PmWiki is a highly flexible, file-based wiki engine written in PHP that requires no database, making it exceptionally easy to set up, customize, and maintain. Because it stores pages as standard text files, it is highly portable and runs efficiently on almost any web server. ⚙️ 1. Setup and Installation
Setting up PmWiki involves basic web hosting tasks and can be completed in minutes.
Download: Get the latest stable archive (.tgz or .zip) directly from the official PmWiki Downloads page.
Unpack: Extract the files and upload the resulting directory to your web server (e.g., via FTP or command line to your public_html or /var/www/html/pmwiki directory).
Initialize: Open your web browser and navigate to the pmwiki.php file on your server. PmWiki will automatically analyze your configuration and attempt to create a data directory called wiki.d/.
Permissions: If the script cannot create wiki.d/ automatically, create it manually via FTP/SSH and change its permissions using chmod 777 wiki.d so the server can write files to it. 🎨 2. Customization
The core ethos of PmWiki is to keep the base code lightweight and offload specific visual or functional traits to configuration files and external scripts.
Local Configuration: All primary settings are managed by creating or editing a file named local/config.php. This file controls passwords, site names, and global variables.
Skins (Themes): Change the visual layout by changing the skin. Download a theme from the official registry, upload it to the pub/skins/ folder, and activate it in your configuration file using \(Skin = 'skin-name';</code>.</p> <p><strong>Cookbook (Plugins)</strong>: PmWiki features a community repository called the <strong>Cookbook</strong>. You can add features like contact forms, calendars, blog layouts, or advanced editors by downloading cookbook scripts and including them in <code>local/config.php</code>. 💡 3. Power-User Tips</p> <p><strong>Clean URLs</strong>: By default, PmWiki links include <code>pmwiki.php?n=Group.Page</code>. You can use Apache <code>.htaccess</code> rewrite rules or Nginx configurations to shorten these to clean, readable links like <code>://example.com</code>.</p> <p><strong>Granular Access Control</strong>: PmWiki allows you to restrict read, write, or upload permissions site-wide, for a specific page group, or for an individual page. You can set a site-wide admin password directly via <code>\)DefaultPasswords[‘admin’] = pmcrypt(‘yourpassword’); in your configuration.
Per-Group Customization: You can customize settings for a single WikiGroup by creating a file named after that group inside the local/ folder (e.g., local/Main.php). This lets you apply distinct skins or access rules to specific sections of your wiki.
Are you setting this up for a personal knowledge base or a collaborative team project? Tell me your goal, and I can provide the exact PHP lines or server configuration commands you need. Some PmWiki tricks
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