Project:Support desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/003

(RESOLVED) users can change permissions and have access to special pages

• MediaWiki: 1.6.10
• PHP: 4.3
• MySQL: 4
• URL: Seedcamp-Wiki

It's a very odd problem I have here. I already solved it but what I did should not be necessary.

The problem:

Registered users can access the special pages and furthermore can change their own permissions up to bureaucrats by default. That's a big security issue. I used a fresh DefaultSettings.php and there was no effect.

However. I solved the problem by giving the users no rights by adding following line to the group permissions: $wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['userrights'] = false;

In this case no typical user can access to the special pages.

—84.112.104.49 22:46, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Either you changed something in LocalSettings.php by accident, or you're getting your copy of DefaultSettings.php from some other place, or the users in question already have bureaucrat rights. The default configuration does not allow access to Special:Userrights (which I assume is what you mean by "special pages"). —Emufarmers^(T|C) 01:11, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply! I first thought. my solution would do the thing I considered it for, but in the end nobody could edit anything. I had to delete all users .. anyway this obviously helped.

(RESOLVED) Create an admin

—72.8.67.211 22:48, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

You need to log in with a bureaucrat account (that's usually the first account installed when installing MediaWiki, default is WikiSysop as far as I know) and then use special page Special:Userrights to assign another user admin's rights (simply with check boxes). But you have to create this user account first by special page Special:UserLogin if it does not exist. --89.55.188.43 08:10, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How do I require an email address when creating an account?

• MediaWiki: 1.12
• PHP: 2.5.2
• MySQL: 4.11
• URL: http://www.kokosing.com

How do I require an email address for the 'create an account' page? I noticed in the code there is a variable called 'emailrequired' that, if set, does not display the 'e-mail address is optional' message but rather something else.

I need this because I have set the wiki to be only readable to people with authenticated email addresses.

Thanks for your help!

Dave —Dk253 01:01, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

I know that you can change that setting when setting up your wiki. So upgrade to 1.13. --Truetech (Talk) MediaWiki Support Team 02:27, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Special:Allmessages is blank.

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.5
• MySQL: 5.0.45
• URL: http://cursed-rose.net/dragonsoffate

I have only begun to have this problem on new MediaWiki installations on my shared hosting server, which was recently configured to use only PHP 5 and was upgraded to MySQL 5. Special:Allmessages simply appears as a blank white page. If anyone can point me in a direction I would be very grateful.

—Amber (talk) 23:29, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

There isn't a page called "Special:Allmessages". Did you mean "Special:All pages"?

(RESOLVED) interact with Asp.Net application

I want to use MediaWiki in my application.

Can you please suggest me which mediawiki i have to use and let me know How does MediaWiki used in or interact with Asp.Net application?

MediaWiki requires PHP. I don't believe PHP and ASP can be run together so you probably can't do what you are trying to do. You can try looking at w:Comparison of wiki software for a list of wiki software that runs on ASP. --Cneubauer 19:49, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Serious Update from 1.4.3 to 1.11.1

• MediaWiki: 1.4.3 to 1.11.1
• PHP:
• MySQL:
• URL:

We updated our wiki from 1.4.3 to 1.11.1 by running those two programs upgrade1_5.php and update.php. After that, still things are not working as we expected. Some pages are displaying the records from mkt_text table, while we expect them fom mkt_cur table; some pages are just missing. I realiz that 1.4 is really old and some tables no long in use. I can see we missed a few important steps, can anyone give me a direction here? how to upgrade the mediawiki from 1.4.3 to 1.11.1 correctly?

thanks —12.165.188.130 19:55, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Try updating one version at a time. (ex: 1.4 to 1.5, 1.5 to 1.6, ect). --Truetech (Talk) MediaWiki Support Team 02:30, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Can you hide the titles of namespaces a user doesnt have access to in the search page?

Does anyone know of a way to hide namespaces to which a user has no access in the search page where you select the namespaces to be searched? I've modified the search so the results don't contain text from hidden pages, but it would be nice to hide the fact that a namespace exists at all to avoid hacking attempts. It would also be nice to just hide some of the inherent mediawiki namespaces to have less clutter. I thought I read how to do this somewhere awhile back but I just can't find it now! Thanks for any help.

I use the extension "Blacklist" to hide my special-pages (and others) from the users (admin has to place a userdefined list into the LocalSettings.php), and this works properly. It should also work with specified namespaces.--FSLEP 08:47, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Problems converting from version 1.4.5 to 1.12.0

• MediaWiki: Migrating from 1.4.5 on windows to 1.12.0 on CentOS
• PHP:
• MySQL: Windows
• Postgres: CentOS
• URL:

I am trying to move content using special export from version 1.4.5 to version 1.12.0 using special import. I am encountering all sort of weird problems. For example, I am current getting the following error:

Import failed: XML import parse failure at line 241, col 46 (byte 10949; "</pre>" ): Invalid character

This occurs even though the sequence '</pre>' appears all over the exported file above where the error is occuring. I also have to replace and occurrences of '[[link goes here]]' with '[link goes here]]'. The double '[[' causes all sorts of weird problems. Additionally I have to convert all occurences of 'http' to'ttp' or I get parsing problems. I am about to give up but I thought someone may be able to show me the error of my ways.

Another issue I also have is with running maintenance scripts like deleteBatch. This script in particular does not seem to work at all with postgresql. There is an error when it tries to execute "SHOW processlist" which I think is a MySQL statement. Are there postgresql specific scripts I need to get from somewhere?

Thanks, Greg —142.166.23.210 16:15, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Recentchanges only shows max. 7 days????

