Manual:FAQ/es



¿Cuáles son las diferencias entre MediaWiki, Wikimedia, Wikipedia y wiki?
Esta es una pregunta común ; por favor mira Diferencias entre Wikipedia, Wikimedia, Mediawiki y wiki para una respuesta detallada.

Quiero usar una instalación de MediaWiki para (en blanco) . ¿Se me permite?
MediaWiki es software libre, lo que significa que puedes usarlo para cualquier propósito sin ningún impedimento legal. Es más, las condiciones de licencia en el caso de MediaWiki se aplican únicamente al propio software. Esto significa que aunque muchos wikis licencian su contenido bajo una licencia permisiva, no estás obligado a licenciar el contenido enviado a tu wiki de ninguna manera en particular. Por supuesto, como un proyecto fundado para apoyar a sitios como Wikipedia, te animamos a que licencies los textos que escribas bajo una licencia libre, pero resumiendo: no estás obligado a ello.

Si quieres alterar o enmendar el software en sí, en general, se te permite hacerlo, pero hay algunas restricciones y deberías consultar el texto completo de la licencia GNU GPL versión 2 para más detalles. Puesto que MediaWiki se proporciona de forma gratuita, no hay ningún tipo de garantía hasta donde permite la ley aplicable.

¿De dónde puedo descargar MediaWiki?
Pulsa aquí para descargar la última versión estable de MediaWiki. Los archivos se suministran en un archivo .tar.gz. También se puede obtener MediaWiki directamente desde nuestro repositorio Git.

¿Cómo se instala MediaWiki?
La instalación de MediaWiki lleva de 10 a 30 minutos, y consiste en subir y copiar una serie de archivos y a continuación ejecutar el script de instalación para configurar el software. Consulta la guía de instalación, donde también encontrarás los requisitos mínimos del sistema.

¿Cómo puedo instalar MediaWiki usando un paquete?
Muchas distribuciones de Linux proporcionan MediaWiki en un formato empaquetado para esa distribución. El equipo de desarrollo de MediaWiki te sugiere que te atengas a la documentación de tu distribución de Linux para encontrar ayuda con su instalación, configuración o utilización. Las comunidades y empresas individuales que mantienen este tipo de paquetes deberían proporcionar instrucciones de instalación.

Ten en cuenta que las distribuciones de terceros pueden incluir versiones antiguas del software, así que presta mucha atención a la información sobre compatibilidad para ver las direcciones a seguir y las extensiones que puedes utilizar.


 * Véase también: 

¿Puedo instalar más de un wiki en un servidor que usa MediaWiki?
Es posible instalar más de un wiki en un servidor, siempre que:

o
 * utilices una base de datos diferente para cada wiki
 * utilices un prefijo de base de datos distinto para cada wiki (en el caso de Postgres, puedes conseguir un efecto similar empleando diferentes usuarios y esquemas de bases de datos).

Para obtener información sobre estas opciones, consulta $wgDBname y $wgDBprefix respectivamente.

Para obtener información sobre la configuración de una familia wiki, consulta Manual:Familias wiki.

Para obtener información sobre una forma alternativa de crear más de un wiki usando el mismo servidor, base de datos y código fuente, consulta esta excelente exposición de Steve Rumberg (versión archivada) y los comentarios aportados por los usurios.

¿Funciona MediaWiki con safe_mode activado?
Sí, pero sólo de una forma limitada. Mira Safe mode para mas información.

¿MediaWiki requiere acceso por consola?
No es necesario acceso directo mediante consola (SSH) para la instalación de MediaWiki, pero es muy recomendable disponer de él. Sin acceso directo, puede incluso serte difícil realizar una copia de seguridad de tu wiki, o actualizarlo a una nueva versión del software. Algunas tareas de mantenimiento no son posibles en absoluto sin este tipo de acceso. Muchas extensiones importantes funcionan mejor con acceso mediante consola.

¿Cómo instalo extensiones?
Consulta Manual:Extensiones para ver información sobre cómo instalar y escribir extensiones. Consulta la Categoría de extensiones para ver las extensiones existentes.

¿Cómo puedo añadir espacios de nombres adicionales?
Mira cómo crear un espacio de nombres personalizado.

¿Cómo activo las subidas de archivos?
La subida de archivos es una característica de uso frecuente de MediaWiki, pero que está desactivada por defecto en todas las versiones de lanzamiento actuales. Para activarla, primero tienes que hacer que el servidor web pueda escribir en el directorio de subidas (que por defecto es ); puedes hacerlo con , o permitir que el usuario de Apache pueda escribir ahí, etc. A continuación tienes que poner $wgEnableUploads a   en LocalSettings.php ("$wgEnableUploads = true;"). Si te encuentras el error "falló mkdir" al intentar subir un archivo, probablemente significa que hay un problema de permisos.


 * Véase también: 

¿Cómo activo las fórmulas matemáticas intercaladas?
MediaWiki permite el intercalado de fórmulas matemáticas. Mira la extensión Math para obtener instrucciones de instalación completas.

¿Cómo defino la zona horaria para mi MediaWiki?

 * Lee: Manual:Zona horaria

¿Cómo puedo purgar una página del caché?
Para purgar una página cacheada, por ejemplo después de haber hecho cambios en la barra de navegación, añade  al final del URL dinámico de la página.

Ejemplo: http://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=purge

O bien  al final si es un URL de forma corta:

Ejemplo: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Main_Page?action=purge


 * Véase también:, 

¿Cómo desactivo por completo el caché?
Añade a tu archivo LocalSettings.php las siguientes líneas:

= false; = false;

¿Cómo permito que se suban archivos en más formatos?
MediaWiki requiere que los formatos de subida permitidos se indiquen mediante la directiva de configuración $wgFileExtensions. Por lo general, esta directiva se encuentra en LocalSettings.php en la raíz de tu instalación de MediaWiki.

