Project:Support desk

Welcome to the MediaWiki Support desk. This is a place where you can ask any questions you have about installing, using or administrating the MediaWiki software.

(Read this message in a different language)

See also

• Other places to ask for help

Before you post

• Check the FAQ and Errors and symptoms .
• If your question is about a specific feature, check the relevant technical manual , end-user help or extension page and consider asking on its talk page .
• For issues about the mediawiki.org website, report to Village Pump instead.
• Ask technical questions about Wikimedia websites on meta:Tech instead.

Post a new question

1. To help us answer your questions, please indicate which version of MediaWiki you are using, as found on your wiki's Special:Version page:
2. If possible, add $wgShowExceptionDetails = true;error_reporting( -1 );ini_set( 'display_errors', 1 ); to LocalSettings.php in order to make MediaWiki show more detailed error messages.
3. Please include the web address (URL) to your wiki if possible. It's often easier for us to identify the source of the problem if we can see the error directly.
4. To start a new thread, click the box with the text "Add topic".

Flow page archived, will be frozen in one week

Hi all, the old system for this page has been moved to Project:Support desk/Flow. Topics there can continue for another week, at which point they will be frozen. Please create any new topics on this page.

For background information on this process, see Structured Discussions/Deprecation.

Thank you again for your patience with this process, and a big thanks to the many folks who are assisting.

P.s. As a reminder, the DiscussionTools system that is now working on this talkpage, provides a menu link at "Tools → Subscribe" that enables us to be notified for the creation of new Topics (documentation at Help:DiscussionTools#Page subscriptions). Some folks watching this page, might like to use that system instead or in addition to the watchlist. Hope that helps! Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 18:03, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Infobox not displaying NEXT to the lead section

Hi everyone,

After importing the templates from Wikipedia, everything seems fine. However, there is one small issue. Doesn't matter what infobox I add to my wiki, all infoboxes display below the lead section. An infobox on a Wikipedia page always displays next to the lead section, so the text and the infobox in the same line.

I've copied the CSS from Wikipedia. I'm curious what I'm missing that should fix that small issue. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Mitakcor Mitakcor (talk) 11:15, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

If they don't, then that means that the float css statements for infoboxes are not being applied. The exact cause for that is difficult to determine, without seeing the actual website. —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 13:17, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. Now I know it's about the float css statements, I found something wrong and fixed it. Thanks a lot! Mitakcor (talk) 17:37, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

foutmelding bij aanmelding of registratie bij onderwijsconceptenwiki.nl

Ik krijg bij aanmelding of registratie op onderwijsconceptenwiki.nl die ik heb gemaakt steeds dezelfde foutmelding: "Er lijkt een probleem te zijn met uw aanmeldsessie. Uw handeling is gestopt uit voorzorg tegen een beveiligingsrisico (dat bestaat uit mogelijke "hijacking" van deze sessie). Probeer het formulier opnieuw te versturen." Wat kan ik doen? Prjsimons (talk) 12:17, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

See Special:MyLanguage/Manual:How to debug/Login problems, or contact the owner of onderwijsconceptenwiki.nl. Malyacko (talk) 13:36, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

External image sizing

With the removal of the IMG tag what option is left for sizing embedded external images (via $wgAllowExternalImages)? Some of the help pages I've seen suggest using CSS transform or setting the width/height, the question is, where do we set these when all we put in is an URL and the software opaquely replaces it with the image? I've tried simple things like wrapping a DIV around the image but that doesn't seem to have any effect. Ham Pastrami (talk) 09:33, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

I think it would be best if someone created an extension version of this feature. Bawolff (talk) 17:45, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Maximum Template Import Size is 20kb

I am trying to import the Template:Infobox template from Wikipedia to my mediawiki. I have solved all the issues with extensions not being installed and now the error that I get is this:

Import failed: The text of the revision with ID 1251300982 exceeds the maximum allowable size (20 KiB)

How do I change the maximum allowable size? BenRaz.dev (talk) 13:37, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

See Manual:$wgMaxArticleSize Malyacko (talk) 16:54, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

template archive message in magyar ?

why the archive template message is in magyar "Ez a lap egy archívum. Ne változtass rajta. Minden további megjegyzést az aktuális vitalapon helyezz el." when my interface is defined in french ? on page -> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Template_talk:Extension/Archive_2 (on tablet + Destop version + skin Vector)

... seems ok when using "A" instead of "a" in the template name. .... strange.

