Manual:FAQ

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Installation and configuration

Where do I download MediaWiki?

The latest stable release of MediaWiki can be downloaded from download.wikimedia.org. Files are supplied in a .tar.gz archive. MediaWiki can also be obtained direct from our Subversion repository. See also Download

How do I install MediaWiki?

Installing MediaWiki takes between 10 and 30 minutes, and involves uploading/copying files, and running the installer script to configure the software - see Installation.

Full instructions can be found in the INSTALL file supplied in the distribution archive.

How do I install MediaWiki using a package?

Many Linux distributions provide MediaWiki in a packaged format for that distribution. The MediaWiki development team refers you to your Linux distribution for assistance with installing, configuring or using them. The individual communities & companies who maintain such packages should provide installation instructions.

Can I install more than one wiki on a server using MediaWiki?

It is possible to install more than one wiki on a server provided that:

• You use a different database for each wiki

OR

• You use a different database prefix for each wiki (for Postgres, you can achieve a similar effect by using different schemas and users)

For information on these options, see $wgDBname and $wgDBprefix respectively.

For information on setting up a wiki family, see Manual:Wiki family.

For information on an alternative way of setting up more than one wiki using the same server, database and source, see Steve Rumberg's (archived version) excellent expose and additional comments from users.

Does MediaWiki work with safe_mode enabled?

Yes, but only to a limited degree. See Safe mode.

Does MediaWiki require shell access?

Shell access (SSH access) is not required for installing MediaWiki, but it is highly recommended. Without shell access, it may even be difficult for you to get a backup of your wiki, or to upgrade to a new version. Some maintenance tasks will not be possible at all without shell access.

How do I install extensions?

See Manual:Extensions for information about installing extensions, as well as writing them. See the Extension Matrix and the Category:Extensions to find existing extensions.

How do I add extra namespaces?

To add a namespace, modify your LocalSettings.php file, and add namespaces via $wgExtraNamespaces. You can add the following code to add a "Portal" namespace, and its corresponding discussion namespace:

$wgExtraNamespaces = array(100 => "Portal", 101 => "Portal_talk");

Template:Note Be sure to add underscores instead of spaces, such as in Portal_talk. Otherwise, the namespace will not be declared properly!

How do I enable uploading?

File uploads are an often-used feature of MediaWiki, but are disabled by default in all current release versions. To enable them, first make the upload directory (default images) writable by the web server (chmod 777 or allow the Apache user to write to it, etc.) then set $wgEnableUploads to true in LocalSettings.php (i.e. "$wgEnableUploads = true;"). See Manual:Configuring file uploads for more information.

How do I enable embedded math formulas?

MediaWiki allows embedded math formulas via a helper program called texvc that uses LaTeX to render the formulas. See Manual:Math for setup instructions.

How do I purge a cached page?

To purge a cached page, such as when making changes to the navigation bar, add &action=purge to the end of the page's dynamic URL.

e.g. http://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=purge

or ?action=purge to the end of the page's short form URL:

e.g. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Main_Page?action=purge

See also: Manual:Purge, Manual:Parameters to index.php

How do I allow uploading of additional formats?

MediaWiki requires that allowed file upload formats are specified using the $wgFileExtensions configuration directive. Usually this directive is situated in LocalSettings.php in the root of your MediaWiki installation.

For example, to allow uploading of PDF files, add the following to LocalSettings.php: <source lang="php"> $wgFileExtensions[] = 'pdf'; </source>

Template:Note The syntax is different to allow uploading of more than one type of file. To do so, use an array as in the example below which will allow uploading of png, gif, jpg, jpeg, pdf, and txt files. <source lang="php"> $wgFileExtensions = array( 'png', 'gif', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'pdf', 'txt' ); </source>

See Manual:Configuring file uploads for more information.

"File is corrupt or has an invalid extension"

Some users have reported that after adding a file format to the allowed extensions list, an error is encountered. The text of the error is similar to the following:

The file is corrupt or has an incorrect extension. Please check the file and upload again.