Por ejemplo, para permitir que se suban también archivos PDF, añade lo siguiente a LocalSettings.php:

Para permitir la subida de más de un tipo de archivo adicional, utiliza la siguiente sintaxis:


 * Véase también: 

"El archivo está dañado o tiene una extensión no válida"
Algunos usuarios han informado de que después de añadir un formato de archivo a la lista de extensiones permitidas, aparece un error. El texto del error es algo como esto:


 * El archivo está corrupto o la extensión indicada es incorrecta. Por favor, compruebe el archivo y cárguelo de nuevo.

Posibles soluciones:


 * Establece un valor para $wgMimeDetectorCommand; por ejemplo, en Unix o Linux esto sería
 * Compila/instala la extensión PHP fileinfo
 * Fedora - yum install php-pecl-Fileinfo
 * Fedora - yum install php-pecl-Fileinfo


 * Véase también: 

El usuario inicial no fue creado por el instalador o no es un administrador
A veces, el instalador no consigue crear el usuario por defecto, o la tabla de usuario se pierde por alguna razón. Hay un par de opciones para resolver esto:

maintenance/createAndPromote.php

 * Si tu MediaWiki es anterior al 1.16, asegúrate de que está configurado  (mira  )
 * Ejecuta  en la consola. Añade   al final de la orden si quieres que el usuario se convierta en un burócrata además de convertirse en un administrador.

Esto creará un nuevo usuario y lo promocionará a administrador. Para obtener ayuda, ejecuta primero el script sólo con el parámetro.

Alterar la base de datos

 * Registra una nueva cuenta utilizando el método habitual (Especial:Entrar).
 * Comprueba el ID de usuario en Especial:Preferencias.
 * Ejecuta la siguiente orden SQL en la base de datos:
 * debe sustituirse con el ID de usuario apropiado, que puedes ver en la página de preferencias del usuario.
 * Nota: si  está definido en LocalSettings.php, debes anteponer su valor al nombre de la tabla. Por ejemplo, si   es "XYZ", entonces debes indicar   como nombre de la tabla.
 * Nota: si  está definido en LocalSettings.php, debes anteponer su valor al nombre de la tabla. Por ejemplo, si   es "XYZ", entonces debes indicar   como nombre de la tabla.

Permitir temporalmente que cualquiera asigne permisos para promocionar tu usuario inicial
No deberías permitir que personas ajenas tengan acceso a tu wiki mientras haces esto, si utilizas este método. Este método puede dejar que tu wiki sea temporalmente vulnerable a ataques mientras realizas el procedimiento.

Básicamente este método consiste en dejar que todos los usuarios puedan modificar temporalmente los permisos de usuario con el fin de promocionar a un usuario.
 * Registra una nueva cuenta utilizando el método habitual (Especial:Entrar). Permanece identificado usando esa cuenta.
 * Añade el siguiente código al final de tu LocalSettings.php:
 * Vé a Especial:PermisosUsuarios y añade el usuario que acabas de crear a los grupos Administrador y Burócrata.
 * Elimina la línea  que añadiste a tu LocalSettings.php. Este paso es muy importante, ya que mientras no la elimines cualquier persona puede alterar los permisos, lo cual es malo.
 * Elimina la línea  que añadiste a tu LocalSettings.php. Este paso es muy importante, ya que mientras no la elimines cualquier persona puede alterar los permisos, lo cual es malo.

¿Cómo puedo restablecer la contraseña de un usuario de MediaWiki?

 * Lee Manual:Restablecimiento de contraseñas

¿Cómo puedo crear enlaces interwiki en mi wiki?

 * Lee Manual:Interwiki

¿Cómo hago que mis URL de base sean más cortas?
(ejemplo: /wiki/Article_Name en lugar de /w/index.php?title=Article_Name)
 * Lee Manual:URLs cortos

¿Cómo puedo organizar las páginas en subdirectorios como /wiki/subdirectorio/página?

 * Lee Manual:$wgNamespacesWithSubpages, Help:Subpáginas

¿Las descargas y el uso de todo MediaWiki.org son libres?
Sí, son libres en el sentido de que son software libre. Lee Proyecto:Copyrights para más información sobre las licencias que gobiernan el contenido escrito alojado en este sitio.

¿Cómo administro y gestiono los permisos de los usuarios?
 Lee Manual:Permisos de usuarios para obtener información general. Lee Manual:Impedir el acceso para métodos y estrategias dirigidos a limitar el acceso.

¿Cómo evito que los usuarios anónimos editen cualquier página?
El método recomendado consiste en cambiar el valor de la directiva de configuración. Edita  y añade la línea:

Si estás utilizando Extensión:AbuseFilter, cualquier administrador puede también desactivar temporalmente la edición por IP, según sea necesario.


 * Véase también:, 

¿Cómo impido que los usuarios anónimos puedan leer cualquier página?

 * Añade esto al final de LocalSettings.php:

Mira también Manual:$wgWhitelistRead. Lee Manual:Impedir acceso#Restringir visionado de todas las páginas para más información.

¿Cómo puedo restringir la creación de cuentas?

 * Añade esto al final de LocalSettings.php:

Lee Manual:Impedir acceso#Restringir visionado de todas las páginas para más información.

¿Cómo puedo exigir que se indique una dirección de correo electrónico al registrarse un usuario?

 * Lee Manual:$wgEmailConfirmToEdit

¿Cómo pongo MediaWiki en modo sólo lectura?

