Wikispooks:Site Backup

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Revision as of 01:55, 5 January 2014 by Robin (talk | contribs) (Include iFrame of the backups folder)
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Even if you are a casual reader and not a contributor to this project, you are encouraged to download and keep a backup copy (~2.7 GB) of this site in case of technical or other problems.

Site backups are published weekly to ensure that, should the site become unavailable for any reason, the information will not be lost - many people around the world will have a reasonably up to date version. The site is open licenced so you are free to copy the information and publish it elsewhere, either as an exact mirror or as part of another website.

Running A Copy Of The Site

To host Wikispooks on your machine, you will need:

  • Some knowledge of running a webserver
  • A recent site-backup. Get the latest backup from here (~2.5 GB), or browse the backups folder for earlier backups.
  • A computer with at least 5 Gb of free disk space that runs a web server, including
    • PHP v 5.3.2 +
    • MySQL v 5.0.2 +

N.B. Either WampServer or Xampp will be all the software you need to run the Wikispooks site locally.

The /backups folder contains:

  • readme.txt ~5 KB - Instructions (plain text version of this page)
  • wikispooks-YYYY-MM-DD.zip files ~2.7 GB - Dated weekly site backups (Just pick the latest one)
  • ws.sql ~900 MB - daily site Mysql database dump (This is also included in the backup zip files)

Basic Instructions

  • Unzip the wikispooks backup file to a web server root directory.
  • Create a new blank MySQL database
  • Locate the backups/ws.sql for restoring the Wikispooks MySQL database
  • Create a dedicated database user with full privilages; note this username and password.
  • Import the ws.sql database dump into the new database.
    • N.B. The file is too large for a default configuration of phpMyAdmin to handle. Try a MySQL command for this, e.g.
$ mysql -u username -p password -h localhost data-base-name < ws.sql

Modifying LocalSettings.php

If things don't go smoothly, adding the following lines to LocalSettings.php will give you some diagnostic output:

$wgShowExceptionDetails = true;
$wgShowSQLErrors = 1;

It's recommended to take these lines out once things are working OK.

You will have to edit the LocalSettings.php file since the LocalSettings.passwords.php file which it includes is omitted from the backup for security reasons. The simplest way to get your system working is to read the notes at the top of LocalSettings.php, and amend it with the access credentials above to fit your database.

Using the Default MediaWiki Setup

If you experience trouble with the above method, you can try the (slightly longer) standard Mediawiki setup procedure. To use this, rename LocalSettings.php LocalSettings.php.backup and then browse to the site and follow instructions. Mediawiki will create a blank database and a matching '.../w/LocalSettings.php' file to allow access. You will then need to modify:

  1. The database - import from the SQL dump at backups/ws.sql whicih will add the pages to the Wiki
  2. The basic LocalSettings.php file to include the required extensions and other site configuration. There are many Mediawiki extensions in use on the site (including 'Widgets', 'Semantic MediaWiki', 'Semantic Forms', 'News', 'DynamicPageList' & 'Category Tree') which are fundamental to the proper display and operation of the site. These are all included and correctly configured in the backup, but must be included from the LocalSettings.php file to be made operational.

Finishing Touches

The procedure as explained above is sufficient for the database and all the files. There will be a number of Apache config parameters that need setting in order for 'pretty URLs' to work properly, such as a .htaccess file. Full details can be found on the Mediawiki web site.

Running A Live Site Mirror

If you have interest and resources to set up a realtime site mirror on your server, you are encouraged to do so. We may also be able to provide you with some technical assistance if needed. Requests for help setting up realtime mirrors should be addressed to admin[at]wikispooks.org and encrypted with this key.

Notes

The following items are not included in the backup:

Known Issues

  • Many of the in-text links (especially on 'Category:IFrame' pages) will take you to the master Wikispooks site. This is because urls which ought to be coded as relative, have in fact been entered as absolute urls. It is easy to manually change any such url's in your browser address-bar at run time (simply replace 'https://wikispooks.com/' with 'localhost/your_root_dir_name/'. This issue will be addressed at source as and when.
  • Suggestions, Queries etc? - Either Email the admin (non-WikiSpooks members) or use this discussion page (WikiSpooks members)
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