Project:Support desk/Sections/Miscellaneous

__NEWSECTIONLINK__ = Miscellaneous (unsorted) Issues =

Uninitialized string offset: 0

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
 * PHP version: 5.2.8-0.dotdeb.1

It seems to be fixed in new version of PHP. I've updated 2 Debian boxes with MediaWikis and both are clear, readable and without wrong characters.

--81.201.54.106 18:59, 21 December 2008 (UTC)


 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
 * PHP version: 5.2.0-8+etch11
 * MySQL version: 5.0.32-Debian_7etch6-log
 * URL: http://www.sturmarchiv.ch

Dear all,

Sometimes i get the following error in my wiki:

Notice: Uninitialized string offset: 0 in /home/www/vhosts/sturmarchiv.ch/httpdocs/includes/parser/Parser.php on line 2143

It will be displayed instead of the Site content. I already upgraded to 1.13.1 but the error will not disapear. Also some articles will have wrong characters in it or are completely unreadable, but when i try to edit the page everything looks fine.

Any Ideas? —Soloo 10:35, 25 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Dear Soloo, dear all,
 * Has anybody found a solution to this problem? At my site happens the same. The page content is not parsed correctly...
 * Thank you,
 * --Th 12:23, 19 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Dear everyone,
 * I got the same problem. It happens randomly and i don't konw what i am doing wrong...
 * Thank you very much in advance
 * -- 14:06 29 October 2008 (GMT +1)


 * Dear all,
 * I have exactly the same problem on two MediaWikis. Both are up to date, running on Debian Etch and Ubuntu HH Server with latest dotdeb Apache2 + PHP + MySQL. The problem don't want to disappear :/
 * I've tried almost every version of PHP 5.2.x (official, unofficial, compiled from source, combined apt repositories) and some of MySQL server versions. I've tried both DB storage (InnoDB, MyISAM) and type (binary, UTF-8) options in MediaWiki installer on completely fresh install. I've tried every 1.1x version of MediaWiki. But PHP Notices were still there and garbaged unreadable text also (f.e. {{{{TENAME}} in title). It was perfect about one year ago, I don't know where the problem is and I'm hopeless now. I'd like to use MediaWiki because I love it, but it's difficult with this bug. Please help, thank you
 * --81.201.54.106 15:47, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

How to find all article that a given user has started?

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.67-log

Is there any way to view all the article that a user has started? If not, is there a query I can run to obtain this information? —LinguistAtLarge 16:23, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Text search with wiki text highligted elements in a word in an article fails in general?

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache)
 * MySQL version:  5.0.67-community
 * URL: not free available at thomas-prietz.de because of copy right issues (temporarilly)

If you have parts of words e.g. higlighted oder bold in an article, like:

Customer Relationship Management: Wikipedia CRM

the search will never find the complete word 'relationship' again in this article.

So, a higlighting or other marking method for elements in a word in mediawiki makes the word to a "stealth word" for the wiki search engine.

In my opinion, the search should generally ignore the wikitext syntax.

Any hints like: "Try the single words" or "use google..." are not helpfull, especially for german language with partly very long words.

I found no help at mediawiki.org with "full text search". but some comments can be found with Google. Is there an extension that can cope with this problem or does exist a setting of a search variable? Again, in my opinion it is a bug, not a feature

—Dagon 23:27, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

How to get user account name

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.0
 * PHP version: 5.2.6
 * MySQL version: 5.0.33-log
 * URL:

What is the variable name that returns user's account name? I found, Tuesday , etc. Thanks.

—134.163.255.25 00:54, 13 November 2008 (UTC)


 *   will do (since version 1.13). -Rob. --89.244.189.37 01:39, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) MediaWiki:Sidebar
I am trying to edit the Sidebar menu. I found these instructions:

Customize the sidebar

As an administrator, edit the wiki page "MediaWiki:Sidebar". (The editinterface permission needs to be enabled and is enabled for administrators by default; for information on assigning it to other groups, see Manual:User rights.) You may need to use the syntax //yourdomain/yourwiki/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Sidebar&action=edit if you use long URLs. Example sidebar code: The only problem I have is that I can't locate the wiki page "MediaWiki:Sidebar". Where is it?
 * navigation
 * mainpage|mainpage
 * Special:Recentchanges|Recent changes
 * new heading
 * portal-url|portal
 * http://www.mediawiki.org|MediaWiki home

