Project:Support desk/Archive 19

(RESOLVED) Hide/ Remove default namespaces?

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

I am curious if there is a way to delete or hide some of the default namespaces. I am an educator, and am attempting to use Mediawiki as a community portal. So far so good. The students are using it extensively, and I would like to now, tighten down our structure a bit. I would like to limit the namespaces to only a few. Especially for students:

1. Main 2. Gallery and GalleryTalk (custom) 3. Project and ProjectTalk (custom) 4. Mediawiki (for administrators only 5. User and User Talk 6. Image and Image Talk 7. Template

Is there any solution to this? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks

Scott --sheriffcicada 17:48, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

There are a few extensions that let you restrict who can do what on namespaces (even viewing pages in them), the most prominent being Extension:Lockdown. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 01:30, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Though its not resolved, no reply from Sheriff, and this is also a subject I would like to look into. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 01:12, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) error message "Unknown import source type"

• MediaWiki: 1.5.5 (edit: and 1.5.8)
• PHP: 4.1.2
• MySQL: 3.23.58
• URL: no public URL at this time

I appreciate this is an old and unsupported version. I'm trying to move a mediawiki-1.4.9 installation to a new location, and this is as far as I've managed to upgrade it so far - 1.6.10 requires mysql4, and the schema upgrade for 1.5.8 fails.

Having upgraded the source to v1.5.5, and installed that version also on the destination, I exported a couple of sample pages and tried to import those on the new installation. After selecting the import file and hitting "Upload file", I get the error message "Unknown import source type".

Looking at the code in includes/SpecialImport.php, this appears not to be possible: the form supplies source="upload" as a hidden variable. Removing the case statement wrapping that option, it fails at the next stage: it is as if none of the variables from the form are being seen.

Googling for the error message shows that lots of people have this message in their mediawiki installations, so I guess it isn't a rare problem. It doesn't appear anywhere on this wiki though, and I couldn't find anybody that asked about it that got an answer.

Any clues about how to approach this would be much appreciated.

—Hv 16:26, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I've managed to upgrade this now as far as v1.5.8, and still have the same problem. Hv 16:48, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

More generally, it appears to be a problem getting form variables via POST. If I go to edit a new page, type in some text and hit preview (or any other submit) I get back a page with no text in the preview, and no text in the text box: i.e., it is as if none of the form variables were visible to mediawiki. If I go to the history of an existing page, select a couple of revisions and ask for diffs it works fine - but that form uses GET.

The same problem occurs whether logged in or not, so I don't think this is the classical PHP session problem. It may be a wrinkle on the same though, so I'm currently looking through the differences in php.ini between the two systems. Hv 11:15, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

php.ini was the problem; I went through to change half a dozen things that looked maybe significant, and one of the changes fixed the problem. Because this is a production server I can't do the additional fiddling to determine precisely what change fixed it:

- allow_call_time_pass_reference = On
+ allow_call_time_pass_reference = Off
- gpc_order = "GPC"
+ ;gpc_order = "GPC"
- magic_quotes_gpc = On
+ magic_quotes_gpc = Off
- file_uploads = Off
+ file_uploads = On
- ;upload_tmp_dir =
+ upload_tmp_dir = /var/lib/php/upload
- ' at MYSQL_PORT.
+ ; at MYSQL_PORT.
- session.save_path = /tmp
+ session.save_path = /var/lib/php/session
- session.use_trans_sid = 1
+ session.use_trans_sid = 0
- debugger.enabled = true
+ debugger.enabled = false

but I suspect it was the broken comment (presumably introduced with the RPM that added php-mysql support), which I'm guessing may have caused the rest of the .ini file to be ignored. Hv 12:11, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) MediaWiki with .NET

Hello,

I am developing a site on .net, and would like to use MediaWiki as a child-site.

My site will get data from the MediaWiki child-site and display summaries of the articles on my site.

Will I be able to integrate the two sites?

Will I be able to get data from the MediaWiki DB through the platform of .net?

Thanks in advance,

Or. —62.219.47.3 15:05, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

The easiest and safest way to access mediawiki from .net is via http. accessing the database directly is sue possible, but not recommended. Using an abstraction layout is always a good thing. And since mediawiki is targeted at the web, the only abstraction layer (i.e. API) it offers is http-based. -- Duesentrieb ⇌ 15:20, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) User creation

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.5 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community-log
• URL: GATEWAY- The MU* Community

I'm wondering how I create user accounts. I disabled the account creation for the regular average joe, but I have no idea how I can do it as a beaurocrat. Thank you.

—Ra Gateway 23:16, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Special:Userlogin Mønobi 00:00, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you!! Ra Gateway 00:33, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Wiki Content Moderation

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

Is it possible to configure the wiki so that all submissions must be manually approved? I have been unable to find an answer to my question in the documentation, if there is documentation, please point me to it.

—67.188.6.94 00:19, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Highly doubt it. However, you can restrict access to editing the wiki in various ways. Mønobi 03:30, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Extension:FlaggedRevs --Chris 01:29, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How do I add a Content Box to an article?

Hello,

When creating a new page (Searched for the page I wanted to create, then clicked "Add page")

And added a whole lot of content including main titles/headers but the content box is still not showing.

If you want to know what I mean by contents MediaWiki on IRC, below the title is a box with the title "Contents".

I am on the versions:

MediaWiki Version: mediawiki-1.11.1

PHP Version: Really sorry I could not retrieve this information.

MySQL Version: MySQL 5

PS: I have deeply looked for an answer, the closest I have found was to making the content box disappear, but I want it to appear.

Thank you, Keenan.

Table of contents by default only shows when the page has at least four headings. You can force it on by adding __TOC__ (or force it off with __NOTOC__). --Nad 23:25, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

RESOLVED: Thank you very much!

(RESOLVED) How to reset my sandbox

• MediaWiki: 1.6.10
• PHP: 4.4.7-0.dotdeb.0 (apache)
• MySQL: 4.1.15-Debian_0.dotdeb.4-log
• URL: Not online yet

I try to create a sandbox on my own wiki. I've copied the source code from Template:Please leave this line alone and write below (this is the coloured heading) but I can't get the reset function to work (it deletes everything, including the link to the template).

Guess it has something to do with 'oldid' in the reset link. Simular code from other wiki's didn't work either. Please point my nose in the right direction.