Possible solutions:

• Set the value of $wgMimeDetectorCommand, e.g. under Unix or Linux, this would be

  $wgMimeDetectorCommand = "file --brief --mime";

• Compile/install the fileinfo PHP extension
  • Fedora - yum install php-pecl-Fileinfo

See Manual:Mime type detection for more information.

Initial user was not created by installer

Sometimes, the installer fails to create the default user, or the user table is lost for some reason. There are a couple of options for solving this:

maintenance/createAndPromote.php

• Make sure AdminSettings.php is set up (see AdminSettings.sample)
• Execute maintenance/createAndPromote.php from the shell

This will create a new user and promote them to an administrator. For help, run the script with the parameter --help.

Alter the database

• Register a new account using the regular method (Special:Userlogin).
• Check the user ID in Special:Preferences.
• Execute the following SQL statement against the database:
  • For MediaWiki 1.5 and later:
    INSERT INTO user_groups ( ug_user, ug_group ) VALUES ( <id>, 'bureaucrat' ), ( <id>, 'sysop' );
  • For MediaWiki 1.4:
    UPDATE user_rights SET ur_rights = 'sysop,bureaucrat' WHERE ur_user = <id>;
  • For MediaWiki 1.3 and older:
    UPDATE user SET user_rights = 'sysop,bureaucrat' WHERE user_id = <id>;

<id> above should be replaced with the appropriate user ID which you can see on the user's preference page

How do I reset a password?

You can use the maintenance/changePassword.php maintenance script to reset a user's password.

You have to run the script from the command line. In other words, log into the server where your wiki is installed, then open a command prompt. Go to the installation directory, then go to the maintenance subdirectory. Run the following command:

php changePassword.php --user=someuser --password=somepass

Where obviously "somepass" is changed to the password you want to set and "someuser" is changed to the user name as it is listed in the table "user".

You can also use the old way, by modifying the database directly. Assuming that $wgPasswordSalt is set to true (the default), you can use the following SQL query for MySQL:

<source lang="sql">

UPDATE user SET user_password = MD5(CONCAT(user_id, '-', 
  MD5('somepass'))) WHERE user_name = 'someuser';

</source> Where obviously "somepass" is changed to the password you want to set and "someuser" is changed to the user name as it is listed in the table "user".

Template:Note The user_id in the CONCAT string is a column name and is not meant to be replaced with 'someuser'

Template:Note If you obtain a 'dbname.user table does not exist' error, please check the LocalSettings.php file, and double-check the value for the $wgDBprefix variable. If that variable is not empty, try repeating the command, replacing $wgDBPrefix_user instead of user in the UPDATE clause of the SQL statement.

If using PostGreSQL, use this query instead: <source lang="sql">

 UPDATE mwuser SET user_password =
   md5(user_id || '-' || md5('somepass')) WHERE user_name='someuser';

</source>

You can also try the Password Reset extension.

How can I create Interwiki Links in my Wiki?

DB Expert Answer

If the external wiki you are interested is Wikipedia, and you wish to use the prefix "wp" to link to it (prefix "wikipedia" is the default interwiki prefix for Wikipedia, see Help:Interwiki linking for other defaults), run this SQL statement to modify the Interwiki table in your database: <source lang="sql">INSERT INTO interwiki (iw_prefix, iw_url, iw_local, iw_trans) VALUES ('wp', 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$1', '0', '0');</source> The $1 indicates the article name on the external wiki.

Typical-User Answer

In a graphical SQL program (i.e. PhpMyAdmin), go to the interwiki table. Choose the option to insert (a row). In the iw_prefix field, enter your desired interwiki prefix. In the iw_url field, enter the Base URL of the external wiki plus the text "$1" as mentioned in the DB Expert Answer above. iw_local and iw_trans have default values of zero (0). You may leave them as zero.

For more information, see Help:Interwiki linking

Easy Answer

Install the Special:Interwiki extension. You can then add and remove interwiki entries through the Special:Interwiki special page.

How do I make my base URLs shorter? (i.e. /wiki/Article_Name as opposed to /w/index.php?title=Article_Name)

See Manual:Short URL.

