Peter Blaise says: GREAT challenge - multiple MySQL services ... MySQL offers to name itself as a service, and perhaps I can play with that
and
have 2 or more MySQLs running at the same time without bumping into
each
other...
Why would you need multiple mysql database servers running on the same system? If you need permission separation use separate databases in the server.
Thanks for confirming much of my experience. I've been building and crashing dozens of MediaWikis daily for months now (I've been at this since early February of this year). Though I imagine that I now know more than the average bear, especially those lucky ones who had no problems, I still don't really feel a lot smarter, and I can still go
a
whole day without any success, with half a dozen MediaWiki/Apache/MySQL/PHP/PHPMyAdmin installation attempts tried, deleted and rebooted from!
It sounds to me like you aren't a sysadmin... I hope.
I got MediaWiki on WOS working fine (http://www.chsoftware.net/en/useware/wos/wos.htm?action=download ) as
a
local, single-user wiki for development. I made copies of that on a
few
tester's hard drives to let them each play. They now have private MediaWikis and can give me useful development feedback (though they can't see each other's changes!):
Why don't you set up a test wiki?
So, I THINK I'm well on the way to a workable a script that builds MediaWiki on Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Apache, MySQL, PHP and
PHPMyAdmin
... but until I successfully test it ... 10 times at least, through successive reboots, and see it working time and again, and also watch
as
a novice tries the script, I'm not sure it's ready for prime time!
How
many times have I tried something that worked perfectly on my
computer,
but on someone else's computer it failed miserably? I'm not even at that point at the moment since I can't get it reliable on my own computers, yet! Argh, argh, argh! One of our challenges here is that many of us do not have admin rights, so we have to be able to successfully install NOT in the hard drive root, and NOT touching the non-local Windows registry (also meaning NOT installing Apache/PHP as services for "all users") and staying out of "C:\Program Files" and "C:\Windows" directories. Windows has an environment variable for a user login name - %USERPROFILE%. So I'm experimenting with a script that allows any non-admin user to setup their own departmental
MediaWiki
on their own computer here:
If you don't have admin rights, why don't you get a sysadmin to do this for you, and have it set up in one centralized location? Why does each wiki need to be running on a different system?
It sounds like your project is fairly large, and probably too large for you to handle. I think you need to talk to your IT people before taking on a task like this. Your project seems doomed to failure currently.
However, the 12 steps (?!?) to accurately install and coordinate
Apache,
MySQL, PHP, modify the PHP ini and move it, move PHP dll files, change Apache conf file, install and configure MediaWiki and PHPMyAdmin and
so
on ... well, these steps are still not unambiguously reliable, time after time, computer after computer, for me. That is why I am
searching
so diligently for anyone who has success in this particular
environment
using these particular modules.
Done correctly, this wouldn't require that many steps. You would setup Apache, PHP, and MySQL once, and only have to set up MediaWiki for each new wiki. There is also an extension (or is it just a special configuration?) to allow MediaWiki to use the same source for all wikis.
You are absolutely going about this the wrong way. Wikis are meant to be a shared resource, not a one-user standalone application.
Thanks for your sharing. I'll copy much of this to the MediaWiki-l as
a
resource at least. When I do have something I confirm is accurate,
I'll
share it and also post it somewhere to MediaWiki.org, though I agree, wiki's in general and MediaWiki.org/WikiMedia.org specifically are a scattered mess. ... maybe if ONE MediaWiki person took ownership
rather
than leaving it as a committee design, where I'm sure everyone
presumes
someone *else* will handle the messy reorganization stuff ...
I ignored most of the flamebait, but this one actually coincides with the rest of this email. You do not understand the purpose of a wiki. One of the main ideas of a wiki is that no single person owns anything. It is a collaborative tool, and if you don't understand that, your project is worthless.
V/r,
Ryan Lane