—RenéV 12:54, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, this is in the 'oldid'. You must replace the oldid number with the revision number of the new created page. Thus if you created the sandbox with oldid 211, then you write: oldid=211.  mgrabovský | talk  (DJ Jeri)  MW Support Team 14:15, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. This problem is solved.RenéV 14:47, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Making wiki read-only / Changing sidebar text

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community-nt

Hello, I have installed MediaWiki and using it on localsystem. I have two questions.

1. How do I make the wiki read-only? I searched mediawiki and looked 'protected' would protect a page. But it would be tedious to do for all the pages. Is there a single place which would allow read-only access to wiki?
2. How do I change the side bar text in the wiki? I have searched the php files and where it gets the text. Looks like skin template iterates with some values but I couldn't find out where it's getting that text from. Can you help me figure this out please?

Thanks, Vikas

—Vikasnd 01:06, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

See Manual:Preventing access and Manual:Sidebar --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 01:09, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) MediaWiki internal error. Error: 1033 Incorrect information in file: './aesedra_wikidb/user.frm' (localhost)

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community
• URL: The Empire of Aesedra

Any idea what's caused the database error that my wiki is now showing me? It's InnoDB and I've run a check on it and a repair and I still get the error message. A Google search told me that it may be my host's /temp directory being full or not writable but they haven't got back to me yet.

Any ideas?

I haven't done anything to the wiki that I know about for this to happen.

—Peter1968 15:14, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Update - host restarted mysqld and it now works - all is well. Peter1968 15:40, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Log Trouble

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.3 (apache)
• MySQL: 4.1.22-standard
• Database:
• URL: http://www.vibe-ent.com/w/index.php

I have tried to install 2 extensions onto my wiki but for some reason they both are having the same problem. The extensions in question are Makebot & Newuserlog. Whats happening is that the Page Title and the filter are not parsing the language strings resulting in code appearing in the page title and drop down menu. Is there another setting I have to change to fix this issue

—210.1.216.73 12:15, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Resolved (for Newuserlog, anyway): See down here (until it moves, anyway). --Töff 22:00, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Making a page with special character in its name available for anonymous users

Wiki pages can be made available to anonymous readers via the following statment in LocalSettings.php

$wgWhitelistRead = array( 'Special:Recentchanges' )

How can I make sites available, if the name contains, e.g., German umlauts. The following has no impact.

$wgWhitelistRead = array( 'Spezial:Letzte_Änderungen' ) --212.183.10.146 11:43, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Are you using the right encoding for the LocalSettings.php file? And have you actually set $wgGroupPermissions['*']['read']=false;? :--MF-Warburg 14:31, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, GroupPermissions are correct, I tried

$wgWhitelistRead = array( 'Hauptseite', utf8_decode('Spezial:Letzte_Änderungen'), utf8_encode('Spezial:Letzte_Änderungen'), 'Spezial:Letzte_%C3%84nderungen' );

--212.183.10.146 11:43, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

just convert the part with

"mb_convert_encoding("Spezial:Letzte_Änderungen","UTF-8","ASCII")," 

in your array. If you still have problems, just debug with "echo" in "include/Title.php", Line 1284++ — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

(RESOLVED) MediaWiki Search mechanism - how does it work?

Hi there,

I am a postgraduate student (and advocate of Wikipedia) doing research for a project at the Centre for Digital Library Research at Strathclyde University on Wikipedia/Web 2.0. With no technical expertise I am having trouble finding out the answer to the following question, so if anyone could help me it would be much appreciated!

Why, if I search for the string "gdl.cdlr" does this article:

w:en:Daldowie

show up in the search results, but not this one:

w:en:James_Maxton

?

As far as I can see, "gdl.cdlr" is part of what I call 'hidden text' behind the clickable link, and looking at the source code I see little difference; gdl.cdlr is not tagged as metadata; nor is it given as a keyword.

How does the MediaWiki search software work, and why am I am observing this effect?

Yours, Kathleen Menzies (kmenzies@cis.strath.ac.uk)

—86.142.45.46 07:56, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

This no longer happens, also look at the red highlights and you can see why the articles are showing up. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 21:08, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Database error

Hi,

I'm using an (unsupported! I know! :) PostgreSQL 8.x backend and Semantic MediaWiki 1.0 with my MediaWiki 1.11.

I've patched MediaWiki so that it runs perfectly fine with my PostgreSQL DB.

Just a couple of minutes ago I tried to create a new Semantic MediaWiki Property, which caused the following error message:

Warning: pg_query() [function.pg-query]: Query failed: ERROR: for SELECT DISTINCT, ORDER BY expressions must appear in select list in /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/includes/DatabasePostgres.php on line 506
Internal error

A database error has occurred Query: SELECT DISTINCT subject_id FROM smw_relations WHERE relation_title='SmwStr' ORDER BY subject_title LIMIT 26 Function: SMW::getAllPropertySubjects Error: 1 ERROR: for SELECT DISTINCT, ORDER BY expressions must appear in select list

Backtrace:

#0 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/includes/Database.php(779): DatabasePostgres->reportQueryError('ERROR: for SEL...', 1, 'SELECT DISTINC...', 'SMW::getAllProp...', false)
#1 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/includes/Database.php(1224): Database->query('SELECT DISTINC...', 'SMW::getAllProp...')
#2 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/storage/SMW_SQLStore.php(446): Database->select('smw_relations', 'DISTINCT subjec...', 'relation_title=...', 'SMW::getAllProp...', Array)
#3 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/articlepages/SMW_PropertyPage.php(56): SMWSQLStore->getAllPropertySubjects(Object(Title), Object(SMWRequestOptions))
#4 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/articlepages/SMW_OrderedListPage.php(82): SMWPropertyPage->doQuery()
#5 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/articlepages/SMW_OrderedListPage.php(60): SMWOrderedListPage->getHTML()
#6 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/articlepages/SMW_OrderedListPage.php(48): SMWOrderedListPage->showList()
#7 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/includes/Wiki.php(383): SMWOrderedListPage->view()
#8 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/includes/Wiki.php(48): MediaWiki->performAction(Object(OutputPage), Object(SMWPropertyPage), Object(Title), Object(User), Object(WebRequest))
#9 /Volumes/Data/www/MediaWiki/index.php(89): MediaWiki->initialize(Object(Title), Object(OutputPage), Object(User), Object(WebRequest))
#10 {main}

Any ideas how I could fix this?

Cheers, Martin — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

We don't support support for that. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 22:47, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Is MediaWiki ADA Section 508 Compliant?

I am looking at MediaWiki as a solution for my University, but we are restricted by State Law from purchasing software that is not ADA Section 508 compliant. Therefore, I am asking the question as to MediaWiki's accessibility features.

