MediaWiki

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MediaWiki

Wikipedia and Beyond

By Daniel J. Barrett

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: October 2008

Pages: 384

"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

Getting Started
1. Chapter 1 A First Look
  1. What’s MediaWiki?MediaWiki
  2. A Typical Day on a MediaWiki Site
  3. When to Use MediaWikiMediaWikistrengths
  4. When Not to Use MediaWikiMediaWikilimitations
  5. Additional Resourceshelp
2. Chapter 2 Basic Use
  1. Quick Tour of a Wiki Page
  2. Articlesarticles
  3. Editing Primerediting
  4. Menu Referencemenusmenus by name
  5. Getting Helphelp
3. Chapter 3 Your User Identity
  1. Creating an Accountcreatingaccountsuserscreating
  2. Logging In and Outlogging in
  3. User Pagesuser page
  4. Signaturessignaturesuserssignatures
  5. Watchlistswatchlist
  6. Tracking Your Contributionscontributions
  7. Preferencespreferences
  8. User CSS and JavaScriptuser JavaScriptJavaScriptuser CSScascading stylesheetscascading stylesheetsper userJavaScriptper user
Writing and Editing Articles
1. Chapter 4 Editing Articles
  1. Getting Started with Editingeditingintroduction to
  2. Creating an Articlearticlescreatingcreatingarticles
  3. Paragraphs and Headingsparagraphswikitextparagraphs
  4. Typestyles and Fontswikitextfontswikitexttypestylestypestylesfonts
  5. Links (Briefly)links
  6. Images and Uploaded Filesuploaded files
  7. Listslistswikitextlists
  8. Tablestableswikitextwikitexttables
  9. Mathematical Formulasmathematical formulaswikitextmath
  10. Escaping Wikitext with <nowiki>escaping wikitextnowiki tagwikitextnowikiwikitextescaping
  11. Conflictsconflicts
  12. Beyond the Basics
2. Chapter 5 Links
  1. Internal Linksinternal links
  2. External Linksexternal links
  3. Interwiki Linksinterwiki links
  4. Interlanguage Linksinterlanguage links
  5. Graphical Linksgraphical linksimage links; image tags
  6. File Linksfile links
  7. Linking Tipslinksstrategies
3. Chapter 6 Organizing Articles
  1. Categoriescategories
  2. Namespacesnamespaces
  3. Subpagessubpages
  4. Redirectsredirects
  5. Disambiguation Pages
  6. Renaming Articlesrenaming articlesarticlesrenaming
  7. Deleting Articlesarticlesdeletingdeleting articlesremoving an article
4. Chapter 7 Advanced Article Construction
  1. Maintaining a Consistent Wikiorganizing articlesarticlesorganizing
  2. Variablesvariablesindividual variable names
  3. Templates and Transclusiontemplatestransclusiontransclusiontemplatestemplatesparser functions; transclusion
  4. Logical Parser Functionsparser functionslogicallogical parser functions
  5. Dynamic Page ListDynamic Page ListextensionsDynamic Page List
  6. Recipes for Refactoringrefactoringtechniques
5. Chapter 8 Special Pages
  1. Maintenance Reports
  2. List of Pages
  3. Login/Sign Uplogging in
  4. Users and Rightsuser rightsspecial pages
  5. Recent Changes and Logsrecent changeslogs
  6. Media Reports and Uploadsuploaded filesspecial pages
  7. Wiki Data and Tools
  8. Redirects and Random Pages
  9. High-Use Pageshigh use pagesarticleshighly active
  10. Page Tools
  11. Other Special Pages
  12. Special Pages Grouped by Taskspecial pagesreference, grouped by task
Running and Administering MediaWiki
1. Chapter 9 Installing MediaWiki
  1. Before You Begin
  2. Installing the Prerequisites
  3. Installing MediaWikiinstalling MediaWikiMediaWikiinstalling