... banner does not display on laptop

--Christian 🇫🇷 FR (talk) 11:39, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

In a nutshell, it's a caching problem within the extension, and won't be fixed before the extension is removed entirely (see Structured Discussions/Deprecation).

For details: It's an old bug (phab:T125857). It's trying to do some special caching, and never worked as desired. I.e. It's now showing in French for me (with my interface set to "English") because you were the last person to edit it or purge the cache manually. This will all self-resolve once the extension is uninstalled and once the pages are converted into plain wikitext. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 20:47, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

ok, thanks. --Christian 🇫🇷 FR (talk) 09:29, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Show Bot changes in recent changes by default

Hi!

Is there a way, to show the bot changes in recent changes by default? 195.192.204.151 13:53, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, it's hard coded... 😠

       $hideBots->setDefault( true );

https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki/blob/master/includes/specials/SpecialRecentChanges.php

Solution: There's no (easy) way. 195.192.206.21 19:16, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Front page of Minerva Neue mobile site broken

Hey,

I'm making a MediaWiki site: kaloxys.com. I'm using Vector 2022 as the desktop theme. I'm using the Minerva Neue mobile theme. The front page is glitching and not showing in the mobile skin just plain HTML. Every other page is fine (clicking Random on the HTML front page proves this). It's been like this for a week or more. I'm struggling to figure out how to fix it. Any help is much appreciated. Please tell me if you need more information.

I think this error generated by the Safari developer console is perhaps the most helpful and specific:

https://kaloxys.com/load.php?lang=en&modules=mediawiki.hlist%7Cmobile.init.styles%7Cskins.minerva.base.styles%7Cskins.minerva.codex.styles%7Cskins.minerva.content.styles.images%7Cskins.minerva.icons.wikimedia%7Cskins.minerva.mainMenu.icons%2Cstyles%7Cskins.minerva.mainPage.styles&only=styles&skin=minerva

Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 500 () Jeremywfox (talk) 10:27, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Just found a new error generated by Chrome developer tools:

This page failed to load a stylesheet from a URL.

1 request

load.php?lang=en&modules=ext.echo.styles.badge%7Cmediawiki.hlist%7Cmobile.init.styles%7Coojs-ui.styles.icons-alerts%7Cskins.minerva.amc.styles%7Cskins.minerva.base.styles%7Cskins.minerva.codex.styles%7Cskins.minerva.content.styles.images%7Cskins.minerva.icons.wikimedia%7Cskins.minerva.loggedin.styles%7Cskins.minerva.mainMenu.icons%2Cstyles%7Cskins.minerva.mainPage.styles%7Cskins.minerva.overflow.icons&only=styles&skin=minerva 1 source Welcome:12

Grok's analysis:

Yes, this error message provides valuable information for troubleshooting:

Error Analysis:

• Failed to Load Stylesheet: The error indicates that one or more stylesheets could not be loaded. This can result in the mobile theme not displaying correctly or at all on your MediaWiki site.
• Resource URLs: The URL provided in the error includes several modules which are part of the load.php mechanism that MediaWiki uses to load resources. Here are some of the key modules mentioned:
  • skins.minerva.mainPage.styles: This is the stylesheet you suspected might be causing issues, confirming that it's directly related to the problem.
  • Other relevant modules like skins.minerva.content.styles.images, skins.minerva.loggedin.styles, etc., show that multiple stylesheets are involved, suggesting there might be a broader issue with how resources are being loaded or served.

Potential Causes:

• Server-Side Issue: The server might be encountering errors when trying to serve these resources. Check server logs for any 500 errors or similar issues.
• Path or Permission Problems: If the paths to these resources are incorrect or if the server lacks the permissions to access these files, it would cause this kind of error.
• Resource Load Failure: If load.php is configured incorrectly or if there's a network issue, it could prevent the stylesheets from loading.

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. Check Server Logs: Look into your server logs for any errors related to PHP, Apache, or Nginx that might indicate why the stylesheet couldn't be served.
2. Verify Resource Paths: Ensure that all the paths for these modules are correct in your LocalSettings.php or wherever these resources are configured.
3. Permissions: Make sure the server has the necessary permissions to read and serve these CSS files.
4. Clear Caches: Clear both server-side caches (like MediaWiki's cache) and your browser cache to ensure you're not loading an outdated or corrupted version of the stylesheet.
5. Inspect with Developer Tools: Use browser developer tools to see if there are any specific failures when load.php is called. Check for errors in the Network tab for the load.php request.
6. Check Resource Settings: Ensure that your MediaWiki configuration allows for the loading of these resources. There might be settings like $wgUsePathInfo or others that need to be correctly set.
7. Review Extensions: If you have extensions like Echo or other skins, ensure they're compatible and not causing conflicts.

