Manual talk:FAQ/2006

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Languages

hi folks... is it ok to set up an own "FAQ"-page in another language (e.g. german..), here ? --80.138.186.52 18:24, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, there is already a rough german start, see Help:FAQ/de. I'm not sure if it makes sense to develop pages in different languages with completely other content, but we'll see. --:Bdk: 20:47, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

well, English is standard language and we should use it.

GFDL in PD?

Hi! i contributed the sites m:Help:Wiki family and m:Hilfe:Wiki family into Meta under terms of GFDL. As i am the only author of both, is it possible to publish them here under terms of PD, too ? --Produnis 18:43, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it definitely is possible to do so, as long as you are the only author. A little note in the summary like "I'm the only author of the text, copied it from meta:xy and hereby released it in the public domain" or close is recommended to clarify the license state. Thanks a lot :-) --:Bdk: 20:47, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

This page is not released as Public Domain anyway. It is GFDL. The move described above does not involve any relicensing.

There is only a relatively small area, everything under the 'Help' namespace, which is released as public domain. The reasoning for this is given on: Project:PD help.

In the past there was some confusion, but I think everyone's clear on this now. The massive copyright free logo in the background on the help namespace is a clue! I think the above comments were made during this confused period, so just to be clear.... This page and most of mediawiki.org is GFDL licensed and thus compatible with all other wikimedia projects. -- Harry Wood 16:37, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Wiki farm page missing

For information on setting up a small wiki farm, see the wiki farm page on Meta. (May 1 2006: Page missing)

Apparently related:

• http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Wiki_family&diff=301852&oldid=300701 Help:Wiki_farm moved to Help:Wiki_family ... and wiki farm content later deleted.
• m:Talk:Wiki farm
• m:Help:Wiki farm
• m:MediaWiki_FAQ#Is it possible to install more than one wiki (MediaWiki) on a server? How?
• http://wp.wikidev.net/Wiki_farm

207.195.192.52 14:11, 2 May 2006 (SPb)

Changing MediaWiki logo -- Mini-howto

One way to change the logo

To change the MediaWiki logo (Linux instructions):
Crop an image to 135 x 135 px using the GIMP (or create a logo of that size) and save it to .png format, such as the filename wiki-logo.png
Create a /var/www/html/images folder:
Copy the image to this folder.
Go to /usr/share/mediawiki/
Back up your LocalSettings.php file:
cp LocalSettings.php LocalSettings.php.ori
Open LocalSettings.php
Before the last line in the file ("?>"), type (or paste in)
$wgLogo = "/images/wiki-logo.png";
Save the LocalSettings.php file.
Refresh the browser.
Your new MediaWiki logo should appear.

Admins: Let's add something like this to the FAQ, or create a gui interface in MediaWiki for doing this.

Thanks!
MediaDoc 18:15, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

You can also put your logo in skins/common/images/ (avoiding to create a new directory), and your variable will be : :$wgLogo = '../skins/common/images/mylogo.png'; --Papa6 14:45, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Another way to change the logo

• Upload your logo to the directory "/common/images/" which you will find inside the "skins" directory one the same level as the "monobook" directory.

• Add the following lines to your Localsettings.php":

$wgStylePath            = "$wgScriptPath/skins"; 
$wgStyleDirectory   = "$IP/skins";

• Add the following line to your Localsettings and replace "mywikilogo.png" with the name of your logo:

$wgLogo                      = "$wgStylePath/common/images/mywikilogo.png";

rs 09:41, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Added section 7.4 which I copied from the meta.mediawiki FAQ

This section from the meta.mediawiki site FAQ entitled "Is it somehow possible to use a "file" URI-qualifier for local intranets e.g. [file://localhost/C: C-Drive]?" was very helpful to me so I copied it over to this site as section 7.4 under section "7. Customizing Further". Second reason for copying over was that the meta.mediawiki FAQ pages are supposed to migrate here. I also want to add some clarification on local files.

