Help:Contributing/richMediaContent

Files on this wiki are classic wiki pages in the File: namespace, not Wikibase entities. The media workflow has two steps: upload the file, then embed it in a page.

Uploading a file

You must be logged in — anonymous visitors are read-only. Open Special:Upload, or use the "Upload file" link in the toolbox on the left.

The form asks for three things:

• Source file — the file on your computer. This wiki accepts png, gif, jpg, jpeg and webp for images, and ogg, ogv, oga and webm for audio and video.
• Destination filename — the name the file will have here, for example Example.png. Choose a descriptive, unique name.
• Summary — the file description: what the file contains or shows, and where it comes from. This text is what visitors see in Special:ListFiles, so describe the file itself — not where it is used or how it was processed.

Avoid — where the file is used or what was done to it	Write this — what the file shows
"Sample video for Help:Contributing/richMediaContent"	NASA Apollo 11 television footage of Buzz Aldrin descending the lunar module ladder. Public domain (NASA).
"Resized to 600 × 600 to fit the help page"	Photograph of Earth, the "Blue Marble", taken by the Apollo 17 crew. Public domain (NASA).

The summary cannot be edited in place. To correct it, upload a new version of the file (it may be the same file) with the corrected summary. The text on the file page — what visitors see under the media — is separate and can be edited like any page; keep it consistent with the summary.

The size limit is 1 GiB. The form warns for files larger than 50 MB — the warning does not block the upload.

After uploading, the file lives at a page called File:Name.ext. The page shows the media and its description. To replace a file, use "Upload a new version of this file" on the file page — the history keeps every version.

Files larger than roughly 100 MB are slow to upload in one request. Use chunked uploads through the API instead: see the MediaWiki official API:Upload documentation.

Embedding an image

The examples below use Example.png, a public-domain NASA photograph of Earth. The You get column shows each example rendered live. Replace Example.png with your file's name.

You type	What it does	You get
[[File:Example.png]]	Renders the image at full size, inline.
[[File:Example.png|thumb|Caption text]]	A thumbnail floating right, with a caption. The most common choice on content pages.	Caption text
[[File:Example.png|300px]]	Fixes the width to 300 pixels; the height keeps the proportions.
[[File:Example.png|thumb|left|Caption text]]	Thumbnail floating left. Use left, right, center or none.	Caption text
[[File:Example.png|alt=The Earth seen from Apollo 17]]	Sets the alt text, read by screen readers and shown when the image cannot load. The visible render is unchanged.
[[File:Example.png|link=Main Page]]	Clicking the image opens Main Page instead of the file page. The render looks the same.
[[:File:Example.png]]	A text link to the file page — the leading colon prevents embedding.	File:Example.png
[[Media:Example.png]]	A direct link to the file itself; the reader downloads it instead of seeing it embedded.	Media:Example.png

Options are separated by pipes, in any order. Any parameter that is not an option becomes the caption. A red link means the file does not exist — check the spelling or upload the file first.

Add categories at the bottom of the file page, just like on any page.

Embedding audio

The examples below use Example.ogg, a public-domain NASA recording of Apollo 11 launch-day communications. Audio plays in the browser; transcoding for compatibility happens automatically in the background.

You type	What it does	You get
[[File:Example.ogg]]	An inline audio player, with play/pause and a progress bar.
[[File:Example.ogg|thumb|Caption text]]	The player inside a framed box with a caption.	Caption text
[[Media:Example.ogg]]	A text link to the file itself; the reader downloads it instead of playing it inline.	Media:Example.ogg

Accepted audio formats are ogg and oga (Vorbis or Opus).

Embedding video

The examples below use Example.ogv, a public-domain NASA television clip of Buzz Aldrin descending the lunar module ladder. Video plays in the browser; transcoding for compatibility happens automatically in the background.

You type	What it does	You get
[[File:Example.ogv]]	An inline video player at the file's native size.
[[File:Example.ogv|thumb|Caption text]]	A thumbnail-sized player floating right, with a caption.	Caption text
[[File:Example.ogv|300px]]	Fixes the width to 300 pixels; the height keeps the proportions.
[[File:Example.ogv|start=0:05|end=0:15]]	Plays only the given time range, written as minutes:seconds.
[[Media:Example.ogv]]	A text link to the file itself; the reader downloads it instead of playing it inline.	Media:Example.ogv

Accepted video formats are ogv and webm (Theora, VP8 or VP9).

Files and entities

A file is not an entity and has no Q number: it cannot carry statements itself. To attach a file to an item, add a statement on the item with the image property (P32), whose datatype is Url, and put the file page URL as the value.

Example — the item Blue Marble (photograph) carries the statement:

• image → https://wikibase.ronzz.org/wiki/File:Example.png

Open Special:EntityPage/Q162 to see it live: the statement links to the file page, and the file page renders the image. Because the value is a plain URL, the same property works for any file you can link to — an upload on this wiki, a picture hosted elsewhere, or a file on Wikimedia Commons.

The statement workflow is the usual one: Items and properties.

See also

• Help:Images (MediaWiki official) — the complete image syntax reference
• Help:Linking to files (MediaWiki official) — linking and download behavior
• Help:Extension:TimedMediaHandler (MediaWiki official) — audio and video embedding reference
• API:Upload (MediaWiki official) — uploads, including chunked uploads
• Help:Contributing — the contributor hub

Uploading from a URL

You can also upload a file by pasting a URL instead of choosing one — use the Source file section's URL option. It works for images, PDFs, audio and video. A Validate button reads the file's metadata (for Wikimedia URLs, straight from the source in your browser):

• The Destination filename is filled automatically, normalized to lowercase with any word separator — spaces, underscores, or capitalization changes — replaced by dashes (for example National Geographic Society Administration Building or National_Geographic_Society_Administration_Building becomes national-geographic-society-administration-building). You can change it before uploading; the file extension is added automatically.
• The Summary is filled with the file's description from the source, up to 2000 characters, cut at a sentence boundary when longer.
• Author and the license are pre-filled when the source provides them — check them, since attribution accuracy is your responsibility. For non-image files (PDF, audio, video) the validate step reports the file type and size instead of a preview.

For large Wikimedia files the upload itself also happens through your browser, so the wiki server never downloads the file from Wikimedia.

• The license field is pre-filled when the source names one, and the wiki checks it against the instance's license items. When it finds a match it shows a confirmation line — "License fetched from source: {value}, we think this corresponds to {label} (Q#)." — with Yes, that's right / No, let me correct. Say No to clear the field and pick the license yourself. Attribution accuracy stays your responsibility.