Jonny at 23:20, 25 March 2021

2021-03-25T23:20:58Z

76.105.134.169: Created page with "== Preliminaries == You'll need a domain! and a server! Rather than hosting yourself, renting hosting is recommended because they're much less likely to accidentally start us..."

2021-03-25T22:10:16Z

Created page with "== Preliminaries == You'll need a domain! and a server! Rather than hosting yourself, renting hosting is recommended because they're much less likely to accidentally start us..."

New page

== Preliminaries ==

You'll need a domain! and a server! Rather than hosting yourself, renting hosting is recommended because they're much less likely to accidentally start using the server computer for casual data analysis and end up overwriting all the system libraries trying to install python or something.

Hosting services that provide some administration frontend like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPanel cPanel] are also recommended, as they implement most of the major things you'd want from a server (backups, etc.) and make it so non-programmers can administer the server in case the One Person who knows how to do so leaves the lab

== Installing Mediawiki ==

Mediawiki is a massive project, and have extensive documentation for [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents usage] and [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Installation_guide installation] and everything else. if you google "mediawiki x thing" you will probably find a guide on how to do x thing

There are a few options for installing mediawiki

* '''Automated''' -- if you are using a host with cPanel, use the software installation tool (something like "installatron" or "softaculous" or whatever your version uses), point it at a domain (or subdomain) and let it do the work
* '''Containerized''' -- Follow the instructions to use the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki-Docker MediaWiki-Docker] images
* '''Manual''' -- Follow the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Installation_guide#Manual_installation manual installation] guide ([https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Installation_requirements requirements], [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Installing_MediaWiki full guide]

If all goes well your wiki should be active! Mediawiki consists of some static php files that are the programmatic implementation of the wiki in whatever directory your server is serving the page from (eg. apache servers will have some /var/www/http/wiki folder), as well as a SQL database for storing page content.

== Extensions ==

The base mediawiki installation is pretty barebones, so install some basic extensions to ~ expand our user experience ~

The documentation for how to install each can be found at its wiki page!

* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmAccount ConfirmAccount] - allow people to request accounts, confirmed by an administrator
* [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Installation/Quick_guide SemanticMediawiki] - the magic that makes the wiki computable, does templates, etc.
* [https://tweeki.kollabor.at/wiki/Installation Tweeki!!!] to make it look nice

== https ==

You should never have to pay for an https cert! Here's how to do it for free with [https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh acme]

* Get shell/ssh access to your server -- this will vary depending on your host.
* Download and install acme
: <pre>curl https://get.acme.sh | sh</pre>
* Issue a cert! (depending on whether acme was able to make an alias for itself, you might need to directly refer to the .sh file like <pre>./acme.sh</pre>). Note that we need to issue a certificate for the www. subdomain as well even though it's just a vestigial thing on the olde web
: <pre>acme.sh --issue -d example.com -d www.example.com -w /path/to/wiki/directory

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 If all goes well your wiki should be active! Mediawiki consists of some static php files that are the programmatic implementation of the wiki in whatever directory your server is serving the page from (eg. apache servers will have some /var/www/http/wiki folder), as well as a SQL database for storing page content.
 == Extensions ==
@@ Line 36: / Line 38: @@
 * Issue a cert! (depending on whether acme was able to make an alias for itself, you might need to directly refer to the .sh file like <pre>./acme.sh</pre>). Note that we need to issue a certificate for the www. subdomain as well even though it's just a vestigial thing on the olde web
 : <pre>acme.sh --issue -d example.com -d www.example.com -w /path/to/wiki/directory

Setting Up Mediawiki - Revision history

Jonny at 23:20, 25 March 2021

76.105.134.169: Created page with "== Preliminaries == You'll need a domain! and a server! Rather than hosting yourself, renting hosting is recommended because they're much less likely to accidentally start us..."