Project:Support desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/006

(OUTDATED) variable?

• MediaWiki version: 1.13
• PHP version: 5
• MySQL version:
• URL:

How can I add a variable so when I type [[SCT]] on the editing page, it displays the text I have chosen. Is this a magicword or a variable? It will basically be like CSS, so if I edit the 'variable' it updates all pages with [[SCT]] on it to the new text. Hope this makes sense!

—82.22.190.226 18:26, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Create hyperlinks

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
• PHP version: 5.2.6
• MySQL version: 4.0.20ant
• URL: localhost in Apache

Good Morning I need what some user cant create hiperlinks in pages, but they can edit pages. How configure this ? One user what can edit pages, but cant create hiperlinks.

I m brazilian, sorry my portuguese. Help please.

Thiago M.G UFOP —200.131.216.88 14:29, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Wiki running slowly

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL version: 5.0.45-community-log
• URL: http://www.driverwiki.com

Recently I've been experiencing the wiki running really slow, it sometimes takes almost a minute for pages to load. I have written up everything I know about the problem here http://mwusers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8765 and I'm hoping someone knows of a fix or something which will help resolve the issue. Please read through that thread and see if you can work out what's going on?

Thanks for your time! —121.91.2.196 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) update.php "deleting old default message" possibly stuck entirely?

• MediaWiki version: updating to 1.13.2
• PHP version: 5.2.6
• MySQL version: Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.41
• URL: http://dreadnoughtproject.org/tfs (update.php is running again at this moment)

When I run update.php, the step where it says removing old default messages (this may take a while) seems as though it might, in fact, be taking forever. There's slow, and then there's darn slow, and finally one arrives at the possibility that it is not progressing at all.

Though my Wiki is on the blocks at the moment as I attempt to run this, it has only around 1000 articles (mostly stubs), and the several times I've started update.php running, this step has never completed. I have allowed it to run for several hours. This pass, I am timing it, and running it through a terminal on a machine that will not sleep (this is what caused the other runs to abort).

Is there any way this step can be bypassed? Is it essential?

UPDATED INFO:

I modified the script to provide better feedback as it deletes each entry, and I noticed that it IS making headway, but taking about 20-25 seconds per entry it is deleting. On the plus side, I can see that the articles to be deleted are alphabetically sorted by title, and each run of this script is ratcheting me toward eventual completion (I'm up to the ones beginning with letter F). I expect the overall time to completion is about 9 hours. The issue might be that my DB server is remote from my web server.

—65.96.165.83 16:02, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) < math > rendering depends on content

• MediaWiki 1.13.1
• PHP 5.2.5 (cgi)
• MySQL 5.0.67
• On page URL: w:en:AdaBoost

Why is epsilon different in $ϵ$ and in $ϵ\sum$? I write < math > section for both. I think this is incorrect behavior.

—77.234.64.199 11:50, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps set in your user Preferences->Math "Always render PNG"

--62.128.18.198 09:48, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) MediaWiki and SSL-Proxy

I'd like to use a mediawiki with an ssl-proxy

example: https://ssl.domain.com/mymediawiki.com/ instead of http://mymediawiki.com but I get a lot of linking problems!

Is there a general support for ssl-proxy within the mediawiki?

Thanks a lot!

Cheers, Dennis —92.203.103.71 23:11, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Imports semi-randomly rejected with "All revisions were previously imported", even though article does not exist

• MediaWiki 1.13.2
• PHP 5.2.3-1ubuntu6.4 (apache2handler)
• MySQL 5.0.45-Debian_1ubuntu3.3-log
• URL: http://ec2-75-101-225-5.compute-1.amazonaws.com

My fresh new MediaWiki installed like a charm and works perfectly. However, when I attempt to Special:Import exports from Wikitravel, most -- but not all -- of my attempts are rejected with "All revisions were previously imported", even though there is no article by that name. Wikitravel uses MediaWiki 1.11.2, with the export-0.3 format, and I see nothing strange in the headers, or obvious differences between those imports that work (eg. Palau) and those that don't (eg. Singapore).

