User:Vldandrew

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=What is like to be a newcomer to Wikimedia's tech community ?= Over the years I had used Wikipedia. Yet, I had no idea that there was an entire foundation behind. Hence, I knew nothing about Wikimedia nor about its technical side. I first acknowledge the existence of Wikimedia's technical world from Google Code-In contest. First, I was on a road to learn more about this. My ambition was to pick up more about the technical world behind Wikipedia. The links provided in at GCI contest is where I started from. Among the pages I found a software called MediaWiki. My interest in this software was raised by some facts I'll describe shortly. During the process of installation,environment setup and developing extensions part I had encountered different problems. Most of them caused by my negligence because I was mostly anxious to move to the next step. Before all this to happen I did not even know what Mediawiki is.

With the passing time I learned that Mediawiki is a web-based wiki software application first used to run Wikipedia. Which was one of the things that raised my curiosity.The installation page was easy to find from there. My first impression was that the installation might be not as easy as I first thought. That, maybe because it would not be a "two clicks installation". Perhaps, that is why some may say that its installation is relatively more complicated. And that is why before anything I joined an official IRC channel. For my surprise, the prime part of the installation guide was easy to follow. The first part was to prepare directories. Most of that part consisted in using terminal commands. Although, I thought I had done everything well, at the "create database" step I got stuck. And that of course is what my first mistake was. I had not read the Installation requirements. It devastated me first. I asked myself how did I get something so easy wrong. As fast as I got stuck I manage to find a solution with the help of someone from the IRC channel. Somehow I have not installed my database. Even though I had got stuck so early I still wanted to complete the job I had started. Unexpectedly, soon I had encountered another problem. This time it was something more serious. The installation script was not working. And all of these because I have not read the installation requirements. "What could it be ? " I thought myself. The clock was ticking for long until I have found an answer. I forgot to install the web server software. As you can see these errors were caused by my inattention. Furthermore, I found that there was a one simple command line installation command for my OS.

The initial configuration part was next. It was about running a script and filling out the form fields. After I had filled out what was needed I ran the configuration script. There is something I'll quote from the page:"When you run the config script it makes various checks of your system, and tells you if there are any problems." I had neither configuration errors nor installation errors. It made me happy. The next step was called further customization. A big warming sign about "LocalSettings.php" was the first thing I saw on that page. It required me to not use any editors that adds byte order marks. This is also when I encountered PHP. PHP is a server-side scripting language. With the help of PHP I managed to add some new features to my page. Image and LaTeX inline equations were among them. I still wonder why some of the features are not present by default. There were also other things to be done. Most of them buried in the three manuals. System administration, Manual, and Administrators. It took some time to read all these pages. But the end I knew more than how to do the basic customization. The last step was to install extensions. And this is when you can make you can make your wiki inaccessible. All from the wrong extension declaration. I declared them after the "require_once "includes/DefaultSettings.php"" line. On the wiki page there was a Caution Sign about this. I missed this one too. My solution to this problem was to uninstall everything. Yes, after that I installed everything again. And configured the wiki again. It was a lot easier this time. Maybe because I had experience or because I was more cautious. It did not matter. I solved the problem I also saw the caution message. I was done, I had installed and configured my development environment. I even managed to install extensions.There was one thing I had not done. I had not made any development for the software itself. To be honest, I have never made any extension for anything before. And It was much easier than I imagined. I had the opportunity to learn making one. The article was of outstanding quality. It was much cleaner than the other guides. Only after a few minutes I succeeded in developing an "Hello World!" extension. The article provided other sources as well. Because of that I had plenty of information at a click distance. I also thought of what can I develop. One of my ideas was an emoticon extension. It was already made. Sade thing. Then my second idea was to make an syntax error extension. There were extensions only for syntax highlight. It may take time to complete it but I know the basic. Now I can develop my skills and make something new. To conclude, even if this place where I write does not have an auto save option.I succeeded in setting my development environment. I installed some extension for it. I even started in developing my own. The first time you try something new is the hardest. This experience was nice and time costly but in the end I have learned something new.