Integration with vBulletin - vbWiki Standard - vBulletin+MediaWiki integration

Update:

9/28/2007: vbWiki Std v1.3 RC5 is now available for download. This version adds compatibility with MW 1.11.0+

5/17/2007: vbWiki Std v1.3 RC4 is now available for download. This version is compatible with MW 1.10.0+ and vBulletin 3.6.6+

1/21/2007: vbWiki Std v1.0.2 RC3 is now available for download. This version fixes the 'session error' that used to happen on some installations of MediaWiki 1.9.x.

Description:

vbWiki Standard is the lite version of vbWiki Pro. vbWiki Standard allows the integration of vBulletin and MediaWiki user authentication.

(vbWiki Pro is a commercial product that, in addition to the functionality found in vbWiki Standard, provides full skin integration, enhanced user management, Admin CP, editing of wiki skin in vBulletin's Style Manager, among other features.)

Why should you add a wiki to your forums?

Forums are great for community building with their high level of interactivity. Successful forums have hundreds or thousand of concurrent users creating and replying to threads.

However due to this very reason the more your forums grow the more "collective knowledge" is scattered throughout the thousands (or hundreds or millions) of threads in your forums. Making it difficult for users to find and use.

A wiki is not that good at community building, but it is a great medium to centralize this 'collective knowledge'. Enabling you to create an 'ecosystem of information' (quoting pipin ) maintained and contributed by your users.

The idea behind vbWiki (both Standard and Pro) is to enable the seamless integration between these two packages (vBulletin and MediaWiki) side-by-side in your community. You (and your users and community) get the best of both worlds.

Or so the theory goes...

Features:

• Single sign-on for vBulletin and MediaWiki (users log in only once)
• Supports mapping of vBulletin usergroups to MediaWiki user roles
• Users viewing wiki pages are shown in vBulletin's "What's going on?" section (both guests and registered users)
• Supports auto-authentication, users who choose to be "remembered" are logged in upon visiting the site to both vBulletin and MediaWiki.

Installation:

These installation instructions do not apply to vbWiki Pro. Refer to vbWiki Pro installation instructions for more information.

MediaWiki and vBulletin must be installed and properly working before installing vbWiki. MediaWiki can be downloaded here.

• Create a new directory in your forums directory named vbWiki.
• Upload the content of the installation package to this new directory.
• Rename the file vbWiki_Init.php-dist to vbWiki_Init.php
• Open the file LocalSettings.php found in your MediaWiki directory in a text editor and at the very end find the following line and remove it if present:

PHP Code:

?> 


• Add the following code at the end of the file (entering the correct directory path):

PHP Code:

require_once "/absolute/path/to/your/forums/vbWiki/vbWiki_Init.php"; 


Troubleshooting:

• Last installation step: Click Mark as Installed..

If you run into any trouble installing vbWiki (blank page, logins not working, etc.), follow these instructions to temporarily turn on vbWiki's Diagnostic Tools.

Open vbWiki_Init.php (or vbWikiPro_Init.php) and find this line:

PHP Code:

$run_vbWikiPro_diag_tools = false; 


And change it for this:

PHP Code:

$run_vbWikiPro_diag_tools = true; 


Navigate to the wiki home page, and see the results.

Changes:

• 0 vBulletin files to Edit
• 1 MediaWiki file to Edit
• 10 vbWiki Files to Upload

Requirements:

• vBulletin v3.5.4 (version 3.6.x recommended)
• MediaWiki 1.6.8+ (recommended 1.7.x+).
• PHP4+

Uninstalling...

• To uninstall vbWiki Standard simply remove (or comment) the line added to LocalSettings.php.
• Optionally remove the directory vbWiki from your forums directory.

[sickboy6ths]

Heya, Very nice product thanks! I integrated it and it works fine, .. it shows that im logged in etc. etc. but when I want to edit a wiki page, I get: Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again. If it still doesn't work, try logging out and logging back in.

Wiki Version: 1.9.0
VB Version: 3.6.3
www.6thsense.eu

[toytaco99]

Thanks for the RC2 update. I was having the same errors with MW 1.9 and this. Works now.

[Wayne Luke]

I am getting the same session issue as above though I am using 3.6.4. The initial login seems to take though.

[ElfMage]

If you disable vbWiki does the 'session error' go away?

(To disable vbWiki simply comment the line added to LocalSettings.php)

We used to have the 'session error' back on version 0.7.4 several months ago.

If the error still happens when vbWiki is disabled then refer to this thread: http://www.nuhit.com/forums/vbwiki/2...tegration.html.

If the error doesn't happen with vbWiki disabled, then we have to look into it and fix it...

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by firstrebel

Excuse my ignorance, but what does this do that vB does not? It seems to be just another forum.

Bob

Bob, forums are great for community building with their high level of interactivity.

However due to this very reason the more your forums grow the more "collective knowledge" is scattered throughout the thousands (or hundreds or millions) of threads in your forums. Making it difficult for users to find and use.

A wiki is not that good at community building, but it is great medium to centralize this 'collective knowledge'. Enabling you to create an 'ecosystem of information' (quoting pipin )

The idea behind vbWiki (both Standard and Pro) is to enable the seamless integration between these two packages (vBulletin and MediaWiki) side-by-side in your community. You (and your users and community) get the best of both worlds.

Or so the theory goes...

I'll add a 'Why you may want a wiki' section to my original post for others.

[Deska]

I like the idea about this hack

[sickboy6ths]

Thanks for the reply, when we disable vbWiki, then we do not get the session error anymore, so seems to be a prob related to vbWiki

Originally Posted by ElfMage

If you disable vbWiki does the 'session error' go away?

(To disable vbWiki simply comment the line added to LocalSettings.php)

We used to have the 'session error' back on version 0.7.4 several months ago.

If the error still happens when vbWiki is disabled then refer to this thread: http://www.nuhit.com/forums/vbwiki/2...tegration.html.

If the error doesn't happen with vbWiki enabled, then we have to look into it and fix it...

[ElfMage]

Could you PM a link to your wiki? Thanks.

[Wayne Luke]

Originally Posted by ElfMage

If the error still happens when vbWiki is disabled then refer to this thread: http://www.nuhit.com/forums/vbwiki/2...tegration.html.

If the error doesn't happen with vbWiki enabled, then we have to look into it and fix it...

The error does not occur when I disable vbWiki.

[ElfMage]

Interesting. Could you PM a link to your wiki? Thanks.