Project:Support desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/005

(OUTDATED) Ajax-feature doesn't work

  • MediaWiki: 1.13.0
  • PHP: 5.2.5
  • MySQL: 5.0.51a
  • URL: localhost

Hello Pros, the Ajax-features Dropdown-Suggestions and Watch/Unwatch-Toggle don't work on my Wiki, though I switched $wgEnableMWSuggest = true; and $wgAjaxWatch = true;. The old Ajax-Search ($wgAjaxSearch = true;) that covers the whole article-page can be activated, so Ajax isn't generally disabled (of course I tried with $wgUseAjax = true;). What else can I do to find the error? Is there anything more to do? Do I have to make adjustments to the MySQL-database? Do I have to run some more than just the update.php (formerly MediaWiki 1.12)? Thank you so much for your help. —Robbit 20:01, 2 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can't craft a mailto link that will put this into the To: field of the email message:

First Last <foo@bar.com>

Dave Yost 21:30, 2 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just use [mailto:foo@bar.com First Last <foo@bar.com>] – this is displayed correctly as First Last <foo@bar.com> :-) Cheers --:bdk: 23:28, 2 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Collapsible box

Hi, I have been using navbox collapsible for months and suddenly it refuses to collapse. Please see teknologi-maklumat.com and compare with Dummipedia, a parallel translation site. What can be the reason for the sudden failure? — PM Poon 23:03, 2 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

perhaps you disabled JS in your browser?

(RESOLVED) No scrollbar for source code

  • MediaWiki 1.13.0
  • PHP 5.2.5

My Wiki does not show a horizontal scrollbar if the text is too long. so the text is written behind the frame.

As I have seen, the 'normal' Wiki is using an additional div tag:

<div style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">
<pre> 
sourcecode...
</pre></div>

This div tag is missing in my wiki - any ideas why? Or is there another problem?

Thanks in advance

--62.128.18.198 15:12, 3 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Adding pre { overflow: auto; } to your css, e.g. MediaWiki:Common.css, should help. --:bdk: 13:59, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) How to add dynamic tag to my mediawiki?

(moved from Project:Forum)
Hi, i have a dynamic menu in my mediawiki and when a value is selected (extract from database) it should be insert in my textarea as a tag, so how to do with the parser, i know that for statical tag it's possible but for dynamic tag how to do? thank you.

--193.51.121.244 4 September 2008

(RESOLVED) Adding and using new groups

  • MediaWiki version: 1.12.0
  • PHP version: 5
  • MySQL version:
  • URL:

Hi, I learned that a new user group is created by adding a $wgGroupPermissions['groupname']['read'] = true; to the LocalSettings.php of my wiki. But how do I manage that new group to appear in the access menu of wiki pages? It just contains All, not registered users & Only Admins no matter if I add new groups. —JazzmanDE 15:46, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Use $wgRestrictionLevels. —Emufarmers(T|C) 03:47, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for answer. I added the following code to my LocalSettings.php:

$wgGroupPermissions['Management']['read'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['Management']['edit'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['Management']['protect'] = true;
$wgRestrictionLevels=array('Management','sysop');

I added a user account to the "Management" group and protected a page to make it only available to the "Management" group. But when I login as the "Manager", I can't edit the page. I have to delete the restriction in the database to get access again.

Another problem is, that I use the "page security" extension to restrict the read access to single pages. But I can't restrict pages to be only readable for the "Management" group, it always remains readable for everybody. --JazzmanDE 16:13, 10 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Any reason you're not using the built-in sysop and bureaucrat groups? why do you need a separate management group? -- 99.130.6.103 17:16, 10 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Because we need to limit the access to some pages to a special group of users. Not even the Sysop should have access. On the other hand that group shouldn't have full sysop access to the Wiki. --JazzmanDE 13:51, 11 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
By the way: When I try to use the "bureaucrat" group instead of a new group I have the same problem with the mentioned code. --JazzmanDE 12:45, 12 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, I made some progress. I forgot to include the code that is described in $wgRestrictionLevels. Now my code is
$wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['read'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['edit'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['protect'] = true;
$wgRestrictionLevels=array('','bureaucrat','sysop');
$wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['bureaucrat'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['bureaucrat'] = true;
Now I have two problems left:
  1. The sysops are able to watch pages which are designated to be seen only by bureaucrats. That doesn't change when I set $wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['bureaucrat'] = false. Edit protection against Sysops works, though.
  2. When a common user tries to watch the page he's lead on a "The page can't be displayed" page instead of an error message of the Wiki. --JazzmanDE 13:23, 12 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Alternate Text In Category Listing?