MediaWiki does not cost any money, so if they used the exact word "purchasing", then you're free to go regardless ^_^. If not... then looking through the requirements of it a lot of them are either upheld or broken by the individual people using the wiki, as all text and textual formatting in the pages themselves are user-input. Users can make use of their userspace CSS and JavaScript (providing $wgAllowUserCss and $wgAllowUserJs are enabled) to change colors, sizes, contrast, etc. of the page as well as using it to define access-keys for things that don't already have them (all the tabs, personal links, etc. already have access keys, so no worries there). But for things like flashing text and making sure all images have alt text, that's up to the individual user when they are editing pages. I hope that answers your concerns :) --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 17:10, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Style Locations

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• Database:
• URL:

Hello Everybody, where do I find the CSS for MonoBook Style on my server?

Thanks for help — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

—91.3.123.25 17:03, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

All CSS is in the /skins folder, with monobook-specific being in /skins/monobook. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 17:10, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

And which one is the css for (e.g.) editing the h1? Thanks for help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

Rather than hacking files, it is often better to use the MediaWiki:Common.css article to make css adjustments. That way they're still in effect after upgrading etc without having to keep track of which files were adjusted. --Nad 20:40, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm absolute beginner. The page I'd like to change is www.helmstedt-wiki.de. Maybe you can help me a little? ;o) THX! What do i have to do there? Can you give me an Example? Mirko. — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

To, for example, make <h1>s red, you can use the CSS:

#content h1 {
   color: #f00;
}

Note the #content part; that's very important, otherwise first-level headings outside the content could be altered.
Insert your CSS into MediaWiki:Common.css to enable the changes for all skins (note that some have different document structure, so #content may have to be changed). To just alter the default Monobook skin, use MediaWiki:Monobook.css. Other skins also have their own CSS files in the MediaWiki namespace. Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] 08:36, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Reduce database size - Text table

• MediaWiki: 1.6.5
• PHP: 4.4.7 (cgi)
• MySQL: 4.1.19-log
• Database:
• URL:

Hello. On my database I have the TEXT table, but its size is about 45 MB. I wonder if I can delete old records from that table in order to import a lighter version of the database for backup purposes. Thank you

—200.41.118.206

You can run the maintenance script deleteOldRevisions.php if you want to remove all non-current revisions from the database. It's nothing I'd do, since I'm kind of a digital pack rat who doesn't like to delete anything that might be useful (like revision histories), but if you're OK with dumping the history of your pages, be my guest. And don't let me discourage you with my personal opinion; it's just that, an opinion. Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] 20:08, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

I should mention that purgeOldText.php is a good one to run first, since it removes text records that aren't being used (e.g. aren't referenced from either the revision (history tracking) or archive (deleted stuff) tables). Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] 20:12, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

You shouldn't worry too much about old revisions when it comes to backup size because after you compress the backup, all the revisions reduce to an extremely small size since they're mainly repeated information. For example, our OrganicDesign wiki is 584MB, but after compressed with 7zip is only 23MB. --Nad 20:37, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) 500 Internal Server Error

• MediaWiki: 1.6.5
• PHP: 4.0
• MySQL: Unsure - created by install package on ISP's site.
• URL: http://wiki.derekspalla.com/

When I first installed MediaWiki at Christmas time, I had no issues and was creating articles. Then recently when trying to get to my Wiki, I started to receive a "500 Internal Server Error" with the following message: The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request. The script had an error or it did not produce any output. If there was an error, you should be able to see it in the error log.

When I look at the files via FTP, all of the files are exactly the same as they were on the first install. I have uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of times to no effect.

I am using my ISP's InstallCentral application to install MediaWiki. My ISP is PowWeb.

Currently my LocalSettings.php file has a $wgScriptPath ="/home/users/web/b812/pow.derekspalla/htdocs/derekspalla/wiki";

I have also tried setting the $wgScriptPath to "http://wiki.derekspalla.com/"; which is what it was set to before when it worked fine.

Any ideas what might be happening?

Kind Regards,

Derek Spalla

—74.224.209.176 03:17, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

The first thing you have to do is find out what the error message is, either check the php error log, or turn on error reporting. --Nad 08:07, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Here are the messages from the error logs:

PHP Fatal error:  newfromkey() [<a href='function.require'>function.require</a>]: Failed opening required '/hermes/web05/b812/pow.derekspalla/htdocs/derekspalla/wiki/skins/.php' (include_path='/hermes/web05/b812/pow.derekspalla/htdocs/derekspalla/wiki:/hermes/web05/b812/pow.derekspalla/htdocs/derekspalla/wiki/includes:/hermes/web05/b812/pow.derekspalla/htdocs/derekspalla/wiki/languages') in /hermes/web05/b812/pow.derekspalla/htdocs/derekspalla/wiki/includes/Skin.php on line 121

PHP Warning:  newfromkey(/hermes/web05/b812/pow.derekspalla/htdocs/derekspalla/wiki/skins/.php) [<a href='function.newfromkey'>function.newfromkey</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /hermes/web05/b812/pow.derekspalla/htdocs/derekspalla/wiki/includes/Skin.php on line 121

Derek --208.115.19.242 14:42, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

It looks like a problem with your skin setting, try changing $wgDefaultSkin maybe --Nad 21:03, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Change logo

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

My company has downloaded MediaWiki and I need to know how I can change the logo by finding the LocalSettings.php file (without alerting my IT Dept.- they would take way too long to come back with an answer)

—199.171.110.108 14:57, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

LocalSettings.php is created by the configuration script you have to run to create the database, ... It is created in the config/ directory and you have to move it in the parent directory in order that the wiki works. To change the logo edit this file and set the $wgLogo to the url path of the logo. iAlex 15:09, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Custom interwiki icons

Hi, is there a simple way to add custom interwiki icons?

