Poetry Talks:Infrastructure

Technical Infrastructure

Overview

PoetryTalks.org is powered entirely by free, open source software, namely MediaWiki and extensions like Semantic MediaWiki (SMW), Page Forms, Semantic Result Formats, Knowledge Graph, Maps, and Modern Timeline, among others. All extensions used on the site can be viewed via the website's Special:Version page. The website is hosted on an Amazon AWS EC2 server and runs using MariaDB.

The website uses the Tweeki skin which is based on Bootstrap. All page designs are generated directly on the wiki using only MediaWiki markup, MediaWiki templates, HTML, and SMW query language. The website's custom CSS and JavaScript can be viewed here: MediaWiki:Common.css / MediaWiki:Common.js.

Semantic data can be added or updated via user-friendly forms and is saved using simple MediaWiki templates which can be updated directly if needed. Each page category has its own form and template. Batch data updates are implemented using either the Data Transfer extension or a custom PyWikiBot running the mwparserfromhell Python package.

Semantic data can be queried via the Special:Ask page or directly via API modules (see the SMW website for more details). The website's API endpoint is https://poetrytalks.org/api.php. The SMW query language is intuitive for anyone with experience in data querying. Learn more here.

The site interface is available in English, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and French. Multilingual display is implemented through a combination of MediaWiki templates and client-side JavaScript, with language variants stored as HTML data attributes and a browser cookie used to persist the user's language preference across pages.

All of the extensions are used as-is, apart from the Knowledge Graph extension, which was customized to facilitate more user-friendly coloring and labeling of the nodes.

All of the the forms and templates used to input, save, or display data are accessible below.

Basic Class Templates

These templates are used to input, save, and display information for each class of entities.

Class	Form	Data	Design	Card	Keyword	Name
Entry	Form:Entry	Template:EntryData Template:TextData	Template:EntryDesign	Template:EntryCard	-	Template:EntryName Template:EntryPosition
Poem	Form:Poem	Template:PoemData Template:TextData	Template:PoemDesign	Template:PoemCard	Template:Poem (transclusion)	Template:PoemName Template:PoemNameDisplay
Critique	Form:Critique	Template:CritiqueData Template:TextData	Template:CritiqueDesign	Template:CritiqueCard	Template:Critique (transclusion)	Template:CritiqueName
Work	Form:Work	Template:WorkData	Template:WorkDesign	Template:WorkCard	Template:Work	-
Person	Form:Person	Template:PersonData	Template:PersonDesign	Template:PersonCard	Template:Person	Template:PersonProfile
Place	Form:Place	Template:PlaceData	Template:PlaceDesign	Template:PlaceCard	Template:Place	-
Era	Form:Era	Template:EraData	Template:EraDesign	Template:EraCard	Template:Era	-
CriticalTerm	Form:CriticalTerm	Template:CriticalTermData	Template:CriticalTermDesign	Template:CriticalTermCard	Template:CriticalTerm	-
Topic	Form:Topic	Template:TopicData	Template:TopicDesign	Template:TopicCard	Template:Topic	-

Page Design Templates

These templates are used to design the header, body content, and side bar of the entity pages.

Header

• Template:Header-NavModal
  • Template:TitleName
  • Template:NavLinkPrev
  • Template:NavLinkNext
  • Template:TocEntryLink
• Template:Header-PageName
• Template:Header-PageNameSub

Main Section

• Template:MainSection-Text
• Template:MainSection-Graph
• Template:MainSection-Map
• Template:MainSection-Timeline

Sidebar

• Template:Sidebar-NameInfo
• Template:Sidebar-PersonNameInfo

• Template:Sidebar-EntryInfo
• Template:Sidebar-PoemInfo
• Template:Sidebar-CritiqueInfo
• Template:Sidebar-WorkInfo
• Template:Sidebar-PersonInfo
• Template:Sidebar-PlaceInfo

• Template:Sidebar-PoemAuthorInfo
• Template:Sidebar-ContributorInfo
• Template:Sidebar-MentionInfo
• Template:Sidebar-ContentsInfo
• Template:Sidebar-RelatedTopics
• Template:Sidebar-ExternalData

• Template:LinkName
• Template:PersonProfile
• Template:BadgeTag

Search Form & Templates

This form and templates are used to facilitate keyword searching.

• Form:Search
• Template:Search
  • Template:TextSearchResults
  • Template:ContextSearchResults