My machine:
MediaWiki: 1.11.1
PHP: 5.2.2 (apache2handler)
MySQL: 5.0.41-community-nt

My problem:

the function Recentchanges only shows maximum the last changes of the last 7 days, even if you change to "show the last changes of the last 30 days" (&days=30), result: only the last 7 days are displayed. example:
http://[...]/dewiki/index.php?title=Spezial:Letzte_%C3%84nderungen&limit=500&days=30
(there are not many changes, the limit of 500 is enough)

Am I doing something wrong?

Is it a bug?

Is there a "hidden" maximum anywhere, maybe in the LocalSettings.php, or somewhere else?--FSLEP 07:31, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

7 days is the default, yes -- it's called recent changes for a reason :) The limit can be configured using Manual:$wgRCMaxAge.

The fact that there's a "30 days" link on the page even if the DB only has 7 is confusing though. -- 217.234.218.114 09:29, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your answers. This seems to be the solution for my problem.

Is it to be placed in the LocalSetting.php?

Example: $wgRCMaxAge= "7 * 24 * 3600 "; --FSLEP 06:02, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Special pages list categories and list users numbered

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.5
• MySQL: 5.1.24

I have recently updated my mediawiki from 1.8.2 to 1.12. In previous versions, I had my special pages Categories and List Users, numbered, as well as some other special categories pages. However, in this latest version, I don't get Categories and List Users numbered which I need (although I still have the rest of special pages numbered). Is there any way to change this? Is it a bug?

Thanks. —195.245.185.37 11:26, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How to Make "Random Page" Select Only Pages from a Certain Category?

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.3 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.51a
• URL: DishiWiki

My wiki is a recipe wiki. I have changed the label for Random Page in the navigation sidebar to read "Random Recipe." Of course, it randomly :) brings up a page that is not a recipe. All pages that are recipes have a category tag of [[Category:Recipes]].

So how can I structure the Random page link to pull up only pages categorized as recipes? I have explored but am not ready to create a custom Namespace for recipe pages.

I think this "trick" would be very useful for many types of wikis! Thanks for all the help here on MediaWiki and elsewhere. -Brian7632416 23:18, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

Probably the SQL query in SpecialRandompage.php (directory "includes") has to be rewritten, but I don't know much about SQL, and my trial this morning wasn't successful. (Tried to involve the MySQL table "categorylinks" with "cl_to" into the SQL query.) Meanwhile alternatives may be

• usage of an extension like in Category:Random content extensions
• usage of $wgExtraRandompageSQL

but both probably with a lot of pages to include or exclude manually. --89.55.152.75 20:13, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I, too, tried massaging MySQL table "categorylinks" column "cl_to." I looked at SpecialRandomPage.php but don't want to mess with it yet. $wgExtraRandompageSQL is unwieldy as long as it is wired for "page_title," but I couldn't find the category variable to substitute for "page_title." I will now look at Random conent extensions. Thanks so much. Brian7632416 21:19, 15 May 2008 (UTC) [Edit:] Nothing in that group of "random" extensions is what I need.

The SQL query of SpecialRandompage.php is limited to the "page" table, as far as I can see; the $wgExtraRandompageSQL variable is part of this SQL query, so it's not possible to involve parts of other tables with it (like the "cl_to" row of "categorylinks"). That's why I said that probably this SQL query has to be rewritten for this purpose.

You could use $wgExtraRandompageSQL in LocalSettings.php like the following:

$wgExtraRandompageSQL = 'page_title != "Main_Page" AND page_title != "Page_1" AND page_title != "Page_2" AND page_title != "Page_3" AND page_title != "Page_4" AND page_title != "Page_5"';

but you would have to EXclude all the non-recipe pages this way. Using "OR" instead of "AND" and "=" instead of "!=" should be the other way (INcluding all the pages you want), but as there are much more recipes than other pages this would not be the way of choice, I think. Surprisingly I could not prevent the Main page to be shown this way.

I tried it also with the extension Extension:RandomInclude this morning, created 5 test pages (Testseite 1 bis Testseite 5) and included them on a randomtest page as templates (with {{:Testseite 1}}). Works on 1.9.6 (look at http://joergmaske.de/wikip/ and the link Randomtest in the navigation bar), of course showing just the content of the page, not the selected page's name, and I had to disable the cache like mentioned on the short manual. Disadvantages: You have to include all the pages you want to have selectable for random, and the disabled cache. Advantage: You have more control on which pages you don't want to show without using $wgExtraRandompageSQL or changing categories (if this would work sometime). --89.55.189.114 08:30, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your work. I see your Randomtest link, and I can use that extension for something else. I'm beginning to think I need a namespace for Recipes, which I have been avoiding.

In the meantime, I will try:

$wgExtraRandompageSQL = 'page_title != "*Tips"';

to try to exclude "Kitchen Tips" pages, which have titles like: "Citrus Tips," "Egg Tips," etc. Will the wild card * work, I wonder? If so, I could add "Recipe" to the title of all recipe pages and use:

$wgExtraRandompageSQL = 'page_title = "*Recipe"';

but I've never wanted pages to be so "fully titled." Like you, I have just discovered that Main_Page is not being excluded with:

$wgExtraRandompageSQL = 'page_title != "Main_Page"';

so I give up for now. - Brian7632416 18:20, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Recurring issue logging in various MediaWikis

Logging in to various wikis powered by MediaWiki is too often a frustrating experience. I use a password manager, KeePass, so when I register at a wiki (or any other site) I create a new entry and have KeePass generate a high-security password for me. I drag-and-drop this password into the registration form.

