Difference between revisions of "MediaWiki/Presentation"

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== Preface ==
 
== Preface ==
 
This article is the basis for a presentation on MediaWiki that will be given at the January 14th 2009 meeting of the BostonPHP group.  [http://www.bostonphp.org/component/option,com_gigcal/task,details/gigcal_gigs_id,65/Itemid,42/ Please RSVP to the calendar item at the BostonPHP website] if you plan to attend.
 
This article is the basis for a presentation on MediaWiki that will be given at the January 14th 2009 meeting of the BostonPHP group.  [http://www.bostonphp.org/component/option,com_gigcal/task,details/gigcal_gigs_id,65/Itemid,42/ Please RSVP to the calendar item at the BostonPHP website] if you plan to attend.
  
  
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internal notes
 
internal notes
  
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== Intro ==
 
== Intro ==
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<!--
 
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Cue POTY slideshow and play in loop 30 minutes prior to presentation
 
Cue POTY slideshow and play in loop 30 minutes prior to presentation
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Cue MediaWiki slideshow 5 minutes prior to presentation
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Cue mediawiki slideshow 5 minutes prior to presentation
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There is video, but so far I haven't been able to slice it and keep the audio track intact.
 
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-->
 
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These screenshots of [[:Category:MediaWiki Sites|sites running MediaWiki]] illustrate the breadth of usage in the software world, and also some compelling theming examples.
 
  
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Audio of my presentation is at http://www.archive.org/details/collaboration.at.wiki.speed-audio-part1 <!-- and locally at http://freephile.com/mediawiki-greg.mp3 (45 minutes long) -->
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MediaWiki is the free software (GPL) that runs Wikipedia under the auspices of the [http://www.wikimedia.org/ Wikimedia Foundation].
  
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== What's a Wiki? ==
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I'm Greg Rundlett [http://iic.harvard.edu/people] [http://freephile.com] [http://rundlett.com], a free software advocate who lives in Newburyport, MA with my wife and two sons.  I'm here to show you a lot of things about the wiki system called MediaWiki and hope that you'll take away a lot from this presentation. The great thing about sharing knowledge; like sharing free software; is that you can take away as much as you possibly can and I may take away an even greater knowledge than I started with just from our sharing. Nobody has less, everybody has more.
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Wiki is the Hawaiian word for quick, and Ward Cunningham - the inventor of the wiki - named his project after the wiki wiki shuttle. A backcronym that is probably equally apropos is WIKI stands for "What I Know Is..." MediaWiki is the free software (GPL) that runs Wikipedia under the auspices of the [http://www.wikimedia.org/ Wikimedia Foundation].
 
  
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== Meet the speaker ==
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Plus our organizer Mark Withington has arranged through the BostonPHP association with O'Reilly Media for some free books to be given away as well.
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[[Image:Thomas Jefferson rev.jpg|thumb|right|He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.]]
 
  
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I'm Greg Rundlett [http://iic.harvard.edu/people] [http://freephile.com] [http://rundlett.com], a free software advocate who lives in Newburyport, MA with my wife and two sons.
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== Using it ==
 +
I'm not going into a detailed comparison of various wikis, trying to argue which is best. But I'll point out a few reasons why you should care about MediaWiki in case you don't know.
  
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It's the most popular wiki in the world; both in terms of hosting the largest single wiki Wikipedia as well as deployments by all sort of individuals, groups and corporations.  In practical terms that means people you hire will know mediawiki.
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What do I know about wikis in production?  Well, back in 1999 when I was a web developer at RagingBull, we used a wiki system as a content creation and management backend to our website front-end.  Starting in 2005, I used MediaWiki as the platform to organize operations, development and technology services at OASIS.  Most recently, I've been deploying MediaWiki in my new role at the IIC at Harvard.  I'm here to share some of that experience with you.  The great thing about sharing knowledge; like sharing free software; is... [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson quoting Thomas Jefferson] ''He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.''<ref>[http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson], 13 Aug. 1813. ME 13:333</ref>
 
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Plus our organizer Mark Withington has arranged through the BostonPHP association with O'Reilly Media for some free books to be given away as well.
 
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-->
 
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== Using it - Why? ==
 
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Wikis are immensely popular and come in many flavors.  It was late 2006 to early 2007 when 'wiki' reached it's zenith as a buzzword in the news.<ref>[http://www.google.com/trends?q=wiki Google Trends for keyword wiki]</ref>  But wikis have not faded into the sunset like last years fashion.  I'll point out a few reasons why you should choose MediaWiki as your wiki platform.
 
