User:MarkJurgens/VESetup

This page is intended for less experienced users to help them setup MediaWiki's new Visual Editor. It's a great piece of software that will change your user's wiki experience completely, but the task of setting it up is a little daunting.

What you'll need
First off, you'll need A VPS or a cloud based server that gives you root access. Most basic packages from hosting companies are NOT good enough because they don't give you something called root access (also known as command line access). To run VE, you'll need to get in 'behind the scenes' and run a small program in the background called Parsoid.

How to setup MediaWiki manually.
If you have used an installer like softalicious, or asked your hosting provider to setup the wiki for you, you need to get familiar with setting it up manually before attempting to setup VE. Manual installation is a much better idea in general for a number of reasons. The installation guide for Mediawiki is very detailed. Download from the actual software here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23

How to run programs on your server from the command line.
There's a strange feeling of power when you log into your web server using the command line. There's also opportunity to really mess things up, so be aware.

To install a command line application. If you're using windows, use Putty

Here are some more complete instructions on how to then connect Putty to your webserver:

http://kb.mediatemple.net/questions/1595/Using+SSH+in+PuTTY+%28Windows%29#gs = Step 1 - Download the Software =

Mediawiki 1.23.1
This is the latest 'stable release' that I'll be working with at this point, you can get it here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download

Visual Editor Extension
You'll also need to download the Visual Editor Extension. There is a link on that page to 'snapshot made for Mediawiki 1.23.

Update: You need to use the ExtensionDistributor to get the right version of VE

Extension Distributor: []

Parsoid Extension
This is the hard part. Parsoid has a few parts. If you're running 1.23+, then you'll need to install an 'extension': https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Parsoid Note, for later releases of mediawiki (1.24+) You won't need it.

The Parsoid software
This you'll download from the command line (using Putty). So don't worry for now.

Setup
Run the update by typing
 * 1) Install Mediawiki Manally (1.23.1)
 * 2) Download the VE extension, upload it to your /extensions folder
 * 3) Install & configure Putty (Instructions above)
 * 4) Login to Putty
 * 5) Install EPEL
 * 6) * To install EPEL, first find out what version you need. To do this, log into your server using Putty, and type  That will display some information about your box to help you decide:
 * 7) * For example, on a RedHat Box, "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.4 (Santiago)" is displayed.  The "6.4" is the important bit here, so I would use epel 6.  If you have "5.2", you would use epel 5. Click on the link for EL6 takes you to http://mirror.pnl.gov/epel/6/i386/repoview/epel-release.html (note the 6 in the URL).  On that page is a link to "epel-release-6-8.noarch" which points to an rpm.
 * 8) * Install EPEL by right clicking on "Copy link location" and then go back to your ssh session (Putty).
 * 9) * Type "rpm -Uvh " in the command line and then paste the link at the end (Note: right click the mouse button to Paste using Putty).
 * 10) Install node.js

A flash of updating processes will run up the screen, and every once in a while you'll be asked to hit 'y' to continue. Just like using a cassette tape drive on the Commodor64.

Then type

Again, more scrolling lines of code. Hit 'y' to continue when prompted. Crossing your fingers can also help.

Run node.js
To run the parsoid server you just setup, go to root, then your parsoid directory and run:



Then, to make sure it works, navigate to :8000 of your wiki and run through some of the tests by clicking each link.

--

I did a number of things after this -- I need to document.

Among them I reported a bug: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=68891

It was then resolved, and as of late August we're moving forward again. :)

I'm now going to document what I do step by step:

August 27th

Used extension distributor download the right version of VE. I selected 1.23 stable release. Downloaded it. Uploaded it to my server, and expanded it into the extension folder, replacing the previous version.

I used a new handy tool: The Extension Distributor

Todo:
Install this extension (only for 1.23)

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Parsoid