wikihow : How to install wikihow mediawiki software

I tried installing the wikihow version of mediawiki software because it’s admired, and I need to know how it does some things. The nice people at wikihow have included what claims to be a compete bundle of all the skin modifications and extensions used by wikihow software in one big compressed file called

wikihow-source-code.tar.gz

So I uploaded the above file, extracted all the contents and ran through the usual mediawiki ‘one click’ install procedure – creating the MySQL database and user manually, editing adminsettings.sample, running the install script from the browser and then moving localsettings.php up to the parent directory. It told me it had installed mediawiki software successfully, but at the next step throws out a fatal error message that Article.php is failing to call PatrolHelper.php

PatrolHelper.php appears to be missing.

I tried commenting out the broken call but that caused more errors from lines depending on class variables having been initialised by said missing subroutine.

Any suggestions for getting the wikihow software working?

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29 Responses to wikihow : How to install wikihow mediawiki software

  1. Kenneth Dreyer says:

    Hi there.

    Did you find out anything? I recently tried installing it myself, but I got the same error.

    • Andy Roberts says:

      Well that’s at least three of us then. No luck so far.

    • hiren says:

      Hi

      I have downloaded the open source code. But there is no config/ directory and instead of that there is config-old/

      I have tried to install using that directory but it gives the error.

      Could not open “../maintenance/tables.sql”.

      Please anyone can help me?

  2. Gordon Joly says:

    Add these lines:

    require_once(‘extensions/wikihow/WikiHow.php’);
    require_once(‘extensions/wikihow/FeaturedArticles.php’);
    require_once(‘extensions/wikihow/Request.php’);
    require_once(‘extensions/Postcomment/SpecialPostcomment.php’);

    to WikiHowSkin.php

    and then you will find some other bugs.

  3. I had the same problem during one attempt to install on a shared hosting account at pair.com.

    Anyway, the PatrolHelper.php file is located in the ‘/extentions/wikihow/’
    directory.

    I finally got it installed and working….kind of:

    http://www.ourpropertytaxes.com/wiki19/

  4. Gordon Joly says:

    Yes, looks very similar, in that some of it works and some of it does not!

    http://www.foo-uk.org.uk/wiki19/

  5. If you are going to try and use that you better have a full-time programmer on staff, or at the ready.

  6. Andy Roberts says:

    There was some help eventually forthcoming on the wikihow forum

    “Patrol helper is included in the distribution at this location:

    /wiki19/extensions/wikihow/PatrolHelper.php

    Looks like you have an issue with your include path. I’d change it to make sure it includes the wikihow extensions directory.”

    Which is the same as Gordon volunteered in comment 3.

  7. Frenki says:

    Anyone got this running ?

    i am getting tons of errors…

  8. No, we eventually went with a vanilla Mediawiki 1.11 install and extended from there.

  9. hiren says:

    Hi

    I have downloaded the open source code. But there is no config/ directory and instead of that there is config-old/

    I have tried to install using that directory but it gives the error.

    Could not open “../maintenance/tables.sql”.

    Please anyone can help me?

  10. neoZ says:

    Did anyone having wikihow souce code without any bugs..
    I allready try to fix it, but im still geting many errors…

    Please do help me…

    Thank you..

  11. gareth says:

    how do you get a copy of the files. I cannot see an email on the contact page of the site or a subversion link?

    Thanks

  12. Steve says:

    Hi, has anyone been able to get this working? Or maybe something similar.

  13. Khalid Al Holan says:

    Hi All,

    I have the same problem and after long hours of testing… i found the solution…

    when installing use select Language En : English Languag

    it works for me then you can change setting of language.

    chao.

  14. Andy says:

    You need to copy the lines from wikihow’s LocalSettings-production.php into your LocalSettings.php to get it going. Compare the two files and overwrite your LocalSettings with anything WikiHow has changed, but be careful to preserve anything specific to your server, such as database settings, etc.

  15. lipsmega says:

    I’d like so much to have a web like wikihow. If someone get installed, please post here a download for us! o/

  16. dee-pack says:

    anybody have put the question to wikihow? (stupid question but just in case^^)

  17. Steve says:

    I have, but they explicitly stated in the terms that the code is as is.

  18. karunakaran says:

    i have added the below given code in to the WikiHowSkin.php, which is in the skins folder.

    require_once(‘includes/SkinTemplate.php’);
    require_once(’extensions/wikihow/WikiHow.php’);
    require_once(’extensions/wikihow/FeaturedArticles.php’);
    require_once(’extensions/wikihow/Request.php’);
    require_once(’extensions/Postcomment/SpecialPostcomment.php’);
    require_once(’extentions/wikihow/PatrolHelper.php’);

    and its working fine!

    • dee-pack says:

      Hi karunakaran!

      your fix works for the installation of the wiki. But after the installation, I have already a problem on the main page of the wiki:

      Warning: require_once(PatrolHelper.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/vhosts/website/httpdocs/wiki112/includes/Article.php on line 15

      Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required ‘PatrolHelper.php’ (include_path=’/var/www/vhosts/website/httpdocs/wiki112:/var/www/vhosts/website/httpdocs/wiki112/includes:/var/www/vhosts/website/httpdocs/wiki112/languages:.:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear’) in /var/www/vhosts/website/httpdocs/wiki112/includes/Article.php on line 15

      What have you done to fix it?
      Thanks ;)

  19. Yi Wang says:

    Hi, anyone could tell me the newest version of WikiHow version Mediawiki, got the exactly same skin with its official skin? Thanks in advance. I have downloaded it, and found here, u were discussing the installation of it.

  20. MBA says:

    I’m still trying to find someone who can accomplish this.

    If you think you know how to do a install, please contact me or leave your email here. I will keep visiting.

    Paid assistance too will be welcome.

  21. Haxter says:

    could anyone help me find the latest wikihow theme download link. And how should i install the thing? I need a site similar to build a biological repository for my research project

  22. Edit Article.php and change
    require_once(‘PatrolHelper.php’);
    to
    require_once(‘PatrolLog.php’);

    re-run the install and it should work fine :)

  23. Kornel says:

    Hi!
    I successfully installed wikihow (20101213 build) without any errors.

    After I moved the LocalSettings.php file as mentioned, the dropped the following:

    Fatal error: Class ‘VideoPage’ not found in …/wiki/includes/Wiki.php on line 252

    Anybody can help on this problem?

    Thanks,

    Kornel

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