MediaWiki: 1.11.0; PHP: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi); MySQL: 5.0.45-community-log; URL: http://paleravens.com/

Quote: "The SORT parameter does not affect how the page title is displayed within the category listing, just how it is ordered."

Great, so how do I specify alternate text (other than the page title) to be displayed in the category listing itself? Surely this is possible! But ... how!?

-- töff 18:10, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This would REALLY be useful for me if anybody knows how to do it, PLEASE PLEASE .... -- töff 21:50, 10 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The only way to do so (afaik, and as a workaround) is to create a categorised redirect.
Example: You have a page named "Software XYZ" which is in the category "Software". As you mentioned, you can sort it with the parameter |XYZ so that "Software XYZ" is displayed under "X" in the category listing, but it's still displayed as "Software XYZ" there. To get e.g. "XYZ Software" as an alternate title showing up in the listing (or in another category), you have to create the page "XYZ Software" as a redirect to "Software XYZ" and to categorise this redirect in the category in question. Does this help? --:bdk: 06:35, 21 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
That's an awfully clever workaround -- cheers, I hadn't ever thunk of that! -- and it would probably be great for anybody else wanting to do what I asked to do. (You hear me saying "but," right?) ... But ... what I am hoping to do, specifically, is to create alternate text for the category listings to include some graphic markers, icons that specify what each entry in the category is. I still want one single category, though.
Specifically, I have a list of scenes. Some scenes begins stories, some are in the middle of stories (a bad place to start reading, in some views), some are the ends of stories (most people hate to read the end first; it "spoils" the story), and some are standalones.
If only I could tell the Category what text to display, maybe I could include an icon ... something like:
[[ Category:Scenes | W(sort) | A Walk In The Park {{#icon:StoryBegins.jpg}} ]]
That's what I kinda had in mind for "alternate text." The basic mediawiki category won't let me do that, of course. I was playing around with a manually created & maintained list but I ain't overly happy with that either. I also asked here about transcluding categories, which doesn't seem to be possible, and wouldn't really be a solution for me, either. :\ Long story short, I am unpleasable, I think :( Hah! Quelle dilemma.
That really was a good workaround, though. Well done! You should get a cookie or a star or something. I'm sure someone will find it very useful. Maybe me, some day :) -- töff

(RESOLVED) New skin

  • MediaWiki version: 1.13.0
  • PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi)
  • MySQL version: 5.0.51a-community
  • URL: paperforum.x10hosting.com/tutorials

Hello,

How do I make a new skin for my mediaWiki and get rid of all the others?

—Callum

Copy a skin, rename it, and tweak it to taste. Keep the others as backup/references. There's a setting in LocalSettings.php that lets you specify which skins your users can apply. You can remove all other skins from that option, so your users are forced to see only your custom skin. This is what I did on my wiki. -- töff 15:38, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, but how would I edit the style? (sorry, I literally started doing this yesterday) -Callum
I would say you need to familiarize yourself more with the underhood wiki machine. Making a skin requires a lot of different steps: editing LocalSettings.php (that's very important! you really need to learn about this file!), getting a feel for the files & folder hierarchies, adjusting various CSS sheets (there's quite a few of those!), digging around in the skinfile (.php) itself and hacking the code. Sorry, it's just not a simple thing. But I did it, so I'm sure you can. I suggest you read more in the manual, then ask more precise individual questions if you still need help. You might also google for a "mediawiki skin tutorial" but if you are adminning your own wiki I think you'll want to learn all this stuff anyway. It's easier than I make it sound. Like I said, I did it, and I ain't no rocket scientist. Also, MAKE BACKUPS lol omg -- 69.237.91.20 16:44, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
p.s. There are a lot of "extensions" that you can add to your basic installed wiki. Just learning how to install an extension will teach you a lot; and some of those extensions are really useful! -- 69.237.91.20 16:45, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Changing Permissions

  • MediaWiki version: 1.13.0
  • PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi)
  • MySQL version: 5.0.51a-community
  • URL: paperforum.x10hosting.com/tutorials

How do I change permissions?

