Installation tips for the Wikipedia Offline Server
Installation the software isn’t easy, I know. But here are some hints, annotations and tips as long as answers to the most questions:
- There is actually no convenient indexer. The indexing files are very large (en: 83 MB, de:17 MB). This is to much for my website. But it is possible to use Windows to index of course. Have a look at the comments.
- The web server “Apache” is not needed nor in any way involved. Apache cannot be used to server wikipedia pages. Of course you can use Apache for everything else, side by side.
- More worse, if Apache is installed, the wiki server cannot listen to port 80 and deliver pages. Port 80 is actually the default port for the wiki server and can only be change manually. Either change the server port for Apache or for the wiki server.
- To use a different port start the server from a command line (vt-100 terminal, ssh or so). Navigate to the “/Applications/WikiSrv.app/daemon” folder and run the server with “./wikisrvd -p 8080 -v-”. Instead of “8080″ you can use a different port if you like.
- I will add the ability to choose the port to the next release of the configuration program.
- The base path for the wiki server is “~/Media/Wikipedia/” (/private/var/root/Media/Wikipedia/).
- The wiki server can be used to deliver common html or other files. Simply put them into the base directory. This is then the root directory in the Safary browser. I.E. if you put “hello.html” into the folder ~/Media/Wikipedia/ you can load them in Safary with http://127.0.0.1/hello.html.
Again: Apache is not used here! - You can use Apache but then one of the servers (Apache or the WikiServer) must then run on a different port then 80.
- Everything that comes after the the virtual directory “wiki” (http://127.0.0.1/wiki/) will be threaded as the title of an articles and the software is looking for it. If found, the articles is displayed as a html page.
Hope it helps!
Januar 24th, 2008 at 01:25
Tom,
First of all thank you for this great job.
I have tried the English wiki and it is working properly.
Then I have tried the Spanish wiki and it works but some pages are displayed without any layout (all the data as a single block without any paragraphs, tables, templates, etc…).
You say that perhaps this efect is due to a incorrect language.config.
I have translate your language.config to spanish:
templatePrefix=Plantilla:
decimalSeperator=.
tocTitle=Contenidos
categoriesName=CategorÃas:
…
But the result is the same. I have just translate the names to spanish but I don’t know if this is correct way. I have read the explanation in the language.config but I can’t understand where must I look for this values: the original wiki pages, the xml splited, the articles.dat. Can you give more details about this matter?
Thnx in advance.
Januar 24th, 2008 at 02:58
TOMMMMMMMMM!!
I read your instructions over and over and I kept reading “You do not need Apache” and I thought I did to serve the pages but I know you told before I did not — so I turned Apache off– since setting the port did not make anything work
AND GUESS WHAT
I have the OFFLINE WIKIPEDIA!!
Thanks,
Gracias,
Dank,
Cheers
Januar 24th, 2008 at 03:04
Almost forgot– where do I donate? I use paypal but also have used Google checkout.
Januar 24th, 2008 at 03:15
Tom,
Here’s one strange thing.
If I run wikisrvd via the Summerboard/Springboard app then everything works.
If I terminal into the iTouch and run the command– just as above or changing the port number to say ‘9999′ then I see it running via ps -ax but I receive an error
“Safari can’t open the page because it could not connect to the server”
It must be something with rights/privileges that I need to set.
I am logged into the iTouch as root but something is missing.
Still it works through the app so I am happy!
Januar 24th, 2008 at 05:19
Conversation about offline Wikipedia here: http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19594
I have spoken about Tom’s app there and others have chimed in.
http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19594
Januar 24th, 2008 at 05:21
I can run wikisrvd manually successfully from the UNIX prompt– but again it only works on port 80. Any other port used comes back with the error.
Something weird is going on my iTouch.
BUT what do I care– I have the offline wikipedia working!
Januar 24th, 2008 at 09:53
Guys-
some short notes:
- Thanks for the support and I hope you all have fun with it.
- @Henry: Thanks for the offer, but Donation is not necessary.
- I will address the port configurtaion and the problems with the Spanish version next.
-Tom
Januar 25th, 2008 at 04:20
Hello again,
So I was able to recompile the articles and load them onto the touch, but now whenever I turn WikiServer on and launch the browser, the index page loads fine (as it did before) but when I search for the test page, I get either an error that says “Safari can’t connect to the server,” or “Safari can’t load this page. The error was: “lost network connection” (NSURLErrorDomain: -1005).”
Any idea what is going wrong here?
Januar 25th, 2008 at 05:16
I seem to be having the same issues as John Doe. I also launched the wikiserver using a ssh command line to see what was going on and it returned the following:
Wikpedia offline server
Copyright (c) 2007-2008 by Tom Haukap
This program uses the bzip2 library. Version 0.15
Base path set to ‘/var/root/Media/Wikipedia/’
Installed laguages are ‘en’, default is ‘en’
HTTP server listening on port 8080 on host 0.0.0.0
URL: GET /wiki/test HTTP/1.1
redirected to /wiki/en:test
URL: GET /wiki/en:test HTTP/1.1
terminate called after throwing an instance of ’std::out_of_range’
terminate called recursively
zsh: abort ./wikisrvd
Not sure what that means but any help would be appreciated.
Januar 25th, 2008 at 13:03
hey guys,
i just waited since months for an offline wikipedia app.
thank you for making this!
but i have windows.
so can somebody please tell me how to make it work with windows?
thank you very much!
Januar 26th, 2008 at 14:59
Report: Wikiserver work with jailbreaked 1.1.3
Januar 26th, 2008 at 16:20
Hello. Would someone please make the compiled windows version of this availabe online. I really want to use this program, and that is the only thing standing in my way. Please help me with this. Thank you so much!
Januar 26th, 2008 at 17:02
Congratuliations Tom!
Januar 27th, 2008 at 20:34
Ther is a problem with new official jailbreak. The program will run as “mobile” instead “root”, so I have to start it manually
Januar 27th, 2008 at 22:56
I have installed this to my iPod Touch and it works at first, but tapping on a link to go to another article often results in a server not available error. I uninstalled Apache so that it doesn’t interfere with the Wiki Server, but the problem persists.
Any advice?
Even with the problems I am having, congratulations on your work! It’s great to be able to carry around an entire Wikipedia. Hopefully it will be a bit more reliable in the next version.