Project:Support desk/Archive 20

(RESOLVED) code question/ how to change the code for a wiki page?

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• Database:
• URL:

hi there i want to add some meta informations to the code of some wiki pages

<meta name="keywords" content="Quecksilber - und alle Quecksilberhaltigen Stoffe" />

i can view the code but cant work with it and since i dont have a html data to work with cuz its stored in the db how can i work with it? —62.225.191.42 07:22, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

$wgExtensionFunctions[] = 'wfAddMetaTag';
function wfAddMetaTag() {
	global $wgOut;
	$wgOut->addMeta('keywords','Quecksilber - und alle Quecksilberhaltigen Stoffe');
	}

You can add this code snippet to your LocalSettings which should do the trick --Nad 20:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

thx for answer but i want to add some meta informations to like 500+ Pages dont think this trick will work here :( — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

Why won't it work? -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 22:49, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Can't get my wiki back after loosing some tables in database

• MediaWiki: 1.5.7
• PHP: 5.1.6-1~bpo.1 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 4.0.24_Debian-10sarge2-log
• URL: http://elearning.itinet.fr/wikibibi/index.php/

Hi, I had a hard disk crash an now only certain tables seems to contain information in my database. I tried to put on the wiki back, but it says that it can't find some tables.

My important information is most in searchindex table. Is there any way to get this information back in a wiki ? or any other possibility ?

I already tried to move only the searchindex table to another wiki but it didn't work.

Thanks, Eric.

—195.25.195.79 16:24, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

What is the content that your Wiki displays when "it says that it can't find some tables"? -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 22:50, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

If it's just the searchindex? That should be possible to rebuild, try php maintenance/upgrade.php then try maintenance/rebuildall.php. Note that, if MySQL has marked the table as "crashed", you will need to use MySQL's tools to repair the database before attempting to rebuild the table content in MediaWiki. --Carlb 19:09, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) 1.6.10 Install problems

I Am trying ti install 1.6.10 as that is the version the install recommended as I am running PHP Version 4.4.7 and can not upgrade at this time.

Here are all the lines of the install page, including the error:

1. PHP 4.4.7 installed
2. PHP server API is apache; ok, using pretty URLs (index.php/Page_Title)
3. Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support.
4. PHP is configured with no memory_limit.
5. Have zlib support; enabling output compression.
6. Neither Turck MMCache nor eAccelerator are installed, can't use object caching functions
7. Found GNU diff3: /usr/bin/diff3.
8. Found ImageMagick: /usr/bin/convert; image thumbnailing will be enabled if you enable uploads.
9. Found GD graphics library built-in.
10. Installation directory: /home/laplante/public_html/wiki
11. Script URI path: /wiki
12. Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki.

Generating configuration file...

1. Database type: mysql

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare initialisemessages() (previously declared in /home/laplante/public_html/wiki/config/maintenance/InitialiseMessages.inc:14) in /home/laplante/public_html/wiki/maintenance/InitialiseMessages.inc on line 14

Thank you for any help you may be able to provide! —66.82.9.108 02:41, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Are you still having this problem? -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 23:44, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) MediaWiki doesn't load with display_errors = On in php.ini?

This should be a trivial thing, so I don't feel too guilty asking anyone this question. Can someone else do a test on MediaWiki 1.11 to see what happens when switching display_errors = On and Off in php.ini? It seems that on my machine, under Apache 2.2.4/Win32 on Windows XP, MediaWiki fails silently and returns a blank page if the server has enabled error display. Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] 11:07, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

It shouldn't fail silently if error reporting is on. Try seting error_reporting to E_ALL, and check the error log too --Nad 20:33, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

It's been on E_ALL the whole time, but nothing shows up in the error log. I did just uninstall php_exif.dll, which was throwing errors that the file couldn't be found (which is BS and another problem to be solved at some point). It's just toggling display_errors that makes it work or not; which is really strange, because I could swear that I used it with error display on in previous versions and it didn't make any difference. Could it be something to do with Windows, or a bug in Apache 2.2.4 or PHP 5.2.4 that I should upgrade to fix? (Not that I want to. Last time I tried updating Apache, I very nearly hosed my entire setup. I know now why there are servers still using Apache 1.1.3 and other old versions like that.) Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] 18:22, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Systemmessage 'mainpagetext' and 'mainpagedocfooter' not editable throu MessagesYY.php

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.3.2
• MySQL: 5.0.41
• URL:

Hi! i edited the MessagesYY.php, to extend some descriptions. Some messages of the array are correctly displayed, after editing. But some are not. e.g. 'mainpagetext' and 'mainpagedocfooter'. And none of this messages are Specialpages (listed also in the FAQ). The modified text is displayed in Allmessages correctly, but only there (e.g. 'mainpagetext' and 'mainpagedocfooter'). I don' use cachemechanism and purged the page (which use the messages) allready. In the FAQ are listed an maintenance script rebuildMessages.php, but it seems been removed.

How can i modify this messages 'mainpagetext' and 'mainpagedocfooter' without using Special:Allmessages?

Thank you! --Ozz 07:03, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Presumably [[MediaWiki:<pagename>]]. Mønobi 03:24, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Viewing Previous Revisions Crashes mysql

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.4 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community
• URL: not publicly viewable: accessible on intranet only

Trying to view older revisions is crashing MySQL and MediaWiki is displaying the following error:

A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was:

    (SQL query hidden)

from within function "Database::selectField". MySQL returned error "2006: MySQL server has gone away (localhost)".

The original revision and the last couple revisions work fine. All the other revisions cause this error. I can use the mysql command line client and SELECT * from text WHERE old_id= for all the old revisions that cause the crash with no problem.

Any ideas what is going on?

Glen

—209.222.206.50 19:51, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I think it might have to do something with your MySQL. Are you sure that your database isn't just full? —The TattleTale Strangler MediaWiki Support Team 01:46, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Further to previous enquiries

At the beginning of January I came on here as an anon asking about the size of the Media and general queries following up from the PHP version I needed, and consequent contact with my provider revealed that I could upgrade to PHP 5, but it would cost. I can't afford it, so I have to put up with PHP 4.4.7. That means if I am to put MediaWiki onto my domain, it will have to start with version 1.6.15.

Now my question(s);

1. Where do I find version 1.6.15 to download?
2. Are the installation instructions any different to any other installation, including that of the current version?
3. Are the following features a part of V1.6.15;
   1. Check User (the main reason why I am installing)
   2. Colourful signatures (a la Wikipedia)
   3. Making the default editing having an account (Wiki-Site's default is anonymous editing as an example of what I DON'T want)
   4. More groups than just "User, Sysop and Bureaucrat"
   5. The ability to change the side nav bar and add stuff
4. Once installed where do I find the security updates to V1.6.15 and anything else I may need or might want for that version

Sorry if these questions seem dim, but I am making sure I have all the information I need so I can proceed with as little assistance as possible. TLPG 00:05, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

1. here
2. Nope just unzip and setup the wiki via browser
3. The CheckUser Extension won't work with 1.6.15 but you may be able to do some tweaking to get it to work
4. If you mean disabling anon editing then see here
5. Default groups are User, Sysop, Bureaucrat and bot, see here for how to add extra groups
6. see Manual:Interface/Sidebar

Hope this helps --Chris 01:03, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

You might be able to use userIP check user's predecessor SVN --Chris 01:45, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

First off, it's 1.6.10, not 15. And to answer your very last question, 1.6.10 is the latest security update for that version, and there will be no more official upgrades of that version, as it is no longer a supported version. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 03:21, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh great! Now I'm caught between a rock and a hard place - unsupported version equals susceptibility to hacking. Not only that "tweaking" to get the CheckUser working is not within my computer capabilities. Balance that with the cost to switch servers on my domain host to get PHP 5.......it hurts thinking about it!