Example: I don't want guests to be able to edit articles

88.108.178.88 16:05, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

see Help:User rights. --84.139.88.41 16:08, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
or more generally: Permissions ;-) --:bdk: 11:18, 9 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) How to enable uploads

  • MediaWiki version:
  • PHP version:
  • MySQL version:
  • URL:

Hi I've installed MediaWiki on my server and it works very well but: I want to upload images on my pages but It's disables on the wiki I can't upload on my admin account or either my other user account.

How can I able uploading Images on my Wiki?

Great Thanks for answering.

77.164.218.186 08:18, 9 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Manual:FAQ#How do I enable uploading? --:bdk: 11:18, 9 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Database issue

  • MediaWiki version:1.13.1
  • PHP version: 4.4.2
  • MySQL version: 2.9.0.2
  • URL:yamaguchibike.com

We cannot get to the contents of our web-site to change information. We can get to the pictures. We do have a back-up file yamaguchi_wiki.sql It does look like all our info is here (2.6 MB) I can open this but do not understand it. —70.56.61.23 17:30, 10 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thats because its a database. It's not easily read by humans. --Truetech (Talk)   MediaWiki Support Team 01:32, 11 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The SQL file you mentioned is only usable to load your contents up to a database. It consists of commands that an SQL database can understand to build the tables and fields. What exactly do you want to to? --JazzmanDE 12:30, 12 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
We want to be able to open up our back up file.
If we could then that back up file we think has the content. We would like this uploaded to site 5 server. Then we think we can edit the content. we don't have the web site making knowledge to open up the sql file. We tried to open it with Notepad and got a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Ultimately what we want to do is change our prices/info on our web-site.

(RESOLVED) How Do I customize main page like Media Wiki Main Page?

  • MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
  • PHP version: 5
  • MySQL version:
  • URL:

How do I make my main wiki page look like the Main Wiki Page here at: mediawiki.org? I am new to this I want the same gray title bar and then under it a few links to other pages like at the main page there. The ones that say for users, Developers, ect. I click view source but i get a message saying:

{Main page}
to edit this page, please see Project:Main page templates

I am new to MediaWiki and have no knowledge what-so-ever in it. Can someone please help me out by explaining to me step by step on what to do? How to get it to work?

Thank you for all the help —System32 22:17, 10 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Our main page here uses heavy template stuff mainly due to the multilingual character of this site, cf. Project:Main page templates. If you're really new to all that stuff, I suggest you simply design your own main page using more simple tables a/o templates. This will be much easier than to explain our templates in detail without knowing if you actually need such a complex structure (I guess not). You can look up all the templates though. --:bdk: 07:50, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Global ID

Hi there!

I faced one little trouble - I have several resources and my users have to register several times. Is it possible to include option to authorize using some global ID, like Windows LiveID or OpenID or stuff? It will be great in including MediaWiki in a site's workspaces and let one user contribute in many wiki's.

Every Open ID is individual so authorizing on every wiki will cause creating of the same user, that has proof his identity and human nature on registration site.

As for Windows LiveID I can give support in negotiations with Microsoft and I'm sure that for all other IDs according contributor will be founded.

Thank you!

Thats actually a great idea. It is not included in the actual software or any extensions that I know of, but you might want to request it at bugzilla or at Extensions:Request.--Truetech (Talk)   MediaWiki Support Team 01:20, 11 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) URL encoding problems

  • MediaWiki version: 1.6.6
  • PHP version: 5.1.6 (isapi)
  • MySQL version: 4.0.14-nt
  • URL: local

An issue with croatian letters occured when writing the articles' address into address-bar directly, or linking from other pages with the croatian letter (not converted to ascii code). When the link to specific article with a special letter in its name is clicked from inside the Wiki everything work fine.

For example: if I have a link with %C5%A0 character, when I type it in the address bar it gets converted to %C2%8A and doesn't link to the right article. Somehow different things happen with different browsers.

Is there a way for me to use some replacement code to avoid such behavior, or is this browser issue combined with different way of encoding these special characters compared to Wiki's code.