Like on http://wiki.splitbrain.org/wiki:dokuwiki

using css. or to be exact how to add interwiki shortcut in from of < a class="XXX_external" Gcardinal 09:14, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Looks like that site is using a different wiki engine. However, you can change the background icon for all external links in MediaWiki:Common.css (or MediaWiki:Monobook.css for just the default Monobook skin). The main declaration from Monobook's main.css is:

#bodyContent a.external {
	background: url(external.png) center right no-repeat;
	padding-right: 13px;
}

Get yourself another icon and put that code into Monobook.css (or Common.css, depending on whether you want the change to be global or just to one skin), then modify the external.png part to point to the relative or absolute URL of the new icon. Adjust the padding as necessary. Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] 09:31, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes I know I can do that, but I want different icons for different Interwiki's. Like on DocuWiki if its a Wikipedia link they have a W in front of the link and if its a external link they have a globe. I use many different interwiki link's on my website so I really need a good way to show what link where. Example from DocuWiki http://wiki.splitbrain.org/wiki:syntax#links Gcardinal 09:34, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

With other words I need to find function that writes <a class="external" href="http ... ">INTERWIKI: bla bla</a> so I can add interwiki into the class filed Gcardinal 14:06, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Use the following CSS:

/* Styling links to various external sites */
#bodyContent a[href ^="http://site_url"],
#article a[href ^="http://site_url"],
#contentSub a[href ^="http://site_url"] {
 background: url(http://path_to_new_external_image) center right no-repeat !important;
 padding-right: 20px !important;
}

#bodyContent .plainlinks a[href ^="http://site_url"],
#article .plainlinks a[href ^="http://site_url"],
#contentSub .plainlinks a[href ^="http://site_url"] {
 background: none !important;
 padding-right: 0 !important;
}

Obviously replace the site_url with the URL of the site, and the path_to_new_external_image should be the path to the correctly-sized new external icon you wish to use. You can see a few examples here (search for "Styling links"). --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 15:05, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the answer, but I was more interesting into adding Interwiki shortcut as a part of a class="" on <a>. Method with CSS is sure a nice solution - but there is a bit of other stuff I want to add like tooltip using javascript on iterwiki links and other stuff. So would be really great if someone could point me where I can "patch"/edit the interwiki"output" function. THank you. Gcardinal 23:44, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

It looks like you succeeded in this, do you still need support? -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 23:46, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Enabling search in my MediaWIki site

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

Hi, I created www.LovelyIndia.Org the issue here is I want google and other search engins to crawl and index content. As I understand contents lie inside MySQL, not sure how can a search engin robot will crawl and index so user can find pages from search engins.

Thanks!!

—131.107.0.73 02:00, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm under the impression that MW is crawable by default by google. This is supported by the fact that Wikipedia has a robots.txt with some Disallows. Don't take my word alone for it though. Smaug 02:04, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

The web robots access the page via normal means, so the page content is displayed for them. Unless you have a global disallow in your robots.txt/.htaccess/whatnot, your site will be eventually indexed. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 03:34, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Help in installing multiple wikis

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.51
• URL: local testing
• More: Using XAMPP 1.6.5

Hello,

I know this has been mentioned a lot of times but I still haven't found the solution. Most tutorials rely on the fact that your multiple wikis will be under a subdomain (i.e. http://wiki1.domain.com/, http://wiki2.domain.com etc.). This isn't what I'm looking for.

I am currently configuring my wikis in my localhost on my personal machine. I want to upload the same structure and data on my host. What I don't want is use multiple subdomains for each wiki. I am planning to have different DIRECTORIES for each wiki. So, my directory would look something like this:

root
root/wikis/wiki1
root/wikis/wiki2
etc.

I still want to use the same database with different prefixes (although the idea to use the same user pages/accounts etc. would be even better).

Any help for the setup? What is the best way to configure this? Should I have a whole MediaWiki installed in each folder or is there a better (cleaner) way?

—Pek 21:34, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

A cleaner way would be to have the files in one folder, then have a conditional in the main folder's LocalSettings.php that includes the correct localized "LocalSettings.php" (in quotes because it isn't required to be named that) based off of what virtual directory is being accessed. Of course, you'll need to set up rewrite rules for each virtual directory. Also, making index.php work will be very tricky, and will more than likely require some sort of hack. I'll look into this a bit more deeply in a few days, if you can wait until then. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 21:43, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I know that. But since some hosting sites cost money to create a sub domain I won't be doing this. Is there any other way? I don't mind waiting. Thank you. --Pek

What hosting company are you using? Most of the ones I've come across give you some number of subdomains for free with their basic hosting package. Smaug 02:28, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

It should be fine setting it up with multiple directories, I would do it by making each subdirectory a symlink to the main wiki dir, and then add some code into your localsettings which sets dbprefix etc based on $_SERVER[SCRIPT_URL] or similar (you may also need to set one or more path variables) --Nad 20:55, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Message for guests?

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: Not needed for question
• MySQL: Not needed for question
• URL: Not needed for question

Is there a way to make it so you can make a message that only shows up for guests? Thanks!

—The TattleTale Strangler 01:20, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

You should be able to set a notice that appears only for users who aren't logged in by putting the text in MediaWiki:Anonnotice. You'll also need $wgUseDatabaseMessages set to true (which it is by default) in LocalSettings.php. Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] 11:00, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

And in case you want to make a notice for all users you can use MediaWiki:Sitenotice. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 23:48, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Header on all pages?

http://modpedia.scribblewiki.com/Main_Page

Hi, I got a remotely hosted one, and I'd like to know how I get a header on all pages. I edited the MediaWiki:Sitenotice page, but nothing is showing up on all the other pages. I tried the purge thing, but nothing. Help? —70.9.152.183 02:32, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

You don't have access to LocalSettings.php, do you? ScribbleWiki may have set $wgUseDatabaseMessages to false as a means of reducing server load. Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] 11:02, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Internal link "option" switches?

Recently I learned that the special page Special:Listusers can have an option appended to it to list only users in a certain group, e.g., Special:Listusers/sysop (equal to a URL of /index.php?title=Special:Listusers&group=sysop). I searched in vain for documentation of other such switches. Is there some secret master list stashed somewhere? This one is really useful! I want more! --Töff 02:44, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

... Hah, LOL, I found THIS, but no more. What a teaser. --Töff

Practically all of them have that ability. As to WHAT it does -- that differs from page to page but it's usually to do an autosearch or narrow the results set. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 03:09, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, thank you; I guess that's a useful hint for helping me figure out the available switches on my own. I was really hoping for a list, though. Otherwise I will be shooting in the dark and certainly missing a lot of really cool things. Although I might hit an easter egg or two, I guess :) Could be fun! --Töff 05:38, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

They're not undocumented switches, its simply that the special page class allows the addition of its first argument in the path to make the URL shorter, but that method is optional and can always be replaced with a normal query-string, for example when moving page "foo" you could use index.php?title=Special:Movepage&target=Foo instead of Special:Movepage/Foo --Nad 20:40, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Aha! The "first argument" ... which I guess can be discovered by twiddling with any particular special page via its menus. That's good to know! Thank you! ... Why the first argument, only, I wonder? Seems like a laziness at some point. Maybe because this feature is not a lot in demand. --Töff