<mediawiki xmlns="http://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.3/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.3/ http://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.3.xsd" version="0.3" xml:lang="en">
  <siteinfo>
    <sitename>Wikitravel</sitename>
    <base>http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page</base>
    <generator>MediaWiki 1.11.2</generator>

Is there any way to see/debug where that "All revisions were previously imported" error is coming from and what is causing it? From the SQL debug log, I can see that successfully imported articles are queried and then inserted into the DB:

9 Query       SELECT /* LinkCache::addLinkObj Jpatokal */  page_id,page_len,page_is_redirect  FROM `page`  WHERE page_namespace = '0' AND page_title = 'Tuvalu'  LIMIT 1
9 Query       INSERT /* Article::insertOn Jpatokal */  INTO `page` (page_id,page_namespace,page_title,page_counter,page_restrictions,page_is_redirect,page_is_new,page_random,page_touched,page_latest,page_len) VALUES (NULL,'0','Tuvalu',

While the failed ones do not even try to query (no SELECT, no IMPORT, in fact no article-related activity at all). Similarly, if I run "php importDump.php", I'm greeted with a cheery "Done!" for any XML I try to import, even though absolutely nothing actually happens; mySQL's debug log shows no activity. —Jpatokal 13:44, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Turned out to be a bug in the MediaWiki import XML parser, it barfs if it encounters a "<realname>" tag inside the contributor block. Worked around by removing the tag, but this is now filed as a bug filed at https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15913. Jpatokal 09:52, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Adding something above or below the copyrights.

My MediaWiki Information:

• MediaWiki version: 1.6.10
• PHP version: 4.4.9 (cgi)
• MySQL version: 4.0.27-max-log
• URL: http://tokwiki.thelostwaters.com

My Question: I have a question... I want to add chat box above or below the copyrights, but I don't know how. Can you help me? —TheSeaKing 21:59, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Changing Skin Colors

   * MediaWiki: 1.13.0
   * PHP: 5.2.5 (apache)
   * MySQL: 4.1.22-standard
   * URL: Zelda Wiki.org

We are having trouble changing the default colors for some of the new elements added in MediaWiki version 1.13.0. Here are the areas we are having trouble with: Page diffs have a white background, selected items on page histories are highlighted in white, the system messages has a white background. Every attempt to change these colors has failed. It is really starting to annoy our users. Our guy who has root access said he uses CSSEdit, and that it works in concert with his FTP program. —Matt 20:33, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Well, no thanks to anyone here, another person came along and helped us.—Matt 19:03, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Imported MySQL not showing articles.

My MediaWiki Information:

• MediaWiki version: 1.6.8
• PHP version: 5.2.6
• MySQL version: 5.0.45-community-log
• URL: http://www.globalguide.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

My Question: There was a problem on my host's server which corrupted my wiki MySQL database.

We restored wikidb from my MySQL backup and I have weird wiki now where all the articles are there but none of the text.

Looking in the MySQL export/import file I can see some of the text but running the wiki itself - nothing.

You can see articles should be there by clicking on History - there they all are but clicking an entry gives you:

The database did not find the text of a page that it should have found, named "Main Page,oldid=9193".

This is usually caused by following an outdated diff or history link to a page that has been deleted.

If this is not the case, you may have found a bug in the software. Please report this to an administrator, making note of the URL.

Any ideas how to restore my database? There's four years work right now in danger... --Scotthatton 10:17, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) weird stuff gets inserted

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
• PHP version: 5.2.6
• MySQL version: 5.0.51b
• URL: http://wiki (Internal)

Greetings

I've installed this wiki for general sharing of company info and help. The problem comes in when I try to edit. I get that the content changes, and tables gets inserted and all kinds of weird stuff gets inserted. The text changes, and some gets removed and others inserted. I thought that it might be me, and so installed FCK editor, since I'm familiar with it. But then the exact same thing happened there. I read up on this, and can not find the problem, so I came ot this page, and when I queried my MediaWiki for the version, I noticed that the same type of text changes seems to have happened here ?

I'll give you a simple example. In the "Special:Version" page, I get the following

 "tr> < <td>[<ttp[//www.mysql.com/ MySQL]</td>< <td>5<0.51b-community-nt</td>< /tr><</ta <e>
 <h2 i<="mw-version-ext">Installed extensions</h2><tabl< id="sv-ext"><tr><<h c<lspan="3">Other</th></tr><<tr> 
 < td><<m>[<ttp[//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:FCKeditor_%28by_FCKeditor_and_Wikia%29 FCKeditor] (Version fckeditor/mw-extension $Rev$ 2008)</em>
 </td>< td>F<Keditor extension for editing wiki pages (WYSIWYG editor)</td>< td>F<Keditor.net and Wikia</td>< < tr><<tr <ass="sv-space">
 <td c<lspan="3" /></tr><<tr> <h c<lspan="3">Parser extension tags</th></tr><<tr> <d c<lspan="3"><pre></td></tr><<tr <ass="sv-space">
 <td c<lspan="3" /></tr><<tr> <h c<lspan="3">Parser function hooks</th></tr><<tr> <d c<lspan="3">anchorencode, defaultsort, displaytitle, filepath, 
 formatnum, fullurl, fullurle, grammar, int, language, lc, lcfirst, localurl, localurle, ns, numberofadmins, numberofarticles, numberofedits, numberoffiles, 
 numberofpages, numberofusers, padleft, padright, pagesincategory, pagesize, plural, special, tag, uc, ucfirst and urlencode</td></tr><</ta <e>"

Any Ideas ?

