MediaWiki Software Engine

A MediaWiki Software Engine is a Wiki engine that renders text written in MediaWiki Markup Language to a web browser.

• Context:
  • It can (typically) be a component of a MediaWiki Wiki Platform.
  • It can (typically) include an RDBMS.
  • It can drive a MediaWiki-based Wiki, such as: Wikipedia (and other Wikimedia projects), and GM-RKB Wiki.
  • It can support MediaWiki Server Namespaces, such as a MediaWiki Server Special Namespace.
  • It can provide MediaWiki Action API for programmatic access to wiki features and wiki content.
  • It can support API Authentication through login tokens and session management.
  • It can enable API Content Operations like page editing, file uploads, and content parsing.
  • It can handle API Query types including property querys, list querys, and meta querys.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • MediaWiki Versions, such as:
    • MediaWiki LTS Versions, such as:
      • MediaWiki 1.39 LTS.
      • MediaWiki 1.35 LTS [1] REL1_35 2020-07-25 (support until 2023-09).
    • MediaWiki Stable Versions, such as:
      • MediaWiki 1.42 for latest features.
      • MediaWiki 1.41 for current stability.
  • MediaWiki Components, such as:
    • MediaWiki API Components, such as:
      • MediaWiki Action API for programmatic interface.
      • MediaWiki REST API for modern access patterns.
  • Historical Versions, such as:
    • MediaWiki 1.31 LTS from 2018-04-17.
    • MediaWiki 1.27 LTS from 2016-05-31.
    • MediaWiki 1.23 LTS from 2014-04-14.
    • MediaWiki 1.19 LTS from 2012-02-09.
    • MediaWiki 1.10 from 2007-04-30.
    • MediaWiki 1.7 from 2006-07-06.
    • MediaWiki 1.5 from 2005-07-31.
    • MediaWiki 1.3 from 2004-05-22.
    • MediaWiki 1.1 from 2003-12-08.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Static Site Generator, which lacks dynamic content generation.
  • Content Management System, which lacks wiki-specific features.
  • Document Management System, which lacks collaborative editing.
  • Web Application Framework, which lacks wiki markup processing.
  • Semantic MediaWiki, which adds semantic extensions.
  • UseModWiki, which uses different markup syntax.
  • TikiWiki, which has different architectural approach.
  • LaTeX Compiler, which serves different document processing purpose.
• See: Browser Rendering Engine, WikiText, Wikimedia Meta-Wiki.

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References

2024-12-23

• Perplexity.ai
  • Question: What are the key features, capabilities and use cases of MediaWiki? Include information about its core features, extensions, user interface, internationalization, version history and common use cases.
  • Answer: A MediaWiki is a powerful and feature-rich wiki software engine that renders text written in MediaWiki markup language to web browsers, serving as the foundation for Wikipedia and many other wiki-based websites.
    • Core Features:
      • Markup Language:
        • Uses wikitext format for page editing without requiring HTML or CSS knowledge.
      • Database Features:
        • Optimized for large-scale projects.
        • Stores content in databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite.
      • Caching System:
        • Implements parser caching and output caching.
        • Reduces server load and improves performance.
      • Version Control:
        • Stores all article revisions.
        • Enables easy reverts and change tracking.
      • Namespace Organization:
        • Separates articles from discussion pages.
        • Includes user pages and other content types.
    • Multimedia and Extensions:
      • File Management:
        • Supports file uploads and media management.
        • Provides automatic image resizing and captioning.
      • Mathematical Features:
        • Math rendering using LaTeX syntax.
      • Extension System:
        • Includes hieroglyph extensions (WikiHiero).
        • Supports chart creation.
    • Interface Features:
      • Skin System:
        • Different visual themes for interface customization.
      • User Styling:
        • Custom CSS for individual users.
      • Responsive Design:
        • Supports layouts for various device sizes.
    • Internationalization Features:
      • Language Support:
        • Interface available in over 400 languages.
      • Translation Tools:
        • Built-in content translation.
        • Localization features.
    • Version Information:
      • Current versions (as of 2024-06-27):
        • Stable: 1.42.x
        • LTS: 1.39.x (from 2022-11-30)
        • First release: 1.1 (2003-12-08)
    • Use Cases:
      • Applications:
        • Collaborative documentation.
        • Knowledge bases.
        • Corporate intranets.
        • Educational resources.
        • Research wikis.
  • Citations:

