$smwgShowHiddenCategories

Configuration parameter details:
Name	$smwgShowHiddenCategories
Description	Sets whether to omit categories marked with the HIDDENCAT behaviour switch from the annotation process
Default setting	true
(Other) available settings	false Allows to omit categories marked with the HIDDENCAT behaviour switch from the annotation process
Software	Semantic MediaWiki
Since version	1.9.0
Until version	still available
Configuration	Installation
Keyword	parser · category · annotation

$smwgShowHiddenCategories is a configuration parameter that sets whether to omit categories marked with the behaviour switch __HIDDENCAT__ from the annotation process. The configuration parameter was introduced in Semantic MediaWiki 1.9.0Released on 3 January 2014 and compatible with MW 1.19.0 - 1.22.x. and deprecated with Semantic MediaWiki 3.0.0Released on 11 October 2018 and compatible with MW 1.27.0 - 1.31.x..1

No longer functional as of Semantic MediaWiki 7.0.0Released on 4 June 2026 and compatible with MW 1.43.x - 1.46.x.. The runtime shim that automatically translated $smwgShowHiddenCategories to its replacement has been removed, so this setting is now silently ignored. Migrate to configuration parameter $smwgParserFeaturesSets the behaviour of features related to text and annotation parsing (option 'hidden-categories') in "LocalSettings.php".2

Default setting

$smwgShowHiddenCategories = true;

This means that if a category is updated either being hidden or visible, pages need to be refreshed to ensure that the "StoreUpdater" can make use of the changed environment.

This is the legacy behaviour for Semantic MediaWiki 1.8.0Released on 2 December 2012 and compatible with MW 1.17.0 - 1.22.x
(except 1.22.1). and earlier.

Changing the default setting

To modify the setting to this configuration parameter, add one of the following lines to your "LocalSettings.php" file:

Prevent categories from being shown

$smwgShowHiddenCategories = false;

This means that hidden categories are discarded during the parsing process.

Changing the setting of this configuration parameter requires maintenance script "rebuildData.php"Allows to rebuild all the semantic data for a selected data backend/store to be run.

See also

• Help page on in-text annotation
• Help page on configuration parameter $smwgParserFeaturesSets the behaviour of features related to text and annotation parsing