Help:Setting up an internal Wikimedia wiki

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Template:Merge Page recently constructed - needs linking to useful pages where people seeking input can find it.

As well as the public wikis, a number of private, internal wikis exist.

If you plan to set up an internal wiki, this page will give you a starting point how others have been organized.

Basics

  1. Get consensus - is this wiki really needed? What will it be used for? Has the relevant community, arbcom, or WMF body, that is responsible for the wiki, agreed to its creation?
  2. Request a wiki be set up. The route for this is via a request to Cary Bass.
  3. If the wiki needs special configuration when it is set up, then request that at the same time. Examples:
    • What abbreviation (URL) will it have? Discuss with Cary if needed.
    • Is it accessible via http:, https:, or both? (Usual config:- always via https: and most times by http:)
    • Who can read it?
    • Who can edit it?
    • Is account creation by approval only, or by anybody clicking on "create an account"?
    • Is email notification to be switched on? (usually yes)
    • Are any special namespaces required? (For example, OTRS Wiki might have a namespace for "Response:" and "Response_talk:")
    • Are any custom settings for upload needed - for example is upload disabled, or unusual file types allowed?
    • (See also: Help:Configuration)

Your wiki will have at least one bureaucrat account, that can be used to create sysops and other crats. It may also have both a normal (http:) and secure (https:) address. You will want to test that the basics of your wiki - log in; verify you have crat rights; verify the correct privacy setting and visibility exists; verify that upload works; verify that editing works. These all require setup at the server end, and once working will continue to work. (Initially some specialist formatting may not - see below.) You will also want to create accounts, and sysop/crat these as necessary.

Congratulations - you now have your wiki!

Wiki config

A new wiki is like a new house - walls, floors, doors, windows, nothing else. There are an infinite number of ways to set one up internally. Rather than reinventing the wheel, this page describes a setup that's been used before and works well. It contains markup you can cut/paste to create basic pages if needed. Feel free to customize it!

Note: Included in the attached information are instructions how to import the standard .js and .css configurations, to allow tables, and other customized wiki formatting you may be used to. Hence these are not repeated here. A number of variant pages for one very common use - internal arbcoms - are also described. Ignore these if they don't apply to you. The examples are geared to small, focussed wikis (arbcom, working groups, chapters, and the like). Last, if your wiki is not in English, you will need to translate any text you use.

Pages setup

See /Sample pages for copy-and-paste markup that works as of February 2008.

The same page also contains markup for useful documentation pages covering import of js and css, sidebar and main page handling, and so on.

Specialist formatting (CSS, JS)

The import of table classes and formats, and common JS (script) to work with these, will need importing. The above page contains wiki-markup for a documentation page that explains how to do this.

Main Page privacy

The official Main Page can be seen by anyone, as can any transcluded information templates. You also cannot delete revisions from it. Accordingly if your wiki is private, you should make your main page a "public" page for passers-by that points those with accounts on the wiki to a secondary main page (i.e. Portal)