  4. Important Optional Featuresinstalling MediaWikioptional features
  5. A Tour of MediaWiki’s Filessource codelist of filesfiles in MediaWiki source codedirectories in MediaWiki source code
  6. Maintaining the Codesource codemaintenance
2. Chapter 10 Practical Wiki Design
  1. Adopting MediaWikiMediaWikilimitations
  2. Planninginstalling MediaWikiplanning
  3. Establishing Standardsstandards
  4. Governancegovernancewho’s in chargeownership of content
  5. Integrating with Other Websites
3. Chapter 11 Configuring MediaWiki: An Overview
  1. Administrative Roles
  2. Advanced Page Constructs
  3. Special Pages for Sysops and Bureaucratsspecial pagesrestricted
  4. System Messagessystem messages
  5. Cascading Stylesheetscascading stylesheets
  6. JavaScriptJavaScriptprogrammingJavaScriptsystem-wide
  7. Configuration Settingsconfiguration settingssettings by name, wg...global variablesPHPglobal variables
  8. Extensionsextensions
  9. Skinningskins
  10. SQL ProgrammingSQL programmingdatabaseSQL
  11. Maintenance Scriptsmaintenance scripts
4. Chapter 12 Controlling Wiki Features
  1. Usersusersconfiguring
  2. User Rights and Permissionsuser rightsaccess controluser rights
  3. Article Contentarticlesconfiguration settings
  4. Configuring the Editing of Articlesedit pageconfiguring
  5. Maintaining Articles
  6. Configuring Namespacesnamespacesconfiguring
  7. File Uploadsuploaded filesconfiguring
  8. Searchsearchconfiguring
  9. Special Page Listspecial pageslist of allreordering
  10. Database Configurationdatabaseconfiguration
  11. Email Configuration
  12. JavaScript ConfigurationJavaScriptconfiguring
  13. Logging and Debuggingloggingdebugging
5. Chapter 13 Changing Appearances
  1. The Basics
  2. Menusmenusconfiguring
  3. Search Boxsearch boxconfiguring
  4. Tables of Contentstable of contentsconfiguring
  5. External Link Appearanceexternal linksconfiguringexternal linksicon
  6. Page Creditsarticlescreditspage creditscreditsarticle authors
  7. Overall Look and Feel
  8. International Supportinternational supportlanguageconfiguring
6. Chapter 14 Installing Extensions
  1. Obtaining Extensionsextensionsfinding
  2. Installing an Extensionextensionsinstalling
  3. Recommended Extensionsextensionsrecommended
7. Chapter 15 Creating Extensions
  1. Overview of Extension Types
  2. Creating a Variableextensionscreatingvariablesvariablescreating
  3. Creating a Parser Functionextensionscreatingparser functionsparser functionscreating
  4. Creating a Tag Extensionextensionscreatingtag extensionstagscreatingextensionsHello World tag
  5. Behavior Changesbehavior changesextensionscreatingbehavior changes
  6. Creating a Special Pagespecial pagescreatingextensionscreatingspecial pages
  7. Useful Tasks for Extension Writers
  8. Creating a Skinextensionscreatingskinsskinscreating
  9. Publishing an Extensionextensionspublishing
  10. Other Extension Topics
  11. Finding a MediaWiki Programmerextensionshiring a programmer
8. Chapter 16 Wiki Administration
  1. Maintenance Scriptsmaintenance scriptsscripts by namescriptsmaintenance scripts
  2. Backupsbackups
  3. UpgradesMediaWikiupgradingupgrading MediaWiki
  4. Read-Only Wikiread-only wikiwrite-protected wiki
  5. Performance and ScalingMediaWikiperformanceMediaWikiscaling
  6. SecuritysecurityMediaWikisecurity
  7. VandalismVandalismspam
  8. Common Maintenance Tasks
  9. For More Information

