Monday, November 30, 2009

Editthis.info upgrade

Editthis.info has gone through a major upgrade over the last week. It has been moved to a new database system (mysql->sqlite) and has been upgraded from mediawiki 1.5.5 to 1.15.1. This is basically a 3 year jump in versions.

Some of the reasons for the upgrade:
*Stability - The massive MySQL db has reached its scaling limit
*Security - More up to date usually is more secure
*Extensibility - Many extensions that I would like to add were not available in the older mediawiki
*Portability - With the ability to use sqlite with the new mediawiki codebase, I can easily move wikis and their databases (sqlite databases are single files) from one server to another. I may be adding a feature where you can download your wiki and host it elsewhere or on a flash drive.
*Features - There has been many subtle changes over the years that I wanted to catch up on.

I probably have about 5 other bullet points. The hesitation has been partly due to the complexity in making the transition. The other reason was that until recently the sqlite support has been very much in beta.

The change upgrade has not been smooth. I have had web server config issues, database overloading issues (trying to export too much at once), and database syntax issues (the database systems use slightly different syntax which has caused many problems).

Most of the wikis are now imported correctly, but there are plenty that have errors or no content. I am revisiting them and seeing why they didn't transfer correctly. I am suspecting it is just syntax issues. If your wiki is not working ... DON'T PANIC. The original that I am working off has been untouched, and it is just a matter of finessing it so that it translates correctly. If your wiki has problems, please post the url to the wiki here:
http://editthis.info/wiki/?title=Wikis_that_are_broken&action=edit

Other things that are missing but will be added in the next week:
*Control panel to manage logo, wiki title, and permissions
*Cookie error when you log in (it shows the error, but really the login worked)
*Create wiki and create wiki page not available

15 comments:

PHB said...

Thanks for your hard work!

Niffiwan said...

Thank you so much, Mr. Kohr!!

I'm very happy. Sortable tables work now. :)

Niffiwan said...

I will wait for the various user rights management functions to be re-added before I break out the champagne, though. :) (controlling what registered and unregistered users can do - whether unregistered users can set up an account or edit pages, etc.)

A few notes:
-I didn't get any cookie error when I logged in
-it seems to be possible to create a new page within a wiki (I didn't take the final step of actually creating the page, though)

Rob Kohr said...

@niffiwan

Just added the new page form back today.

Right now it is just coffee for me. Champagne is for later (or maybe just a beer :)

I am glad to hear about the sortable tables. It is really a useful feature.

Parker Jones said...

I'm getting:

Fatal error: Function name must be a string in /home/editthis/www/common/extensions/helper_functions.php on line 3

http://editthis.info/vet/

Unknown said...

I have a Mediawiki Internal Error:

http://editthis.info/bywpedia

Niffiwan said...

The whole site seems to currently be offline.

Brett Slocum said...

I was worried when everything was very slow (since speed was the main reason I switched from my own PHPWiki), and then everything went down over the weekend. And then when it came back up today, many links came back empty.

But now, everything seems to be working correctly, and the speed is better than before.

I'm very happy.

I'll be even happier when I can add my logo.

Brett Slocum said...

BTW, I updated the info in the Wikiversity.org Wiki Farm page to include the new MediaWiki version number.

Rob Kohr said...

Thanks Brett,

If you would like, you can add the wiki to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_farms

To do so you would also need to create a wikipedia page for it.

EditThis.info has an alexa site rank of 153,554 which beats out 4 of the 12 top wiki farms listed on that page

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/editthis.info

I have been a wikipedia editor in the past, but I feel it would be bad mojo for me to post anything myself. You can of course ask me for information myself that you can use it. Just ask on the new discussion group so that you have something to use to cite for fact checking.

http://groups.google.com/group/editthisinfo

Brett Slocum said...

I've updated the Wikipedia wiki farm comparison with the data from the Wikiversity comparison. Much more comprehensive and up to date.

I'll ask technical questions about the data for editthis.info on the mailing list as soon as I'm approved on that list.

P.S. editthis.info seems to be down. I'm sure you know this, just wanted to know if there's an ETU (i.e. Estimated Time of Upness)?

Brett Slocum said...

Now I'm getting "Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 14680064) (tried to allocate 56 bytes) in /home/editthis/www/dev.editthis.info/mediawiki-1.15.1/includes/parser/ParserOptions.php on line 29" errors.

Brett Slocum said...

Upness achieved! Thanks!

Niffiwan said...

Brett, it looks like your Wikipedia edit was reverted.

Brett Slocum said...

@niffiwan

Thanks. I violated the plan for that page, which is that only wiki farms with a separate Wikipedia entry were eligible. The Wikiversity article is meant to be more comprehensive and is pointed at somewhere in the Wikipedia article.

Now I'm working on getting info to make an article for editthis.info on Wikipedia.