Manual talk:FAQ/LQT Archive 1

Languages
hi folks... is it ok to set up an own "FAQ"-page in another language (e.g. german..), here ? --80.138.186.52 18:24, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, there is already a rough german start, see Help:FAQ/de. I'm not sure if it makes sense to develop pages in different languages with completely other content, but we'll see. -- :Bdk: 20:47, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

GFDL in PD?
Hi... i contributed the sites m:Help:Wiki family and m:Hilfe:Wiki family into Meta under terms of GFDL. As i am the only author of both, is it possible to publish them here under terms of PD, too ? --Produnis 18:43, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, it definitely is possible to do so, as long as you are the only author. A little note in the summary like "I'm the only author of the text, copied it from meta:xy and hereby released it in the public domain" or close is recommended to clarify the license state. Thanks a lot :-) -- :Bdk: 20:47, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Wiki farm page missing
"For information on setting up a small wiki farm, see the wiki farm page on Meta. (May 1 2006: Page missing)" Apparently related:
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Wiki_family&diff=301852&oldid=300701 Help:Wiki_farm moved to Help:Wiki_family ... and wiki farm content later deleted.
 * m:Talk:Wiki farm
 * m:Help:Wiki farm
 * MediaWiki_FAQ
 * http://wp.wikidev.net/Wiki_farm

207.195.192.52 14:11, 2 May 2006 (SPb)

Add Groups
Does simply adding a group in LocalSettings.php cause MediaWiki to allow users to be added?


 * Yes. 86.138.46.182 17:32, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Executing external code
How can a link be used to execute other code (PHP, java etc)? I would like to allow the user to click something on the page (button, link, whatever) which would then cause an external program to run.


 * There are various methods of executing external code. You may want to investigate writing an extension (see Manual:MediaWiki hooks for some further information, or try Google).  A more specific question detailing what you are actually trying to achieve would be helpful. --HappyDog 14:44, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Здесь был Антон Соловьев

Mediawiki-logo
If I run my own wiki, is it necessary that I show a link to www.mediawiki.org on my site or to note that my site was set up by using mediqiki-software? I tried to figure this out by reading the GPL but didn't find anything about that. As far as I have come I wouldn't need to mention this ... what do you say?? --149.148.230.94 18:10, 12 May 2006 (UTC)


 * MediaWiki itself adds a "powered by" icon to all skins and the version page has copyright information. Under the GPL, I believe this attribution is required. 86.138.46.182 17:33, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Could someone confirm whether or not the MediaWiki logo is supposed to be kept in place? I could not find any mention in the supplied documentation that this is requested to remain. Thus I have removed it on my Wiki, but will glady re-add it if it is requested by the creators. Furthermoor, there is no mention of leaving the copyright in place on the Footer editing page. -- A User 16:04, 04 Oct 2006 (UTC)

Added section 7.4 which I copied from the meta.mediawiki FAQ
This section from the meta.mediawiki site FAQ entitled "Is it somehow possible to use a "file" URI-qualifier for local intranets e.g. ?" was very helpful to me so I copied it over to this site as section 7.4 under section "7. Customizing Further". Second reason for copying over was that the meta.mediawiki FAQ pages are supposed to migrate here. I also want to add some clarification on local files.
 * Sorry, I removed this section because it didn't fit our license policy, see Project:PD Help for clarification. -- :Bdk: 18:57, 12 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Since Mediawiki Ver. 1.6 it is possible to simply add  to the LocalSettings.php (in the root of your Wiki-Folder). File-Links are regarded as a security problem. Many browsers (e.g. Mozilla Firefox and Opera) won't open "file://"-Links, if the document containing the file-link was loaded from a non-localhost-server (i.e. normally). There's a FAQ stating some possibilities of configuring browsers to open these links anyway or working around the security feature.
 * Before Ver. 1.6 the Syntax was slightly different. --VVA 12:54, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Why is the non-meta page missing information found on meta?
Why is the meta version of this page http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_FAQ much better (i.e. much more comprehensive) than this page? For example, I was looking for ages for info on how to create a multi-lingual site, of course read this page, then via the forums got the answer from the Rob Church and Rotem Liss posts (13th May 2006) that I should check:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_FAQ#How_do_I_create_a_small_wiki_farm.3F

If the old meta page is really supposed to be replaced by this mediawiki version then shouldn't we just stick a redirect on it? Otherwise we have the classic horror of duplicated data.

