MediaWiki 1.1: Beginner's Guide

Install, manage, and customize your own MediaWiki-based site

• Install and administer MediaWiki to build a successful wiki site
• Master the many administrative tasks associated with running and securing your wiki
• Clear focus on beginners with lots of step-by-step instructions and clear explanation
• Up-to-date with version 1.15 of MediaWiki, released in June 2009

In Detail

MediaWiki is the free, open-source wiki engine software that powers Wikipedia and many of the other popular wikis across the Web. Written in PHP, it possesses many features that make it the engine of choice for large collaborative wikis: flexible markup, comprehensive user management, multimedia handling, and more. Whether you are creating a public wiki for open contributions, a private wiki for collaborating within your work team or group of friends, or even a wiki for personal use, this book will provide you with all the essential steps you require to achieve this.

This book covers how to administer users, back up and restore content safely, migrate your installation to another server or database, and even make hacks to the code. From the installation process to customizing the pages, you will learn what it takes to run a well designed, secure MediaWiki site.

Throughout the course of this book, you will see the many different ways that MediaWiki can be used on the Web. This book covers the open source MediaWiki wiki engine from installation and getting started through structuring your collaborative web site, advanced formatting, images, and multimedia to migrating your installation and creating new MediWiki templates. While you will be introduced to the many uses of a wiki, you will also be taken through step-by-step exercises that will help you master the many administrative tasks associated with running and securing your wiki. You will learn how to prevent unauthorized edits being made to content, how to prevent spam, how to back up and restore your wiki, how to configure its look and functionality to suit your needs, and much more.

A fast-paced, friendly guide that uses a fun example to teach all of MediaWiki's key features.

What you will learn from this book

• Install MediaWiki on your server and get started quickly
• Create new MediaWiki templates and configure MediaWiki to suit your personal taste
• Secure your wiki against malicious users
• Integrate multimedia files into your wiki
• Add extensions to expand the functionality of your wiki
• Get your MediaWiki site up and running quickly even if you're not sure how wikis work
• Maintain your wiki through backups and other tasks
• Manage users and protect pages from vandalism
• Dig into the files that run your MediaWiki site
• Learn how to use MediaWiki for collaborationa
• Understand what being a good MediaWiki administrator entails
• Integrate your wiki with other collaboration software

Approach

This book was written with the beginner in mind. It walks you through step-by-step exercises and makes use of illustrations to show exactly what is going on in each. You will be taken through exercises that not only help you to build a solid, secure wiki, but provide a foundation on which you can build and challenge yourself to learn even more. Throughout the book, you will follow along as a wiki dedicated to free/open source software built from the ground up.