So there should be no excuse for my password to be rejected as incorrect when I go to log in and drag-and-drop my login information, or paste from clipboard.

The current problem is with http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page . I've successfully logged in there before... even earlier today! But it's suddenly rejecting my login as having an incorrect password. Grrrrrrr!!!

This time I'm not going to go through the whole process of requesting a new password and creating yet ANOTHER password to be able to log in again, because first I want to know exactly what's going on. If someone could please e-mail me at foxcole@yahoo.com, I'd like to know what the wiki thinks my password ought to be and where that password came from... or, if it does have my correct password, why exactly my login is being rejected.

I would like to note that after I go through all the motions to reset and create another new password, I generally have no further problems with that site. But I shouldn't have to be going through all this in the first place. My original login should be valid forever until I change it myself.

—63.64.39.28 21:39, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) A Wiki protected by htaccess gives an internal error 500 when accessing through a Proxyserver

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.5-pl1-gentoo (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 4.1.22-log page)

I have may Wiki htaccess protected for educational and research reasons. However after a couple month it was not accessible anymore through a Proxy server feeding only one IP adress to the internet from our company. The server with the wiki on is outside the company. Actually some pages are readable but log in is impossible. Has this problem to do with the WIki settings or with the proxy settings. The access to the Wiki without Proxy works perfectly well. —85.1.21.79 20:46, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Try upgrading your MySql. --Truetech (Talk) MediaWiki Support Team 02:47, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Creator special rights

• MediaWiki: 1.12
• PHP: -
• MySQL: -
• URL: local

I would like to know if there is a simple way to allow only the creator of a new page to edit it. In fact, when creating a new page, I would like the author to be able to choose whether the page can be edited by everyone, by registered users or only by himself.

I read a lot on user rights and user rights management but I could'nt find how to define a group including only the creator of a page.

Thanks for your help... —81.220.36.67 09:38, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Manual:Preventing access tells that "MediaWiki was not written to provide per-page access restrictions". Perhaps have a look at Extension:EditOwn? --89.55.180.141 10:57, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) link back to mediawiki from external page?

• MediaWiki:] 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.4-2ubuntu5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.51a-3ubuntu5
• URL: http://internalsite/socwiki/ ((internal))

I've installed Mediawiki and in order to have a dynamic collapsible menu I created a menu page and dropped it in http://internalsite/socwiki/clientlisting/menu.html. The functionality I want is to have the menu links reload the page inside the wiki with data from the wiki.

For instance

• menu title (expanded)
  • Location0
  • Location1
  • Location2

When you click on Location0 it will take you to http://172.26.50.211/socwiki/index.php/Location0

I just couldn't find any other way to get the collapsible menu to work in a page other than using an IFrame - but when I link back now - it basically reloads the whole wiki into the content space. so it's like two wikis nested within each other.

Any Help/Info is appreciated. —75.127.66.250 16:58, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) How to login and link to mediawiki from another web application?

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.4 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.45
• URL: http://flinqe.com:8010/wiki/ FlinqEpedia

I am writing a web application and I want to provide access to my copy of mediawiki via links to specific pages in the wiki. I already have a password protection scheme of my own, and would like to automatically login to mediawiki as or before I start mediawiki in a separate window. I'd also like to be able to create new mediawiki users and new pages with personalized empty-page messages.

I am a php newbie, but program in other languages including perl and C++. I have been trying to get the Api:Login working using Snoopy as suggested in the Api:Login documentation, which references this information:mailarchive:mediawiki-api/2007-October/000117.html The example 2 there works as advertised, but after completing the login, I want to start a particular mediawiki page as the now-logged-in user, preferably in a new window. Using a HREF link on the resulting page doesn't work; I get there but the user is not logged in. Using Snoopy to fetch the page and print_r the snoopy->results gets me to the page, which tells me I'm logged in. But links to new pages, such as "edit", don't maintain the login.

I'm guessing that the problem involves sessions, and in-memory cookies. I would prefer in-memory cookies for their security advantages, but can live with ordinary cookies if necessary.

I've tried searching the web for a solution, but all I've found is complex approaches (like Drupel) which I don't understand, and which seem to require extensive patches to mediawiki.

—75.147.32.154 03:19, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) How to validate fully upgraded wiki ?

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.2 (apache)
• MySQL: 4.1.21-log

(* URL: internal project)

Hello, I'm quite new to this forum even though I've been using wiki for some time now, but I've recently moved from one ISP to another and at that time from a Windowsbased host to a Linuxbased one. Well, I had everything up and running smoothly on my new host, the wiki worked fine (don't remember the version but it was quite old) and I upgraded to version 1.11.2 without any problems, everything still worked fine.

But then I noticed there was a version 1.12.0 and I set out to upgrade to it. Now here's the tricky part, previously on Windows I had shell access and used to run the upgrade.php scripts, but now I don't, so I tried the reinstallation option, backed up everything, made copies of localsettings.php etc and launched the setup.

It immediately failed with some kind of script error about $wfIniGetBool not being correctly defined on line xx in /config/index.php. After some checking of access rights and everything I could think of I decided that oh well, before restoring backups I might just try to get around this and removed the checks for wfIniGetBool. This let me run the upgrader, the database checks were executed and some upgrades were reported, and then the installation was supposed to create a new localsettings.php which again failed since I had missed commenting out one section of wfIniGetBool commands.

