Rich Text Editors For MediaWiki Wikis

When users with a lesser degree of technical knowledge and understanding of markup languages get involved with Wikis and MediaWiki Wikis in particular they quite often get put off from actually doing any editing because of their unfamiliarity with the Wikitext markup language.

Although the Wikitext language was developed with the intention of being a lightweight markup language for its simplicity and ease of use when editing Wiki pages, it's still a markup language and as such takes time to learn.

As a result of this, large Wiki farms and in particular Wikia have incorporated Rich Text editors into their Wikis so that newer users can edit in an environment that they feel comfortable in.

I'm currently working on finding/developing a rich text editor suitable for my own Wiki. Below is a list of MediaWiki-compatible rich text editor extensions I've found so far.

• CKeditor - Previously known as FCKeditor, a modified version of this editor is currently being tested on most Wikia Wikis.
• Extension:FCKeditor (by Mafs) - An experimental rich text editor based off of an older version of CKeditor
• widgEditor A free, open source WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor designed to be used for relatively simple editing in rich text.

I'll update this list as and when I find new ones. If anyone knows of any more please do leave a link to them in the comments section and I'll add them to the list. :)

How To: Install The HotCat Gadget On Your Wiki

The HotCat gadget was originally developed for use on Wikimedia Commons but soon gained popularity on other Wikimedia Wikis including the English Wikipedia, this is where I first heard about this neat little gadget and have since enabled it for use on my own personal account on Wikipedia and installed a customized version of the script on my Wiki.

If you aren't already aware of what HotCat is or what it does, it's basically a tool designed to make adding categories to Wiki pages easier and quicker written in JavaScript (Originally by User:Magnus Manske).





There are 2(?) versions of HotCat currently available, the version currently used on Wikimedia Commons (Be warned, this page contains a lot of code) and the version I use on my Wiki, the version currently in use on the English Wikipedia.


Whichever version of HotCat you decide to install on your own Wiki, the installation method remains the same and just as dead-simple. Either click here and download the full script in .txt format or copy all the code directly from this page and paste it to the MediaWiki page: MediaWiki:Common.js, this will install HotCat for all users of your Wiki. Done!

How To: Monetize Your Wiki with Google's AdSense

A popular method of monetizing Wikis, and websites in general, is by adding Google's AdSense advertising units, which opens up the very common question: How do I add AdSense units to my Wiki? As far as I'm aware there is no *official* Google extension to allow the displaying of AdSense units (If you know of one please do leave a link in the comments to this post!) but there are several extensions available that do the job:

• Extension:AdSense (Currently contains vulnerabilities and not recommended)
• Extension:Google AdSense 2 (Recommended) [For MediaWiki Version 1.14 or newer]

To download Extension:Google Adsense 2 click here and download the compatible package for your MediaWiki version from the drop-down box. Once you've downloaded the package, unzip it and upload it to your Wiki's /extensions folder. Once uploaded copy the following code to the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

require_once( "$IP/extensions/GoogleAdSense/GoogleAdSense.php" );
$wgGoogleAdSenseClient = 'replace this with the client name';
$wgGoogleAdSenseSlot = 'replace this with the slot name';
$wgGoogleAdSenseID = 'replace this with your ID';

If installed correctly, the extension should appear on the Special:Version page on your Wiki.

Customizing MediaWiki: Random questions answered

What exactly is the LocalSettings.php file?

The LocalSettings.php file is the main configuration file for MediaWiki Wikis and is created during installation of the MediaWiki software.

How do I edit the LocalSettings file?

To edit the LocalSettings.php file you'll need a good PHP editor, however, do NOT edit this file with any text editor that adds byte order marks to files as you'll be more likely to break your Wiki before you customize it, in simple English (As this is what this Blog's all about after all... Don't edit the file with Notepad!) I personally use jEdit, it's free, versatile and gets the job done, however, there is also a list of PHP editors on Wikipedia.

How do I find and install extensions to the MediaWiki software?

Extensions can be found here by category on MediaWiki.org. A typical extension installation usually involves downloading the extension package and adding it to your /extensions folder followed by adding this code to your LocalSetting.php file:

require_once( "$IP/extensions/folder_name/extension_name.php" );

Generally speaking, most popular extensions are fairly well documented and have pretty specific installation instructions if the extension cannot be installed using the typical method mentioned above. Once installed correctly the extension will display under the "Installed extensions" section of the Special:Version page on your wiki.

How do you prevent an anonymous user's IP address from showing up next to the Log in / create account link?

This can be disabled by adding this code to your LocalSettings.php file:

$wgShowIPinHeader = false;

How do you prevent the view counter from showing up on pages?

You can completely remove the counters by adding:

$wgDisableCounters = true;

To your LocalSettings file.

How to Customize your Wiki's Sidebar

You can customize your Wiki's sidebar by editing the MediaWiki page MediaWiki:Sidebar.

Section headers

The Section headers you can see in the image to the left are created by adding * Name of section header to the MediaWiki sidebar page.

Links
Both internal and external links can be created by adding ** Page to link to or URL of an external siteLink to display.

Customizing your Sidebar further (Slightly more advanced)

There's an extension you can install on your Wiki that allows you to customize your Wiki's sidebar further on a per-page basis. Click here to go to the extension's page on MediaWiki.org