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It's the most popular wiki software in the world; both in terms of hosting the largest single wiki [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page WikiPedia] as well as deployments by all sort of individuals, groups and corporations.  In practical terms that means people you hire will know MediaWiki.
 
 
The growth curve of MediaWiki is exponential.  The quality of the software is excellent.
 
The growth curve of MediaWiki is exponential.  The quality of the software is excellent.
 
Does your wiki have [http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page conferences]?
 
Does your wiki have [http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page conferences]?
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[[Image:Logo Wikimania Buenos Aires.jpg|thumb|300px|WikiMania]]
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[[Image:Logo Buenos Aires.jpg|thumb|300px|WikiMania]]
  
 
WikiPedia now has over ten million articles across 250 languages!
 
WikiPedia now has over ten million articles across 250 languages!
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Does your wiki have a [http://commons.wikimedia.org/ multimedia repository] which hosts over 3,400,000 multimedia files? Wikimedia Commons does.
 
Does your wiki have a [http://commons.wikimedia.org/ multimedia repository] which hosts over 3,400,000 multimedia files? Wikimedia Commons does.
  
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=== Syntax ===
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I do want to point out that MediaWiki does not use <ref>CamelCase</ref> words in order to make a link.  This means a lot to all the Irish people of the world, and also the marketers who seem pretty convinced of the coolness of McWords like ThinkPad, etc.
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I do want to point out that MediaWiki does not use CamelCase words in order to make a link.  This means a lot to all the Irish people of the world, and also the marketers who seem pretty convinced of the coolness of McWords like ThinkPad, etc.
 
  
 
MediaWiki syntax is easy to learn, and easy to use.  In fact, you might already be using it without even knowing it.
 
MediaWiki syntax is easy to learn, and easy to use.  In fact, you might already be using it without even knowing it.
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[http://www.vimeo.com/2142196 See the kids in their Halloween costumes]
 
[http://www.vimeo.com/2142196 See the kids in their Halloween costumes]
  
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=== Editor Options ===
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== Editor Options ==
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; WYSIWYG editor :Weird Yucky Sucky Interference With Your Goodness
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; WYSIWYG editor :Wysiwyg Yucky Stupid Interface Wrecks Your Goodness
  
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<ol>
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# [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Cacycle/wikEd WikEd] is a full wysiwyg editor with special features for MediaWiki.  You can install it for yourself in a single browser as a user script http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/12529 or you can install it into your mediawiki installation.
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<li> [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Cacycle/wikEd WikEd] is a full wysiwyg editor with special features for MediaWiki.  You can install it for yourself in a single browser as a user script http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/12529 or you can install it into your MediaWiki installation.
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# FCK Editor is a full wysiwyg editor that includes page link searching as you type
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{{Messagebox |
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# Java project called Textile-J is now an Eclipse plugin called the "Mylyn WikiText component" that does wiki markup http://www.eclipseplugincentral.com/Web_Links-index-req-viewlink-cid-1098.html
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|type=normal
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# Kaltura does a collaborative video editing solution http://corp.kaltura.com/wiki/index.php/MediaWiki_Extension
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|text=wikEd is enabled sitewide on this wiki.  Turn it on in your [[Special:Preferences|Preferences]] settings}}
 
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<li> FCK Editor is a full wysiwyg editor that includes page link searching as you type
 
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<li> Java project called Textile-J is now an Eclipse plugin called the "Mylyn WikiText component" that does wiki markup http://www.eclipseplugincentral.com/Web_Links-index-req-viewlink-cid-1098.html
 
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<li> Kaltura does a collaborative video editing solution http://corp.kaltura.com/wiki/index.php/MediaWiki_Extension
 
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</ol>
 
  
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==== WikEd ====
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=== WikEd ===
 
* Wikicode syntax highlighting
 
* Wikicode syntax highlighting
 
* Pasting, import, and conversion of formatted text, e.g. from Microsoft-Word and web pages
 
* Pasting, import, and conversion of formatted text, e.g. from Microsoft-Word and web pages
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* Improved diff display
 
* Improved diff display
 
* Follow links and wiki-links (ctrl-click)
 
* Follow links and wiki-links (ctrl-click)
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* Runs automatically on every MediaWiki installation when installed as a local [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748 Greasemonkey] user script
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* Runs automatically on every MediaWiki installation when installed as a local Greasemonkey user script
 
