Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with MediaWiki

How to add languages to a MediaWiki?

mateuslee — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:05:39 -0800

Is there an online idiot's guide to adding another language to a MediaWiki? I am a total newbie who, with the help of a tech savy friend, got a small wiki up and running. I am using it to describe some under-documented indigenous language which I am researching as part of my dissertation, and it is quickly growing. For now it is in English, but eventually I would like to grow it to be in Spanish, Portuguese, and even the native language itself.

I checked out a bunch of links online and I see they are instructions, but they seem especially complicated, and involve a lot of stuff I don't understand.

Does anyone know of instructions with a simple step-by-step process detailing how to do this? I feel over my head...

Thanks a lot!

WikiMedia Question

mateuslee — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:41:43 -0800

Any advice on getting a wiki off the ground? I'm working with a small group of language documentarians. Mainly we work strictly with linguistics, but of course there's plenty of overlap with anthropology, archaeology, and all sorts of other interesting sub-disciplines. A lot of this "peripheral material" is not suitable for academic publications, but is nonetheless very interesting.

I had the idea of making a Wiki of endangered or under-documented languages. After all, I can write in the Wiki markup language and think the format is ideal. I could involve my colleagues and even, perhaps, the members of some of those communities themselves.

Of course MediaWiki is the best, but the problem is server space. The university is not so enthusiastic and I am not really interested in paying a monthly fee to keep this going. I know there are a bunch of online options, many of which are really cool (Google Sites, and a variety of 'Wikifarms', but they never compete with the simplicity and ease of MediaWiki.

So, my question: Do you know of any online Wiki which has an identical look/feel to MediaWiki? And/or: Do you know of anywhere I could get free hosting for a MediaWiki like the one I have in mind? I know that probably sounds like a pipe dream do you experts...

Thanks, guys.

How can Mediawiki and my Extranet share users?

jdl — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:21:08 -0800

I've created a wiki running on our Dreamhost account, using Medawiki. I would like it to exist on our Extranet with one log-in for both. Right now users log-in to our extranet (hosted on our crm/cms system -- sort of like salesforce) and then I'd like for them to follow a link to the wiki and have them be logged into it already.

We currently do this for 2 other homebuilt (by consultants) apps that we use, by passing the email address in the URL of the logged in person to that homebuilt app. It's not the most secure, but I'm happy to do it this way for our wiki too, but can't figure it out.

Our crm/cms solution does have an open api. It's running on SQL and can spit out xml, csv, and such.

Help me learn to template MediaWiki

arniec — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:44:07 -0800

I am trying to find concise, direct instructions on how to create templates (not skins, templates) for MediaWiki and I'm coming up short. While Google has tons of hits, many incorrectly identify skins as templates, and the rest spread the information out through so many other topics that it is simply frustrating. Is there a resource out there that will help me develop MediaWiki page templates in a step-by-step fashion?

Can Spotlight index websites?

Chris4d — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:56:02 -0800

Can Spotlight index websites? I have a mediawiki install on my macbook that I would like Spotlight to index, but more generally, I would like a Spotlight plugin that can index arbitrary URLs, local or WAN (wouldn't it be cool to have wikipedia results show up in spotlight?). Google has not been helpful in finding this. I do have a plugin that downloads delicious bookmarks which suggests my idea should be feasible, but I'm not a programmer and I don't want to start tearing apart the delicious plugin to see how it works. Anyone have a suggestion? If spotlight can't do this, I would be open to alternative approaches.

She got her data in my pbwiki; help us get it out!

dirtypants — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:02:38 -0800

How can I migrate away from pbwiki before they do their "upgrade" in March? I tried to come up with a cute title. I hope people get it.

A colleague of mine has a very large (hundreds of pages) wiki using pbwiki. It is niche-academic-related and really the only source for this information on the web. It is so comprehensive it is bewildering. She just got so sick of those of us in the field who should have been disseminating this information *not* doing it that she did it herself, and it has become a tremendous resource. Unfortunately I have no familiarity with the platform.

I can't figure out pbwiki is flat file or db driven, but it seems that it has a proprietary db backend that they won't let us access (they do offer an API that would let you pull from your own MySQL db, but I digress).

