MediaWiki (nonfiction)
MediaWiki is wiki software written in PHP, initially released in 2002 for its use by Wikipedia. It powers several wiki hosting websites across the Internet, as well as most websites hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons, Wikiquote, Wikivoyage,[5] Meta-Wiki and Wikidata, which define a large part of the set requirements for the software.[6] Besides its usage on Wikimedia sites, MediaWiki has been used as a knowledge management and content management system on websites such as Fandom, wikiHow and major internal installations like Intellipedia and Diplopedia.
MediaWiki is written in the PHP programming language and stores all text content into a database. The software is optimized to efficiently handle large projects, which can have terabytes of content and hundreds of thousands of views per second.[6][7] Because Wikipedia is one of the world's largest and most visited websites, achieving scalability through multiple layers of caching and database replication has been a major concern for developers. Another major aspect of MediaWiki is its internationalization; its interface is available in more than 400 languages.[8] The software has hundreds of configuration settings[9] and more than 1,000 extensions available for enabling various features to be added or changed.[10] It was originally developed by Magnus Manske and later further enhanced by Lee Daniel Crocker,[11][12] after which development has been coordinated by the Wikimedia Foundation.
Migrate MediaWiki to desktop
Quick setup outline once everything is downloaded
Install Laragon (or XAMPP) and start Apache + MySQL/MariaDB.
Place the MediaWiki files in the web root (e.g., C:\laragon\www\wiki or C:\xampp\htdocs\wiki).
Create a new empty database via phpMyAdmin (or the stack’s database tool).
Import your SQL dump into that database.
Edit LocalSettings.php so the database credentials, $wgServer (usually http://localhost or http://wiki.test), and paths match the local environment.
Ensure the images/ folder is writable.
Open the site in your browser and test.
This local copy lets you verify the migration, fix path/URL issues, and test upgrades safely before touching the new live host.
- How to migrate to desktop @ Grok
Maintenance scripts
On Bluehost shared hosting you can run MediaWiki maintenance scripts via cPanel Cron Jobs. No root access is required. Bluehost limits shared-hosting cron jobs to a minimum interval of every 15 minutes (to protect server load).
- Grok @ X (9 August 2026)