For more details, see the [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Cacycle/wikEd WikEd] homepage
 
For more details, see the [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Cacycle/wikEd WikEd] homepage
  
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==== FCK Editor ====
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=== FCK Editor ===
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* http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/Extension:FCKeditor_(by_FCKeditor_and_Wikia)
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* http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:FCKeditor_(by_FCKeditor_and_Wikia)
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In 2007 it was announced that a WYSIWYG editor would be built for MediaWiki.  Wikia (Jimmy Wales' for-profit venture) started work on it.  It still isn't ready for prime time.  Note that I had to patch a minor bug to get it to work and even then, it did funny things with my article (wanted to collapse a line-break between template tag and next line resulting in a space being inserted prior to the next line, resulting in preformatted text rendering for that line.
+
note that I had to patch a minor bug to get it to work and even then, it did funny things with my article (wanted to collapse a line-break between template tag and next line resulting in a space being inserted prior to the next line, resulting in preformatted text rendering for that line.
  
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==== OpenOffice ====
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=== OpenOffice ===
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OpenOffice (since v. 2.3) has had a built-in "Export to MediaWiki" menu option.  So, you can write an article in OpenOffice Writer (or StarOffice Writer) and export the file to wiki markup.  This could be useful particularly if you want to convert large collections of Word documents.  One drawback to "export" is that you would still have to copy and paste that output into the wiki. http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/wikipublisher is the extra hook that allows you to save your page in the wiki (essentially registering your user data in the instance of OpenOffice
+
OpenOffice (since v. 2.3) has had a built-in "Export to MediaWiki" menu option.  So, you can write an article in OpenOffice Writer (or StarOffice Writer) and export the file to wiki markup.  This could be useful particularly if you want to convert large collections of Word documents.  One drawback to "export" is that you would still have to copy and paste that output into the wiki.
 +
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/wikipublisher allows you to save your page in the wiki
  
 
Other points about using MediaWiki
 
Other points about using MediaWiki
 
* Style sheets and
 
* Style sheets and
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* Use this http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/6372 Greasemonkey script to show any MediaWiki page as a presentation
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* Use this http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/6372 greasemonkey script to show any mediawiki page as a presentation
  
  
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# Search - OpenSearch
 
# Search - OpenSearch
 
# Interwiki links
 
# Interwiki links
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# Import/Export (TODO talk about exporting to text)
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# Import/Export
 
# Special pages
 
# Special pages
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##<pre>[[Special:ListGroupRights]]</pre>
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##<pre>[[Special:ListGroupRights]]</pre> Image searching
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# Image Galleries like [[Special:NewImages]]
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# Protection
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# SVG support
 
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# Protection (lock a page) Not to be confused with 'versions' that helps with things like versioned documentation for software products.
 
 
# Microformats  Wikipedia implements microformats easily because through the power of templates, an author can fill out a template and not even know that he is using microformats in the final product.  Firefox, through the tails extension, can [http://vimeo.com/192962/ export microformats via bluetooth], so that an employee directory on your intranet can talk to your mobile phone.  @TODO: write up a contact template, a contact page and test the export
 
# Microformats  Wikipedia implements microformats easily because through the power of templates, an author can fill out a template and not even know that he is using microformats in the final product.  Firefox, through the tails extension, can [http://vimeo.com/192962/ export microformats via bluetooth], so that an employee directory on your intranet can talk to your mobile phone.  @TODO: write up a contact template, a contact page and test the export
  
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## <dt> Image <dd> Used for all file uploads, whether image, video, sound, doc or whatever.  Each upload creates it's own article within this namespace
 
## <dt> Image <dd> Used for all file uploads, whether image, video, sound, doc or whatever.  Each upload creates it's own article within this namespace
 
## <dt> Project <dd> Used as a "About Us" namespace -- not used for the main content of your wiki, but normally reserved for pages about the project which created the wiki.  If you need to do a substantial edit to a template and want to try it out, one method of doing that would be to copy the article into the project namespace, use the new template, and your article wouldn't be normally included in search results.
 