Thanks in advance. —161.53.119.13 10:56, 11 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Mucking with users' settings (as Bureaucrat, of course)

( MediaWiki: 1.11.0; PHP: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi); MySQL: 5.0.45-community-log; URL: http://paleravens.com/ )

So, how do I get into a user's settings? Like, say I want to check if he's put an email address in his account ... or, maybe, set his default search preferences for him. There must be some way to review a user's settings (as Bureaucrat) without digging into the SQL. -- töff 15:58, 12 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well the only way I know of is to search the database table. Other than that unless if someone comes up with a hack... But why would you want to do this? Its not recommended...--Truetech (Talk)   MediaWiki Support Team 22:27, 15 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
For example, if a new user has signed up, and I want to email him ... and he hasn't put his email on his user page. Or if I want to see (or help him set) his search preferences. Whatever. It seems there ought to be a back door into the user accounts, for the wiki owner. I run a buncha forums and they all have user account editing for the admin (I know, the wiki's not a forum ... but still!) -- töff 23:46, 15 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The LookupUser extension works well for viewing user data. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any extensions that let you manipulate that data. —Emufarmers(T|C) 06:30, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, that's very good! At least that lets me see everything. How odd that it's not part of the basic software, though. Thanks Emufarmers! -- töff 13:57, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I just came across the EditUser extension. —Emufarmers(T|C) 18:00, 1 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome ... perfecto. TENGKYU.--töff 18:34, 1 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) PHPMailer support?

  • MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
  • PHP version: 5.2.5 (cgi-fcgi)
  • MySQL version: 5.0.24a-community-nt
  • URL:

My ISP requires outgoing authentication so I updated the localsettings.php page with the following config.

$wgSMTP = array(
'host'     => "Mail.server.com",
'IDHost'   => "mydomain.com",
'port'     => 25,
'auth'     => true,
'username' => "admin@mydomain.com",
'password' => "mypwd"
);

This effectively broke my sign up page spewing out messages relating to pear. I then came to realize that my host does not offer support for the mail component that mediawiki uses. My host supports PHPMailer. Here is a sample of some code that works with my host.

<?
require("c:\php\includes\class.phpmailer.php");
$mail = new PHPMailer();
$mail->IsSMTP();
$mail->Host = "mail.YourDomain.com";
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = "you@domain.com";
$mail->Password = "EmailPassword";
$mail->From = "you@domain.com";
$mail->FromName = "Your Name";
$mail->AddReplyTo("you@domain.com");
$mail->AddAddress("user@domain.com");
$mail->IsHTML(true);
$mail->Subject = "PHPMailer";
$mail->Body = "Body";
$mail->Send();
?>

Any chance I can input this code somewhere in a config file somewhere so I can use mediawiki?
—jimbo

(OUTDATED) Redirects in Image namespace in MW 1.13

Hi! Today i updated my installation from MW 1.11.2 to 1.13.1. Now the redirects from pages in the image namespace are not working any more. What do i have to change? Thanks! -- Beyer 15:49, 13 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) Single Sign on

  • MediaWiki: 1.11.2
  • PHP: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
  • MySQL: 5.0.45-Debian_1ubuntu3.3-log

I have no error to report, but a question to ask.

I'm the administrator for a web site and would like to use the Wiki's u ser accounts for other non-wiki parts of the site, because people don't like to be bothered with many different user-accounts andpasswords.

Is there any neat way to do this from another php page?

80.101.206.36 16:13, 13 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi I want to have a image as link and I want to have the image on the right side of the site.

What's the code of doing that?

Pleased for a answer.

See Extension:Click. --Truetech (Talk)   MediaWiki Support Team 22:23, 15 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry but I can't get it done by these information does anyone have a other answer please?
See Extension:ImageMap or (if you don't have access to install extensions) Help:Linked images. To get the image on the right side you can then use something like <div align="right"> … </div> to surround the image code. --:bdk: 06:23, 21 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Contact Form

How can I make a Contact Form on my MediaWiki Server?

Thanks if you have a good answer!

See Extension:ContactPage. iAlex 10:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) Fatal error in deleteBatch (What is and where to find wfGetLB() ???