Sorry, I removed this section because it didn't fit our license policy, see Project:PD Help for clarification. --:Bdk: 18:57, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Since Mediawiki Ver. 1.6 it is possible to simply add $wgUrlProtocols[] = 'file://'; to the LocalSettings.php (in the root of your Wiki-Folder). File-Links are regarded as a security problem. Many browsers (e.g. Mozilla Firefox and Opera) won't open "file://"-Links, if the document containing the file-link was loaded from a non-localhost-server (i.e. normally). There's a FAQ stating some possibilities of configuring browsers to open these links anyway or working around the security feature.

Before Ver. 1.6 the Syntax was slightly different. --VVA 12:54, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Why is the non-meta page missing information found on meta?

Why is the meta version of this pagem:MediaWiki FAQmuch better (i.e. much more comprehensive) than this page? For example, I was looking for ages for info on how to create a multi-lingual site, of course read this page, then via the forums got the answer from the Rob Church and Rotem Liss posts (13th May 2006) that I should check:

m:MediaWiki FAQ#How do I create a small wiki farm.3F

If the old meta page is really supposed to be replaced by this mediawiki version then shouldn't we just stick a redirect on it? Otherwise we have the classic horror of duplicated data.

As it is, the information which I was looking for appears to be only on the (supposedly replaced) meta page and not on the (supposedly better) replacement page. I also made a minor correction to the old version because the correction had nowhere else to go. 217.136.7.181 15:52, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Good point. I have added a note to the top of the page to let people know the current situation. In time, this page should completely replace the one on meta, but due to incompatible licences we are not able to simply the copy information directly. There is still a way to go before it becomes a complete replacement, and any help is always appreciated. --HappyDog 14:42, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Well the whole MediaWiki FAQ page has now been moved, except it wasn't moved. It was just deleted. Did lots of useful information get lost there? I only noticed because I had some links to a useful old FAQ entry about file links which has now disappeared. Only seems to be available by digging in the old versions here: MediaWiki FAQ old version. Possibly a rescue operation is needed for some of this info. All these detailed notes shouldn't really appear one humungous FAQ page (as it used to be on Meta). For example stuff about file links deserves its own page I guess. It needs reorganising as well as moving, but I hope we can avoid losing people's valuable contributions -- Harry Wood 12:10, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Interwiki

The section that talks about interwiki links doesn't tell me how I can make a link i.e. from my personal wiki to Wikipedia.

m:Special page to work with the interwiki table

Changing the footer

Hi,

I'm going o change the footer of my wiki. footer tells me to modify the footerlinks-array in the skins php file. I've added an new item called imprint. Where ca i define the imprint item? --80.128.16.198 08:42, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I put in small section giving a start of how to change the footer, but it was abruptly deleted by the anonymous user 86.133.51.101 -- should I put it back in or will this just result in a revert skirmish? Note that this isn't the only text I considered possibly useful that 86.133.51.101 deleted. My stub section as follows (with one minor tweak I just gave it):

===How do I change the footer?===
	
This is done on a skin-by-skin basis. For monobook, edit monobook.php and find the following text:

               $footerlinks = array(
                       'lastmod', 'viewcount', 'numberofwatchingusers', 'credits', 'copyright',
                       'privacy', 'about', 'disclaimer', 'tagline',
               );

Editing this, however, is trickier than as presented at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Footer

- - -

I note that it's trickier because in editing this on my company's internal Wiki it now displays NOTHING in the footer other than the MediaWiki logo. Not what I left that I wanted it to display, nothing.
--Strangelv 19:59, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I have added this info back to the FAQ. It works for me. -- Barrylb 15:07, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Where are the used items (lastmod, viewcount, etc.) defined? --80.128.7.104 21:44, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Good question. We should have that in the FAQ and how to customize each one. For now though in the file includes/SkinTemplate.php the values of each one are set. If you do a search in that file for each of the names you can see how they are implemented. -- Barrylb 04:53, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

I've now added info on how to customize each of the items to the FAQ. -- Barrylb 05:39, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

This was useful info, but now I've edited my footer the formatting needs adjustment. Specifically I get one very long line and a very short line underneath (disclaimers). How can I add a line break to even up the lines a little? Visctrix 00:39, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Could the array be split into 2 arrays to solve this problem? Visctrix 23:26, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Why was much of "Changing the Interface" removed?

