Clare's notes on setting up Wordpress and MediaWiki sites

keeping a post on top

clarefolkes — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:38:01 +0000

I wanted to keep a short post at the top of my blog so downloaded Lester Chan’s WP-Sticky. This is pretty useful and was no problem. When I edit a post I can find the setting for making it ‘sticky’. I also just cottoned onto needing a key for Akismet so hopefully it may work now. You can see if it works because I’ve stuck this at the top.

mediawiki customisation

clarefolkes — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:26:00 +0000

I added the snapshot generated html to the mistylook.php skin file just before body so that there are nice little screenshots of weblinks.
Permissions were set in local settings.php using the media wiki manual to help with the correct script.
The photo at the top of the page (of the Fairy Glen near Betws-y-coed was put into the img folder in the Mistylook skins directory.
I’m using the manual to help with making a breadcrumb trail http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:BreadCrumbs_(Kimon). It works well but you do have to turn it on under My preferences and the misc tab as instructed.

Getting MediaWiki up and running

clarefolkes — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:22:23 +0000

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.

Installing WordPress

clarefolkes — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:36:05 +0000

Ensure that your host has an up to date version of PHP 4.3 and that you have mySQL version 4 or greater. You can check the requirements here http://wordpress.org/about/requirements/
I used this guide to help with setting it up http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Famous_5-Minute_Install

I’ve used Clook share2 hostinghttp://www.clook.co.uk/services/shared It has a clear cpanel and good documentation on using it- this enables you to manage your site. This is different from managing your account and has a different web address- it took me awhile to work this out doh.. I have the ability to create 4 sql databases and this is important as I wanted to run MediaWiki as well.

Problems Installing WordPress

Most of the installation went swimmingly using their quick guide but I had an FTP problem. I downloaded WordPress and opened it with stuffit (I’m using Mac OS 10 Tiger). I then copied the files not the folder (as instructed) using classic ftp. It did not put everything up and didn’t take any notice of the folder structure. I sought help and we used the terminal and the inbuilt ftp utility. It still ignored the directory structure. I then downloaded One Button ftp http://onebutton.org/ which is a free applicationOnebutton ftp and did it there and it worked perfectly.

The procedure was basically as follows (using the 5 minute guide)

set up hosting checking that they provided php, mysql and apache
Set up the database at my web host in myphp my admin
downloaded and unzipped the wordpress folder
edited the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php.as instructed adding in the database details
Used onebutton ftp to upload the folders and went to my new site.
Changed the theme to one I downloaded http://wpthemes.info/misty-look/and then uploaded to the skins folder and edited the config file.

Now its installed the work begins. I need to change the picture and some of the features such as the search box position. I want widgets and plugins (not much difference it seems between what these mean and I need to think about the site organisation. Its not really going to be a blog though I may consider how that would work.