(RESOLVED) Changing Timeout For User Logins

• MediaWiki version: 1.10.0
• PHP version: 5.2.4-2ubuntu5.1 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.1
• URL: internal

Hello,

How can I increase the length of time before a login expires, and I have to re-enter my password. I've found various timeout related configuration variables, but they appear to be related to other things.

—159.178.53.151 Erik

If you select Remember my login on this computer, then you can remain logged in for the number of seconds set in $wgCookieExpiration. Otherwise, you're relying on the session.gc_maxlifetime setting in php.ini. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 01:23, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Syntax highlighter extension no longer creating a dotted box

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
• PHP version: 5.2.1 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 5.0.38-Ubuntu_0ubuntu1.4-log
• URL:

I updated to the latest stable version of mediawiki and updated the code syntax highlighter extension (version info below):

SyntaxHighlight (Version r41349) Provides syntax highlighting <source> using
GeSHi Highlighter Brion Vibber, Niklas Laxström, Rob Church and Tim Starling

Now the source code in my wiki no longer is surrounded by a dotted blue box. Is there now an attribute or some other thing I need to use or do to turn on this functionality?

—69.255.190.214 13:11, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) What's the default admin password on MediaWiki 1.11?

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.5
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community-nt

When I look at Special:Listusers on my wiki, it shows Admin, Administrator, and then my user account. Admin and Administrator are listed as bureaucrat and sysop, while I'm listed as sysop. I would like to give myself bureaucrat access, but I can't login to either Admin or Administrator. I've tried admin, administrator, and a few other possibilities, but none of them work. What are the default passwords, or at least how can I get bureaucrat access for my user account? Thanks. -- Imperator3733 19:22, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

You will have to reset the password of one of the accounts. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 23:44, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

I couldn't get changePassword.php working, so I used Extension:Password Reset instead. -- Imperator3733 20:46, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Wiki automatically redirects to non-www... - why?

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
• PHP version: 5.2.5 (cgi)
• MySQL version: 4.1.22-standard
• URL: http://www.x42bn6.com/wiki

Is this standard on MediaWiki? When you go to my home page (which has nothing on at the moment), http://www.x42bn6.com/wiki redirects to http://x42bn6.com/wiki/index.php5?title=Main_Page X42bn6 22:17, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

www.x42bn6.com has a CNAME that points to www.x42bn6.com. This is unrelated to MediaWiki. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 23:48, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Robots policy

• MediaWiki version: 1.14alpha
• PHP version: 5.2.4-2ubuntu5wm1 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 4.0.40-wikimedia-log
• URL: http://he.wikipedia.org

Hello. Do the __INDEX__/__NOINDEX__ magic words override the settings in $wgNamespaceRobotPolicies for an individual page?

—Nevuer 18:47, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Editor: adding message at top of page

I'd like to add a couple of lines of text above the editor on the Edit page (and below any system messages). Is there a proper way to do so? --84.9.191.165 23:16, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Restoring an older wiki

• MediaWiki version: None yet
• PHP version:
• MySQL version:
• URL:

My friend once used MediaWiki, and he set up a very nice wiki on some other host. For whatever reason the host closed, and now all that remains of his wiki is his MYSQL backup. I have a ubuntu LAMP server, but I know little of MYSQL or MediaWiki. Can I simply install MediaWiki and copy is MYSQL backup to restore his wiki without major problems? Basically, is the entire wiki stored in MYSQL or is there something we would be missing? Sorry if its a really rookie question, but I don't want to go through all the installing and moving files (and learn mediawiki) to find out it would have never worked.

Rod —96.51.108.32 04:04, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Any images will be lost unless they were backed up separately, but otherwise, there shouldn't be any problems. You'll probably need to run the update script after you import the database. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 04:19, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) PHP syntax error

• MediaWiki version: Not entirely sure, since I cannot access the wiki. It was the most up-to-date release as of Labor day.
• PHP version: 5.2.6
• MySQL version: 5.0.51
• URL: http://www.maxnichols.net/wiki/

I am getting this error: "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '<' in /home/max/public_html/wiki/includes/OutputHandler.php on line 179"

I am unsure what could be causing it, since I have not accessed the wiki for several days, and it worked the last I looked. Only my own account has the power to edit any pages.

