InChapter 1, you will have an overview of a wiki; what it is and when to use it. An overview of Web 2.0 with respect to wikis is also discussed and we then cover MediaWiki’s features and a comparision with other available wiki solutions. Based on this, you can make an informed choice on how MediaWiki fits in with your needs.

Chapter 2 walks you through step-by-step instructions to install MediaWiki on a range of platforms. At the end of the chapter you will have your MediaWiki site fully set up, and ready for its wiki journey.

Chapter 3 begins with a detailed view of MediaWiki navigation features. After that, you will learn how to create wiki pages using different approaches and also learn about basic wiki-formatting techniques and editing tools. You will also learn how to create different types of links in MediaWiki.

InChapter 4, you will learn advanced formatting features to brighten up your content pages. You will start with lists and tables and then go on to learn how to upload files in your wiki site. This chapter gives you a complete overview on using the image functionality of MediaWiki. Towards the end of the chapter, you will learn how to easily represent complex mathematical formulae using Tex.

Chapter 5 will introduce you to the content organization in MediaWiki—it will explain why you need to organize your content and how to do it in MediaWiki. You will also learn about special pages and their uses.

InChapter 6, you will see how to use wikis in a multi-user environment. Here you will learn how to customize user accounts as per different preferences. This chapter will teach you key techniques such as how to resolve edit conflicts, how to revert changes made by others, and how to communicate with others in a forum.

InChapter 7, you will be exposed to the administrative side of the MediaWiki. You will learn about different types of access in MediaWiki, and how to grant or deny access to a group of users. By the end of the chapter you will know how to block users, protect pages, and create interwiki links.

InChapter 8, you will learn to customize MediaWiki. You will learn how to change the layout and appearance of the site. You will be provided with a detailed overview of skin files and walkthroughs on how to change logo and footer, and move around sections in your installed wiki. You will see how you can change the appearance of your site by simply modifying CSS properties. After that, you will learn how to change core files to change the appearance and layout of the site. The last part of the chapter covers the creation of new skins for MediaWiki.

InChapter 9, you will be introduced to hacking your MediaWiki installation. You will learn about hooks and how to use them without knowing the detailed functionalities of the files. You will see examples of how to write your own hook to extend MediaWiki and also how to write new special pages and customize namespaces.

Chapter 10 discusses the topic of maintening MediaWiki. At the start of the chapter, you will learn how to deploy MediaWiki, and back up the database and files. You will also learn about importing files and databases from another wiki site while maintaining your site.

Chapter 11 is dedicated to a few cool hacks—namely ones for a calendar, YouTube integration, multiple uploads, category clouds, and Google maps. The chapter provides download links and short descriptions and you are shown how to integrate these hacks into your site.

To use this book, you will need the latest version of Mediawiki, which can be freely downloaded from http://www.mediawiki.org. The steps to get Mediawiki up and running are detailed inChapter 2.

In order to install MediaWiki, we need four components—a web server, a MySQL database server, PHP 5, and MediaWiki files. In this book we assume that you have experience of installing web server, database server, and PHP, or already have them in your machine. But it takes you on a detailed ride through the installation of MediaWiki files.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meanings.

There are three styles for code. Code words in text are shown as follows: "Include the following line at the end of your LocalSettings.php file."

A block of code will be set as follows:

<gallery>
Image:ghostmap.jpg
Image:Ghost map small.jpg|[[Nevada_map | Nevada Ghost Map]]
Image:UK ghost map.gif | UK ghost Sighted

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be made bold:

|+ Story Listing
!# !! Story Title !! Author !! Submission Date
|- style="background:white; color:black"

! 1.
| style="width:300px" |The Ghost of the Old Mathematician

| J. David
| 12/09/2006

Any command-line input and output is written as follows:

>CREATE DATABASE `mediawiki`;

New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: "There is a link that says set up the wiki."

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