Is downloading and using all of MediaWiki.org free?

Yes, it is free in the sense of Free software. See Project:Copyrights for licensing issues regarding the written content of this site.

How do I administrate/manage user rights?

See Manual:User rights and Manual:User rights management for general information. See Manual:Preventing access for methods and strategies for restricting access.

How to restrict anonymous users from editing any page

• Set $wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false; at bottom of LocalSettings.php.

See Manual:Preventing access#Restrict anonymous editing for more information.

How to restrict anonymous users from reading any page

• Set $wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] = false; at bottom of LocalSettings.php.

See also Manual:$wgWhitelistRead. See Manual:Preventing access#Restrict viewing of all pages for more information.

How to I restrict account creation

• Set $wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false; at bottom of LocalSettings.php.

See Manual:Preventing access#Restrict account creation for more information.

Upgrading

Generic instructions on the upgrade process can be found in the UPGRADE file supplied with the software. See also Manual:Upgrading.

Changing the interface

How do I change the logo?

The logo that appears in the top left of each page is determined by the $wgLogo configuration line in the LocalSettings.php file.

There are two ways to change the logo:

Upload a picture with your wiki and use that address. This allows the photo to be replaced easily, so you may want to protect the page if you use this method.

Then add the $wgLogo line to LocalSettings.php, for example:

$wgLogo = 'http://yourwiki.org/wiki/images/6/62/photoname.jpg'; 

Or uploaded an image to your server by other means (such as FTP). Add the $wgLogo line to LocalSettings.php, for example:

$wgLogo = 'photoname.jpg'; 

In this example, the photo is in the same folder as the LocalSettings.php file.

It is generally a good idea to place this at the end of LocalSettings.php (before the ?> however), especially if you are using a variable such as $wgStylePath or $wgUploadPath.

Template:Caution It is possible to simply overwrite the default logo installed with MediaWiki (/skins/common/images/wiki.png), but this is strongly advised against, as an upgrade may end up overwriting it or change the default location of this file.

Tip: The logo image should be 135 x 135 pixels.

How do I customize the logo in the top left corner? Can I?

The logo is a portlet block without a pBody section. It is identified by the p-logo id. The background image is specified by the wgLogo variable, which is defined in /includes/DefaultSettings.php. This location is relative to the web server root and not the system root. Redefine this in /LocalSettings.php to change the image. If set wrong there will be no image on the page; check your web server error log and adjust accordingly. However the size of the p-logo will need to be big enough for the logo if it is not to be clipped. This is set in the stylesheet (Main.css in monobook), under the p-logo style, the default setting is:

<source lang="css">

1. p-logo {

   z-index: 3;
   position:absolute; /*needed to use z-index */
   top: 0;
   left: 0;
   height: 155px;
   width: 12em;
   overflow: visible;

} </source>

How do I customize the URL of the logo in the top left corner when you click it?

By default, clicking the logo takes you to the main page. If you want to change which page is the main page, edit MediaWiki:Mainpage. Or to make the link go to any arbitrary URL, for Monobook skin, edit Monobook.php and find and replace <?php echo htmlspecialchars($this->data['nav_urls']['mainpage']['href'])?> with the URL of your choice and replace <?php $this->msg('mainpage') ?> with the desired link title.

Reducing the size of the logo

Note that a tag is on top of the logo so if you are trying to reduce the size of the logo's portlet you will also need to change the #p-logo a and #p-logo a:hover rules. The default setting for these is: <source lang="css">

1. p-logo a,
2. p-logo a:hover {

  display: block;
  height: 200px;
  width: 12.2em;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: 35% 50% !important;
  text-decoration: none;

} </source>

This simple customization will re-define the size of all of them at once... <source lang="css">

1. p-logo,
2. p-logo a,
3. p-logo a:hover {

  height: 75px;

} </source> There is one more rule controlling the amount of space between the logo and first portlet in the side column - the padding on the top of #column-one. By default this is: <source lang="css">

1. column-one { padding-top: 160px; }

</source> If you want to remove the logo completely, comment out the wgLogo variable. Then set the column-one padding to a small value, such as 21: <source lang="css">

1. column-one { padding-top: 21px; }

</source>

You shouldn't edit the CSS file directly. You need go to <Your Wiki URL>?title=MediaWiki:Monobook.css. Hit edit and make your changes there. The content of MediaWiki:Monobook.css page always overrides the default main.css file's contents.

