How to Install and Use Mediawiki on Your Joomla Website

MediaWiki is an open-source, web-based wiki application. This is the content management system (CMS) that runs Wikipedia, one of the World Wide Web's largest traffic-generating websites ever. MediaWiki enables you to edit and check web pages online instantly, rather than use an FTP client to manage the files. It also makes it possible for a number of people to work collaboratively on the same project, adding data and editing the wiki pages. While MediaWiki cannot be integrated into the Joomla content management system, (it is a CMS in its own right), you can still install and use it on your Joomla website.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Open a wiki hosting account at a wiki farm or other wiki hosting service (See Resources below). With the wiki hosting account opened, begin the installation by downloading the MediaWiki application from the official MediaWiki website (See Resources below).
2. Use an FTP client to upload the downloaded file into your wiki hosting account. Use your cPanel account to create a new database. Choose a username and password for the new database.
3. Open your website by navigating to www.mydomainname.com/mediawikidirectory. If you uploaded the files directly into your public_html folder, navigate to www.mydomainname.com.
4. Fill in the information required once you open your wiki website.
   
   

   * Under "Site Name," enter your website's name.
   

   * In the "Contact e-mail" field, put in your preferred email address.
   

   * Choose the language that you want MediaWiki installed in.
   

   * In the "Sysop account name and password," enter the required administrative login details.

5. Move on to the next page, where you will configure your database. Here's how:
   

   * Type "localhost" under MySQL server
   

   * In the "Database Name" field, enter the name of your database.
   

   * Enter your username and password in their respective fields.
   

   * Type in "mx_" in "Database table prefix."
   

   * Don't alter the "Database charset."
   

   * Leave "DB root password" blank.

6. Click on "Install" to start installation. At the end of the installation, you'll be prompted to move the "config/LocalSettings.php" file into the parent directory. You can get this done using your cPanel's File Manager or FTP client.

Tips & Warnings

• Since MediaWiki is MySQL-compatible, you can actually upload a pre-existing database into your wiki.
• A wiki farms is a server or a number of servers that offer hosting for a wiki.