As it is, the information which I was looking for appears to be only on the (supposedly replaced) meta page and not on the (supposedly better) replacement page. I also made a minor correction to the old version because the correction had nowhere else to go. 217.136.7.181 15:52, 13 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Good point. I have added a note to the top of the page to let people know the current situation.  In time, this page should completely replace the one on meta, but due to incompatible licences we are not able to simply the copy information directly.  There is still a way to go before it becomes a complete replacement, and any help is always appreciated.  --HappyDog 14:42, 26 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Well the whole MediaWiki FAQ page has now been moved, except it wasn't moved. It was just deleted. Did lots of useful information get lost there? I only noticed because I had some links to a useful old FAQ entry about file links which has now disappeared. Only seems to be available by digging in the old versions here: MediaWiki FAQ old version. Possibly a rescue operation is needed for some of this info. All these detailed notes shouldn't really appear one humungous FAQ page (as it used to be on Meta). For example stuff about file links deserves its own page I guess. It needs reorganising as well as moving, but I hope we can avoid losing people's valuable contributions -- Harry Wood 12:10, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Special Symbols for Editing Screen
A colleague from my university's computer center helped me download mediawiki to our provider because I'd like to use it for linguistic projects. However, in the editing mode the table of special characters and symbols that you find in Wikipedia is not available. How can we get that? Can anybody help us? Thanks. --Joachim 132.180.7.27 15:42, 15 May 2006 (UTC)


 * You need the Charinsert extension. Look at w:MediaWiki_talk:Edittools/Archive_02. Bradleyb 23:53, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Editing template sections
Hey all, I help maintain a WIKI dealing with game archive formats (XeNTaXWIKI), and I recently started implementing a new layout that makes extensive use of templates. However, I've run into a bit of trouble - when trying to edit a section, it takes you to the template edit screen instead of that for the page. I have looked at the documentation here, but haven't found a solution to this. Is there any way around it, apart from either using a seperate template for each section, or hitting the main 'Edit' link every time?


 * -Dinoguy1000

Changing the interface text / updating to 1.6.6
Changing the interface text as described in the FAQ (via editing system messages listed in Special:Allmessages) works well. However, while updating from MW 1.6.5 to 1.6.6 today, I realised that the MediaWiki namespaces was re-initialised, thus blowing away all changes I had carefully made! Note that this did not happen while upgrading from 1.6.3 to 1.6.5 only weeks ago!

There was nothing I could do but to go back to my (luckily) backed-up 1.6.5 installation.

Is there any way to make the update script leave the MW namespace untouched?
 * Already answered you here. Greetings -- :Bdk: 00:15, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Images not showing after upgrading to 1.6.5
Greetings, this isn't a problem I'm having but more-so a post hoping to help anyone else who ran into the same problem I did after upgrading. I also posted this in the Project:Forum page as well. If this is in the wrong place, my apologies admins but I wanted to share this information for anyone else who might have had this problem.

After I upgraded from 1.4.5 to 1.6.5 none of my images worked, thumbed or normal. The weird part was if I reuploaded the file, I received the standard warning that the image already existed. If I proceeded to reupload it, the image would then show normally. I ran the rebuildImages.php script both with and without the --missing switch but no luck.

What it boiled down to was I had to move all of my images. They were in sub folders in images like /1/10, /1/11 etc. I had to move all of the files from those folders to the root folder images/. Once this was done, every image loaded up just fine without having to take any further action. Anything with the |thumb option regenerated a new thumbnail into the root of the folder thumbs/. To avoid wasting space, I deleted all of the sub folders in my thumbs/ folder since they were not being referenced and were duplicates anyways. --Brownc4 02:22, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Example: opera.jpg is in images/o/o2/opera.jpg. Move it from images/o/o2 to just images/.


 * In future, check the effective value of  and set it to true, to see if that helps. robchurch | talk 13:13, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Smiley
How can I add smiley functionality so that if I write :P or :lol: it will be replaced automatically with the appropriate image? Thx Semut 18:35, 27 May 2006 (UTC)


 * No such functionality exists. -- Sysy / (talk) 16:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)


 * This functionality is not available in MediaWiki, and will not be added. However, an extension may be available to do this.  If not, you could try writing your own. --HappyDog 12:48, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Hook the pre-save transform, rip out  sections etc. then do a regular expression replacement. robchurch | talk 13:13, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Running maintenance scripts from command line
Why are maintenance scripts restricted to running from comand line? Could not it be left up to the administrator (with a suggestion that it should better be done from the command line)?

I, for example, don't have a command line access to my site on a shared host, so I cannot do all those maintenances! For example - how to change a language? You write in the FAQ: change the language variable and run "rebuildMessages.php". So, how do I run it?... --Knakts 17:10, 30 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Have you looked at phpShell? The scripts have to be run from the command line for a mixture of security and because certain scripts will take a longer time to run than PHP is allowed when running over the web. robchurch | talk 13:11, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

How do I rename my wiki?
I would like to change the name of my wiki. Is it possible to do this without re-installing everything?

The essential thing is:

1) Edit LocalSettings.php and change the $wgSitename setting.

You may also wish to:

2) run maintenance/rebuildMessages.php --update to re-source localized messages. Shouldn't be strictly required with current versions of MediaWiki, but some older versions hardcoded information into the wiki at install time.

