Mediawiki

Installation

This assumes Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, the new Mediawiki LTS version 1.35 and a passing familiarity with Git. First, some prerequisites:

apt-get install git apache2 libapache2-mod-php7.4 php7.4-curl php7.4-mysql curl

Now clone Mediawiki with git:

git clone https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/source/mediawiki.git

Next, we need to pull in PHP library dependencies with PHP composer. First install composer from the download page, then use it to pull dependencies into MediaWiki:

cd mediawiki
composer install --no-dev

This assumes a production instance; if this is a developer instance and you need debugging tools, leave off the no-dev option.

Managing skins and extensions

MediaWiki has two directories for these: skins and extensions. There are several ways to manage them, but to keep things simple either:

1. manually download the skins and extensions you need from the Mediawiki Skin and Extension Distributor pages and unzip them into the codebase, or
2. manage skins and extensions using git submodules, sourced from the upstream git repositories.

Let's do the second way because it's easier to automate later, and some formerly built-in skins and extensions are already set up this way. Of these, you'll need the default Vector skin right off the bat, and you might like to switch to the Timeless skin, which is responsive and a lot more mobile-friendly:

git submodule update --init --recursive skins/Vector skins/Timeless

Now when we want an extension, say the Cite extension, we add the git submodule:

git submodule add -b REL1_35 https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/Cite extensions/Cite
git submodule update --init --recursive extensions/Cite

Enable the skins and extensions requires editing the LocalSettings.php file, for example:

$wgDefaultSkin = 'Timeless';
wfLoadSkin('Timeless');
wfLoadExtension('Cite');

You should now be able to point Apache at the mediawiki directory and install it using the browser; you will probably need to set up a PostgreSQL or MySQL database and user first.

Visual Editor

Install Parsoid

Parsoid is a small Node.js REST service that parses between MediaWiki syntax and HTML DOM. Add the apt repository:

apt-key advanced --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 90E9F83F22250DD7
apt-add-repository 'deb https://releases.wikimedia.org/debian jessie-mediawiki main'
apt-get update

Then install and configure Parsoid:

apt-get install parsoid
vi /etc/mediawiki/parsoid/config.yaml  # change URL to point to installed api.php

Example config.yaml looks like:

worker_heartbeat_timeout: 300000
logging:
  level: info
services:
  - module: ../src/lib/index.js
    entrypoint: apiServiceWorker
    conf:
      useSelser: true
      mwApis:
      -
        uri: 'https://yourwiki.example.com/w/api.php'
        domain: yourwiki.example.com

Install the required MediaWiki extensions

Install the Visual Editor extension and its dependent extension (UniversalLanguageSelector):

git submodule add -b REL1_35 https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor extensions/VisualEditor
git submodule add -b REL1_35 https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/UniversalLanguageSelector extensions/UniversalLanguageSelector
git submodule update --init --recursive extensions/VisualEditor extensions/UniversalLanguageSelector

Then edit LocalSettings.php and add this at the bottom:

wfLoadExtension('UniversalLanguageSelector');
wfLoadExtension('VisualEditor.php');

# VisualEditor extension configuration
$wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-enable'] = 1;
$wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-editor'] = "visualeditor";
$wgSessionsInObjectCache = true;
$wgVisualEditorAvailableNamespaces = [
  NS_MAIN => true,
  NS_USER => true,
  NS_TEMPLATE => false,
  "_merge_strategy" => "array_plus",
];

# VisualEditor connection to the parsoid service
$wgVirtualRestConfig['modules']['parsoid'] = [
  'url' => 'http://localhost:8142',
  'domain' => 'your.wiki.nz',
  'forwardCookies' => true,
];

Caching

PHP opcache

Like any PHP application, use the opcache. If your PHP version is < 5.5 install php5-xcache, otherwise enable the built-in opcache by adding this in php.ini:

[opcache]
opcache.enable=1
opcache.enable_cli=1
opcache.memory_consumption=128
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
opcache.max_accelerated_files=4000
opcache.use_cwd=1
opcache.validate_timestamps=1
opcache.revalidate_freq=0
opcache.fast_shutdown=0

MediaWiki file cache

Use the file cache, Luke. It's simple but effective. In LocalSettings.php:

$wgUseFileCache = true;
$wgFileCacheDirectory = "/var/cache/mediawiki";
$wgShowIPinHeader = false; 

And create the appropriate cache directory:

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/mediawiki
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/cache/mediawiki

Upgrading

Whenever the base code is updated, we need to make sure that PHP dependencies, skins, extensions and the database schema are all updated too. It looks a bit like this:

# after updating code, or moving to a new release:
composer update --no-dev
git submodule update --init --recursive
sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php maintenance/update.php
# (look for any new updateXXX.php commands in the maintenance directory) 

Given that Wikipedia itself runs on this code, you can bet upgrades have been tested up the waazoo, so this runs very reliably.

Troubleshooting

1. Having 'file:' in your $wgUrlProtocols is not just bad, it will clobber all your [[File:whatever.jpg]] images.