Conclusion:

This error message directly points to issues with loading stylesheets necessary for the mobile theme, particularly for the main page. By addressing these potential causes, you should be able to diagnose and resolve why the skins.minerva.mainPage.styles and other related stylesheets are not loading, thus fixing the display issue on your MediaWiki site's mobile theme. Jeremywfox (talk) 10:39, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

It looks like there's an error loading the skins.minerva.mainPage.styles module: https://kaloxys.com/load.php?modules=skins.minerva.mainPage.styles If you check your web server logs it might tell you more about what's going on. Sam Wilson 10:57, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, @Samwilson. I will do this ASAP. Jeremywfox (talk) 21:06, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Exclusivity problem: can no longer access the article page when a topic is being written on the talk page

When i add and start to fill a new topic on the talk page (for example on -> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help_talk:Sortable_tables ) and I want to READ beside, a section of its associated main page in a new tab of the same browser, it redirects me automatically to the suspended page saying that "modifications have been retrieved" so that I can no longer access the main page there and I have twice the same contents of the talk page displaying the state of the suspended topic being written.

The workaround is to READ the mains article in a new instance of the web browser, thus making independent the article and the post redaction on the talk page ...a bit problematic.

--Christian 🇫🇷 FR (talk) 12:58, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

“I want to READ beside, a section of its associated” how are you doing this particular action ? Where are you clicking ? —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 15:53, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Mouse right click on Read + open in a new tab of the same web browser where the talk page is, such as to view the article contents, and on the tab beside, the talk post being written.

--Christian 🇫🇷 FR (talk) 22:49, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Ah right. this is because for talk pages, the read and edit page modes have become somewhat mixed. I don't see a good solution for this. I think it is more important to have low barrier talk page editing with recovery, then it is to satisfy all possible things that users can do.

The only thing I can think of is some sort of inter tab communication possibly ? So that it can be detected that two tabs with two editors are open at the same time ? But I think that that might confuse some other people. —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 13:47, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Upgrading from 1.21 by editing LocalSettings. Missing DB table

I am upgrading a functional version 1.21 to a functional version 1.42 by modifying the LocalSettings.php file. I changed the parameters that I felt were obviously unique to my site (paths, DB parameters). I did not modify $wgSecretKey nor $wgUpgradeKey and left those at defaults assigned my the initial setup of 1.42.

It didn't work. I set $wgShowExceptionDetails , $wgShowDBErrorBacktrace , $wgShowSQLErrors = true;

I discovered this prominent entry:

Error 1146: Table 'mysite_com_my_wiki.actor' doesn't exist

So I went into MariaDB and described and selected * and found it to be relatively sparse and seemingly relevant to the name I gave the first user account.

How should I correctly populate this table for a modern MediaWiki installation?

Timothy Legg 69.24.84.53 14:17, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Background: This 1.21 wiki was running on a vulnerable version of Apache in the past, therefore, I do not trust the upgrade script(s) as being genuine. 69.24.84.53 14:52, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

As stated on the documentation page for upgrading installs, you cannot upgrade from 1.21 to 1.42 in one go. —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 15:51, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I'm starting to realize that. I'm a bit surprised at the number of tables added and removed since 1.23.13 (correction). I'm not so interested in spending the day stepping through nearly 20 or so upgrades.

Presently, I'm experimenting with dumpBackup.php to get an XML dump of the wiki. Luckily, I have an ancient Ubuntu box that has php7.0 needed to run the deprecated php code of that era. 69.24.84.53 17:34, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

It looks like importDump.php did very little to import my wiki into a newer version of mediaWiki, despite requiring about 20 minutes to complete. I'm not really sure anymore what the purpose of dumpBackup.php and importDump.php is - the documentation is sort of weak in the context of making backups of a functioning wiki. I'm becoming disappointed and distrusting of the documentation. 69.24.84.53 18:45, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

You should be able to upgrade from 1.23 to 1.35 in one go, and then step up through the LTS versions from there. But yeah, probably the XML dump is an easier path (although you lose user accounts etc.). When you say that importDump did very little, what do you mean? Did it do anything? You may want to run rebuildAll afterwards. Sam Wilson 23:18, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Forgot password

Forgot my password 2409:40E3:204C:56F9:8000:0:0:0 14:30, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Which password?

