Tuesday 16 June 2009

Environment update

The approach to building a new environment has been updated. We used to have a script for each environment. This was not that great because as we learned, we found that we had to revisit all the scripts.

The new way of doing things is by using files with configuration information. There is one file called Environment, that contains the name of an environment and information about the MediaWiki release. There is one file called Env_Extensions with information about the extensions.

Having such a file based approach is nice because we now have several nice bits of functionality included; after an installation we run the maintenance/update.php, we run the LocalisationExtension update.php when it is installed and we register that we have an environment installed with its name.

The upshot is that now that we know what environment a MediaWiki installation is supposed to be, we can update it as well. What we have been working on is just updating the software.. the next bit is to install missing or extensions added to the file.
Thanks,
GerardM

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Running Kim's scripts

We have published about the number of extensions that can be installed in a scripted way, naively or in the best manner possible as an extension. To do this, there are some scripts that can be found in the "util" directory. They just run; I ran them but it is not relevant to me at this time to redo the statistics.

You can run them too :)
Thanks,
     GerardM

Thursday 21 May 2009

External Data only needs a naive install

I installed the ExternalData extension as part of the best practices setup of Semantic MediaWiki. It failed horribly. So I had to revisit the installation only to find that Yaron had made it comply with standards. Consequently there is one less extension that needs a scripted installation.
Thanks,
     GerardM

Drafts

I have created a script for the installation of the Drafts extension, it required a database update so a script was needed.
Thanks,
        GerardM

Two new extensions with a script

Both the LocalisationUpdate and the AntiSpoof extensions needed a script. They now have it.

  • LocalisationUpdate is a new extension that will reduce the time between localisations done at translatewiki.net and them becoming available on the WMF wikis.
  • AntiSpoof needed a script to include the database update necessary to make it function.
The need for an AntiSpoof  script was found because of testing done on my WMF_testsystem. This is a system that mimicks the English Wikipedia.
Thanks,
      GerardM