This really didn't matter since I was going to replace it with the backup, after which done the site is working happily again and now reporting 1.12.0 as version, but this prompts my question(s).

a) what could possibly be the cause for this failure, I never saw anything about that when upgrading to 1.11.2 ? b) Was the installer supposed to do something more after creating the localsettings.php ? Is there something I might have missed that I should check for ? c) Is there some way for me to verify that my site is working correctly, i.e. both that the version now is fully upgraded and also to possibly prevent future issues like this one ?

Best regards // Mike —213.114.35.125 15:54, 22 May 2008 (UTC) Mikael R.

(OUTDATED) Permission Issue

Directory Listing Denied This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed. If I type a path directly to the index.php file I get this:

phpMyAdmin - Error
Cannot start session without errors, please check errors given in your PHP and/or webserver log file and configure your PHP installation properly.

Even former solutions offered have not helped. I installed php with the IIS install. I must use IIS because I also have .net on my computer. PHP works fine. I have run a phpinfo page. I installed phpMyAdmin but when I try to run it I get the above messages.

I have tried the solutions offered in different forum. Including this one: Right click on CMD.exe and "Run as administrator" and then type the commands below

icacls %windir%\serviceprofiles\networkservice\AppData\Local\Temp /grant Users:(CI)(S,WD,AD,X)
icacls %windir%\serviceprofiles\networkservice\AppData\Local\Temp /grant "CREATOR OWNER":(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)

I got a message:

'icacls' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

I also right clicked the phpMyAdmin file and set permissions to read. It asked if I wanted it to apply to the child index.php as well I clicked yes.

I stll get the above messages. What now?

just a quick question, is this server side? if so, use a ftp client and right click on your root folder that the php files are in and CHMOD it by typing in 777 into the box. i know filezilla requires you to right click, others actually have option in the file menu for this as well.

edit: when you right click there should be a "setup permisisons" dialog box on the right click menu.

I am still very much a novice so some of that went over my head. I am doing what could be server side, but on my own machine. I really don't know what you mean by ftp client, unless I was accessing it from another computer, which I am not. When I right click on it I don't get a box of any sort that I can type in or any "set up permissions" dialogue box, but a box that says open, search, search, refresh thumbnail.. etc. at the bottom is properties.

Ok, I see now. It looks to me you are using your own computer as a server with IIS, my mistake. Well, first and foremost, you do have php installed on your machine, correct? then you will need mySql along with it. here is a great tutorial I found:

Installing phpmyadmin http://www.iis-aid.com/articles/how_to_guides/install_and_configure_phpmyadmin_on_iis

you also need to change the code $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = ''; in your config.in.php file to $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = yourpathhere;

for example: $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = ''localhost/ASP/admin";

and change to

register_Global=ON

This post has been edited by duritz: May 20 2008, 10:53

--- --- --- --- --- ---

Yes MySQL is installed.

It said that $cfg['UploadDir'] = '';. is an option. I might not need to actually do that. I did anyway. The instructions say, "log into your new phpMyAdmin install using the root account" That does not happen. I still get the error message! I still get the error message! I still get the error message!

In Internet Explorer it looks like this:

The website declined to show this webpage
HTTP 403
Most likely causes:
This website requires you to log in.

What you can try:
Go back to the previous page.

More information

This error (HTTP 403 Forbidden) means that Internet Explorer was able to connect to the website, but it does not have permission to view the webpage.

For more information about HTTP errors, see Help.

I can mess around with the configuration all i want, but I still don't have permission.

I found no "$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = ''; " so I added that command. I also added the "register_Global=ON" cause it wasn't there either.

—71.82.6.222 19:15, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Extensions

Hi. I am looking for extension wchih will allow me to upload images from url, not only from hdd. Is there any? pogo

(OUTDATED) Navigation Tabs?

Does anyone know how to integrate this feature into a wiki? I've tried copying code into the MediaWiki:Common.css and MediaWiki:Common.js, failing to work at every attempt.

E.g. n:en:User:Bawolff/tabber.js
example of use: n:en:User:Doldrums/Main page
original source code: [1]

Help? --90.200.52.124 11:28, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Question: How to EXPORT to WORD format

Is there a way to EXPORT an .xml wiki page to WORD .doc or .docx format?

—129.219.57.164 21:37, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

There seems to be just a project (?) the other way (Word → Wiki). Additionally, I have just found a shareware converter on the web so far, and I don't know if it will meet your needs. But isn't WORD able to import web pages? (Sorry, the latest version I have used is WORD 2000, and that's a long time ago ...) Regards -- 89.55.190.92 08:45, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) control User Preferences

Does anyone know how to globally change a custom user preference?

this is the code i belief that is adding the check box to the special:preferences / misc. page:

	public function onUserToggles( &$extraToggles ) {
		$extraToggles[] = 'riched_disable';
		$extraToggles = array_merge($extraToggles, self::$nsToggles);
		return true;

But I can't seem to have 'riched_disable' checked by default. Matt 19:17, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Embedding external media without extensions

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.2 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 4.1.20-standard-log

My organization runs a secure MediaWiki wiki. Users must be on a list of allowed users to read or edit wiki content. Authentication is handled with an Apache module and a wrapper for MW.

With these security features in place, we decided that rather than installing extensions to help us with embedding YouTube videos or Google maps in MW articles, we would set the configuration variable $wgRawHtml to true. Since we've done that, we are able to put a larger range of HTML tags in our MW articles.

However, it doesn't work with the "object" tags for embedding a YouTube video or the "iframe" tags for embedding a Google map. Instead, MW just displays the HTML in the article. Using "nowiki" tags around the HTML doesn't help, either.