—132.208.70.49 02:23, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Want to access Phoenix wiki from Mac machine, but could not able to access

• MediaWiki version: 1.2
• PHP version:
• MySQL version: 5.0
• URL: http://mstuk-phoenix:81/index.php?title=HomePage

Hi, I want to access the wiki from mac machine, but is not opening. I wanted to know any setting need to be done. Please let me know.

—213.199.128.147 16:59, 24 October 2008 (UTC) Shekhar Patil shekharpatil1979@gmail.com 44-79444 20868

(OUTDATED) troubles after wiki update

• MediaWiki version: 1.12.1
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 4.1.22-log
• URL: http://wiki.irkutsk.ru

After update wiki till the version 1.12:
1. we miss all pages in Help (Справка - in russian)
2. Error on page http://wiki.irkutsk.ru/index.php/IrkutskWiki:%D0%A2%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%89%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%8B%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%8F:
3. When I try to create a new page (create a link, turn it on and edit new page) - it is not recorded, and an error

—Дмитрий Гавриков 23:10, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Use of anti-vandalism tools on Wikipedia and MediaWiki upgrades

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

This is the second time I see such an occurrence, and I would like MediaWiki developpers to address this issue:

When the software used by Wikipedia gets upgraded, tools used by vandalism patrollers (such as Twinkle or Huggle) become inoperative until their developpers adjust them to the software upgrades. The latest upgrade also disabled all but a few bots that have a very high edit count (such as SmackBot) This forces vandalism patrollers to work manually, and, in the words of one user at the Huggle technical support desk, such an occurrence is now referred to as "vandal party." Would it be possible, in the future, for MediaWiki developpers to notify in advance the developpers of the most commonly used anti-vandalism tools before upgrading Wikipedia, so that these tools are ready for the upgrades as soon as the upgrades are implemented?

—70.80.199.161 16:25, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Eh, I read the commit logs daily, don't think there's any more they could tell me. I just suck at defensive coding -- Gurch 13:15, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) make toolbox invisible for guests

• MediaWiki version: 1.12.0
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache)
• MySQL version: 5.0.27-standard
• URL: www.bridge-goettingen.de

I use Wiki for my homepage. Is it possible to make the toolbox and also the boxes "article", "discussion", "history" ... (in German the boxes are called "Reiter", sorry for my bad English) invisible for guests? —Oberfoerster 13:13, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

- Have a look at the last posts here: http://www.forum.mwusers.de/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=56 --Mwuser 12:45, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks --Oberfoerster 11:39, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) MediaWiki needs his own Forum!

• MediaWiki version: all
• PHP version: all
• MySQL version: all
• URL: does not mather...

Hello! Why dont you start a vBulletin-Forum? Your main business it the wiki, a great software, but no forum! A forum like http://www.mwusers.com/ integrated on your page would be a very big step ahead!

2nd: If you bring forward the MediaWiki integration in vBulletin (and/or other forum softwares like phpBB), MediaWiki would gain more and more ground in the net.

Bruno

—BRotondi 07:34, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

I second Bruno's motion. If MediaWiki developers had a forum it would be easier to ask questions and locate FAQs.

Brady

(OUTDATED) Where to go for a setup a small MW site without having to install my own server?

• MediaWiki version: N/A
• PHP version: N/A
• MySQL version: N/A
• URL: N/A

Hi all -- I apologize for clearly asking this question in the wrong forum. But hopefully it won't be too intrusive and someone here will have a good answer for me. I am a user and contributer of wikipedia, wikimedia commons, and OpenWetWare, and so I am familiar with editing MediaWiki sites. I want to set up a small set of pages somewhere for coordinating local charitable donations with my neighbors. Since I know MediaWiki, I'd like to host the site on MediaWiki. But I don't have enough time or experience (or money) to install my own MW server. I suspect there are thousands of for-fee hosted MW sites out there (sorry that I don't know too much yet). But what I'm wondering is if anyone can point me to a good hosted site--particularly one that my have smaller or waived fees for non-profits? (Also, of course if you could point me to a better place to ask this question, I'll do so.) Thank you!

—Skoch3 05:53, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Help with the default search field

• MediaWiki version: 1.13
• PHP version: 5.2.6
• MySQL version: 5.0.16
• URL: http://www.theworldsofshannara.com

Greetings,

I just installed Mediawiki on my site and am working on customizing and getting it all set up. I really have not done much to the site.

However the search funcitonality seems to not be working correctly.