Lots of useful information deleted by Robchurch. Why? -- Barrylb 16:28, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

I am going to revert for now, until there is an explanation. -- Barrylb 16:41, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

I removed it because it belongs in a separate page or series of such relating to changing the interface. These are slightly more advanced alterations and are not FAQ material. robchurch | talk 12:56, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Add a Troubleshooting section

This FAQ is missing a troubleshooting section, which should among other things include the blow section from the old FAQ at meta. I don't quite feel at home here, so i'm not being quite as bold as usual :P -- de:Benutzer:Duesentrieb 00:46, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Troubleshooters belong on separate pages, not lumped into the FAQ. robchurch | talk 13:15, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

"pretty" URLs

An entry regarding "pretty" urls is badly needed. It should point to m:Eliminating index.php from the url I guess, but that page would have to be rewritten. -- meta:User:Duesentrieb 23:54, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Passing a space to an extension - Solution found

Ok ... it drove me crazy not being able to pass a space to an extensions argument. So I digged into the code. Boy this is a lot of code and not easy to understand. But I finally found the function where attribute handling is done.

You can find it in Sanitizer.php, line 745ff, function decodeTagAttributes.

I don't know why in line 767 the value is trimmed. Perhaps it is necessary but I removed the trim() and a first test worked just fine.

So perhaps someone with more knowledge about the mediawiki internal workings and wonders can shed some light on this.

And perhaps a developer can just remove the trim() or make it optional with default to true and a rule on how extensions can switch off that behaviour.

--83.171.153.127 21:36, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Notes for editors

1. Please keep information project-neutral
2. Please use language which will make us look like we have a reading age of more than six
3. Please don't link to third parties or extensions or code which aren't maintained in Subversion; such code won't have been vetted by a developer, and if anything goes wrong because someone installed an extension which no longer works with the current code, etc. then we're bound to get the blame
4. Be sensible about what level of detail is being included and don't add reams of similar information, e.g. detailed skin tweaks should go somewhere else

Cheers, robchurch | talk 21:24, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

(sigh) I've just had to remove one chunk in response to a bug report posted in good faith against a hack that appeared here. Please do not post random bits of unverified, unofficial code here, it leads to bad things happening and more headache for the real development team. Cheers, robchurch | talk 02:39, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

bread crumbs FAQ entry

What happened to the entry pointed atHelp:FAQ#How do I implement a .27breadcru?

There are links to it around, and it was in google cache earlier this week, but now it seems to be gone. Why? Is there better information somewhere? Is this not a FAQ?

See the note I posted above, about a "bit of code leading to a bug report" etc. etc. robchurch | talk 01:05, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Noted. So how about a FAQ entry for the "limited BreadCrumb support when using subpages"? Also maybe one for "subpages" in general?

program language & server expected

i looked in the FAQ for info on what programming language MediaWiki is written in and it doesn't say. if anybody wants to put another question & answer in the FAQ this would help me out a lot.

see How does MediaWiki work? please. --:Bdk: 22:21, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

thanks.

Access control

hi,

From the article:In particular, users should remember that it is designed to allow open-editing, and doesn't provide very complex per-page access restrictions. Users seeking such functionality ought to consider using software dedicated to that purpose, such as document or content management software

Why is that? I love media wiki and I would like to keep using it as an internal wiki system in my organization. Some information in the organization is sensitive and the lack per-page access control prevents us from using it. How can we overcome this problem? thanks, Ori Mosenzon 14:49, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Korean language page for Manual:FAQ

meta:미디어위키 FAQ

This is Korean language page for Manual:FAQ.

I can't link to Manual:FAQ. help~!!

-- WonYong ^{(Talk / Contrib)} 04:59, 13 January 2007 (UTC)