Enable a mediawiki function to render wikitext - mediawiki

Question

My mediawiki version is 1.16.5. I have a function that selects a random quote from the database and displays it on a wiki page. Italics and bold are rendered when I use html, however, I want to be able to use wikitext, specifically external links format, i.e.
[http://mediawiki.org MediaWiki]
Currently, if using something like the above, it is not rendered and displays literally. There is some reference on what is needed here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Tag_extensions#How_do_I_render_wikitext_in_my_extension.3F but I do not know how to implement this.
Here is the code:
function wfGetQuote() {
$randstr = wfRandom();
$row = selectRandomQuoteFromDB( $randstr );
if( !$row )
$row = selectRandomQuoteFromDB( "0" );
if( $row ) {
list( $quote, $attribution ) = explode( "\n", $row->quote_text );
return '<div id="trrandomquote"><div id="trquote">'. $quote .'</div> <span>'. $attribution .'</span></div>';
}
else
return 'Error: No quote found';
}
function selectRandomQuoteFromDB( $randstr ) {
global $wgUser, $site;
$lang = $wgUser->getOption( 'language' );
if( $site == 'wiki' )
$lang = 'en';
$dbr = wfGetDB( DB_SLAVE );
$use_index = $dbr->useIndexClause( 'quote_random' );
$quote = $dbr->tableName( 'quote' );
$sql = "SELECT quote_text
FROM $quote $use_index
WHERE quote_random >= $randstr
AND quote_lang = '$lang'";
$sql = $dbr->limitResult( $sql, 1, 0 );
$fname = 'RandomQuote::selectRandomQuoteFromDB';
$res = $dbr->query( $sql, $fname );
return $dbr->fetchObject( $res );
}

Answer 1

Normally I use the $wgOut->addWikiText( $msg ); function.
I would modify your code to:
function wfGetQuote() {
global $wgOut; // Added line
$randstr = wfRandom();
$row = selectRandomQuoteFromDB( $randstr );
if( !$row )
$row = selectRandomQuoteFromDB( "0" );
if( $row ) {
list( $quote, $attribution ) = explode( "\n", $row->quote_text );
$wgOut->addWikiText( '<div id="trrandomquote"><div id="trquote">'. $quote .'</div> <span>'. $attribution .'</span></div>' );
}
else
return 'Error: No quote found';
}
I haven't tested it, but it may do the job you're looking for.