> Kasimir wrote: Peter, you are absolutely
> correct in your assumption. I have never
> documented all of the steps that it takes
> me to install a working MediaWiki
> installation. Seeing that I was making an
> assumption, I will proceed to document my
> success story...
>
> Operating system: Debian Etch
> Installation of Apache and MySQL and PHP
> and Squid and ImageMagick all together:
... and so on ... 500 words later ...
> Kasimir wrote: There is one mistake which
> I directly see in my previous post. instead of
>`mysqladmin NEWROOTUSERPASSWORD`
> it should be:
> `mysqladmin password NEWROOTUSERPASSWORD`
> Sorry, Kasimir
Kasimir, I love you,. man.
Thank you very, very much!
Now put it on MediaWiki.org!
I'm reading through it and notice many helpful pointers, such as
checking port 80 and coordinating passwords for each module, and though
I'm on Windows, I understand your `chmod 0777 -R images` (turns on read,
write, and execute permissions, and turns off the hidden, archive, and
system attributes, recursive through subdirectories)- that's why I'm
looking to absolutely know what it tales to install MediaWiki and it's
support stuff on Windows with and without admin privileges for my
user/customers.
-- Peter Blaise
PS - Dang these "basic" mailing lists. Yahoogroups at least allows
images in emails (though it no longer archives them and strips them from
digests). My documentation has screen grabs AND screen OCR text
(http://www.structurise.com/kleptomania/index.shtml or
http://www.capturetext.com/ and
http://www.etrusoft.com/screen-capture-software-reviews/ ) AND my
choices and notes, links to explanations on each choice, and so on.
Hey, Next week, I won't remember a blessed thing - I better write it
down! =8^o
Re: Is MediaWiki-l dysfunctional? What is it good for, really? and Re:
Any leads on a basic wiki setup-and-configure instruction manual?
I am looking (have searched but not found) for an extension that would
'NOTIFY' the users that a page is currently being edited if they try to
go into edit mode.
I realize that the basic philosophy is what we call 'Optimistic Locking'
(rose colored glassed). But when the user goes into edit mode IF text
was added saying that another user is editing the page along with 'you
are in preview mode' .. that would be great.
Is this possible? Does such exist?
Thanks
DSig
David Tod Sigafoos | SANMAR Corporation
PICK Guy
206-770-5585
davesigafoos(a)sanmar.com
(Note: my email address has changed.)
> Ian, I'll bet you've had some measure of success
> installing MediaWiki. Now, if I could only find out exactly what you
> did ...
I followed the instructions. It worked.
If you want a keystroke-by-keystroke log of what I did, well, I didn't
create one. If you want me to go through the whole process again and record
everything, I can do that, but it would take solid days of work to
cover the stuff you want, and that is *way* more effort than I am going to
donate to the USPTO for free. So, do you have a budget to pay for this kind of
support?
Ian
> Daniel wrote: ... I installed on Windows
> and it was easy. MySQL, Apache, PHP,
> and MediaWiki 1.9.3 in 1 hour, successfully,
> on the first try, with no previous MediaWiki
> experience. All I did was follow the
> instructions [links?], plus a little Googling
> when I hit a snag [details?] ...
Peter Blaise responds:
(a) I'd LOVE to read your notes on MediaWiki.org
(b) Can you do it again? Can you build a 2nd wiki on the same PC? With
and without sharing the same database? More?
-- Peter Blaise
------------------------------
> Suman wrote: ... where exactly you are
> stuck now? What is the error message
> that you are getting? ...
Peter Blaise responds:
Thanks for asking, Suman.
Where I'm stuck is walking down each alternative installation path in
every decision tree to confirm what features and benefits each decision
supports so I can accurately tune everything to the way I want to. Each
MediaWiki support program has dozens of options: Apache, PHP, MySQL,
MediaWiki, PHPMyAdmin, and operating system choices and file system and
directory choices and so on.
For instance, when someone asks me, "Can I add another wiki to the one
I'm serving now?", I'd like to have successful experience saying "yes"
to the same question as I'd asked and tried it myself beforehand. What
if they want to share data across those two wikis? What if they want to
isolate those two wikis?
That's just one body of experience I am seeking to master.
Now, another challenge is backing up, verifying, and restoring after a
crash ... is it REALLY a crap shoot?
How to print an entire wiki as a book, as can be done with the legacy
documents that created the wiki in the first place!
How to export wiki contents to repurpose them.
And so on. There is so much to master to bring MediaWiki support up to
a familiar and reliable level, like handling a MS Word DOC or an HTML
page without blinking or saying, "Golly, gee, I've never seen one of
THESE before!" How would you audit internal links and perform a global
search and replace to update them across an entire wiki? Become a MySQL
master and do it manually? Become a PHP master? Or, write an extension
to empower the end user to do it on demand?
Suman, I appreciate that some people just want a working wiki, and they
don't ask any questions after it's working.
