Manual:Contents

This collecting point is intended to be a Technical Manual for the MediaWiki Software. Please contribute information about installing, running and developing for MediaWiki software. See also public domain help pages. Currently much content is still on meta (search for "manual" at http://meta.wikimedia.org/ - more than 1,000 references as of April 12, 2007!) Please expand this manual to include all the other nitty-gritty bits of info that are useful to developers and sysadmins.

Main sections
Note: we desperately need a neat, clean, sophisticated group of accurate and unambiguous instruction manuals for each part of a WikiMedia's life: ... and so on. Got ideas and experiences? HELP! Anything in red is missing! Please add your own new sections as your experience dictates. Thanks!
 * 1) preparing gear and software,
 * 2) creation from scratch,
 * 3) design criteria for your particular MediaWiki implementation (hardware, software, extensions, organizational structure and customizations),
 * 4) publicity and community building,
 * 5) ongoing maintenance and administration,
 * 6) crash recovery and prevention,
 * 7) importing (to build your initial resource) and exporting (to migrate your data and to reuse or re-purpose your data,
 * 8) turning your MediaWiki over to the next generation of WikiMasters,
 * 9) inheriting an existing Wiki from known or unknown previous WikiMasters


 * Preview/Overview of basic steps to building a MediaWiki
 * Private or networked or Internet-connected computer with Operating System
 * Web Server software - Apache, Microsoft IIs
 * Database server - MySQL
 * Management software - PHP
 * Customizations - MediaWiki and your configuration choices
 * A web browser!


 * MediaWiki Basic setup and configuration
 * Detailed step-by-step checklists
 * Designing your organizational scheme for users, data, security, maintenance


 * '''MediaWiki backup/restore and import/export
 * How to inherit a MediaWiki and re-set it up
 * Crash recovery and prevention
 * Manual:Backing up a wiki exists, Manual:Moving a wiki has some of this information too.


 * Configuration settings
 * Alphabetical list | Listed by function
 * Information about the various parameters that can be used to customise the MediaWiki software.


 * Database layout
 * Details about the database architecture behind MediaWiki.


 * Code
 * Details about the PHP program.


 * MediaWiki hooks
 * Software hooks that allow you to extend the built-in MediaWiki functionality.


 * Parameters to index.php
 * Details about parameters passed to the wiki via the URL.


 * MediaWiki FAQ - Frequently asked questions about the software.
 * Help on meta - Lots of help about various things - in the process of being moved here.
 * Doxygen documentation of MediaWiki code.

Browsing the manual
The manual is not particularly developed yet, and the content we do have is not always organised well. These other methods of browsing our content may help:


 * Special:Allpages/Manual: - Lists all pages in the Manual: namespace.
 * Category:Manual - top level Manual category

Improving the manual

 * There are a lot of pages that are still on meta which are in the process of being moved. Please bear with us while this happens.
 * Project:Manual is a place to discuss and co-ordinate the development of the Manual: namespace.
 * See also Project:Current issues.