JLBN – Setup Wiki MediaWiki on WAMP
In this Install & Setup Wiki Guide for WAMP users, we will show you how to install and setup MediaWiki with version 1.11.1 is used in this tutor guide.
Note: Even this guide is used for Wampserver, you can apply this method on other wamp package such as Xampp, EasyPHP, so on. Just make sure to select correct file(s) in proper location(s) 😉
BN
I appreciate that you are busy and thank you for your perserverance. Yes I included ; with no spaces after true:
## To enable image uploads, make sure the ‘images’ directory
## is writable, then set this to true:
$wgEnableUploads = true;
# $wgUseImageMagick = true;
# $wgImageMagickConvertCommand = “/usr/bin/convert”;
The error message I get refers to line 8. I did not alter line 8:
Parse error: parse error in C:\wamp\www\mediawiki\LocalSettings.php on line 8
$wgEnableUploads = true; is at line 81?
This is what I have at line 8:
7# See includes/DefaultSettings.php for all configurable settings
8# and their default values, but don’t forget to make changes in _this_
9# file, not there.
What I was thinking of doing was to download wamp to another location find and copy Localsetting.php and paste into the mediawiki folder, and click ok when asked if I want to replace the file. Will that be OK?
Many thanks
JL
I got this from the Mediawiki manual:
To change the default skin, in any version of MediaWiki, set $wgDefaultSkin in LocalSettings.php to the lowercase name of the skin.
Below is a copy from local settings. The default name is in lower case!
## Default skin: you can change the default skin. Use the internal symbolic
## names, ie ‘standard’, ‘nostalgia’, ‘cologneblue’, ‘monobook’:
$wgDefaultSkin = ‘monobook’;
Cheers
Not that it means much when I cannot access the wiki! I should have just left it alone.
Ron, sorry we were quite busy today and couldnt get back to you early 🙁
monobook is the default skin which has admin menu on the top of the screen
After changed from false to true, did you make sure to have symbol ; after the word “true”? And also make sure there is no blank space after that symbol ;
JL
I didn’t notice any difference in the last few screen shots. It was at (mw4.jpg) where one of the filled in boxes has ‘WikiSyops’. I changed it to Admin. Other than that I followed your instructions, or at least purported to do so.
PS: the above re Jonny Nash should read: ‘there are more questions than answers the more you find out the less you know’
I thought that once I had downloaded wiki I should be able to cope!
I tried to upload a file and was told it was disabled. I Did some research on the web and found info to fix the problem i.e. to add this line or change false to true: $wgEnableUploads = true;
I changed ‘false’ to ‘true’
Now I cannot open wiki and get this message:
Parse error: parse error in C:\wamp\www\mediawiki\LocalSettings.php on line 8
I have changed the ‘true’ back to false but still get the same message.
I would be grateful for any help.
Cheers
BN
Thank you for that. I learn something every day. The song by Jonny Nash comes to mind, ‘there are more questions than answers the you find out the less you know’
When I was setting up wiki I changed WikiSysops to Admin. I thought that an admisistrator had more privileges than a sysops. Obviously I was wrong. The problem I have now is that there is no sidebar/navigation page. I have all other admin rights, well as far as I know I have. That is, edit, move, protect and delete.
Could you please tell me how to enable the sidebar. The manual says it should be enabled by default for admisitrators?
Cheers
Hi Ron,
did you mean you didnt have the same screen like the last screenshot on our guide? if using default skin, the navigation menu is on the top, and you have to change the skin
BN
“WordPress has SEO built-in”
I haven’t a clue what that means. (-:)
When I was young a ‘wireless’ had knobs that you turned to tune in a radio station.
Kind regards
Ron, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, the process of improving ranking in search engine results, which is the practice of maximizing the volume or quality of traffic to a web site (such as a blog) from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results; in other words, WordPress will auto spreads every posts on your Blog to Search Engine and thus make them spread faster to WWW, World Wide Web 😉
As you see, all our comments here are on our WordPress blog and in this particular post, we only initialize the guide for MediaWiki and when you click on Read more… it will redirect you to the rest of the guide
JLBN
Our posts appear to have crossed. I had just about worked out what to do but still unsure I was going to do the correct thing, when I saw your post. I am most grateful for your help and perseverance. Another $20 on its way which in no way reflects the extent of my gratitute which exceeds it by a mile.
Kind regards
Ron, the honor is ours and feel free to explore other guides if interested and actually it’s good to know more than less 😉 for example, WordPress has SEO built-in so you can initialize a post there then refer the rest to your Wiki, so you can spread your Wiki faster and more effective 😉 and thank you very much for your very generous donations 🙂
I think that I have found – Localsettings.php at:
C:\wamp\www\mediawiki\config
Now all I need is the ‘parent diectory’,
and how to change file permissions for LocalSettings.php
Thank you both for your assistance. Just two more things which may be because I have downloaded Mediawiki 1.15. Should I do anything re the warnings?
WARNING: If you use backwards-compatible UTF-8 on MySQL 4.1+, and subsequently back up the database with mysqldump, it may destroy all non-ASCII characters, irreversibly corrupting your backups!.
In binary mode, MediaWiki stores UTF-8 text to the database in binary fields. This is more efficient than MySQL’s UTF-8 mode, and allows you to use the full range of Unicode characters. In UTF-8 mode, MySQL will know what character set your data is in, and can present and convert it appropriately, but it won’t let you store characters above the Basic Multilingual Plane.
Connected to mysql 5.1.36-community-log; You are using MySQL 4.1 server, but PHP is linked to old client libraries; if you have trouble with authentication, see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/old-client.html for help.
I am unsure as to what this means:
Installation successful! Move the config/LocalSettings.php file to the parent directory, then follow this link to your wiki.
