The way I understand Collection, it grabs the raw wikitext and renders
it itself. It "knows" the standard magic words, transclusion etc, and
the main extensions such as Cite/Math/ParserFunctions ("main" meaning
they're used on Wikipedia), but it does not understand anything that any
other extension adds to the wiki unless its functionality is implemented
"within" the Collection render server as well. Also, any information
that's not directly in the wikitext is not available to the render
server, even if that render server is on the same machine.
You can see this for yourself by configuring Collection to use the
PediaPress render server; *obviously* that server has no access to the
SMW tables, and thus no knowledge of the semantics. Thus, while that
server doesn't understand #ask and #show, it couldn't access the
semantic data even if it did.
October '09 I've dived into Collection, exchanged some mails with the
mailing list and one Ralf Schmitt, but they were unwilling to support
SMW, and indeed unwilling to explain how to solve the problem. They just
suggested to send in a patch.
At the time I believed a solution could involve something like extension
ExpandTemplate on the source server, where Collection would first run
the raw wikitext through some sort of expandagizmo so that all parser
functions had done their jobs, and be replaced with pure MW code (e.g.
an {{#ask: <criteria>|format=count}} woud be replaced with <result>).
This could then be rendered on the Collection render server. However,
since then I learned about js-stuff and css, so there probably are some
more things to tackle anyways.
I still think it'd be doable, but the problem should be tackled in
general, not just for SMW, or else Collection could fall on its face
again as soon as I install any other extension like Variables,
ArrayExtension and HeaderTabs (which I now use). This then requires
cooperation between at the least a Collection application architect and
a MW application architect (if there even are such persons/roles); then
adding SMW application architects to the discussion would likely help.
But the Collection people seemed quite unwilling to act in '09, and I
couldn't say if that has changed anywhere in the mean time. Back then
they seemed only interested in good prints from Wikipedia.
On 20:59, Krabina Bernhard wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I think making the Collection extension& SMW work together is a very
> important functionality!
>
> Are there SMW developers that would be interested to have an eye on that?
>
> Are there implementors/customers who would be willing to provide funding?
>
> regards,
> Bernhard
--
Jan "Saruman!" S.
"I'm a stream of noughts and crosses in your R.A.M."
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