How do I change the icon in the browser's address line (favicon)?

• Simple upload your favicon.ico to the root of your domain/subdomain, make sure file name is in lower case and its name is favicon.ico
• Alternatively edit the $wgFavicon setting in LocalSettings.php and add $wgFavicon = "$wgScriptPath/path/to/your/favicon.ico";

See Manual:$wgFavicon for more details.

Tip: The favicon image should be either 16 x 16 pixels or 32 x 32 pixels.

Rewrite Rule

If you are using a rewrite rule in .htaccess to remove "index.php" from the URL, you will also need to add an exception for .ico files. Simply add the following rule to your .htaccess:

RewriteRule .*\.ico$ - [L]

This rule must appear before the index.php rule.

Case Sensitivity

When uploading the favicon file, be sure the filename is in lowercase. (That is, "favicon.ico", not "Favicon.ico".) A lot of servers (e.g., those on UNIX-like operating systems) will not be able to find the file unless its name is in lowercase.

How do I customize the navigation bar?

The contents of the navigation bar which appears to the left of each page using the Monobook skin are determined by the MediaWiki:Sidebar page there on your wiki. For information on customising these, please see Manual:Navigation bar.

How do I put a text message (sitenotice) on every page?

Put a text in the MediaWiki:Sitenotice page. It will be displayed on top of every article page.

How do I change which page is the main page?

By default, MediaWiki looks for a page with the title Main Page and serves this as the default page. This can be changed by altering the contents of MediaWiki:Mainpage to point to a different title. If this does not change the 'Main Page' link included on the sidebar at install time, edit MediaWiki:Sidebar.

How do I hide the main page title?

MediaWiki does not have a built-in option to hide the main page title (see bug 6129). Instead you must use JavaScript or CSS.

MediaWiki version before 1.9, solution to hide the main page title

Before MediaWiki 1.9, you have two options:

Apply the patch

You can manually apply the patch from r17119 to your copy of MediaWiki and use the solution for 1.9.

FIRST replace or add the lines in three files in the correct place as r17119 did:

• skins/monobook/Skin.php, add:

$a['class'] = 'ns-'.$wgTitle->getNamespace().'

'.($wgContLang->isRTL() ? "rtl" : "ltr").

' page-'.Sanitizer::escapeId( $wgTitle->getPrefixedText() );

• includes/SkinTemplate.php, add:

$tpl->set( 'pageclass', 'page-'.Sanitizer::escapeId( $wgTitle->getPrefixedText() ) );

• includes/MonoBook.php replace:

class="<?php $this->text('nsclass') ?> <?php $this->text('dir') ?>">

with:

class="mediawiki <?php $this->text('nsclass') ?> <?php $this->text('dir') ?> <?php $this->text('pageclass') ?>">

SECOND follow the instructions in #1.9 and above.

JavaScript solution

The following JavaScript may or may not work for your wiki (replace "Main Page" with the name of your main page if it differs). Add the code to your wiki's MediaWiki:Common.js or MediaWiki:Monobook.js (Monobook.js for older wikis, Common.js for newer wikis):

<source lang="javascript"> var isMainPage = (document.title.substr(0, document.title.lastIndexOf(" - ")) == "Main Page"); var isDiff = (document.location.search &&

                (document.location.search.indexOf("diff=") != -1 ||
                    document.location.search.indexOf("oldid=") != -1
                )
            );

if (isMainPage && !isDiff) {

   document.write('<style type="text/css">/*<![CDATA[*/ h1.firstHeading { display: none !important; } /*]]>*/</style>');

} </source>

Mediawiki version 1.9+, solution to hide the main page title

In 1.9 and above (or with the modified files above), you can use CSS to hide the main page title.

