Some coding tips

[ka3jjz]

As I'm in the process of doing a little spring cleaning, I've noticed that some bad (HTML based) habits have kinda raised their heads insofar as linking to images and other pages within the wiki have surfaced. So here's a little help in how to use a few of the Media wiki features correctly;

• Please don't code the URL to link to another page within the wiki environment. This is called a bare link. Instead just code the page title in double brackets, like this: [[Montgomery County (PA)]] . There is a side benefit - if someone were to delete this article, links like the one above show up in red. In addition, if one wanted to move or rename an article, the wiki uses links like the one above to survey what article links to the one you want to move. Bare links are not checked - so if the site goes away, it ends up being a bad link, which obviously we want to avoid

• The only time a URL should be used is when you are linking to another website. This includes linking to the database for a reference. If you want to use data from the database, you can use the wiki extensions. We have a pretty good article on the subject. Please don't hardcode data from the database - it means twice the work to maintain it

• Links to external website should be shown as hyperlinks, not as bare links. To do this, simply enclose the URL in single brackets followed by the desired text, like this: [http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=187 Anne Arundel County DB] where 'Anne Arundel County DB' will become the hyperlink

• There are several ways to link to an image (say a JPEG). Once the file has been uploaded to the wiki, you can use the Image command to display it on the page (and it has several options - you can, for example, put the image to the right and display it in thumbnail mode to conserve space on the page) or the Media command (to hyperlink to an image that can't be directly viewed without an external application - such as a PDF file, which is very commonly found for maps and so forth. If the file is rather large, then there are times the Media command will be a better choice. Coding a URL for an image also has an unintended consequence - it lists the file as 'unused' when you know it really isn't

• Use the Gallery verb if you have a series of images you wish to display. We have lots of examples of this in the wiki currently

• Please be sure to allocate at least one category to an article. The list of categories is found at the bottom of the collaboration page. An article is automatically allocated to a category with the Category command, and is coded like this: [[Category:FTOs]] This example also brings up another important point - please use this category if your article has data on it that pertains to Fire Tone Outs (FTOs). Right now we have such a category, and once everything is moved, we will (hopefully) have an easy way for newcomers to find FTO information for their area

• If you have a straight list of items (such as a list of fire stations) to display, make it easy on yourself - put a '*' (shift of 8) in the first column. The wiki will allocate a soft break at the end of each item - no need to put a '</br>' at the end of each one. I have found it's good practice to put a break at the end of a list to create a little space between the end of the list and the next item

• Never sign changes you make or put a signature on a new page. The software maintains a list of all new articles and changes. On the main page, click on 'wiki changes' at the bottom right, and the change logs are displayed

As always if you have questions about how to use these and other commands, shoot me an email and I'll steer you straight (or at least try to, hi)

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far! 73 Mike