Mediawiki collection extension installation

Bugs and feature requests:

• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Book_tool/Feedback
• http://code.pediapress.com/wiki/report/1 (Issue tracker for technical people)

Information about the collection extension and related server-side software

• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Collection
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:PDF_Writer
• http://code.pediapress.com/wiki/wiki (PediaPress Open Source Repository, Wiki and Bug Tracking System)
• http://code.pediapress.com/hg/mwlib/raw-file/tip/docs/commands.txt (command line options, important!)
• http://code.pediapress.com/wiki/wiki/Examples
• http://groups.google.com/group/mwlib/topics (Google forums)

Installation notes

(I will move this at some point - Daniel K. Schneider)

Collection extension installation

The collection extension installs like any other Mediawiki extensions. Really easy with Mediawiki=> 1.14 (Spring 2009).

• You then can just leave all the defaults and the PDF will be generated by PediaPress.

I suggest changing file Collection.i18n.php and change the string.

'coll-rendering_text' => "<p><strong>Please wait while the document is being generated.
Depending on the size of book you may have to wait 5, 10, 15 minutes or longer.
</strong></p> 
 ......"

'coll-save_collection_text'       => 'Choose a storage location for your book and enter a name:',

mwlib installation

(not needed if you have a fast server and want to use the pediapress server)

Made for Solaris

Prerequisites

Install these if don't have them (usually you do)

• Python => 2.5
• Perl => 5
• g++
• Latex

Install Blahtexml

• (not done so far)

Install setuptools-0.6c9-py2.5.egg

• http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools
• http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/setuptools

sh setuptools-0.6c9-py2.5.egg

Install python imaging library (PIL)

• http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/
• Get Python Imaging Library 1.1.6 Source Kit
• Unzip and cd Imaging-1.1.6

 python setup.py install

Install odfpy 0.7.0 (not 0.8.0)

• http://opendocumentfellowship.com/projects/odfpy
• Get it from http://odfpy.forge.osor.eu/
  • I.E. as tar ball froom http://forge.osor.eu/frs/?group_id=33

python setup.py build
python setup.py install

Install rec2c

• http://re2c.org/
• Get it from http://www.sunfreeware.com/

pkgadd -d re2c-0.13.5-sol10-sparc-local 

Install ocaml

• http://caml.inria.fr/
• Get if from http://www.sunfreeware.com/

pkgadd -d ocaml-3.10.2-sol10-sparc-local

Mwlib (installed with the tar ball, alternatively install mercurial)

• Get if from http://code.pediapress.com/hg/mwlib/ (click on gz)
• Change the options in mwlib/options.py (e.g. reduce threads) if you like.
• Dezip gtar zxf mwlib-db30ecca003a.tar.gz (or whatever file name)

 python setup.py install

Alternative:

easy_install mwlib && rehash

pygments

• http://pygments.org/

easy_install Pygments

Fribidi - both a library and the Python bindings

• http://fribidi.org/

./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
make install

• http://pyfribidi.sourceforge.net/index.html

(this is difficult to install)

 setenv fribidi_CFLAGS "-L/usr/local/lib -I/usr/local/include"
 setenv fribidi_LIBS -lfribidi
./configure
make
make install

Ploticus

• http://ploticus.sourceforge.net/doc/welcome.html

(not installed)

mwlib.rl

• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:PDF_Writer

easy_install mwlib.rl

Alternatively from a tarball:

• http://code.pediapress.com/hg/mwlib.rl/

texvc

• Is in your mediawiki installation
• Compile with gmake it if not already done (needs ocaml, see above)

cd /XXX/mediawiki/math
gmake
./texvc_test

• Add the directory to the system path

Configuration

(to do)

Testing

• mw-render --config=http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/mediawiki/ --writer=odf --output=./edutech.odt Educational_technology
  • OK - Daniel K. Schneider 16:23, 4 May 2009 (UTC) (using version mwlib-41c207e76b28/)

mw-render --config=http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/mediawiki/ --writer=rl --output=./flash-cs3.pdf Flash_CS3_desktop_tutorial

• • OK - Daniel K. Schneider 16:23, 4 May 2009 (UTC) (using version mwlib-41c207e76b28/)

• mw-zip --config=http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/mediawiki/ --output=./edutech.zip Educational_technology
  • OK

mw-serv

MW Serv provides a server interface for the mw-render engine and mw-zip.

Run the server

• http://code.pediapress.com/hg/mwlib/raw-file/tip/docs/commands.txt
• By default this service runs on port 8899

mw-serve --cache-dir=/data/mwcache/mwlibcache/ &

Tweaking the collection extension

• http://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/Collection/README.txt

Add in Localsettings.php (if not already done) the rendering engines you will support. Typing mw-render --list-writers will list the ones you installed. E.g.

$wgCollectionFormats = array(
          'rl' => 'PDF',
          'odf' => 'ODT',
      );

Add in Localsettings.php if not already done the name and port of the server (altenatively you also could install a cgi script).

$wgCollectionMWServeURL = "http://xxx.yyy:8899";

Extra stuff:

$wgLicenseURL = "http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/fr/EduTech_Wiki:Copyrights";
$wgCollectionMaxArticles = 100;

Slowing down the page pulling

Problem: One ought to able to slow down the server. mw-render has an option for reducing threads. But no parameter can be set in the mw extension or the mwserver itself. Therefore, one has to build mwlib from source and change this:

mwlib/options.py

In about line 60, change the default, e.g. from 10 to 3 if your server can't cope.