  • MediaWiki version: 1.12.0
  • PHP version: 5.2.0-8+etch11 (apache2handler)
  • PostgreSQL version: PostgreSQL 8.1.11 on i486-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC cc (GCC) 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)
  • Extensions : Maintenance(1.0), charInsert, imageMap, parserFunctions(1.1.1)
  • URL: http://atlas.ens-lsh.fr/wikicid/

I just begin install Mediawiki with some pages and I'm trying to understand some basic maintenance tools. When I try to submit:

  • Special:Maintenance
  • then deleteBatch on a few pages(Modèle:De,Modèle:fr,Modèle:En,Modèle:Indication de langue,

I get :

Fatal error: Call to undefined function wfGetLB() in /home/www/wiki/extensions/Maintenance/Maintenance_body.php on line 410

But I don't have any maintenance_body.php nor body.php in the directory maintenance

Thanks —79.86.213.130 13:20, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi There I have the following message appearing whenever a user tries to get to a link after login:

Login successful

Return to Home.

Ofcorse the Home. link is replaced with whatever page they where trying to go to, I simply need to bypass the 'Login successful' and redirect the user straight to the requested page within the SpecialUserlogin.php, I belive the function to edit would be as follows:

function successfulLogin( $msg, $auto = true ) {</nowiki><br />
		global $wgUser;<br />
		global $wgOut;<br />
		global $wgArticlePath;

		# Run any hooks; ignore results

		wfRunHooks('UserLoginComplete', array(&$wgUser));

		$wgOut->setPageTitle( wfMsg( 'loginsuccesstitle' ) );<br>
		$wgOut->setRobotpolicy( 'noindex,nofollow' );<br>
		$wgOut->setArticleRelated( false );<br>
		$wgOut->addWikiText( $this->mReturnto, $wgArticlePath );<br>
		if ( !empty( $this->mReturnTo ) ) {<br>
			$wgOut->returnToMain( $auto, $this->mReturnTo );<br>
		} else {<br>
			$wgOut->returnToMain( $auto );<br>
		}<br>
	}

However I do not know the code required to acomplish this re-direct after several attempts could you please help a mediawiki nOOb accomplish this basic code change :)

88.110.5.132 02:12, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Userlogin redirects directly to the previous page since 1.14.0 (unless extensions add html with the UserLoginComplete hook), you may want to see this diff for how it's done. iAlex 10:49, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) problem with login session

When I try to set a pages protection, I get this error: "There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Please hit "back" and reload the page you came from, then try again."

I've tried both IE and FireFox.

I've reinstalled the whole wiki.

What causes this problem, and how do I fix it?

komori_san@hotmail.com

24.227.81.70 18:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) Reusing parts of Wikipedia articles

  • MediaWiki version: 1.6.10
  • PHP version: 5.2.1 (apache2handler)
  • MySQL version: 5.0.33
  • URL:

hello,

i am not sure if i am in right place to ask this question. actually i am new to mediawiki and i have just installed it on my XAMPP.

basically i have a traveling website and want to show wikipedia content for a particular place on my website.

i have tried w:en:Special:Export/Delhi (e.g. i searched for delhi) and http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=opensearch&search=delhi&format=xml to retrieve the data for delhi but some junk data (special symbols, words in reginal languages which are not displayed properly if i extract data from example) is returned from there.

i only want only a portion of the content from wikipedia to be displayed on my site and there will be a link which will take the user to the original wikipedia site.

thanks, Prasenjit Seth seth.prasenjit@gmail.com

(RESOLVED) {{PAGESINCATEGORY}} magic word is not functioning on new install

I have tried to use the {{PAGESINCATEGORY}} magic word, but it just comes back as "template:PAGESINCATEGORY"... I ... dont' get it —99.229.54.183 18:36, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

{{PAGESINCATEGORY}} was added in MediaWiki 1.13. —Emufarmers(T|C) 19:16, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) MySQL returned error "1146: Table 'wiki.page_props' doesn't exist"

Wiki is one-click install hosted on Dreamhost.com. When I try and edit I get:

Database 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 "Article:getHiddenCategories". MySQL returned error "1146: Table 'wiki.page_props' doesn't exist (mysql.isoc-ny.org)".

