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Mediawiki

See also the MediaWiki Documentation, particularly the User’s Guide and the Editor’s Guide

The front page for all CS wikis is https://wiki.cs.umd.edu. Ask staff if you don’t want your wiki listed.

Creating new accounts

If account creation is restricted or you just want to create an account for someone, return to the login page without logging out, and choose to create a new account.

The login page is listed in the Special Pages link of the Toolbox submenu on the left pane, or use this URL template: https://wiki.cs.umd.edu/ < wikiname > /index.php?title=Special:Userlogin&type=signup

You must have been granted the privilege to create new accounts for this to work for you.

Granting permissions to a user

  1. If you have permission to grant rights to other users (usually the Bureaucrat role), click on the Special Pages link on the Toolbox submenu on the left panel.

  2. Scroll to the bottom and select User rights management from the Restricted Special pages section at the bottom.

    You can also go directly to the URL using this template: https://wiki.cs.umd.edu/ < wikiname > /index.php?title=Special%3AUserrights

  3. Enter the username whose rights you wish to change, then use the interface to modify their group membership.

If you need a group changed or added, you will need to contact staff.

Editing the navigation bar

You must be a member of the Sysops group to modify the navigation bar. See the Mediawiki Documentation.

Other Available Features

Some Mediawiki changes must be made by staff because they require shell access on the web servers.

  • Requiring email authentication before users may edit

  • Restricting edits to registered users

  • Specifying a list of pages that anonymous users may see

  • Disallowing anonymous users create new accounts

  • Changing the site logo

  • Enabling inline TeX

  • Modifying groups and group rights (Mediawiki documentation)

  • Restricting the wiki to specific kerberos-authenticated users

    Access to the wiki as a whole may be restricted to a certain subset of users with department kerberos passwords. Note that this is a separate authentication method from the wiki’s internal user login. The kerberos authentication will allow you to prevent anyone except a specified list of local users from even seeing your wiki. Those users will also be subject to any local authentication or restrictions on the wiki once they are authenticated to view it.

    Let staff know the CS usernames of the people who should have access to the wiki.

    It is not possible to use kerberos access control and also allow anonymous users to view the wiki.

  • Limiting access to parts of your wiki

    Mediawiki namespacing can be used to restrict access to some pages. This requires coordination between the wiki owner and staff.