MediaWiki

Installation

Mediawiki

Get the latest mediawiki LTS version from the official website: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki

Enable file upload

It is important to enable File Upload so user can push images, videos and all kind of content.

Have a look to the official MediaWiki File Upload manual.

Configuration

Add / Edit the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

$wgEnableUploads = true;                   # Enable uploads
$wgUseImageMagick = false;                 # Do NOT use ImageMagick to compute thumbnailed images. 
                                           # It is usually NOT available on shared hosting
$wgImageMagickConvertCommand = "/usr/bin/convert";
ini_set( 'post_max_size', '20M' );         # Max size of a HTTP POST operation (= sum of all files of the operation)
ini_set( 'upload_max_filesize', '10M' );   # Max size of a single file 

# List of allowed extensions to be uploaded
$wgFileExtensions = array( 'png', 'gif', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'doc', 'xls', 'mpp', 'pdf', 'ppt', 'tiff', 'bmp', 'docx', 'xlsx', 'pptx', 'ps', 'odt', 'ods', 'odp', 'odg');
# To allow ZIP files upload
$wgFileExtensions[] = 'zip';
$wgTrustedMediaFormats[] = 'application/zip';

ERROR 500 fix

If you have problems to see the pictures, you need to adjust the mediawiki/images/.htaccess file to:

<IfModule rewrite_module>
	RewriteEngine On
	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} \.[^\\/:*?\x22<>|%]+(#|\?|$) [nocase]
	RewriteRule . - [forbidden]
</IfModule>

Extensions

You can use Extensions to improve your wiki. You'll find below some recommendations.

You can always browse the official Extensions repository on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Extensions

SyntaxHighlight

This is required to display source code with syntax support.

Download

• SyntaxHighlight (bundled by default since 1.21)

Please note that the SyntaxHighlight requires SyntaxHighlight_Geshi:

• Go to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:ExtensionDistributor/SyntaxHighlight_GeSHi
• Download the compress file for your wiki and place the file(s) in a directory called SyntaxHighlight_GeSHi in your extensions/ folder.

Configuration

Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

# -------------------- LIST OF EXTENSIONS --------------------
# MediaWiki 1.25+
wfLoadExtension( 'SyntaxHighlight_GeSHi' );

# Old MediaWiki
require_once "$IP/extensions/SyntaxHighlight_GeSHi/SyntaxHighlight_GeSHi.php";

# -------------------- CONFIGURATION --------------------
$wgSyntaxHighlightDefaultLang = "java";

Install check-up

Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Source / Help

official SyntaxHighlight help page

WikiEditor

This WYSIWYG editor is much better than the default one!

Download

• WikiEditor (bundled by default since 1.18)

Configuration

Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

# -------------------- LIST OF EXTENSIONS --------------------
# MediaWiki 1.25+
wfLoadExtension( 'WikiEditor' );

# Old MediaWiki
require_once "$IP/extensions/WikiEditor/WikiEditor.php";


# -------------------- WikiEditor extension --------------------
# Enables use of WikiEditor by default but still allows users to disable it in preferences
$wgDefaultUserOptions['usebetatoolbar'] = 1;

# Enables link and table wizards by default but still allows users to disable them in preferences
$wgDefaultUserOptions['usebetatoolbar-cgd'] = 1;

# Displays the Preview and Changes tabs
$wgDefaultUserOptions['wikieditor-preview'] = 1;

# Displays the Publish and Cancel buttons on the top right side
$wgDefaultUserOptions['wikieditor-publish'] = 1;
wfLoadExtension( 'SyntaxHighlight_GeSHi' );

Install check-up

Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Source / Help

official WikiEditor help page

Cite

This extension helps to display and manage sources + references + quotes. This is particularly useful for R&D and training pages.

Download

• Cite (bundled by default since 1.21)

Configuration

Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

# -------------------- LIST OF EXTENSIONS --------------------
# MediaWiki 1.25+
wfLoadExtension( 'Cite' );

# Old MediaWiki
require_once "$IP/extensions/Cite/Cite.php";

Source / Help

official Cite help page

How to check the installation?

Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed and enabled.

How to know what are the current installed extensions?

• Go to Special:Version

Configuration

Create users and grants rights

1. As the Admin user go to Special page > Create account
2. Set the user rights: go to http://wikiUrl/index.php?title=Special:UserRights
3. Grant the Administrator and Bureaucrat roles (if required)

Special page > Preferences

Global CSS

Edit page: MediaWiki:Common.css

See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ

Clear cache

Sometimes you need to clear the cache to see the changes ; especially the UI changes (favicon, CSS, logo, ...)

Use the &action=purge command.

ex: http://www.daxiongmao.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=purge

Special content

Favicon

1. Copy your FavIcon to the root of your website. It must be either 16x16 or 32x32 in ICO format.

2. Set 'favicon.ico' rights to 644

3. Adjust your localSettings.php

## FAVICON in PNG 
$wgFavicon = "$wgScriptPath/favicon.ico";

Sidebar

Just edit MediaWiki:Sidebar

Source: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual_talk:Interface/Sidebar

Ex: http://www.daxiongmao.eu/wiki/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Sidebar

Copyright note

To adjust the text edit MediaWiki:Copyright

To configure the copyrights, adjust your LocalSettings.php

Source: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgRightsText

$wgRightsPage = ""; # Set to the title of a wiki page that describes your license/copyright
$wgRightsUrl = "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/";
$wgRightsText = "Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike";
$wgRightsIcon = "$wgScript/wiki/skins/common/images/creative_commons.png";

Image

Image upload configuration

To enable image upload you need to adjust your LocalSettings.php:

## To enable image uploads, make sure the 'images' directory
## is writable, then set this to true:
$wgEnableUploads = true;
$wgUseImageMagick = false;
$wgImageMagickConvertCommand = "/usr/bin/convert";
#$wgImageMagickTempDir="{$wgUploadDirectory}/temp";


## If you want to use image uploads under safe mode,
## create the directories images/archive, images/thumb and
## images/temp, and make them all writable. Then uncomment
## this, if it's not already uncommented:
#$wgHashedUploadDirectory = false;
#$wgTmpDirectory = "{$wgUploadDirectory}/temp";

You just have to:

• Enable uploads
• Not use ImageMagick

On previous version of MediaWiki I was able to use image magick. However it seems it doesn't work anymore on OVH shared hosting... :( Instead I now rely on PHP scripts.

Insert images

Great tutorial: How to insert images into a wiki article ? See: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/mediawiki/adding-content-mediawiki/insert-images-wiki