Extension:WikiFarm

MediaWiki extensions manual - list

WikiFarm Release status: stable
Implementation	Special page
Description	Assists in wiki farm management
Author(s)	Pavel Malakhov (24pmTalk)
Last version	2.0 (2012.02.18)
MediaWiki	1.16 - 1.18
License	Public Domain/GNU GPL
Download	download home page
Example	single wiki (Russian) 2 wiki farms (Russian)
Check usage (experimental)

The WikiFarm extension is a tool designed to assist wiki farm administrators in maintaining multiple wikis.

About

Since version 2.0, WikiFarm is using the MediaWiki API, which required a complete code rewrite. See this page for previous versions and release notes.

Note: this extension does not set up wiki farms automatically. It helps to manage and maintain an existing wiki farm or farms, although it can also be used for a single wiki.

WikiFarm requires one wiki to be an "admin wiki". The admin wiki can be a central or master wiki, but it could also just be a regular wiki. WikiFarm uses the admin wiki to:

• read the user database (used for bot connections. optional, since bots can connect anonymously)
• read the interwiki table (optional)
• write log pages (optional)

The current version has 4 modules:

• WikiFarmStatistics - main module provides wiki farm statistics. It shows the following information for each wiki in a farm:
  • wiki name (build from table prefix)
  • wiki URL
  • number of pages
  • number of categories
  • number of templates
  • interwiki prefix, if exists in interwiki table

The following is visible in debug info level only:

• table prefix in DB
• DB name
• DB server

• WikiFarmChanges - shows recent changes from all wikis
• WikiFarmPages - shows all articles in the project from all wikis
• WikiFarmLog - provides links to log pages. Bots can write to the log, which is useful to trace their work. The log is a page(s) in the "project" namespace.

• + You can find special scripts for batch-renaming MySQL tables in tools directory

More features are being developed for future releases of this extension. I am morally ready to use git if anyone is interested in that.

Prerequisite

• cURL module for php5 - standard on most web servers, so in most cases you will already have this

Installation

1. Add to LocalSettings.php the following line:

   require_once("{$IP}/extensions/WikiFarm/WikiFarm.php");
   

2. Set variables in /extensions/WikiFarm/WikiFarm_config.php
3. Optionally disable WikiFarm tools at the end of /extensions/WikiFarm/WikiFarm.php

Usage

To use this extension, access the page Special:WikiFarm on your wiki.

Issues

• WikiFarmChanges:
  • Hide my edits -- to be implemented soon
  • Show changes since -- this feature isn't useful to me, so it's a low priority

Please send me a note if you have other issues.

Examples

• a single wiki (Russian)
• two wiki farms with 8 wikis each (Russian)

See also

• A step-by-step manual on how to build up a wiki farm (Russian)
  • all wikis have one user database
  • all wikis may have (optionally) one shared upload directory for files
  • automating scripts
  • sample configuration files
• Manual:Wiki family
• Extension:Farmer
• Extension:Simple Farm