 * Lee Manual:$wgReadOnly

¿Cómo cambio las preferencias por defecto de los usuarios?
Las preferencias por defecto para usuarios que emplea MediaWiki se encuentran en un fichero de idioma, concretamente  en caso de que uses el inglés. No edites ese fichero, tan sólo úsalo como referencia, al igual que haces con DefaultSettings.php.

Digamos que quieres cambiar el número de resultados que devuelve por defecto el motor de búsqueda al buscar una página. Language.php dice:

Para cambiarlo a 50, pon esto en tu LocalSettings.php: Fíjate en que estás modificando $wgDefaultUserOptions, que contiene los ajustes del sitio, no $wgDefaultUserOptionsEn, que contiene los valores por defecto del software. Los ajustes presentes en $wgDefaultUserOptions tendrán preferencia sobre los que estén definidos en el archivo de idioma.

Para cambiar los espacios de nombres por defecto en los que se hacen las búsquedas, en cualquier versión de MediaWiki, dale a $wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault en LocalSettings.php una matriz mapeando índices de espacios de nombres a valores booleanos. Por ejemplo, para buscar en el espacio de nombres principal y en el espacio de nombres de categorías, usa:

$wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault = array(    NS_MAIN => true,     NS_CATEGORY => true, );

En ciertos casos, después de cambiar una preferencia por defecto para los usuarios, quizá te interese cambiar también las preferencias de los usuarios para todas las cuentas de usuario existentes.

En tal caso, usa el script userOptions.php del directorio Maintenance. Usa la opción "--dry" primero, evalúa el impacto que tiene y empieza desde ahí (--dry no escribe en la base de datos).

php userOptions.php --dry --nowarn searchlimit --old 20 --new 50

También es una buena idea hacer siempre una copia de seguridad de tu base de datos antes de realizar este tipo de cambios (esto no es necesario si sólo estás usando --dry).


 * ''Véase también:

¿Cómo puedo hacer que MediaWiki vaya más rápido?

 * Véase: 

¿Cómo activo una lista instantánea de sugerencias de búsqueda?

 * Véase: Manual:Enabling autocomplete in search box

Actualizar el software

 * Véase: Manual:Actualización

¿Es posible trasladar mi wiki a una máquina distinta?
Yes. It should be. In essence, you will be backing up your old installation and then "restoring" it onto the new machine. Finally, you will have to make additional modifications to update the wiki configuration so that everything points to the new location.

How do I move my wiki to a different server?
Follow the instructions at Manual:Moving a wiki.

How do I change the logo?
The logo that appears in the top left of each page is determined by the $wgLogo configuration line in the LocalSettings.php file.

There are two ways to change the logo:


 * 1) Upload a picture to your wiki using the normal file uploading interface. This allows the logo to be replaced easily, so you may want to protect the page if you use this method.
 * Then add the $wgLogo line to LocalSettings.php, for example:
 * 1) Upload an image to your server by other means (such as FTP).
 * Add the $wgLogo line to LocalSettings.php, for example:
 * (In this example, the image is in the same folder as the LocalSettings.php file.)
 * (In this example, the image is in the same folder as the LocalSettings.php file.)
 * (In this example, the image is in the same folder as the LocalSettings.php file.)

If you want to change the logo in only specific pages, override #p-logo css's background-image property or use third party extension like Extension:LogoFunctions.

How do I edit the wiki's CSS?
You shouldn't edit the CSS files (such as main.css) directly, because it will make upgrading harder if you need to apply your customizations each time you upgrade the software. Instead you need to edit a wiki page called MediaWiki:Common.css if you want to apply your CSS changes for all skins, or a wiki page called MediaWiki:Monobook.css if you want to apply the customizations only for Monobook skin.

The content of MediaWiki:Common.css and MediaWiki:Monobook.css pages always override the default CSS styles specified in main.css.

How do I hide the left vertical navigation toolbar
In other words, how do you make the main content div take up 100% of the display, hiding the logo, toolbox, navigation and search engine?

To hide it permanently, copy and paste the following into the MediaWiki:Common.css page:

To instead hide the toolbar when the user presses F11, enter this in your wiki's MediaWiki:Common.js:

How do I hide the categories at the bottom of each page?
You can hide display of the categories on each page by modifying your MediaWiki:Common.css and adding:

Can I customize the logo in the top left corner? If so, how?
The logo is a portlet block without a pBody section. It is identified by the p-logo id. The background image is specified by the $wgLogo variable, which is defined in DefaultSettings.php. This location is relative to the web server root and not the system root. Redefine this in LocalSettings.php to change the image. If set wrong there will be no image on the page; check your web server error log and adjust accordingly. However the size of the p-logo will need to be big enough for the logo if it is not to be clipped. This is set in the stylesheet (main.css in Monobook), under the p-logo style, the default setting is:

Note, if you are using a different sized logo, and want to change the CSS, please do not modify any of the core MediaWiki stylesheets. Instead add to the on-wiki css page (MediaWiki:Monobook.css for monobook, MediaWiki:Vector.css for vector. MediaWiki:Common.css will also work for all skins)

How do I customize the link-URL of the site-logo in the top left corner of all pages that activates when the site-logo is clicked upon?
By default, clicking the site-logo takes you to the main site-page. If you want to change which internal site-page is the "main" site-page, edit MediaWiki:Mainpage.

To make the link of the site-logo link externally to any other arbitrary URL, you can add a hook to your LocalSettings.php to override the mainpage href which is used by the logo.

Reducing the size of the logo
Note that a tag is on top of the logo so if you are trying to reduce the size of the logo's portlet you will also need to change the #p-logo a and #p-logo a:hover rules. The default setting for these is:

How do I change the icon in the browser's address line (favicon)?