You should change file permissions for LocalSettings.php as required to prevent other users on the server reading passwords and altering configuration data.
Hi Ron,
1. Don’t worry about client libraries
2. From the folder C:/wamp/www/mediawiki/config, cut the file LocalSettings.php and go up 1 level to paste this file in the folder C:/wamp/www/mediawiki
Ron, in older version, binary is not stable so if you dont want to re-install it, UTF-8 is fine; btw, re-do it couple times, you become expert in setup php script, so consider it a good thing 🙂 Ignore client libraries. Move file LocalSettings.php from folder C:/wamp/www/mediawiki/config to folder C:/wamp/www/mediawiki
JL
I am sorry for being so dumb. It was late last night when I was working on this and going through your instructions more than once before committing myslelf. I now think that I did create a database because on checking there is a database with a main page called wiki on the MyAdmin page!
Ron, don’t claim yourself since nobody is perfect and the good news is you can always remove the mediawiki folder and its associated Database account and redo all over as long as you don’t create any information in wiki yet, and even if you’ve already did, just backup that Database before remove it; then, after successful install and setup mediawiki, just simply restore that Database. If still need more help, simply post here 😉
To setup backup, follow this
http://blog.jlbn.net/?p=6
JL
I think I may be in big trouble!
“Before installing MediaWiki, did you setup the Database account as instructed right from the beginning of the guide, even before step 1?”
No, I did not set up a database account before installing Mediawiki. I did look at you instructions. Do I need to start again? Do I need to delete Mediawiki?
I did download Mediawiki 1.15. I got as far as clicking on install Mediawiki, and got the message ‘something not quite right…’. There were red warnings where your instructions told me to use Mediawiki as database name and password:
‘Database name: Mediawiki
DB username: Mediawiki — — Check username
DB password: ********* — and password
DB password confirm:—‘
Thank you so much for your help.
BN
I have these messages which I did not notice!
Warning: $wgSecretKey key is insecure, generated with mt_rand(). Consider changing it manually. (I did create the password as you suggested!)
PHP is linked with old MySQL client libraries. If you are using a MySQL 4.1 server and have problems connecting to the database, see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/old-client.html for help.
Attempting to connect to database server as mediawiki…failed due to authentication errors. Check passwords.
Hi Ron,
Before installing MediaWiki, did you setup the Database account as instructed right from the beginning of the guide, even before step 1? Did you download MediaWiki 1.15 from the link above? About $wgSecretKey, we will install 1.15 to check it out for you. Ignore the error “PHP is linked with old MySQL client libraries” since it’s just the bug and thank you very much for your donations 🙂
Hi Ron,
The file LocalSettings.php contains $wgSecretKey which should be fine as is, but if you are concern about its security, you can use this link below to create md5 password and copy that password to replace that key
http://blog.jlbn.net/?p=75
If you need any more help, don’t hesitate to post here 🙂
BN
I have set $20 plus $20.
Kind regards
Hi BN
I am having just a little trouble. I clicked on Install MediaWiki and got the message ‘Something not quite right….’ On checking ‘Check username’ and ‘and password’ were in red. I don’t want to take a guess and get it wrong for later problems. So if you can point me in the right direction I would be most grateful. Cheers
Database name: Mediawiki
DB username: Mediawiki — — Check username
DB password: ********* — and password
DB password confirm:
BN
Thank you for that. I have just checked Mediawiki and the 1.12 file is corrupt. I get the same message as when I used your link. I have in fact managed to download 1.15 mediawiki file. See if I follow your instructions!
You have been a great help. I meant to send you £20 not $20. Where are you? I will send you another $20 to make up.
Ron, it seems MediaWiki 1.12 is not compatible with PHP5.3 that comes with Wamp2i; thus, try 1.15 which claimed to be compatible
Moreover, we really appreciate your generous donation and please left click on PayPal donation on our website JLBN.net. Thank you very much 😉
BN I have sent you $20 by paypal. It is not much taking into account your assistance but at least shows my appreciation.
Cheers
BN
I am not very good at this! I do not know what you mean by ‘enable short_open_tag….’
I have to say I did not expect such a prompt response! Not only are your tutorials clear and easy to follow (except for me!) you are on the ball.
I have manage to produce the page with where it says ‘Please set up wiki first’. Then I get the error mesage:
Parse error: parse error, expecting `T_STRING’ in C:\wamp\www\mediawiki\includes\Namespace.php on line 49
cheers
Ron, wamp users can enable short_open_tag to use <? … ?> instead using full tag <?php … ?>, and a lot of free script out there use short tag; to enable it, left click on wamp tray icon, then php, php settings and make sure there is a check symbol in front of “short open tag”; if not, left click on it to enable it
For your particular issue, try to download it again through this link
http://downloads.jlbn.net/Mediawiki-1.15.4.html
BTW, if still have problem and if you dont mind to have remote desktop assistance, sign up for free account at logmein.com and email invitation to webmaster [at] jlbn [dot] net
Hi I am having problems unzipping the mediawiki file. After downloading mediawiki, and pasting it in wamp/www, and then using Instead of going to the folder using
http://localhost/mediawiki
I get (see below) rather than the page as per tutorial. I must be doing something wrong, but what ? I would be most grateful for some guidance. Cheers
“Parent Directory
AdminSettings.sample”
Ron, did you already enable short_open_tag through wamp tray icon? and better if you can post a screenshot 😉
Many thanks,
Now it’s my turn making my best to manage the Wiki.
Some more explanations of what I’m doing when following the steps could be appreciated in case you want to improve further, but in any case I really thank you!
huh??? not quite sure your question here, so you might want to put a little more specific 😉
Hello webmaster,
I would like to share with you a link, write to alarroste@mail.ru