Migration from MediaWiki to BlueSpice

Before you start

It is important to check the compatibility of your current MediaWiki installation and the BlueSpice version to which you want to migrate:

• BlueSpice Version 3.x is based on MediaWiki 1.31.x
• BlueSpice version 4.x is based on MediaWiki 1.35.x (BlueSpice 4 has not yet been released)

Backup

Create a full backup of your current installation. Commands may differ depending on your operating system.

1. Create a directory to store the backup:

   mkdir -p /opt/mediawiki-migration-backup/{db,web}

   
   
2. Create the database dump:

   mysqldump -u DB_USER_OR_ROOT -p MEDIAWIKI_DATABASE_NAME > /opt/mediawiki-migration-backup/db/database.sql

   
   
3. Copy everything in the web root to the backup folder:

   cp -Rvf /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/* /opt/mediawiki-migration-backup/web/

   
   

We will use this backup later for the migration process as well.

Preparing the migration

You can create a separate user account and database for BlueSpice. This step is optional but recommended. The following steps are based on such a separately created user and database.

If you choose not to create a separate user account and database, replace the following commands accordingly.

1. Create a MySQL/MariaDB user via MySQL CLI:

   CREATE USER 'bluespice'@'localhost' IDENFITIED BY 'PleaseChooseAComplexPassword';
   

   
   
2. Create a database for BlueSpice via MySQL CLI:

   CREATE DATABASE bluespice;
   

   
   
3. Grant the required privileges for the bluespice user to the bluespice database via MySQL CLI:

   GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON bluespice.* TO 'bluespice'@'localhost';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   

   Now we have an empty SQL database and are ready to import.

Importing the data

1. Import the SQL dump from the backup you created earlier:

   mysql -u bluespice -p bluespice < /opt/mediawiki-migration-backup/db/database.sql
   

   After this command, enter the password you chose for the bluespice database user.
2. Next, clean up the old installation folder and create an empty one.

   rm -Rf /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/
   

   and

   mkdir -p /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/
   

   
   
3. Next, extract the BlueSpice package and place it into the /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/

   cd /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/
   

   
   
4. Copy the images folder from the backup to the /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/ :

   cp -Rf /opt/mediawiki-migration-backup/images .
   

5. Set the correct permissions based on your operating system to the folder /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/ .

Configuration settings

1. In /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/, create a new file named LocalSettings.php and copy the following content into the file:

     1 <?php
     2 # This file was automatically generated by the MediaWiki 1.35.3
     3 # installer. If you make manual changes, please keep track in case you
     4 # need to recreate them later.
     5 #
     6 # See includes/DefaultSettings.php for all configurable settings
     7 # and their default values, but don't forget to make changes in _this_
     8 # file, not there.
     9 #
    10 # Further documentation for configuration settings may be found at:
    11 # https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Configuration_settings
    12 
    13 # Protect against web entry
    14 if ( !defined( 'MEDIAWIKI' ) ) {
    15 	exit;
    16 }
    17 
    18 
    19 ## Uncomment this to disable output compression
    20 # $wgDisableOutputCompression = true;
    21 
    22 $wgSitename = "YOUR_WIKI_NAME";
    23 
    24 ## The URL base path to the directory containing the wiki;
    25 ## defaults for all runtime URL paths are based off of this.
    26 ## For more information on customizing the URLs
    27 ## (like /w/index.php/Page_title to /wiki/Page_title) please see:
    28 ## https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Short_URL
    29 $wgScriptPath = "/w"; # <--- PLEASE CHECK YOUR DOCUMENTROOT
    30 
    31 ## The protocol and server name to use in fully-qualified URLs
    32 $wgServer = "http(s)://your-domain.ltd";
    33 
    34 ## The URL path to static resources (images, scripts, etc.)
    35 $wgResourceBasePath = $wgScriptPath;
    36 
    37 ## The URL paths to the logo.  Make sure you change this from the default,
    38 ## or else you'll overwrite your logo when you upgrade!
    39 $wgLogos = [ '1x' => "$wgResourceBasePath/resources/assets/wiki.png" ];
    40 
    41 ## UPO means: this is also a user preference option
    42 
    43 $wgEnableEmail = true;
    44 $wgEnableUserEmail = true; # UPO
    45 
    46 $wgEmergencyContact = "nomail@localhost.localdomain";
    47 $wgPasswordSender = "nomail@localhost.localdomain";
    48 
    49 $wgEnotifUserTalk = false; # UPO
    50 $wgEnotifWatchlist = false; # UPO
    51 $wgEmailAuthentication = true;
    52 
    53 ## Database settings
    54 $wgDBtype = "mysql";
    55 $wgDBserver = "YOUR_DATABASE_SERVER";
    56 $wgDBname = "bluespice";
    57 $wgDBuser = "bluespice";
    58 $wgDBpassword = "PleaseChooseAComplexPassword";
    59 
    60 # MySQL specific settings
    61 $wgDBprefix = "";
    62 
    63 # MySQL table options to use during installation or update
    64 $wgDBTableOptions = "ENGINE=InnoDB, DEFAULT CHARSET=binary";
    65 
    66 # Shared database table
    67 # This has no effect unless $wgSharedDB is also set.
    68 $wgSharedTables[] = "actor";
    69 
    70 ## Shared memory settings
    71 $wgMainCacheType = CACHE_NONE;
    72 $wgMemCachedServers = [];
    73 
    74 ## To enable image uploads, make sure the 'images' directory
    75 ## is writable, then set this to true:
    76 $wgEnableUploads = false;
    77 $wgUseImageMagick = true;
    78 $wgImageMagickConvertCommand = "/usr/bin/convert";
    79 
    80 # InstantCommons allows wiki to use images from https://commons.wikimedia.org
    81 $wgUseInstantCommons = false;
    82 
    83 # Periodically send a pingback to https://www.mediawiki.org/ with basic data
    84 # about this MediaWiki instance. The Wikimedia Foundation shares this data
    85 # with MediaWiki developers to help guide future development efforts.
    86 $wgPingback = false;
    87 
    88 ## If you use ImageMagick (or any other shell command) on a
    89 ## Linux server, this will need to be set to the name of an
    90 ## available UTF-8 locale. This should ideally be set to an English
    91 ## language locale so that the behaviour of C library functions will
    92 ## be consistent with typical installations. Use $wgLanguageCode to
    93 ## localise the wiki.
    94 $wgShellLocale = "C.UTF-8";
    95 
    96 ## Set $wgCacheDirectory to a writable directory on the web server
    97 ## to make your wiki go slightly faster. The directory should not
    98 ## be publicly accessible from the web.
    99 #$wgCacheDirectory = "$IP/cache";
   100 
   101 # Site language code, should be one of the list in ./languages/data/Names.php
   102 $wgLanguageCode = "en";
   103 
   104 $wgSecretKey = "68a265061a4101d0d3dee2a06eeb734abaa6710a7dbe103838f2a26a50fc7835";
   105 
   106 # Changing this will log out all existing sessions.
   107 $wgAuthenticationTokenVersion = "1";
   108 
   109 # Site upgrade key. Must be set to a string (default provided) to turn on the
   110 # web installer while LocalSettings.php is in place
   111 $wgUpgradeKey = "8775d57b99d672b8";
   112 
   113 ## For attaching licensing metadata to pages, and displaying an
   114 ## appropriate copyright notice / icon. GNU Free Documentation
   115 ## License and Creative Commons licenses are supported so far.
   116 $wgRightsPage = ""; # Set to the title of a wiki page that describes your license/copyright
   117 $wgRightsUrl = "";
   118 $wgRightsText = "";
   119 $wgRightsIcon = "";
   120 
   121 # Path to the GNU diff3 utility. Used for conflict resolution.
   122 $wgDiff3 = "/usr/bin/diff3";
   123 
   124 ## Default skin: you can change the default skin. Use the internal symbolic
   125 ## names, ie 'vector', 'monobook':
   126 $wgDefaultSkin = "bluespicecalumma";
   127 
   128 # End of automatically generated settings.
   129 # Add more configuration options below.
   130 
   131 
   132 # This is the main settings file for all BlueSpice extensions and settings
   133 # It will include all files in "$IP/settings.d/" directory
   134 require_once "$IP/LocalSettings.BlueSpice.php";
   135 
   136 
   137 $wgUserMergeProtectedGroups = array();
   138 $wgUserMergeUnmergeable = array();
   139 $wgMetaNamespace = 'Project';
   140 $bsgGroupRoles['*']['reader'] = false;
   141 
   142 # Convenience for debugging
   143 # $wgShowSQLErrors = true;
   144 # $wgDebugDumpSql  = true;
   145 # $wgShowExceptionDetails = true;
   146 # $wgShowDBErrorBacktrace = true;
   

2. Edit this LocalSettings.php and set the correct values to fit your installation. This current LocalSettings.php might look like different from your MediaWiki installation, because BlueSpice comes with a separate folder for custom settings (settings.d).
   

Migrating the system

The system is ready to migrate.

1. Run the following script to start the migration:

   php /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/maintenance/update.php --quick
   

   Now BlueSpice should be reachable.
2. Finally execute the following additional scripts:

   php /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/maintenance/rebuildall.php Finally for the search index (ElasticSearch 6.x and ingest-attachment plugins must be installed) php /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/extensions/BlueSpiceExtendedSearch/maintenance/initBackends.php --quick
   php /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/extensions/BlueSpiceExtendedSearch/maintenance/rebuildIndex.php --quick
   php /PATH/TO/MEDIAWIKI/FOLDER/maintenance/runJobs.php --memory-limit=max
   

   
   

Your migration is complete and your BlueSpice is ready to use!

You can use your old credentials to login.

Questions? Visit the BlueSpice help forum on sourceforge.net.