 * Simply upload your favicon.ico to the root of your domain/subdomain, make sure file name is in lower case and its name is favicon.ico
 * Alternatively edit the $wgFavicon setting in LocalSettings.php and add

See Manual:$wgFavicon for more details.

Tip: The favicon image should be either 16 x 16 pixels or 32 x 32 pixels.

Rewrite Rule
If you are using a rewrite rule in .htaccess to remove "index.php" from the URL, you will also need to add an exception for .ico files. Simply add the following rule to your .htaccess:


 * RewriteRule .*\.ico$ - [L]

This rule must appear before the index.php rule.

Case sensitivity
When uploading the favicon file, be sure the filename is in lowercase. (That is, "favicon.ico", not "Favicon.ico".) A lot of servers (e.g., those on UNIX-like operating systems) will not be able to find the file unless its name is in lowercase.

How do I customize the navigation bar?
The contents of the navigation bar which appears to the left of each page using the Monobook skin are determined by the MediaWiki:Sidebar page there on your wiki. For information on customising these, please see Manual:Interface/Sidebar.

How do I put a text message (sitenotice) on every page?
Put a text in the MediaWiki:Sitenotice page. It will be displayed on top of every article page.

You can also add text to MediaWiki:Anonnotice to create a message that only displays for logged-out users. It is often a good idea to transclude the site notice on the anon notice to make sure that logged-out users still get the information on the site notice,

How do I change which page is the main page?
By default, MediaWiki looks for a page with the title Main Page and serves this as the default page. This can be changed by altering the contents of  MediaWiki:Mainpage to point to a different title. If this does not change the 'Main Page' link included on the sidebar at install time, edit  MediaWiki:Sidebar.

How do I change the Main Page title?
Simply click on the "Move" tab, and move the page to the desired page title.

Usually you also want to change which page is the configured as "main page".

How do I hide the main page title?
MediaWiki does not have a built-in option to hide the main page title (see ), but you can use CSS to hide the title. Alternatively, you can use the NoTitle extension.

Add the following to on your wiki:

If your main page uses a localized name or you have renamed the main page you need to change the  part. You can find a correct parameter by viewing HTML source of the main page and searching for the  tag.

For example, if your language is Lojban, the body tag looks like this:

Therefore you should put this line in your instead:

If this doesn't work, you may be using a skin that doesn't support this, or you moved your main page without updating MediaWiki:Mainpage, or you have a really old MediaWiki version.

If the skin uses a different element for the title than a  element with class , you'll need to find the appropriate CSS selector to apply for that skin.

How can I hide the table of contents?
The table of contents (TOC) is automatically shown once there are four or more headings in the article. There are multiple ways to hide it.


 * For one page
 * Place the magic word  in the page's wikitext.


 * For all pages
 * Install Extension:NoTOC
 * or
 * Add the following rule to MediaWiki:Common.css:


 * Per user
 * Users can add the same CSS rule to their common.css personal stylesheet.


 * There was a user preference to hide the table of contents, it was removed in MediaWiki 1.23 (T54813).

How do I change the interface text?
Interface text is altered using the MediaWiki namespace. For each deviation from the default in the site language there is a page MediaWiki:Englishmessagename, and for each deviation from the default in each other language a page MediaWiki:Englishmessagename/languagecode. (Since release 1.9 there are no pages for messages equal to the default.). On creation of a page the edit box autofills with the default. When creating a page to override the default it is useful to first save the default version, to allow diffs with it. See also.


 * For a list of system messages, see Special:Allmessages
 * To switch off the MediaWiki namespace, see the $wgUseDatabaseMessages configuration setting
 * To remove the Privacy policy or Disclaimers links at the bottom of each page, set the content of pages MediaWiki:Privacy or MediaWiki:Disclaimers respectively to a single hyphen.

How do I change the interface language?
To change the default interface language, alter the value of  in , for example

You may also need to bypass your browser's cache to see the changes.

The new default interface language will be applied to all users who haven't ever customised it.

If you want to provide users the possibility to create and choose pages and interface elements in languages other than the default one of the wiki, you need the Translate extension, which can make your wiki multilingual.

In old versions, the new default will not affect existing users, so if you're logged in, you will need to change your language settings in your preferences.

If you want to change the language settings for all existing users, use the userOptions.php maintenance script. For instance, to have all users with English set use French instead, run:

How do I remove the article/edit etc tabs?
For a little more control see: User:Subfader/Hide_page_tabs

Edit MediaWiki:Common.css on your wiki, and add this:

See the page source for the various #ca-* ids used in the content tabs.

Note: this will only work for Monobook and derived skins such as Modern and Vector (the default skin), and doesn't actually stop people from editing. To do that, see Manual:User rights.

How do I add/remove tabs throughout my wiki?
Use Extension:DynamicTabs on older MediaWiki installations or write your own extension (See: Manual:Hooks/SkinTemplateNavigation):

For example, to remove the talk tab and then add a tab that always goes to the main page you would save this code in :

and then add to the bottom of LocalSettings.php

How do I remove a tab on only one page?
For example, to remove the Discussion (talk) page tab from the Main Page, on the MediaWiki:Common.css page add:

To modify MediaWiki:Common.css you must have administrative privileges.


 * See also: 

How do I remove a tab on all pages
For example, to remove the Discussion (talk) page tab on all wikipages, on the MediaWiki:Common.css page add:

Other tabs to remove are #ca-history, #ca-viewsource, #ca-view (Read tab), #ca-nstab-main (Page tab), #ca-viewsource.