3) Run maintenance/namespaceDupes.php --fix in case your new name produced any namespace conflicts which could make existing pages inaccessible.

4) Run maintenance/refreshLinks.php to update link tables.

5) Check Special:Allmessages and Special:Allpages for pages which might need to be moved and links that need to be fixed

Thanks to Brion Vibber on the mailing list. This info is presumed to be accurate as of MediaWiki 1.6. I have not tested it. -- Sy / (talk) 15:57, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Importing large amounts of existing material?
I'm new to wiki in general and mediawiki in particular. I'm skilled in SQL but unskilled in PHP. My company has a large amount of existing information in online help files, customer support databases, etc. Are there any guides to converting that information to wiki format? I've looked at amazon and bookpool for books that cover these topics, but it looks like the best book is outdated (Perl-based) and the others don't address conversion very much.


 * Try http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:WordToWiki or Import, Export function http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Export http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Import - Lesiu

Making cleanup template look like wikipedia's
I'm trying to figure out why I cannot make the cleanup template look like Wikipedia's. I took the template text, so that it has the same information, although the blue box is not appearing as well. How do I add the blue box? 12.223.26.3 06:14, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Going direct to Edit page when article does not yet exist from link or search
Just set up a new Wiki last week, and during initial customization I found instructions on how to configure it to automatically bring up an edit page with text editor whenever a page is not found. Sounded efficient, so I did it. Since our users are all Wiki Newbies, it turned out not to be so good an idea, after all, but now I can't find the instructions in order to set it back! I would have sworn this info was in the FAQ, but during install and setup I was bouncing back and forth between meta, here, and some third-party sites trying to figure out what to do next, so I could very well be wrong. Can someone please tell me how to set this feature back to the default, and perhaps it should be included in the faq. Thanks.


 * It's ; remove the override line from LocalSettings.php or set it to false. robchurch | talk 12:57, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Interwiki
The section that talks about interwiki links doesn't tell me how I can make a link i.e. from my personal wiki to Wikipedia.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special_page_to_work_with_the_interwiki_table

Changing the footer
Hi,

I'm going o change the footer of my wiki. footer tells me to modify the footerlinks-array in the skins php file. I've added an new item called imprint. Where ca i define the imprint item? --80.128.16.198 08:42, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I put in small section giving a start of how to change the footer, but it was abruptly deleted by the anonymous user 86.133.51.101 -- should I put it back in or will this just result in a revert skirmish? Note that this isn't the only text I considered possibly useful that 86.133.51.101 deleted. My stub section as follows (with one minor tweak I just gave it):

- - - ===How do I change the footer?=== This is done on a skin-by-skin basis. For monobook, edit monobook.php and find the following text:  $footerlinks = array(                      'lastmod', 'viewcount', 'numberofwatchingusers', 'credits', 'copyright',                       'privacy', 'about', 'disclaimer', 'tagline',               ); 

Editing this, however, is trickier than as presented at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Footer - - -

I note that it's trickier because in editing this on my company's internal Wiki it now displays NOTHING in the footer other than the MediaWiki logo. Not what I left that I wanted it to display, nothing. --Strangelv 19:59, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I have added this info back to the FAQ. It works for me. -- Barrylb 15:07, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Where are the used items (lastmod, viewcount, etc.) defined? --80.128.7.104 21:44, 8 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Good question. We should have that in the FAQ and how to customize each one. For now though in the file includes/SkinTemplate.php the values of each one are set. If you do a search in that file for each of the names you can see how they are implemented. -- Barrylb 04:53, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I've now added info on how to customize each of the items to the FAQ. -- Barrylb 05:39, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

This was useful info, but now I've edited my footer the formatting needs adjustment. Specifically I get one very long line and a very short line underneath (disclaimers). How can I add a line break to even up the lines a little? Visctrix 00:39, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Could the array be split into 2 arrays to solve this problem? Visctrix 23:26, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Protect Namespace
Only sysops can add pages to Mediawiki namespace. Is it possible to create new namespace, where only sysops will have permission in adding and editing pages? Or change preferences for existing namespace, i.e. Help: ?
 * Setting user rights in MediaWiki and Hidden pages. Seb35 16:38, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for fast answer! I've never use and don't know php language, but I found in includes/Title.php this code: if( NS_MEDIAWIKI == $this->mNamespace &&		   !$wgUser->isAllowed('editinterface') ) { wfProfileOut( $fname ); return false; } I copied it again, and changed NS_MEDIAWIKI in i.e. 100 - number of my custom namespace. And it works! - Only sysops can add and edit pages in this namespace, but everyone can read it. I would like to ask you - is it good and safe solution? 21:35, 28 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, but you will lose the change when you next upgrade your copy of MediaWiki, unless you take care. Make sure you note the changes you have made to a separate (new) file so that you can re-apply them after an upgrade. Also be sure to lock your wiki when you perform an upgrade, otherwise there will be a period of time between upgrading to the new version and re-applying your fix when these pages will be editable by everyone! Note that subsequent versions of MediaWiki may not work in the same way, so your fix is not guaranteed to work in the future, however I don't know of any method of achieving the above using the existing settings so unless I am mistaken then hacking the code is the best way, for now.   --HappyDog 12:12, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Editing 'Expand this page'
How do i change the 'expand this page' html, that is how do i change what it says when i use the command? 24.110.3.148 08:03, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Edit Template:Expand -- Barrylb 18:36, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Why was much of "Changing the Interface" removed?
Lots of useful information deleted by Robchurch. Why? -- Barrylb 16:28, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I am going to revert for now, until there is an explanation. -- Barrylb 16:41, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

