Help:SMW

Use of Semantic MediaWiki extensions in this wiki

General

SMW adds the idea of named properties to MediaWiki. These are generally organized into a "class" similar in concept to a class in the Object-Oriented programming paradigm. A class consists of:

• A set of associated parameters making up the "object" instance of a class
• A form to create and edit instances
• A category to collect all instances of a particular class
• Some views into of a subset of a classes parameters and possibly across a collection of objects

Creating a class

In this wiki, creating a class is done by an admin. Go to Special:SpecialPages and find the link for creating a class. The convention is to name properties with noun-like names like "something" and parameters with verb-like names "Has something" or "Is something.

Pick the same name for the template, form and category and do not check the box about including multiple times on the page. Pick a default output format as seems best suited.

When populating the fields, keep in mind how instances of this class may relate to others that exist or are expected in the future. Following consistent naming conventions helps.