When I do a search for an existing page. Hitting either Go or Search comes up with a blank. However if I then do an advanced search checking the project namespace as well then the page will come up. So I am not sure if it is the search or the creating of a page. Seems that new pages are created in the Project namespace. However looking in the DB, the pages have the value page_namespace set to 0. I assume this means they are in the Main namespace. (I cannot find where those values are set such that they mean something to me)

In the LocalSettings.php I have set this as well

$wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault = array(

NS_MAIN => true, NS_TALK => false, NS_USER => false, NS_USER_TALK => false, NS_PROJECT => true, NS_PROJECT_TALK => false, NS_IMAGE => false, NS_IMAGE_TALK => false, NS_MEDIAWIKI => false, NS_MEDIAWIKI_TALK => false, NS_TEMPLATE => false, NS_TEMPLATE_TALK => false, NS_HELP => false, NS_HELP_TALK => false, NS_CATEGORY => false, NS_CATEGORY_TALK => false

);

Neither seems to work. Anyone have some ideas or suggestions on where to look at what is going on, or at the very least change the default search box so it also searchs the Project namespace. Or so that new pages are really created in the Main namespace if they are not in fact going there.

Phillip —75.165.233.172 16:06, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) SPAM shows up in Firefox not in IE

MediaWiki: 1.5.7 PHP: 4.4.8 (cgi-fcgi) MySQL: 4.1.21-log

My wiki was attacked pretty badly - I went into the sql database and deleted what I could find as spam (and disabled the anon user's ability to write). Now, when I look at

www.handicappedpets.com/wiki in IE, it looks fine. When I look in Firefox, GAK!

Not sure where to go from here. ANy guideance would be highly appreciated.

Also notice that my `hpw1text` files is 25 Megabytes with 26,000 entries. How can I tell which entries I can delete -- or is there a way to rewrite this file?

Thanks! —70.213.245.16 18:22, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Main page looks clean to me. There are strategies for combating spam. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 20:47, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How to find all article that a given user has started?

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL version: 5.0.67-log

Is there any way to view all the articles that a user has started? If not, is there a query I can run to obtain this information? —LinguistAtLarge 16:23, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

• Here's a tool to do this for Wikipedia [1] LinguistAtLarge 19:07, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Will MediaWiki work on HP Unix?

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

Will MediaWiki work on HP Unix?

—167.1.146.100 22:07, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Probably. Try it and see. :) —Emufarmers^(T|C) 04:21, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) MediaWiki:Sidebar

I am trying to edit the Sidebar menu. I found these instructions:

Customize the sidebar

As an administrator, edit the wiki page "MediaWiki:Sidebar". (The editinterface permission needs to be enabled and is enabled for administrators by default; for information on assigning it to other groups, see Manual:User rights.) You may need to use the syntax //yourdomain/yourwiki/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Sidebar&action=edit if you use long URLs. Example sidebar code:

* navigation
** mainpage|mainpage
** Special:Recentchanges|Recent changes
* new heading
** portal-url|portal
** http://www.mediawiki.org|MediaWiki home

The only problem I have is that I can't locate the wiki page "MediaWiki:Sidebar". Where is it?

Brady, November 2008

It is simply located at MediaWiki:Sidebar (look at the URL). --:bdk: 20:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Text search with wiki text highligted elements in a word in an article fails in general?

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache)
• MySQL version: 5.0.67-community
• URL: not free available at thomas-prietz.de because of copy right issues (temporarilly)

If you have parts of words e.g. higlighted oder bold in an article, like:

Customer ''Relation'''''ship''' Management: [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRM Wikipedia CRM]

the search will never find the complete word 'relationship' again in this article.

So, a higlighting or other marking method for elements in a word in mediawiki makes the word to a "stealth word" for the wiki search engine.

In my opinion, the search should generally ignore the wikitext syntax.

Any hints like: "Try the single words" or "use google..." are not helpfull, especially for german language with partly very long words.

I found no help at mediawiki.org with "full text search". but some comments can be found with Google. Is there an extension that can cope with this problem or does exist a setting of a search variable? Again, in my opinion it is a bug, not a feature

—Dagon 23:27, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Editing Navigation Links

Hi, I want to make a drop-down menu with my navigation bar, I tried to use * ** *** but inside of the preview he shows it good but when I save it he shows it just like it is a ordinary link.

How can I make this work well?

--77.164.218.186 08:09, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) image upload error

• MediaWiki version: 1.12
• PHP version: 5.26
• MySQL version: 5.0.22
• URL:

uploading images doesn't work anymore on my Media wiki. It used to work just fine, noting has changed but I get this error message when I try to upload an image. can you help. here is the error that I get.

Internal error
From OpenSocial
Jump to: navigation, search
Could not find file "C:\WINDOWS\Temp\php3FE.tmp".

(RESOLVED) How to get user account name

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.0
• PHP version: 5.2.6
• MySQL version: 5.0.33-log
• URL:

What is the variable name that returns user's account name? I found {{SERVER}}, {{LOCALDAYNAME}}, etc. Thanks.

