Extension:Thanks
The Thanks extension adds a quick way to give positive feedback for productive contributions to MediaWiki sites. It allows users to send public 'thank you' notifications (via Echo) to other users for their edits and some logged actions.
The specific revision that gets "thanked" is not stored in the public logging table. Only the timestamp, sender, and recipient are publicly logged.
A 'thank' link is added in the following places:
- next to the 'undo' link in history and diff views;
- on some log entries on Special:Log (see #Configuration, below); and
- to Flow board comments if Flow is installed.
It also provides an API for sending thanks.
Note that if you do not want to be thanked, you can easily disable this notification in your preferences, as described below.
Once you have had a chance to try it out, we welcome your feedback about this feature on the talk page.
We hope the Thanks notification will make showing appreciation for each other's work easier. It should be particularly helpful for encouraging new users during their first critical steps on a wiki. We have intentionally kept this notification as simple as possible so we can evaluate it and improve it together. Enjoy…
Installation
- Download and move the extracted
Thanksfolder to yourextensions/directory.
Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:cd extensions/
git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/Thanks - Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:
wfLoadExtension( 'Thanks' );
- Configure at your convenience.
- Go to the history tab of a page to see the new "Thank" interface.
Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.
Configuration
Enable the Thank interface for bot edits (disabled by default)
$wgThanksSendToBots = false;
Log Thank actions to Special:Log (enabled by default)
$wgThanksLogging = true;
Whether or not confirmation is required for sending thanks (enabled by default)
$wgThanksConfirmationRequired = true;
Log entry types that can be thanked from Special:Log:
$wgThanksAllowedLogTypes = [
"contentmodel",
"delete",
"import",
"merge",
"move",
"patrol",
"protect",
"tag",
"managetags",
"rights"
];
Usage
To thank another user, go to the History tab of any page. Next to each revision will be a 'thank' link. Click the link to send thanks to that user. This link is also available in the diff view, on some entries in Special:Log, and below comments on Flow boards if Flow is installed.
When the thank link is clicked, the recipient will receive a notification with your thanks via the Echo extension (unless they have opted out of receiving thanks notifications). A record of the action is also recorded as a log entry at Special:Log/thanks.
If the wiki is using memcached, a rate limit is imposed of no more than 10 thanks per minute per user. The limit can be configured with $wgRateLimits['thanks-notification'].
Avoiding thanks
To stop getting thanks notifications, you can opt out from them in your notification preferences. Go to the Notifications tab of your preferences. This only prevents you from getting notified, it does not prevent users from thanking you.
API documentation
| thank | |
|---|---|
This module cannot be used as a generator. | |
| Prefix | |
| Required rights | none |
| Post only? | Yes |
| Generated help | Current |
The Thanks extension includes an API for sending thanks.
In order to call the API, use the parameter action=thank.
Parameters:
rev- The revision ID you would like to thank someone for (either this orlogis required)log- The log ID you would like to thank someone for (either this orrevis required)source- Source of the thank event. This is a short string that identifies where the thanks was sent from. For example, if the thanks was sent from Huggle, the value could be 'huggle'. (optional)token- Edit token (a.k.a. CSRF token). You can get one of these through the tokens API. (required)
Example:
api.php?action=thank&rev=16543&token=%2B\
To send thanks via OAuth only the "Basic" grant permission is required. A python example is available.
Flow Thanks
| flowthank | |
|---|---|
This module cannot be used as a generator. | |
| Prefix | |
| Required rights | none |
| Post only? | Yes |
| Generated help | Current |
There is a separate API for sending Thanks for comments on Flow boards.
To call the API, use action=flowthank.
Parameters:
postid- The UUID of the comment for which to send thanks (required)token- Edit token. You can get one of these through prop=info. (required)
Example:
api.php?action=flowthank&postid=abc123&token=%2B\
Errors and Warnings
| Code | Info |
|---|---|
| invalidrecipient | No valid recipient found Bots cannot be thanked You cannot thank yourself |
SQL Documentation
Understanding who thanked who from the logs requires some understanding of the columns.
Within the logging table, the log_title represents the receiver, and the log_user_text represents the sender.
The following SQL which finds all the thanks a receiver received within a time period illustrates this:
select log_timestamp as thank_timestamp,
replace(log_title, '_', ' ') as receiver,
log_user_text as sender
from logging_logindex
where log_title = :user_name
and log_action = 'thank'
and :start_date <= log_timestamp
and log_timestamp <= :end_date
Notice also that the logging table is not selected from directly, but on Wikimedia servers we take advantage of the logging_logindex table.
In order to quickly search for all the thanks a user sent the logging_userindex provides the correct index.
See also
- w:Wikipedia:Notifications/Thanks - Information about the usage of this extension on English Wikipedia
- Echo (Notifications)/Feature requirements#Thank_you_notification - Initial feature proposal (for the Echo extension)
- Extension:WikiLove - Another extension for sending gratitude
- Extension:Echo - Provides the notification system
 | This extension is being used on one or more Wikimedia projects. This probably means that the extension is stable and works well enough to be used by such high-traffic websites. Look for this extension's name in Wikimedia's CommonSettings.php and InitialiseSettings.php configuration files to see where it's installed. A full list of the extensions installed on a particular wiki can be seen on the wiki's Special:Version page. |
 | This extension is included in the following wiki farms/hosts and/or packages:
|