I removed it because it belongs in a separate page or series of such relating to changing the interface. These are slightly more advanced alterations and are not FAQ material. robchurch | talk 12:56, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Error when clicking "Please setup the wiki first."
I get this error when trying to install: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_NEW in /includes/MagicWord.php on line 203

Please give response or email fvercuiel@gmail.com


 * You're using an older version of PHP that MediaWiki 1.7 does not support. MediaWiki 1.7.0 and later require PHP 5 (5.1.x is recommended). robchurch | talk 12:55, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I get the same error with PHP 5.0.5 (specifically, 5.0.5-2ubuntu1.4, built 7 Sep 2006 08:02:47).

Change the mulitple-links-to-one-host-style
How can I keep the wiki from translating multiple links to the same host to [1], [2], ...? I try to use the Mediawiki as an Intranet and therefore Documentations often reside on the same host but I still want to provide a visible Link-Title. --VVA 08:53, 11 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Either use the labelled external link syntax, e.g.  or investigate the use of interwiki links which allow linking such as  . robchurch | talk 13:10, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Add a Troubleshooting section
This FAQ is missing a troubleshooting section, which should among other things include the blow section from the old FAQ at meta. I don't quite feel at home here, so i'm not being quite as bold as usual :P -- de:Benutzer:Duesentrieb 00:46, 12 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Troubleshooters belong on separate pages, not lumped into the FAQ. robchurch | talk 13:15, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

How do I change a user's password?
Assuming that $wgPasswordSalt is set to true (the default), you can use the following SQL query:

UPDATE user SET user_password = MD5(CONCAT(user_id, '-', MD5('somepass'))) WHERE user_name = 'someuser'; Where obviously "somepass" is changed to the password you want to set and "someuser" is changed to the user name as it is listed in the table "user".

Note: the user_id in the CONCAT string is a column name and is not meant to be replaced with 'someuser'

Note: For error of table 'dbname.user' does not exist, please check the LocalSettings.php for $wgDBPrefix, the user table might be named to ($wgDBPreix)user.

Underscore in title
I want to use MediaWiki for a manual and reference. As several of my functions have '_' within their name, it would be nice if the name of the function would be displayed with _ instead of blank especially in the title of the page. Is there any possibility to tell MediaWiki that the lemma must have a _ instead of a blank? --87.78.154.2 15:29, 14 July 2006 (UTC)


 * No. 164.11.204.56 01:02, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

1.7.1 and $wgDBtransactions
After a fresh Mediawiki 1.7.1 install and albeit many tables use the 'InnoDB' storage engine, the default '$wgDBtransactions' remains at its historical 'false' value. It is used in 'includes/Article.php' clauses.

May I set "$wgDBtransactions = true" in LocalSettings.php? Is this variable obsolete?

Thank you Natmaka 16:53, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Hiding some titles
How is Wikipedia hiding the main page's title but not the titles within? I would like to be able to choose whether the title is shown, but cannot figure out how it is done, despite Wikipedia clearly doing so on the main page. I know how to hide the titles completely using my .php file for my skin, but I am not figuring out how to make the title disappear at will. It would be nice to have a __NOTITLE__ magic word that would just do this for me.


 * Short answer; JavaScript. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Monobook.js. A magic word as discussed was not implemented because some of the developers felt it would be abused and was not needed. 86.134.116.228 04:23, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Content Migration from different existing wikis to one
We do have some wikis in our organization (all mediawiki but different server, different versions, mostly v. 1.3.x)) and now plan to insatll one (media)wiki (v 1.7.1) instead. Of course there's lots of content we dont't want to loose, but also old stuff that does not need to be transferred to the new wiki. Is there a user friendly way of selecting specific pages and transfer those to the new wiki (instead of copy&paste or some work in MySQL (which cannot be done by the users))?

I know of the Special:Export page. Only that Import is not working for older versions and I Don't know whether Export from 1.3.wiki works for import in wiki 1.7.

