Mediawiki

"A good book! It's a nice overview of wiki editing and administration, with pointers to handy extensions and further online documentation." -Brion Vibber, Chief Technical Officer, Wikimedia Foundation

"This book is filled with practical knowledge based on experience. It's not just spouting some party line." -Rob Church, a developer of MediaWiki

MediaWiki is the world's most popular wiki platform, the software that runs Wikipedia and thousands of other websites. Though it appears simple to use at first glance, MediaWiki has extraordinarily powerful and deep capabilities for managing and organizing knowledge. In corporate environments, MediaWiki can transform the way teams write and collaborate.

This comprehensive book covers MediaWiki's rich (and sometimes subtle) features, helping you become a wiki expert in no time. You'll learn how to:

• Find your way around by effective searching and browsing
• Create and edit articles, categories, and user preferences
• Use advanced features for authors, such as templates, dynamic lists, logical parser functions, and RSS, to organize and maintain large numbers of articles
• Install and run your own wiki, and configure its look and behavior
• Develop custom wiki features, called extensions, with the PHP programming language and MySQL database

This book also provides special guidance for creating successful corporate wikis. For beginners who want to create or work on collaborative, community-driven websites with this platform, MediaWiki is the essential one-stop guide.

"I was a MediaWiki newbie before reading this book. Now, many aspects of the platform that were murky before are crystal clear." -JP Vossen, author of O'Reilly's Bash Cookbook

An essential one-stop guide for newcomers who want to build, contribute to, or maintain collaborative, community-driven websites. Originally created for the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, MediaWiki has become the most widely used tool for organizations and communities to create and maintain websites collaboratively. This book teaches readers how to MediaWiki to its full potential -- it serves as both a tutorial and a quick reference to all the tools and features.

