Help:Upload

← Help: Contents

To add multimedia (images, sounds, or movies) to OpenVistA Wiki, you must first upload the content to our servers. (The MediaWiki software uses the word "image" to refer to any type of non-text multimedia, as does this document.) You can follow these easy steps to add your image to the OpenVistA Wiki database:

1. First, give the file an appropriate name. Renaming during or after uploading is not possible. Make sure that the file name has the proper (lowercase) extension.
2. An image description page will be associated with the file, with a page name consisting of the file name (including the extension) and prefixed with "Image:". Remember that file names are case sensitive!
3. If you want to replace an existing file, give it the same name.
4. Upload the file using the upload form in the system bar. To protect against (most) vandalism, only users who have logged in may upload files.
5. Apart from text, MediaWiki supports the following media formats:
   • Images: JPEG, GIF, PNG
   • Sound: MP3, OGG
   • Video: None
6. After the file has been uploaded, you may display it in an article or link to it using image markup.

There is a generous size limit of 2.0 megabytes per file, but please be reasonable! OpenVistA Wiki has only limited space available at this time!

Embedding images from external sites

As of September 2004, it is possible to embed some images from external sites in OpenVistA Wiki articles. If the image's URL ends in a ".jpg", ".gif", or ".png", you may type URL into the article source (without brackets or other text surrounding it), and it will be displayed inline in the page.

However, this practice is generally considered poor etiquette and is frowned upon for most purposes. Displaying an image from another website on OpenVistA Wiki most likely constitutes bandwidth theft (unless the person who includes the image in OpenVistA Wiki also owns the server on which the image is located). In most cases, it is simpler and more convenient to just upload the image to OpenVistA Wiki's database. Exceptions to this rule include personal photos which contributors may wish to display on their user pages.