Brady, November 2008


 * It is simply located at MediaWiki:Sidebar (look at the URL). -- :bdk: 20:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

blocking source codes

 * MediaWiki: 1.11.2
 * PHP: 5.1.4-Debian-0.1~sarge1 (cgi-fcgi)
 * MySQL: 4.1.11-Debian_4sarge8

Hello. As Admin/Sysop of my own wiki I blocked some articles for edit by all users. It is possible for any user, to read these articles, and that is okay. But everybody can click "View Source Code" and is able to read it. Is it possible, to hide this button, so that nobody can view the source code of blocked articles? Or does anybody know another solution? Thanks a lot, Martin. 79.219.192.180 15:37, 16 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Note: If you only hide the "view source" tab e.g. by adapting your CSS (ca-viewsource/display:none), users can still view the code by manually typing the URL into their address bar. -- :bdk: 20:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Transcluding subpages
I'm trying to use subpages to store individual chapters in a book named Baz, and sub-sub pages to store individual sections of each chapter. The chapters transclude the sections using relative includes like rather than the full path  and the top level page transcludes all of the chapters as. If I view the chapter page Baz/Chapter Bar, then the transclusions of the sections look fine, but if I look at the top level page Baz, it tells me that Baz/Section Foo does not exist, which of course it doesn't.
 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.0.4
 * MySQL version: 4.1.20
 * URL: http://www.osresearch.net/wiki/index.php/LaTeX_and_MediaWiki

Is it possible to have the second transclusion take into account the path to the page that generated the transclusion (Baz/Chapter Bar), rather than using the relative path of the page being viewed (Baz)?

—24.126.107.168 04:01, 17 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Following up my own question, Help:Template says that

A page A can transclude a subpage A/B using or, with more control over the name of the page to be transcluded, this name can be constructed from.
 * So if page A transcludes subpage A/B, how would page A/B then transclude A/B/C without using the full path? Or, when transcluded from A,  is there a variable like  that page A/B can use to refer to itself rather than A?  -24.126.107.168 15:40, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Please change my username
Sorry to disturb someone here, but I'm unable to find the right place to apply: Can please someone change user:WeHaWoe => user:W. ASAP? I left a reason on my talk page. Thank you.

—Wolfgang 08:14, 17 November 2008 (UTC)


 * See Project:Requests -- :bdk: 20:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

$wgWhitelistRead RequestAccount with EMAILTOKEN

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 4
 * MySQL version: 4.1.22
 * URL: http://sbiesterfeldt.de/MF/mediawiki/index.php

Hi,

my DefaultSettings.php looks like: $wgWhitelistRead = false; $wgWhitelistRead = array("Benutzerkonto beantragen", "Spezial:Benutzerkonto_beantragen"); $wgWhitelistRead = array("Request Account", "Spezial:RequestAccount"); $wgWhitelistRead = array("Confirm Account", "Spezial:RequestAccount&action=confirmemail&wpEmailToken="); A new User created a account. The Confimation-E-Mail see a LINK to confirm the Account:

http://sbiesterfeldt.de/MF/mediawiki/index.php?title=Spezial:RequestAccount&action=confirmemail&wpEmailToken=882c633fd99d77ba6f629dce3c6ba0a2

The NEW User click on the Link and see this error Message:

"You must sign-in, to see this page"

Regards

Sascha —62.143.217.163 21:46, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Error when embedding two special pages

 * MediaWiki version: 1.11.0
 * PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.67-log
 * URL: http://recycleabike.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=1608

I am having a problem when trying to embed two special pages into my main page. I want to embed both "Special:Categories" and "Special:Uncategorizedpages". I edited LocalSettings.php to allow these two pages to be embedded. If I embed one or the other on its own, it comes out fine. However, when I embed both into the same page, I get an error - uintelligible text where the "Special:Categories" page should be embedded.

Please help. Thanks. —Mrengy 22:21, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Extend the searchbox with text messages
I have to extend the search portlet with some links and text. For the beginning, I've put some hard coded text in myskin.php (yes, it's evil... ;-)) Now I have to make it multilanguage-capable, so I try to fix this hack. But how? I'd like to get a variable in the skin which I can trigger by a system text from the MediaWiki namespace. Something like msg('foo') ?> that can be replaced by MediaWiki:Foo. Thanks für any hints (I'm more the php copy/paster, so please be merciful ;-)) --Elya 10:54, 24 November 2008 (UTC)
 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.0rc1
 * PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.67-community
 * URL: N.A.