Ideally, we'd suck down all of her information and dump it into something like MediaWiki or one of the MySQL based GNU/GPL options that we would "own" so that we wouldn't be subject to the whims of a company that decides to "upgrade" or price her out of a very expansive Wiki.

Anyone have any ideas? I know a bit about this stuff, but I'm in way over my head. And I've Googled the heck out of pbwiki, and I can't seem to figure out much of anything, other than the fact that there are a lot of questions asking how to migrate away that have been left open on forums (no answers).

MediaWiki would be my choice because I could do a scripted install that would take me about five minutes. I'd be willing to entertain other Apache / MySQL GNU/GPL options.

Thanks!

Which Wiki Would Work?

arniec — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:01:07 -0800

I want to start a wiki. Help me decide how best to go about it with long-term planning and goals in mind. I have an idea for a Wiki that has not yet been created (is it possible?? Yes it is...). It is related to a topic where I already have a web presence with over 100k unique visitors per month to my domain so I believe I have a core base of people who will jump into this Wiki and help make it a success.

The end goal for the Wiki would be something that would have over 100,000 articles, and likely be somewhat picture heavy with between 1 and 50 pictures per article.

But to start, I cannot decide between using my current webhosting situation using a MediaWiki install or using wikia.com to set up the site.

Currently I own several of my own domains, and I have them hosted with Dreamhost (which has given me some fits in the past but {knock on wood} has been great of late). I have their "unlimited" storage and bandwidth option.

My vision is fast initial growth eventually tapering off to regular updates, and huge growth over time.

By the same token, I would like to be able to do affiliate links (Amazon, etc.) and try to get some advertising revenue for my work if it does take off, and I also want to leverage the internet presence I have currently, my "brand" if you will.

So does anyone have experience with Media Wiki or Wikia? Any preference between them? If I start with one and need to transition to another, is that do-able? How much work involved, etc.

Thanks!

Meta Descriptions and Keywords for MediaWiki

entropicamericana — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:04:37 -0800

I have a MediaWiki wiki that I've started. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to automatically generate meta keywords and meta descriptions from the articles. What is the best solution for this? I tried to find out how Wikipedia does it, but my Google Fu is weak.

Reconstituting a wiki database from html?

Pronoiac — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:47:07 -0800

I'd like to reconstitute a years-defunct wiki I used to collaborate on. I've contacted the principals, & our searches for the database backup have come up empty so far. Without having the original database, the simplest path appears to be taking the html & transforming it into, say, an sql dump. So - how do I do that? Are there any MediaWiki, database, or Perl trails to follow?

I want a new wiki, one that does what it should.

jbickers — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:39:56 -0800

I hate MediaWiki, and am looking for an alternative. Problem: My MediaWiki site has tons of data. So I've got a fansite (twinpeakswiki.com, if interested) that has a reasonable amount of data in it. I've come to grips with the fact that I HATE MediaWiki. It's so unintuitive, there is virtually no web-based administration for anything, the learning curve is just too great and I've got better things to do.

So, I'm looking for an alternative, something that is snazzy, modern-looking, graphically pleasing right out of the box, and preferably with skin support. Oh yeah, it has to be able to deal with my MediaWiki database data somehow (export-then-import? conversion utility? I dunno, have no idea what's out there.)

Any ideas are most appreciated!

Charity Badge in Mediawiki?

Andrhia — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:12:09 -0800

How to display a charity badge in mediawiki? I'm working on an art project within a mediawiki instance, and I'd love to put up a page with a Network for Good donations badge in it. Just because, you know, good karma.

However, the Network for Good badges give you some embedding code that I can't get to work in the wiki. Can't figure out how to get the page to parse it as HTML, can't figure out how to rework the badge embedding code in wiki markup.

I also can't work out how to put the embedding code in here, but if somebody tells me how to mark it up so it shows up as text, I'll happily do so. All I get from the embedding code is it's somehow making the badge a Flash object, which... uh. Seems overkill.

Anyone know how to fix it, how to work around it, or have a suggestion for another way to use my powers for good?