[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:MediaWiki_feature_list
[2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:MediaWiki_architecture
[3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:What_is_MediaWiki%3F
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_version_history
[5] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:MediaWiki_feature_list/pl
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texvc
[7] https://wikimediafoundation.org/our-work/mediawiki/
[8] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Version_lifecycle
[9] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Feature_map
[10] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Layout_architecture_of_MediaWiki_pages

2020a

• (MediaWiki, 2020) ⇒ https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki Retrieved: 2020-01-26.
  • QUOTE: The MediaWiki software is used by tens of thousands of websites and thousands of companies and organizations. It powers Wikipedia and also this website. MediaWiki helps you collect and organize knowledge and make it available to people. It's powerful, multilingual, free and open, extensible, customizable, reliable, and free of charge.

2020b

• (Wikipedia, 2020) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki Retrieved:2020-1-26.
  • MediaWiki is a Free and open-source software|free and open-source wiki engine. It was developed for use on Wikipedia in 2002, and given the name "MediaWiki" in 2003 It remains in use on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites continue to define a large part of the requirement set for MediaWiki . MediaWiki was originally developed by Magnus Manske and improved by Lee Daniel Crocker . Its development has since then been coordinated by the Wikimedia Foundation.

    MediaWiki is written in the PHP programming language and stores all text content into a database. The software is optimized to efficiently handle large projects, which can have terabytes of content and hundreds of thousands of hits per second . Because Wikipedia is one of the world's largest websites, achieving scalability through multiple layers of caching and database replication has been a major concern for developers. Another major aspect of MediaWiki is its internationalization; its interface is available in more than 300 languages The software has more than 1,000 configuration settings and more than 1,800 extensions available for enabling various features to be added or changed .

    Besides its use on Wikimedia sites, MediaWiki has been used as a knowledge management and content management system on many thousands of websites, public and private, including the websites Fandom and wikiHow, and major internal installations like Intellipedia and Diplopedia.

2020c

• (Wikimedia, 2020) ⇒https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWikiRetrived:2020-01-26.
  • QUOTE: MediaWiki is wiki software, released under the GPL, that is used by Wikimedia projects and others. It is an implementation of a wiki, a content pool that anyone can freely edit. It is developed using Phabricator, our instance of Phacility's Phabricator.

     MediaWiki 1.31.1 is the latest stable version, and is recommended for third-party users. Those running their own servers should upgrade for security reasons. Special:Version shows what version a site is running. You can play around in the local Sandbox to see this version in action.

     MediaWiki 1.31.1 is available for download from MediaWiki.org, a site that is also responsible for the documentation of the software. MediaWiki 1.35.0-wmf.16 (d1b08c7) is currently running on all Wikimedia sites. Third-party users should probably not run the alpha/beta versions of MediaWiki on publicly accessible servers at this time.

2020d

• (Melli et al., 2020) ⇒ Gabor Melli, Abdelrhman Eldallal, Bassim Lazem, and Olga Moreira. (2020). “GM-RKB WikiText Error Correction Task and Baselines.”. In: Proceedings of LREC 2020 (LREC-2020).
  • QUOTE: Similar to the creation of websites in the early days of the Web; when websites content was crafted with HTML code by hand than transformed by a browser rendering engine into webpages, wikis content is created using WikiText (Dohrn & Riehle, 2011) written and edited predominantly by humans than parsed and rendered by a wiki engine (Dohrn & Riehle, 2011, Junghans et. al, 2008). WikiText is a simplified markup language that facilitates annotation of text documents. To create an internal link between annotated words (concept mentions) and a target wiki pages in Mediawiki markup, the editor simply needs to use double square brackets ("[[" and "]]"). For instance,
    A [[Character-Level Seq2Seq Training Algorithm|character-level seq2seq algorithm]] is a [[seq2seq algorithm]] that is a [[character-level NNet algorithm]]."

    tells the wiki engine to create a wikilink between the concept mentions character-level seq2seq algorithm, seq2seq algorithm, and character-level NNet algorithm to the corresponding wiki entries.

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