administrators (basic)
Once you have
PmWiki running on your site (see
Installation), you can customize it for your particular needs.
Most
PmWiki configuration is performed in a file called
local/config.php. Some configuration is done on special pages in the
Site group, such as the
Site.SideBar menu.
The local configuration file (local/config.php)
When you first install
PmWiki, the
local/config.php file does not exist. Copy the
sample-config.php file (in the
docs/ directory) to
local/config.php and use it as a starting point. You could create
local/config.php from scratch, but
sample-config.php is already populated with many of the options you might want to adjust.
Here is a simple
config.php file:
<?php if (!defined('PmWiki')) exit();
$WikiTitle = "My New Wiki";
$PageLogoUrl = "http://www.example.com/mylogo.gif";
$DefaultPasswords['admin'] = crypt('onesecret');
$EnableUpload = 1;
$DefaultPasswords['upload'] = crypt('secrettwo');
putenv("TZ=EST5EDT");
$TimeFmt = '%B %d, %Y, at %I:%M %p EST';
Note that
config.php begins with
<?php
. The PHP end tag
?>
is optional, and can be left off to improve compatibility with some operating systems. Be sure there aren't any blank lines or spaces before the
<?php
or after any closing
?>
, or else you may get strange PHP error messages at the beginning of your wiki pages.
The
config.php file above sets the value of four PHP variables used by
PmWiki:
- The
$WikiTitle
variable gives the name of your site as it will appear in a user's browser title bar.
- The
$PageLogoUrl
variable specifies the URL of the icon image that will appear in the upper-left corner of each wiki page.
- The
$DefaultPasswords
['admin'] sets an administrative password.
- Setting
$EnableUpload
to "1" enables Uploads ("Attached files"). $DefaultPasswords
['upload'] sets an upload password.
- The TZ environment variable defines a particular time zone.
- The
$TimeFmt
variable defines the appearance of time strings and (along with TZ) localizes the wiki to a specific time zone.
By setting these (and other) variables in
local/config.php, you can change the look and feel of
PmWiki from its default, sometimes substantially so. See
PmWiki.Variables for a list of variables that
PmWiki uses, and see
PmWiki:PmWikiUsers for examples of sites that use
PmWiki in customized ways.
Setting an administrative password
The pages in the
Site group (except the
Site.SideBar) are locked by default. In order to edit pages in this group you need to create a site-wide admin password in
local/config.php. To set the site-wide admin password to "
mysecret
", change the line to the following:
$DefaultPasswords['admin'] = crypt('mysecret');
You must use the
crypt()
function, but set the password to a value with meaning for you. See
PasswordsAdmin for details about making the password more secure.
Don't modify or rename pmwiki.php
PmWiki has been designed so that all customizations can be made without changing the distribution files -- one of its design goals is to provide seamless upgrades.
PmWiki never writes to files in the
local/ or
cookbook/ directories, so placing your customizations here makes it easier to track the changes and
upgrade PmWiki without losing the changes.
When changing the configuration of your site, always change the
local/config.php file or add files to the
cookbook/ or
pub directories. Do not change
pmwiki.php or the files in the
scripts/ directory because the files are supposed to be overwritten upon upgrading.
You shouldn't rename
pmwiki.php either. If you rename the file it will not be overwritten during an upgrade of the software and there will be a version mismatch. Many administrators add an
index.php "wrapper script" in the pmwiki directory that contains the following single line:
<?php include('pmwiki.php');
Other customization
After setting up
local/config.php file, you may wish to make other
local customizations. See the
PmWiki Cookbook for a large number of customizations that have been contributed. And don't fear Cookbook recipes - they're well prepared, so that most of them require only to download a single file, add a one-line include command to
config.php
, and
voilą! - they're working!
If you (or others sharing your server) want to maintain more than one wiki on the same server, see
WikiFarms.
Now what?
Don't forget to join a
PmWiki mailing list, where you can email other
wiki administrators for help on customizing
PmWiki and participate in discussions about
PmWiki improvements. Once you have your site operational, be sure to add it to
PmWiki:PmWikiUsers so others will know about it!
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