phpBB Modders Wiki

A wiki for phpBB with version history, side-by-side compare, and a moderation queue for edits.

Features

• A wiki at /wiki, with an overview page listing its articles.
• Start an article from the overview page's New article title box, or by linking to /wiki/<article-name> and following the link.
• Link to another article by writing [[Article name]], in articles and in forum posts; links to articles that don't exist yet are shown in red and open the editor. Each article lists the articles that link to it under What links here. See Linking between articles.
• Every edit is saved as a new version; compare any two versions. The compare page opens in a Readable view: the newer version as readers see it, with added text in green and underlined, removed text in red and struck through, and the changed words marked inside a line, list item or table row that changed. Source shows the BBCode diff. A Template: page is compared as written.
• Protect article (the padlock button on an article, or Moderator controls in the version history) names the phpBB groups whose members may edit an article. It narrows the board-wide edit permission for that one article and never widens it: everyone else can no longer edit it, restore an older version, upload files to it or move it, and a note under the article names the groups. Edits by those members still wait for approval as before. Tick no group to lift it. It needs the Can protect an article permission, which moderators get when the extension is updated, and whose holders may always edit. Protection moves with the article and is removed with it. In the overview, Recent changes, search results and category pages, a lock beside the title marks a protected article; hovering it names the groups.
• Two people editing at once. The ACP setting When two people edit an article (under Extensions > Wiki > Settings) chooses what happens. Notice (the default) names on the edit form whoever else has the article open, and since when. Lock lets only the first to open the edit form edit the article: the others see who holds it and until when, a moderator (with "Can set an article version active") can break the lock, and the moderators are notified once when a lock keeps someone out. If the lock changes hands while someone's form is open, their save is refused and their text kept. Nothing keeps the old behaviour. An editor is held for Minutes an editor holds an article (30 by default, 5 to 240) after their last sign of work; the open edit form extends it every few minutes, and so does Preview.
• Restore in the version history brings back an older version by saving its text, title, description, sources and redirect as a new version, so no version is lost. Members who may edit can restore; the restored version goes live straight away for members who may set versions active, and otherwise waits for approval like any edit.
• Move article, under Moderator controls in the version history, gives an article a new name (its address) and, if wanted, a new title. Every version, its uploaded files and its watchers move with it, and a redirect is left at the old name unless that box is cleared; an article can be moved back over its own redirect. Links in other articles are not rewritten, so the redirect keeps them working, and articles that use a moved template keep showing it through the redirect. Moving a template that articles use shows how many and asks for a second confirmation. It needs the Can move an article to a new name permission, which moderators get when the extension is updated.
• Edits can wait for approval: moderators get a Pending articles list with Approve and Disapprove. Approving a version older than the live one is blocked, so a stale draft can't overwrite newer content.
• Moderators can take an article offline or delete it, and articles can be made sticky or set to redirect.
• A Recent changes page at /wiki/recent-changes lists every version saved to the wiki that is or was live, newest first, with RSS and Atom feeds at /wiki/recent-changes.rss and /wiki/recent-changes.atom (the latest 50). The ACP setting Recent changes feed under Extensions > Wiki > Settings offers RSS, Atom or both, and the header advertises the offered feeds to feed readers. Versions waiting for approval never appear.
• A contributions page for every member, at /wiki/contributions/<username>, lists every version they saved across all articles, newest first. Author names on articles and in the version history link to it. Versions waiting for approval, and those of switched-off articles, show only to moderators and to the author.
• Files can be uploaded to an article by members who hold the Can upload files to articles permission. They are checked against the board's allowed file types and size limit, stored outside public view under store/phpbbmodders_wiki/, and read only through the wiki, which checks that the reader may see the article. In the text, [[File:Diagram.png]] shows an uploaded image and [[File:notes.zip|the notes]] links to any other file. The member who uploaded a file, or a moderator who may delete versions, can remove it, and deleting an article deletes its files.