Other drop down menu items you can remove are #ca-watch, #ca-move, #ca-delete.

To modify MediaWiki:Common.css you must have administrative privileges.

How do I hide the section edit links for users who are not logged in?
You can change the value of the configuration option.

Edit and add the line:


 * Also see 

How do I remove the "Talk for this IP" link at the top right when $wgDisableAnonTalk is true?
Set $wgShowIPinHeader to false.

How do I remove the "Create an Account or Login" link at the top right of the screen?
To remove the login / create account links from the personal_urls you can use this code in your to hook in and remove them:

How can I suppress actions and special pages?

 * NOTE: MediaWiki is not designed for this kind of usage! It should be noted that the following 'answer' is a hack that only 'works' with the Apache webserver. Note also that this system is not foolproof, it's just one step further than hiding the links (see above).

Suppressing actions and special pages can be useful when you want to create the illusion of a static website via a particular URL or VirtualHost, but also have an 'internal' view that is a true wiki. i.e. if you have an inward facing 'view' of your wiki that users can edit, and an outward facing 'view' that should appear like a static website (no history, no discussion, etc., etc.).

After hiding all the appropriate links (see above), if you are using the Apache web server, you can disable actions and special pages using the following rewrite rules:


 * 1) Lock down the site (disable MediaWiki commands)

RewriteEngine On


 * 1) RewriteLog /tmp/rewrite.log


 * 1) RewriteLogLevel 9


 * 1) See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Parameters_to_index.php#Actions

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (.*action=.*) RewriteRule .* http://www.my.domain.com?

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index.php/Special:Search RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*Special:.*) RewriteRule .* http://www.my.domain.com?

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(.*Special:.*) RewriteRule .* http://www.my.domain.com?
 * 1) Catch a trick...

Above, a request for, for example, will be simply rewritten to. Similarly any page in the Special namespace (with the exception of Special:Search) will be rewritten to. Remember, this is only a hack, and isn't intended as a solution for a secure CMS.

Note that you will need to adjust the above rules to match your specific URL naming schema.

Other issues to consider when trying to lock down a site like this is the API and POST requests for the wiki content (rather than GET).

How do I edit error messages?
Special:Allmessages contains a complete list of messages (error or otherwise), that can be edited.

How do I change the footer?

 * See Manual:Footer and Manual:Configuration settings

How can I edit / remove the Powered by MediaWiki image in the footer?
You can hide the Powered by MediaWiki image by adding the following to your wiki's MediaWiki:Common.css:

The Vector skin equivalent is:

In MW 1.17 with Vector Skin:

In MW 1.18 with Vector Skin:

If you want to remove it completely in 1.17 you can use to remove it using this in your :

In 1.16 and below you will have to use a hook to remove it:

If you wish to change the icon images, urls, alt text, or add new icons please see ' documentation.

How do I add a reply link to default signature tildes ( ~ ) template?
You can customize at: MediaWiki:Signature / MediaWiki:Signature-anon

For example, changing the entries to  will put a link to users' talk pages and   would give a more direct link.

Users can change it their preferences.

How can I change what the of each page is? Where do I make changes?
Most of the text that you want to change can be found in the namespace of MediaWiki.

In order to change titles, texts, announcements, etc., go to Special:AllMessages, where you will see the text associated with the pages you wish to change. You need to log in as an administrator to edit the protected entries in the MediaWiki namespace.

If you want to change the title in your browser, you need to edit MediaWiki:Pagetitle. Go there and edit it just like you would any other page in your wiki.

In recent versions of MediaWiki, MediaWiki:Pagetitle is $1 - by default. If is producing the wrong text for you, you need to set $wgSitename in your LocalSettings.php.

If $wgSitename is correct in LocalSettings.php but is still wrong, it may be that you're using a user-contributed language file which incorrectly sets $wgSitename to a transliteration of "Wikipedia". Edit the language file to correct this. For example, the Hebrew language file is at  in your wiki directory.

Don't forget to clear your browser cache after you change your settings.

Does MediaWiki automatically capitalize the first letter of $wgSitename?
Yes. This can be changed using the configuration setting.

How do I make external links open in a new window?

 * See Opening external links in a new window

How can I suppress MediaWiki from formatting URLs, tags, etc?
Put "  " tags around the URL or tag.

Example: svn co http://svn.example.com/myproject/

Produces: svn co http://svn.example.com/myproject/

How can I force users to preview before they save?

 * See: Manual:Force preview and Extension:ForcePreview

How do I add more buttons on the edit page?

 * See: Manual:Custom edit buttons

How can I get more special characters or tags clickable on the edit page?
For adding more selectable special characters, etc., below the edit field, see Extension:CharInsert.

How can I use Wikipedia's default skin (Vector) on my wiki?
Vector was introduced in MediaWiki version 1.16, and was made the default skin in 1.17. See Manual:$wgDefaultSkin for more information on configuring your default skin.

Additional features of the Vector skin are made available using the Vector extensions, which you must download and install separately.

How do I disable external links from showing in the printable version of a page?
Edit the page MediaWiki:Print.css on your wiki and add the following code there:

This will override the styles defined in skins/common/commonPrint.css in MediaWiki source code. For more information, see Manual:CSS.

If instead you want to have the external links underlined in the printable version, then also add the following code:

How do I change the text of the article (page name) tab of my wiki's main page?
To change the text of the tab, as one example used in Wikipedia, you first open the page " ".

After you've done that, click Edit and type in the edit box the text you want to be seen later on the main page - that's it. Don't forget to save the page as well.

How do I edit a page?
To edit a page, simply click the edit link that appears on each page. Using the default Vector skin, this is in the form of a tab at the top of the page. A form will appear, containing the existing markup. When you have finished making modifications, click the Save button to commit your changes.


