MediaWiki

MediaWiki (hereinafter, the Software) is a free and open-source wiki software. The Software was originally developed for Wikipedia, but now the Software runs on many websites and has become the dominant software in its category. The Software is written in the PHP programming language and stores the contents into a set of databases.

The software is optimized to efficiently handle large projects, which can have terabytes of content and hundreds of thousands of hits per second. According to MediaWiki, achieving scalability through multiple layers of caching and database replication has been a major concern for developers. The software has more than 900 configuration settings and more than 1,900 extensions available for enabling various features to be added or changed.

On Wikipedia alone, more than 1000 automated and semi-automated bots and other tools have been developed to assist in editing. It has also been deployed by some companies as an internal knowledge management system, and some educators have assigned students to use the Software for collaborative group projects.

Permitted user roles

Permitted user roles are specific access and ability permissions that can be assigned to customizable user groups.

Any user

Any user (including anonymous) is permitted to use the following functions in the version of the Software that is used for CNM Wikiware.

Category	Right	Description	User groups that have this right
Reading	read	WhitelistRead>	*, user
Editing
createaccount	createaccount - register / registration	*
createpage	1>edit</> right	*, user
createtalk	1>edit</> right	*, user
edit	edit	*, user
Management	editmyoptions	editmyoptions	*
	editmyprivateinfo	editmyprivateinfo	*
	editmyusercss	editmyusercss	*
editmyuserjs	editmyuserjs	*
editmywatchlist	editmywatchlist	*
viewmyprivateinfo	viewmyprivateinfo	*
viewmywatchlist	viewmywatchlist	*
Technical	writeapi	writeapi	*, user, bot

Registered user

Any user with his or her registered account, when he or she is identified, is permitted to use the following functions in the version of the Software that is used for CNM Wikiware.

Category	Right	Description	User groups that have this right
Reading	read	WhitelistRead>	*, user
Editing	applychangetags	applychangetags	user
	createpage	1>edit</> right	*, user
	createtalk	1>edit</> right	*, user
	edit	edit	*, user
	move	1>edit</> right	user
	move-categorypages	1>move</> right)	user
	move-rootuserpages	1>move</> right	user
	move-subpages	1>move</> right	user
	movefile	1>move</> right and <tvar|AllowImageMoving>{{ll|Manual:$wgAllowImageMoving|$wgAllowImageMoving</> to be true	user
	reupload	1>upload</> right	user
	reupload-shared	1>upload</> right)	user
	sendemail	sendemail	user
	upload	1>edit</> right	user
Management	changetags	changetags - 104--> currently unused by extensions	user
	editmyuserjson	editmyuserjson	user
Technical	minoredit	minoredit	user
	purge	purge - 135--> [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:URL</>|URL parameter]] "&action=purge"	user
	writeapi	writeapi	*, user, bot

Autoconfirmed

Any user with his or her registered account, when he or she is identified and confirmed that his or her age confirms requirements established by the Software, is permitted to use the following functions in the version of the Software that is used for CNM Wikiware.

|<translate> registered accounts at least as old as <tvar|AutoConfirmAge>Template:Ll</> and having at least as many edits as <tvar|AutoConfirmCount>Template:Ll</>.</translate> |autoconfirmed, editsemiprotected

Category	Right	Description	User groups that have this right
Editing	editsemiprotected	editsemiprotected - 79--> without cascading protection	autoconfirmed
Technical	autoconfirmed	autoconfirmed - 145--> used for the 'autoconfirmed' group, see the other table below for more information	autoconfirmed, bot, sysop

Bot

accounts with the bot right (intended for automated scripts). |autoconfirmed, autopatrol, apihighlimits, bot, editsemiprotected, nominornewtalk, suppressredirect, writeapi

Category	Right	Description	User groups that have this right
Administration	autopatrol	UseRCPatrol>{{ll|Manual:$wgUseRCPatrol|$wgUseRCPatrol</> must be true	bot, sysop
Technical	apihighlimits	apihighlimits	bot, sysop
	autoconfirmed	autoconfirmed - 145--> used for the 'autoconfirmed' group, see the other table below for more information	autoconfirmed, bot, sysop
	bot	bot - 134--> can optionally be viewed	bot
	nominornewtalk	nominornewtalk - 137--> requires minor edit right	bot
	suppressredirect	suppressredirect	bot, sysop
	writeapi	writeapi	*, user, bot

Sysop

users who by default can delete and restore pages, block and unblock users, et cetera.