(RESOLVED) Smaller edit buttons
How can I get those "edit" buttons smaller? The standard buttons are lots bigger than, for example, the buttons on Wikipedia.
 * MediaWiki version: 1.11
 * PHP version:
 * MySQL version:
 * URL:

—86.88.44.213 20:52, 25 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Which edit buttons? (there are different links/positions that are commonly called "edit buttons" … page editing, section editing, other?). Generally you can adapt such things by editing your CSS. -- :bdk: 20:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

MATH

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6
 * MySQL version: 5.0.67
 * Windows XP SP3
 * URL:

I will activate the tag MATH. In the procedure I read : '''Run 'make' (or 'gmake' if GNU make is not your default make). This should produce the texvc executable.'''

I have downloaded MinGW but I don't know what I must do ! What meant "run make...".

—217.136.13.239 16:34, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Problem after xampp update

 * MediaWiki version: used to be 1.8.2.
 * PHP version: was 5.0.4, now 5.2.4
 * MySQL version: was 4.1.13, now 5.0.45
 * URL: intranet only

Hello,

we used to have an wiki in our companys intranet. After we had to update our server to a newer xampp version (from 1.4.15 to 1.6.4) our wiki doesn't start. I do have the complete old xamp on a different drive, so all data should be save. The Error Message shown is: Can't contact the database server: Unknown database 'dewiki' (localhost) When I run the old xampp locally, I get following error when trying to access the wiki: 

Can I import the old database into the newer sql-database? How is this done, since I can't run the old wiki anymore?

Is it easier to install an all new Mediawiki 1.13.x and import an old export we made a couple of weeks ago? Is this export compatible to the new Mediawiki version?

Thank you for your help. Greetings --195.145.82.17 13:18, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Different pages, different skins

 * MediaWiki version: 1.12.0
 * PHP version: 5.2.5 (cgi)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.51a-community-log

I am trying to include pages with a dramatically different theme into my main wiki. (My main wiki has a fantasy skin and the pages I want to include are futuristic.) I'd like a different skin specific to those pages and which will load only for those pages. I don't want to simply install a new wiki for the futuristic-themed pages because there will only be a few of them.

Is there a way to set a specific skin on any individual page that is different from the wiki's default skin? —Iceofwolf 07:29, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Creating archive of wiki project
Can I create an archive of my wiki project, e.g., CDROM or ohter meida for storage and documentation purposes? If so, how?

—63.80.243.2 21:26, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Question, Language Dictionary

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.51b-community-nt-log
 * URL: testing at localhost

Hello MediaWiki Team, I just started to use MediaWiki software last week. I have basic of PHP and MySQL. I want to make my own Language Dictionary Online for myself and my friends and hope it will be helpful when we live abroad. I see this site is making so good: http://tratu.baamboo.com/ They have: English-Vietnamese, Vietnamese-English, Vietnamese-French, French-Vietnamese ... Their links are: I also asked them how-to's but they did not respond me. If I want to do by their way, for each dictionary I have to upload MediaWiki software to each folder: like bolded texts up (en_vn, vn_en ... ) ? I hope you will help me. Thank you very much —Thanhdat 22:16, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
 * http://tratu.baamboo.com/dict/en_vn/special:allpages
 * http://tratu.baamboo.com/dict/vn_en/special:allpages
 * http://tratu.baamboo.com/dict/fr_vn/special:allpages
 * http://tratu.baamboo.com/dict/vn_fr/special:allpages

(RESOLVED) Defining class/styles

 * MediaWiki: 1.11.0
 * PHP: 5.2.5 (cgi-fcgi)
 * MySQL: 5.0.67-log
 * Url: www.jainkosh.org

I have question about defining class or styles in one place and using those in various wiki pages. I don't want to define it on each wiki page, so should be defined in some single place. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks, Vikas

—71.139.31.202 05:00, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

I found the place where to save the class definitions. It's in the skin directory and common.css file.

Non-alphanumeric characters display as their escape sequence in browser's address bar

 * MediaWiki version: 1.12.0 (r29)
 * PHP version: 5.2.6-3 (cgi-fcgi)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.51a-6
 * URL: http://ambitiouspagoda.com/wiki/Liam_Tesanqua_(4E)

If I add a link that goes to the page http://ambitiouspagoda.com/wiki/Dungeons_and_Dragons#Antiquated_Shade_-_4th_Edition_Reboot with a title like Liam Tesanqua (4E) that has parentheses, and then click on that link, the address appears as an escape sequence in the address bar of my browser: http://ambitiouspagoda.com/wiki/Liam_Tesanqua_%284E%29

I noticed that in wikipedia, I never see escape characters even when parentheses are present, such as here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_(album). The only way that the escaped version of the url does not appear is if I manually type the non-escaped version into the address bar and hit enter as in http://ambitiouspagoda.com/wiki/Liam_Tesanqua_(4E). I think the escape characters look nasty and would like the non-escaped version to always appear so that someone linking to the page does not copy and use the escape version (although I realize it will work just as well).