I'll talk to my domain host again. Thanks for your help so far, guys. Just one more question (a general one) - because my computer knowledge is so basic I hope you lot can help me with some simple queries should the need arise once I finally get around to whatever ends up being done. TLPG 10:32, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Might I just add that I think charging for a PHP upgrade is ridiculous. What host are you using? I'd like to make sure never to use them. (The number of hosts who still use PHP 4 and even 3 is also ridiculous, I might add again.) Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] MediaWiki Support Team 12:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Source Forge still uses php 4, they say they have a plan to upgrade to php 5 but they haven't put a date and nothing seems to be happening, very annoying! And that's on top of all the other config you need to do to get mediawiki running! --Chris 02:03, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Nothing in Special:Version info will displayed (blank page)

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.51
• URL: This is an intranet URL and cannot be accessed

After I've installed the Extension:Prefix Security extension, I've the problem of displaying something in Special:Version.
I know, this is now only my problem or the problem of the developer of this extension :)
But maybe someone can give me a hint about this problem of displaying a blank Special:Version Page? What does Special:Version need to display the versions of the installed software...?

Many thanks in advance!

—Timotheus.elias 11:53, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Blank pages mean PHP errors, so see this page, then come back with the specific errors that have been reported. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 01:49, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Try uninstalling the extension and reinstalling it. The most likely problem is a one-time installation error. Titoxd^(?!?) 04:39, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Excluding pages from "article count" and "random page" searches

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

Is there a way of excluding pages from the "article count" ({{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}) function and the Random Page function? For example, I don't want to include FAQ or About pages in those totals.

—74.128.207.61 23:46, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Funny, I was just about to ask how to include more articles in the article count (i.e. count my extra namespaces) and add Random page to encompass those extra namespaces also. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 02:19, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

I am wondering if there is some sort of code I can insert (much like the __notoc__ code) to prevent certain pages from being counted as "articles" or showing up in random pages/articles.

Does anyone have any insight into this? 74.128.207.61 17:20, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

You could place those articles in other namespaces, for instance your "Project:" namespace. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 21:11, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) 500 Internal Server Error while trying to access config/index.php

• MediaWiki: 1.11
• PHP: 5.2.5
• MySQL: 4.1.22-standard
• URL:

I replaced the wiki files with the files for the latest version and I am trying to run the web based config script to upgrade.

I get a 500 Internet server error page instead. The server log shows this

Premature end of script headers: /home/malvagit/public_html/hqwiki/config/index.php

Any ideas?

—Darkwater 06:06, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Can you include a URL to your wiki? Mønobi 03:26, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) install-utils.inc

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

My wiki is not yet installed. I get a error on the config directory in my wiki, when i point my browser there, and the wiki directory doesn't work i get 403 error. It says i don't have install-utils.inc when i looked through and i do have it.

—Smwape 23:43, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't know what it could be, but if it's a new install you could just try deleting everything and starting all over, then see if the problem occurs again. Smaug 00:22, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Permissions and ownership of files a problem? --Zven 00:41, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

That's probably right, 403 means forbidden, try chmod -R 755 * on your wiki base-dir --Nad 09:35, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Error with Checkuser and Makesysop

• MediaWiki: 1.12alpha
• PHP: 5.15
• MySQL:
• URL:

CheckUser is hard to install: I tried doing it via Phpshell for my XAMPP install which has a working copy of MediaWiki 1.12alpha - but couldn't get it to work.

I can't really just add it to extensions folder, with ExtensionFunctions.php and then it'll be installed (not forgetting $wgCheckUserLog directory).

See this image: http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/45033/2003150385021445665_rs.jpg When I say it "doesn't work", I'm not sure how to get it working with phpShell. and when it's installed: http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/44124/2003185015665829825_rs.jpg

It does not create a log in the log directory, and says "No matches found", even though they were.

This is what the log creates: http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/45063/2004716913533090621_rs.jpg

Makesysop, as mentioned at Extension:Makesysop installs OK, but apparently I have to use

$wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['userrights-interwiki'] = true;

in order to get user rights changed on my other wikis: e.g.

• Admin changed user rights for Testuser1@testwiki from sysop to sysop,

checkuser

• Admin changed user rights for Exampleuser@mywiki from sysop, bureaucrat to

sysop, bureaucrat, checkuser, oversight

• Admin changed user rights for FooBar@examplewiki from sysop, bureaucrat to

sysop, bureaucrat, steward

I find it strange that Special:Userrights has taken over from Special:Makesysop to configure cross-wiki permissions change, and also why is the line: $wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['userrights-interwiki'] = true;

needed??

The makesysop page here says "Special:Makesysop shows the same form in Special:Userrights. In the "user name" field the database name should be added after the account, e.g. MyUser@foowikidb instead of just "MyUser".

I'm trying to copy Wikimedia's setup for my wiki farm: hopefully my report will benefit others here.

How do I get it to work properly??

—82.42.237.84 16:16, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Makesysop was just a limited version of Userrights to begin with, it became deprecated the moment $wgAddGroups and $wgRemoveGroups took effect. The userrights-interwiki permission is needed because that's what the form checks for when you type an @wiki in the username field when using Special:Userrights. As for CheckUser, see if your hosting company will run the install script for you. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 03:10, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

• I'm actually testing it on a XAMPP server, thanks for explaining the steward thing. Can't get CheckUser to work on XAMPP though... well, unless you know a good terminal emulator for Windows XP... --82.42.237.84 10:29, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Simple: download the files from SVN, which I assume you've done. Then, open up phpMyAdmin, select your wiki's database, click the SQL tab and create two tables, cu_changes and cu_log. The query used to create cu_changes can be found here (current version, as of 10:48, 9 February 2008 (UTC)) and the query for cu_log is here (current, most up-to-date version as of 10:48, 9 February 2008 (UTC)). When you've created the tables, add include_once('extensions/CheckUser/CheckUser.php'); to your LocalSettings.php and you're done. Give yourself checkuser permission, browse to Special:CheckUser and enjoy. --Sayuri 10:48, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

So the $wgCheckUserLog is no longer relevant?? I added that to LocalSettings.php, added the SQL into my database - I just found it weird that no checkuser.log was generated - is this meant to happen?? Thanks anyway. --82.42.237.84 13:07, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Shared uploads error

• MediaWiki: 1.12alpha
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

I configured image uploading, and it works fine, but getting it to be shared across my 3 wikis is a nightmare. This is my image upload script which is used in my wiki's CommonSettings.php - require_once( '../wikiset/CommonSettings.php' );:

/**
 * If you operate multiple wikis, you can define a shared upload path here.
 * Uploads to this wiki will NOT be put there - they will be put into
 * $wgUploadDirectory.
 * If $wgUseSharedUploads is set, the wiki will look in the shared repository if
 * no file of the given name is found in the local repository (for [[Image:..]],
 * [[Media:..]] links). Thumbnails will also be looked for and generated in this
 * directory.
 *
 * Note that these configuration settings can now be defined on a per-
 * repository basis for an arbitrary number of file repositories, using the
 * $wgForeignFileRepos variable.
 */
$wgUseSharedUploads = true;
/** Full path on the web server where shared uploads can be found */
$wgSharedUploadPath = "http://127.0.0.1/testwiki/images/";
/** Fetch commons image description pages and display them on the local wiki? */
$wgFetchCommonsDescriptions = true;
/** Path on the file system where shared uploads can be found. */
$wgSharedUploadDirectory = "http://127.0.0.1/testwiki/images/";
/** DB name with metadata about shared directory. Set this to false if the uploads do not come from a wiki. */
$wgSharedUploadDBname = "testwiki";
/** Optional table prefix used in database. */
$wgSharedUploadDBprefix = '';

However, the images don't appear at all on the other 2 wikis, only testwiki. How do I get this to work?? —82.42.237.84 14:06, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

No support available for unstable releases. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 16:50, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

This is the same version that all the wikimedia projects are using - also I don't think you should mark items as "resolved" when you haven't resolved it. --Nad 21:03, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

I thought I saw someone else post that we have no support for unstable versions. There are no manuals for the newer versions of MediaWiki, so even if it is a problem that could arise in another version the answer should be easy enough to find. Also I am the only one marking topics as resolved and archiving them, so it is just more work for me to do. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 21:15, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

The value for $wgSharedUploadDirectory should be local FS path to images, not http --Nad 21:17, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) External links colours

Is there an easy way to change the colour of external links? I'd like internal links to remain blue, but would like external links to be green in colour. Is it possible?