Its just that the SpecialPage class automatically extracts the part of the url after the slash and supplies it in a variable called $param that your special page code can then use for its own purposes if written to use it. You could write a special page to split $param on slashes so that you could use more than one parameter separated by them such as special:foo/a/b/c/d --Nad 09:25, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Displaying Recent Changes on Main page

Is there a way to show the 5 most recent changes on other pages, such as the main page? —70.9.60.36 01:16, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Try transcluding {{Special:Recentchanges/5}} in an article, this is on the lines of what you are wanting --Zven 01:50, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Shortcut system

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1(Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP: 5.2.3 (apache)
• MySQL: 4.1.22-standard
• URL: Vibe Entertainment

I am wanting to create a shortcut system the same as what Wikipedia has with WP:... going to the Wikipedia namespace (Wikipedia:...). is someone able to explain has this is accomplished

—210.1.216.73 08:22, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Those "shortcuts" are called "interwiki" links, see Help:Interwiki linking. There are also some extensions concerning interwiki in Category:Interwiki extensions. --Nad 12:39, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

If the shortcuts are kept internal, using the configuration setting $wgNamespaceAliases would be more useful. —color probe (talk | contribs | Support team) 17:16, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) HTML Error

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 5.0.27
• URL: http://www.gough-name.org.uk/wiki

I have copied an number of templates from Wikipedia to use on my site and have the following problems. All appears to be well except that rather than displaying the pages correctly, tables on these pages that are delivered by those templates don't appear to interperate commands like <tr>, <td> and <th>. This only happens when the tables form part of a template, I can, for instance include the following directly in a table and have it render correctly

<table>

  <tr>
     <td> 1 <td> 2
  <tr>
     <td> 3 <td> 4

</table>

The templates concerened are: Tnavbar, Navbox and Navbox/core. An expample of the problem can been seen at: http://www.gough-name.org.uk/wiki/ErrorPage

—Martin Gough 10:17, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

That's because Wikipedia's templates are an ugly mix of wikicode and HTML. You need HTML Tidy for Wikipedia templates to work perfectly. See Manual:$wgUseTidy for more info. If you just want the functionality of those templates, then see Manual:NavFrame and add the CSS & JS codes to your wiki. --Sayuri 17:30, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How to remove the access to special:userlogin on special:specialpages

• MediaWiki: 1.11
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 5.0.41
• Database:
• URL:

Hi there! here I am again, asking questions..but now i got an account. The question this time is how do i get to delete the access (the link that is) to the special:userlogin page that appears when you click on the sidebar's link "special:specialpages" . So far I tried to delete/coment the line 81 in specialpage.php , wich contents -> 'Userlogin' => array( 'SpecialPage', 'Userlogin' ), this seems to work but the upper right corner that used to content the following links : "username" , "my talk", "my preferences", "my watchlist" , "my contributions" and "log out" disappear, thus rendering me unable to logout, for example. Any idea on how should I do this? Thanks a lot in advance!

—Juanan 17:53, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Commenting out this line remove completely the access to this page and you won't be able to login any more. You can replace this line by

'Userlogin'                 => array( 'UnlistedSpecialPage', 'Userlogin' ),

but the link at the top of any page will be accessible by any not logged in user. iAlex 18:12, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Unblocking users

I blocked a few users, since they were bots, but I accidentaly blocked a "normal" user, and i checked "forever" (my Wiki is not in English, so I don't know if it really says "forever", but something like that).

Now I wonder how to unblock him. Is it even possible? I tried to use "block" again and change it to "two days" but then my Wiki says the user is allreadu blocked. What to do? — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

You can go to Special:Ipblocklist, click the "unblock" link at the right of the block entry, give a reason and confirm. iAlex 18:55, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) script error oin mainpage

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.5
• MySQL: 5.0.45
• URL: Its a local wiki

Hi

On my mainpage i get an script error:

Line: 10
Character: 92
Error: ';' expected
Code: 0
URL: http://wiki/index.php?title=Haupseite

I can´t find the error.

Thx —217.6.218.146 08:08, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

uh, we can't help you if it's a local wiki because we don't have access to the scripts you are using. Please publish it somehow or something if you want help, then post the URL here. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 16:29, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Problem with deleting images

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.1.6 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.48-log
• URL: Bemanipedia

I'm posting here on behalf of the owner of the wiki; image deletions don't seem to be working properly on it. Any time any sysop tries to delete an image, it gives a "could not create directory (path)" error, for example:

Error deleting file: Could not create directory "deleted/b/6/f".

Any idea how to fix this? --Coredesat 11:47, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Make sure php safe_mode is off and that the /images directory and all subdirectories are chmod 777. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 16:31, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Apologies for the late reply, but this has been resolved; not all the subdirectories were chmod 777. --Coredesat 09:42, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Desperated! How to an Enter = break line ?

Hi!

Can you just tell me where I can find an anwers to this question?

I have my own mediawiki. When I'm editing an article, I don't want that "Enter" are ignored. I want it become in a <br>

I don't want to press Enter twice. I don't want to use <pre> or <nowiki> tags... I need to keep the rest of the default format.

Want can I do? Change the wikimedia setting? Add an extention?

Thank you very much!

Julien — Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.203.126.11 (talk • contribs) 11:26, 31 January 2008

Pasted from my talk page. I might note that this user probably doesn't have access to the WikiMedia wiki settings. ;-)

Oh, and to attempt answering the question, this is probably going to need either a parser extension or a core file hack. Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] 04:43, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh he means when users do this:

Regards,
Name

And it shows up as:

Regards, Name

That is definitely a core file hack. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 15:28, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

You can use <br> on wiki pages. You can use that as a quick solution. --The TattleTale Strangler MediaWiki Support Team 04:23, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Mediawiki for exclusive commercial use possible

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP: 5.2.5
• MySQL: 5.0.45
• URL: not yet available

Hello, I read the GPL license and tried to introduce myself in terms of GPL and licensing, but I dont get through regarding to my question because I did dnot find a clear enough answer.

I would like to build up a technical based knowledgebase for a special printing industrial sector with longtherm commercial issues. In this case I would like to set up an own license agreement for my mediawiki for the users and potential interested companies. Does the GPL license only affect the mediawiki code and do I have the possibility to choose between the Creative Common Licenses and an own license or am I forced to use the Creative Commons. I want to help the actual branch with my specialised knowledge but do not want that other companies can copy the text and images I made myself. The mediawiki should be free for all but not be free to copy. User and interested companies should only be able to refer to the site.

