MediaWiki — free, extensible wiki server software

Overview and purpose

MediaWiki provides the core functions expected of a modern wiki: editable pages, revision history, user accounts and permissions, talk pages, categories, and search. It stores page content in a database and renders pages on demand using a markup language known as wikitext. Because it was built to handle very high traffic, it includes facilities for caching, job queues, and integration with HTTP accelerators to support large sites.

Components and technical characteristics

At its core, MediaWiki is implemented in PHP and uses a relational database such as MySQL or compatible systems for persistent storage. Pages are written using a simplified markup so contributors do not need to know XHTML or CSS to edit content. The software separates presentation (skins) from functionality and supports extensions to add features such as multimedia handling, visual editors, or authentication connectors.

Features and extensibility

• Revision control: every edit is retained, allowing comparisons and reversions.
• Namespaces and access control: structural separation for content, user pages, and technical pages.
• Templates and transclusion: reusable page fragments to maintain consistency.
• Extensions and skins: plug-ins that extend behavior or change appearance without altering core code.
• Media management: upload and serve images and other files, often stored on the filesystem or integrated storage backends.

History and development

MediaWiki emerged in the early 2000s as a rewrite of earlier wiki software to meet the performance and feature needs of a rapidly growing online encyclopedia community. Its development has been collaborative: an active community contributes code, documentation and translations, and many projects coordinate through public repositories and issue trackers. The licensing under the GNU General Public License makes the codebase available for reuse and modification, reinforcing its standing as both free content infrastructure and an open source project.

Uses, deployments and notable examples

The best-known deployment of MediaWiki is the set of Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, which showcase its ability to support multilingual, high-traffic encyclopedic content. Outside Wikimedia, organizations use MediaWiki for documentation portals, knowledge bases, intranets, and collaborative publishing. Popular use cases include technical documentation, educational resources, and community-run encyclopedias.

Important distinctions and considerations

MediaWiki is optimized for collaborative hypertext rather than for arbitrary content management; it excels at interlinked pages, versioning, and community moderation. Deploying and administrating a large MediaWiki installation typically requires system administration skills (web server, database tuning, caching) and an understanding of available extensions to tailor behavior. Because the software is extensible, sites can be customized heavily, but that customization can complicate upgrades and interoperability.

For further technical references and community information consult the project home page and developer documentation, or explore external resources linked from the official site and community portals (license details, content policies, open source contributions, programming language, database options, markup basics, styling and skins).