[OpenLayers-Users] MediaWikia

[Robert J Becraft]

In response to my query about adding OpenLayers to MediaWikia, here are 
the instructions based on my research and success at accomplishing 
this.  Many thanks to Chris (as always), who got me to the right site to 
begin this discovery.  John, here are the instructions.

For those of you who may not be too familiar with how MediaWikia works, 
it is a combination of PHP, MySQL and Apache to serve up pages that are 
stored in the database.  It provides functionality to allow others to 
come into the site and add, modify and create new content.

I am using MediaWikia to store my creative content.

Step 1:  Install MediaWikia.  I used 11.0, the newest.  You can find 
MediaWikia at:  http://www.mediawiki.org.  You will have to meet the 
pre-reqs for PHP, MySQL and Apache.  If you want to play with this under 
Windows, find WAMP, a pre-configured package with PHP, MySQL and Apache 
on SourceForge.

Step 2: The Semantic_Layers extension for MediaWikia has a pre-req of 
Semantic MediaWiki.  This can be found at 
http://ontoworld.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki.  Well, actually, the code 
is on SourceForge, be sure to get the 0.7 version as the Semantic_Layers 
doesn't work with the 1.0 (newest).  It is an extension for MediaWiki as 
well.  Install it according to the instructions and verify it is 
functioning.  Part of the installation instructions are on the wiki and 
part are in the INSTALL document in the package.  I am not sure what 
functionality in this extension is specifically required for the 
Semantic_Layers code, it adds quite a bit of "stuff" to the Wiki.

Step 3: Install the Semantic_Layers extension.  This can be found at 
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_Layers.  I did this, 
created a page with one of the examples, and had Open_Layers on my 
Wiki.  I am a bit curious about this going forward since it appears the 
Semantic_Layers extension includes the Open_Layers code as part of the 
extension. 

The trick now is in making the right code substitutions in 
Semantic_Layers in order to add layers, markers and map sources to the 
wikia. 

I'm off to experiment now.

Regards,
Robert J Becraft
aka castlewrks at hughes.net
aka castlewrks at aol.com