18 July 2006


 * The XML format from earlier versions should be 100% compatible with the current development, release and the most recent legacy (1.6) branches. 86.134.116.228 04:22, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Delete a file
We just installed a wiki at work and I need to know how to delete a file as the steps aren't in the article yet. Thanks. Rlevse 13:50, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Also, how to delete a user and reset a password.140.32.75.204 18:56, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

From the mysql prompt:

mysql> DELETE FROM user WHERE user_name = 'Jcarr'; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Note that mediawiki seems to like to capitalize the first letter of your login name. If you don't have the username correct, mysql will return "Query OK, 0 rows affected" Jeff Carr 20:10, 26 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Note that deleting users in that manner does not remove the copious references to them from the rest of the database, and could cause odd problems later. A safer method is to run reassignEdits.php on the account, assign the edits to a name that does not exist, and then delete the account. As an alternative, consider blocking the user or scrambling their password.


 * To delete a page, log in as an administrator, and select the Delete option from the context menu which appears, in the Monobook (default) skin, at the top of each page.


 * To reset a user's password, the simpler option is to ensure there's an email address associated with the account, and ask the user to click "lost password" when logging in. If this is not an option, then look at the maintenance/changePassword.php script or search the web for mediawiki password md5. 86.134.116.228 04:18, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Sessions errors
I've been trying to fix our install of MediaWiki, and have found that some pages (main page, in particular) do not show up correctly unless logged in. I attempted to edit the page to see if that would fix it, and I got this error:

Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again. If it still doesn't work, try logging out and logging back in.

and the edits never go through. In getting the wiki to work again, I had copied data from a new objectcache to and older one, could this be related? Thanks very much! --128.113.63.60 13:44, 24 July 2006 (UTC)


 * The first problem sounds like caching. Set $wgCacheEpoch in LocalSettings.php</tt> as follows to force MediaWiki to clear old caches:




 * in LocalSettings.php</tt>. 86.134.116.228 04:12, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

change the font size
Hi. How can I change the font size of my own wiki? I cannot find the place to change that.


 * Browse to the MediaWiki:Common.css page on your wiki and add in your CSS as usual, e.g.




 * 86.134.116.228 04:31, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Passing a space as argument to an extension
Don't know if this is the right space to discuss this. If not, please point me ...

I am trying to pass a space as an argument to an extension.

Example: text

The extension code registering the extension is as follows: function extension { global $wgParser; $wgParser->setHook( 'extension', 'doit' ); } function doit( $input, $args, &$parser ) {

...

}

The $args in the function 'doit' are already space free. It seems that the arguments get trimmed, because something like  goes through but   results in just a single   without leading and trailing space.

Is there a way to avoid this?

--83.171.153.127 22:57, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Solution found
Ok ... it drove me crazy not being able to pass a space to an extensions argument. So I digged into the code. Boy this is a lot of code and not easy to understand. But I finally found the function where attribute handling is done.

You can find it in Sanitizer.php, line 745ff, function.

I don't know why in line 767 the value is trimmed. Perhaps it is necessary but I removed the  and a first test worked just fine.

So perhaps someone with more knowledge about the mediawiki internal workings and wonders can shed some light on this.

And perhaps a developer can just remove the  or make it optional with default to true and a rule on how extensions can switch off that behaviour.

--83.171.153.127 21:36, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Remove Edit tab for non logged in users
Ok, I've read the FAQ, but I can't seem to understand it. Can someone show me how the final code should look when its done? I use the MonoBook skin.--70.33.138.121 23:24, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Oops, this is me, didnt realize I wasnt logged in.--Trek84 23:26, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Does this item make sense anymore anyway? "How can I prevent editing by anonymous users?" looks more like one actually wants and the "Remove Edit tab" tip does only remove the edit tab but not the in page section edit links anyway Hholzgra 21:19, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, you can hide it in your global CSS by modifying the skin files, or you could just disable page editing by anonymous users, and they would get the "View source" tab instead of the "edit" tab. Tito<font color="#008000">xd (?!?) 08:01, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Notes for editors

 * 1) Please keep information project-neutral
 * 2) Please use language which will make us look like we have a reading age of more than six
 * 3) Please don't link to third parties or extensions or code which aren't maintained in Subversion; such code won't have been vetted by a developer, and if anything goes wrong because someone installed an extension which no longer works with the current code, etc. then we're bound to get the blame
 * 4) Be sensible about what level of detail is being included and don't add reams of similar information, e.g. detailed skin tweaks should go somewhere else

Cheers, robchurch | talk 21:24, 26 August 2006 (UTC)


 * (sigh) I've just had to remove one chunk in response to a bug report posted in good faith against a hack that appeared here. Please do not post random bits of unverified, unofficial code here, it leads to bad things happening and more headache for the real development team. Cheers, robchurch | talk 02:39, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

differences between 1.5x, 1.6x, 1.7x
Where can I find a list of the main differences between the version 1.5x, 1.6x, 1.7x ?


