VisualEditor/Installation on a shared host

VisualEditor requires a Parsoid service and Parsoid requires Node.js running in the background at all times. Most shared-hosting companies don't provide this. If you cannot move your wiki to a dedicated hosting solution such as a VPS, then a workaround is to install Parsoid on a cloud platform which supports Node.js, such as Heroku.com. Be aware that this is not an official hack.


 * 1) Install Extension:VisualEditor on your wiki as per usual.
 * 2) Sign up with Heroku.com.
 * 3) Install the Heroku Command Line utility.
 * 4) Install git on your computer.
 * 5) Open your console and change to any download-folder (folder1).
 * 6) Download Parsoid:
 * 7) Open , change   according to your wiki:
 * 8) the first parameter is the interwiki name, which you define in your LocalSettings.php later
 * 9) the second parameter is the URL to your API (normally this is in the root-folder and called api.php)
 * 10) If you use SSL on your wiki with a self-signed certificate you should uncomment   in Line 56. You should still use HTTP in the URL above instead of HTTP!
 * 11) Once you applied the changes save the file as.
 * 12) Now you also need to change the file package.json and add this to the end of the file:
 * 13) Finally the last change is in the file  . Here you need to remove the line.
 * 14) Now change to another folder (folder2) in your console
 * 15) Login to your heroku account by typing
 * 16) Type   to create a new app. This will also create a git remote called heroku.
 * 17) Then open your app on Heroku.
 * 18) In Settings edit the Config Vars and add the following two parameters:
 * 19) Now copy your files from folder 1 to folder2.
 * 20) Add all files to your git repository:
 * 21) Commit the changes:
 * 22) Upload the files to Heroku:
 * 23) Now you should get a positive response.
 * 24) Before you run your app set Heroku to run it with one dyno:
 * 25) To test your installation open your app: URL is http://APPNAME.herokuapp.com
 * 26) You should see a HTML-Page titled   which shows that Parsoid is working.
 * 27) Now it's time to change your LocalSettings.php:
 * 28)   A lot of manuals tell you to add Port   to your URL but that didn't work for me. So just leave that :)
 * 29)   (you set this earlier in localsettings.js)
 * 30) If you run a private wiki then you have to set the following variable to true:
 * 1)   (you set this earlier in localsettings.js)
 * 2) If you run a private wiki then you have to set the following variable to true:
 * 1) If you run a private wiki then you have to set the following variable to true:

External resources

 * Getting Stated with Node.js over Heroku Manual