I, on the other hand, have always asked a zillion questions, even when
things appear to be working, and I often then find that they are not
working so well after all, even when others thought they were working
just fine (such as when I was the first one to try to verify their
backup, and I found their backup was empty or corrupt - oh, my!).
And then I try to break things just to learn more about them. I imagine
I've broken 3 wiki installations a day for the last month or more. What
have I learned? Probably more than anyone who had the "good luck" to
install successfully the first time and never had a crash ... or a
question.
My goal is not to have a working wiki. My goal is to understand how a
wiki works, and support other people's working wikis.
While I appreciate that's not the kind of thing others are here for,
apparently, it's what I'm here for. And if I'm alone in that search,
then I'm alone in that search. Somehow I don't think anyone here is
really surprised that this situation is nothing new for me! ;-)
Thanks you, Suman, for caring to try to help. I'd LOVE to see your
successful install notes on MediaWiki.org!
-- Peter Blaise
Hello,
I am trying to upgrade our mediawiki from 1.9 to 1.10 but all of the
links and mirrors seem to be broken. Is there any reliable source to
get the files from?
Thanks,
John Getzke
-----Original Message-----
From: mediawiki-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of
mediawiki-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 7:00 AM
To: mediawiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: MediaWiki-l Digest, Vol 44, Issue 69
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: howto remove index.php from url? (Frederik Dohr)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 13:41:14 +0200
From: Frederik Dohr <fdg001(a)gmx.net>
Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] howto remove index.php from url?
To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list
<mediawiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Message-ID: <4656CB5A.8070003(a)gmx.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> how can i remove the index.php from wiki's url?
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Short_URL
HTH.
-- F.
------------------------------
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MediaWiki-l mailing list
MediaWiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
End of MediaWiki-l Digest, Vol 44, Issue 69
*******************************************
I have a small handful of templates I'm running on my Wiki, which is
running 1.6.10.
I noticed on Wikipedia that there's a handy portion of the templates
that says how the template in question is supposed to be used, which
would be extremely helpful to me, as my Wiki tends to draw many people
that are new to Wiki and Wiki markup. I think a "how to use" section
would help save me from having to protect EVERY SINGLE TEMPLATE to avoid
them getting vandalized or accidentally edited.
But the question is, how do I add this "Usage" section? I don't want it
to appear as part of the template. I looked at the Wikipedia example,
and it said {{{{FULLPAGENAME}}/doc}}, which I thought was a template,
but when I looked for a template under that name (or just "fullpagename"
both caps and not), I didn't find anything. I also searched for anything
relating to 'template usage' and similar, but I came up with nothing.
Can anyone help?
Thanks in advance!
-Azurite
> Ian wrote: ... Please speak for yourself ...
Peter Blaise responds: I am!
> Ian: ... setting up and managing a wiki is ...
> very difficult ... isn't some simple application ...
> has quite a complex set of supporting components
> (as you've discovered). There are also some
> serious security issued that need to be handled
> carefully if this is going to be exposed to the
> public ... setting up something like this requires
> someone with system administration skills
> and experience ...
Pater Blaise responds: Hence my asking for other people's experiences.
Catch 22? You need experience to get experience? All I'm askin' for is
for people to share their install and setup success stories on
MediaWiki.org - an apparently impossible task! So, asking for details
here gets "shut up and go away" responses. Nice.
> Ian: ... you ... asked for help with setting up
> a wiki on a Windows host where you have no
> admin rights ... haven't got an answer ...
> no-one else has experience with doing it
> this way ... you're on your own. Good luck!
Peter Blaise responds: No.
Actually, Cornelius Herzog's Wiki-on-WOS (WOS = Web server On a usb
Stick) works just fine on Windows without admin rights, and can run from
a USB flash drive or from an MS-DOS "subst" drive:
http://www.chsoftware.net/en/useware/wos/wos.htm?action=download
However, it defaults to a single-user wiki! It does not require admin
rights nor does it hammer the Windows registry or Windows program and
system file areas. Wiki on WOS is a truly portable uber MediaWiki!
However, it requires a manually created list of IP addresses so it can
be shared with more than one user, so it has a narrow audience with
ongoing support requirements to expand it.
In a mere 6 hours, using Wiki on WOS and Word2Wiki*, I built a working
MediaWiki on it with ~500,000 words containing the entire US Trademark
Manual of Examining Procedure* AND the all supporting law. (*Links
notes, see: Gunter Schmidt's and Fernando Correia 's Word2Wiki
extension: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Word2MediaWikiPlus
and the USTMEP: http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmdb/tmep/ )
Everything I've done since then has been trying to find or create
unambiguously clear documentation and decision trees so that others in
my organization, and around the world, can take advantage of MediaWiki's
offering just as I have. Aside from being told "what a stoopid idea",
I'm well aware that I'm on my own. BUT, you'll have my success-notes
available for reference when I do resolve ambiguities and accomplish
predictability and reliability, even if you don't value my notes. I
just wish I had your notes on the way to your success, as I value your
notes.