—134.163.255.25 00:54, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

{{CURRENTUSER}} will do (since version 1.13). -Rob. --89.244.189.37 01:39, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

MediaWiki 1.13.2

PHP 5.2.42-servage8 (apache2handler)

MySQL 5.0.51a

URL DishiWiki

Darn, {{CURRENTUSER}} doesn't work for our MW 1.13.2 wiki. Is it working for you, 134.163.255.25? Brian7632416 20:26, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

There is no CURRENTUSER magic word in the MediaWiki core, and because it would interfere with caching, there probably never will be. The Variables extension includes a simple implementation of CURRENTUSER that you could use. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 07:02, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) blocking source codes

• MediaWiki: 1.11.2
• PHP: 5.1.4-Debian-0.1~sarge1 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 4.1.11-Debian_4sarge8

Hello. As Admin/Sysop of my own wiki I blocked some articles for edit by all users. It is possible for any user, to read these articles, and that is okay. But everybody can click "View Source Code" and is able to read it. Is it possible, to hide this button, so that nobody can view the source code of blocked articles? Or does anybody know another solution? Thanks a lot, Martin. 79.219.192.180 15:37, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Note: If you only hide the "view source" tab e.g. by adapting your CSS (ca-viewsource/display:none), users can still view the code by manually typing the URL into their address bar. --:bdk: 20:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) User Permissions Problems

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi)
• MySQL version: 1.4.22
• URL: allynncomputerservices.com/wiki

I have a similar situation, but slightly different. I have been able to get my wiki running ok, but it is configured as though anyone can create and edit pages. This is not a desirable situation for me, I want to be able to control who can add and edit pages in my wiki.

I have made up the array for the wgGroupPermissions that I wish to use, and know that it needs to be placed inside of the LocalSettings.php file. My only question is, how do I determine where in this file do I place this matrix or array so that it functions correctly?

—Dfeldman 18:52, 16 November 2008 (UTC)Dave (email: dfeldman2147@bellsouth.net)

Anywhere after require_once( "includes/DefaultSettings.php" ); is fine. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 03:08, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Transcluding subpages

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
• PHP version: 5.0.4
• MySQL version: 4.1.20
• URL: http://www.osresearch.net/wiki/index.php/LaTeX_and_MediaWiki

I'm trying to use subpages to store individual chapters in a book named Baz, and sub-sub pages to store individual sections of each chapter. The chapters transclude the sections using relative includes like {{/Section Foo}} rather than the full path {{:Baz/Chapter Bar/Section Foo}} and the top level page transcludes all of the chapters as {{/Chapter Bar}}. If I view the chapter page Baz/Chapter Bar, then the transclusions of the sections look fine, but if I look at the top level page Baz, it tells me that Baz/Section Foo does not exist, which of course it doesn't.

Is it possible to have the second transclusion take into account the path to the page that generated the transclusion (Baz/Chapter Bar), rather than using the relative path of the page being viewed (Baz)?

—24.126.107.168 04:01, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Following up my own question, Help:Template#Relative_name_for_transcluded_page says that

A page A can transclude a subpage A/B using {{/B}} or, with more control over the name of the page to be transcluded, this name can be constructed from {{PAGENAME}}.

So if page A transcludes subpage A/B, how would page A/B then transclude A/B/C without using the full path? Or, when transcluded from A, is there a variable like {{PAGENAME}} that page A/B can use to refer to itself rather than A? -24.126.107.168 15:40, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Please change my username

Sorry to disturb someone here, but I'm unable to find the right place to apply: Can please someone change user:WeHaWoe => user:W. ASAP? I left a reason on my talk page. Thank you.

—Wolfgang 08:14, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

See Project:Requests#Requests for renames --:bdk: 20:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How to run parser tests

• MediaWiki version: 1.14-alpha (HEAD)
• PHP version: n.a.
• MySQL version: n.a.
• URL: n.a.

I have been trying to find a "How to run parser tests", but I haven't been able to. Can someone please give me a quick run through? I'll create a manual page out of it. Running parser tests on Betawiki, I get the errors below. Maybe they shouldn't even be run on a live wiki, but only in a non-production test/dev environment. Thanks. Siebrand 22:06, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

/var/www/w/maintenance$ php parserTests.php
This is MediaWiki version 1.14alpha (r43583).

