Mediawiki DumpHTML extension improvement
The Mediawiki DumpHTML extension is the solution to export the dynamic generated HTML pages in a set of static HTML/Media files. This extension is the best way to get a good set of HTML pages from a Mediawiki (in comparison with a Web site mirroring tool for example).
Unfortunately, they are few pain points:
- Not maintained, bugs are not fixed, new features are not implemented
- Only available for Mediawiki system admin
- Does not generate ZIM files
Workpackage1: Revamping and fixing bugs
The worth point is that the DumpHTML extension is not correctly maintained and with the time, many issues were discovered. Currently, the extension is not really usable without fixing/tweaking the Mediawiki code.
The purpose of this work package is to fix the most critical bugs to achieve that everyone having a Mediawiki would be able to simply get a HTML dumps of his content and consequently being able to easily generate a ZIM file afterwards
After the revamping, the result should be perfect in HTML similar to what dumpHTML.pl does.
Delivarables:
- Revamping dumpHTML and fixing bugs (80-120 hours)
Workpackage2: phpzim creation an integration in DumpHTML extension
phpzim would be a new php module allowing to create/write and read ZIM file directly in PHP. This would be a binding of the zimlib, like pyzim in Python. With this library done, we will be able to create ZIM file directly from the DumpHTML.
To be able to get a ZIM file, the user will have to call dumpHTML.php and specify that he wants a ZIM file output (not a HTML dump) also some other meta informations like title, creator, etc.
So the user will need a system access where the Mediawiki instance runs and also to install phpzim (should be packaged).
Deliverables:
- phpzim (40 hours)
- updated dumpHTML (20 hours)
Workpackage3: Integrating Collection and DumpHTML extensions and new features
By integrating the DumpHTML and the Collection extension we want to give to everyone the capacity to easily create small ZIMs from the Wikipedia user interface with following advantages:
- exactly the same rendering as online
- no external dependency to install for the Mediawiki admin
- rendering done by MediaWiki (as fast as online browsing)
In addition we want to implement a few additional features (see the list of deliverables).
Deliverables:
- Book and DumpHTML integration (30 hours)
- DumpHTML parallel processing (15 hours)
- Build selection based on list of titles (20 hours)
- Create an offline skin for mobiles to make dumps for mobiles (15 hours)
- Make offline skin to avoid pictures (5 hours)