How can I make this work? —Lance E Sloan 16:29, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Unable to add OpenSearch from my wiki to my browser

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.6 (cgi)
• MySQL: 4.1.22-standard
• URL: http://network.the-orc.com/wikimini

Hi guys,

I'm trying to add my wiki's (details above) OpenSearch to the search engines my browser uses, and am failing miserably.

On IE7 (7.0.5730.11), I get the following error message when trying to add the provider: “Internet Explorer could not install this search provider. There was a problem with the search provider's information.”

On Mozilla Firefox 2 (2.0.0.14), it just fails silently.

I’ve trying to save the output of opensearch_desc.php to a local file and add it from there, but it fails with the same error(s), although to my naked eye, the format seems fine.

Any bright ideas?

Thanks in advance
—OgmiosProject 18:04, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Some more info - I set FireFox's logging of Search Providers to true, and gave it another shot. The interesting part of the error console is as follows:

_onLoad: Couldn't convert byte array!

Error: [Exception... "'Failure' when calling method: [nsIStreamListener::onStopRequest]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "<unknown>" data: no]

Off hand, I'd say it's some sort of odd encoding problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

OgmiosProject 13:16, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Uneeded Copyright removal

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.6(cgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.51-log
• URL: http://osirius.co.uk/wiki/

I don't own the afformentioned wiki, but I was wondering, how can I tell the owner how to removed the second copyright he has on the bottom of every page? He has it loading on the bottom left of every page, in addition to the pre-loaded copyright notice, so, could I given step by step instructions on how to remove this uneeded copyright? Thanks! —Logestic 20:42, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

PS: Is there anything I can add to my common.css to make it disappear? - Logestic 20:43, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

When looking at the source code, I find out that a gnu-fdl.png should be shown there instead of just the gnu-fdl link. Perhaps this image is not in the location where it should be so just the alternate text is shown:

<div id="f-copyrightico"><a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html">
<img src="/w/skins/common/images/gnu-fdl.png" alt='GNU Free Documentation License 1.2' /></a></div>

To remove it from being displayed using common.css this should work:

div#f-copyrightico {display: none;}

Regards -- 89.55.176.121 09:06, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Or in your case edit main.css in monobook. --Truetech (Talk) MediaWiki Support Team 03:59, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Search for short words not working after proposed changes

I've changed the fulltext index to 2 and 2 for both mysql variables and rebuilt the indexes (using the maintenance script), but this did not fix the problem. I still don't find anything when searching for XY or XYZ, even though the pages containing these words are in the searchindex table. Anything else I can do about that?

(RESOLVED) How to change the destination of the login/register link on the right top of the screen

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

Hi there mates i'm trying to force that when you click on this link it will redirect you to another site i have on my localhost system. So i can log in thru CAS authentication. Is there an easy way to do this? Thanks a lot!

—Juanan 10:31, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

There should be. Try editing monobook.php in your skins directory. --Truetech (Talk) MediaWiki Support Team 03:57, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Creation of a redirection page for the abbreviation "PRN"

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.1.6 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.24a-community-nt
• URL: http://pc030025527/fr_erp-wiki/index.php/Accueil

We have in my company a process to be described for which the abbreviation is "PRN". I would like to create this page as a redirection page but this is impossible. The message error 403 appears. What can I do? Thanks.

—195.177.247.202 12:19, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

How are you trying to create the redirect? Smaug 17:38, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I type PRN in the research field, I click on Go and then, the error message appears. When I usually do this, I see a link to create the page, I click on and I type what I want in the page. Is there an another way to create a page?

Thanks

In the URL, replace the title of a page (such as "Accueil" in the url you provide) with "PRN". This should bring you directly to the page with a link to edit it. Smaug 15:26, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) My Watchlist in User Help

• MediaWiki: 1.6.8
• PHP: 5.0.4 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 4.1.20
• URL: http://www.openwatcom.org/index.php/Special:Watchlist

I finally set up the Open Watcom wiki (www.openwatcom.org) to email me changes made by others to pages I have created. Well, I thought so, anyway.

I will start by pointing out that, when I try to get help from User Help on the My Watchlist page, I instead get the Login page, apparently because there is no help on the My Watchlist page and the link is trying to open up an actual My Watchlist on your Wiki. Which, I submit, is not what a link in a User Help page should be doing.

The questions I have are probably mostly unanswerable or have to do with configuration, over which I have no control. Here they are, nonetheless:

Even though the "Add pages I create to my watchlist" box was checked, this did not happen; even though the "Watch this page" box was checked every time I edited, this did not happen; I had to track down every page I created and click on the "Watch" tab to add them to the list.

I have no idea what the button "Mark all pages visited" is supposed to do. If this is a toggle, then the text should change to "Stop marking all pages visited" so the setting can be reversed. But, for all I know, it runs the American flag up the pole of the local firehouse.

The email I got about a change (showing that something I did worked) had this text in it:

(text begins)
There will be no other notifications in case of further changes unless you visit this page. You could also reset the notification flags for all your watched pages on your watchlist.
(text ends)

I have no idea what this is talking about. Neither My Watchlist nor its Edit page show any "notification flags". Neither searching the FAQ nor the MediaWiki search box on the left of each page finds a match.

You know, it should really be very simple: I check the "Add pages I create to my watchlist" and, when I check the box for email notification, I get an email notification every time any of the pages I created is edited by someone else. No ifs, no ands, no buts, no maybes, no notification flags, no need to manually toggle the "Watch" tabs, no nonsense.

I am currently looking at My Watchlist. It claims that there has been exactly one Edit of one page in the last three days, and that is one of mine. Yet the page's history shows /six edits/ in the last three days, one of which prompted the email notification. Perhaps its because they are all on one page, but then, the My Watchlist really should claim to be displaying "pages changed" rather than "changes" as such.

