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.

[Jim McAnally]

If I have media wiki on a seperate domain and box than Vbulletin is there a way to get this to work or should I move this to the same server?

If so it would still be to seperate domains.

[slappy]

Any progress on locating the bug yet ElfMage? Did the uploaded file help, or do you want me to upload anything else too?

[AScherff]

Hi folks,

i've installed vbBuletin 3.6.7 PL1 and MediaWiki 1.10.0.

Both work fine.

I try to install vbWiki. But the VB User is not logged in in MW.

Set the :

$run_vbWikiPro_diag_tools = true;

and getting error:

Testing forum integration

Die Cookies konnten nicht gesetzt werden, da der Header schon an den Browser geschickt wurde.

Datei: /www/htdocs/blauwi/knx/vbWiki/vbWiki_Tools.php

Zeile: 455

i'm stuck. Please help.

Alfred

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by slappy

Any progress on locating the bug yet ElfMage? Did the uploaded file help, or do you want me to upload anything else too?

Hi, yes I managed to run the tests. Thanks for uploading the files.

It seems that your site's sessions are working properly. It also seems that vbWiki Std is working as well.

The blank page you describe is caused by a PHP error, most likely caused by some other extension.

I am able to edit any page, except those containing the template named MainObjTemplate, which is not implemented by vbWiki.

Could you confirm this to be the case?

Thanks.

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by AScherff

Hi folks,

i've installed vbBuletin 3.6.7 PL1 and MediaWiki 1.10.0.

Both work fine.

I try to install vbWiki. But the VB User is not logged in in MW.

Hi Alfred, could you disable vbWiki Diagnostic Tools, and PM me a link to your Wiki?

Thanks.

[slappy]

Originally Posted by ElfMage

The blank page you describe is caused by a PHP error, most likely caused by some other extension.

I am able to edit any page, except those containing the template named MainObjTemplate, which is not implemented by vbWiki.

Could you confirm this to be the case?

It's not only for pages containing the MainObjTemplate, try to create a arbitrary new page, containing only the text "This is a test" or whatever, and it will happen too (it happens when you save the page, as usual, you can still load the page later).

Also, as soon as I disable the vbWiki extension, the errors are completely gone, so it sounds strange that the errors would be in another extension too, don't you think?

Are there perhaps some error logs or something that would help you?

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by slappy

It's not only for pages containing the MainObjTemplate, try to create a arbitrary new page, containing only the text "This is a test" or whatever, and it will happen too (it happens when you save the page, as usual, you can still load the page later).

Also, as soon as I disable the vbWiki extension, the errors are completely gone, so it sounds strange that the errors would be in another extension too, don't you think?

Well, I created some articles earlier today (Test Page, and Test Tool 3 or 4, can't remember), and I didn't get those errors. As soon as I copied the page containing that template, I got the PHP error (blank page), and vbWiki was active in all these tests. Quite puzzling.

Originally Posted by slappy

Are there perhaps some error logs or something that would help you?

Yes, indeed. If your site has a php error log, any php errors will appear there.

It is possible that this issue is caused by vbWiki Std, or it may not. More information would be required.

[efil]

Hi,
Can't find the file LocalSettings.php.

[pete_brady]

Originally Posted by efil

Hi,
Can't find the file LocalSettings.php.

very last line of the installation says

Installation successful! Move the config/LocalSettings.php file into the parent directory

[Quantnet]

I'm a bit confused. I'd like to installed Standard and by reading here on your site, I don't have to download and install Wikipedia prior to install this hack ?

Only the Pro version needs prior wikipedia installation ?