1. VW4
2. Area Editor

Printable Version

To edit an area, locate the desired area in the wiki Admin Panel on the Structures > Area Manager page, and click the Edit icon next to the name of the area that you want to change.

Whether you are editing an existing area or creating a new one, many of the options will be the same.

Structural Options

An area's Structural Options affect its place in the wiki hierarchy, as well as the place of any content built on top of that area.

Title

The title of an area is used to generate the area's URL and to link to the area from other pages.

If the "Wiki URL Format" (see Site Config) is set to the final option (/wiki/path/to/article), then the URL of an area is used as the base URL prefix for the URLs of every page within that area, including sub-areas and their pages.

Thus, changes to the Title of an area can automatically affect the paths of many pages in the wiki at once.

For these reasons, changes to the Title of an area are not recommended unless absolutely necessary.

Parent Area

The parent area is another area that should contain this one. Setting up sub-areas within parent areas can help promote organization within the wiki, which can make it easier (or harder) for users to locate content.

If the "Wiki URL Format" (see Site Config) is set to the final option (/wiki/path/to/article), then the URL of the parent area is used as the base URL prefix for this area's URL, as well as the URLs of every page within this area, including deeper sub-areas and pages.

Thus, changing the Parent Area can automatically affect the paths of many pages in the wiki at once.

For these reasons, changing the Parent Area are not recommended unless absolutely necessary.

Display Order

The display order is a numerical value that helps to determine the position of areas in the area list. Areas with lower numbers appear earlier than areas with high numbers.

In most lists, areas with a display order value of 0 will not appear at all.

Content-Related Options

An area's Content-Related Options set rules for what kind of content is acceptable within the area and any default behaviors that should apply to new content.

Auto-Protect New Pages

If selected, pages created in this area will automatically be protected with this protection setting. Protection can still be applied on a per-page basis if the user has permission.

See Protect From Further Changes for more information about protection states and their effects.

Allowed Prefix Choices

When creating new content in this area, users can choose any of the selected Prefixes defined here.

Prefixes play an important role in differentiating similarly named content and generating content URLs. However, for many admins, limiting prefixes in this way is simply a stylistic choice.

For more on prefixes, see Prefix Administration.

Can Contain Content-Types

Users can only choose from the content-types defined here when creating new content within this area.

For example, some admins prefer not to mix resources such as image attachments and templates in the same area as the wiki's primary content. However, for many admins, limiting content-types in this way is simply a stylistic choice.

For more on content-types and information about specific types, see Content Types.

Languages Allowed in this Area

Users can only choose from the languages defined here when creating new articles in the area.

For example, some admins prefer to keep English and German translations in separate areas. However, for many admins, limiting languages in this way is simply a stylistic choice.

For more on languages and how they are used in the wiki, see Language Administration.

Discussion Topics Allowed in this Area

A number of venues are available to accomodate user discussion and comments for any given article in the wiki.

• Every article can have a main thread of comments that appears directly below the article.
  
• The article can also allow users to create new, perhaps off-topic, threads that are attached to the same article.
  
• Finally, the admin can offer suggestions for alternate on-topic threads that should be attached to articles. For more on this, see Discussion Topics

By choosing which of these venues are available within each wiki area, an admin can guide the course of discussion.

List Options

Taken together, the list options control the order that the articles in this area are shown to users.

You can sort articles alphabetically by name or chronologically by recent activity.

Parsing Options

The Parsing Options allow you to control what users are allowed to put in wiki articles or in their own comments.

You can control BB-Code, which provides most of the markup in your forum.
You can control Smilies, because perhaps a philosophical treatment isn't the best place to use :P
You can control Images, because perhaps users shouldn't be posting their favorite memes in reviews of your products.
You can control HTML, because there are security risks of allowing HTML in places that untrusted users can post.

For more information about HTML and its security implications, see HTML Usage.

Miscellaneous Options

This section includes settings that weren't put somewhere else.

Sidebar Blocks Shown in This Area

Even though you might have 20 sidebar blocks installed in the wiki, showing all of them on a short page might give users a long scrollbar that they won't use.

By limiting the sidebar blocks that can be displayed on pages in this area, you limit the length of the scrollbar, and you can potentially show only some blocks that make sense in this area.

For example, by using Custom HTML block-types, you might have a number of blocks that contain content suited for only one area.

For more about Sidebar Blocks and examples, see Sidebar Blocks.

Allow Content Integration

Content integration allows users to post another wiki page at the top of this area, and at the tops of articles within this area.

Although there are other possible uses, you can think of content integration like Notices or Announcements that regular users can edit too.

Template:Clarification

Search Engines Ignore This Area

This area and its contents will be excluded from third-party search sites like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. You can search this area from this web site only.