Add the following to the MediaWiki:Monobook.css (if you're using Monobook; otherwise add this to MediaWiki:Common.css to have it applied to all skins) on your wiki:

<source lang="css"> body.page-Main_Page h1.firstHeading { display:none; } </source>

Alternatively, you can replace "Main_Page" with another name, but with spaces replaced by underscores _ .

Troubleshooting

If this doesn't work, look at the HTML source code to find the correct class to replace "page-Main_Page" with:

<source lang="html4strict"> <body class="mediawiki ns-0 ltr page-Some_title"> </source>

If no such class exists, then you cannot use this feature. You may be using a custom or outdated skin.

Another option is to #REDIRECT from Main_Page to Our_Main_Page.

See also Wikipedia:Main Page alternatives.

How can I hide the table of contents?

The table of contents (TOC) is automatically shown once there are four or more headings in the article. The are multiple ways to hide it.

For one page

Place the magic word __NOTOC__ into the page markup.

For all pages

Add the following rule to MediaWiki:Common.css: <source lang="css">.toc, #toc { display: none; }</source>

Per user

Users can also opt to have the table of contents hidden. This is a user preference, set in Special:Preferences.

How do I change the interface text?

Interface text is altered using the MediaWiki namespace. For each deviation from the default in the site language there is a page MediaWiki:Englishmessagename, and for each deviation from the default in each other language a page MediaWiki:Englishmessagename/languagecode. (Since release 1.9 there are no pages for messages equal to the default.). On creation of a page the edit box autofills with the default. When creating a page to override the default it is useful to first save the default version, to allow diffs with it. See also Manual:System messages.

• For a list of system messages, see Special:Allmessages
• To switch off the MediaWiki namespace, see the $wgUseDatabaseMessages configuration setting
• To remove the Privacy policy or Disclaimers links at the bottom of each page, set the content of pages MediaWiki:Privacy or MediaWiki:Disclaimers respectively to a single minus sign.

How do I change the interface language?

To change the default interface language, alter the value of $wgLanguageCode in LocalSettings.php, e.g.

$wgLanguageCode = "fr";

How can I prevent editing by anonymous users?

The recommended method is by changing the value of the $wgGroupPermissions configuration option. Edit LocalSettings.php and add the line:

<source lang="php">$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;</source>

For more information on using this option, see the Preventing access page and Manual:User rights.

How do I remove the article/edit etc tabs for users who are not logged in?

Edit [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]] on your wiki, and add this:

#ca-edit { display: none; }

See the page source for the various #ca-* ids used in the content tabs.

Note: this will only work for MonoBook (the default skin), and doesn't actually stop people editing.

How do I add/remove tabs throughout my wiki?

For example, to remove the talk tab and then add a tab that always goes to the main page you would save this code in extensions/AR-Tabs.php: <source lang="php">

<?php
$wgHooks['SkinTemplateContentActions'][] = 'ReplaceTabs';
function ReplaceTabs ($content_actions) {  
    unset( $content_actions['talk'] );    //only this to remove an action
    $maintitle = Title::newFromText(wfMsg('mainpage') );
     $main_action['main'] = array(
       'class' => false or 'selected',    //if the tab should be highlighted
       'text' => wfMsg('sitetitle'),     //what the tab says
       'href' => $maintitle->getFullURL(),   //where it links to
     );
     $content_actions = array_merge( $main_action, $content_actions);   //add a new action
     return true;
}
?>

</source> and then add <source lang="php">require_once("extensions/AR-Tabs.php");</source> to the bottom of LocalSettings.php

How do I remove a tab on only one page?

This solution works in MediaWiki version 1.9 and above. In MediaWiki version 1.8 or below, first apply the above patch.

For example, to remove the Discussion (talk) page tab from the Main Page, on the MediaWiki:Monobook.css page add: <source lang="css"> .page-Main_Page #ca-talk { display: none !important; } </source>

To modify MediaWiki:Monobook.css you must have administrative privileges.

How do I remove a tab on all pages

This solution works in MediaWiki version 1.9 and above. In MediaWiki version 1.8 or below, first apply the above patch.