Thanks in advance Best regards Patrick Emmler

—84.162.237.254 20:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The GPL license affects only the MW code. To content put onto pages you can attach any license you want. :) Smaug 22:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Navigation

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP: 5
• MySQL: 5
• URL: F3J

Hello. How to navigate a page on the wiki. To have [1, 2, 3, 4 ...] —88.85.170.161 09:57, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Are you talking about just a certain article having multiple pages? If you are, I don't really think you can do that without having to create a new page and link to that page. --The TattleTale Strangler MediaWiki Support Team 04:04, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Inserting a random article on Main Page?

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

I would like to insert a random article into my main page (so that every time someone visits the main page, they see a random article inserted within a boundary box...sort of like Wikipedia does with their "Today's featured article" page).

I have not yet discovered a method of doing this...is there a reference page that I am missing?

—74.128.207.61 16:17, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Try putting {{Special:Randomarticle}} on the main page. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 14:49, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Tried that...it lights up in red, so it wants to go somewhere, but apparently there is nothing to go to. I also tried it using [[ ]] instead of {{ }} and still nothing. Did I perhaps set up the wiki wrong, somehow? 74.128.207.61 16:16, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Special:Randompage (note: page, not article) cannot be transcluded onto other pages by default. You can modify it's entry in /includes/SpecialPage.php to make it includeable, however (follow the examples from other includeable special pages in that php file). --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 21:05, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Arg, my bad, you said article so I mustuv been thinking "...random...article..." -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 03:09, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) config script stops after reporting PHP verison

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 4.1.22
• URL:

When attempting to install, I get 'PHP 5.2.3 installed' and nothing else. I've run the script before on different systems and it seems to run very fast so I do not believe it is still running. The status bar reports 'Done.'

Any ideas?

—71.203.254.205 18:55, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Try turning on error reporting and check php error log, maybe its dying silently --Nad 22:24, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

What is checked after PHP is checked? I think my problem may be that the script cannot find the database. How do I tell it where to look?

Found an error:

PHP 5.2.3 installed Fatal error: Call to undefined function mw_have_dl() in D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual\config\index.php on line 301 PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function mw_have_dl() in D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\bitmarine.net\html\BitManual\config\index.php on line 301

Any idea what's going on?

Nevermind, found my problem, sorta, I re-uploaded the index.php file into the config directory and it worked no problem. Thanks guys.

(RESOLVED) Problems on NameSpaces and Discussions

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 4.1.22
• URL: local

I have declared some extra namespaces using $wgExtraNamespaces, $wgNamespacesWithSubpages and $wgContentNamespaces (100 to 115).
The problem is that there is one namespace (101) displayed as discussion of namespace 100...
When i link on Namespace101:Main i receive the contents of the page i want (url is right), but in the top left corner of my article there are these tabs (normally actual page|discussion). The first tab isn't called namespace101 (as it should be) but namespace100 and discussion is higlighted. i also have a "+" to add a comment in this discussion.
is there a $wg... i forgot to change?
anyone else having this problem?
ben --212.184.19.70 08:28, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Ok there are some more NameSpaces with this problem. If i add some more namespaces (which i wouldn't use) i could solve this issue. but the problem is still there.i checked my arrays but they all look correct. now i have added in localsettings "define("namespace",number)" but no change. ben --212.184.19.70 09:40, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

RTFM would have helped ;)...the point i forgot was the right way of numbering of namespaces... i did 100,101,102,103 etc. but in mediawiki it is like 100(namespace),101(discussion for 100)...so you have to do it like 100,102,104... ben --212.184.19.70 10:21, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Display Error in Extension:Newuserlog

Why isn't my wiki picking up the extension's text from the language file?

(I asked a couple days ago on the author's talk page I mean the Extension Discussion page, but I admit to being impatient [spoiled by the great service here at the Help Desk!], and anyway this seems like a general issue, so I am crossposting.)

• My Special:Log/newusers displays the title as &lt;newuserlogpage&gt;.
• The dropdown menu of logs also displays &lt;newuserlogpage&gt;.
• The text at the top of the log page is literally <newuserlogpagetext>.

etc.

It seems to be rather inconsistent, whether I'm logged in as Admin or not. But logged in or logged out, I still get language errors.

• MediaWiki=1.11.0 / PHP=5.1.6 / MySQL=5.0.37 / URL=Pale Ravens.

--Töff 19:22, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

p.s. I wouldn't mind just hard-coding it in English, as my wiki won't be of any use in other languages. (Meant to ask how to disable the other langs, too ...) — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

Nobody? ... too bad, it looked like an easy one for you vets. I guess I'll keep poking at it. --Töff

I can't fix it ... :( — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

Please sign your posts with ~~~~. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 15:25, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

That was me, sorry. Töff 03:12, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

I guess this is just a unique problem. The extension works elsewhere, obviously. Too bad nobody recognized the symptoms and could offer a cure. Oh well! The globe spins on ... Töff 03:12, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

My Mediawiki 1.11.1 is having the same behaviour. The text literally shows up &lt;newuserlogpage&gt; . It is Windows 2003, PHP 5.2.5, MySQL 4.1.22, Apache 2.2.8. This is the only hit on google for this problem. How can I fix this? Thank you.

I have had a look at the problem mentioned. If you set the articles MediaWiki:Newuserlogpage and MediaWiki:Newuserlogpagetext the tag entries will be populated with the content from the articles. this is documented under Extension:Newuserlog#Usage --Zven 18:58, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

There's actually a usage note about that? I didn't even see it! ROFL RTFM. But ... I don't understand it. What does "set the articles" mean? (Newbie here! sorry). Thanks Zven, you already saved my bacon once; soon I'll owe you my fitstborn, huh. --Töff 21:22, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
p.s. I just noticed somebody else asked this question on 18 Jan. too.

Oh, I think I see. Create those articles as pages, and just put whatever text you want (usually equal to the name of the page, huh, although with spaces and maybe Initial Caps). I think I've got mine working. Yer a genius, Zven, a genius! --Töff 21:29, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

RESOLVED, w00h000 :) and the only issue remaining (it's a small one!) is, "What are all those extensions messages for?" There's six of them and I've hunted them down so far as follows ...

1. MediaWiki:Newusers - (not sure where this appears.)
2. MediaWiki:Newuserlogpage - Title of the log page; also appears in the dropdown menu for logs.
3. MediaWiki:Newuserlogpagetext - Text that appears on the log page, under the title. (What should this say, I wonder?)
4. MediaWiki:Newuserlogentry - (not sure where this appears.)
5. MediaWiki:Newuserlog-create-entry - Text that appears in logs (incl.RecentChanges) for a new user created by himself.
6. MediaWiki:Newuserlog-create2-entry - Text that appears in logs (incl.RecentChanges) for another user account created by an existing user.