## <dt> Project <dd> Used as a "About Us" namespace -- not used for the main content of your wiki, but normally reserved for pages about the project which created the wiki.  If you need to do a substantial edit to a template and want to try it out, one method of doing that would be to copy the article into the project namespace, use the new template, and your article wouldn't be normally included in search results.
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## <dt> Help <dd> What it sounds like, this namespace is unfortunately empty with a new installation. See [[MediaWiki/Help]]
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## <dt> Help <dd> What it sounds like, this namespace is
 
## <dt> Template <dd>
 
## <dt> Template <dd>
 
## <dt> Category <dd>
 
## <dt> Category <dd>
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</dl>
 
</dl>
 
# Subpages
 
# Subpages
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# [[Templates]] "[[transclusion]]"
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# Templates "transclusion"
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## <pre><noinclude> </noinclude> <includeonly></includeonly></pre> [[Template:Messagebox]] example.
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## <pre><noinclude> </noinclude> <includeonly></includeonly></pre> show example.
 
## arguments
 
## arguments
 
## Templates used on this page
 
## Templates used on this page
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## copying from MediaWiki [[Special:ExpandTemplates]]
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## copying from mediawiki [[Special:ExpandTemplates]]
 
# Categories
 
# Categories
 
# Navigation (talk about in Administration)
 
# Navigation (talk about in Administration)
 +
  
 
== Administering it ==
 
== Administering it ==
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The LocalSettings.php file is the main point of configuration for the wiki administrator.  It overrides all the defaults set in includes/DefaultSettings.php
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* Custom menu
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{{Messagebox
 
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| type = restricted
 
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| text = You can remove the database configuration lines into it's own file and then include that file from LocalSettings so that you now can commit LocalSettings to your version control repository without revealing the db credentials.}}
 
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<source lang="php">
 
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## Database settings
 
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## moved to a separate file so that we can track changes to the general config in version control, without checking in our db credentials
 
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require_once( "$IP/DatabaseSettings.php" );
 
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</source>
 
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One good practice is to have some sort of text version or other backup of your wiki in case the machine, webserver, or database that the system depends on is down.  As an administrator, you can use the dumpBackup.php script found in the <code>maintenance</code> directory of you MediaWiki installation.  Something like the following in a system [[cron]] would be good:
 
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<source lang="bash">
 
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/usr/bin/php /var/www/phase3/maintenance/dumpBackup.php --current --output=file:/var/backups/example.com/`date +%F`-wiki.text.export.txt
 
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</source>
 
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As a user, one tool that can come in handy is [[Special:Wiki2XML]] <ref>http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/wiki2xml/README, see also [[Format_conversion]]</ref>
 
−
 
 
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Another useful tool to the Administrator is the bulk image importer.  To import all the screenshots that I used at the start of this presentation, I did the following:
 
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<source lang="bash">
 
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php importImages.php --user=Freephile --comment='Set of screenshots of sites using MediaWiki ' ~/Desktop/mediawiki/snaps/
 
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</source>
 
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Note how using a Category tag in the comment will automatically place the images in the Category specified.
 
  
 
== Developing it ==
 
== Developing it ==
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# Extensions
 
# Extensions
 
# Conversion of existing wikis and documents [[Format conversion]]
 
# Conversion of existing wikis and documents [[Format conversion]]
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# [[API]]s are very useful to developers.  [[mw:Developers|MediaWiki Developers]] can use the [[mw:API|Application Programming Interface for MediaWiki]] which gets exposed at /api.php, as well as the http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pywikipediabot framework which helps to automate manipulation of the wiki.
 
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# Database
 
  
 
=== Theming ===
 
=== Theming ===
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=== Extensions ===
 
=== Extensions ===
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# [http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/Manual:Extensions The Manual]
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# [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Extensions The Manual]
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# [http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/Extension_Matrix An incomplete list of extensions]
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# [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension_Matrix An incomplete list of extensions]
  
 
So many examples, which ones to highlight?
 
So many examples, which ones to highlight?
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* http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Special:Version
 
* http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Special:Version
  
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See more at [[MediaWiki/Extensions]]
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See [[MediaWiki/Extensions]]
  
 
==== Timelines  ====
 
==== Timelines  ====
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# http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/Extension:EasyTimeline
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# http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:EasyTimeline
 
# http://www.ehartwell.com/InfoDabble/MediaWiki_extension:_Timeline
 
# http://www.ehartwell.com/InfoDabble/MediaWiki_extension:_Timeline
 
MIT's SIMILE project Timeline is integrated into Semantic MediaWiki
 
MIT's SIMILE project Timeline is integrated into Semantic MediaWiki
 
* e.g. http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Events
 
* e.g. http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Events
−
 
−
=== Database ===
 
−
The MediaWiki software uses a MySQL database backend to store content and other data.  The [[MediaWiki/Sql]] article offers a couple helpful queries; whereas [[mw:Manual:Database_access]] covers this area more completely including info on API functions and wrappers.
 