There was a glitch in the most recent upgrade where it didn't find the right directory, which they fixed. This is the first time I've tried to edit since.

mailto:joly@punkcast.com

Joly 08:48, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unless DH has improved their one-click upgrade process, you still have to run update.php. On the bright side, you definitely have shell access. :) —Emufarmers(T|C) 22:55, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks - that did it. I had to invoke php 5, so the fix was to got to the mantenance folder and then enering:
/usr/local/php5/bin/php update.php 
I've added the info to the DH wiki [1] Joly 20:43, 25 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) How do I add a language to my wiki? (continue)

I have tried to added * LANGUAGES in the Sidebar , but the languages area don't appear. Somebody can hlep me ? Please

--grand0147 09:40, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) Creating user groups

  • MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
  • PHP version: 5.1.4 (apache2handler)
  • MySQL version: 5.0.21-community-nt
  • URL:

Q. how can I create the user groups in this version? I want to create the groups from administrator side.Is it possible? If Then please tell me how to create the groups in details.

Thanks —Madhabendra 10:54, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Installed my own wiki, moved from my Wikipedia userpace, but keep getting errors

  • MediaWiki 1.12.0
  • PHP (5.2.5 (cgi-fcgi))
  • the database (4.1.22-max-log)

I recently installed Mediawiki on INNewsCenter.net. I am currently beta testing it on INNewsCenteer.net/wiki. Unfortunately I have problems with templates and other stuff. I am wanting my wiki to look exactly like Wikipedia. What do I need to do in order to fix this?

Nsgaeverine 14:02, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, your question is a bit unspecific. What sort of problems do you exactly have? Which templates? (example on Wikipedia) What is "other stuff"? At first you probably need to adapt your CSS and perhaps JS files to make your pages "look like Wikipedia"; e.g. look up en:MediaWiki:Common.css and related pages there.
A general note regarding templates: If you only use a few specific templates it's presumably easier to create them "from scratch" yourself instead of copying the often highly complicated "esoteric" template stuff from Wikipedia (which is so complicated because it has to serve so many different requirements on thousands of articles). The template (table) layout can be exactly the same in both cases. And have a look at Parser functions if you haven't yet. That's all I can think of right now. --:bdk: 06:16, 21 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I may need help creating navboxes from scratch. How do I even do that? I keep having trouble starting from scratch. Also I am getting "Error creating thumbnail: /usr/bin/convert: Unrecognized option (-thumbnail)." How do I fix this?Nsgaeverine 18:05, 21 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) employee ID usage

  • MediaWiki version: 1.8.2
  • PHP version: 5.2.6
  • MySQL version: 5.0.21
  • URL:

I need to user an employee ID for user_id in the user table. Where is the insert and update function for User.php and SpecialUserLogin.php

Regards.. Thanks C D Hicks —204.113.19.9 13:28, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Whitespace before Doctype which renders the Wiki in Quirksmode in IE (IIS)

  • MediaWiki version: MediaWiki 1.13.0
  • PHP version: 5.2.3 (cgi-fcgi)
  • MySQL version: 5.0.41-community-nt
  • URL: 5.0.41-community-nt

For some reason whitespace appears above <!DOCTYPE> which tells IE to render the wiki pages in Quirks Mode and it's not skin related since all the other skins produce the same blank line above the <!DOCTYPE>.

Any idea why this is happening?

See http://203.134.157.116:8080

60.241.17.247 23:25, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

SOLVED: It was the RSS Reader extension that caused the problem. --23 September 2008

(OUTDATED) Click.PHP

Hi I've installed Click and Click.PHP on my server but than I tried to use a image to be a link but I get this:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Image::transform() in /home/thegecko/www/www/wiki/extensions/Click/Click.php on line 108

And this is what line 108 says (copied from the site and not changed eversinds):

$thumbnail = $imageimage->transform( array( 'width' => $width ) );

And I use this to edit the page:

{{#Click:Target|Image:Example.png|90px|Caption is here.}}

Could Somebody help me with this problem?

