MediaWiki

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MediaWiki (hereinafter, the Software) is a free and open-source wiki software. The Software was originally developed for Wikipedia, but now the Software runs on many websites and has become the dominant software in its category. The Software is written in the PHP programming language and stores the contents into a set of databases.

The software is optimized to efficiently handle large projects, which can have terabytes of content and hundreds of thousands of hits per second. According to MediaWiki, achieving scalability through multiple layers of caching and database replication has been a major concern for developers. The software has more than 900 configuration settings and more than 1,900 extensions available for enabling various features to be added or changed.

On Wikipedia alone, more than 1000 automated and semi-automated bots and other tools have been developed to assist in editing. It has also been deployed by some companies as an internal knowledge management system, and some educators have assigned students to use the Software for collaborative group projects.


Permitted user roles

System-user roles are specific access and ability permissions that can be assigned to customizable user groups.

Any user

Any user (including anonymous) is permitted to use the following functions in the version of the Software that is used for Educaship MediaWiki.
Category Right Description User groups that have this right
Reading read When set to false, override for specific pages with WhitelistRead *, user
Editing createaccount createaccount - register / registration *, sysop
createpage createpage - requires the edit right *, user
createtalk createtalk - requires the edit right *, user
edit edit *, user
Management editmyoptions editmyoptions *
editmyprivateinfo editmyprivateinfo *
editmyusercss editmyusercss *
editmyuserjs editmyuserjs *
editmywatchlist editmywatchlist *
viewmyprivateinfo viewmyprivateinfo *
viewmywatchlist viewmywatchlist *
Technical writeapi writeapi *, user, bot

Registered user

Any user with his or her registered account, when he or she is identified, is permitted to use the following functions in the version of the Software that is used for Educaship MediaWiki.
Category Right Description User groups that have this right
Reading read When set to false, override for specific pages with WhitelistRead *, user
Editing applychangetags applychangetags user
createpage requires the edit right *, user
createtalk requires the edit right *, user
edit edit *, user
upload requires the edit right user, sysop
reupload requires the upload right user, sysop
reupload-shared (if one is set up) with local files (requires the upload right) user, sysop
sendemail sendemail user
Management changetags changetags - currently unused by extensions user
editmyuserjson editmyuserjson user
Technical minoredit minoredit user
purge purge - URL parameter user
writeapi writeapi *, user, bot

Autoconfirmed

Any user with his or her registered account, when he or she is identified, (1) confirmed that his or her age confirms requirements established by the Software and has at least as many edits as established by the Software, is permitted to use the following functions in the version of the Software that is used for CNM MediaWiki.
Category Right Description User groups that have this right
Editing editsemiprotected editsemiprotected - without cascading protection autoconfirmed, sysop
Technical autoconfirmed autoconfirmed - used for the 'autoconfirmed' group, see the other table below for more information autoconfirmed, bot, sysop

Bot

accounts with the bot right (intended for automated scripts). |autoconfirmed, autopatrol, apihighlimits, bot, editsemiprotected, nominornewtalk, suppressredirect, writeapi

Category Right Description User groups that have this right
Administration autopatrol $wgUseRCPatrol must be true bot, sysop
Technical apihighlimits apihighlimits bot, sysop
autoconfirmed used for the 'autoconfirmed' group, see the other table below for more information autoconfirmed, bot, sysop
bot bot - can optionally be viewed bot
nominornewtalk nominornewtalk - requires minor edit right bot
suppressredirect suppressredirect bot, sysop
writeapi writeapi *, user, bot

Sysop

users who by default can delete and restore pages, block and unblock users, et cetera.

Category Right Description User groups that have this right
Editing editprotected editprotected - without cascading protection sysop
editsemiprotected editsemiprotected - without cascading protection autoconfirmed, sysop
createaccount createaccount - register / registration *, sysop
move requires the edit right sysop
move-categorypages requires the move right sysop
move-rootuserpages requires the move right sysop
move-subpages requires the move right sysop
movefile requires the move right and $wgAllowImageMoving to be true sysop
upload upload - requires the edit right user, sysop
upload_by_url upload_by_url - requires the upload right sysop
reupload reupload - requires the upload right user, sysop
reupload-shared reupload-shared - (if one is set up) with local files (requires the upload right) user, sysop
Management bigdelete bigdelete sysop
block Block options include preventing editing and registering new accounts, and autoblocking other users on the same IP address sysop
blockemail allows preventing use of the Emailuser interface when blocking sysop
browsearchive through Special:Undelete sysop
delete allows the deletion or undeletion of pages. For undeletions, there is now the 'undelete' right, see below sysop
deletedhistory deletedhistory sysop
deletedtext deletedtext sysop
editinterface contains interface messages sysop
markbotedits see Rollback sysop
mergehistory mergehistory sysop
patrol patrol - $wgUseRCPatrol must be true sysop
protect protect sysop
rollback rollback sysop
unblockself Without it, an administrator that has the capability to block cannot unblock themselves if blocked by another administrator sysop
undelete undelete sysop
editsitecss editsitecss sysop
editsitejs editsitejs sysop
Administration autopatrol $wgUseRCPatrol must be true bot, sysop
import transwiki sysop
importupload importupload sysop
managechangetags currently unused by extensions sysop
unwatchedpages lists pages that no user has watchlisted sysop
Technical apihighlimits apihighlimits bot, sysop
autoconfirmed used for the 'autoconfirmed' group, see the other table below for more information autoconfirmed, bot, sysop
ipblock-exempt ipblock-exempt sysop
noratelimit not affected by rate limits sysop, bureaucrat
suppressredirect suppressredirect bot, sysop

Bureaucrat

Users who by default can change other users' rights.

Category Right Description User groups that have this right
Management userrights Allows the assignment or removal of all* groups to any user. With $wgAddGroups and $wgRemoveGroups, you can set the possibility to add/remove certain groups instead of all bureaucrat
Administration noratelimit Not affected by rate limits sysop, bureaucrat

Legacy functions and roles

Category Right Description User groups that have this right
Editing autocreateaccount a more limited version of createaccount
reupload-own requires the upload right (note that this is not needed if the group already has the reupload right)
Management deletelogentry allows deleting/undeleting information (action text, summary, user who made the action) of specific log entries (not available by default)
editcontentmodel editcontentmodel
editsitejson editsitejson interface-admin
edituserjson edituserjson interface-admin
hideuser (not available by default) Only users with 1000 edits or less can be suppressed by default. Use HideUserContribLimit to disable.
pagelang $wgPageLanguageUseDB must be true
patrolmarks patrolmarks
suppressionlog suppressionlog
suppressrevision (not available by default)
userrights-interwiki userrights-interwiki
viewsuppressed i.e. a more narrow alternative to "suppressrevision" (not available by default)
Administration siteadmin which blocks all interactions with the web site except viewing. Disabled by default

Fuctional features

Version control

The Software includes its own version control system.

Security

As any open-source software, the Wiki is vulnerable to external attacks:

Getting started

See also

Related lectures