Zven yu rok. I seriously never would have understood the Usage note, even if I'd seen it.--Töff 21:47, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Basically there is a good chance of any article in the namespace MediaWiki: to be associated with being able to manipulate the interface in some way. You might want to update Extension:Newuserlog#Usage with your specific findings --Zven 00:20, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Config gets stuck during environment check

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: PHP 5.2.3
• MySQL: 5.0.22 (I think)
• URL: My Test site

I've happily been using Mediawiki for some time on my local PC, but I'm having problems installing Mediawiki 1.11.0 on a web host I've not used before. They support PHP and MySQL (in fact I've installed Wordpress successfully). My problem is that the config script gets stuck immediately after showing the PHP version. At the top of the page is the follow error message:

@return string */ function mw_get_session_save_path() { $path = ini_get( 'session.save_path' ); $path = substr( $path, strrpos( $path, ';' ) ); return $path; } /** * Is dl() available to us? * * According to http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.dl.php, dl() * is *not* available when `enable_dl` is off, or under `safe_mode` * * @return bool */ function mw_have_dl() { return function_exists( 'dl' ) && is_callable( 'dl' ) && ini_get( 'enable_dl' ) && !ini_get( 'safe_mode' ); }

I'm not really very techie, so I'd really appreciate some help. If it is any use, when I installed Wordpress earlier I had to manually replace the "Localhost" in their config script to the name of the web server. But I thought the Mediawiki installer did all that through the config page? :) —Seaweed 22:58, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Site no longer exists. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 03:05, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) After edit first few sections of content repeated continuously

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.24a-log
• URL: Behind Firewall

On some pages, after an edit the first few sections of content are repeated continuously. So I rolled back to the previous version and all looks ok when viewing the article, yet when in edit mode you see only the repeated content and cannot get past it.

I can't see what it might be on the page causing this. We have recently upgraded from 1.5.5 to 1.11.0.

Thanks, SG

—168.224.1.14 15:04, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I would probably check to see if you had upgraded correctly. If not, then I'd try clearing your cache. It might just be your computer. If that still doesn't work, I'd have a friend go to the edit page and see if it repeats there. If it's still there, then try reinstalling MediaWiki. It won't erase your data at all, and it'll fix your wiki problems. I feel your pain, since I can't rollback the Main Page without it going all the way back to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on my wiki. --The TattleTale Strangler MediaWiki Support Team 04:21, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Recent changes page is emtpy

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 5.0.41-community-nt
• URL: local

Hi, u got an empty recent changes page, since i upgrade from 1.10. I already truncate table Recentchanges and rebuild it using an shipped maintenance script. The table is correctly filled (checked with SQLyog) but recent changes page is still emtpy. I deactived all extensions, but also the same. Any Ideas?

Thanks —Ozz 16:12, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

the maintenance script rebuildall solve this problem. the Recentchanges script is not enough --Ozz 17:27, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

This fix the problem only for one moment. After editing recentchanges is not up to date anymore. --Ozz 20:52, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

A quick fix is place the recentchange script on crontab. I couldn't help you much more because your wiki is on your LAN. Mønobi 03:27, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Help with False Cookie Error

• MediaWiki: This page is always empty; should be latest 1.11.xxxx (soomething)
• PHP: 5.2.0
• MySQL: 5.0.22-community-max-nt
• URL: http://www.bandwiki.net/

When creating a new account on my new wiki, I recieve an error stating that cookies must be enabled; that I need enable them and try again.

The cookies are enabled, but even clearing my history, deleting the old cookie, and restarting my browser did not fix the issue.

I logged out so that I could create the new account, and now cannot log back into the wiki with my sysop account either.

—216.223.16.33 05:28, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

—It worked fine for me, it must be a problem with your browser, what are you using? Try it on another machine and/or browser --Nad 05:45, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

—Hmm, now its working... could it be because i made a change and reuploaded the LocalSettings.php file? --216.223.16.33 05:50, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Probably. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 04:14, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How to create a custom kind of users, besides the existing user / admin / bureaucrat.

• MediaWiki: 1.11
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 5.0.41
• URL: Custom Localhost for now...

Hi there, I'm trying to create a new kind of usertypes, called "student" so I can batch delete all those users using the extension merge and delete. The problem is that I insert this kind of users into the user_groups table manually but it doesn't appear in the Special:Userrights, nor I can change the user rights like I can do with the old ones (admin / bureaucrat). In fact this new custom user type doesn't appear on the userrights, yet it appears on the special:listusers page. Is there any way of creating some other kind of custom user type with it's own user rights? Thanks a lot. —Juanan 12:11, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Try reading through Manual:$wgGroupPermissions and Help:User rights management. You can add custom groups using $wgGroupPermissions and assign them with Special:Userrights. Tuvok[^Talk/_en.wp] MediaWiki Support Team 17:40, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Works like a charm, thanks a lot! -Juanan 15:49, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Rearrange categories

I have a question that concerns categories. Categories sort alphabetically using the english alphabet right? Since the Tagalog alphabet is quite different: A B K D E F G H I L M N NG O P R S T U W Y; how can I make use of that order in the Tagalog Wikipedia instead of the English default one? Thanks! -- Felipe Aira 13:28, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

That's an interesting one! I have a solution, but its not perfect and is a bit of a hack. The ordering of the category listings is in includes/CategoryPage.php script in the doCategoryQuery method starting about line 188. You'll see a line that says:

array( 'ORDER BY' => $this->flip ? 'cl_sortkey DESC' : 'cl_sortkey',

Try changing that line to the following two lines:

$sort = "FIELD(LEFT(UPPER(page_title),1),'A','B','K','D','E','F','G','H','I','L','M','N','NG','O','P','R','S','T','U','W','Y'";
array( 'ORDER BY' => $this->flip ? "$sort DESC" : $sort,

There's a couple of issues with it though, firstly it only sorts based on the first character, subsequent characters are sorted with normal ASCII, secondly the "NG" will never match since its two characters, and third, any other letters not included in your list will appear at the start in undefined order. --Nad 21:33, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the help. I'll add english alphabet letters which are not in the Alphabet and "ñ" since they are usually used in loanwords from Spanish and English. Additional question: what's the case with the Spanish Wikipedia since their alphabet has "ñ" and "rr" and "ch", is "ñ" placed at the end since it come after Z in unicode or had they fixed it? -- Felipe Aira 10:34, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

What is the location of this file exactly? -- Felipe Aira 11:10, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

The default ordering of characters is based on their unicode number and so would come after the normal ASCII characters. The file is in your wiki's includes folder, then in CategoryPage.php --Nad 18:28, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Adding a IFRAME to Wiki

• MediaWiki: Nothing shows, should be latest version 1.11.xxxx
• PHP: 5.2.0
• MySQL: 5.0.22-community-max-nt
• URL: http://www.bandwiki.net/

I am NOT a PHP programmer to say the very least, and have just created a new wiki, we want to add our advertising banner script to our wiki by using a inline frame <iframe>. Our banner program uses ASP, and with an iframe, I could link to our ASP code.