—74.128.207.61 22:54, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

You can add a css rule for eg a.external { color: pink } in your MediaWiki:Common.css article. --Nad 23:22, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Gave that a try, but it did not seem to work for me. Any other ideas? -74.128.207.61 16:16, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

You'll need to do a ctrl+shift+refresh to ensure your browser reloads the css. Also what version of MW are you using? you'll need to use MediaWiki:Monobook.css instead of Common.css if you're pre 1.9 --Nad 19:35, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

I've done the "force refresh" bit, but nothing is happening. (I am using MW 1.11.1.

Perhaps I wrote the code wrong, inserted/removed spaces where there should be none? Here is what I wrote in MediaWiki:Common.css:

a.external { color:#228B22 }

-74.128.207.61 00:39, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Ah yes sorry, there's a more specific rule in the main css which takes precendence, you can fix it by making the rule more specific as follows:

#content a.external { color:#228B22 }

--Nad 03:19, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

That did the trick....excellent! Many thanks. -74.128.207.61 03:58, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Resetting the hit counter on the main page

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

Is there a way to "reset" Wikimedia's hit count (the This page has been accessed ### times) bit?

—74.128.207.61 05:24, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

I think you'll need to update the db directly, the following query would do it,

update page set page_counter=0 where page_title='Main_Page';

(you'll need to add a prefix to page if your using table prefixes) --Nad 06:02, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

That did it. Muchas Gracias. 74.128.207.61 16:14, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) CheckUser oddity

• MediaWiki: 1.12alpha
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

I set up CheckUser, and it works OK, however, I set up a folder called "logs" for $wgCheckUserLog and it comes out blank... why?? NOTE: I'm using XAMPP if that's of any use. —82.42.237.84 18:12, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

If you use the latest version of the extension, the log is now stored in the database in a table named cu_log, so you don't need to set a file for the log. iAlex 08:56, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I think the anon's asking us why he can't view a log cross-wiki - am I right or wrong in thinking that Wikimedia's CheckUser logs are cross-wiki. --Jazsen 10:36, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd be interested to know if the logs are cross-wiki, as well. --Jazsen 10:37, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Should all non-unique wiki entries be categories?

(or: "My Big Wiki Design Theory Conundrum")

Here's my problem*. I noticed early on that the MediaWiki software doesn't particularly distinguish Page names for singular & plural**. Example: if I have a Page, "Vegetables," where I talk about all kindsa veggies, right? and I have a Page, "Aunt Betty's Mutant Carrot Shaped Like A Doberman," then I can't post on Aunt Betty's Page, "This carrot is a [[vegetable]] but looks like a dog," because the link [[vegetable]] will NOT take me to the "Vegetables" Page. I have to use a link like [[Vegetables|vegetable]], or I have to use a #redirect like Wikipedia does for plurals.

I'm kinda a neat freak. I thought, how can I theorize, philosophize, and specify an official style for using plural or singular in a Page title? Well, if there's only one of a thing, like Benedict XVI, obviously the Page title has to be singular. But what about "Pope." There's more than one. In fact, most things in life come down to unique items or ... aha! ... CATEGORIES.

This leads me to the initially absurd-sounding notion of making all wiki Pages for non-unique things into Categories!

Bear with me ... MediaWiki's Category functionality really works great! I love the fact that it auto-generates a list of every Page that has the little inclusion tag ( [[Category:Vegetables]] ). And you can put up at the top of any Category Page all the same kinds of wiki text and info that you can put in a regular (non-Category) wiki Page. So I should NOT have a Page for Vegetable. I should have a Category for Vegetables (plural), and Popes (plural), and anything else that's not a unique item. This solves the singular/plural Page titling conundrum completely! And never would I have to worry about making a manual list of things within that Category, like "See also: Aunt Jane's Christ Ginger." It would be up to the Christ Ginger Page itself to maintain its inclusion tag for the Category. Neat! Clean!

Small downside is, I have to make a #redirect Page for "vegetable" and "vegetables," to catch any links where people didn't categorize or interlink properly, because otherwise I'll have bashed the wonderfully easy wiki linking system of just sticking a couple square brackets on any word to link to that word's Page. Is that too high a price to pay for consistency? I'm thinking not ...

But I don't know. I don't see other wikis doing this to any large degree. Lookit that Wikipedia Page again. They went with the singular title, and it's not a Category.

... Why not? Seriously. What am I (newbie) missing?

--Töff 18:59, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

( * I know this isn't a tech support question. I'd post it elsewhere if I knew where.)
( ** Not that they could, really. Tough algorithm! It'd have to be a massive lookup table.)

I've thought about that too, and even set up a test wiki in which all articles are automatically categories (ie the default namespace is CATEGORY but not seen). But this was done so that all articles could potentially contain other member articles like a folder. You didn't specify exactly what the problem was with using redirects for plurals etc - I think redirects are more appropriate for that (since that's what they were created for), and semantic mediawiki is best for maintaining more sophisticated relations between articles than simple categorisation (eg an isSynonymOf or isPluralOf relation). --Nad 19:26, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

• didn't specify exactly what the problem was with using redirects for plurals ... More an organizational concern than a problem; because anything that's plural is basically, philosophically, a Category! But I'd say the main "problem" is that a redirect to another Page doesn't have the Category functionality, and you have to list items within that Page as "hard-coded" links rather than the auto-included list in a Category.
• (eg an isSynonymOf or isPluralOf relation) ... What that!? --Töff

See SMW, it basically extends the categorisation idea to allow arbitrary relationships and attributes in articles instead of just an "isMemberOf" relationship which normal categorisation is basically doing --Nad 20:20, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

This is why it's a bad idea ... because Categories are not half as 'movable' as Pages. And, let's face it, pages get moved! --Töff 19:57, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Replace the search box?

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

Hi all

I don't like the search capabilities of MediaWiki so I decided to spider my wiki using Sphider, a php based spider in the style of Google's.

Now I'd like to replace the default search form with one that sends the entered params to Sphider's search page. But I don't have a clue where I can change that, is there some sort of MediaWiki:Searchbox where i can change the links?

Thanks a lot for helping me get started,

—62.225.191.42 08:49, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

See Sidebar, you can add a wikitext page into the sidebar which can contain your custom search which could be in the form of a tag or parser function --Nad 10:40, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Table Problem

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

I have a page on my wiki where I introduce the members of the community, their titles, and their places of employment. As you can imagine, this list is getting quite long (and still has a ways to go). What I would like is to make three equal-sized columns (with about 20% slack space at the right end of the screen). I tried doing this, but I must have screwed it up, because it didn't quite work...one of my biggest issues was that whenever I had a row with only two names instead of three (like near the end of the list), and it would screw up the spacing.

Is there a simpler code I can use to do this? —74.128.207.61 16:05, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Do you have a link to the site? if not, please show your table here (with just a few rows including a stuffing up one or two --Nad 19:46, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

www.windrep.org/Community

Any help would be appreciated. That list at the bottom is going to grow by some 30-40 names in the next few weeks.

(I am not using the table right now, obviously).

