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.

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by Taios

...So you're supposed to replace the closing tag in LocalSettings.php with requireonce.
Well, the ?> doesn't seem to exist in my LocalSettings :P I just get an error

Warning: require_once(<FULL PATH>) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in <FULL PATH> on line 123

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '<FULL PATH>' (include_path='<PATH>') in <FULL PATH> on line 123

:/

Hi,

Some versions of Mediawiki used to have the closing ?>

I will add a note that if the closing ?> is not found, to simply add the require_once at the end of the file.

In this case the error seems to be caused by the path not pointing to where vbWiki is installed. Please verify the install location and the path+filename in the require_once.

Thanks.

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by quiklink

No you place it just above the closing tag. If you replace the closing tag, yeah you are going to get an error.

In newer versions of PHP (PHP4+) the closing tag is optional.

I prefer to not end any file with the closing tag because it is easy to leave empty lines at the end of the file, which then causes trouble with HTTP headers, cookies etc.

[Taios]

Originally Posted by ElfMage

Hi,

Some versions of Mediawiki used to have the closing ?>

I will add a note that if the closing ?> is not found, to simply add the require_once at the end of the file.

In this case the error seems to be caused by the path not pointing to where vbWiki is installed. Please verify the install location and the path+filename in the require_once.

Thanks.

Thanks, but yes, I have tried it at the end of the file.
The location seems to be correct, but I'll check again.
Edit: Fixed it, thanks.

[ElfMage]

Cool. Glad to hear that.

[NewAyenee]

Originally Posted by 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

Getting the same session error on my site. I didn't see a fix ever posted for this. Any help available?

[ElfMage]

Hi, this session error is usually caused by the PHP sessions not working properly.

Could you verify that the session.save_path is properly set in the php.ini and that it points to a directory where the web server has write permissions?

You can also run vbWiki's Diagnostic Tools where more information can be found. If you'd like PM a link to your site and enable URL commands in vbWiki's settings file.

Thanks.

[NewAyenee]

I got it, elf. Turns out my host hadn't set the path properly with write permissions. Its working now.

Thanks, and great hack.

[Strafe]

I've been using Standard on my site for quite some time now.

My Wiki: http://www.luniafan.com/wiki
My Forums: http://www.luniafan.com/forums

The wiki works as a free-for-all edit right now. All registered members are able to edit to their heart's content. Now, I wanted to add sysop members in th Wiki. I went ahead and input all permissions in the LocalSettings.php file in MediaWiki for the sysop group. However, when I try implementing it by putting a member in the sysop group, it seems to be giving him normal permissions - no administrating powers of a sysop. Just like he is on the same usergroup but with a different usergroup name.

I was wondering if the usergroup permissions in vBulletin conflicts with MediaWiki. Because right now, no matter how many people I assign on the sysop usergroups they seem to be getting no special powers.

[ElfMage]

Hi Strafe,

vbWiki (both Standard and Pro editions) have an option to synchronize vBulletin's usergroups into MediaWiki usergroups.

If group synchronization is on (it is on by default), then whenever a user logs on, his/her MW groups are synchronized with whatever groups he/she is in vBulletin.

The setting that controls this mapping is named $g_vbWiki_Usergroup_Mapping, here is an example (and the default for this setting):

PHP Code:

$g_vbWiki_Usergroup_Mapping            = array (       
            6 /*Administrators*/    => "sysop,bureaucrat"
    ); 


If you want to change this mapping, add these lines of code in vbWiki_Init.php, after the line that says 'CUSTOM SETTINGS START'.

In the example above all vBulletin users who are part of vBulletin's usergroup with id 6 (Administrators), will be added to the MW usergroups sysop and bureaucrat.

This assignment overrides MediaWiki's.

[Strafe]

Hey there ElfMage!

Thanks for taking time in responding. What should I do if I just want to place hand-picked members in the sysop group? How should I edit the lines?