Colophon

Title:

MediaWiki

By:

Daniel J. Barrett

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Ebook
Safari Books Online

Print:

October 2008

Ebook:

October 2008

Pages:

384

Print ISBN:

978-0-596-51979-7

| ISBN 10:

0-596-51979-6

Ebook ISBN:

978-0-596-15655-8

| ISBN 10:

0-596-15655-3

Colophon

The animals on the cover of MediaWiki are mimic butterflies. Several speciesof butterflies mimic other butterflies to protect themselves from predators orto gain an advantage over other insects.

Mimic butterflies often employ two types of mimicry: nonpoisonous (Batesianmimicry) and poisonous (M llerian mimicry). Because predators will becomesick (or, in some cases, die) after eating a poisonous insect, nonpoisonousbutterflies benefit from mimicking their poisonous look-alikes. However, anadvantage of poisonous mimicry is that fewer overall insects die as predatorsbecome skilled at avoiding both poisonous species.

For instance, the Ash Borer (Podosesia syringae) has markings that look strikingly like those of the paper wasp (Polistes fuscatus). As such, potential predators steer clear from the Ash Borer for fear of being stung, even though the butterfly has no ability to sting. The Queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus) is perhaps doubly protected, as it is poisonous, just like its twin, the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus).

Some would also call the mimic butterfly a trickster. As a caterpillar, the Bluebutterfly (Everes comyntas) will secrete skin molecules that are nearly identical to those of the fire ant. After secretion, an adult fire ant will usually find the butterfly and "adopt" it, bringing the larva back to its home, where it feeds thecaterpillar until it is able to turn into a butterfly. The Blue butterfly repays theant's kindness by eating the majority of its available food and also by devouringthe ant's young.

The cover image is is from Lydekker's Library of Natural History. The coverfont is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSansMonoCondensed.

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Customer Reviews

REVIEW SNAPSHOT®

by PowerReviews

oreilly MediaWiki

4.0

(based on 3 reviews)

Reviews

Reviewed by 3 customers

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Displaying reviews 1-3

12/15/2009

4.0

First Book of MediaWiki

By Harry Computer Guy

from Scott AFB, IL

About Me Sys Admin

Pros

Accurate
Easy to understand
Helpful examples
Well-written

Cons

Need for 2nd Edition

Best Uses

Intermediate
Novice
Serious Hobbyist

Comments about oreilly MediaWiki:

The first to book to read while starting your wiki. Great information on getting the wiki stood up for it to be useful at start. This book is so useful, I believe that every wiki forum should have a link to O'Reilly to get his book. Every time I stand up a wiki for work, I scribble the extra notes into this book to make it even more concise as the wiki flavors change. Thank You for a nice reference, "how-to", and build guide for wiki work.

7/6/2009

(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

4.0

Easy to reference

By Jim McKeeth

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly MediaWiki:

I setup a small Wiki for a small group and it didn't take long before I was getting spam faster then I could clean it out. I picked up this book to look for a solution. Before I had a chance to look at it my wife asked me to go take care of something for her, so I tossed her the book and asked her to find a way to prevent anonymous users from leaving spam.

I love my wife, but she is not very technical and I didn't really expect her to find a solution, but thought it was amusing to leave that task for her. Before I left the room she had found the solution and told me what I need to do to fix it. I almost didn't believe here, but sure enough it had exactly what I needed and spelled out exactly how to do it.

I made the change when I got back and it worked like a charm. I really don't know what else I could look for in a book: Easy to find what I needed and exact details on how to do it.

5/26/2009

4.0

A Helpful Tool For Administrators...

By Habatchii Tsunamii

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly MediaWiki:

This book is a very helpful tool in highlighting the basics of MediaWiki and its many different extension options.

It certainly would increase any site administrator's capability greatly, as well as helping to produce web-worthy material using the MediaWiki application.

Major Features:

Many different personalized approaches to the MediaWiki application, plus walkthrough examples on how to create your own pages and markup.

Shortcoming:

It does not have any quiz or exam features, so I could not suggest it for educational purposes.

Buy the book...