I can't fix it if you're not using it - create the table in another article or something so I can see what's going wrong and fix it --Nad 05:50, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Images problem!

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL: mediawiki

Hi, I have exactly started with mediawiki and I have a litle problem with the images! I tried to set an image in the article, but the picture will not appear. How do I do so the image will be appear?

/ Kim Klasson, hope you can send me an e-mail how to fix it. Sorry for my bad English, I'm from sweden^^

—217.208.144.120 17:50, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

There are no images uploaded into your wiki and your file uploads are disabled, set $wgEnableUploads to true in your LocalSettings --Nad 20:43, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Please advise what the minimum hardware configuration requirement is to run Media Wiki

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

—204.187.93.195 19:12, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

MediaWiki itself will run on anything which has PHP, MySQL and a webserver. The main resource requirement is from MySQL which works best with at least 256MB RAM. The MediaWikiLite extension (which works, but is very new and still considered experimental) allows you to run it using the SQLite database instead of a large database server which allows you to run MediaWiki on much smaller systems such as iPod's or small client PC's much more efficiently. --Nad 19:41, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

It is already documented here: Installation --Dr DBW | talk 05:45, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How do I hide the namespace prefix

How do I hide the namespace prefix in a page title in MediaWiki 11.1? I would want the prefix hidden in the whole namespace (i.e., don't need a per-page option)—Töff 21:54, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I think you'd have to add some code called in setup (ie a callback in $wgExtensionFunctions) which sets the page title using $wgParser->mOutput->setDisplayTitle('whatever'). You'd have to check whether it was a normal title as opposed to an error page or a title with preceding action (eg "editing foo") etc --Nad 22:22, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Sidebar width

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5
• MySQL: MySQL 5 Database
• URL: http://www.snoodlers.com

How do you change the width of the column on the left? — Jeremy Parker

I've added a section to sidebar explaining how to do that --Nad 02:09, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

But I can't find the file I got to edit all that information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

There are no files involved, it refers to articles --Nad 18:32, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Category alphabetization...

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

Alright, here's an interesting one. I run a wiki that has two categorized main lists, one of compositions, and one of composers. I just noticed that the composer category list just happens to be alphabetized by the composer's last names, even though I listed them FIRST NAME LAST NAME when I created the page (Steven Bryant, for example). It somehow recognized all of the composers I have entered so far, except for one. The composer Fred Stride is being listed under "F" for Fred.

Under compositions, the listings are being done by the first letter of the composition, as one would expect.

My question is....how the heck does MediaWiki figure out to categorize by last name, and why is it not categorizing that one particular composer correctly?

—74.128.207.61 04:07, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

DOH! I think I just figured it out.

NEEEEEEEVER MIND. — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

Sounds like you are using sort keys --Zven 05:39, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Would be good for future people with the same problem / question if you actually responded here with what the issue was, why it was doing that. --Dr DBW | talk 05:42, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

No problem:

I was leaving out the all-important code. If you don't use that at the bottom of your page code (or anywhere, really), then WikiMedia automatically alphabetizes by the first letter of the article title. In the case of proper nouns, you can set the sorting to correspond to the last name as such: so that it will sort categories by last name.

-74.128.207.61 15:40, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Editing the Navigation Menu

• MediaWiki: Nothing shows, should be latest version 1.11.xxxx
• PHP: 5.2.0
• MySQL: 5.0.22-community-max-nt
• URL: http://www.bandwiki.net/

How do you remove the 'Donations' link from the navigation menu? I have edited mediawiki:sidebar and have added and removed items, but when I save the changes nothing actually changes in the menus.

—216.223.16.33 05:59, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

You've done it the correct way, I think you must have something else wrong for it not to take effect. I noticed that no matter what page you go to, the URL is just the plain domain name which could have effects on caching. --Nad 19:27, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Nope that is not it, I just recently added that domain name, and my attempts to fix it was tried before i bought the domain... I have now since changed the domain name though to forward not mask. Still see donate, even though it nolonger appears in the page. --216.223.16.33 19:37, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

there appears to be a couple of hooks in your Special:Version,

MonoBookTemplateToolboxEnd	efContributorsToolbox
SkinTemplateBuildNavUrlsNav_urlsAfterPermalink	efContributorsNavigation

Are these associated with a skinning extension which is overriding mediawiki:sidebar? --Zven 22:46, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Good point, there's a lot of extensions installed, try commenting out the extension includes in your locasettings, then see if changes to MediaWiki:Sidebar still fails, if not put extensions back one-by one until the offending one is found. --Nad 06:52, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

I have disabled all of the extensions; I have verified that the donations link has been removed from mediawiki:sidebar; but the donations link still appears.--216.223.16.33 14:46, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Wait wait wait you removed the link from the side bar, but it still appears? Where? -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 04:17, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Customize Printable Version & Formatting Question

• MediaWiki: 1.9.2
• PHP: 5.1.6
• MySQL: 5.0.22

Hello there,

is it possible to customize the "Printable Version"? For example i want to fill in a header and footer. Which file must be edited?

And the other question is: Is there a formatting tag to tell the wiki, that tabulators and breaks should be interpreted as normal? So they should look like normal tabulators and breaks. The tag <nowiki></nowiki> doesn't give me any formatting.

Thanks for your help in advance! Flo

—217.7.54.186 12:45, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Have you found a solution yet? -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 04:11, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Mozilla Firefox display problem

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• MySQL: 5.022

I'd like to know why this very short piece of code is displayed differently in Internet Explorer and Mozilla:

[[Immagine:vpn1.jpg|left|thumbnail]] <br><br>
<LI>description.<br><br>
<br style="clear:both;"/>
<hr><br><br>
[[Immagine:vpn2.jpg|left|thumbnail]]<br><br>
<LI>description.<br><br>
<br style="clear:both;"/>

— Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

It's always risky doing invalid html and assuming that different browsers will correct it the same way. You should close your LI's and contain them within a UL. --Nad 19:45, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

In internet explorer photos are well positioned, alligned to the very left of the page; in Firefox Mozilla, instead, pictures are not alligned on the left but the latter starts at former end right border. The problem doesn't appear before loading the 2 images.

Any help?

Thanks, Ettore —87.9.121.35 17:22, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Try fixing your HTML and then come back and tell us how it worked out. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 22:12, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Faulty date/time in "last modified"

• MediaWiki: 1.7.1 (on Ubuntu 7.04 server)
• PHP: 5.2.1 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: PostgreSQL 8.2.6 on i486-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC cc (GCC) 4.1.2 (Ubuntu 4.1.2-0ubuntu4), Hooks: AutoAuthenticate: (HttpAuthPlugin, autoAuthenticate)
• URL: http://kakrafoon.dyndns.org/guiden (guest, guest)

Hello,

I get the last modified date displayed as 1970-01-01 on all pages in my wiki. Signature (four ~ ) works fine. The list in recent changes is also showing the wrong date.

I hade a look in the db in the tables pages and recentchanges. The timestamps there seems to be fine, eg "2008-02-12 20:16:01+01"

Cheers

—erk 20:51, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Upgraded to latest version of MediaWiki, 1.11.1 -> Problem solved. erk 14:49, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Embedding image from internal share

• MediaWiki: 1.10.0
• PHP: 5.2.3 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.41-community-nt
• URL: internal

Hi,

Is there a way to a way to embed an image from an internal share? ie. \\computer\share\image.jpg

Thanks,
Tim

—159.140.254.10 23:34, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Try $wgSharedUploadDirectory. You may need to map a drive to the path as a UNC (\\computer...) may not work. Also the location will need to be available from the http side and set in $wgSharedUploadPath. --Nad 23:49, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Looking for Database-Backup-Plugin with scheduler

I am looking for a MediaWiki Database-Backup-Plugin. It should have an integrated scheduler that can backup the database and maybe send it via E-Mail. WordPress has a very nice Plugin that can do this: http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/ Does this kind of plugin exist for MediaWiki?