Thanks in advance

—129.21.254.140 18:05, 8 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I did a little testing, and it seems that the escape characters appear on wikis using rewrite rule-based short URLs, but not on wikis using the recommended alias method. I don't know of any solution to this other than using an alias method (which your hosting may not allow). —Emufarmers(T 04:36, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure how that could affect it, since the browser shouldn't see any difference between the two methods. Are you sure you didn't accidentally set up your rewrite rules to do a client-side redirect?  (Ps. I can't replicate the original problem here on Firefox 3.0.4: both of the links appear with unescaped parentheses in the address bar.)  --Ilmari Karonen 00:08, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Try it with IE. It seems that FF unescapes the URL automatically. (It could instead be that IE is escaping the URL, but if that were the case, I would expect the same thing to happen on a wiki using aliases.) —Emufarmers(T 00:53, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Is there a way to force a group of pages in our wiki to have a particular skin?

 * MediaWiki version: 1.12.0
 * PHP version: 5.2.4-2ubuntu5.1 (apache2handler)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.51a-3ubuntu5
 * URL: not publicly available (is on company intranet)

I hope this is the appropriate place to post this question. (if not, my apologies!)

I'd like to find out if there is a way to force a group of pages in our wiki to have a particular skin.

The reason I am keen to do this is that we have a wiki which works great, but I would like to store help pages for an application we have in the wiki and link to those pages direct from the app. Although we wouldn't have concerns with people seeing the non-article stuff when viewing the pages from the rest of the wiki, for it to be streamlined when viewed from the application I thought it would be ideal if I gave it a simplified skin which I would design.

I have already found out that URLs can have the useskin= added (e.g. as is done in the Preview Skin page within the User Preferences pages), but following the links will revert you to your normal chosen skin.

Is there perhaps some way to adjust the skin, so that all the links contain useskin=? (I think this might have issues, since you appear to need the full pagename for useskin to work (e.g. ..../w/index.php?title=blah....&useskin=cologneblue as opposed to the short URLs).

If this isn't a smart way to go, I could consider different approaches (I run the box the wiki is on and could create a distinct wiki perhaps, although there might be disadvantages to this, such as needing to combine the user tables and maybe this would still pick up the user's preferred skin unless I re-coded things).

Any sensible suggestions gratefully received! Let me know if there's any more info you might need or if I need to clarify any points about my objective.

Many thanks, Neil —NStoker 12:41, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Slowness

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi)
 * MySQL version: 5.1.29-rc-community
 * URL: intranet

We have installed MediaWiki on a Windows 2003 Server with IIS. Every time we access WikiMedia on it (locally or via another network computer) it takes a long time before it shows up. You can instantly see the title bar at the top showing the correct name, but it looks like it's waiting for something to continue. After about 10 seconds it shows the page. When you then go to another page it works perfect.

So, only when first accessing it will it take about 10 seconds to show the page.

Hopefully there's a solution for this.

—193.173.57.41 12:13, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Inserting a search field

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.0
 * PHP version: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.26
 * URL:

Hi. I'm trying to insert a search field that will search the database of uploaded files. I'm sure you guys have posted the answer somewhere on your comprehensive site, but can't find it sorry.

Can you help.

Cheers. keith.

keith.fitzpatrick@lotterywest.wa.gov.au 1711 West Aus DST, 15th Dec 2008 —167.30.38.252 08:12, 15 December 2008 (UTC)


 * An easy way to do so is to install Extension:InputBox and then to use something like:


 * That will produce:


 * Keep in mind that you have to use "Image" instead of "File" for the respective namespace on MediaWiki 1.13 and earlier. -- :bdk: 14:36, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

FAQ functionality support?
My question is: Does MediaWiki support FAQ functinality with a set of files (PHP) for the host to receive and answer questions from end user.
 * MediaWiki version:
 * PHP version:
 * MySQL version:
 * URL:

Or is this support desk function is the only one available?

Thanks! —204.64.79.29 16:40, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

How to allow MediaWiki access only to registered users?
Hello,
 * MediaWiki version: 1.9.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
 * MySQL version: 4.1.22-max-log
 * URL: private

I installed MediaWiki as organisation platform for some friends of mine. I want only registered users to view and edit pages. Unregistered users should first create an account. Is there a way to avoid that unregistered users can view and edit my MediaWiki?