• Notifications when an edit is waiting for approval.
• Watch article on every article page, for signed-in members: they are notified when a new version of a watched article goes live (a moderator approved an edit, or a trusted editor's edit went live directly), never about their own edit. It is a notification type in phpBB's notification settings, so members choose the bell, email or both. With the ACP setting Watch edited articles (on by default, under Extensions > Wiki > Settings), saving an edit also starts watching the article. Watches are removed with the article and with the member.
• Wikipedia-style headings: == Heading == to ====== Heading ====== in an article become section headings with anchors, [[Article#Section]] and [[#Section]] link to them, and a table of contents shows after the intro when an article has four or more headings (__TOC__ places it, __FORCETOC__ forces it, __NOTOC__ hides it). A first line #REDIRECT [[Article]] sets the redirect for members who may set redirects. This works in wiki articles only; in a forum post == text == stays plain text.
• Tables, written as HTML in an article: <table>, <caption>, <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot>, <tr>, <th> and <td>, with colspan and rowspan on a cell, and class="infobox" on a table, which floats it at the right of the text as an infobox (full width on a narrow screen). BBCode and [[links]] work inside cells. Any other attribute (style, onclick, any other class) is dropped, and any other element (script, iframe) stays plain text. Like headings, tables work in wiki articles only; in a forum post <table> stays plain text. After upgrading, disable and enable the extension so the board rebuilds its cache.
• Boxes the reader opens and closes: <details><summary>Title</summary>...</details> shows just the title until it is clicked, with no JavaScript; <details open> starts it opened, and <details class="navbox"> gives it the look of Wikipedia's navigation boxes (a shaded title bar over a table of links). Any other attribute is dropped. Wiki articles only, like tables.
• Centred text: <center>...</center> in an article centres what it holds (BBCode, links and templates work inside), as on MediaWiki. Its attributes are dropped. It works in wiki articles only, like tables.
• HTML entities written in an article, such as  ,   or —, show as the characters they stand for, as on MediaWiki, in the text and in headings, link texts and link targets. <b> shows as "", never as markup, and an unknown entity stays as written. Like headings, this works in wiki articles only; a forum post shows entities as written. After upgrading, disable and enable the extension so the board rebuilds its cache. Articles saved earlier are reparsed in the background after the update (see Templates), and then show their entities as characters.
• Templates: {{Name}}, {{Name|first|second}} and {{Name|key=value}} in an article include the live version of the article Template:Name, so a notice or infobox is written once and edited in one place. See Templates.
• Starter templates: install ready-made hatnotes, message boxes and text helpers adapted from Wikipedia from the ACP, and optionally be told when new ones are available. See Starter templates.
• Categories: [[Category:Name]] in an article puts it in a category. The article lists its categories at the bottom, /wiki/Category:Name lists the articles in a category, and /wiki/categories lists every category. See Categories.
• Search: /wiki/search and a search box on the overview find articles by their title, description and text, with highlighted snippets. It has its own index, kept current as articles are saved, approved, set offline and deleted, and three backends to choose from in the ACP (native, MySQL fulltext, PostgreSQL fulltext). The board's own search can show the matching articles in a block of their own, with an "Also search the Wiki" option. See Search.
• The Wiki link in the board header shows the Wikipedia icon by default. Under Extensions > Wiki > Settings in the ACP the icon can be changed to any Font Awesome icon name, or left blank for no icon.
• A Start discussion button on each article creates its discussion topic in a forum chosen under Extensions > Wiki > Settings in the ACP, and links the topic to the article. It shows to members who hold the "Can change the discussion topic for an article" permission and may post in that forum, and stays hidden until a forum is chosen.
• Custom BBCodes (the ones added on the ACP's Posting > BBCodes page) can be made wiki-only under Extensions > Wiki > BBCodes: a ticked one works in wiki articles and nowhere else, and its button shows only in the wiki editor. A forum post, private message or signature using it is refused with phpBB's usual "You cannot use certain BBCodes" message. Text saved before keeps its formatting.
• Separate permissions for viewing, editing, version history, deleting and moderating.

