Returns skin data as a SkinJSON to help you develop a MediaWiki skin.
- Make sure you have MediaWiki setup.
- Clone this repository in your mediawiki/skins folder.
- Rename the folder to SkinJson
- Add the following to LocalSettings.php
wfLoadSkin('SkinJson');
- Navigate to the page you want to debug and add
?useskin=skinjsonto the URL e.g. http://localhost:8888/w/index.php/Main_page?useskin=skinjson - Install a Chrome or Firefox extension for prettifying JSON to allow exploration of the data.
This provides the REST API at /w/rest.php/v1/skins for exploring installed skins.
The skin also adds a special URL to inspect data in skins which extend the SkinMustache class providing their own skin data.
To activate this mode, you must make use of the useskin and useformat query string parameters.
For example to inspect SkinVector's custom data use the following query string on any URL:
?useskin=vector&useformat=json
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
$wgSkinJSONDebug = true;
Extension and skin developers can enable a debug mode to allow themselves to explore errors with their existing skins. This will show a banner at the top of the page, telling you whether your skin will break in future MediaWiki versions.
$wgSkinJSONValidate = true;
A validate mode allows you to test your skin against several metrics around extensibility. When enabled this will append links to extensible menus to check if they are valid.
This feature changes the skin, so it is not recommended in a production setting but can be useful for checking your skin is up to date with MediaWiki extension support.
When validation mode is enabled you can also enable extension hints to visualize expandable areas. Hovering over the icon in these areas will show you which MediaWiki hook can be used to modify the target area.
$SkinJSONExtensionHints = true;
This feature visually changes the skin, so it is not recommended in a production setting but can be useful for checking your skin is up to date with MediaWiki extension support.
In 1.40 with the MediaWiki page previews extension installed you can hover over question marks in the UI to understand how your extension can extend the skin.