—PMay 10:15, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Try phpMyAdmin. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 22:13, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How can I print the Wiki Page without problems concerning to its format?

I made a Wiki in which I included many texts and figures ordered in such a way that they appear perfectly displayed on the screen. The problem is that, when I sent the pages to the print, the printed version created is not as well ordenated as the text and figures that appears on the screen. This means that the printed pages has figures on wrong places and its not a good version.

I was wondering if someone coudl help me to print the pages just like they appear on the screen. Please, I need help!

- Jack — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

MediaWiki should automatically turn the page printer-friendly upon printing. Check to see if it's just your skin messing it up. Click here for more information. —The TattleTale Strangler MediaWiki Support Team 19:56, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) NavFrame not working

• MediaWiki: 1.12alpha (r30403)
• PHP: 5.2.1 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 4.0.26-wikimedia-google-log
• URL: Tagalog Wiktionary

There is quite a problem here in the Tagalog Wiktionary. We have already put the code for the navFrame in the Common.js and css. Yet it's not working. There might be some problem in the code. Please help us. Use this wikt:tl:Template:Salinan and the Common.css and Common.js at our wiki. Thanks a lot! -- Felipe Aira 08:06, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

You have a syntax error in your Monobook.js in the section MediaWiki tooltips and access keys, you can simply remove this section (all what is above the addLoadEvent section ) to fix that problem, it's not used anymore. iAlex 15:12, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, I'll tell the sysop. -- Felipe Aira 01:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi again I reposted this, since the solution offered does not work! -- Felipe Aira 12:52, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Configuration error

My configuration page shows this:

Checking environment...

Please include all of the lines below when reporting installation problems.

   * PHP 5.2.5 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.
   * Session save path (/tmp) appears to be valid.
   * PHP's memory_limit is 32M.
   * Couldn't find Turck MMCache, eAccelerator, APC or XCache; cannot use these for object caching.

     Warning: file_exists() [function.file-exists]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/usr/bin/gdiff3) is not within the allowed path(s): (/tmp:/var/tmp/:/var/www/errors/:/usr/share/php/:/home/vol2/xtreemhost.com/xth_1580987/htdocs) in /home/vol2/xtreemhost.com/xth_1580987/htdocs/wiki/config/index.php on line 1793

What should I do? (I've chmodded the wiki directory to 777)

—122.169.11.133 09:45, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

MediaWiki by default search for the gnu diff3 executable to try to merge version in case of conflict but can work properly without it. You can simply not take care of it. The error is caused by a restriction on your sever (you can only access files/directories that are in /tmp, /var/tmp/, /var/www/errors/ and /usr/share/php/:/home/vol2/xtreemhost.com/xth_1580987/htdocs). iAlex 12:12, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Image error with resizing

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

OK, so my wiki's hosted on quotaless.com, I've got image upload enabled in CommonSettings.php for my 2 wikis and that's linked to in the LocalSettings.php, and it seems to work as:

[[Image:Example.jpg]]

but resizing the image, e.g as:

[[Image:Example.jpg|75px]]

produces an error, as mentioned above.

My host doesn't have ImageMagick installed, but image upload seems to work anyway.

Anyone able to help?? —Whitsun 12:04, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

What's the error? --Nad 21:22, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

the image doesn't show. --82.42.237.84 23:16, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Is $wgUseImageMagick set to false? and do you have PHP's GD library installed? you need to install some means of resizing images and tell mediawiki to use it. --Nad 23:22, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm guessing it's because quotaless has exec() disabled, which is required in order to produce thumbnails (not quite sure of that though). Try enabling PHP errors (put error_reporting(E_ALL); near the top of LocalSettings.php) and see what messages it pipes out to you. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 15:58, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Xammp failing with mediawiki 1.11.1

• Apache HTTPD 2.2.8 + Openssl 0.9.8g
• MySQL 5.0.51
• PHP 5.2.5
• PHP 4.4.8 (RC2)
• phpMyAdmin 2.11.4
• FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.25
• Mercury Mail Transport System 4.52

I have encountered a problem, which concerns php (Came in the xampp package, what I use.) and mediawiki. The error message I get is here:

\n"; } dieout( "
" ); } print "
Found database drivers for:"; $DefaultDBtype = ''; foreach (array_keys($ourdb) AS $db) { if ($ourdb[$db]['havedriver']) { if ( $DefaultDBtype == '' ) { $DefaultDBtype = $db; } print " ".$ourdb[$db]['fullname']; } } print "\n"; if( ini_get( "register_globals" ) ) { ?> 
Warning: PHP's register_globals option is enabled. Disable it if you can. 
MediaWiki will work, but your server is more exposed to PHP-based security vulnerabilities. 
Fatal: magic_quotes_runtime is active! This option corrupts data input unpredictably; you cannot install or use MediaWiki unless this option is disabled. 
Fatal: magic_quotes_sybase is active! This option corrupts data input unpredictably; you cannot install or use MediaWiki unless this option is disabled. 
Fatal: mbstring.func_overload is active! This option causes errors and may corrupt data unpredictably; you cannot install or use MediaWiki unless this option is disabled. 
Fatal: zend.ze1_compatibility_mode is active! This option causes horrible bugs with MediaWiki; you cannot install or use MediaWiki unless this option is disabled. safeMode = true; ?> 
Warning: PHP's safe mode is active. You may have problems caused by this, particularly if using image uploads. safeMode = false; } $sapi = php_sapi_name(); print "
PHP server API is $sapi; "; $script = defined('MW_INSTALL_PHP5_EXT') ? 'index.php5' : 'index.php'; if( $wgUsePathInfo ) { print "ok, using pretty URLs ($script/Page_Title)"; } else { print "using ugly URLs ($script?title=Page_Title)"; } print "\n"; $conf->xml = function_exists( "utf8_encode" ); if( $conf->xml ) { print "
Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support.\n"; } else { dieout( "PHP's XML module is missing; the wiki requires functions in this module and won't work in this configuration. If you're running Mandrake, install the php-xml package." ); } # Check for session support if( !function_exists( 'session_name' ) ) dieout( "PHP's session module is missing. MediaWiki requires session support in order to function." ); # session.save_path doesn't *have* to be set, but if it is, and it's # not valid/writable/etc. then it can cause problems $sessionSavePath = mw_get_session_save_path(); $ssp = htmlspecialchars( $sessionSavePath ); # Warn the user if it's not set, but let them proceed if( !$sessionSavePath ) { print "
Warning: A value for session.save_path has not been set in PHP.ini. If the default value causes problems with saving session data, set it to a valid path which is read/write/execute for the user your web server is running under."; } elseif ( is_dir( $sessionSavePath ) && is_writable( $sessionSavePath ) ) { # All good? Let the user know print "
Session save path ({$ssp}) appears to be valid."; } else { # Something not right? Warn the user, but let them proceed print "
Warning: Your session.save_path value ({$ssp}) appears to be invalid or is not writable. PHP needs to be able to save data to this location for correct session operation."; } # Check for PCRE support if( !function_exists( 'preg_match' ) ) dieout( "The PCRE support module appears to be missing. MediaWiki requires the Perl-compatible regular expression functions." ); $memlimit = ini_get( "memory_limit" ); $conf->raiseMemory = false; if( empty( $memlimit ) || $memlimit == -1 ) { print "
PHP is configured with no memory_limit.\n"; } else { print "
PHP's memory_limit is " . htmlspecialchars( $memlimit ) . ". "; $n = intval( $memlimit ); if( preg_match( '/^([0-9]+)[Mm]$/', trim( $memlimit ), $m ) ) { $n = intval( $m[1] * (1024*1024) ); } if( $n < 20*1024*1024 ) { print "Attempting to raise limit to 20M... "; if( false === ini_set( "memory_limit", "20M" ) ) { print "failed.
" . htmlspecialchars( $memlimit ) . " seems too low, installation may fail!"; } else { $conf->raiseMemory = true; print "ok."; } } print "\n"; } $conf->turck = function_exists( 'mmcache_get' ); if ( $conf->turck ) { print "
Turck MMCache installed\n"; } $conf->xcache = function_exists( 'xcache_get' ); if( $conf->xcache ) print "
XCache installed"; $conf->apc = function_exists('apc_fetch'); if ($conf->apc ) { print "
APC installed"; } $conf->eaccel = function_exists( 'eaccelerator_get' ); if ( $conf->eaccel ) { $conf->turck = 'eaccelerator'; print "
eAccelerator installed\n"; } if( !( $conf->turck || $conf->eaccel || $conf->apc || $conf->xcache ) ) { echo( '
Couldn\'t find Turck MMCache, eAccelerator, APC or XCache; cannot use these for object caching.' ); } $conf->diff3 = false; $diff3locations = array_merge( array( "/usr/bin", "/usr/local/bin", "/opt/csw/bin", "/usr/gnu/bin", "/usr/sfw/bin" ), explode( PATH_SEPARATOR, getenv( "PATH" ) ) ); $diff3names = array( "gdiff3", "diff3", "diff3.exe" ); $diff3versioninfo = array( '$1 --version 2>&1', 'diff3 (GNU diffutils)' ); foreach ($diff3locations as $loc) { $exe = locate_executable($loc, $diff3names, $diff3versioninfo); if ($exe !== false) { $conf->diff3 = $exe; break; } } if ($conf->diff3) print "
Found GNU diff3: $conf->diff3."; else print "
GNU diff3 not found."; $conf->ImageMagick = false; $imcheck = array( "/usr/bin", "/opt/csw/bin", "/usr/local/bin", "/sw/bin", "/opt/local/bin" ); foreach( $imcheck as $dir ) { $im = "$dir/convert"; if( file_exists( $im ) ) { print "
Found ImageMagick: $im; image thumbnailing will be enabled if you enable uploads.\n"; $conf->ImageMagick = $im; break; } } $conf->HaveGD = function_exists( "imagejpeg" ); if( $conf->HaveGD ) { print "
Found GD graphics library built-in"; if( !$conf->ImageMagick ) { print ", image thumbnailing will be enabled if you enable uploads"; } print ".\n"; } else { if( !$conf->ImageMagick ) { print "
Couldn't find GD library or ImageMagick; image thumbnailing disabled.\n"; } } $conf->IP = dirname( dirname( __FILE__ ) ); print "
Installation directory: " . htmlspecialchars( $conf->IP ) . "\n"; // PHP_SELF isn't available sometimes, such as when PHP is CGI but // cgi.fix_pathinfo is disabled. In that case, fall back to SCRIPT_NAME // to get the path to the current script... hopefully it's reliable. SIGH $path = ($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] === '') ? $_SERVER["SCRIPT_NAME"] : $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]; $conf->ScriptPath = preg_replace( '{^(.*)/config.*$}', '$1', $path ); print "
Script URI path: " . htmlspecialchars( $conf->ScriptPath ) . "\n"; // We may be installing from *.php5 extension file, if so, print message $conf->ScriptExtension = '.php'; if (defined('MW_INSTALL_PHP5_EXT')) { $conf->ScriptExtension = '.php5'; print "
Installing MediaWiki with php5 file extensions\n"; } else { print "
Installing MediaWiki with php file extensions\n"; } print "
Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki.\n"; $conf->posted = ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST"); $conf->Sitename = ucfirst( importPost( "Sitename", "" ) ); $defaultEmail = empty( $_SERVER["SERVER_ADMIN"] ) ? 'root@localhost' : $_SERVER["SERVER_ADMIN"]; $conf->EmergencyContact = importPost( "EmergencyContact", $defaultEmail ); $conf->DBtype = importPost( "DBtype", $DefaultDBtype ); ?> DBserver = importPost( "DBserver", "localhost" ); $conf->DBname = importPost( "DBname", "wikidb" ); $conf->DBuser = importPost( "DBuser", "wikiuser" ); $conf->DBpassword = importPost( "DBpassword" ); $conf->DBpassword2 = importPost( "DBpassword2" ); $conf->SysopName = importPost( "SysopName", "WikiSysop" ); $conf->SysopPass = importPost( "SysopPass" ); $conf->SysopPass2 = importPost( "SysopPass2" ); $conf->RootUser = importPost( "RootUser", "root" ); $conf->RootPW = importPost( "RootPW", "" ); $useRoot = importCheck( 'useroot', false ); $conf->LanguageCode = importPost( "LanguageCode", "en" ); ## MySQL specific: $conf->DBprefix = importPost( "DBprefix" ); $conf->setSchema( importPost( "DBschema", "mysql4" ), importPost( "DBengine", "InnoDB" ) ); ## Postgres specific: $conf->DBport = importPost( "DBport", "5432" ); $conf->DBmwschema = importPost( "DBmwschema", "mediawiki" ); $conf->DBts2schema = importPost( "DBts2schema", "public" ); /* Check for validity */ $errs = array(); if( $conf->Sitename == "" || $conf->Sitename == "MediaWiki" || $conf->Sitename == "Mediawiki" ) { $errs["Sitename"] = "Must not be blank or \"MediaWiki\""; } if( $conf->DBuser == "" ) { $errs["DBuser"] = "Must not be blank"; } if( ($conf->DBtype == 'mysql') && (strlen($conf->DBuser) > 16) ) { $errs["DBuser"] = "Username too long"; } if( $conf->DBpassword == "" && $conf->DBtype != "postgres" ) { $errs["DBpassword"] = "Must not be blank"; } if( $conf->DBpassword != $conf->DBpassword2 ) { $errs["DBpassword2"] = "Passwords don't match!"; } if( !preg_match( '/^[A-Za-z_0-9]*$/', $conf->DBprefix ) ) { $errs["DBprefix"] = "Invalid table prefix"; } error_reporting( E_ALL ); /** * Initialise $wgLang and $wgContLang to something so we can * call case-folding methods. Per Brion, this is English for * now, although we could be clever and initialise to the * user-selected language. */ $wgContLang = Language::factory( 'en' ); $wgLang = $wgContLang; /** * We're messing about with users, so we need a stub * authentication plugin... */ $wgAuth = new AuthPlugin(); /** * Validate the initial administrator account; username, * password checks, etc. */ if( $conf->SysopName ) { # Check that the user can be created $u = User::newFromName( $conf->SysopName ); if( is_a($u, 'User') ) { // please do not use instanceof, it breaks PHP4 # Various password checks if( $conf->SysopPass != '' ) { if( $conf->SysopPass == $conf->SysopPass2 ) { if( !$u->isValidPassword( $conf->SysopPass ) ) { $errs['SysopPass'] = "Bad password"; } } else { $errs['SysopPass2'] = "Passwords don't match"; } } else { $errs['SysopPass'] = "Cannot be blank"; } unset( $u ); } else { $errs['SysopName'] = "Bad username"; } } $conf->License = importRequest( "License", "none" ); if( $conf->License == "gfdl" ) { $conf->RightsUrl = "http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html"; $conf->RightsText = "GNU Free Documentation License 1.2"; $conf->RightsCode = "gfdl"; $conf->RightsIcon = '${wgScriptPath}/skins/common/images/gnu-fdl.png'; } elseif( $conf->License == "none" ) { $conf->RightsUrl = $conf->RightsText = $conf->RightsCode = $conf->RightsIcon = ""; } else { $conf->RightsUrl = importRequest( "RightsUrl", "" ); $conf->RightsText = importRequest( "RightsText", "" ); $conf->RightsCode = importRequest( "RightsCode", "" ); $conf->RightsIcon = importRequest( "RightsIcon", "" ); } $conf->Shm = importRequest( "Shm", "none" ); $conf->MCServers = importRequest( "MCServers" ); /* Test memcached servers */ if ( $conf->Shm == 'memcached' && $conf->MCServers ) { $conf->MCServerArray = array_map( 'trim', explode( ',', $conf->MCServers ) ); foreach ( $conf->MCServerArray as $server ) { $error = testMemcachedServer( $server ); if ( $error ) { $errs["MCServers"] = $error; break; } } } else if ( $conf->Shm == 'memcached' ) { $errs["MCServers"] = "Please specify at least one server if you wish to use memcached"; } /* default values for installation */ $conf->Email = importRequest("Email", "email_enabled"); $conf->Emailuser = importRequest("Emailuser", "emailuser_enabled"); $conf->Enotif = importRequest("Enotif", "enotif_allpages"); $conf->Eauthent = importRequest("Eauthent", "eauthent_enabled"); if( $conf->posted && ( 0 == count( $errs ) ) ) { do { /* So we can 'continue' to end prematurely */ $conf->Root = ($conf->RootPW != ""); /* Load up the settings and get installin' */ $local = writeLocalSettings( $conf ); echo "