 * Compare the release notes in each version. The release notes shipped with 1.6.0 detail changes since the 1.5 branch, for instance. robchurch | talk 02:58, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Sign Up as an Administrator
How do I sign up as an administrator? How can I create an sysop account?
 * If you are the system administrator of the wiki, when you has create your wiki the installation script should ask you the pseudo and the password for a sysop-and-bucreaucrat account. You can use this account for give sysop rights to other users.
 * If you aren't system admin, you must ask a bureaucrat the sysop rights or perhaps be eleted. ~ Seb35 18:07, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
 * The 1.8 MediaWiki installation script does not ask for this information, it sets up the first user as the administrator. To make an account a sysop you may want to look into the Makesysop extension used here on Mediawiki (which surprising has no page at all describing it nor including the code).  Also a good resource is here at Managing User Rights, however as that currently redirects you to Meta you can go directly here: Meta: Help:User Levels --Grymwulf 04:53, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Transclusion
Is there a way of Transcluding a template only if that temaplte exists? I don't want to get the red link if it doesn't exist.

The reason I want to do this is as follows:

I want to use templates on my wiki's main page and  which will display any special information for that day. If nothing is happening on that day then I don't want anything to show up.

[Zabdiel] 15:24, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't know if it's possible, but you can hack with the ParserFunctions (you must install this on your wiki) :
 * Create an intermediate template Template:DisplayTemplate</tt> (or other name) with
 * You use  and will display only if Template:today&#123;{CURRENTDAY}}</tt>
 * ~ Seb35 18:28, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
 * ~ Seb35 18:28, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

bread crumbs FAQ entry
What happened to the entry pointed at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:FAQ#How_do_I_implement_a_.27breadcru ?

There are links to it around, and it was in google cache earlier this week, but now it seems to be gone. Why? Is there better information somewhere? Is this not a FAQ?


 * See the note I posted above, about a "bit of code leading to a bug report" etc. etc. robchurch | talk 01:05, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Noted. So how about a FAQ entry for the "limited BreadCrumb support when using subpages"? Also maybe one for "subpages" in general?

How to change the date format ?
I want to change the date format on the footer

this page was last modifed 16:24, etc I want to remove the timestamp and leave just the date

how would I do this ?

program language & server expected
i looked in the FAQ for info on what programming language MediaWiki is written in and it doesn't say. if anybody wants to put another question & answer in the FAQ this would help me out a lot.
 * see How does MediaWiki work? please. -- :Bdk: 22:21, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
 * thanks.

How to remove the title of "Main Page"
Hi, I would like to remove the title from the Main Page the same way as in Wikipedia. I searched google and found a solution, which included editing monobook.js, but couldn't get it working.

I've got a ?
what is the newest version of MediaWiki that works on PHP 4.4.4?
 * MW 1.6.8 -- :Bdk: 22:29, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Thumbnail Image File Size Not Optimized
I have noticed that thumbnail image sizes are not optimized. For example, a PNG image that is 63KB turns into a thumbnail that is approximatly 53KB. But when I use Jasc Paint Shop Pro, I can further reduce the size of the thumbnail to 16KB with no noticeable quality loss. How do I make it so thumbnail file sizes become more optimized?

Linking to .mov files (Quick Time) won't work
After: allowing uploading of .mov files to my wiki, successfully uploading a certain .mov file and watching it from the page I've been directed to, I found my wiki won't link to it. If I type, for instance, [[Media:Example.mov]] (assuming my .mov file's named Example), I'd get a red link, leading to "Upload file" page. What am I doing wrong? --87.69.58.71 17:59, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Check your apache error logs. Most likely you're running into PHP's 8MB upload limit.  I came across this discussion because I was searching for a way around it, which I still haven't found. --Anonymous User, 16 November 2006

Search in different wikis
Proth 16:20, 8 November 2006 (UTC) Many thanks in advance.
 * Hello, I would like to know if there is a way to, from one wiki, search words also in a different wiki and have all the results shown in the first Wiki?
 * ex: Type words to search in Wiki A, wiki A search in itself and also in Wiki B and show all the results in Wiki A.

Search spécial characters
Proth 16:20, 8 November 2006 (UTC) Many thanks in advance.
 * Hello, We still have a recurent problem in searching for special caracters, like accents, in Wiki.
 * ex: Search for word "eglise" doesn't give articles containing word "église".
 * We can't find any information/solution for this problem. If anybody have a idea...


