I’ve just installed MediaWiki and its working. I’ve chosen a skin to match my WordPress skin and its looking good. I’ve yet to change the photo although I like the one that comes with it better than my own but it needs personalisation???
There are several things I now need to do:
I’ve an older installation of a mediawiki and another wiki and I want to bring them together. Okay I’m not a complete beginner I can write and use a wiki. The most difficult thing has been the naming convention of pages. You have to be careful how to name pages. I’ve also had these wikis entirely to myself so its even more critical to be mindful of the names of pages when there are other users who might want to name the pages with the same name.
Installing MediaWiki 1.13.2
This is a helpful guide http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/06/14/installing-mediawiki-is-much-easier-than-the-instruct
- Download MediaWiki, unzip and upload to the server in the public html folder. I put it alongside WordPress.
- Create a mySQL database at the webhost using their cpanel
- Run the Mediawiki installer by going to the domain. It automatically brings up a configuration form that requires a handful of field inputs (including the database information from the previous step) before telling you to click an installation link. After completing the fields, click the installation link.
- Move the Localsettings.php file to the parent directory (/wiki). Follow the on-screen instructions to do this. The wiki should be installed now.
- choose a theme: I tried theirs and then downloaded and uploaded Mistylook http://mediawiki2u.com/2008/01/mistylook-mediawiki-template/ into the skins folder to match the wordpress theme.
- user settings: I wanted to limit who can read pages, edit them and create logins so put the following code into Localsettings.php file using the manual http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access to help. I put the code at the bottom so that I know where my changes are and used an American dollar key press alt + to comment it.
- To customize the logo area. Download the Localsettings.php file and add the following code (but change the path): $wgLogo = “http://stc-suncoast.org/wiki/stclogo.gif”;. The http path is the path for your logo, so you should have an image file uploaded there. Don’t forget the semicolon at the end of the statement.
- After Mediawiki installs, it shows you links to user guides. To customize your sidebar, search for Mediawiki:Sidebar (using the search box in your new wiki site). It will show you the page you need to modify.
