Factbox

Factbox example

Factbox with attachment links stored and displayed on a page

The factbox is a box at the bottom of wiki pages which summarises the semantic data that was entered into a page. This also helps editors to check whether Semantic MediaWiki actually «understood» the supplied information as intended. Users can read the factbox for getting a quick overview, and for using its links to further information. Note that the factbox can be controlled both globally with configuration parameter $smwgShowFactboxSets in which cases the factbox should be shown below a page and on a page by page basis with behaviour switches.

Usage

Factboxes show information in two columns: the left column displays the property that some information belongs to (e.g. population), while the right column shows the value of that property (e.g. 3,410,000). Each property name is a link to the property's article in the wiki, where one can normally find more information about a property's meaning and usage. Annotations in the factbox usually provide links to involved wiki pages, and for properties that support units of measurement, the factbox also shows converted values in other units.

The icon next to each property value links to a simple search on special page "Search by property"Allows to search the wiki by properties or property value combinations (direct example). See also below on this page. For example, if an article contains the annotation [[is located in::Germany]] then its factbox links to a search listing all pages with the same annotation, i.e. everything located in Germany. Similarly, the header of the factbox shows an icon that links to a simple semantic browser for the given page (see below).

Special properties, i.e. built-in properties that are relevant to SMW, are displayed in italics and show a tooltip when hovering the mouse over them (requires JavaScript). This emphasises their special meaning and helps editors to spot errors.

Finally, the factbox contains a link to retrieve the factbox contents in the machine-readable OWL/RDF format, as explained in the section on Semantic Web technologies in SMW.

Attachment links

Attachment links were added as a feature in Semantic MediaWiki 3.1.0Released on 23 September 2019 and compatible with MW 1.31.0 - 1.33.x.1 for quickly providing an overview on which files and attachments are used (or better referenced) in the page.

Behaviour switches

Editors can put the behaviour switches __NOFACTBOX__ and __SHOWFACTBOX__ on any page to hide or display (if nonempty) the factbox on any page, independently of the global wiki configuration.

A live example for the factbox is on the demo page Berlin where it was enabled with __SHOWFACTBOX__.

Since Semantic MediaWiki 1.9.1Released on 9 February 2014 and compatible with MW 1.19.0 - 1.22.x. it is also possible to see historical data, i.e. data annotated on an older version of a page when used via page action "history" (&action=history).2

Display

Semantic MediaWiki 3.0.0Released on 11 October 2018 and compatible with MW 1.27.0 - 1.31.x. brought changes to the appearance of the factbox making it a tab only solution with CSS (.smw-tabs). Moreover the previous "table" elements were replaced with "div" elements and made responsive with CSS ("display: flex").3

Notes

• Factbox not showing presumably due to using memcached4
• Factbox is not displayed when using extension "MobileFrontend" (MediaWiki.org)5

See also

• Help page on configuration parameter $smwgShowFactboxSets in which cases the factbox should be shown below a page
• Help page on configuration parameter $smwgShowFactboxEditSets in which cases the factbox should be shown when editing a page
• Help page on configuration parameter $smwgFactboxFeaturesSets the behaviour of features related to the factbox