 * I'm currently working on an extension, DidYouMean that finds titles which differ only by capitalisation, hyphenation, and use of accents and ligatures. It's primarily for the English Wiktionary but once it exists people will be able to massage it into something more general for other wikis. &mdash; Hippietrail 12:29, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Access control
hi,

From the article:'''In particular, users should remember that it is designed to allow open-editing, and doesn't provide very complex per-page access restrictions. Users seeking such functionality ought to consider using software dedicated to that purpose, such as document or content management software'''


 * Why is that? I love media wiki and I would like to keep using it as an internal wiki system in my organization. Some information in the organization is sensitive and the lack per-page access control prevents us from using it. How can we overcome this problem? thanks, Ori Mosenzon 14:49, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Candidate from removal: "Webscapia iNet" question
RE: "Does Webscapia's (c) iNet (r) work with Media Wiki?"

What the heck is "Webscapia's iNet"? (Try Googling it.) Is this really a question that's asked frequently? (as in more than once, ever?)

-128.107.159.110 07:58, 30 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Done. --HappyDog 02:49, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

setup not working
* PHP 5.2.0 installed * Found database drivers for: MySQL * PHP server API is apache2handler; ok, using pretty URLs (index.php/Page_Title) * Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support. * PHP is configured with no memory_limit. * Have zlib support; enabling output compression. * Couldn't find Turck MMCache, eAccelerator or APC. Object caching functions cannot be used. * GNU diff3 not found. * Found GD graphics library built-in, image thumbnailing will be enabled if you enable uploads. * Installation directory: C:\Apache\htdocs\w * Script URI path: /w * Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki. * Warning: $wgSecretKey key is insecure, generated with mt_rand. Consider changing it manually.

Generating configuration file... * Database type: MySQL * Loading class: DatabaseMysql * Attempting to connect to database server as wikiuser...success. * Connected to 5.0.27-community-nt * Database wikidb exists * Creating tables... using MySQL 4 table defs...Query "CREATE TABLE `user` ( user_id int(5) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, user_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default , user_real_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default , user_password tinyblob NOT NULL default , user_newpassword tinyblob NOT NULL default , user_email tinytext NOT NULL default , user_options blob NOT NULL default , user_touched char(14) binary NOT NULL default , user_token char(32) binary NOT NULL default , user_email_authenticated char(14) binary, user_email_token char(32) binary, user_email_token_expires char(14) binary, user_registration char(14) binary, PRIMARY KEY user_id (user_id), UNIQUE INDEX user_name (user_name), INDEX (user_email_token) ) TYPE=InnoDB " failed with error code "BLOB/TEXT column 'user_password' can't have a default value (localhost)".

i fixed it by turning off strict mode


 * Please submit this to the Bug Tracker --Grymwulf 05:08, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Korean language page for Manual:FAQ
meta:미디어위키 FAQ

This is Korean language page for Manual:FAQ.

I can't link to Manual:FAQ. help~!!

-- <font style="background-color:#0000ff;color:ghostwhite">WonYong ( Talk / Contrib ) 04:59, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

open my_wiki from my_root directory (my_domain).
I had hard time figuring it out as I couldn't find any reference to this. MediaWiki help and manuals assume that you upload file to /wiki/ directory. But, then the index.php resides within /wiki/ directory and users have to type http://my_domain/wiki/ to get to my_wiki main page. I had to spend hours to find out what I had to do to allow users to just type my_domain name and get to my_wiki main page. Here is what you can do:
 * create an index.php, and type this:


 * upload it to the root directory of my_domain (e.g., if you own a domain name such as www.my_domain.com, that is the name of your root directory)

That's it! My Wiki page is at http://taichiwiki.org You can contact me with further questions - I am a non-techy who has a patience to make research and read mannuals. I have been spending unacountable amount of hours to find right tips and codes for this wonderful program and some others. I personally feel that MediaWiki should have a special page called MediaWiki help for non-techies. There are so many great functions and extensions for MediaWiki, but the average installation instructions seem to be written by and for the techies. I guess techies don't understand the problems of non-techies... Don't get me wrong techies, I really appreciate what you are doing, and doing it for free. You guys are awesome! --Kohyin 07:00, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Um, that's what we are working on here... any further help would be much appreciated. ;)</tt> By the way, you could have done that just by messing around with the Apache rewrite rules, but that isn't linked from anywhere here. Hmm. Tito<font color="#008000">xd (?!?) 19:12, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, I realized it later as my learning progressed. This one is a round-about not-so fluent solution, but it gets a message passed to the machine :) I have struggled and still am struggling, I don't want all the time and energy go wasted just for my personal goal. I will keep posting what I find difficult and confusing as well as beginner's solutions that I come up with...I love learning languages and it's like learning new languages. Need to read lots of grammer books and go through dictionaries, but solution will be there as it isn't an appreciation of a literature (literature is another fascinating subject, though)Kohyin 08:57, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Edit sidebar, part 2
I understand how to edit the sidebar above the search box, by editing MediaWiki:Sidebar, But how do I edit the sidebar below it. Some wiki's have an additional box below the toolbox section, for seperate links, such as "Site in a different langusge" or containing Google Adsense.

