GeoGebra

GeoGebra Conference 2011/MediaWiki Extension

The GeoGebra Mediawiki Extension

Introduction

• Rudolf Großmann, Stein (at Nuremberg), Germany
• Teacher (Mathematics, Physics) at Gymnasium Stein
• Maintainer of GeoGebra Mediawiki Extension and Formelapplet Mediawiki Extension
• Creator of FormelApplet

How to import a GeoGebra applet into a wiki

• Help page: Embed a GeoGebra Applet into this Wiki
• Learning by doing watching a demonstration. ;-)
  • Example: Integral
• Help appreciated for i18n of Help page. Done for en, pt, es, fr.

Which wikis use the GeoGebra Mediawiki Extension?

• List of installations: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GeoGebra/Examples
• ZUM Wiki (in German)
  • ZUM means Zentrale für Unterrichtsmedien (Center for Educational Media)
  • I was invited to the ZUM-Wiki-Seminar 2011
  • There is a project "Creating Online Exercises for Math, Physics and Chemistry" at ZUM:
    See e.g. Mathe Klasse 10
• GeoGebra Wiki - of course!

How to install the GeoGebra Mediawiki Extension at your wiki

• Wikipedia uses MediaWiki software. MediaWiki software is Open Source. Extensions are written in PHP.
• The version page of the wiki shows a list of all installed extensions, with links to the documentation: Special:Version
• Here is the direct link to the documentation of the MediaWiki Extension: www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GeoGebra
• You need admin rights for the wiki (FTP access to the PHP scripts of the MediaWiki software).
• Wikis not using MediaWiki software will not be able to use the extensions of www.mediawiki.org.

Why not at at Wikipedia?

• For security reasons Java applets are generally not allowed at WikiPedia.
  • The MediaWiki Extension doesn't allow to use an arbitrary Java applet. It allows only GeoGebra applets.
  • Malicious code could only be injected into Wikipedia, if the GeoGebra code would be malicious.
  • If the guys at Wikipedia trust in the GeoGebra makers, there is no security problem!
• Who should try to convince the Wikipedia admins?

Difficulties

• The Same origin policy does not allow Java to load a GeoGebra file (*.ggb) and the GeoGebra applet (geogebra.jar) from different servers.
• There are some strategies to deal with these restrictions:
  • Use of digitally signed GeoGebra applets.
  • Storing the GeoGebra jar files in a subdirectory of MediaWiki and using parameter useLocalJar='true'.
  • Using an applet parameter instead of a ggb file:

Short history

• May 2008: Installing my own wiki at http://wiki.mathebuch-online.de for experiments with MediaWiki extensions.
• June 2008: GeoGebra MediaWiki Extension published (Version 1.0k).
• June 2008: FormelApplet MediaWiki Extension published.
• June 2009: Introduction of parameter useLocalJar=true (Version 2.0p).
• Sept. 2009: Status of Version 2.0p changed from beta to stable.
• Dec. 2009: New parameter ggbBase64 replaces filename (Version 2.6m).
• Oct. 2010: Workaround for "Chrome error" (Version 2.7f).
• March 2011: Status of Version 2.7g changed from beta to stable.

Future

• GeoGebraMobile MediaWiki Extension http://wiki.formelapplet.de/wiki/GeoGebraMobile
• Feb. 2011: Page Extension:GeoGebraMobile created, but extension not published yet.
• GeoGebraTube will replace GeoGebraUploader. What about GeoGebraWiki?