16 January 2008

This is a blog item that needs to be converted to the new Bliki format

New MediaWikiLite Extension

The idea of MediaWikiLite is to allow the current MediaWiki codebase to run as a standalone server without requiring a database server or web-server. This forms the foundation for a number of alternative uses for the MediaWiki software in enviroments where the current LAMP architecture is too resource intensive.

• Personal wiki: Personal desktop wiki's are becoming very popular, but they do not use the MediaWiki parser, and making a fork of the parser code defeats the purpose.
• Embedded devices such as PDA's, iPod's and iPhone's can only run lite applications effectively and getting MediaWiki onto them would be very useful, especially if it's designed to synchronise with a web-based mirror when an internet connection is available.
• PeerPedia: A lite version of MediaWiki is required to make it a possible candidate for a client side wiki interface to a P2P article space.

The extension is now in beta state and can be viewed and tested at www.mediawikilite.org. Installation instructions, links to download and general discussion can be done at mediawiki.org in the Extension:MediaWikiLite article.