Help:Managing files

If file uploads are enabled, you can upload certain types of files to the wiki. This is particularly useful for uploading images, which you want to place on an article, but you can also upload other types of file.

Upload a file

1. Prepare the file for upload. Make sure the file is exactly as you want it. Think about how big the file is.
2. In the sidebar, under toolbox, click "Upload file"
3. Next to the Source filename, click Browse to locate the file on your computer.
4. Change the Destination filename to something descriptive, if necessary.
5. Fill in the Summary, if necessary.
6. Click the Upload file button.

If it is a large file, you may need to wait several seconds for the upload to complete.

Uploading Multiple Files

Batch uploads are not supported by default by MediaWiki, the software that runs our wiki. However, Jadrian has created a command-line tool we can use. To upload several files at once:

1. Click here to download the script and support code
2. Decompress it: tar -xzvf Wikiuploadbot.tgz
3. cd into the new directory and run ./login.py
4. Type in the password for the VrlWiki bot --- email Jadrian if you don't know it
5. Run yes | ./batch_upload.py file1 file2 file3 ...

When you upload a file, a page gets created for it automatically in the wiki, and that's how you use it in articles. The content of this page is searchable, and so it's good style to include a full description of the content and context of the file on that page. However, the batch uploader doesn't know anything about the files you upload, so it puts a default description on every page, something like "batch uploaded file". To make sure that your files are easily searchable, please do at least one of the following things:

1. Give every file a thorough and descriptive name. Filename lengths are, for all intents and purposes, unbounded, so you can fit a lot of description into the filename. You need to make sure each file has its descriptive name before you upload it.
2. Edit the page of every file you upload and modify the description to contain more information.

Files that do not follow one of these guidelines are subject to deletion.

Using Images and Image Description Pages

After you've uploaded a file, you can use it in an article, with some special wiki syntax to create the link. See Help:Images.

Your file gets its very own 'Image Description Page' within the wiki (even if it isn't an image). You should edit this page to provide more information about the file. For example, many wiki projects are quite sensitive to copyright issues, and so you should explain where you got the file from, and what its copyright status is, on the description page. Any other useful descriptive notes could also be added there.

Listing files in the wiki

There are a number of Special Pages to help you view and manage files which have been uploaded. Go to 'Special Pages' (in the toolbox on the left) and then see...

• Gallery of new images - If you just uploaded one, you will see it here.
• File list shows all of the files
• Unused images helps you track down files which might not be needed.

See Help:Special pages for details of the other information available here.