Don't get me wrong -- I find MediaWiki to be a fine environment for documenting my work on Open Watcom. I just wish the watchlist had a less-complex implementation.

—72.244.201.108 00:22, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Have you resolved any of the above? If so, please update us. Because I started to (try to) help, by first going to your wiki, and I did not see "User Help." I saw "User Resources" in your navigation bar, and it took me to your "User Resources" page, which is correct behavior, yes? As far as I know, there is no "User Help" on a "My Watchlist" page. Can you clarify?

Also, are you still having a problem with pages you create not being auto-checked to "Watch this page" and therefore not showing up in your "My Watchlist?" Because I tested it on your wiki, and it worked for me. (User: 7632416.) Please mark what parts of your issue have been resolved, and let us know what you found out. Thanks. -Brian7632416 16:43, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

72.244.201.108 responds!

I see I confused you a bit. Sorry about that.

The "User Help" referred to is the one on /this/ Wiki (www.mediawiki.org). Someone picked this up, because the "watchlist" links on User Help now point to an unwritten help page. Well, that's a start!

I haven't had an occasion to create a new page since discovering the above. I am too busy using that MediaWiki to document a program called "wgml". Any time spent on this takes time away from exploring wgml, and that is not what I want to be doing. Especially since, being very much a MediaWiki newbie, I am probably confusing myself on these issues.

IIRC, when I first checked the watch list, the correct Prefences | Editing box had been checked ("Add pages I create to my watchlist"), my Watchlist only contained five pages. When I finished adding pages using the "Watch" tabs, I had 23. So, it clearly stopped at some point.

It is also a fact that every edit has the "watch this page" box checked, and every page gets edited. If this check box were truly doing what it said, all 23 pages would have been present when I finally got around to checking on this.

The "Mark all pages visited" button still keeps the same text however often it is pressed. I still have no idea what it does. I have no idea whether I want it turned on or off, or even if, having pressed the button, I have a choice.

And I have no explanation of the "notification flags for all your watched pages". The Watchlist has no flags. Searching for "notification flags" in /your/ Wiki (www.mediawiki.org) now finds an installation manual reference and a bug reference, the solution to which ("go to your watchlist page and click the button to one-click-clear all notification flags") is incomprehensible because there is no button on My Watchlist labled "clear notification flags". Perhaps it is labled "Mark all pages visited" instead ...

I honestly do not see why it has to be so complicated to set up a MediaWiki to send an email notification to me if anyone else modifies a page I created. Two check boxes (one for the email, one for all pages I create to be watched) really should be enough, yet here I am forced to click "Watch" tabs, check additional boxes, and then be told by the email I do receive that I will not get another for that page unless I personally visit the page that was modified or change flags which, so far as I can tell, do not exist.

But thanks for trying, anyway. If the Help page for Watchlist ever gets done, maybe it will have some answers.

(RESOLVED) Upgrade Problems

• MediaWiki: 1.9.2 / 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.6
• PostgreSQL: 8.2.7
• URL: Title

I recently upgraded my MediaWiki installation from 1.9.2 to 1.12.0.

After upgrading, I found that no page was visible. A quick search for DOMDocument revealed that I need to install php-xml. So I ran the command:

 yum install php-xml

This took a while to execute (including quite a few updates for dependancies). After the update, postgres failed to start. I checked the documentation, and found that postgres had been updated from 8.1.0 to 8.2.7 (which have incompatible data formats).

Luckily, I had run pg_dumpall before trying to upgrade mediawiki. I restored this dump in the usual way. But now, mediawiki just gives me:

A database error has occurred Query: SELECT * FROM page_restrictions WHERE pr_page = '1' Function: Title::loadRestrictions Error: 1 ERROR: relation "page_restrictions" does not exist
Backtrace:
#0 /var/www/wiki/includes/Database.php(799): DatabasePostgres->reportQueryError('ERROR: relatio...', 1, 'SELECT * FROM...', 'Title::loadRest...', false)
#1 /var/www/wiki/includes/Database.php(1244): Database->query('SELECT * FROM...', 'Title::loadRest...')
#2 /var/www/wiki/includes/Title.php(1725): Database->select('page_restrictio...', '*', Array, 'Title::loadRest...')
#3 /var/www/wiki/includes/Article.php(312): Title->loadRestrictions('')
#4 /var/www/wiki/includes/Wiki.php(256): Article->loadPageData(Object(stdClass))
#5 /var/www/wiki/includes/Wiki.php(46): MediaWiki->initializeArticle(Object(Title), Object(WebRequest))
#6 /var/www/wiki/index.php(90): MediaWiki->initialize(Object(Title), Object(StubObject), Object(User), Object(WebRequest))
#7 {main}

Can anyone suggest what the problem might be here, or how to fix it? The table page_restrictions appears to exist as far as I can tell.

—MrAngel 15:12, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

OK, I should have figured this one out sooner. I ran the upgrade script after dumping the database, so I need to do it again. However, I now get an authentication failure for user 'dracula'@'localhost' (Using password: YES)

I've tried logging in to the database using the same username and password specified in LocalSettings.php, and it works fine. I have no idea if the problem is with MW, PHP or postgres now.

--MrAngel 15:29, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Resolved - turned out to be a postgres config error --MrAngel 16:01, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) display used templates

Hello,

can someone help me on this. If I click edit on a page, I can see all templates used in this page. It displays all pages (sections) I've included with #section-h. Exactly this list I'd like to include in my wiki document. On the bottom of the page I'd like to have a section displaying links to all the pages I've included sections from.

is there a way to display something like this?