Reading tests from "maintenance/parserTests.txt"...
parserTests.php: DB error: A database error has occurred
Query: SELECT value,exptime FROM `parsertest_objectcache` WHERE keyname='mediawiki-parsertest_:messages:en'
Function: MediaWikiBagOStuff::_doquery
Error: 1146 Table 'mediawiki.parsertest_objectcache' doesn't exist (localhost)

A database query syntax error has occurred.
The last attempted database query was:
"SELECT value,exptime FROM `parsertest_objectcache` WHERE keyname='mediawiki-parsertest_:messages:en'"
from within function "MediaWikiBagOStuff::_doquery".
MySQL returned error "1146: Table 'mediawiki.parsertest_objectcache' doesn't exist (localhost)"

I hacked my way around it. The parser test test suite assumes that the database prefix is 'parsertest_' in line 540. This is not configurable from the commandline, which makes it a bit inflexible. I suggested in bugzilla:16374 to make a commandline parameter for it, with the special value 'none' for an empty prefix. Siebrand 21:40, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) help with taxoboxes, does mediawiki 1.6 support?

• MediaWiki: 1.6.10
• PHP: 4.4.9 (cgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.67-community
• URL: skunkBgone.com

Does MediaWiki support Taxoboxes? I've RTFM and cant get anything to work? I need a hand held step by step process.

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Taxobox#Detailed_structure
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Taxobox
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life#Taxoboxes
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Taxobox_usage

If i cut and paste examples I get odd UI display. example:

=== Plant species ===

{{Taxobox
| name = Sweetbay Magnolia
| image = Sweetbay1082.jpg
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Angiospermae]]
| unranked_classis = [[Magnoliid]]s
| ordo = [[Magnoliales]]
| familia = [[Magnoliaceae]]
| genus = ''[[Magnolia]]''
| species = '''''M. virginiana'''''
| binomial = ''Magnolia virginiana''
| binomial_authority = [[Carolus Linnaeus|L.]]
}}

generates the following no actual taxobox on my wiki only an internal link to Template:taxobox.

and the content within the <pre></pre> tags is echoed onto page.

???

—Cordingley 17:44, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Copy over the taxobox template. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 01:17, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

… and you may need to copy some infobox styles from en:MediaWiki:Common.css. --:bdk: 07:50, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Questions regarding Monobook skin/printable page

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.0
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 5.0.67
• URL: (internal)

I am migrating our internal wiki from 1.8.2 to 1.13.0 and the former used a severely modified version of the Monobook skin - main.css was severely stripped and the columns were formatted using a table rather than Big John's neet (sic) fun and games, which I've just recently discovered. One of the side-effects of using a table is (so I believe) that the Printable page feature no longer does what it does for Monobook - in fact, the person who set up the skin (and has since left the company) removed that option.

I wish to reinstate that feature and appear to have two options - either fit the skin into Big John's method (once I've really got my head around that!) or see if I can fix what the printable-page code does so that it finds the content in the table.

I think I can find my way around the former option (albeit slowly, as a novice at this stuff!), but I've not been able to find what I need about "printable=yes", so I'd appreciate it if you could tell me where to find the code for this.

BTW, this page [2] only has one text box("Subject/headline"), not two as the "Three steps to a good request" suggest. Hopefully I've formatted this request properly! ;-)

Many thanks,

—Andthepharaohs 11:40, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

I have now discovered how the printable page is managed - so for the benefit of any other novices out there, it's done by skins/common/wikiprintable.css.

Andthepharaohs 10:39, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) $wgWhitelistRead RequestAccount with EMAILTOKEN

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
• PHP version: 4
• MySQL version: 4.1.22
• URL: http://sbiesterfeldt.de/MF/mediawiki/index.php

Hi,

my DefaultSettings.php looks like:

$wgWhitelistRead = false;
$wgWhitelistRead = array("Benutzerkonto beantragen", "Spezial:Benutzerkonto_beantragen");
$wgWhitelistRead = array("Request Account", "Spezial:RequestAccount");
'''$wgWhitelistRead = array("Confirm Account", "Spezial:RequestAccount&action=confirmemail&wpEmailToken=");'''

A new User created a account. The Confimation-E-Mail see a LINK to confirm the Account:

http://sbiesterfeldt.de/MF/mediawiki/index.php?title=Spezial:RequestAccount&action=confirmemail&wpEmailToken=882c633fd99d77ba6f629dce3c6ba0a2

The NEW User click on the Link and see this error Message:

"You must sign-in, to see this page"

Regards

Sascha —62.143.217.163 21:46, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Error when embedding two special pages

• MediaWiki version: 1.11.0
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL version: 5.0.67-log
• URL: http://recycleabike.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=1608

I am having a problem when trying to embed two special pages into my main page. I want to embed both "Special:Categories" and "Special:Uncategorizedpages". I edited LocalSettings.php to allow these two pages to be embedded. If I embed one or the other on its own, it comes out fine. However, when I embed both into the same page, I get an error - uintelligible text where the "Special:Categories" page should be embedded.