I have tried to edit the CSS, but whereever I put the code it don't seem to work. Again not a PHP programmer.

I want the frame to be aligned on the right side of the browser window and have a width of 165 and a height of 610.

—216.223.16.33 17:35, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Try Extension:Include --Nad 19:50, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) LocalSettings not created. Getting "Undefined index: REQUEST_METHOD"

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

When configuring the wiki, I am getting a notice at the bottom after it says, "Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki."

Notice: Undefined index: REQUEST_METHOD in C:\Program Files\Idiom\WorldServer\tomcat\webapps\wiki\config\index.php on line 564

LocalSettings.php is not created and installation is incomplete.

—208.4.152.131 19:47, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Normally the lack of the REQUEST_METHOD index means that the script was not executed from webspace, or perhaps that you're using a non-standard webserver which doesn't conform properly to the CGI standard, what are the specifics of your environment? --Nad 19:56, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

--I'm working with Tomcat on a Win2003 Server box.

In what context is the mediawiki code being executed? --Nad 20:41, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

--Not sure what you mean by "context". I'm executing the code in Tomcat in /webapps/wiki. I'm using the latest PHP (5.2.5)

Is that the tomcat prowler browser? Try configuring using a webbrowser like IE, or firefox and see if there is a difference --Zven 21:04, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Forget that, it looks like your talking about the tomcat server environment --Zven 21:08, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

--Yes I'm working with Apache Tomcat

I think you have an odd setup, but I can't know unless I have more info, so if you create a script which calls phpinfo() and save the resulting html and paste in to User talk:Nad (inside <pre>...</pre> tags) I may be able to be of more help --Nad 21:54, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Soo ...

Is Media Wiki a support system for things like Wikipeia as in it helped launch it, it added Wiki Markup or it made it look the way iot does? Cause I've been looking for something and I thing I've found it! I was just wondering, becuse my wikithing looks nothing like this! thanks, Akira-otomo 22:49, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

MediaWiki support is for supporting people who use the MediaWiki software --Nad 23:19, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Comercial use

Is mediaWiki avalable for comercial use? I.E. Adding a shopping cart to the software. I do not have a wiki yet, I am just researching right now. —GameBoy1984 07:08, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes it's licenced under GPL which means you can use it for whatever you like as long as you don't remove the licence or sell the software itself. --Nad 21:15, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

You can actually sell the software as long as you provide the source code, and keep it under the GPL. I don't think there are any shopping cart extensions --Chris 04:40, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Need to leave the user names as they are typed to integrate mediawiki into logging using CAS.

• MediaWiki: 1.11
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 5.0.41
• Database:
• URL:

Hello there! I noticed thta wikimedia uses the php funcion ucfirst to convert the first character in the username to capitals. I am trying to integrate the mediawiki into my faculty site using CAS authentication, so i would need to leave the names as they appear. So far i've noticed that in user.php at line 413 and also at line 532 it uses the function ucfirst. I changed it to ignore it yet it keeps doing this, and it shouldn't. Am I missing somewhere else where this function gets called? I know it's against the usual way mediawiki works, but can this problem be solved? Thanks - Juanan —147.83.181.16 18:33, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

The LocalSettings.php configuration global Manual:$wgCapitalLinks may be useful here without having to modify the codebase --Zven 20:50, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

The thing is that this seems to apply only in the 1st letter of links (including included pages, images and categories). Not to usernames, (wich i need) - Juanan — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

How doesn't it? -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 00:10, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Edit Toolbar not shown...

• MediaWiki: newest
• PHP: 5.X
• MySQL: 5.X
• URL: http://iwenzo.de/wiki/

I Could not see Edittoolbar! Whats wrong?

User: test34

PW: gerald

PS: Please don´t post URL correctly, i want no index into google "thanks"

PS2: On Firefox is see on Sourcecode:

<div id='toolbar'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
/*<![CDATA[*/
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_bold.png','Fetter Text','\'\'\'','\'\'\'','Fetter Text','mw-editbutton-bold');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_italic.png','Kursiver Text','\'\'','\'\'','Kursiver Text','mw-editbutton-italic');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_link.png','Interner Link','[[',']]','Link-Text','mw-editbutton-link');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_extlink.png','Externer Link (http:// beachten)','[',']','http://www.beispiel.de Link-Text','mw-editbutton-extlink');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_headline.png','Ebene 2 Überschrift','\n== ',' ==\n','Ebene 2 Überschrift','mw-editbutton-headline');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_image.png','Bildlink','[[Bild:',']]','Beispiel.jpg','mw-editbutton-image');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_media.png','Mediendatei-Link','[[Media:',']]','Beispiel.ogg','mw-editbutton-media');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_math.png','Mathematische Formel (LaTeX)','<math>','<\/math>','Formel hier einfügen','mw-editbutton-math');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_nowiki.png','Unformatierter Text','<nowiki>','<\/nowiki>','Unformatierten Text hier einfügen','mw-editbutton-nowiki');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_sig.png','Deine Signatur mit Zeitstempel','--~~~~','','','mw-editbutton-signature');
addButton('/wiki/skins/common/images/button_hr.png','Horizontale Linie (sparsam verwenden)','\n----\n','','','mw-editbutton-hr');
/*]]>*/
</script>
</div>

So whats wrong!?!? (The Imagefiles are in the folder!) —91.17.107.104 08:16, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Unless you install a bot that keeps your wiki from being searched by google (such php programming exists on phpBB3 forums for example), there is no way to stop Google from indexing your wiki. That being said could you please give a link to a page being edited so we can see what is wrong? I cannot read German and thus cannot find the Special:Randompage to see the toolbar problem. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 21:06, 20 February 2008 (UTC)