Category	Right	Description	User groups that have this right
Editing	editprotected	editprotected - 78--> without cascading protection	sysop
	upload_by_url	1>upload</> right	sysop
Management
	bigdelete	bigdelete	sysop
	block	block - 92--> Block options include preventing editing and registering new accounts, and autoblocking other users on the same IP address	sysop
	blockemail	blockemail - 93--> allows preventing use of the Special:Emailuser interface when blocking	sysop
	browsearchive	browsearchive - 89--> through Special:Undelete	sysop
	delete	1>'undelete'</> right, see below	sysop
	deletedhistory	deletedhistory	sysop
	deletedtext	deletedtext	sysop
	editinterface	editinterface - 106--> contains [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Interface</>|interface messages]]	sysop, interface-admin
	markbotedits	markbotedits - 101--> see [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Administrators#Rollback</>|Manual:Administrators#Rollback]]	sysop
	mergehistory	mergehistory	sysop
	patrol	UseRCPatrol>{{ll|Manual:$wgUseRCPatrol|$wgUseRCPatrol</> must be true	sysop
	protect	protect	sysop
	rollback	rollback	sysop
	unblockself	unblockself - 96--> Without it, an administrator that has the capability to block cannot unblock themselves if blocked by another administrator	sysop
	undelete	undelete	sysop
Administration	autopatrol	UseRCPatrol>{{ll|Manual:$wgUseRCPatrol|$wgUseRCPatrol</> must be true	bot, sysop
	import	import - 126--> “transwiki”	sysop
	importupload	importupload - 128--> This right was called 'importraw' in and before version 1.5	sysop
	managechangetags	managechangetags - 132--> currently unused by extensions	sysop
	unwatchedpages	unwatchedpages - 131--> lists pages that no user has watchlisted	sysop
Technical	apihighlimits	apihighlimits	bot, sysop
	autoconfirmed	autoconfirmed - 145--> used for the 'autoconfirmed' group, see the other table below for more information	autoconfirmed, bot, sysop
	ipblock-exempt	ipblock-exempt	sysop
	noratelimit	noratelimit - 138--> not affected by [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:$wgRateLimits</>|rate limits]] (prior to the introduction of this right, the configuration variable <tvar|RateLimitsExcludedGroups>{{ll|Manual:$wgRateLimitsExcludedGroups|$wgRateLimitsExcludedGroups</> was used for this purpose)	sysop, bureaucrat
	suppressredirect	suppressredirect	bot, sysop

|createaccount, editsemiprotected, editusercss, edituserjs, move, move-categorypages, move-rootuserpages, move-subpages, movefile, proxyunbannable, reupload, reupload-shared, upload

Bureaucrat

Users who by default can change other users' rights.

Category	Right	Description	User groups that have this right
Management	userrights	AddGroups>{{ll|Manual:$wgAddGroups|$wgAddGroups</> and <tvar|RemoveGroups>{{ll|Manual:$wgRemoveGroups|$wgRemoveGroups</> you can set the possibility to add/remove certain groups instead of all	bureaucrat
Administration	noratelimit	Not affected by [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:$wgRateLimits</>|rate limits]] (prior to the introduction of this right, the configuration variable <tvar|RateLimitsExcludedGroups>{{ll|Manual:$wgRateLimitsExcludedGroups|$wgRateLimitsExcludedGroups</> was used for this purpose)	sysop, bureaucrat

Legacy functions and roles

Category	Right	Description	User groups that have this right
Editing	autocreateaccount	autocreateaccount - 210--> a more limited version of createaccount
	reupload-own	1>upload</> right (note that this is not needed if the group already has the <tvar|reupload>reupload</> right)
Management
deletelogentry	deletelogentry - 121--> allows deleting/undeleting information (action text, summary, user who made the action) of specific log entries (not available by default)
deleterevision	deleterevision - 122--> allows deleting/undeleting information (revision text, edit summary, user who made the edit) of specific revisions 123--> Split into deleterevision and deletelogentry in 1.20 (not available by default)
editcontentmodel	editcontentmodel
editinterface	editinterface - 106--> contains [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Interface</>|interface messages]]	sysop, interface-admin
editsitecss	editsitecss	interface-admin
editsitejs	editsitejs	interface-admin
editsitejson	editsitejson	interface-admin
editusercss	editusercss	interface-admin
edituserjs	edituserjs	interface-admin
edituserjson	edituserjson	interface-admin
hideuser	HideUserContribLimit>{{wg|HideUserContribLimit</> to disable.
pagelang	PageLanguageUseDB>{{ll|Manual:$wgPageLanguageUseDB|$wgPageLanguageUseDB</> must be true
patrolmarks	patrolmarks
suppressionlog	suppressionlog
suppressrevision	suppressrevision - 119--> Prior to 1.13 this right was named hiderevision (not available by default)
userrights-interwiki	userrights-interwiki
viewsuppressed	viewsuppressed - 120--> i.e. a more narrow alternative to "suppressrevision" (not available by default)
Administration
autopatrol	UseRCPatrol>{{ll|Manual:$wgUseRCPatrol|$wgUseRCPatrol</> must be true	bot, sysop
siteadmin	siteadmin - 124--> which blocks all interactions with the web site except viewing. 125--> Disabled by default

Security

As any open-source software, the Wiki is vulnerable to external attacks:

• https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Security
• https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers

Getting started

• Configuration settings list
• MediaWiki FAQ
• MediaWiki release mailing list
• Localise MediaWiki for your language