--Steve Gallagher 22:13, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * To do this edit MediaWiki:Sidebar-lower. I dont know if this works in all versions.--George Drummond 22:41, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

How do I use the same user-table for different wikis?
How do I use the same users table for differents wikis that use the same datebase? (Asked by Eloy 19:45, 5 May 2006 (UTC))
 * Could this be answered please? --Zervon 18:36, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Maybe you can create a view with MySQL 5.x:
 * create view schema1.user as select * from schema2.user --Maletin 14:11, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Upgrades
I just upgraded MW v1.9 to 1.9.2.

Background: My server has php5 installed but it runs php4 as a default. So, I had to do a little trick to install the MW v.1.9 originall by adding .access file and  and place it at the root directory of my server to tell it to use php5 instead of php4. <br ?>I hope this helps others save their time and alleviate pain.--Kohyin 09:24, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
 * The update instruction tells you to go to command line and type
 * So, as simpleminded as I was, I typed  but it didn't work
 * It's because I should have ignored $ symbol at the command line
 * So, I typed, but I got the message that this MW version requires php5 but my server is running on php4.
 * I found out that I had to type  in my case.
 * So, I typed  but now it told me I had to have a LocalConfig.php -- well I am a total beginner, so I just followed the instruction and there was no mention of creating a LocalSettings.php before the update command, but it make sense that I had to have the file...to come to think of it. My bad.
 * So, I moved my LocalSettings.php file along with all the customized files into the new wiki files.
 * This time it told me that it couldn't connect to the database and told me to check the database name, user name, and password.
 * This, I couldn't figure out why it didn't work as all the information on my LocalSettings.php were correct.
 * I gave up on update and went for install -- good news is that this worked and I didn't loose anything other than the time I spent on trying to update -- I had the database backed up just in case.

How can i remove the external.png arrow from appearing next to external links?
In /skins/monobook/main.css Ctrl+F "this can be used in the content area to switch off" and uncomment (remove the #). Also remove the following code:


 * 1) bodyContent a.external,


 * 1) bodyContent a[href ^="gopher://"] {

background: url(external.png) center right no-repeat;

padding-right: 13px;

}

Blank Pages despite successful installation
Am trying to use MediaWiki on WIMP. Win2k Prof, IIS 6, MySQL 4.1.22, PHP 5.2.1. Downloaded MediaWiki 1.9.3. Installation is successful and main page has come up. But clicking on any link on the Main page is displaying a blank page in IE. What could be the problem. Pls help. Am trying to figure it out for the last 3 days and haven't found a solution. - Radha


 * what do the error logs of IIS and PHP say? -- Duesentrieb ⇌ 12:45, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't know how to interpret the log. sorry. But these are the last 2 entries: 12:03:17 127.0.0.1 GET /enlighten/index.php 301 12:03:17 127.0.0.1 GET /enlighten/index.php 200 Today, I reinstalled PHP, recreated the vdir in IIS and put in $wgCachePages = false; in localsetttings.php. And guess what? The main page is itself blank. :( Don't know what to do. - Radha

Bug in hide section editing? (3.16)
works fine for deactivating the section editing links. But if the "raw" action is disabled, the section editing links show up again.

Why is that?

Promote user MySQL statement update
For MediaWiki version 1.9.3 the mysql command to promote a user to a sysop is incorrect. INSERT INTO user_group SET ug_id = youruserid, ug_group = "sysop" the table is now 'user_groups' and the ug_id field has changed to ug_user, hence the correct command would be: INSERT INTO user_groups SET ug_user = <int, user_userid>, ug_group = "sysop"

Also, you would probably want to do a select user_id, user_name from user; first, so you can find the correct user_id value
 * Thanks! Interestingly enough, that SQL must have been wrong since the beginning, because I don't see any changes that were done to that table... Tito<font color="#008000">xd (?!?) 04:40, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Thumbnails do not work
http://www.khakain.com/wiki2/index.php?title=Special:Newimages

As you can see, only a few images can been seen in their thumbnail form. This has been going on for over a year. Would upgrading solve this problem? If this isn't the right place to ask, please tell me a good place to go. I've been trying for months to find the reason for this.

note: I don't want to see this on any interwiki pages, by the way.

How can I make the categories box appear on top of an article page instead of the bottom?
This is handled by the "catlinks". Edit the skin. E.g. skins/Monobook.php: Find this section: Switch the 2 lines to:

Using deleteOldRevisions.php
It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to use this:
 * Run PuTTY
 * cd yourdomain
 * cd yourwikidirectory
 * cd maintenance
 * If you're using php5 then type in:  /usr/local/php5/bin/php deleteOldRevisions.php --delete
 * If you're using php4 then you can just type: php deleteOldRevisions.php --delete

This procedure will work for all of the scripts in the maintenance directory. Make sure you download and look at the script before running it to see if it has any notes or usage guidelines. David Shenk 18:30, 23 March 2007 (UTC)