lucamauri / wikibase-boolean

v1.0.0 2026-09-23 21:04 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.1
• composer/installers: ^2 || ^1.0.1
• data-values/data-values: ^3.1
• data-values/interfaces: ^1.0

Requires (Dev)

• mediawiki/mediawiki-codesniffer: ^45.0
• phpunit/phpunit: ^9.5 || ^10.0

GPL-2.0-or-later

• Luca Mauri

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-09-23 21:43 UTC

README

lucamauri.github.io/WikibaseBoolean

A native, true 2-state Boolean datatype for Wikibase, the structured-data MediaWiki extension that powers Wikidata and many independent knowledge-base installs, for standalone deployments that want a lightweight true/false flag without maintaining a pair of "true value" / "false value" items for every such property.

Status

All four datatype components are implemented and tested, plus a checkbox edit widget and a CI pipeline that exercises the extension inside a real, disposable MediaWiki + Wikibase install:

• Parser (BooleanParser) -- raw input (checkbox state, or typed text like true/yes/1) to a DataValues\StringValue holding exactly the literal string "true" or "false" (see ADR-0006 for why the underlying value type is a string, not a native DataValues\BooleanValue).
• Formatter (BooleanFormatter) -- localized, format-aware display (plain, wikitext, HTML with a ✓/✗ glyph, HTML diff), via a BooleanMessageLookup abstraction so it's testable without a running MediaWiki instance.
• Validator (BooleanValidator) -- checks that a value is genuinely a StringValue holding exactly "true" or "false" and nothing else. This is real validation, not a formality: once the underlying value type is a plain string rather than a native bool, the type system no longer guarantees a stored value is well-formed on its own (see ADR-0006 and this class's own docblock).
• RDF mapper (BooleanRdfMapper) -- maps to a plain xsd:boolean literal for the Wikibase Query Service, comparing by exact string equality rather than truthiness (a plain truthy check would silently mis-report every stored "false" as RDF "true", since any non-empty PHP string is truthy).
• Edit widget (resources/experts/Boolean.js, registered as jquery.valueview.experts.Boolean -- see ADR-0005) -- a checkbox widget for editing statement values directly, rather than a raw text field.

BooleanParser, BooleanFormatter, BooleanValidator, and Hooks run under plain composer test. BooleanRdfMapper depends on Wikibase-internal interfaces and can only be meaningfully tested inside a real MediaWiki + Wikibase installation (see phpunit.xml.dist's own header comment) -- CI covers this via a disposable install against both MediaWiki REL1_43 (this extension's minimum supported version) and master (an allowed-to-fail canary for upstream breakage).

Live-tested end to end on a real Wikibase deployment (DataTrek): a Boolean property with a saved statement, verified correct through to RDF export (xsd:boolean, via Special:EntityData).

See docs/adr/ for the architecture decisions behind these components and why they're shaped the way they are.

Scope

• A genuine 2-state Boolean (true/false). No somevalue/novalue snak support -- this is a deliberate v1 scope decision, not an oversight.
• Standalone Wikibase installs only. No dependency on Wikidata Query Service internals or Wikidata core team buy-in.

Requirements

• MediaWiki >= 1.43
• PHP >= 8.1
• The Wikibase Repository extension

Installation

First, install MediaWiki and the Wikibase Repository extension.

Using Composer (recommended)

From your wiki's root directory:

COMPOSER=composer.local.json composer require --no-update lucamauri/wikibase-boolean
composer update lucamauri/wikibase-boolean --no-dev -o

Manual download

Clone or download this repository, and place the WikibaseBoolean directory into your wiki's extensions/ folder. You will also need to merge WikibaseBoolean's own Composer requirements (data-values/data-values, data-values/interfaces) into MediaWiki's vendor/ -- add an "include" entry for extensions/WikibaseBoolean/composer.json to your wiki's composer.local.json merge-plugin configuration, then run composer update from your wiki's root.

Enabling the extension

Add the following to the bottom of LocalSettings.php, after Wikibase Repository is loaded:

wfLoadExtension( 'WikibaseBoolean' );

Verify the extension is active via Special:Version. A "Boolean" data type will then be available when creating a new property.

Localization

i18n/en.json (source) and i18n/it.json (Italian) are included. Contributions of further translations are welcome via MediaWiki's standard i18n/ message-file convention.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later, matching Wikibase core and the rest of the Wikibase extension ecosystem. See LICENSE.

Forged with logic 🖖🏻 at Wikitrek, shared freely with the Galaxy