Thanks —193.134.254.145 14:50, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) search engine optimisation/indexing

• MediaWiki: latest
• PHP: im sorry i'm new to wikis i dont know what to write here..
• MySQL: as above
• URL: not yet online

Hello,

hopefully i'm doing this correctly, deleting the lines saying delete etc, heres my question

how do i get my site indexed with google? I can do it in html but the index page for media wiki is in php and i dont want to change any of it for fear of braking it.

Is there a way of adding tags, keywords & descriptions to the wiki through the actual wiki ?

please help soon

Thanks

james —81.151.156.227 15:17, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Setting

$wgRawHtml = true;

in LocalSettings.php gives you the power to use all the HTML tags (some are allowed also in false mode), but have a look at the warnings at Manual:$wgRawHtml. Regards -- 89.55.176.121 09:32, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

PS: Have a look at special page Special:Version on your wiki for finding out the versions required above.

I would reccomend against using $wgRawHtml unless you must. This question has been asked before, so have a look there. Smaug 13:16, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Email related problem (How to set SMTP mode and how to get log for an error)

• MediaWiki: 1.12.Orc1
• PHP: 5.2.5(apache2handler)
• MySQL: 4.1.12
• URL:http://192.168.1.122/index.php/Main_Page

I am facing problem in Email notifications. How to set the SMTP mode in DefaultSettings.php.

1. After changing the SMTP Mode according to our requirements and after uncomment the code i am getting an error in these lines. So how to uncomment these lines so that these lines will also run.

/**
* SMTP Mode
* For using a direct (authenticated) SMTP server connection.
* Default to false or fill an array :
* 
* "host" => '192.168.1.123',
* "IDHost" => '192.168.1.123',
* "port" => "25",
* "auth" => true,
* "username" =>myusername ,
* "password" =>password
* 
*
* @global mixed $wgSMTP
*/
$wgSMTP= true;

What all other changes we need to do enable Email notification.

2. How to get log files for any error.Is there any option which need to be set.

--Neelam.jain 05:29, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How do I set a link to a namespace?

Hello, how do I set a link to a namespace? I think a link like this http://eniak.info/index.php?title=Spezial%3AAlle+Seiten&from=&namespace=4 looks ugly... Is there a better way to link to a namespace? Thanks, —PMay 15:00, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Well, if lookin ugly is the only problem then you could link it with alternate text like Namespace 4. Smaug 17:16, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How do I create a second database

Hi, I would like to create a second database with exactly the same structure as the first, and also using the same Mediawiki installation for both. The purpose is to have two different types of contents. How do I go about doing it and what's the disadvantage, if any. — PM Poon 20:58, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

What is your goal? Smaug 03:51, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

If only I know, LOL. Actually, I was thinking of having two sections, one for me to write exclusively, and another for the community. — 219.95.193.61 23:06, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

You could protect an individual namespace with $wgNamespaceProtection. Would that give you what you need? Otherwise, if you just want to have two wikis, you could just install MediaWiki in two different directories with different databases. Or else see Manual:Wiki_family. Smaug 14:58, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi Smaug, thank you for your replies. I have so many ideas for using two databases accessed from the same main page. Now my mind is clearer. One is as said earlier, and the other is to have two languages, one being a mere translation of the other. Users can choose the language at the main page or the side panel. Once a language is chosen, the search bar does not show results for the other language even if some words are similarly spelt. — PM Poon 00:20, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

MediaWiki has some built in support for multiple languages, what with the translation of system messages into different languages. I'm not familiar with that functionality however. Smaug 03:37, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Link to other Languages on sidebar

Hello, I have down loaded MediaWiki and installed 2 languages are Thai and English. I would like to know If I have the topic in Thai language , then I would like to link to the topic in English language in to sidebar. How can I do ? Wondermoon 13:41, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Well, I have the same problem with 3 languages. I tried it with 3 scripts and 3 Sql's and with 3 scripts and 1 Sql. Both did not work. Can someone help?

http://www.Genwiki.info eMail: kwartierstaat@yahoo.com

(OUTDATED) Display the edit links inside of the page

• MediaWiki: 1.11.2
• PHP: 5.2.4-2ubuntu5.1
• MySQL: 5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.1
• URL: private network

How can you make it so that the edit links inside of the article appear even if the page is protected?? I have a page that is protected but uses templates to get the information that is desplayed on the main page... I want to have everyone edit the actual templates but not the main page... Thanks

—63.77.141.66 13:11, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Adding messages to image uploads

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache)
• MySQL: 4.1.13-standard
• URL: http://wiki.heavengames.com/aom/Special:Upload

How can I get a message to explain information like on Wikipedia above the upload form?

—Mephiles 18:29, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) How to sort Special:AllPages into a single column

• MediaWiki: 1.6.10
• PHP: 4.4.4-8+etch6 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 4.0.24_Debian-10sarge2
• URL: Private

Hi there,

I'm hoping this is the right place to ask this question.

Basically I have my own private wiki, and all of my users open the Special Page "All Pages" by default. I want to be able to sort the list into a single column instead of three columns, as this makes it hard to pick out an individual article.

Is this possible? I looked at the SpecialAllpages.php file but it's a bit over my head.