For example, to remove the Discussion (talk) page tab on all wikipages, on the MediaWiki:Monobook.css page add:

<source lang="css">

1. ca-talk { display:none!important; }

</source>

Other tabs to remove are #ca-history and #ca-viewsource. To modify MediaWiki:Monobook.css you must have administrative privileges.

How do I hide the section edit links for users who are not logged in?

1. The recommended method is by changing the value of the $wgDefaultUserOptions configuration option.
   Edit LocalSettings.php and add the line:
   <source lang="php">$wgDefaultUserOptions ['editsection'] = false;</source>
2. Alternatively you could manually edit each skin (e.g. MonoBook.php) and add this before </head>:

<source lang="php"> <?php if(!$this->data['loggedin']) { ?> <style> .editsection { display: none; } </style> <?php } ?> </source>

If you want to hide the links for all users including logged in users, instead edit monobook/main.css ('not recommended!) and add:

<source lang="css">.editsection { display: none; }</source>

Also see How can I prevent editing by anonymous users?

How do I remove the "Talk for this IP" link at the top right when $wgDisableAnonTalk is true?

Set $wgShowIPinHeader to false.

How do I remove the "Create an Account or Login" link at the top right of the screen?

In Monobook.php change this statement: <source lang="php">

 foreach($this->data['personal_urls'] as $key => $item) {

</source> to: <source lang="php">

foreach($this->data['personal_urls'] as $key => $item)  if($this->data['loggedin']==1) {

</source>

How do I change the footer?

To add or remove items from the footer on your MediaWiki page, you must edit the skin.

For example: if you go in to MonoBook.php (located by default in the skins folder) you will find the following code:

<source lang="php">

$footerlinks = array(
  'lastmod', 'viewcount', 'numberofwatchingusers', 'credits', 'copyright',
  'privacy', 'about', 'disclaimer', 'tagline',
 );

</source>

In the above you can simply add and remove items from the footer that you wish to appear in your footer. Remember the changes may not appear immediatly because of MediaWiki caches.

You can also customize the individual items by modifying certain pages or parameters:

• lastmod - edit MediaWiki:Lastmodifiedat (verison 1.8 and after) or MediaWiki:Lastmodified (version 1.7 and before). If $wgMaxCredits is enabled, then edit MediaWiki:Lastmodifiedatby (verison 1.8 and after) or MediaWiki:lastmodifiedby (version 1.7 and before). (6518)
• viewcount - edit MediaWiki:Viewcount
• numberofwatchingusers - edit MediaWiki:Number of watching users pageview. This only appears if you also add $wgPageShowWatchingUsers = true; to LocalSettings.php.
• copyright - edit MediaWiki:Copyright. The parameter $1 on that page is replaced with a link to the details of copyright for your wiki. In LocalSettings.php $wgRightsText for the link text and set either $wgRightsPage or $wgRightsUrl with the location of a wiki page or external URL.
• privacy - this is a link only. Edit MediaWiki:Privacy for the link text and MediaWiki:Privacypage for the wiki page to which to link.
• about - this is a link only. Edit MediaWiki:Aboutsite for the link text and MediaWiki:Aboutpage for the wiki page to which to link.
• disclaimer - this is a link only. Edit MediaWiki:Disclaimers for the link text and MediaWiki:Disclaimerpage for the wiki page to which to link.
• tagline - not currently used in the footer

See also: Footer, Manual:Skinning#Footer, Manual:Configuration settings#Copyright

Line breaks in footer

For line breaks in the footer, search for Content is available under in the MessagesEn.php and then put line breaks before and after so that it looks like '<br />Content is available under $1.<br />', It is valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional. NOTE: It would probably be better to just edit the system message (see Special pages) to add <br /> before and after the message.

How can I edit / remove the Powered by MediaWiki image in the footer?

You can hide the Powered by MediaWiki image by adding the following to your wiki's MediaWiki:Common.css: <source lang="css">

1. f-poweredbyico { display: none; }

</source>

If you want to remove it completely, you could alter /skins/MonoBook.php, which contains the following code that makes the Powered by MediaWiki image appear in the footer: <source lang="php"> <?php if($this->data['poweredbyico']) { ?>

</source> If you would like to remove this image completely, or edit the image, you must locate and edit poweredbyico. It is located in skins/common/images/ and the image is called poweredby_mediawiki_88x31.png.