(RESOLVED) Searchindex table corrupted

Hi, is there anyway I can repair my searchindex table? — PM Poon 07:29, 20 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

MySQL Reference Manual Try this --62.128.18.198 13:13, 25 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Uninitialized string offset: 0

Dear all,

Sometimes i get the following error in my wiki:

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

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

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

Dear Soloo, dear all,
Has anybody found a solution to this problem? At my site happens the same. The page content is not parsed correctly...
Thank you,
--Th 12:23, 19 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Dear everyone,
I got the same problem. It happens randomly and i don't konw what i am doing wrong...
Thank you very much in advance
-- 14:06 29 October 2008 (GMT +1)
Dear all,
I have exactly the same problem on two MediaWikis. Both are up to date, running on Debian Etch and Ubuntu HH Server with latest dotdeb Apache2 + PHP + MySQL. The problem don't want to disappear :/
I've tried almost every version of PHP 5.2.x (official, unofficial, compiled from source, combined apt repositories) and some of MySQL server versions. I've tried both DB storage (InnoDB, MyISAM) and type (binary, UTF-8) options in MediaWiki installer on completely fresh install. I've tried every 1.1x version of MediaWiki. But PHP Notices were still there and garbaged unreadable text also (f.e. {{{{TENAME}} in title). It was perfect about one year ago, I don't know where the problem is and I'm hopeless now. I'd like to use MediaWiki because I love it, but it's difficult with this bug. Please help, thank you
--81.201.54.106 15:47, 8 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed:

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

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

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

(RESOLVED) Spezial:Version does not work

on my wiki the special:version page is nearly blank (http://www.wecowi.com/view/Spezial:Version) somebody have any idea where the problem is? I've reviewd my whole installation.

DaSch 00:03, 22 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, it's something about the Extension:MagicNoCache. When I "uninstall" it, it works. But the strange is, it already worked with the Extension. --DaSch 00:23, 22 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Footnotes?

Does MediaWiki support footnotes?

- Jeff Tanner, Seattle 22 September 2008

Are you looking for that what you probably know from Wikipedia ("references" or partly also called "footnotes" sections at the bottom of many articles, like e.g. there)? If yes, have a look at Extension:Cite. --:bdk: 20:36, 22 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) Skins

   * MediaWiki: 1.11.1
   * PHP: 5.2.5 (cgi-fcgi)
   * MySQL: 4.1.22 

Hi, is there any possibility to use one wiki installation but to define different skins to be used when users access the wiki over a specific URL? I like to run it both as a wiki and as a website. So I will redirect visitors from the home directory to a certain wiki page which will work as a welcome page which should be displayed in a different skin. --JazzmanDE 22:58, 22 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) TALKPAGE and DEFAULTSORT don't work

  • MediaWiki version: 1.6.8
  • PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
  • MySQL version: 5.0.51b-community-log
  • URL: local

I've imported a german Wikipeda Dump into my local Database and try to run it. But when I open a page where DEFAULTSORT or TALKPAGENAME is used, my Wiki tries to open a template page (which obviously doesn't exist) instead of using the magic word. How can I solve this?

195.243.159.99 10:50, 24 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Upgrade to the latest version of MediaWiki. —Emufarmers(T|C) 01:34, 26 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Make a header

How Do I make a header inside the MediaWiki?

I want to display 2 images inside of the header but how/where do I attach that?

Hi, you may change the layout of your MW in the monobook.php in your skins folder. Take a look on Manual:Skinning. --JazzmanDE 11:47, 25 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) Checking Content

When someone edits a page...how do you check that what was written is correct. How do you check the content? —62.169.220.35 08:19, 25 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Could you explain more precisely what you mean? --JazzmanDE 14:28, 26 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Copying a posted photo in another article w/o rehosting or uploading

what button or text must I used to use a photo already hosted at wiki or memory alpha, to use a photo posted in an article that would be relevant in a related article, rather than reupload and waste space. what specifically must I do. Thank you

Specifically you need to learn wikitext, which you use to point to the image/file of interest, m:Help:Images and other uploaded files#Embedding internal files --Dr DBW | talk 04:02, 13 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • MediaWiki version: 1.14alpha
  • PHP version: 5.2.4-2ubuntu5wm1 (apache2handler)
  • MySQL version: 4.0.40-wikimedia-log
  • URL:

I loaded a page last night (about 4 am) and now I cannot find it. The page title is "$700 Billion Trust Fund" Can you help and tell me how I can get it back or re-post it?

Dr. Stephen Tse —68.192.172.102 15:45, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) To set up a chinese language section

Hi, my web site is located here at http://www.icrunchy.com. I would like to add a chinese language section but I have no idea how I could do that. The current chinese language section that I have set up doesn't seem to be correctly done. Could you help me to take a look? Really appreciate that, thanks!

