Bill Taylor at 23:00, 11 October 2005

2005-10-11T23:00:56Z

Bill Taylor at 22:55, 11 October 2005

2005-10-11T22:55:10Z

New page

''See also [[Help:Namespace]], [[m:Help:Namespace]]''

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Like all wikis using the [[MediaWiki]] software, Wikipedia has 18 built-in [[m:namespace|namespaces]]: the main namespace, where page names have no prefix, and 17 auxiliary types, each with its own prefix. In addition, there are 2 custom namespaces, with their own prefixes.

The concept of namespaces is similar to [[namespace (programming)|programming language namespaces]] and general [[namespace]]s.

==Basic namespaces==
The [[Main Page|main namespace]] or ''article namespace'' is the encyclopedia proper (see [[Special:Allpages]]). It is the default namespace and does not use a prefix.

The [[Wikipedia:Project namespace|project namespace]] (prefix ''Wikipedia:'', also called the ''Wikipedia namespace'') is a namespace that provides information about Wikipedia and how to use it. The page you are now reading is located in the project namespace.

The [[Wikipedia:Portal namespace|portal namespace]] (prefix ''Portal:'') is for reader-oriented portals that help readers find and browse through articles related to a specific subject. It also may contain links to encourage readers to contribute to relevant [[Wikipedia:WikiProjects|WikiProjects]] (see, for example, [[Portal:Cricket]] or [[Portal:Association football]]).

The [[Wikipedia:User page|user namespace]] (prefix ''User:'') is a namespace that provides pages for Wikipedia users' personal presentations and auxiliary pages for personal use, for example containing [[bookmark]]s to favorite pages. If you see in the [[RecentChanges]] list that the user named "Jimbo" has updated some pages, this user name is a link not to Jimbo but to [[user:Jimbo]]. (See [[Special:Listusers]]).

The [[Wikipedia:image description page|image namespace]] (prefix ''Image:'', also called ''image description pages'') is a namespace that provides info about images and sound clips, one page for each, with a link to the image or sound clip itself. See [[Special:Imagelist]]. There are three versions of links to images and sound files:
#<nowiki>[[Image:Foobar.jpg]]</nowiki> will insert the image directly into the page (not for sound files)
#<nowiki>[[Media:Foobar.jpg]]</nowiki> will make a text link to the image or sound clip
#<nowiki>[[:Image:Foobar.jpg]]</nowiki> will make a text link to the image description page

The [[Wikipedia:MediaWiki namespace|MediaWiki namespace]] (prefix ''MediaWiki:'') is a namespace containing interface texts such as link labels and messages. They are used for adjusting the localisation (i.e. local version) of interface messages without waiting for a new LanguageXx.php file to get installed. Each label and message has a separate page. Pages in this namespace are [[wikipedia:this page is protected|protected]] by default. An automatically generated list of all interface messages is at [[Special:Allmessages]].

The [[Wikipedia:Template namespace|Template namespace]] (formerly part of the MediaWiki namespace) is used to define a standard text which can then be conveniently added within pages, either the text itself at the time of adding, or a reference to the text at the time of viewing the page. The latter way effectively changes all such occurrences of the standard text automatically by just editing the page where the text is defined. These are listed at [[Wikipedia:Template messages]] and [[Wikipedia:Navigational templates]]. The majority of this type is not protected.

The [[Wikipedia:Category|Category]] namespace contains categories of pages, with each displaying a list of pages in that category and optional additional text.

A new addition is the Help namespace. Help pages previously in the Wikipedia namespace, and at Meta, may be moved here at some point in the future, but the namespace has not yet been implemented on all Wikimedia projects.

==Talk namespaces==
Except for special pages, each namespace has an associated [[Wikipedia:talk page|talk namespace]]. The talk namespaces are designated by adding ''talk:'' to the normal prefix. For example, the talk namespace associated with the main article namespace has the prefix ''Talk:'', while the talk namespace associated with the user namespace has the prefix ''User talk:''. Most of the pages in the talk namespaces are used to discuss changes to the corresponding page in the associated namespace. Pages in the ''user talk namespace'' are used to leave messages for a particular user. The user talk namespace is special in that, whenever a user's talk page is edited, that user will see a box saying "You have new messages" on every page that they view until they visit their talk page.

==Virtual namespaces==
There are two virtual namespaces that do not relate to pages stored in the database.

The ''[[Wikipedia:Special pages|Special:]]'' namespace consists of pages (called ''special pages'') that are created by the software on demand, such as [[Special:Recentchanges]]. These pages can be linked as usual, like <nowiki>[[Special:Recentchanges]]</nowiki>, except when they have parameters; then, the full URL must be given, like an external link. For example, {{SERVER}}/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Recentchanges&days=3&limit=10, which returns the last 10 changes.

A [[Wikipedia:redirect|redirect]] to a Special page is not recommended because of its [[m:redirect#Inter-wiki redirects and redirects to Special pages|complications]].

The ''Media:'' namespace can be used to link directly to an image or sound clip, rather than to the image description page. See information above on the image: namespace.

==Pseudo-namespaces==
The ''[[Wikipedia:WP|WP]]'' pseudo-namespace (also called ''WP shortcuts'') appears to be a namespace with the prefix ''WP:''. In reality, there is no such namespace.

The ''WP:'' pages are actually pages in the article namespace with the 'WP:' prefix. However, they all redirect to the project namespace, thus they effectively create a namespace. For example, [[WP:WINAD]] redirects to [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a dictionary]]. The pseudo-namespace provides [[mnemonic|easily remembered]] shortcuts for frequently-visited pages in the project namespace.

The ''[[m:Transwiki|transwiki]]'' namespace is a cross-project pseudo-namespace used for temporarily storing articles which need to be moved from one Wikimedia project to another. See [[m:Transwiki|transwiki]] in the [[m:Main Page|Meta-Wiki]] for a full explanation.

==Non-standard namespaces==
[[Talk:Wikipedia:Namespace]] is an example of a non-standard (and not recommended) talk page name, which is discussed further at [[m:Talk:En:Talk:Wikipedia:Namespace]]; a page which is special itself, in that the link that is supposed to be to the corresponding article on meta is an interwiki link to the non-standard talk page on Wikipedia.

The Image:Image: namespace was never standard, and is no longer functional as of MediaWiki 1.3.

==Enumeration==
The 16+2+2 namespaces in Wikipedia are shown here along with the [[m:Help:Variable|variables]] which refer to them.

{| border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0"
|<nowiki>{{ns:-2}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:-2}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:-1}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:-1}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:0}}</nowiki>
|(main namespace, for regular Wikipedia articles)
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:1}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:1}} (discussion pages for regular Wikipedia articles)
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:2}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:2}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:3}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:3}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:4}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:4}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:5}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:5}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:6}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:6}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:7}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:7}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:8}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:8}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:9}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:9}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:10}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:10}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:11}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:11}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:12}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:12}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:13}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:13}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:14}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:14}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:15}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:15}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:100}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:100}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ns:101}}</nowiki>
|{{ns:101}}
|}

All namespaces with a positive number or zero in this list are searchable. Specifically, the {{ns:-2}} and {{ns:-1}} namespaces are not searchable.
[[Category:ConRunner feature]]

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ConRunner:Namespace - Revision history

Bill Taylor at 23:00, 11 October 2005

Bill Taylor at 22:55, 11 October 2005