Scribunto: An Introduction

Scribunto: An Introduction is a book for people who want to learn how to program using Scribunto. Scribunto enables users to embed the Lua programming language into wikis that use MediaWiki, the software that powers Wikipedia. This book covers how to get started, basic programming techniques, and how to use some of the Lua libraries that are unique to Scribunto. It is aimed at beginners to programming, particularly those who have some familiarity with the MediaWiki software, but may also be useful to experienced programmers who are new to Scribunto.

Contents

1. About

Part One: Getting Started

1. Background
2. When to convert a template
3. Setting up
4. Your first module

Part Two: Lua Basics

1. Numbers
2. Strings
3. Variables
4. Tables
5. Functions

Part Three: Modules

1. Using invoke
2. Arguments
3. Comments
4. Types
5. Branching
6. Looping
7. Scope

Part Four: Common tasks

1. The parent frame
2. Creating long strings
3. String manipulation
4. Generating HTML
5. Table manipulation
6. Using other modules
7. Working with big data sets
8. Getting mathematical
9. Formatting dates

Part Five: Writing Good Code

1. Don't repeat yourself
2. Write for Lua and for invoke

Part Six: Advanced Topics

1. Test cases
2. Localisation
3. Importing modules from other wikis
4. Object-oriented programming
5. Writing libraries

Appendixes

1. Glossary
2. Resources
3. Calculating SHA-2 in Scribunto: Module:SHA2