If you're happy with the logo (or not) and simply want to change the destination link, the code is in getPoweredBy() function of includes\Skin.php. Just change the line $img = '<a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/"><img src="'.$url.'" alt="Powered by MediaWiki" /></a>'; to whatever.

How can I change what the <title> of each page is? Where do I make changes?

Most of the text that you want to change, can be found in the namespace of MediaWiki.

In order to change titles, texts, announcements and the such, go to Special:Allmessages, where you will see the text associated with the pages you wish to change. You need to log in as an administrator (like the one you made when you installed) to edit the protected entries in the MediaWiki namespace.

If you want to change the title in your browser, you need to edit MediaWiki:Pagetitle. Go there and edit it just like you would any other page in your wiki.

In recent versions of MediaWiki, MediaWiki:Pagetitle is $1 - {{SITENAME}} by default. If {{SITENAME}} is producing the wrong text for you, you need to set $wgSitename in your LocalSettings.php.

If $wgSitename is correct in LocalSettings.php but {{SITENAME}} is still wrong, it may be that you're using a user-contributed language file which incorrectly sets $wgSitename to a transliteration of "Wikipedia". Edit the language file to correct this. For example, the Hebrew language file is at languages/LanguageHe.php in your wiki directory.

Don't forget to clear your browser cache after you fix it.

How do I make external links open in a new window?

See Opening external links in a new window.

How can I suppress MediaWiki from formatting urls, tags, etc?

svn co <nowiki>http://somwhere.in.the.net/myproject/</nowiki>

svn co http://somewhere.in.the.net/myproject/

How can I force users to preview before they save?

To curb cursory negligence it may be desirable to disable the save button on the edit page, so users must preview first.

Here's how to reach that goal by only showing the save button on the preview page:

In /includes/EditPage.php, find (line number 1238 in MediaWiki 1.9.0, 1158 in MediaWiki 1.8.2): <source lang="php">

	{$buttons['save']}
	{$buttons['preview']}

	if ( $this->formtype == 'preview') {
		$wgOut->addHTML(
"{$buttons['save']}");
	}
	$wgOut->addHTML(
"{$buttons['preview']}

       "imageFile": "images/5/56/Button_big.png",  //image to be shown on the button (may be a full URL too), 22x22 pixels
       "speedTip": "big text",    //text shown in a tooltip when hovering the mouse over the button
       "tagOpen": "",        //the text to use to mark the beginning of the block
       "tagClose": "",      //the text to use to mark the end of the block (if any)
       "sampleText": "big text"   //the sample text to place inside the block

sed '/Importing/!s/\ [A-Z]\w*[a-z]\w*[A-Z]\w*[a-zA-Z]/\ \[\[&\]\] /g'
    ImportStage1.txt > ImportStage2.txt

sed 's/upload\:\w*\.\w*/http\:\/\/aberwiki\.org\/uploads\/& /g'
    ImportStage2.txt > ImportStage3.txt

mysql -u<mysqluser> -p<yourpass> <db name> < ImportStage3.txt

 -s, --sect=n     the root category section of the wiki
                    of the imported article (mandatory)
 -1, --header     include standard header (category hierarchy path & notice)
 -l, --link       link to actual file on the web site
 -f, --footer     include standard footer (article category)
 -R, --res[=p]    add restricted tag in the footer
                    as '{{<Res Param|Root Category> Restricted}}'  
                    (default=`$_opt_sect')

 -p, --php=fn     mediawiki import php script specification
 -r, --root=n     the root category name for the whole wiki site
 -m, --max=n      max_allowed_packet for mysqld to import
 -u, --user=n     wiki user used for the import
 -a, --arch=p     the root url that linked-to archive files based on

 echo ./path/to/file.ext | wiki_import.sh -1 -l -f -s 'Customer Support' -R