Ruisdael Observatory Data Catalog Wiki

This wiki consist of installations of Mediawiki software, with some added Mediawiki extensions.

The most relevant extensions are:

Semantic Mediawiki (SMW) - allows wiki pages to contain structured data, through the use of semantic annotations, performed with with property::value descriptors (see a list of all the properties used in this wiki at Special:Properties), and categories that identify the kind content a page represents (see a list of all the categories used in this wiki at Special:Categories).

This structure content can be used in queries that data to create dynamic representations such as tables, timelines, maps, lists, etc (see this wiki semantic search interface at Special:Ask)

Page Forms - provides the wiki with user-defined Forms (see all forms used in this wiki) for creating and editing pages on your wiki, as well as for querying data. The data entered in these Forms is passed onto to wiki templates (see [more on wiki templates]) and displayed often as infoboxes
Maps to visualize and work with semantic geographical information.
Semantic_Result_Formats which extends the range of formats by which semantic data can be represented
SimpleBatchUpload for uploading files in batches to the wiki

A complete list of all the installed extensions, plus detailed information on software versions can be found in each wiki's Special:Version page

Wiki Ecosystem

Mediwiki requires the following components to run:

the programming language: PHP
the database: MySQL/Mariadb
the webserver: Nginx
the software: Mediawiki

For details on the versions of each of these components see Special:Version page in each wiki

Wiki Installation Process

This wiki runs on non-dockerized configuration. Although Mediawiki can be run inside a docker container, it is quite cumbersome to setup extensions such as SMW in a docker container.

The approach we have chosen to easily install and configure the Mediawiki instances in operation is to run the semantic-mediawiki-playbook/ against a VM. Or for testing purposes, against a Vagrant box. In the playbook all the used extensions and their individual installation methods (either through [PHP Composer PHP Composer], Git or bundled with the Mediawiki Software) are defined in ansible/group_vars/all.

configuration and directories

The installation of the wikis is often circumscribed to the /var/www/html/wiki/ directory. Inside which the configuration file LocalSettings.php.

LocalSettings.php defines most of the settings of the wiki, such as its:

loaded & enabled extensions
loaded & enabled skin
visibility and user-rights
wiki names, URLs and paths
file upload restrictions

Visibility and Permissions

This wiki is configured to allow viewing to non-logged in users, but restrict editing only to logged in users, or allow editing to anyone, even without an account (not recommended due to spam)

It restricts account creation to only administrators or all users. Open account creation is not recommended as it can lead to a infestation of spam bot accounts, writing about the benefits of viagra on wiki pages.

More on Manual:Preventing_access and Manual:User_rights

The use configuration is:

# Permissions
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['createaccount'] = true;

Ruisdael Data Catalog Wiki, GRS Wiki, CCRES Wiki: reading interface is public, editing is restricted to logged in users. Account creation restricted to administrators and bureaucrats.

Config from Ruisdael Data Catalog Wiki:

# Permissions
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['createaccount'] = true;

wiki maintenance

Admin pages

See Special:AdminLinks for a list of administrative pages in each wiki (available only to administrators)

creating new users

Wiki Admins bureaucrats (see wiki admins list in [ https://ruisdael-catalog.citg.tudelft.nl/index.php?title=Special%3AListUsers&username=&group=bureaucrat Special:ListUsers]) can use the page Special:CreateAccount to create new user accounts

Once the account is created an email, similar to the following template can be sent out to the new user:

Created a account for you in the Ruisdael Observatory Data Catalog  Wiki (https://ruisdael-catalog.citg.tudelft.nl)

The default password is: changemenow. You should change it in your user preferences (https://ruisdael-catalog.citg.tudelft.nl/index.php?title=Special:Preferences)

Help:Wiki administration