 * See also: 

How do I create a new page?
There are several ways to create a new page:

On some wikis, a failed search for a page will contain a link which allows you to edit that page.
 * Create a link to the page on another page, then click on the red link which appears
 * Browse to the intended location of the page, e.g.  and click on the "Edit", "Create" or "Create source" link.


 * See also: 

How do I delete an old version of a page?
Old versions of page data are retained in the database and can be accessed via the page history features. This is useful for reviewing changes and correcting or reverting undesirable ones, but in some cases, administrators might want to make this information unavailable, for legal reasons, or to reduce the size of the database.


 * Administrators can delete an old revision of a page by deleting the page, and then selectively undeleting revisions to be kept
 * The Oversight extension (also known as HideRevision) can be used to move harmful revisions out of page histories on older versions of MediaWiki (<1.16).
 * For newer MediaWikis (1.14+), you can enable the core RevisionDelete feature that allows privileged users to remove single revisions from page histories.
 * The  maintenance script can mass-delete all old revisions of pages and their associated text records.


 * See also: 

How do I use oversight/delete revisions in the page history?

 * See: 

You can also delete a page, and then restore only the revisions you want.

Are there any editing tutorials available?
There are several editing tutorials available, mostly on Wikimedia sister projects, such as Wikipedia. There are also markup references, etc. available on Meta.


 * The page Help:Editing pages on this site
 * Editing help content on Meta
 * The How to edit a page guide on the English Wikipedia

How do I view the printable form of a page?
MediaWiki includes stylesheets which automatically style a page appropriately when it is printed; using the print or print preview function within your browser ought to render the page in a printable form.

You can also view this printable form using the printable version link in the sidebar under Toolbox or Print/export if using the Collection extension.

How do I use templates?

 * See Help:Templates

Can I use media (images, video, audio, etc.) from Wikimedia Commons in my installed version of MediaWiki?
Yes, this is encouraged through the use of Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons.


 * See also: 

How do I use a template as a signature?
When you look at your preferences, you see a check box for "raw signature." But the field will only take a certain number of characters. What if you want more?

You will need to create two pages, possibly in your userspace.


 * 1) Create the first page (FIRST PAGE)
 * 2) Go to your preferences, check "raw signature" and put  in the signature.  Save
 * 3) Create a second page (SECOND PAGE) (possibly a sub-page of the first)
 * 4) Go back to the first page (FIRST PAGE) and do
 * 5) Go to the second page (SECOND PAGE) and place the code you wish to have for your signature.

If you don't have this structure, you will still be inserting all your signature code into the raw code wherever your signature is used, because the software will insert "SUBST" in your preferences. You may not mind this, in which case you only need one page. If you want the raw code to only display, which looks a lot cleaner, then you need to use the two-page structure.

How do I add the sandbox functionality to my installation of the wiki?
In wiki terms, a sandbox is simply a "play pen"; a page which users can mess about in. This is an ordinary page created in the normal manner, and can be located wherever you like. There is no special sandbox functionality built into MediaWiki.

Users often inquire about the Wikipedia sandboxes, which seem to be self-emptying. This is not quite correct; there are a number of volunteers who run bots to clean these up and return them to a certain state at regular time intervals.

How do I add a "Sandbox" link to personal tools (top right)?
You need to add the Gadget extension and add the Sandbox gadget. You will probably also want to make it a default gadget.

How do I make my wiki serve all languages?
To make your wiki multilingual and a tool for translation, allowing translation of pages and of the custom interface (like the sidebar), use the Translate extension; there's extensive documentation.

Importing from MediaWiki XML dumps

 * See Manual:Importing XML dumps

Importing from other types of wiki software
Note: The following is directly copied from old meta FAQ. It might need to be corrected.

There is some documentation about importing in the UPGRADE file distributed with MediaWiki.

To follow on from those, this is how at least one individual imported pages from usemod to MediaWiki:

Because MediaWiki does not automatically link to CamelCase style links, you will need to add brackets  to all your links. You can do this with the following:

First, obtain ImportStage1.txt (or whatever you want to call it) from the importUseModWiki.php script ( use > to pipe the output to a file )

Second, do

sed '/Importing/!s/\ [A-Z]\w*[a-z]\w*[A-Z]\w*[a-zA-Z]/\ \[\[&\]\] /g' ImportStage1.txt > ImportStage2.txt

This should create proper links in place of your CamelCase links.

This doesn't work so well for SubPage links - someone care to fix?

Then,

sed 's/upload\:\w*\.\w*/http\:\/\/aberwiki\.org\/uploads\/& /g' ImportStage2.txt > ImportStage3.txt

This fixes your upload links. Change the replace text so it fills in your url such as http://www.yourwiki.org/uploads/filename

You are now ready to import ImportStage3.txt into your database with a command such as

mysql -u -p < ImportStage3.txt

Note: If your  outputs an XML file instead of SQL statements, this probably means you have a rather new version of MediaWiki. In such a case, you can import the XML file -- see Importing a Wikipedia database dump into MediaWiki, towards the bottom of the page ('Import XML'). Don't forget to rebuild all the tables -- that page also explains how to do that.

Importing from other types of files
There are a variety of tools available to help convert content from HTML (and other formats) to MediaWiki markup.


 * Developer and SysAdmin tools
 * HTML::WikiConverter::MediaWiki - a Perl module for converting from HTML to MediaWiki markup.
 * Wikificator - a Javascript MediaWiki extension that converts XHTML to MediaWiki markup.
 * The Edit.php, importImages.php and ImportTextFile.php maintenance scripts can be used to import text and images into MediaWiki.


