Now that we have a pretty good idea of how we can put MediaWiki to use, we have to get ready for the next step. As MediaWiki is a software package, we will learn how to install it. Not only are we going to cover how to install MediaWiki on your web server, but we are going to make sure that your web server has the required hardware and dependencies installed as well.
As this is a beginners' guide, we are going to assume that most of you are installing MediaWiki on a server provided by a web hosting company. As you may well know, different web hosting companies use different configurations for their servers. In this chapter, we will cover some of the most commonly used methods for getting MediaWiki onto the server such as through the use of a script library called Fantastico, cPanel, and an FTP client.
Once we have uploaded MediaWiki to the server, and are ready to install, we will cover all of the steps that need to be taken prior to installing the MediaWiki...