MediaWiki
Contents
About
MediaWiki is the platform from which Wikipedia runs on. Institutions from IT departments to the NSA use MediaWiki as a platform to centralize information about various topics. On this page we will go over the basics of MediaWiki, and how to install on a typical hosted VPS running CentOS in addition to using the Visual Composer instead of using plain MediWiki code.
Install
Basic Install[1]
We will assume a total LAMP stack has been properly set up (as it whould be with a hosted VPS), and jump right into MediaWiki
Downloading Media Wiki
Navigate to a directory to download any files we need. ( /tarballs on our server)
curl -O https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.28/mediawiki-1.28.0.tar.gz
tar xvzf mediawiki*.tar.gz
mv mediawiki-1.28.0/* /home/USER/public_html
Creating SQL Database
We will use the simple cPanel method to create the DB
Find MySQL Database Wizard
New Database Name: ssdcou5_mediawiki
New Database User: ssdcou5_wiki
Password: Generate. and note password to enter into LocalSettings.php (no need to keep the password after it is set up)
Add User to Database: ALL PRIVILEGES
Setting up the Wiki
Navigate to the site e.g. https://wiki.ssdcougars.tv
Follow all on-screen instructions to generate the LocalSettings.pjhp file
After language selection the install script will now check the server environment for any glaring problems. Mod_Security is sometimes an issue, we will get into that later.
Take note and fix and concerning problems that may have popped up in the check.
Connect to Database
- DB Type:
mySQL
- DB Host:
localhost
- DB Name:
ssdcou5_mediawiki
- DB prefix:
[blank]
- DB User:
ssdcou5_wiki
- DB Password:
[Password generated from before]
Next...
- Check Use the same account as for installation
- Storage Engine
InnoDB
- DB Character Set:
Binary
Next...
Name Wiki
Project Namespace[2]Namespaces are indicated in page titles by prefixing the page name with "We will use Same as the Wiki Name .namespace:
", so the prefix "Help:
" in this page's title ("Help:Namespaces") indicates that this page is in the Help namespace. Each namespace is identified by a number and a name, which can be translated and can also have some aliases.
Click Continue, select all the extensions and anything else needed. Then click Install.
A LocalSettings.php file will be downloaded. Use cPanel File Manager or FTP client to overrite the current PHP file with the one downloaded from the setup.
Additional Extensions to Add
Clean/Short URLs[3]
Before you do ANYTHING else use this URL to do Clean URLs
http://shorturls.redwerks.org/
Setting up RunJobs in Cron[4]
SSH Into server
crontab -e
0 0 * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/wiki/maintenance/runJobs.php > /var/log/runJobs.log 2>&1
Editing
Common Problems
Error while Editing with Visual Composer
Parsoid is not running; fix:$ service parsoid start