWiki extension, enabled via LocalSettings.php. This is done by adding
  77 it to $wgValidSkinNames, for example:
  78
  79 $wgValidSkinNames['mycoolskin'] = 'MyCoolSkin';
  80
  81 and then registering a class in $wgAutoloadClasses called SkinMycoolSkin, which
  82 derives from Skin. This technique is apparently not yet used (as of 2008)
  83 outside the DumpHTML extension.
  84