I have checked all php.ini files, that exist in the xampp installation directory, and all have magic_quotes_runtime and etcetera options disabled. (The error report says the opposite.)

Do you know how to solve this problem?

And yes I HAVE installed xampp correctly.

—John

Alright I applied the source lang tags to see easier what is going on, and are you sure you cut and pasted this right? Because it looks really messy. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 18:45, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Can Search ignore case?

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

Is there a way I can make the search bar ignore the case of a search term? If I am searching for mozart, I want it to be able to pull up Mozart as well.

—74.128.207.61 01:17, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Use redirects. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 22:22, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Extension:Newuserlog is breaking my Special:Version page

Now I notice that Extension:Newuserlog is breaking my Special:Version page!

If I disable it (#) in LocalSettings, then my Special:Version page works fine:
# require_once( "$IP/extensions/Newuserlog/Newuserlog.php" );
but if I re-enable it, my Version page breaks. Lookit.

I reinstalled the extension fresh, just to make sure I hadn't hacked it somehow. Didn't help.

I did create those extra pages to solve the language error ... and I even went back and deleted them all, to troubleshoot this thing, but it didn't help. (Now I will go undelete them cuz they did fix that laguage error, after all.)

I turned on error tracking (which is how I found the offset error in InterWiki), but I'm not getting any error code. Just the broken Special:Version page.

Help oh help, fall down can't get up ... again ... please thank you ... *gasp* —Töff 03:06, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

p.s. (( MediaWiki: 1.11.0, PHP: 5.2.5 (cgi-fcgi), MySQL: 5.0.45-community-log, URL: http://wiki.paleravens.com ))

Does this occur still with all other extensions disabled, but Extension:Newuserlog enabled? --Zven 04:04, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

I was just about to try that! I swear! lol hang on Töff 04:13, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

RESOLVED. Okay, good news is, a simple fresh reinstall fixed it. *blush* ... Long story short, always download straight from SVN to disk, and upload in ASCII mode with a good FTP client. I suppose the way I was uploading files somehow broke something. Maybe using an online text editor might have been the problem ... although I just tried my onlin editor again, and it didn't break the extension. Hmm. So how DID I break it in the first place!? And what did I do wrong when I fresh-reinstalled it a few hours ago? $%#@! computers! Anyway, I also did try disabling every other extension 1 by 1, and that didn't help, but we know now it wasn't the problem. Thanks again Zven! (Again). --Töff 05:08, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Changing background...

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

Can I use Common.css to change the background of all my pages from white to a light grey? If so, what is the command to use?

—74.128.207.61 23:42, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, you can. Use body { background-color: #e5e5e5; } (change e5e5e5 to another color of your choice, if you so wish. This sentence has a background color of #e5e5e5 - for comparison purposes). --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 23:53, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, I misspoke. I meant the background colour of the articles (and sidebar) themselves. Is there a similar command?

-74.128.207.61 00:17, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

View the page source of the page (like View->Page Source in Firefox, not sure about IE) to find the id's of the elements that wrap the article and sidebars, and use that instead. You will of course need to know how to write CSS, so google "CSS tutorial" if you need help with that. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 01:09, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Add :

 .ns-0 #content, .ns-0 #p-cactions li, .ns-0 #p-cactions li a { background: #808080; } .ns-0 div.thumb { border-color: #808080; }

to MediaWiki:Common.css replace #808080 with the color you want to use(see here) Note: These changes will only apply to pages in the main namespace. To make it apply to extra namespaces add extra lines changing .ns-0 to .ns-<OTHER NAMESPACE NUMBER> (see here for a list of namespce numbers) --Chris 07:11, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

If you want to apply it to all namespaces just remove the .ns-0 --Chris 07:19, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Best strategy for multiple mediawikis?

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

I am going to install multiple mediawikis with the view of merging them into one later. What is the best strategy for this?

—195.59.43.240 09:32, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

See Manual:Wiki family --Chris 11:57, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED)Installation script reports following error:

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 4.1.22
• URL:

1. PHP 5.2.3 installed

Warning: PHP's register_globals option is enabled. Disable it if you can. MediaWiki will work, but your server is more exposed to PHP-based security vulnerabilities.

1. PHP server API is cgi-fcgi; using ugly URLs (index.php?title=Page_Title)
2. Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support.
3. PHP's memory_limit is 16M. If this is too low, installation may fail! Attempting to raise limit to 20M... ok.
4. Have zlib support; enabling output compression.
5. Neither Turck MMCache nor eAccelerator are installed, can't use object caching functions
6. GNU diff3 not found.
7. Found GD graphics library built-in, image thumbnailing will be enabled if you enable uploads.
8. Installation directory: D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual
9. Script URI path: /BitManual
10. Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki.
11. Warning: $wgSecretKey key is insecure, generated with mt_rand(). Consider changing it manually.

Generating configuration file...

1. Database type: mysql

Warning: require_once(DatabaseMysql.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual\config\index.php on line 495

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'DatabaseMysql.php' (include_path='D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual;D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual/includes;D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual/languages') in D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual\config\index.php on line 495 PHP Warning: require_once(DatabaseMysql.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual\config\index.php on line 495 PHP Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'DatabaseMysql.php' (include_path='D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual;D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual/includes;D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual/languages') in D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual\config\index.php on line 495

—71.203.254.205 22:19, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Are you sure you have a complete codebase? check if the DatabaseMysql.php file exists in the includes dir, if not download again --Nad 10:10, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Resolved: I installed version 1.6.10 and then upgraded to the current version. Seems to be fine now. I noticed that the file i was missing (DatabaseMysql.php) was not included in any of the versions between 1.6.10 and the current.

(RESOLVED)Unicode chars in namespace?

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community-nt
• URL:

Is it possible to have a namespace with unicode chars. I tried to create a namespace like this:

define("NS_जै.सि.को.", 100);
define("NS_जै.सि.को._TALK", 101);

$wgExtraNamespaces[NS_जै.सि.को.] = "जैन सिद्धांत कोष";
$wgExtraNamespaces[NS_जै.सि.को._TALK] = "जैन सिद्धांत कोष_talk";

I updated above in LocalSettings.php and had to save file as Unicode. When tried to open the wiki after this page, it showed weird php page source. Did I create namespace wrongly or this is not allowed to have Hindi chars in namespace? Thanks for your help.

