Extension:Wikilog

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Wikilog

Release status: stable

Wikilog.png
Implementation  Parser function, Special page
Description Adds blogging features to MediaWiki, through a special namespace, making it a wiki-blog hybrid, like a Bliki.
Author(s)  Juliano F. Ravasi (JulianoTalk)
Last Version  1.0.0 (2009-10-30)
MediaWiki  1.14+
License GNU General Public License 2.0+
Download Download v1.0.0

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README
Release notes

Example  http://juliano.info/en/Blog:Memory_Leak

check usage (experimental)

Wikilog enhances MediaWiki with some common blogging features, making it a wiki-blog hybrid. There are many names that are used to represent this concept: wikilog, wikiblog, bliki, etc. (refer to the Bliki article on Wikipedia).

Wiki pages are configured to act as blogs, which are called "wikilogs". Just like blogs, each wikilog contains a number of published articles, with the most recent ones displayed on the wikilog main page in reverse chronological order.

One or more custom namespaces are configured as Wikilog namespaces; pages created directly in these namespaces become wikilogs, while subpages to these pages become wikilog articles (blog posts) and are listed automatically on that wikilog's main page.

The extension provides the extra functionality for wikilogs and wikilog articles. Wikilog articles inherit all the usual wiki functionality, like wiki syntax, edit history, page categories, talk pages, etc. Among the features added by the extension are: automatic listing of articles, setting of article authors, handling of article comments, generation of syndication feeds (Atom and RSS) for individual wikilogs and for all wikilogs of the wiki, etc. For more information, see the full list of features.

The philosophy of Wikilog is not to just make a blog out of a wiki, but to combine both concepts. Unlike most blogs, wikilog articles can be collaboratively written and published by multiple users. Talk pages of wikilog articles provide a simpler interface for commenting than standard MediaWiki talk pages. It is similar to most blog software, with the addition of discussion threading.

[edit] Requirements

In order to use Wikilog, the following components are required:

  • MediaWiki 1.14 or higher.
  • A MySQL database backend.
    Note: Only MySQL databases are supported at the moment. PostgreSQL support is planned for a future release. Support for other database backends depend on people volunteering for maintaining them.

The following components are recommended:

[edit] Installation

  1. Download the extension and install it as ./extensions/Wikilog, relative to your MediaWiki installation directory. You may checkout the latest version from the Subversion repository in this directory, or uncompress one of the zip or tgz archives provided and rename/symlink the directory created.
    • Note: The directory name must either have that name, or $wgWikilogStylePath must be set to the proper path in order for the extension to reference stylesheets and images from the extension directory.
  2. Backup your database and local configuration, it is always a good idea.
  3. Configure the extension in your LocalSettings.php file by adding the following lines (replace 100, with the first even-numbered namespace greater than or equal to 100 available in your wiki):
    require_once( 'extensions/Wikilog/Wikilog.php' );
    Wikilog::setupNamespace( 100, 'Blog', 'Blog_talk' );
    
  4. Run the update.php script in order to create or update the tables used by the extension.
    • Note: This script needs to be executed every time the extension (or MediaWiki) is upgraded.

[edit] User documentation

User documentation is included in the extension package in the documentation directory. The documentation is released under a Creative Commons license, and can be imported to the wiki, so that users may access it directly from the wiki. Currently the documentation is available only in English.

You must run the ./extensions/Wikilog/maintenance/wikilogImportDocumentation.php PHP script from a command-line shell in order to import the documentation to your wiki. Example:

$ cd /path/to/mediawiki
$ php extensions/Wikilog/maintenance/wikilogImportDocumentation.php

This will import the documentation pages and images to your wiki, and it can be accessed from [[Help:Wikilog]].

The documentation is maintained online; you are welcome to contribute!