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]

Glad you figured it out.

[BrAinZ]

Originally Posted by ElfMage

Hi, this usually happens when your board is set to not allow guests to access it.

vbWiki requires that guests be allowed to at least visit your forum's home page (FORUMHOME), so that the MediaWiki - vBulletin bridge can be established.

Is this the case in your site?

Yes.. Well spotted.. Guests are not allowed any access into the site.

Is there any way around this?, as I'm not going to be able to grant any guest access without registering.

[ElfMage]

I think we implemented a workaround in the latest version, but we haven't gotten a chance to upload it yet.

Try doing the following:

Open LocalSettings.php in your MediaWiki directory, and find these lines of code:

PHP Code:

} elseif ( empty( $wgNoOutputBuffer ) ) {
    ## Compress output if the browser supports it
    if( !ini_get( 'zlib.output_compression' ) ) @ob_start( 'ob_gzhandler' );
} 


And replace them for this:

PHP Code:

} 


Then vbWiki_Init.php, and find this line:

PHP Code:

require_once dirname(__FILE__) . "/vbWiki.php"; 


And add the following code right after it:

PHP Code:

if ( empty( $wgNoOutputBuffer ) ) {
    ## Compress output if the browser supports it
    if( !ini_get( 'zlib.output_compression' ) ) @ob_start( 'ob_gzhandler' );
} 


I haven't tested this, but it should work...

I'll give it a try in a few...

[BrAinZ]

That ALMOST works, but seems to mess up the paths to all the graphics used on the login page.

ie:

http://www.mydomain.com/mediawiki/index.php/images/misc/mainlogo.gif

Perhaps it would just be better to redirect to the normal forum login page if the user is not registered?

[ElfMage]

Yes, what happens is that the no permission message is shown from the wiki's path, so all relative images/links would point to the incorrect location.

An alternate solution is to add a plugin (Admin CP > Plugins & Products > Plugin Manager > Add New Plugin) for the hook named error_nopermission.

In this plugin, add the following PHP code:

PHP Code:

if (THIS_SCRIPT == 'vbwiki')
{
   global $vbulletin;
   exec_header_redirect( $vbulletin->options['bburl'] );
} 


What this does is that whenever a no permission error will be shown to the user from the wiki, the user gets redirected to the forums' home page.

This will only happen in the case you describe where guests are not given view access to the forum.

[BrAinZ]

That works a treat, thanks ElfMage!

I'm getting really frustrated trying to remove the "Discussion" tab from each page though.... Doesn't seem logical having that there, as this would distract from the forum discussions themselves.

[antiekeradio]

errrr I feel enormously stupid having to ask this.. however.. It doesn't figure for me.

in the file "vbWiki-1.0.2 RC3.zip" there is NO such thing as a "LocalSettings.php" file.

so; I cannot find the place where to put the absolute dir into.

is this changed or was my zip corrupt ? (or something else?)

greetings, Wouter

[antiekeradio]

euhw.. wait just a second. does this thing just provide the link-up between mediawiki and your vB? ..

(in that case: d?h. i'll get my coat...)


[edit]somewhat more serious, please include a clear link to the MediaWiki in your announcement message (preferably near the top ) [/edit]

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by BrAinZ

That works a treat, thanks ElfMage!

Glad it worked.

Originally Posted by BrAinZ

I'm getting really frustrated trying to remove the "Discussion" tab from each page though.... Doesn't seem logical having that there, as this would distract from the forum discussions themselves.

You can hide the 'Discussion' Tab using CSS (this is not an elegant solution, but it is simple and works.. ). If you want to go this route let me know...

Alternatives include modifying MW core file, or creating a MW extension.

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by antiekeradio

euhw.. wait just a second. does this thing just provide the link-up between mediawiki and your vB? ..

Yes, indeed, the LocalSettings.php refers to MediaWiki's configuration file.

Originally Posted by antiekeradio

[edit]somewhat more serious, please include a clear link to the MediaWiki in your announcement message (preferably near the top ) [/edit]

Valid point. Just changed the message on top. Added link to MediaWiki's official download site. Thanks.