• The password to login to a Wiki with a username? Are you the admin of this wiki?
• The password of your database application that would host a wiki?
• The password that provides command line of "control panel" access to configuring a hosted website?
• The password for a user account on the MediaWiki websites?
• Are you trying to log into Wikipedia?

69.24.84.53 14:58, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

I forgot my password for Masierra10

I forgot my password for my very old account Masierra10 and yes, I am trying to log in back to Wikipedia in no time. Masierra2008 (talk) 22:36, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

@Masierra2008: (I've unified these sections because they appear to be the same topic; hope that's correct.) If you have an email address associated with the Masierra10 account, then you can reset your password at en:Special:PasswordReset. If the account doesn't have an email address there's there's not much you can do. Sam Wilson 23:24, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

No active login attempt is in progress for your session.

hello

how do we fix No active login attempt is in progress for your session? Cocopuff2018 (talk) 05:42, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Please check the "Post a new question" instructions on this page. Malyacko (talk) 10:52, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

How can I change the ToolBar of the MediaWiki editor

I use and maintain my own public MediaWiki project since many years. Now I want to add some code to extend the wiki editor. Of course I searched the web to find out how I can achieve this. I want to create the necessary JavaScript to get an icon for the HTML tag <tt> in the toolBar

I am already failing on the beginning because I don't find out to access the site, where I can enter the desired JavaScript code. I would like to edit the site for all users, because there exists only one user: WikiSysop

I have experience with JavaScript and coding in general.

My site is: https://grubit.at/fg_mediawiki

Which address do I have to enter in the browser or which special page do I have to call up to be able to add the JavaScript code to extend the toolBar? I have made many attempts but I cannot get to the right page. My language and the language of this wiki is German.

I am using MediaWiki version 1.35.4

Many thanks for any help. ThanksforHelp (talk) 11:13, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

There's a detailed documentation about how to do that at Extension:WikiEditor/Toolbar customization. – Ammarpad (talk) 16:28, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Now I've managed to add a button to the MediaWiki toolbar. I've inserted a code snippet from the following page: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:WikiEditor/Toolbar_customization/Library

Now I just want to change the icon. Which oouiIcons are available? Where can I find them?

ThanksforHelp (talk) 18:02, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

@ThanksforHelp: There's a gallery of OOUI icons at https://doc.wikimedia.org/oojs-ui/master/demos/?page=icons Sam Wilson 01:11, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

How do u fix No active login attempt is in progress for your session.

How do u fix No active login attempt is in progress for your session we get it when trying to login to wikis on a farm here is the steps we took

*maintenance/resetGlobalUserTokens.php (didn't work) except the login error

*attempt to debug didn't work+no errors Presented

Anything else we can do appreciate the help Cocopuff2018 (talk) 17:05, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

If its happening for everyone it typically means caching is configured incorrectly. Bawolff (talk) 20:14, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Again: Please check the "Post a new question" instructions on this page. Also, please do not post duplicate threads for no reasons. Malyacko (talk) 23:19, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

2024 Competition

I’m interested to join your competition for 2024 about food photography Lilyester (talk) 22:29, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

There is no food photo competition on MediaWiki.org. Maybe you meant Wikimedia Commons or some other website. Malyacko (talk) 23:18, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Gnucash 5.10.1 upgrade

the I download and install this update it won't start. it gives the message: You can’t open the application “Gnucash .app” because this application is not supported on this Mac. I am running OS Sequola 15.2 on my MacBook Air.

Wayne Sutton 193.119.109.61 02:31, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

It sounds like you might be looking for the GnuCash wiki! But you're on mediawiki.org. Which is an easy mistake to make, seeing as their sidebar help link points to a help page here — even though they have their own help page. :) Sam Wilson 03:01, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

How to format MediaWiki:Citethispage-content?

See https://wiki.ourworldoftext.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Citethispage-content.