  
 
== Getting it, Installing it ==
 
== Getting it, Installing it ==
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MediaWiki is developed using a Continuous Integration approach meaning that their trunk is tested and running in production http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/Version_lifecycle
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MediaWiki is developed using a Continuous Integration approach meaning that their trunk is tested and running in production http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Version_lifecycle
  
 
{| class="datatable"
 
{| class="datatable"
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| bgcolor="#FF1000" | September 2008
 
| bgcolor="#FF1000" | September 2008
 
|}
 
|}
−
[http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN use svn] to get it, and that way updating your installation is as simple as <code>svn up</code>
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[http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN use svn] to get it, and that way updating your installation is as simple as <code>svn up</code>
  
  
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=== Creating Slideshows ===
 
=== Creating Slideshows ===
 
[[MediaWiki/Slideshow]]
 
[[MediaWiki/Slideshow]]
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<pre><slide>pixel</slide></pre> will create a nice slideshow
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<pre><slide>flower</slide></pre> will create a nice slideshow
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<slide>pixel</slide>
 
 
from http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:BR/S5_slide_for_mediawiki_documentation/en
 
from http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:BR/S5_slide_for_mediawiki_documentation/en
  
 
=== Integration with Software Development ===
 
=== Integration with Software Development ===
−
# CodeReview http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/Extension:CodeReview e.g. http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/Special:Code/MediaWiki/44245#c829
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# CodeReview http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CodeReview e.g. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Code/MediaWiki/44245#c829
−
# [http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/Extension:ExtensionDistributor ExtensionDistributor] ([https://wikitech.leuksman.com/view/ExtensionDistributor info]) is a tool that automatically packages code from subversion and sends the user a tarball.  There is a lot of interesting information at wikitech that describes how the WikiMedia Foundation is operated technically
+
# [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ExtensionDistributor ExtensionDistributor] ([https://wikitech.leuksman.com/view/ExtensionDistributor info]) is a tool that automatically packages code from subversion and sends the user a tarball.  There is a lot of interesting information at wikitech that describes how the WikiMedia Foundation is operated technically
  
 
=== Setup for an intranet and/or KB ===
 
=== Setup for an intranet and/or KB ===
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* http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:UploadForm.js/Documentation
 
* http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:UploadForm.js/Documentation
 
* http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Redesigning_the_upload_form
 
* http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Redesigning_the_upload_form
−
* http://www.MediaWiki.org/wiki/User:Pfctdayelise/Manual:Uselang_hack
+
* http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Pfctdayelise/Manual:Uselang_hack
  
 
== Resources ==
 
== Resources ==
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* Daniel J. Barrett wrote the [http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596519797/toc.html MediaWiki Book] published by O'Reilly  ISBN 978-0596519797 (no need for any special markup, ISBN numbers are automatically recognized by the parser.  You can also visit [[Special:BookSources]])
+
* Daniel J. Barrett wrote the [http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596519797/toc.html MediaWiki Book] published by O'Reilly  ISBN 978-0596519797
 
* IRC
 
* IRC
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* Documentation (remember [[mw:Help:Contents|user at Help:Contents]] and [[mw:Manual:Contents|admin at Manual:Contents]])
+
* Manual
 
* Source
 
* Source
 
* [http://userscripts.org/tags/wikipedia More user scripts]
 
* [http://userscripts.org/tags/wikipedia More user scripts]
−
* WikiMania videos, audio and transcripts
 
−
 
−
== Notes ==
 
−
<references />
 
  
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[[Category:MediaWiki Sites]]
 
−
[[Category:MediaWiki Sites|sites running MediaWiki]]
 
 
[[Category:Book references]]
 
[[Category:Book references]]
 
[[Category:Wiki]]
 
[[Category:Wiki]]
 
[[Category:Presentations]]
 
[[Category:Presentations]]
 
[[Category:Howto]]
 
[[Category:Howto]]

Revision as of 08:29, 13 January 2009

  1. ↑ CamelCase
Retrieved from "https://wiki.freephile.org/wiki/index.php?title=MediaWiki/Presentation&oldid=4561"