Thanks for any help. —202.27.218.212 03:42, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) leveraging OS permissions for files used as links

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP: 5
• MySQL: (not known)
• URL: [2]

Is there some way to leverage file permissions, like read, write, etc. when using documents and spreadsheets, etc as links from wiki pages? Example: a named wiki user can only read certain spreadsheets, but write onto others. I think I saw a piece about configuring Apache for this purpose(??) but not for IIS. I am using IIS. THANKS —68.178.62.32 20:26, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Unable to enable HTML in wiki

Product Version MediaWiki 1.12.0 PHP 5.2.2 (apache) MySQL 5.0.51a-community URL: www.danda-comics.co.uk/wiki

OK i've created an FaQ for a game i play inside of a wiki and, although its against the idea of the wiki somewhat i've locked off other users from registering without permission etc so as to save the pages getting vandalised by ingrates. However there are certain things i would like to do which i can't do with the wiki formatting. So i had the intention of enabling HTML so as i could do some additional edditing that way, however Whenever i attempt to input ANY html code into one of my pages, i'm redirected from the wiki to the base page.

I have the following at the bottom of my localsettings.php (i'm typring this in so it may not be accurate in here)

$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;
$wgAllowExternalImages = true;
$wgAllowHtml = true;

Far as i can tell i SHOULD be able to use html with that code in there, but i have no idea why i'm being redirected out of the page, anny assistance would be appreciated (i'm sure its something mind numbingly simple)

—193.63.197.246 03:15, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Dunno about redirecting, but the variable is called $wgRawHtml, not $wgAllowHtml. --Sayuri 04:48, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Whelp i've tried changing that (the allowhtml must've been a previous version or something. ( but still the same problem, whenever i edit a page and put in some html the edit won't stick and i'm sent back to the main site and not the wiki.

(OUTDATED) How can I customize new userpage creation a la Wikipedia? I can't figure out how they did it!

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.6
• MySQL: 5.0.45
• URL: www.narratinglandscapes.net

I don't have an issue, per se, but I need some assistance in customizing MediaWiki. WikiPedia has some cool new userpage functionality: it has different edit text than usual pages, unlike, it appears, in the default install where the MediaWiki:Newarticletext is used. It also seems to be locked, for creation, to users with the same name as the intended page. And I think it also perhaps has an automatic template/category association.

I don't care so much about the user authentication type bits, but I would like to know how to change the newarticletext for userpage only, and also how I might preload a template for user pages.

—67.204.4.161 23:03, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Semantic MediaWiki, Undefined offset

• MediaWiki: 1.13alpha
• PHP: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.27-log
• URL: http://www.gough-name.org.uk/wiki/Special:Version

I have just installed Semantic MediaWiki (version 1,1,2) and am now getting an undefined offet: 1 error in line 334 of SpecicialVersion.php

—Martin Gough 13:26, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) How do I upgrade?

• MediaWiki: 1.6.8
• PHP: 5.2.4 (apache)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community
• URL: SW: Evolution Database

How do I upgrade the mediawiki from version 1.6.8 to version 1.12.0? There's a lot of information stored, as well as quite a few modifications having been made with extensions and the theme. I don't want to lose any of it. Is there an easy-to-follow guide that will take me through the process step-by-step?

—97.115.227.196 01:02, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) New Page

How do you add a new page?!

See Help:Starting a new page. Smaug 15:01, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Interwiki Transcluding

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.5
• MySQL: 5.0.51a

I have a problem when transcluding a template into another site, using $wgEnableScaryTranscluding - What happens: A double linebreak appears before the loaded template. This doesn't happen when i use the template on the same site that it is created.

When i check the sourcecode for the page with the linebreaks, it has added <p> <br /> </p>. Why is this added and how do i remove it? Not a big problem, but it messes up the layout. --Aroekene 09:22, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Math support

• MediaWiki: mediawiki-1.12.0
• PHP: 2.11.4
• MySQL: 5.0.51a

Hey every one!

I have installed all the necessary softwares for math support and generated texvc.exe.And made all the changes mentioned in math.php and localsettings.php. Also, the mediawiki on windows asks to make changes in the image.php file, but there is no such file available in the mediawiki version that I downloaded.

I get the error "Failed to parse (unknown error):"

Please help!

Thanks a lot!!!

(OUTDATED) Sending e-mails to specific user groups

how can I send an email to a whole grup of users? i.e. I want to tell everybody of the bot-group via email to force their work in the wiki. thanks —84.188.198.121 13:10, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Changing amount of items in a Category

I'm using

• MediaWiki 1.12.0 (r16740)
• PHP 5.2.5 (cgi)
• MySQL 5.0.51a-community
• http://theaquariumwiki.com/

My Category listings show 200 items at a time. I'd like to change this number to say 300.

Can someone tell me what I need to edit to do this?

-)

—Quatermass 13:54, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Update: I've discovered that placing variable $wgCategoryPagingLimit = 300; in LocalSettings.php will alter the number of categories shown to 300.

Pity it's not a per-user setting of course. Maybe next time guys?

--Quatermass 18:08, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Just went on your site. Looks like you have a mess in your Special page. --Truetech (Talk) MediaWiki Support Team 03:47, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How do I remove users who are no longer a part of the community that my wiki supports?

I have restricted account creation, but there is the issue of when people leave/are removed from our community, they need to no longer have access some of the information found in our wiki - how do I remove their user accounts?

I apologize if this is incorrectly formatted - I'm not very good at this yet.

Removing accounts is a task that can cause all sorts of problems, so we don't recommend it. If you want older users to not be able to access the wiki's information at all, what I what I would do instead is to create a new user group that has the ability to read pages in the wiki (see Manual:Preventing access), and making "current" users members of that group. If you want older users to not be able to access a particular namespace of your wiki, I would apply namespace protection to that particular namespace. It depends on the specifics of what you're trying to do. Titoxd^(?!?) 06:19, 31 July 2008 (UTC)