Code:	{{#tag:syntaxhighlight| @misc{owotwiki:{{REVISIONID}}, author = "{{(}}{{SITENAME}} contributors{{)}}", title = "{{FULLPAGENAME}} --- {{(}}{{SITENAME}}{{)}}{{#ifexist:MediaWiki:Sitesubtitle|{,} {{MediaWiki:Sitesubtitle}}}}", year = "{{CURRENTYEAR}}", url = "{{canonicalurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|oldid={{REVISIONID}}}}", note = "[Online; accessed <citation>{{#time:j-F-Y}}</citation>]" } |lang=bibtex}}
Expected result:	@misc{owotwiki:-, author = "{MediaWiki contributors}", title = "Project:Support desk --- {MediaWiki}", year = "2024", url = "https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Project:Support_desk&oldid=-", note = "[Online; accessed <citation>18-December-2024</citation>]" }
Actual result:	@misc{owotwiki:-, author = "{MediaWiki contributors}", title = "Project:Support desk --- {MediaWiki}", year = "2024", url = "https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Project:Support_desk&oldid=-", note = "[Online; accessed '"`UNIQ--citation-0000000E-QINU`"' ]" }

The date is not displaying correctly; how do I fix this? Dgrilawidbanana (talk) 04:05, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

@Dgrilawidbanana: It's a bit odd that that page is showing "Invalid tag extension name: citation" errors for the <citation> tag. That's only meant to be parsed when an actual page is being viewed at Special:CiteThisPage. What versions of core and CiteThisPage are you using? I can't replicate this on my wiki. Sam Wilson 01:15, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

Migrating from 1.23.17 to 1.42.3

Hello!

I'm eventually upgrading my wiki from 1.23.17 to 1.42.3 step by step incrementally mostly on each major version. I've got a few questions regarding this saga hoping they all are closely relevant to the migration.

My prerequisites:

• MediaWiki: live 1.23.17; current dev 1.37.6
• Distro: Linux Mint
• Apache httpd: 2.4.58
• MariaDB: 10.11.18
• PHP: 5.6, 7.3, and 8.3 (depending on MediaWiki requirements)
• (A custom Git-based snapshot system to commit and rollback changes for both installation and database.)

My roadmap currently is:

• PHP 5.6 / Based on live 1.23.17 <-- LIVE BASE
• PHP 5.6 / Migrated to 1.24.0
• PHP 5.6 / Migrated to 1.25.0
• PHP 5.6 / Migrated to 1.26.0
• PHP 5.6 / Migrated to 1.27.0
• PHP 5.6 / Migrated to 1.28.0
• PHP 5.6 / Migrated to 1.29.0
• PHP 5.6 / Migrated to 1.30.0
• PHP 7.3 / Migrated to 1.31.0
• PHP 7.3 / Migrated to 1.32.0
• PHP 7.3 / Migrated to 1.33.0 (problematic database migration, described below)
• PHP 7.3 / Migrated to 1.34.0 (under some circumstances problematic database migration, described below)
• PHP 7.3 / Migrated to 1.35.0
• PHP 7.3 / Migrated to 1.35.14
• PHP 7.3 / Migrated to 1.36.0
• PHP 7.3 / Migrated to 1.37.0
• PHP 7.3 / Migrated to 1.37.6 <-- DEV LATEST
• TODO: 1.38.7
• TODO: 1.39.10
• TODO: 1.42.3

Database migration

• On upgrading to 1.33.0 I'm getting:

   A database query error has occurred. Did you forget to run your application's database schema updater after upgrading?
   
   Query: INSERT  INTO `mw_actor` (actor_name) VALUES ()
   Function: MigrateActors::addActorsForRows
   Error: 1062 Duplicate entry  for key 'actor_name' (localhost)

(Possible fix) This seems to be safely fixed by simple DELETE FROM mw_actor WHERE actor_name = ;.

• On upgrading from a version prior to 1.34.0 to 1.37.6 the latter fails with:

   Error 1146: Table 'wiki.mw_revision_comment_temp' doesn't exist (localhost)
   Function: MessageCache::loadFromDB(en)-small
   Query: SELECT ...

(Possible fix) Upgrade to 1.34.0 first and then upgrade to 1.37.6.

My questions are: why these two occur and how do I fix these two so they could proceed from 1.23.17 to 1.37.6 smoothly in one go?

I'm stuck on 1.37.6

Currently to any of last minor versions (1.38.7, 1.39.10, 1.42.3) causes the wiki not to start with the following error:

   PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Wikimedia\Services\NoSuchServiceException: No such service: DBLoadBalancerFactory in /.../www/w/vendor/wikimedia/services/src/ServiceContainer.php:468

Is there something wrong with my LocalSettings.php? How do I disable the load balancer feature assuming I only have one database?

I'd appreciate any advice and hints. Thanks in advance. 92.253.236.83 08:55, 17 December 2024 (UTC)