Please help. Thanks. —Mrengy 22:21, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Media Wiki version questions

Where can I get MediaWiki 1.14 Alpha

—202.137.66.72 04:29, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Download from SVN. --Ilmari Karonen 18:17, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Smaller edit buttons

• MediaWiki version: 1.11
• PHP version:
• MySQL version:
• URL:

How can I get those "edit" buttons smaller? The standard buttons are lots bigger than, for example, the buttons on Wikipedia.

—86.88.44.213 20:52, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Which edit buttons? (there are different links/positions that are commonly called "edit buttons" … page editing, section editing, other?). Generally you can adapt such things by editing your CSS. --:bdk: 20:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Swedish available?

Is there any swedish language available for Mediawiki?

—217.211.113.108 09:06, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes: You will have the option to set your wiki's language when you create it, and you can change it afterward with $wgLanguageCode. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 19:53, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Defining class/styles

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.5 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.67-log
• Url: www.jainkosh.org

I have question about defining class or styles in one place and using those in various wiki pages. I don't want to define it on each wiki page, so should be defined in some single place. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks, Vikas

—71.139.31.202 05:00, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

I found the place where to save the class definitions. It's in the skin directory and common.css file.

(RESOLVED) Non-alphanumeric characters display as their escape sequence in browser's address bar

• MediaWiki version: 1.12.0 (r29)
• PHP version: 5.2.6-3 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL version: 5.0.51a-6
• URL: http://ambitiouspagoda.com/wiki/Liam_Tesanqua_(4E)

If I add a link that goes to the page http://ambitiouspagoda.com/wiki/Dungeons_and_Dragons#Antiquated_Shade_-_4th_Edition_Reboot with a title like Liam Tesanqua (4E) that has parentheses, and then click on that link, the address appears as an escape sequence in the address bar of my browser: http://ambitiouspagoda.com/wiki/Liam_Tesanqua_%284E%29

I noticed that in wikipedia, I never see escape characters even when parentheses are present, such as here: w:en:Imagine_(album). The only way that the escaped version of the url does not appear is if I manually type the non-escaped version into the address bar and hit enter as in http://ambitiouspagoda.com/wiki/Liam_Tesanqua_(4E). I think the escape characters look nasty and would like the non-escaped version to always appear so that someone linking to the page does not copy and use the escape version (although I realize it will work just as well).

Thanks in advance

—129.21.254.140 18:05, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

I did a little testing, and it seems that the escape characters appear on wikis using rewrite rule-based short URLs, but not on wikis using the recommended alias method. I don't know of any solution to this other than using an alias method (which your hosting may not allow). —Emufarmers^(T|C) 04:36, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure how that could affect it, since the browser shouldn't see any difference between the two methods. Are you sure you didn't accidentally set up your rewrite rules to do a client-side redirect? (Ps. I can't replicate the original problem here on Firefox 3.0.4: both of the links appear with unescaped parentheses in the address bar.) --Ilmari Karonen 00:08, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Try it with IE. It seems that FF unescapes the URL automatically. (It could instead be that IE is escaping the URL, but if that were the case, I would expect the same thing to happen on a wiki using aliases.) —Emufarmers^(T|C) 00:53, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Inserting a search field

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.0
• PHP version: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 5.0.26
• URL:

Hi. I'm trying to insert a search field that will search the database of uploaded files. I'm sure you guys have posted the answer somewhere on your comprehensive site, but can't find it sorry.

Can you help.

Cheers. keith.

keith.fitzpatrick@lotterywest.wa.gov.au 1711 West Aus DST, 15th Dec 2008 —167.30.38.252 08:12, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

An easy way to do so is to install Extension:InputBox and then to use something like:

   <inputbox>
   type=search
   searchbuttonlabel=Browse uploaded files
   namespaces=File**
   break=no
   </inputbox>

That will produce:

Keep in mind that you have to use "Image" instead of "File" for the respective namespace on MediaWiki 1.13 and earlier. --:bdk: 14:36, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How to allow MediaWiki access only to registered users?

• MediaWiki version: 1.9.2
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 4.1.22-max-log
• URL: private

Hello,

I installed MediaWiki as organisation platform for some friends of mine. I want only registered users to view and edit pages. Unregistered users should first create an account. Is there a way to avoid that unregistered users can view and edit my MediaWiki?

Thanks a lot —192.251.226.205 13:24, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Manual:User rights —Emufarmers^(T|C) 02:55, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

-*-*-*-*

You do this by inserting following codes at bottom of your LocalSettings.php file;

## Stop anonymous user from editing any page
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;

## Stop anonymous user from reading any page
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] = false;