NEWEST PAGES EXTENSION

	Version 1.9
	© 2006-2009 Rob Church

This is free software licensed under the GNU General Public Licence. Please
see http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html for further details, including the
full text and terms of the licence.

== Overview ==

1. Introduction
2. Installing the extension
3. Accessing the special page
4. Including the special page
5. Customising the interface text
6. Customising extension behaviour
7. Notes

== 1. Introduction ==

The Newest Pages extension adds an includable special page to MediaWiki version
1.12 and up which produces an ordered list of the newest pages in the wiki, up
to a specified limit. The page can be accessed as a regular special page, or
included within other pages as a form of dynamic list.

== 2. Installing the extension ==

To install the Newest Pages extension, first upload/copy the extension files
NewestPages.php and NewestPages.i18n.php into your MediaWiki extensions directory.
Then edit your LocalSettings.php file and add the following line:

	require_once( 'extensions/NewestPages/NewestPages.php' );

Save the file to complete the installation.

== 3. Accessing the special page ==

To access the special page in the regular view mode, go to Special:Newestpages
on your wiki, or select it from the list of special pages.

The page has a default limit of 50 items, which can be customised using the
supplied limit links, or with the 'limit' parameter in the page URL.

To filter according to namespace, use the namespace selector and click Go, or
alter the 'namespace' parameter in the page URL.

You can opt to exclude redirect pages from the results using the "show/hide
redirects" links at the top of the page.

== 4. Including the special page ==

To include the special page into another page, add the following wiki markup
to that page:

	{{Special:Newestpages}}

This will be replaced with a list when the containing page is rendered. To
customise the limit here, use the following syntax:

	{{Special:Newestpages/X}}

where X is the desired limit. To set the namespace to be used, pass this
instead, e.g.

	{{Special:Newestpages/User}}
	
would show the newest pages in the user namespace. Use - to select the main
namespace. To select a namespace AND set a limit, use syntax similar to the
following:

	{{Special:Newestpages/User/5}}
	{{Special:Newestpages/5/User}}

== 5. Customising the interface text ==

All interface text used in the Newest Pages extension is customisable via
the MediaWiki namespace. See Special:Allmessages for a list of customisable
interface messages in the wiki.

== 6. Customising extension behaviour ==

The default page limit for the extension can be altered using the
$wgNewestPagesLimit variable, e.g.

 $wgNewestPagesLimit = 500;
 
sets the default limit to be 500. This should be set after the call
to include the extension file. The default remains at 50 pages, and there
is an absolute limit of 5000 pages, to avoid crippling the database server(s).

== 7. Notes ==

This extension was written in a much more specific form to serve the needs of a
user in the #mediawiki IRC channel. Following a second request for a similar
page, I decided to clean up the code, give the page a more generalised function,
and release it.

Feedback welcomed at <robchur@gmail.com> as usual.