Screenshots

Overview	Article

Editing	Pending review

Comparing the live version with a pending edit shows, in the readable view, what the edit changes, with buttons to approve or disapprove it:

The version history page has a Restore link for each older version, and a "Moderator controls" dropdown for taking an article offline, moving it to a new name, or deleting it entirely:

More screenshots, including the templates and categories pages and the move form, are on the Screenshots wiki page.

Templates

A template is an ordinary wiki article whose name starts with Template:, for example Template:Out of date, so it has versions, approval and permissions like any article. Write {{Out of date}} in another article and the live version of the template is shown at that place.

Inside the template, {{{1}}}, {{{2}}} stand for the parameters by position and {{{reason}}} for a named one. {{{reason|no reason given}}} gives a default for when the parameter is missing; {{{reason|}}} makes it empty.

Template:Out of date
<noinclude>Shows a notice that an article is out of date.</noinclude>
[b]Out of date[/b]: {{{reason|no reason given}}}

An article
{{Out of date|reason=the 2.0 release changed this}}

• Parameters are {{Name|value}} by position (the first bare value is {{{1}}}) or {{Name|key=value}}; a bar inside a [[link|text]] or another template belongs to that.

• What is inside <noinclude> is left out when the template is included, and <includeonly> text is included without the tags, so a template page can carry its own documentation.

• The template is looked up when the article is shown, so editing it changes every article that uses it. Only a template's approved version is used.

• A template can give table rows or cells (a text that starts with <tr>, <tbody>, <td> and so on), to be called between the <table> tags of an article: <table>{{Row|a|1}}{{Row|b|2}}</table>.

• Limits, so one article cannot slow the board down: at most 500 template calls written in an article, 2000 calls and functions in all (including those inside templates), and about 500,000 characters of output. Past a limit the rest of the calls show "Too many templates" where they stand.

• A template can include other templates, ten levels deep at most; a template that includes itself, directly or through another template, shows an error where the loop is (it cannot stop its own recursion with {{#if:}}, as on Wikipedia). A call to a template that does not exist is a red link to Template:Name.

• A call can hold other calls in its values, as in {{A|{{B|{{C}}}}}}, and so can a value's default ({{{name|{{B}}}}}), 8 levels deep. Template nesting depth under Extensions > Wiki > Settings changes that, from 3 to 20; deeper calls show as written. After a change, the saved articles are updated in the background over the next few page views.

• The text of a template is parsed like article text, so it can use BBCode, [[links]], headings and tables, and nothing an article could not.

• The page of a template shows its documentation (what is inside <noinclude>, with its calls worked out, so it can show examples), then Template text: the text an article gets, as it is written and not worked out, with how many articles use it. <includeonly> text is left off the page. What links here lists the articles that use the template.

• Templates at /wiki/templates, linked from the overview, lists every template A to Z with its short description (the article's description field), how many articles use it, and when it was last edited. A How to use templates box above the list explains {{Name}}, values and the Start templates, plus, for members who can edit, how to make one. Under each template, Preview and how to write it opens the call to write, with a placeholder for each value it takes, and its documentation as a preview. Templates are left out of the overview's article lists.

• Start from a template. A template whose name starts with Start (for example Template:Start Extension) is offered when someone creates a new article: a Start from choice above the edit form lists them by the rest of the name, and Use fills the text box with the template's text (without its <noinclude> parts) to edit and save as the new article. The choice appears only for an article that does not exist yet. Nothing is included: the text is copied, so later edits to the template do not change articles made from it.

  • A Start template that uses parameters ({{{version|1.0}}}, {{{1}}}) asks for their values first: choosing it shows one box per parameter, filled with its default, and Fill in writes the values into the text. A box left empty is left out.
  • or copy an article beside the choice fills the text box with another article's live text, to start from instead. Its uploaded files are not copied, so [[File:...]] lines in it refer to the other article's files until they are uploaded again.

• Like headings and tables, this works in wiki articles only; in a forum post {{Name}} stays plain text. The first letter of a template name is not case-sensitive ({{out of date}} finds Template:Out of date).

• Parser functions decide what a template shows. Only the part that is chosen is worked out, so the branch that is not taken can hold anything.

