Extension:MediaWiki Bulletin Board

MediaWiki extensions manual - list

MediaWiki Bulletin Board Release status: beta
Implementation	Special page
Description	MWBB is MediaWiki Bulletin Board, a message board or forum extension for MediaWiki.
Author(s)	Ridwan Al Iqbal
License	GPL 2.0
Download	http://sourceforge.net/projects/mwbb/ If you have MediaWiki 1.12 or Higher, click here.
Added rights see below
Check usage (experimental)

MWBB is MediaWiki Bulletin Board, a message board or forum extension for MediaWiki software. MWBB is released under GNU GPL 2.0 and is editable, distributable by anyone. MWBB is at beta stage.

Features

• Forum specific permissions with Moderator, Forum administrator, Special Member rights.
• Topic moderation: Closed, Sticky, Global Announcement topics.
• Full wikitext support in posts.
• Forum administration with the ability to create/edit category and forums and forum/category position system.
• Full Private Message system with wikitext support and specific inbox size.

Example

• Example of a MediaWiki Bulletin Board

Download

Download the MediaWiki Bulletin Board at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mwbb/ .

Installation

• Decompress the zipped archive.
• Upload mwbb folder in the MediaWiki extensions/ folder.
• Upload install.php in the wiki root.
• Run the install.php from browser and install the necessary database tables.
• Edit LocalSettings.php and add the following line at the bottom:

require_once("$IP/extensions/mwbb/mwbb.php");

• Browse to Special:Forum on your wiki.
• Enjoy!

MediaWiki 1.12 Fix

There has been some "errors" shown whenever someone tries to post in a topic, or make one. This can be fixed by just changing a line in a file called EditPage.php in the includes folder.

To fix it, all you have to do is just go to /includes/EditPage.php, and then search for the line:

$this->mTitle = $article->getTitle();

Now, just change that line to:

global $wgTitle;
$this->mTitle = $wgTitle;

It's as simple as that!

Installing PM System

To enable PM, you need to edit an extra file. Edit includes/SkinTemplate.php. Go to this area

 $href = $this->makeSpecialUrl("Contributions/$this->username");
                        $personal_urls['mycontris'] = array(
                                'text' => wfMsg('mycontris'),
                                'href' => $href
                                # FIXME #  'active' => ( $href == $pageurl . '/' . $this->username )
                                 );

After this line, add:

wfRunHooks( 'PersonalTabsbeforelogout', array( &$this, &$personal_urls ) ); //The hook for adding new personal link, for MWBB PM extension

then save file.

Administration

All the administration is either done in the admin panel or by editing mwbb.php.

mwbb.php

mwbb.php holds all the site wide configuration.

Permissions

Here is all the available permissions in mwbb.

1. bb_view: Viewing of forum/topic/post. If not given to guests. they will see "Access denied" message.

                 default: all

2. bb_post: Ability to post.

                  default: registered users
                  retriction; guests can't post even if they are given this permission.

3. bb_mod: Should be given to Moderator and sysops. This Gives rights to use Topic moderation options such as sticky posts. Mods can't announce.

                  default: sysops

4. bb_admin: Forum administration power and Announcements. Announcements Appear on all forums.

                   default: sysops

5. bb_special: Any special group. No mod/admin powers. just to distinguish normal users. They can access forums that are marked as "Special only".

                   default:none
                   Note: this rights is for those who are special members of wiki but not eligible for mod.

How to give permission to a group?

Just add the following line in the LocalSettings.php. Change GROUPNAME and PERMISSION_NAME with your desired group and permission.

$wgGroupPermissions['GROUP_NAME']['PERMISSION_NAME'] = true;

example:

$wgGroupPermissions['forum_mod']['bb_mod'] = true;

See Manual:$wgGroupPermissions and Manual:User rights for more information.

Site Config

To change site specific configs such as "topics per page", edit the mwbb.php file.

Admin Panel

Admin Panel is the place to add/edit/delete forums and categories. Just follow the link in the bottom of forum index.

Moderation

Moderation is provided on the bottom of every topic. Just select the apropriate option. Topic type can also be changed by clicking "edit" on the first post of a topic and Selecting the right type. topic types: Sticky, Announcement, Normal. Note: only mods can stick topics while admins can announce.

Private message

PM system has notification that will give a message box telling how many new messages are there in the inbox.

Changing Inbox Size Limit

Add this to the LocalSettings.php file.

$wgInbox_size = 999999;

Modifications

Click here for modifications for MWBB.

Bugs/help

For help/patches and bug releases, go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/mwbb/ .

SQLite Changes

The supplied files do not work with SQLite. However, they can be made to work with a few changes (see below). Backup your database before you start!

schema.sql

• Remove all '%s' references from the start of the table names (in CREATE TABLE and INSERT statements)
• Remove 'ENGINE=MyISAM' clause from all CREATE TABLE statements
• Remove PRIMARY KEY table clause
• Add PRIMARY KEY column clause

The diff extract below shows the changes required for the first table (bbcategory). The others are similar.

1,2c1,2
< CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS %sbbcategory (
<   `cat_id` INT(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
---
> CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `bbcategory` (
>   `cat_id` INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
5,7c5,6
<   `cat_order` INT(5) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
<   PRIMARY KEY  (`cat_id`)
< ) ENGINE=MyISAM ;
---
>   `cat_order` INT(5) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0'
> )  ;
9c8
< INSERT INTO `%sbbcategory` (`cat_id`, `cat_name`, `cat_desc`, `cat_order`) VALUES (1, 'Hallo world', 'This is a test  Cat', 1);
---
> INSERT INTO `bbcategory` (`cat_id`, `cat_name`, `cat_desc`, `cat_order`) VALUES (1, 'Hallo world', 'This is a test  Cat', 1);
11,12c10,11

PHP files

The SQLite UPDATE and DELETE verbs do not support a LIMIT clause. This needs to be removed from the files:

• admin.php
• mod.php
• topic.php
• SpecialPm.php

The diff extract below shows the changes to admin.php. The others are similar.

See also

• Extension:MediaWiki Bulletin Board Modifications