Vikas

—Vikasnd 05:50, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

The NS_whatever... is an internal label for use within the code - it is never displayed to the user. There is nothing to be gained by putting Unicode there. It needs to consist of letters, numbers, underscores only. The text displayed to the user, however, may contain as much Unicode as you like. So this would be valid:

define('NS_100', 100);

define('NS_100_TALK', 101);

$wgExtraNamespaces[NS_100] = "जैन सिद्धांत कोष";

$wgExtraNamespaces[NS_100_TALK] = "जैन सिद्धांत कोष_talk";

...and it would indeed create a namespace pair of "जैन सिद्धांत कोष:" and "जैन सिद्धांत कोष talk:" as you wanted. --Carlb 01:20, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. --69.226.211.168 06:31, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Pages are blank after adding Extension:Cite

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.1.4 (apache)
• MySQL: 4.1.22-standard-log
• URL: Cricipedia

I recently added the Cite extension and now any pages that have the ‹ref› tags are coming up blank.

Any ideas?

—58.172.162.206 06:40, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Can you put ref tags on a page and then link to that? -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 17:24, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Would that solve anything? If you get zero-byte responses (completely blank), almost always that means there's something in the code that's causing a fatal PHP error. The server attempts to invoke the extension, it gets an error, it stops without generating a page. The only obvious way to find the problem is to look in your webserver's error.log, where the cause of the PHP fatal error will be identified. --Carlb 01:10, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

We don't know by his/her post if the entire page is coming up blank or just the body of the article, Carl.

I would suggest reinstalling Extension:Cite. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 02:58, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

The entire page is coming up blank. I'll look in the error.log and see if there is anything there to suggest. Will also try reinstalling the extension I guess. --58.172.162.206 05:31, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

OK, checked out the error log and found this. PHP Warning: MessageCache::require(/public_html/cricipedia/extensions/Cite/Cite.i18n.php) [<a href='function.MessageCache-require'>function.MessageCache-require</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /public_html/cricipedia/includes/MessageCache.php on line 699 --58.172.162.206 05:37, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Also, when I have the extension enabled, I get a blank page for every page with Internet Explorer. --58.172.162.206 23:19, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) v1.6 Common.js doesn't seem to be loading

• MediaWiki: 1.6.10
• PHP: 4.4.8 (apache)
• MySQL: 4.1.22-standard
• Extensions:

o Other:

+ HTMLets, lets you inline HTML snippets from files, by Daniel Kinzler

o Extension functions:

+ wfCgiIrcLoginExtension and wfHTMLetsExtension

o Parser extension tags:

+ <cgiirclogin> and <htmlet>

• URL: http://dbdb.digitaldevildb.com/wiki/

Common.js doesn't seem to be loading... reason why looks like this line in the preprocessed sources:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/wiki/index.php?title=-&amp;action=raw&amp;smaxage=0&&amp;gen=js"><!-- site js --></script>
<h4>=== RAW TEXT INSIDE ===</h4>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/wiki/index.php?title=-&action=raw&smaxage=0&gen=js"><!-- site js --></script>

I presume this is where the various custom javascript files should be included. I've noticed this line for quite a while, perhaps the 1.6 install base downloaded from your site might be bungled. But just as well I could've done somehting to cause it I'm certain! For the record, there are other instances of this line boogered the same way across the google-scape. Perhaps an upgrade might fix it, but I would appreciate any suggestions in the meantime!

—12.213.80.37 07:23, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

The page MediaWiki:Common.js has been added to the software in the version 1.9, so it's normal. You have to upgrade at least to this version, but PHP 4 is no longer supported from the version 1.7. You can choice to keep this version or upgrade PHP (if you can) and MediaWiki. ~ Seb35 08:23, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Establishing a wiki farm

• MediaWiki: 1.11
• PHP: 5
• MySQL:
• URL:

Where can I find documentation on setting up a wiki farm? I want to have a single instance of MediaWiki running several wiki sites. I operate example1.com, example2.com, and example3.com. I want them all to use the same MediaWiki installation (with different databases and configurations, obviously) so I don't have to worry about maintaining three separate ones. Thanks. –Jonathan Kovaciny 03:11, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

—Jonathan Kovaciny 03:11, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Manual:Wiki family. This seems respond to your demand. ~ Seb35 09:11, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) CaucusWiki

There is a lot of interest now in the caucus states, such as Colorado and, of course, Iowa.

I'm a big believer that the caucus system is a much better thing for the average person, the true grassroots. That's why powerful forces are slowly crushing the system.

Here's my question. How could I learn enough to build a Cucus Wiki? It could become a central source of information for journalists and activists who want to preserve and spread the system to other states. — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

What is your question exactly? how to set up a wiki? see Manual:Installation, where to set it up? see W:Comparison of wiki farms --Nad 20:05, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Footnotes

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.3-1ubuntu6.3 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-Debian_1ubuntu3.1-log
• URL: Wiki not pointed at internet.

Footnotes aren't being parsed on my wiki. < r e f > (minus the spaces) and { { r e f l i s t } } doesn't do anything to generate a reference. I've pasted source code into the wikipedia sandbox and gotten the parsing to work properly, so the issue appears to be localized to my wiki. This appears to be the only thing not working properly.

—208.250.9.25 21:16, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

—Didn't have the Cite extension installed. 208.250.9.25 15:15, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Problem with #if: Template/Extension?

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

Hello everybody, I want to use templates in my wiki so I've imported one of wikipedia. But there is one template/extension, that I could not find.

It's this #if: like here

{{#if:{{{symbol|}}}|  {{{symbol}}}|}}

Does anyone know, what it is and how I can attach this to my wiki?

Thank you.

—Conni 10:28, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Those are ParserFunctions. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 22:43, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you very much :) Conni 10:43, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Coding a Navbox from scratch

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.5 (isapi)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community-nt
• URL: http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?title=Template:Navbox The Official Exalted Wiki]

Is there any guide/suggestions/example code that would help someone code a collapsible navbox from scratch? - Bodhisattva 16:32, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

You have to configure your MediaWiki:Common.css and install Extension:ParserFunctions to get your Navbox to work correctly. I did this but I still have extra div and span tags, :( -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 06:22, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

I gave full installation instructions here. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 21:02, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Bodhisattva 22:43, 27 March 2008 (UTC): I appreciate the full instructions. However, I'm also getting extra </span> and </div> tags, and I'm not getting the Show/Hide link, so the template isn't displaying the contents.  :(

(RESOLVED) Configurin LDAP authentication

Hi,

we are using mediawiki pages for our intranet and configured one more server with same setup for redudant. know ldap authentication is not working. Can i know the simple setup for Ldap autentication. Currently iam using this server in india and ldap server is there at us.

Plz let me know the simple steps to do the Ldap authentication.

Regards,

Manjunath — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

Are you using Extension:LDAP Authentication? --Nad 19:58, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

no .. I using openldap — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

(RESOLVED) Wikipdf/Penn dental journal

Hello,
I found a few references to older issues of the penn dental journal, going back to 1968 in wikipdf. Apparently people are being encouraged to upload older copies of the articles.
This newsletter has online access going back to 2004.
Can I upload an article that I have from 1960? It is not available
in worldcat or any other venue.
james

You probably need to talk to the admins of the wiki you're talking about, this site is concerned with the MediaWiki software, not with the content or policies of various sites using the software. --Nad 20:22, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Adding Advertisement

I need help installing Advertisements on the sides (Out of the actual editing spot) of my wiki vindemi.com . I know you have to edit either monobook.php or monobook.css but I am not sure/I dont know which one and where exactly in the file to imput the code. And which code do I use; the one that google adsense generates? Thanks --Vindemi 02:35, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

the specialNewPage

I found that specialNewPage shou just a little pages called new page , so i'm looking for the specialNewPage.php,ican find that the new page is defined by the Rc_new tag， but how can define the rc_new a little longer!thanks for help! --210.51.195.15