117.20.188.82 16:47, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) Question about magic words

Goal here is to be able to compare the {{BASEPAGENAME}} to written text. Problem is that for titles with an apostrophe even an exact match in the text format is flagged as being different from the {{BASEPAGENAME}} when using the #Ifeq: parser function.

With respect to the following expression:

{{#Ifeq:{{BASEPAGENAME}} | X | They are equal | NOT equal}}

When it is used on a page titled "Arthur's cat" and X is equal to the text "Arthur's cat" it gives a "Not equal" output. This is despite the basepagename magic word seemingly giving the correct title. Below are the output from the Arthur's cat page. Note they are all different.

{{BASEPAGENAME}}	                Arthur's cat
{{urlencode:Arthur's Seat}}	   Arthur%27s+cat
{{urlencode:{{BASEPAGENAME}}}}	   Arthur%26%2339%3Bs+cat
{{anchorencode:Arthur's Seat}}	   Arthur.27s_cat
{{anchorencode:{{BASEPAGENAME}}}}  Arthur.26.2339.3Bs_cat
{{BASEPAGENAMEE}}	           Arthur%27s_cat
{{urlencode:{{BASEPAGENAMEE}}}}    Arthur%2527s_cat
{{anchorencode:{{BASEPAGENAMEE}}}} Arthur.2527s_cat

My question is how can I filter the X text (in this case the text Arthur's cat) such that it is identical to the {{BASEPAGENAME }} output for a page titled "Arthur's cat"? Thanks if anyone has an idea. (Chris) 144.92.162.15 18:58, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) index page for certain category

How to do index-page for articles which belong to certain category (and its subcategories) rather then for all articles in wiki. --Dnikitin 16:26, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just go to the Category:some category name page and all pages that belong to that category are listed, for example Category:Help --Dr DBW | talk 04:04, 13 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
  • PHP version: 5
  • MySQL version: 5
  • URL:

Hi there, i have a question to add links to the footer.

The doing is clear. I read Footer etc.

In the list are only a few pages, which can be used eg 'lastmod', 'viewcount', 'numberofwatchingusers', 'credits', 'copyright',

But can i also add my own pages and which one? Only systemmessages? What is the precondition?

Ozz 20:07, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) How to remove ths installed successfully information.

Just installed MediaWiki and am loving it so far. After installing i get this at the top of the main page:

MediaWiki has been successfully installed.

Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.

How do i remove this? I tried to edit the page but so far i don't have the option to remove this information. Which way should i go from here?

--Lordvasago 03:27, 30 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

simply start adding content to the page / wiki. From the look of it, it is gone now anyway, so you solved it --Dr DBW | talk 04:06, 13 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(OUTDATED) Problem Skintemplate

I have a problem with my skintemplate:

Fatal error: Class '[MonoBook]Template' not found in /home/thegecko/www/www/wiki/includes/SkinTemplate.php on line 125

And this is what line 125 says:

function setupTemplate( $classname, $repository=false, $cache_dir=false ) {

return new $classname(); } I have a standard monobook skin how do I solve this problem?

--77.164.218.186 08:04, 30 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Move Category

  • MediaWiki 1.13.0
  • PHP 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
  • MySQL 5.0.26

Is there a quick and easy way to move a category to a new name? --62.128.18.198 12:03, 30 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thats great: Extension:Replace Text --62.128.18.198 08:57, 1 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(RESOLVED) Installation problems

When I type in the url "http://www.androidmodding.com/wiki" I keep getting a message to install MediaWiki. Then it tells me if can't find the config directory (since I deleted it). But when I put it back, it says that the installation was already done but still the URL takes me to the install screen.

70.84.196.2 04:21, 1 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

and what is here? http://www.androidmodding.com/mediawiki-1.13.1/
I re-upped the files to try a fresh install. I am getting this error message when going to http://www.androidmodding.com/wiki then clicking on install: "PHP 5.0.0 or higher is required. If PHP 5 is available only when PHP files have a .php5 extension, please navigate to index.php5 to continue installation. :ABORTING."
And now I get:
Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STATIC, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in /home/content/c/a/r/carrlosboyd/html/androidmodding/wiki/includes/AutoLoader.php on line 10
PROBLEM RESOLVED
The problem has been resolved. My server (shared hosting) was running PHP4.x instead of PHP5.x. Once I changed servers, everything worked fine! Thanks "anyway" for the help! ;)