Looking for wikis with well-designed front pages

electric_counterpoint — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:27:22 -0800

I'm looking to revamp my organization's wiki. Have you seen a Mediawiki installation with a really well-designed front page? Right now, our wiki's front page is just a selection of internal links in a few categories, making for a long, uninviting, single column wall 'o' letters. I'd like to class it up a bit, especially since it's public-facing with a high PageRank — users who landed on one of our deep pages via Google and clicked up to ../Main_Page would thus recognize that they're looking at a big, unified wiki resource.

Obviously, Wikipedia's front page is the gold standard for a Mediawiki homepage (or at least it's the most recognized). Of course, we don't have as much daily activity, so it wouldn't make sense for us to put as much dynamic content on the front page. I guess I'm just looking for examples of well-designed front pages that display a relatively stable introduction to the wiki's relatively stable content.

If it helps, we've got some "current events" pages, a lot of "how to's," an awful lot of entries for individual members of a particular group, and some administrivia like meeting minutes.

How to set up Mediawiki infoboxes?

Otis — Fri, 23 May 2008 05:11:00 -0800

Mediawiki infoboxes. I'd like to use a Wikipedia-style infobox in my own personal Mediawiki. Help? Please? I must be missing something. I have an installation of Mediawiki on my server that I would like to use for cataloging video games. I like how the better video game entries are set up on Wikipedia (example), especially the infoboxes. How can I set up similar infoboxes on my wiki? I realize it has to do with templates, but I can't find a clear "dummies" step-by-step on on how to do it. I looked hard. I promise. BONUS: I like this tool. How can I set up my wiki so the tool will also work with my infoboxes? Thanks!

Color-per-author in MediaWiki?

fake — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:01:33 -0800

Is it possible to have each author on a MediaWiki have a different text color automatically? I'd like the entries of my three users to show up differently. I've searched around the MediaWiki forums and extensions, and I haven't found anything.

Redirects & Mediawiki.

Pronoiac — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:25:27 -0800

I have a private wiki, & I'd like to keep it from showing up in server logs. Specifically, I'd like to strip out the referrer information by having external links go through a redirect. How do I have Mediawiki munge external links to include the redirector? Also, would using a redirect really do what I want, or does this really vary by browser?

Installing MediaWiki on XP with an Existing Apache Webserver

jjsonp — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:20:58 -0800

MediaWiki install: Apache, MySQL, & PHP already on my machine? After some trial and error I successfully installed MediaWiki on my home XP machine. First I tried installing Apache + MySQL + PHP separately without success, then I discovered XAMPP and that worked like a charm.

My question is this: at work we are running StoreGrid, which already has installed Apache & PHP (and also MySQL I believe) on my computer. Should I try to get MediaWiki to work with these current installations, or should I install additional instances (perhaps using XAMPP)? My machine at work is also XP.

I tried installing MediaWiki but I can't find the Apache htdocs folder that exists after installing XAMPP, or determine what the root webserver folder is. When I access the StoreGrid web interface I navigate to my machine's name on port 6060 but I can't figure out which folder that references.

Are there any problems with installing multiple instances of Apache/MySQL/PHP? Are there benefits to getting MediaWiki to work with StoreGrid's instances (assuming I can do so)?

Thanks!

Mediawiki ate itself -- AND my data!

Ogre Lawless — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:41:05 -0800

My previously installed MediaWiki is now asking to be installed again: "Please set up the wiki first." Like, sounds great, but what about the wiki that was already there?!? I was dicking around in my Apache config file about the time this happened but I don't see anything particularly vital I could have/should have been able to screw up.

As far as I can tell:
(a) URL-wise, same location.
(b) Database is there. Installed it a while ago (likewise chooched it some time ago so no logs to fall back on) so am at a loss for user/pws I may have at the time assigned.
(c) Looks like my LocalSettings.php is all cool but is currently out of my league.

My attempts to find a similar scenario via Google bombed save for rumors of such a cicumstance but know you guys are typically awsome in this field...

Mediawiki to Indesign/XML?

Tlogmer — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:08:46 -0800

I have a book on a wiki (mediawiki). I will be laying out that book in InDesign. Is there any way to whoooosh the content straight from mediawiki to the InDesign template (via XML or something)? So far I haven't been able to find any sort of mediawiki XML export that preserves all the italics and such -- I don't really care about revision histories or anything, just document structure/formatting. I remember when I tried to write my own wikisyntax parser in applescript, and I'd rather not revisit that particular level of hell.

