External Data extension

        Version 1.6.3
        Yaron Koren, Michael Dale and David Macdonald

This is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License. Please
see http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html for further details, including the
full text and terms of the license.

== Overview ==

External Data is an extension to MediaWiki that allows for retrieving data
from various sources: external URLs and local wiki pages (in CSV, GFF, JSON
and XML formats), database tables, and LDAP servers.

The extension defines seven parser functions: #get_web_data,
#get_db_data, #get_ldap_data, #external_value, #for_external_table,
#display_external_table, #store_external_table and #clear_external_data.
They are described below:

* #get_web_data retrieves the data from a URL that holds CSV, GFF,
JSON or XML, and assigns it to local variables or arrays.

* #get_db_data retrieves data from a database, using (in most cases)
SQL-like syntax, and assigns it to local variables or arrays.

* #get_ldap_data retrieves data from an LDAP server and assigns it to
local variables.

* #external_value displays the value of any retrieved variable, or the
first value if it's an array.

* #for_external_table applies processing onto multiple rows retrieved by
any of the #get_*_data functions

* #display_external_table is like #for_external_table, but passes the
values of each row to a template, which handles the formatting.

* #store_external_table mimics a call to the Semantic Internal Objects
extension's #set_internal parser function onto each row retrieved by
any of the #get_*_data functions, in order to store the entire array
of data semantically.

* #clear_external_data erases the current set of retrieved data.

In addition, the extension defines a new special page, 'GetData', that
exports selected rows from a wiki page that holds CSV data, in a format
that is readable by #get_web_data.

For more information, see the extension homepage at:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:External_Data

== Requirements ==

This version of the External Data extension requires MediaWiki 1.17 or higher.

== Installation ==

To install the extension, place the entire 'ExternalData' directory
within your MediaWiki 'extensions' directory, then add the following
line to your 'LocalSettings.php' file:

     require_once( "$IP/extensions/ExternalData/ExternalData.php" );

To cache the data from the URLs being accessed, you can call the contents
of ExternalData.sql in your database, then add the following to
LocalSettings.php:

     $edgCacheTable = 'ed_url_cache';

You should also add a line like the following, to set the expiration time
of the cache, in seconds; this line will cache data for a week:

     $edgCacheExpireTime = 7 * 24 * 60 * 60; 

You can also set for string replacements to be done on the URLs you call,
for instance to hide API keys:

     $edgStringReplacements['MY_API_KEY'] = 'abcd1324';

You can create a "whitelist" to allow retrieval of data only from trusted
sites, in the manner of MediaWiki's $wgAllowExternalImagesFrom - if you
are hiding API keys, it is very much recommended to create such a
whitelist, to prevent users from being able to discover their values:

     $edgAllowExternalDataFrom = array('http://example.com/api');

Finally, to use the database or LDAP retrieval capabilities, you need to
set connection settings as well - see the online documentation for more
information.

== Contact ==

Most comments, questions, suggestions and bug reports should be sent to
the Semantic MediaWiki mailing list:

 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/semediawiki-user

Although the External Data extension in general is independent of Semantic
MediaWiki, the fact that it uses Semantic Internal Objects for one of its
functions, along with the fact that the two extensions are often used
together, means that it can be considered part of the Semantic MediaWiki
family for communication purposes.

If possible, please add "[ED]" at the beginning of the subject line, to
clarify the subject matter.
