WARNING: This documentation is OLD
I use mediawiki to run the notes section of this site, and several others. However, due to the features I need to use, I had to modify the base install.
Install
I am running CentOS for my OS, so at first, I thought that I would use Dag’s build of MediaWiki, however, his is out of date. As I wanted security updates, I downloaded his source RPM, and installed it. I had to make the following changes to the .spec file:
- Update the Version tag
- Update the Release
- Modify the cp command from %{__cp} -av install-utils.inc index.php redirect.php %{buildroot}/var/www/mediawiki/ to %{__cp} -av index.php redirect.php %{buildroot}/var/www/mediawiki/
After a quick rebuild, I was ready to move on.
Mediawiki has a few dependencies. I decided to install memcached. For this, Dag’s build worked fine. After a yum-based install, I had to do the following:
- chkconfig memcached on
Since I wanted a centralized MediaWiki installation, I created a virtual host, and set up directories and symlinks as follows:
- mkdir files img config
- extensions -> /var/www/mediawiki/extensions/
- includes -> /var/www/mediawiki/includes/
- index.php -> /var/www/mediawiki/index.php
- install-utils.inc -> /var/www/mediawiki/install-utils.inc
- languages -> /var/www/mediawiki/languages/
- maintenance -> /var/www/mediawiki/maintenance/
- redirect.php -> /var/www/mediawiki/redirect.php
- skins -> /var/www/mediawiki/skins/
- config/index.php -> /var/www/mediawiki/config/index.php
I was then able to go to the virtual host and do the basic setup.
Hacking on MediaWiki
Skins
I wanted my skin of MediaWiki to be based on monobook, but still have it’s own look. In particular, I like having a banner across the top. Doing this required several CSS adjustments. Most of my changes were in main.css, but I also had to modify Opera7Fixes.css, as I was sliding several DIV elements down, and Opera didn’t like it.
I also didn’t like the default red colour for links, so I did a search in the codebase for CC2200 to change it. This is hardcoded a few places, and is not skinnable.
I also had to edit the graphics used to tag links, as the default MediaWiki colours did not mesh with my green-based theme.
User Access Resitriction
As I am using MediaWiki as a CMS, I need the ability to block users from accessing certain pages. To do this, I used the basic instructions at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Page_access_restriction_with_MediaWiki .
This gives me a special restrict tab, which I use to keep articles in progress private.
- cd /var/www/mediawiki
- wget http://conseil-recherche-innovation.net/download/mediawiki/restriction-beta-0.63.mediawiki-1.6.3.patch
- patch -p0 < restriction-beta-0.63.mediawiki-1.6.3.patch
- Set the following LocalSetting variables:
- $wgEnableRestrict = true;
- $wgRestrictNewPages = false;
- $wgUserPageRestrict = false;
- $wgRegexRestrict = array();
- $wgNoRecentChangesRestrict = true;
- $wgHideRestrictLog = true;
- Go to the Special:Userrights and add ability to users to restrict pages
Poem Extension
My girlfriend is a poet, so I needed a simple way to add poems into a wiki system. I used the line-indenting version of the poem extension to do this.
Spell Check
I used the WikiSpeller extension for spell checking, but it has stopped working. My next step is to build my own GSpellerServer, but I’ve not done this yet. Firefox 2 may make this moot.
Amazon Integration
There is an Amazon Extension that I could not get to work. I have replaced it with a few Amazon Templates that I use internally.
Anonymous Talk
I like for users to be able to comment on my pages, even though I do not want them to modify them. As such, I have opened up the discussion tabs per http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Users:PyneJ:Hacks:PageWhiteList
Security
I didn’t like the fact that MediaWiki did not provide a facility for secure logins. These changes to my apache config force an https connection for the login page. It does not work 100%, but it’s better than nothing.
- In the VirtualHost *:80 section:
- RewriteEngine On
- RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} Userlogin [NC]
- RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
- RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.starmind.org$1 [R,L]
- In the VirtualHost *:443 section:
- RewriteEngine On
- RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !Userlogin [NC]
- RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 443
- RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.starmind.org$1 [R,L]
FCK Editor
It would be very nice to have some users be able to use the FCK Editor to edit wiki pages. I followed the instructions and they worked quite well, but stored the data as HTML. This method fails for times when I want to make a quick edit, and like the simple syntax of MediaWiki.
There are projects out there to use FCK to edit, but save as Wiki markup, but I have not had much success with those yet.
Updates
When I build and deploy new updates for MediaWiki, I need to re-apply some my custom changes.
- Reapply restrict patch
- Manually install anon user patch
- Manually adjust the CC2200 to 0000AA everywhere