 * End-user tools
 * HTML to Wiki Converter - an online HTML to MediaWiki markup conversion service. (Based on HTML::WikiConverter::MediaWiki)
 * wikEd - a text editor for MediaWiki that can import HTML (including Microsoft Word-generated HTML.)


 * Instructions
 * Brief notes on converting from Microsoft .chm help files to MediaWiki
 * Notes on converting from Microsoft Office formats to MediaWiki

MediaWiki auto importing script
Taken from wiki_import - MediaWiki auto import script:

Description
The script is designed to import a whole folder of files into MediaWiki, with the folder directory tree mapped as wiki category hierarchy.

Features

 * economic, build wiki site from existing knowledge base collection without "double-entry"
 * persistent, map folder directory tree as wiki category hierarchy
 * sophisticated, import/handle all well-known file types automatically
 * complete, cover every applicable scenario, even the case when you need to control access to individual wiki pages
 * versatile, highly customizable

Quick Help
wiki_import.sh $ $Revision: 1.1 $

mediawiki automatic file import script

Usage: wiki_import.sh [OPTIONS]...

The script is designed to import a whole folder of files into mediawiki, with the folder directory tree mapped as wiki category hierarchy.

The specification of the file-to-import is passed from standard input.

Options: -s, --sect=n    the root category section of the wiki of the imported article (mandatory) -1, --header    include standard header (category hierarchy path & notice) -l, --link      link to actual file on the web site -f, --footer    include standard footer (article category) -R, --res[=p]   add restricted tag in the footer as '' (default=`$_opt_sect')

Configuration Options: -p, --php=fn    mediawiki import php script specification -r, --root=n    the root category name for the whole wiki site -m, --max=n     max_allowed_packet for mysqld to import -u, --user=n    wiki user used for the import -a, --arch=p    the root url that linked-to archive files based on

Examples:

echo ./path/to/file.ext | wiki_import.sh -1 -l -f -s 'Customer Support' -R

For the rest of details, check out wiki_import.

Templates imported from other wikis (such as Wikipedia) don't work for me
You probably need to install some extensions used on the source wiki, such as ParserFunctions or sometimes Cite. Also, make sure that you copied all site CSS and JavaScript required by the template.

I want to have multiple wikis, but only require registration once

 * If you're starting from scratch or you're switching from one wiki to multiple, you can use $wgSharedDB and $wgSharedTables to have all wikis share the user table of the "main" wiki. You can share other tables as well, as long as they don't contain any data dependent on non-shared tables or data specific to one wiki. See Manual:Shared database for examples and more information.
 * If your wikis are already established and you want to switch to a single sign-on, you can use the CentralAuth extension. It has a few more features than a shared user table, but it's more difficult to configure and it's tailored toward a Wikimedia-style setup. However, it is easier than attempting to completely merge multiple user tables into one.

How can I allow use of HTML tags?
See Manual:$wgRawHtml as well as Manual:$wgGroupPermissions and Manual:Preventing access.

See Extension:SecureHTML and Extension:HTMLets for ways to make this safer.

How do I fix problems or add features to MediaWiki?
The basic steps to improving MediaWiki (that is, becoming a MediaWiki developer) are:


 * Install Git
 * Download the Git "clone" of the MediaWiki source code
 * Get a server, a database, and PHP running on your computer (this can be annoying, so please ask for help if something isn't working)
 * Get MediaWiki running on your computer off that Git checkout (can be annoying as well, so, ditto)
 * Fix the problem or add the feature you were thinking of, or if you don't have one in mind, look at one of the "annoying little bug"s
 * Edit the source code of the relevant file(s) to fix the problem
 * Follow Gerrit/Tutorial

How do I run a bot?

 * See Manual:Bots

You might want to use the Pywikibot framework.

How do I change noindex nofollow
Set  in LocalSettings.php

How do I create a small wiki farm?

 * See: Manual:Wiki family

How do I add meta tags?
The OutputPage class includes an addMeta methods which can be used to add meta tags. The RequestContext can be used to get the relevant OutputPage object.

To add further Meta tags just add further lines as last lines of the function addMetaTags like:

$out->addMeta ( 'description', 'This is a meta description.' );

…is the Help namespace empty?
The Help namespace currently ships in a blank state. It's up to you how much or how little help you give to your site visitors and whether this relates to other aspects of your site. Obviously you can easily link your visitors to help resources elsewhere.

We don't currently have a clean, internationalised set of help pages under a free license. However, if you want to copy in some help information onto your site, about how to use a wiki (a MediaWiki powered wiki) you are free to copy the Help:Contents from this wiki. This set of pages have been deliberately created for this purpose, with wiki-neutral information, and no license restrictions. See Project:PD help. More help is available at the Meta-Wiki MediaWiki Handbook.

…are some of my images not showing up after an upgrade?
Several users have reported that, following an upgrade or a moving of their wiki, several images fail to be shown inline. The files exist, and the image description pages show a MIME type of  and, in some cases, a warning about potentially dangerous files.

To fix this, run the  script from the command line. This will set MIME information for each file in the database.

…are all PNG files not being turned into thumbnails?
After upgrading to a more recent version of PHP, it is possible a different MimeMagic.php function is being used to detect file MIME types, particularly the built-in PHP function mime_content_type, which fails to detect PNG files. Search the web for mime_content_type png for information on fixing this bug at the PHP level, possibly by editing your magic.mime file.

See here for more info.

…is a search for a short keyword giving no hits?
By default, MediaWiki uses MyISAM's fulltext matching functionality to allow searching page content. The default settings for this mean that words of less than four characters won't be indexed, so will be ignored in searches with older versions of MediaWiki.