  Call	Result
  {{#if: test | then | else}}	then when test is not empty, otherwise else
  {{#ifeq: a | b | same | different}}	compares as numbers when both are numbers, otherwise as text
  {{#switch: value | a = one | b = two | #default = other}}	the result of the matching case; a case without = falls through to the next, and a last bare value is the default
  {{#ifexist: Article | yes | no}}	whether the article has an approved version
  {{#expr: (2 + 3) * 4}} and {{#ifexpr: 3 > 2 | yes | no}}	arithmetic: + - * / div mod ^ round, comparisons, and or not, brackets, and abs ceil floor trunc sqrt exp ln sin cos tan, e and pi
  {{lc:Text}}, {{uc:Text}}, {{lcfirst:Text}}, {{ucfirst:Text}}	lower and upper case
  {{PAGENAME}}, {{FULLPAGENAME}}, {{NAMESPACE}}	the article being shown (Template:Name has the namespace Template)
  {{SITENAME}}	the board's name
  {{#iferror: test | error | ok}}	error when test is one of the red messages below (a failed #expr, a template loop, an unknown function), otherwise ok, or test itself when ok is left out
  {{#time: j F Y, H:i | date}}	a date in a format, in UTC: Y y n m M F d j D l N w z W t L H G h g i s a A U c r e as in PHP's date(), "quoted text" and \c as written; date is anything PHP reads (2026-10-12, @1791500000, yesterday, +1 week), and the time now when left out
  {{CURRENTYEAR}}, {{CURRENTMONTH}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}}, {{CURRENTDAY}}, {{CURRENTDAY2}}, {{CURRENTDAYNAME}}, {{CURRENTDOW}}, {{CURRENTWEEK}}, {{CURRENTHOUR}}, {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}	the date and time now, in UTC, with English month and day names
  {{LOCALYEAR}}, {{LOCALTIME}} and the other LOCAL... words	the same, in the board's time zone
  {{#timel: j F Y, H:i | date}}	#time in the reader's time zone, with month and day names in the reader's language
  {{REVISIONID}}, {{REVISIONUSER}}, {{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}}, {{REVISIONYEAR}}, {{REVISIONMONTH}}, {{REVISIONMONTH1}}, {{REVISIONDAY}}, {{REVISIONDAY2}}	the article's current approved version: its number, who saved it and when (UTC); empty before the article is first approved
  {{#len: text}}	the number of characters
  {{#pos: text | find | from}}, {{#rpos: text | find}}	where find first or last occurs, counted from 0; #pos gives nothing and #rpos gives -1 when it is not there; an empty find is a space
  {{#sub: text | start | length}}	part of text; a negative start counts from the end and a negative length leaves that many off the end
  {{#replace: text | find | with}}	every find swapped for with; an empty find is a space, so {{#replace: text ||  }} keeps text on one line
  {{#explode: text | separator | position | limit}}	one piece of text cut at separator, counted from 0 (negative from the end); an empty separator is a space
  {{padleft: text | length | fill}}, {{padright: text | length | fill}}	text filled up to length with fill (default 0)
  {{urlencode: text}}, {{anchorencode: text}}	text as a web address part, and as a heading anchor
  {{#titleparts: A/B/C | count | first}}	parts of a name split at /: count parts (all when 0, a negative number leaves that many off the end) from part first (1 is the first, negative counts from the end)
  {{#rel2abs: ../Other | base}}	a name worked out from ./, ../ and / against base, or the article being shown
  {{formatnum: 1234567}}, {{formatnum: 1,234 | R}}	1,234,567; R takes the commas out again
  {{plural: count | one | many}}	one when count is 1 or -1, otherwise many
  {{gender: name | he | she | they}}	always the third form (or the first when there is only one), as phpBB keeps no gender
  {{#tag: center | text | attribute=value}}	an HTML tag written out, parsed with the article, so only the HTML articles may use works (tables, center, details and the others above); anything else shows as text

  A call that cannot be worked out, such as {{#expr: 1/0}}, shows a red message where it stands. An unknown {{#function:}} does too.

  The arguments of a function are trimmed of spaces and line breaks before it works on them.

• After upgrading, disable and enable the extension so the board rebuilds its cache. The saved articles are then reparsed in the background, a batch on each of the next few page views, so {{...}} written before the update becomes a call. To do it at once instead, run php bin/phpbbcli.php reparser:reparse phpbbmodders_wiki_article.

