Project talk:Support desk/Archive 2

Still looking for an accurate, contemporaneous "MediaWiki Installation Manual"
Peter Blaise says: I cannot seem to predictably and successfully contribute to http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Contents/To_do or other MediaWiki.org pages. So, I created one here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Peterblaise ... if I can only successfully log in more than once!

I look forward to anyone else trying to document the various roads to success implementing MediaWikis. As of 2007-05-18 there is no discussion on MediaWiki yet at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Contents/To_do ?!?

There is much fragmentation:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Installation

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Manual

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Contents

... and so on. No one has taken ownership (I know, ownership is a Wiki no-no) of structuring a comprehensive Installation manual. And since I can't seem to contribute anywhere else on MediaWiki.org except at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Peterblaise then I can't lend a hand. Even at the old http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents I quote": "For Installers ... nothing yet?"

Sadly, I was officially unwelcomed here (speaking of ownership) once before, but I'll try again.

As I experience it:

- The beauty of MediaWiki is that everyone can contribute (except me!).

- The problems with MediaWiki.org are that almost no one actually does contribute, and when they do, it so horribly disorganized that it doesn't matter much.

However, I suggest that people NOT respond to me here.

Instead, if you think you *know* some answers, then first *try to find those answers at http://www.mediawiki.org/* ... and:

- If you do find answers at MediaWiki,org, then reply here with *links*.

- If you cannot find answers on MediaWiki.org, then *create answers there*, and then reply here with links.

Thanks!

I'm trying to put everything I have to offer on MediaWiki.org - please join me.

Here goes for today, Friday, May 18, 2007 (how long has this been going on? April 6, 2007 was my first post here, and February 7, 2007 was when I "officially" started searching elsewhere for this very same help):

My Struggle #1: prototype, building an intranet-sharable Wiki that does not require admin privileges on my local primary workstation. Cornelius Herzog's "Wiki on WOS" (Webserver On a usb Stick) from http://www.chsoftware.net/ works. However, it requires that I permit each visitor access by a manually entered list of internal-IP address. This is arduous and requires that I be here for newbies to achieve their initial success. This dampens their enthusiasm to stay with the Wiki learning curve.

My struggle #2: alpha/beta, building an intranet-sharable Wiki WITH admin privileges on my remote secondary workstation. I have yet to get ANY MediaWiki system working at all. I have yet to find a resource that clearly and concisely lists the linking steps and confirmation checks between MSWinXPPro, Apache, PHP, MySQL, and MediaWiki. (The book "MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide: Install, manage, and customize your MediaWiki installation" by Mizanur Rahman, 2007 http://www.packtpub.com/ says, page 19, "Since this book is about MediaWiki, we are not going to learn about the installation of a web server, database server, or even PHP." Well, all right, then! So much for fulfilling their own title!  Thanks!)

My dream struggle #3: build multiple Wikis on one computer that share the same database, and also build multiple Wikis on one computer that do not share the same database.

If anyone has links to resources supporting resolutions to these struggles, please share! I've read most of the ones in Google's top search results and find they are missing specific linking steps and confirmation checks, and are usually out of date (MySQL 4 and PHP 4 and MediaWiki 1.3, for instance).

Here are some http://www.Google.com/ searches and results:

Search Terms:

[install mediawiki apache php mysql win xp winxp windows xp phpmyadmin] ... and so on.

http://www.Google.com/ results:

http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Apache,-MySQL,-PHP,-and-phpMyAdmin-on-a-Windows-PC

http://www.wikihow.com/Install-phpMyAdmin-on-Your-Windows-PC

http://www.wikihow.com/Install-the-Apache-Web-Server-on-a-Windows-PC

http://www.wikihow.com/Install-the-MySQL-Database-Server-on-Your-Windows-PC

http://www.bicubica.com/apache-php-mysql/index.php

http://www.wikihow.com/Install-the-PHP-Engine-on-Your-Windows-PC

http://www.devside.net/

http://oss.segetech.com/wamp.html

http://www.wampserver.com/en/index.php

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Installing_MediaWiki_on_Windows_Server_2003

http://www.sematopia.com/?p=28http://www.yafla.com/dennisforbes/Many-Ways-to-Skin-a-Wiki-Hosting-a-Wiki-on-Windows/Many-Ways-to-Skin-a-Wiki-Hosting-a-Wiki-on-Windows.html

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Installing_MediaWiki_on_Windows_XP_-_MediaWiki_1.9.2

http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.windows.php

... and so on for ~1,100,000 others.

... NONE of which are contemporaneous, complete, accurate, nor do they include linking steps and confirmation checks for the entire suite of OS/WS/DB/PI/WP/E&E. Don'tcha love abbreviations? Anyway, these generic terms might help structure a "manual", as there are choices at each step (too many choices is perhaps why no one has built a manual yet!):

OS = *Operating System* - Linux, Windows ...

WS = *Web Server* - Apache, MS/IIS ...

DB = *DataBase* - MySQL, PostgreSQL ...

PI = *Program Interpreter* - PHP ...

WP = *Wiki Programming* - MediaWiki ... are there others? ;-)

E&E = *Extensions and Enhancements* - FCKEditor, PHPMyAdmin ...

I'll contribute what I have, but I have scant little success because no one else seems willing to return to MediaWiki.org or anywhere with their notes while on the way to their own success, and I can't contribute to MediaWiki.org anywhere but my http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Peterblaise page (there's that ownership issue again!)!

HELP!

PS - "Thank you" to all who contacted and welcomed me off-list.

-- Peter Blaise peterblaise@yahoo.com peterblaise 13:45, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

What to do about this desk
Cross-posting another discussion for visibility: Project:Current issues. Please comment. Titoxd (?!?) 04:47, 17 May 2007 (UTC)