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How to install MediaWiki on your hosting account

This guide shows you how to set up MediaWiki, the software that powers wiki websites, on your hosting account.

How-To Guides2 min read22 steps

What is MediaWiki?

A wiki is a website that many people can edit together. MediaWiki is free software for building one. It runs on PHP and stores its pages in a MySQL database. A database is an organised store for your data.

Before you start

  • Your domain should point to your hosting account.
  • Log in to your hosting control panel. Your welcome email has the login details. You can also sign in to the client area.

Option 1: Use an auto-installer

Many control panels have an installer such as Softaculous. Ask Hostvento support whether it is on your plan.

  1. Open the installer in your control panel.
  2. Search for MediaWiki.
  3. Click Install.
  4. Choose your domain. Leave the folder box empty to install on the main address.
  5. Enter a wiki name, an admin username, a strong password and your email.
  6. Click Install and wait for the success message.

Option 2: Install by hand

  1. Download MediaWiki from the official MediaWiki website. You get a .tar.gz file.
  2. In your control panel, open File Manager.
  3. Open the folder for your site, often called public_html.
  4. Click Upload and add the file.
  5. Right-click the file and choose Extract.
  6. Move the files out of the extracted folder into your site folder, if you want the wiki on the main address.
  7. Go back to the control panel and open MySQL Databases.
  8. Create a new database, a new user and a strong password. Add the user to the database with all privileges.
  9. Write down the database name, user and password.
  10. Open your site address in a browser. The setup page appears.
  11. Choose your language and click Continue.
  12. Enter the database details. The host is usually localhost.
  13. Enter your wiki name and an admin account.
  14. Finish the steps. The installer offers a file called LocalSettings.php to download.
  15. Upload LocalSettings.php to the main MediaWiki folder.
  16. Open your site again. Your wiki is ready.
Tip: Keep LocalSettings.php private. It holds your database password. Take a backup of it.

After install

  • Log in with your admin account and add a first page.
  • Consider limiting who may edit, so spam does not fill the wiki.
  • Update MediaWiki when new versions appear.

Quick recap

  • MediaWiki is free wiki software that needs PHP and a database.
  • An auto-installer is the easiest way.
  • Manual install means upload, create a database, run the setup page, then upload LocalSettings.php.
  • Keep your settings file private.