Starter templates

ACP → Extensions → Wiki → Starter templates installs ready-made templates ({{Main}}, {{See also}}, {{Ambox}}, {{Stub}}, {{Nowrap}} and others) from phpbbmodders/wiki-templates. They are adapted from Wikipedia and other wikis and shared under CC BY-SA 4.0, kept in their own repository because that licence does not mix with this extension's GPL-2.0; each template's page says where it comes from.

• Get the templates in one of three ways: upload the repository's zip (GitHub's Download ZIP), press Download latest to fetch it from GitHub, or copy the .wiki files by FTP into store/phpbbmodders_wiki/templates/. Only the zip's templates/ folder is read, and a file without its source and licence header, or not adapted yet, is listed but cannot be installed.
• Install shows what installing each template would do. New templates and updates to pages nobody has changed are ticked. A page someone on the board edited since it was installed is listed but not ticked, so its changes are only replaced if you tick it (Mark all / Unmark all are below the list). Each install is a new version of the page, live straight away with you as its author, so earlier versions stay in its history and can be compared or restored.
• Check for new templates (off unless you switch it on) asks GitHub every few days, as many as you choose (1 to 365), whether the repository has new or changed templates, and notifies the board's administrators once for each new set of changes. It never downloads or installs anything; Check now runs it at once.

Categories

Write [[Category:Name]] anywhere in a wiki article to put it in a category. The mark shows nothing in the text; the article lists its categories at the bottom, each linking to the category's page.

• [[Category:boxes]] and [[Category:Boxes]] are the same category: the first letter is capitalised and underscores count as spaces.
• Sort keys: [[Category:Boxes|Small]] files the article under "Small" in that category's list instead of under its title. If an article names a category twice, the first key counts.
• Linking to a category: [[:Category:Boxes]], with a colon in front, is a plain link to the category's page and does not put the article in it.
• Sub-categories: a category page that is itself in a category (Category:Extensions with [[Category:Software]] in it) is listed as a sub-category on that category's page, above its articles, with how many articles (and sub-categories) it holds. Sub-categories have their own pages, so moving through them keeps the page of articles, and the other way round.
• A category page is the article Category:Name, at /wiki/Category:Name. If nobody wrote it, the page still exists as a list of the articles in the category, by sort key or title, with their descriptions, with a link to write a description. If an article called Category:Name exists, its text is shown above the list, and it has the usual edit and version buttons.
• /wiki/categories lists every category with a live article in it, how many, and its description (the description field of its Category:Name article), linked from the overview. A How to use categories box above the list explains [[Category:Name]] and category pages, plus, for members who can edit, how to describe a category. Under each category, Articles in it and how to add one opens the line to write and its first five articles. Category pages are left out of the overview's article lists.
• Only the live version of an article counts. A forum post keeps [[Category:Name]] as plain text, like the rest of the wiki markup.
• A template page counts for the categories it names outside <includeonly>, so <noinclude>[[Category:Infobox templates]]</noinclude> puts the template in that category. A category inside <includeonly> puts every article that uses the template in it, as on MediaWiki: {{Stub}} can put its articles in "Stubs". When a template changes, the articles that use it are worked out again.
• Which articles are in which category is kept in a table, worked out whenever an article's live version changes. After the update that adds it, a cron task fills it for the articles the board already has, a batch at a time on ordinary page views; until it is done, the category pages read the articles' text as before (without templates' categories, sub-categories or sort keys).
• After upgrading, disable and enable the extension so the board rebuilds its cache. Articles saved before sort keys keep the key they were written with only once they are saved again or reparsed. Articles saved before categories existed are reparsed in the background after the update (see Templates), and then join their categories.

Search

The wiki has its own search, separate from phpBB's search of posts: Search the wiki on the overview, or /wiki/search?keywords=....

• It searches the live version of each article: its title, its description and its text, with the markup (BBCode, links, templates, tables, categories) reduced to the words in it. Older versions and edits waiting for approval are not searched. Template and category pages are articles too, so they are found.
• Choose to match all the words or any of them, to search titles only or text only, and to sort by last edit or title. Results show the title, description, a snippet with the words marked, and the date.
• It follows the articles: saving a live article, approving a version, setting an article offline, putting it back and deleting it all update the search at once.
• The search needs the permission to read the wiki and phpBB's own "Can use search" permission, and it is off when the board's search is off.