> Ian: ... [documenting and sharing your own
> MediaWiki installation steps, detail by
> detail] would be pretty pointless, unless
> you want to install your wiki on *my*
> computer, and using exactly the same
> configuration that I use. The point is that
> you have to use the documentation on the
> MW site to *figure out* what the
> appropriate settings are for your wiki on
> your server ..
Peter Blaise responds: We disagree.
I think ALL we have to share is our experience. All else is
speculation.
As Albert Einstein is reported to have said: "Example is not just
another way to teach. Example is the only way to teach."
If I could read how you built 2 wikis that share a database, or 2 wikis
that do not share a data base, then I could adapt and adopt and tweak
and tune my own installation with much more savvy and chances for quick
success. Otherwise, why do we share here at all?
> Ian: ... A troubleshooting guide isn't going
> to help you either ... The number of things
> that could go wrong ... the number of
> possible configurations of your server ...
Peter Blaise responds: "... A troubleshooting guide isn't going to help
..."?!?
Yeah - high tech customer service and support is a challenge, isn't it?
But then, it's what I've been successfully doing for 30 years. Funny, I
frequently have arguments with vendors and tech support, but almost
never with customers! I guess I do my customer's arguing for them,
trying to convince suppliers that they really know and can share more
than they think they know and can share! I feel like the proverbial
dentist pulling teeth. Ian, I'll bet you've had some measure of success
installing MediaWiki. Now, if I could only find out exactly what you
did ...
> Ian: ... It baffles me that you're having
> all this trouble, and then making it more
> complex by trying a custom install ...?
Peter Blaise responds: Control, Ian. CONTROL!
Acting as my customer's ombudsman, I've NEVER let any supplier execute
their default install on my customer's personal computer and then just
walk away. I wanna know every detail! I watch programs load into
memory, catalog dll interdependencies, unhide all windows, and record
and compare changes to the registry. Sniff sniff. As I heard Bob Dylan
sing: "I'll know my song well before I start singing."
> Ian: ... I suspect that the type of guide
> you're describing isn't as useful to a
> wide audience as you might think ...
Peter Blaise responds: One will do. It always starts with one. I can't
imagine telling any one customer, "Your requests are invalid because
your requests are not popular. You're just one customer. Go away."
> Ian: ... It sounds like the kind of thing
> you would write for people managing
> *your* wiki on your server ...
Peter Blaise responds: Duh! However, it's not *my* wiki, it's
MediaWiki, and at least I'm trying to make MediaWiki accessible to
everyone in my customer base. Today they may ask, "What's a wiki?" (and
they have!) Tomorrow, I hope to have them administering their own
MediaWiki, and teaching and supporting others.
Thanks for the provocative chat, Ian. I understand more than you think
you shared. We are totally different "techs", I presume. My goal is to
empower my customers to take care of their own needs. I appreciate that
others here may see their jobs as perpetually supporting their wiki ...
or something other than simplifying the complex, making accessible the
inaccessible.
Years ago, before computers, US Trademark staff weren't allowed to do
their own typing. Silly, eh? Why similarly inflict "you're not allowed
to do your own MediaWiki" on them?
So, Ian, you want to keep MediaWiki in the hands of experienced
administrators only, and I want to get it out there into everybody's
hands to play with.
Here from http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Names
"... Wikimedia Foundation ... an international non-profit organization
dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of
free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of
Wikimedia projects to the public free of charge ..."
"... to the public ..."
Not "... to administrators only ..."
-- Peter Blaise
The skins that ship with MediaWiki are pretty boring (yes, aesthetics are
important to my users :-). At some point I'll create some jazzy ones but
for now are there any others available?
Thanks
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TableEdit
Changes in TableEdit 0.4 are relatively minor but useful:
* changed INSERT statements to use null instead of '' for
autoincrement fields. This should fix some compatibility problems
with some mySQL installations
* changed TableEdit.php to respect nowiki. Now
<nowiki><newTableEdit>list of headings</newTableEdit></nowiki> does
not try to insert a table between the nowiki tags, which should make
internal documentation much easier.
No schema changes this time.
Thanks to Dave Sigafoos for help with bug finding.
TableEdit is still marked as experimental, but it's getting to the
point where I'm going to try it in a beta testing environment for my
own wikis. But since I'm a biologist, not a software engineer, I'm
probably using the testing phases incorrectly anyway!
I've also been working on a maintenance script to allow updating wiki
pages based on changes in TableEdit's external wikibox_db from the
shell, but it's not ready yet.
=====================================
Jim Hu
Associate Professor
Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics
2128 TAMU
Texas A&M Univ.
College Station, TX 77843-2128
979-862-4054