MediaWiki 1.13 and earlier are unable to work around this; you must either change MySQL/MariaDB's configuration to index shorter words, or upgrade to a more recent version of MediaWiki.

Note that some particular words may still not be indexed if they are in MySQL/MariaDB's default stopword list.

…can't I download MediaWiki {{#expr:{{MW stable branch number}}+.01}}?
MediaWiki 0000 is in a development state at present, and has not been packaged into a general release. The code can be downloaded from Git if desired. Or, if you want the latest development version packaged as an archive, get it at.

…doesn't this work? It works on Wikipedia!
Wikipedia and other Wikimedia web sites use the current version of the code in development; at present, this is MediaWiki, pulled from the current development branch. Coupled with the use of several extensions, this means that functionality between these wikis and your particular setup may differ.


 * To obtain the current development code, read Download from Git
 * To check what version a Wikimedia wiki is running, as well as what extensions are installed, visit the Special:Version page for that wiki

…do I get a 403 Forbidden error after setting permissions on my Fedora system?
Fedora Core enables SELinux by default. Instructions for setting SELinux permissions for MediaWiki are available.

…do I get logged out constantly?
This is probably related to cookies or session data, for example a problem with PHP's session.save_path setting. See Log in problems for information.

…doesn't my wiki work on Sourceforge?

 * See Manual:Installing MediaWiki on SourceForge.net.

…is it a good idea to keep user accounts?
At many times you just want to remove a user account out of the wiki either because it belonged to a spammer account or you just feel like it. The appropriate choice is to block the account or rename it if needed. Here is why:

Do I just remove his row from the User table?

Rob Church posted the following regarding this issue on the mediawiki-l mailing list:

"If the user has made edits, then removing rows from the user table cause theoretical loss of referential integrity. Now, to be honest with you, I can't think of any conditions where this would cause an actual problem; "undefined behaviour" is the phrase we use.

What I'd suggest doing, to be on the safe side, is running a couple of quick updates against the database:



What this will do is cause MediaWiki to treat the revisions as having been made anonymously when generating things like page histories, which should eliminate any problems caused by these routines attempting to check user details from other tables.

If the user has caused log entries, i.e. rows in the logging table, or uploaded images, then the situation becomes trickier, as you'll have to start mopping up all the rows everywhere and it could become a bit of a mess, so if the user's done anything other than edit, I would strongly recommend just blocking them indefinitely.

If the username is offensive or undesirable, then you could consider renaming it using the RenameUser extension."

Another option is to give Admins the 'hideuser' right, and indefinitely block the user with the Hide username from edits and lists option selected.

Extension:UserMerge is also useful.

Where do I get the spam blacklist from and how do I install it?
The spam blacklist extension can be found in Git, just like all other officially supported extensions. For installation and configuration instructions, consult the file and extension page over here.

How do I use $wgSpamRegex to block more than one string?
$wgSpamRegex (see Manual) is a powerful filter for page content. Adding multiple items to the regex, however, can be awkward. Consider this snippet:

This example code allows convenient addition of additional items to the regex without fiddling about each time. It also demonstrates two popular filters, which block some of the most common spam attacks.


 * See also: Extension:SpamRegex

Are there additional ways to fight spam?
See Manual:Combating spam for an overview of anti-spam measures such as Captcha, content filtering and restricting edition.

Anti-vandalism
See Manual:Combating vandalism for hints and suggestions on how to deal with wiki vandalism.

I've found a bug or have a feature request. Where do I post it?
Bugs and feature requests should be posted on Phabricator. See How to report a bug.

I'm getting a strange error. What now?

 * See if it is covered by Manual:Errors and Symptoms
 * Try to find out more about the problem, see How to debug MediaWiki
 * See the section below for information on how to contact developers and other knowledgabe users.

I tried that but it didn't work

 * I had a problem, I came to this page and it told me how to fix it. But it didn't work, the problem is still there!!!!

Nine times out of ten this is because you didn't clear your cache. The simple test for this is to request a page that hasn't been requested before. Select the part of the URL in the address bar that contains the page title (e.g. Main_Page). Twiddle your fingers on the keyboard for a while, hit enter. Check if the problem is on that page too.

MediaWiki uses both a server-side cache and a client-side cache, so clearing your browser cache is often not enough. See the relevant entry below for more details.

Here are some other things to check:
 * Were you editing the right file? Try inserting some garbage into the file you edited, does it break anything?
 * A great debugging tool in this case is to create a file called phpinfo.php, containing only . Upload it into your web directory and invoke it with your browser. Check the document root and the path to php.ini.
 * Were you editing the right part of the file? Did you create a duplicate entry in php.ini? Add new settings to the end of LocalSettings.php, not to the beginning.
 * If you created a .htaccess, are you sure AllowOverrides is on? Ask your hosting provider.

I have a question not answered here. Where do I go next?
If you've exhausted the FAQ above, please try the following:


 * Check the other sources of help on this site
 * Search the rest of this site
 * Search older documentation archived on Meta; Useful developer documentation remains on Meta.wikimedia.org in the category Pages to be exported to MediaWiki.org until the m:Meta:MetaProject to transfer content to MediaWiki.org completes
 * Search the web
 * Dig into the source
 * See the section below for information on how to contact developers and other knowledgeable users.

Still no luck. Where can I ask for help?

 * Post a message at Project:Support desk
 * Email the mediawiki-l mailing list (try and search the archive first).
 * Ask the developers in our IRC channel.

Recommended reading

 * Asking smart questions
 * Effective bug reporting
 * Getting help on IRC
 * Books about MediaWiki