Preface; Who Should Read This Book?; Roadmap; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Getting Started; Chapter 1: A First Look; 1.1 What’s MediaWiki?MediaWiki; 1.2 A Typical Day on a MediaWiki Site; 1.3 When to Use MediaWikiMediaWikistrengths; 1.4 When Not to Use MediaWikiMediaWikilimitations; 1.5 Additional Resourceshelp; Chapter 2: Basic Use; 2.1 Quick Tour of a Wiki Page; 2.2 Articlesarticles; 2.3 Editing Primerediting; 2.4 Menu Referencemenusmenus by name; 2.5 Getting Helphelp; Chapter 3: Your User Identity; 3.1 Creating an Accountcreatingaccountsuserscreating; 3.2 Logging In and Outlogging in; 3.3 User Pagesuser page; 3.4 Signaturessignaturesuserssignatures; 3.5 Watchlistswatchlist; 3.6 Tracking Your Contributionscontributions; 3.7 Preferencespreferences; 3.8 User CSS and JavaScriptuser JavaScriptJavaScriptuser CSScascading stylesheetscascading stylesheetsper userJavaScriptper user; Writing and Editing Articles; Chapter 4: Editing Articles; 4.1 Getting Started with Editingeditingintroduction to; 4.2 Creating an Articlearticlescreatingcreatingarticles; 4.3 Paragraphs and Headingsparagraphswikitextparagraphs; 4.4 Typestyles and Fontswikitextfontswikitexttypestylestypestylesfonts; 4.5 Links (Briefly)links; 4.6 Images and Uploaded Filesuploaded files; 4.7 Listslistswikitextlists; 4.8 Tablestableswikitextwikitexttables; 4.9 Mathematical Formulasmathematical formulaswikitextmath; 4.10 Escaping Wikitext with <nowiki>escaping wikitextnowiki tagwikitextnowikiwikitextescaping; 4.11 Conflictsconflicts; 4.12 Beyond the Basics; Chapter 5: Links; 5.1 Internal Linksinternal links; 5.2 External Linksexternal links; 5.3 Interwiki Linksinterwiki links; 5.4 Interlanguage Linksinterlanguage links; 5.5 Graphical Linksgraphical linksimage links; image tags; 5.6 File Linksfile links; 5.7 Linking Tipslinksstrategies; Chapter 6: Organizing Articles; 6.1 Categoriescategories; 6.2 Namespacesnamespaces; 6.3 Subpagessubpages; 6.4 Redirectsredirects; 6.5 Disambiguation Pages; 6.6 Renaming Articlesrenaming articlesarticlesrenaming; 6.7 Deleting Articlesarticlesdeletingdeleting articlesremoving an article; Chapter 7: Advanced Article Construction; 7.1 Maintaining a Consistent Wikiorganizing articlesarticlesorganizing; 7.2 Variablesvariablesindividual variable names; 7.3 Templates and Transclusiontemplatestransclusiontransclusiontemplatestemplatesparser functions; transclusion; 7.4 Logical Parser Functionsparser functionslogicallogical parser functions; 7.5 Dynamic Page ListDynamic Page ListextensionsDynamic Page List; 7.6 Recipes for Refactoringrefactoringtechniques; Chapter 8: Special Pages; 8.1 Maintenance Reports; 8.2 List of Pages; 8.3 Login/Sign Uplogging in; 8.4 Users and Rightsuser rightsspecial pages; 8.5 Recent Changes and Logsrecent changeslogs; 8.6 Media Reports and Uploadsuploaded filesspecial pages; 8.7 Wiki Data and Tools; 8.8 Redirects and Random Pages; 8.9 High-Use Pageshigh use pagesarticleshighly active; 8.10 Page Tools; 8.11 Other Special Pages; 8.12 Special Pages Grouped by Taskspecial pagesreference, grouped by task; Running and Administering MediaWiki; Chapter 9: Installing MediaWiki; 9.1 Before You Begin; 9.2 Installing the Prerequisites; 9.3 Installing MediaWikiinstalling MediaWikiMediaWikiinstalling; 9.4 Important Optional Featuresinstalling MediaWikioptional features; 9.5 A Tour of MediaWiki’s Filessource codelist of filesfiles in MediaWiki source codedirectories in MediaWiki source code; 9.6 Maintaining the Codesource codemaintenance; Chapter 10: Practical Wiki Design; 10.1 Adopting MediaWikiMediaWikilimitations; 10.2 Planninginstalling MediaWikiplanning; 10.3 Establishing Standardsstandards; 10.4 Governancegovernancewho’s in chargeownership of content; 10.5 Integrating with Other Websites; Chapter 11: Configuring MediaWiki: An Overview; 11.1 Administrative Roles; 11.2 Advanced Page Constructs; 11.3 Special Pages for Sysops and Bureaucratsspecial pagesrestricted; 11.4 System Messagessystem messages; 11.5 Cascading Stylesheetscascading stylesheets; 11.6 JavaScriptJavaScriptprogrammingJavaScriptsystem-wide; 11.7 Configuration Settingsconfiguration settingssettings by name, wg...global variablesPHPglobal variables; 11.8 Extensionsextensions; 11.9 Skinningskins; 11.10 SQL ProgrammingSQL programmingdatabaseSQL; 11.11 Maintenance Scriptsmaintenance scripts; Chapter 12: Controlling Wiki Features; 12.1 Usersusersconfiguring; 12.2 User Rights and Permissionsuser rightsaccess controluser rights; 12.3 Article Contentarticlesconfiguration settings; 12.4 Configurringg thhhhe Editing of Articlesedit pageconfiguring; 12.5 Maintaining Articles; 12.6 Configuring Namespacesnamespacesconfiguring; 12.7 File Uploadsuploaded filesconfiguring; 12.8 Searchsearchconfiguring; 12.9 Special Page Listspecial pageslist of allreordering; 12.10 Database Configurationdatabaseconfiguration; 12.11 Email Configuration; 12.12 JavaScript ConfigurationJavaScriptconfiguring; 12.13 Logging and Debuggingloggingdebugging; Chapter 13: Changing Appearances; 13.1 The Basics; 13.2 Menusmenusconfiguring; 13.3 Search Boxsearch boxconfiguring; 13.4 Tables of Contentstable of contentsconfiguring; 13.5 External Link Appearanceexternal linksconfiguringexternal linksicon; 13.6 Page Creditsarticlescreditspage creditscreditsarticle authors; 13.7 Overall Look and Feel; 13.8 International Supportinternational supportlanguageconfiguring; Chapter 14: Installing Extensions; 14.1 Obtaining Extensionsextensionsfinding; 14.2 Installing an Extensionextensionsinstalling; 14.3 Recommended Extensionsextensionsrecommended; Chapter 15: Creating Extensions; 15.1 Overview of Extension Types; 15.2 Creating a Variableextensionscreatingvariablesvariablescreating; 15.3 Creating a Parser Functionextensionscreatingparser functionsparser functionscreating; 15.4 Creating a Tag Extensionextensionscreatingtag extensionstagscreatingextensionsHello World tag; 15.5 Behavior Changesbehavior changesextensionscreatingbehavior changes; 15.6 Creating a Special Pagespecial pagescreatingextensionscreatingspecial pages; 15.7 Useful Tasks for Extension Writers; 15.8 Creating a Skinextensionscreatingskinsskinscreating; 15.9 Publishing an Extensionextensionspublishing; 15.10 Other Extension Topics; 15.11 Finding a MediaWiki Programmerextensionshiring a programmer; Chapter 16: Wiki Administration; 16.1 Maintenance Scriptsmaintenance scriptsscripts by namescriptsmaintenance scripts; 16.2 Backupsbackups; 16.3 UpgradesMediaWikiupgradingupgrading MediaWiki; 16.4 Read-Only Wikiread-only wikiwrite-protected wiki; 16.5 Performance and ScalingMediaWikiperformanceMediaWikiscaling; 16.6 SecuritysecurityMediaWikisecurity; 16.7 VandalismVandalismspam; 16.8 Common Maintenance Tasks; 16.9 For More Information; Colophon;

Daniel J. Barrett has been immersed in Internet technology since 1985. Currently working as a software engineer, Dan has also been a heavy metal singer, Unix system administrator, university lecturer, web designer, and humorist. He is the author of O'Reilly's Linux Pocket Guide, and he is the coauthor of Linux Security Cookbook, and SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide.

Daniel J. Barrett has been immersed in Internet technology since 1985. Currently working as a software engineer, Dan has also been a heavy metal singer, Unix system administrator, university lecturer, web designer, and humorist. He is the author of O'Reilly's Linux Pocket Guide, and he is the coauthor of Linux Security Cookbook, and SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide.

Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Distributor: Ingram Publisher Services
Publication Date: 10-21-2008
Pages: 384
Measurements: 8.92in X 6.14in X 0.85in X 1.15lb