In the board's search. A search for words in phpBB's own search, or from the search box in the header, also looks in the wiki. The matching articles are shown in a Wiki (N) block above the forum results, with the title, description, a snippet and a link to all of the matches; the forum results themselves are not changed. The advanced search has an Also search the Wiki option, ticked by default, to leave the wiki out. The block shows only on the first page of the results, only for members who may read the wiki, and not for searches by author, within one topic, or the pre-made ones such as active topics.

In the ACP, under Extensions > Wiki > Search, switch the wiki search on or off, set the results per page, switch the board search block on or off and set how many articles it lists, and choose the backend:

Backend	For	Notes
Native	Every database, including SQLite	Keeps its own word tables. Words in most articles are treated as common once a wiki has 100 articles or more, as in phpBB's own search
MySQL fulltext	MySQL	Adds fulltext indexes to the search's text table
PostgreSQL fulltext	PostgreSQL	Adds text-search indexes to the search's text table

All three backends are listed; the ones the database cannot run are marked as unavailable and cannot be chosen. After installing, or after switching backend, press Create index under Search index for the backend you chose; until then the native backend finds only articles saved since it was installed, and the fulltext backends find nothing. The page shows each index's statistics and can delete it.

The search keeps a plain-text copy of each live article in its own table (wiki_search_text); Create index makes that copy again from the articles before it builds the backend's index, so it is also the way to rebuild everything.

Linking between articles

Write an article's name in double square brackets to link to it, in wiki articles and in forum posts:

• [[Installation]] links to the article Installation.
• [[Installation|how to install]] links to the same article but shows how to install.

Links to articles that don't exist yet are shown in red, and following one opens the editor to create that article. The Wiki link button in the editor toolbar inserts the brackets. Inside a [code] block the brackets stay plain text.

Below each article, What links here lists the other articles whose current version links to it.

Links, with missing articles in red

What links here

The editor button (outlined)

Articles and posts written before this feature existed get their links the next time they are edited. To convert them all at once, run phpBB's reparser from the board's folder: php bin/phpbbcli.php reparser:reparse phpbbmodders_wiki_article for articles and php bin/phpbbcli.php reparser:reparse post_text for forum posts.

Requirements

• phpBB 3.3.19 or later (also tested on phpBB 4.0)
• PHP 8.2 or later

Tested versions and compatibility notes: docs/compatibility.md.

Installation

1. Copy the extension to /ext/phpbbmodders/wiki
2. In the Administration Control Panel, go to Customise → Manage extensions
3. Enable the phpBB Modders Wiki extension
4. Set who can view and edit the wiki under the usual Permissions screens

Upgrading from tas2580/wiki

This extension used to be installed as tas2580/wiki. It is now phpbbmodders/wiki. To switch an existing board without losing any articles, versions, permissions or notification settings:

1. Disable the old tas2580 Wiki extension in the ACP. Do not delete its data.
2. Delete the /ext/tas2580/wiki folder.
3. Upload this version to /ext/phpbbmodders/wiki and enable it. The old install's migration history, notification type and users' notification settings are moved to the new name automatically; the wiki tables themselves never included the old name, so they are used as they are.
4. Purge the board cache.

If you disable the old extension from the command line (bin/phpbbcli.php) instead of the ACP, run bin/phpbbcli.php cache:purge before enabling the new one; the command-line disable doesn't clear the cache.

TODO

Ideas not yet built, practical and speculative alike: docs/TODO.md.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

• Bug reports: Open an issue.
• Everything else (questions, feature requests, ideas, general discussion): Use Discussions, or the community forum.
• Pull requests are welcome for bug fixes or discussed features.

Acknowledgments

• Original extension by tas2580.
• Updated for phpBB 3.2.x (notification API fixes, textreparser support) by Christian Schnegelberger (Crizz0) in the phpBB.de fork.
• This fork builds on Crizz0's phpBB.de branch: fixed phpBB 3.3.x/4.0 compatibility (routing, YAML parsing, notification API, Flash BBCode removal), completed missing English translations, added an approve/disapprove moderation queue for pending articles, and general bug fixes.
• Code review, bug fixes, and documentation assisted by Claude.

License

This extension is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0.

See license.txt for more information.