Thanks a lot —192.251.226.205 13:24, 17 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Manual:User rights —Emufarmers(T 02:55, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

-*-*-*-*

You do this by inserting following codes at bottom of your LocalSettings.php file;

$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
 * 1) Stop anonymous user from editing any page

$wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] = false;
 * 1) Stop anonymous user from reading any page

Restoring Help Pages

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.3
 * PHP version: 5.2.5
 * MySQL version: 5.0.51a
 * URL: (local)

I transfered my existing phpwiki to MediaWiki using a third party perl script and it seems to have deleted all of the MediaWiki help pages. What is the best way to restore them?

—24.46.115.83 15:47, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Menu modification in the left side of the sheet

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.0 (apache2handler)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.27-community-log
 * URL: N/A (internal usage)

Hi everybody

I am trying to go deeper in the Wiki usage. One of my first questions is the following: How is it possible to change the content of the left part of the sheet?

After installation of my Wiki, the menu has 3 sections (Navigation - Search - Toolbox). Is it possible to add more sections? Can we add/modify/remove a link in one section?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Manu

—195.130.159.210 06:35, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Clearing Spam out of Database
* MediaWiki: 1.5.7 * PHP: 4.4.8 (cgi-fcgi) * MySQL: 4.1.21-log

* Extensions: o Other: + ConfirmEdit, Simple captcha implementation, by Brion Vibber o Extension functions: + confirmEditSetup


 * URL: http://www.handicappedpets.biz/wiki

I am a Novice:

I've noticed that my database has filled up with 50 megs of Junk/Spam. They don't appear on the wiki - buy they are in the database.

The only way I can see to clear these entries out is one-by-one -- and that can take forever. Is there a method or extension that will let me clear out unwanted entries.

I do have direct access to the sql database with MyPHPAdmin if that helps. Thank you Mark C. Robinson HandicappedPets.com

—70.20.42.13 15:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Tweaking the Random Page link
Hi, I am using the Mediawiki software, version 1.12.0. I have about 1,200 articles with about 200 articles in various stages of completion. On completing each article, I protect it to prevent vandalism, if any. As I am practically the sole author of the website, I would like to tweak the random page link so that only protected pages are shown when a user click the random page button. How do I go about doing that? &mdash; PM Poon 03:01, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Viewing an image uses in excess of 40MBytes of memory.

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.4-2ubuntu5.4 (apache2handler)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4
 * URL: http://localhost/mediawiki/index.php/Image:Electrolux_5995500930-011.png

Viewing an image uses in excess of 40MBytes of memory.

I had to increase the PHP memory to 80M in order to avoid the 'unable to allocated memory' error. Yes I have over 100K images. I have a significant number of images left to upload and would like to make sure the the memory image does not grow again. If you need I can open my firewall temporarily. Please let me know what I can do to help.

—24.6.151.162 16:01, 19 December 2008 (UTC)


 * So what's the problem? —Emufarmers(T 20:26, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

How much memory do you think a PHP script should use? It is recommended in this site that you should set the maximum PHP memory to 32MB not 80MB. Should I expect to increase the memory base on the number of images I have?


 * Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia Foundation wikis all have a memory limit of 80MB. One article on this site says to raise the memory limit: it gives 32MB as an example, not a rule. —Emufarmers(T 08:17, 21 December 2008 (UTC)


 * MediaWiki version:
 * PHP version:
 * MySQL version:
 * URL:

Statistics
With the code : Special:Statistics I can see automaticly how many pages there are on my wiki. Is there also a code to see how many pages has been vitites totally on my wiki ? Thanks...

—82.173.153.235 08:44, 21 December 2008 (UTC)


 * MediaWiki version:
 * PHP version:
 * MySQL version:
 * URL:

Custom Login Page & Passing Login Info

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6
 * MySQL version: 5.0.62
 * URL: Currently its development site

Hi. I'm currently working on mediawiki on my company's project. I like to know is there any reference on creating custom login page? also I like to send logged in user from our secure page to (our)mediawiki site, so they are automatically logged in. Please advice.

—12.17.95.135 15:25, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

I have downloaded php shell; however, it claims to be for Linux and I don't think it will work on a windows 2003 system. I can't run any of the maintenance scrips. Nothing else that claims to work for Linux has worked for me yet. Any suggestions?
 * MediaWiki version:
 * PHP version:
 * MySQL version:
 * URL:

—Coop 05:38, 23 December 2008 (UTC)