Extension:SemanticDependencyUpdater

MediaWiki extensions manual

Semantic Dependency Updater Release status: stable
Implementation	User interface
Description	Monitors semantic data changes and updates depended pages
Author(s)	Simon Heimler, Alexander Gesinn
Maintainer(s)	gesinn.it
Latest version	3.0.3 (2024-01-09)
MediaWiki	1.35+
Database changes	No
License	MIT License
Download	GitHub: project page git repository URL [help ] commit history Note: No localisation updates are provided by translatewiki.net . Releases
Parameters $wgSDUProperty = 'Semantic Dependency'; $wgSDUUseJobQueue = false;
Hooks used SMW::SQLStore::AfterDataUpdateComplete
Compatibility Semantic MediaWiki 4+

The Semantic Dependency Updater (SDU) extension monitors pages for changes in their semantic data. If the "Semantic Dependency" property is found, this extension will update all pages that have been selected through that property. A common use case is change propagation where pages need to update (pull) their semantic data via an ask query from a changed page.

The "Semantic Dependency property" is evaluated as an ASK query. It is therefore possible to define either a list of pages directly or do more complex selections.

It is possible to build a chain of semantic dependencies that will update recursively. Be careful not to build loops!

Installation

Semantic MediaWiki 4 or later is required!

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called SemanticDependencyUpdater in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'SemanticDependencyUpdater' );
  

• Configure as required.
•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Instead of downloading the zip archive you may also check this extension out via Git:

git clone https://github.com/gesinn-it/SemanticDependencyUpdater.git extensions/SemanticDependencyUpdater

Configuration

Mandatory

Make sure, a "Semantic Dependency" property exists, e.g. "Property:Semantic_Dependency" needs to exist and MUST be of the datatype Text:

[[Has type::Text]]

Optional

// Name of the Semantic Dependency property
$wgSDUProperty = 'Semantic Dependency';

// If enabled, SDU will create a Job for each update
$wgSDUUseJobQueue = false;

Usage

The value of the Semantic Dependency property is evaluated as an ASK query, except that [[ or ]] must be ommitted. If there are more conditions, combine them through AND and OR

Examples

Update Self

This will save the current page twice. Useful when the page stores semantic properties that are calculated from other properties of the same page.

[[Semantic Dependency::{{FULLPAGENAME}}]]

Update other page(s)

[[Semantic Dependency::Product:Test Product]]
[[Semantic Dependency::{{{Target Page|}}}]]

Update pages with relation to current page

This will update all pages that link with Part Of to the current page.

[[Semantic Dependency::Part Of::{{FULLPAGENAME}}]]

More Advanced Queries

Be careful that the query does not return too many pages, as this will result in a heavy load.

[[Semantic Dependency::Category:Product]]
[[Semantic Dependency::Category:Product AND Tag::Demo]]
[[Semantic Dependency::Category:Person OR Category:Organization]]

Example test case

• Make sure, a page Property:Semantic_Dependency exists with content [[Has type::Text]]
• Make sure, $wgSDUUseJobQueue = false;
• Create a page A with

[[Title::A]]

• Create a page B with

* [[Part Of::A| ]][[Title::{{#show:A|?Title}}.B]]
* {{#show:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|?Title}}

• Now, change page A as follows

[[Title::XXX]]

As a result, you should see

- XXX.B
- XXX.B

on page B

Debugging

• Note, that on some systems logging to /tmp might not work
• Make sure, a log folder, writable by your web server, exists

> mkdir /var/log/mediawiki
> chown -R www-data /var/log/mediawiki

• In your LocalSettings enable

$wgDebugLogGroups['SemanticDependencyUpdater'] = '/var/log/mediawiki/SDU.log';

• Watch the log file

> tail -f /var/log/mediawiki/SDU.log

• If things work as expected, this will look like:

2020-03-25 13:01:45 vagrant wikidb01-wk: [SDU] --> A
2020-03-25 13:01:45 vagrant wikidb01-wk: [SDU] -----> Data changes detected
2020-03-25 13:01:45 vagrant wikidb01-wk: [SDU] --------> [[Part Of::A]]
2020-03-25 13:01:45 vagrant wikidb01-wk: [SDU] --------> [Edit] B

See also

• Extension:PurgePage