Wiki Wiki Tavi

jopreacher — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:43:39 -0800

Is there any way to import OpenWiki data to MediaWiki other than manually? I'd hate to have to do it by hand.

Chronological MediaWiki Category Listings

martinX's bellbottoms — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:28:37 -0800

I run a personal MediaWiki that I organize a lot of academic, business, and project related notes in. I also keep a journal, and all entries are in one category. The entries take the (automatic) form of "June 4 2007". So far so good, except when I look at the journal category page, I get an alphabetized listing, which is essentially useless. Finding a particular date isn't hard, but I'd like to see them all (or, you know, paginated to 60 or so) listed in reverse chronological order. How can I do this?

Why has my hosting become so slow?

sindark — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:29:51 -0800

GoDaddy hosting has become intolerably slow: is it certainly their fault? If so, can I do anything about it? If it isn't their fault, what am I doing wrong? I am running a number of MySQL and PHP based websites using hosting from GoDaddy.com. Specifically, I am running three WordPress blogs and a MediaWiki based wiki. During the last few weeks, they have all become markedly slower than previously. Is this certainly the result of server-side congestion, or is there something I could do to speed things up?

To give an example, it now takes twenty seconds or more between clicking the 'Write' button on the main WordPress screen and actually having the page for writing entries come up. Naturally, this makes all of these sites frustrating to maintain.

None of the sites gets a huge amount of traffic (in total, they get under 200 visits a day). If the slowdown is GoDaddy's fault, is there anything I can do about it, short of switching to a new hosting provider? I am using their Economy level Linux shared hosting account.

I need a wiki without camels.

Harry — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 12:06:06 -0800

WikiFilter: Help me find a lightweight wiki that does not use CamelCase linking. I'm looking for a wiki to use as a CMS (or, alternatively, a really simple CMS to use as a CMS). I don't want a complicated system with complicated terminology.

The two things I really like about, say, MediaWiki, is the double-click-to-edit and the [[way it can link| to anything]]. I absolutely despise that retarded CamelCase system. MediaWiki's template functionality would be a bonus as well.

(Before you ask: I don't use MediaWiki because it's absolutely horrible to skin. There is no proper seperation of HTML and PHP).

WakkaWikki's forks look good, as far as lightweight and modifiability goes, but all of them are stuck with CamelCased links.

So yeah.. it sounds like I'm actually looking for MediaWiki, but with friendlier code... Any good tips?

Should I use wiki or blog software for my simple database?

Typographica — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:03:53 -0800

I'd like to build a publicly editable online database. Each record of the database will consist of images and a few bits of meta data and maybe some Flickr-style tags. I don't have the skills to build a custom database nor the money to pay someone to build it. Is a wiki the way to go? If so, which free (or cheap) wiki software do you recommend for someone with very little programming knowledge? If I remove the "publicly editable" requirement, would a plain ol' WordPress blog with tags be the cleanest option?

Need wiki host

deeman — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 13:26:45 -0800

What's the best host to run my wiki created using MediaWiki? Using MediaWiki and a LAMP server, I want to play around with creating my own wiki site. All hosts are not created equal which is why I need one that will host my site that plays nicely with MediaWiki, is relatively inexpensive, is reputable, and is relatively user-friendly. Any suggestions?

What's wrong with PHP?

aisforal — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 13:52:37 -0800

Are PHP/mySQL applications inherently insecure and unstable? In my work I often have to try out new (to me and my company) web applications, and assess their suitability for our needs. Many of the applications I am trying out are open source, PHP/mySQL based, such as Moodle, Wordpress and MediaWiki. They all seem to work well and I'm quite happy with them. But I am constantly being told by people (our own IT dept, consultants, our ISP etc) that they are badly written, incompatible with MS systems, unreliable, security risks etc etc. Our IT dept will not support them, our ISP will not host them (they use asp). Is this just unfounded prejudice, or should I be more aware of potential problems these apps may cause in a business environment. If the former, what arguments will best make my case.