You can edit the MediaWiki sidebar from front-end without opening any PHP file on the c-panel. For this, you will need to modify the MediaWiki:Sidebar page, that controls the navigation links on the left-hand side of your MediaWiki website.
Only the users having administrator access have permission to make these changes by following these steps:
- Open your wiki.
- Log in to your account.
- In the search box type: Mediawiki:Sidebar
- Press Enter.
- Click Edit.
Alternatively, you may visit the URL yoursite.com/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Sidebar to open the Mediawiki sidebar page. Once the page is visible click the ‘Edit’ option.
On this page, you’ll find a structure that controls how the sidebar is displayed. Here you can add new links and dropdown menus. The format includes section headings and individual links, where an asterisk indicates each section (*), and links are represented by double asterisks (**). For example, * navigation defines a section and ** mainpage|Main Page represents a link, where mainpage is the internal page, and “Main Page” is the display text.
Everything you add here will be displayed on the sidebar. Suppose you would like to add Sangkrit as a dropdown and Domains, Hosting, WordPress, and Email as sub-menus then do it like this:
*Sangkrit
**Domains|Domains
**Hosting|Hosting
**Websites|Websites
**SSL|SSL
In the above text, remember that the menu options you have added must have their pages on your Mediawiki website. Else you can add external links other than internal pages:
*Sangkrit
**http://address|Domains
**http://address|Hosting
**http://address|Websites
**http://address|SSL
After making your changes, click “Save page” to apply them. If the sidebar doesn’t update immediately, you might need to clear the cache. This can be done by visiting yoursite.com/index.php?title=Special:Purge or adding ?action=purge to your URL. Alternatively, you can run a purge command on the server to refresh the cache manually.
The MediaWiki:Sidebar page offers a simple way to customize your site’s sidebar navigation by allowing you to edit, add, or remove links as needed.