Template talk:ZIMdumps

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The template should show only the language passed as parameter, if it's not English; this would greatly reduce clutter on the main page, which is currently unusable as landing page for the general public. Nemo 18:11, 7 January 2013 (CET)

Do you have a solution? I don't have one. All contents should be somehow available... IMO this is still readable... but I agree the problem is getting worth and worth. You could maybe experiment something new with IT welcome page? Kelson 18:14, 7 January 2013 (CET)
How about something like This? ●Mehran Debate● 11:22, 9 January 2013 (CET)
Looks good to me, I have improved it a little bit. Nemo? Kelson 11:30, 9 January 2013 (CET)
Will try to make that automatic with the template. Kelson 11:52, 9 January 2013 (CET)
Should work now, does it look ok? I've left the complete list on the main page, otherwise we should 1) translate the link to the full list when not on the English main page, 2) think about the languages which have dumps but not a main page. It's just a matter of changing a parameter in the template call, if you want the English main page to be more compact. Nemo 12:30, 9 January 2013 (CET)
Thank you Nemo, have fixed a few details. Seems to be almost perfect now. Kelson 13:32, 9 January 2013 (CET)

May you add the other translations of "→ Full list with all languages..." to the template? I tried but the result was negative! ●Mehran Debate● 09:53, 10 January 2013 (CET)

Done Kelson 10:02, 10 January 2013 (CET)
And I think it's better to remove the "Others" section from the main pages. It's enough if they would be just in the template, isn't it? ●Mehran Debate● 10:11, 10 January 2013 (CET)
Yes. Feel free to join on IRC to talk, it's easier than the discussion page Kelson 10:11, 10 January 2013 (CET)

Further step proposition

This template is a great success, it really helps people to find what they want. It's used on
So, this is well used. But this suffer of a few weaknesses
  • It's not possible to add non-Wikipedia content (the Template:ZIMdumps/Others is only a English-specific workaround)
  • We can't deal with permanent shortcuts which are available for all content, like for example this ZIM file or this portable file.
  • It's not possible to make a link to the online demo, for example for the English Wikipedia (if exists).
  • We don't have small logo to illustrate the entries, something which would be nice, in particular if we have different type of content
  • The whole wiki setup is a little bit complicated, especially because the template:ZIMdumps/row template doesn't use named parameter, but not only. The solution to translate the table header is not the best one, we should use the new translate extension features.
  • We need to fill this table manually
  • Table should be sortable
What should we do
  • The best solution would be to have a serious DB and work with it. We have also other problem in Kiwix itself because we don't have a proper library storage backend. This is something we will change, but this is not the priority for the next 15 monthes, so we need to find a temporary solution to improve the user experience, without rewriting everything. This is why I propose to rewrite this template in a better way and maybe, in a second step automatize the updates.
Technical propositions
  • Rewrite the template(s) in a smarter/cleaner way to achieve to fix the current limitations (adding new "fields/parameters")
  • Use the extension:translate for the translation and remove custom translations based on parserFunctions from the template
  • At the end, write a script to update the template, based on the online library Kelson (talk) 18:15, 2 November 2013 (CET)