Dashboard/Import/Offline

From XOWA: the free, open-source, offline wiki application

Use this form to import a wiki. See the instructions below.


Wiki:

Where to get the dump:

Uncompress:

Category system:[1]

Import:

[2]

[3]

Instructions

With internet connection

Follow these instructions if you have an internet connection. This process will automatically download and import your selected wiki.

  • Review the storage format options at Options/Import
  • Choose the wiki you wish to install.
  • Choose if XOWA should decompress the dump file or if XOWA should read from the compressed dump (this will be slower).
    • decompress the dump file: This will be faster, but it will need additional disk space. For example, a 10 GB .bz2 file will create another 25 GB .xml file. Note that the additional .xml file is deleted when the import completes.
    • read from compressed dump: This will be slower, but it will not use additional disk space. For example, a 2 hour import for "decompress first" may take 2.5 hours for "read from compressed dump". Note that this slowness only affects import; the generated wiki will perform the same as a "decompress first" import
  • Click "Import now". A message box will pop up when the wiki is installed.

Other notes:

  • If you choose to decompress the dump file:
    • The uncompressed file will be stored in the wiki directory. For example, if you've chosen simple.wikipedia.org, the path will be /xowa/wiki/simple.wikipedia.org/simplewiki-latest-pages-articles.xml
    • The uncompressed dump file will be automatically deleted when the process completes
  • The dump file (.bz2) will not be deleted
    • If you are downloading the dump file, it will be automatically moved to /xowa/wiki/#dump/done/ when completed
    • If you are importing from a dump file, the dump file will remain in the same location
  • If you want to remove a wiki, see App/Import/Removal

Without internet connection

Follow these instructions if you don't have an internet connection or if you have other reasons not to use the automatic import.

Getting the files

  • Go to http://dumps.wikimedia.org/ and search for your wiki's directory. For example, Simple Wikipedia is http://dumps.wikimedia.org/simplewiki/
    • Download the main wikitext file: the file will be named wiki-date-pages-articles.xml.bz2.
    • Download two additional files for the category system:
      • wiki-date-categorylinks.sql.gz
      • wiki-date-page_props.sql.gz.
    • Download an additional file for sorting search results by PageRank
      • wiki-date-pagelinks.sql.gz.
  • Place these files in either of these locations:
    • /xowa/wiki/wiki_domain/ where wiki_domain should be replaced with the name of the wiki. For example, if you're using Simple Wikipedia then the files should be placed in /xowa/wiki/simple.wikipedia.org/
      • This is the recommended location. XOWA will automatically detect all files placed in the wiki directory.
    • /anywhere_else_on_your_system/
      • If you don't have enough disk space on the disk where XOWA is installed, you can place the dump file in a directory on any other disk. You will need to select the file during the import process.
      • Note that only the wiki dump file can be placed anywhere. The category and pagelinks files must be in /xowa/wiki/wiki_domain/
  • Decompress the dump files manually if you want to (it may be slightly faster than having XOWA do it)

Running the import

  • Review the storage format options at Options/Import
  • Choose the wiki you wish to install.
    • If you've placed the wiki dump file in another location, you will need to select "read from file" and enter the location of that file.
  • Choose if XOWA should decompress the dump file (this will need additional disk space) or if XOWA should read from the compressed dump (this will be slower).
    • Note that this option will be ignored when you already decompressed the files manually.
  • Click "Import now". A message box will pop up when the wiki is installed.
  • Download the logo for the wiki whenever you are next online. The logo should be placed in xowa/user/anonymous/wiki/wiki/html/logo.png.

Other notes:

  • If you choose to automatically decompress the dump file:
    • The uncompressed file will be stored in the wiki directory. For example, if you've chosen simple.wikipedia.org, the path will be /xowa/wiki/simple.wikipedia.org/simplewiki-latest-pages-articles.xml
    • The uncompressed dump file will be automatically deleted when the process completes
  • The dump file (.bz2) will not be deleted
    • If you are downloading the dump file, it will be automatically moved to /xowa/wiki/#dump/done/ when completed
    • If you are importing from a dump file, the dump file will remain in the same location

Upgrade category system

Follow these instructions to upgrade the category system to version 2 for a wiki you already imported.

  • If you don't have an internet connection, do the following
  • Choose the wiki that you've already imported.
  • Change "Where to get the dump" from "download to "read from file".
  • Select "update to version 2".
  • Click "Import now".
  • Wait for the process to complete. A message box will pop up when the version 2 system is installed.
For more info, see Help:Core/Category

Script-based import

Instead of running the import now, you can choose to generate a script and run it manually later. If you are interested in a script-based import, do the following:

  • Make the same choices as you did above for "With internet connection" or "Without internet connection"
  • Click "Generate script" instead of "Import now". The script will now appear in the text box.
  • Repeat as necessary to combine other wikis / commands into the script
  • Run the script by clicking "Run script"

Usage notes

  1. ^
    • V1 is a category system from using just the wikitext in "pages-articles". It is quick and does not take up much space, but it will be incomplete
    • V2 is a category system that reproduces the exact category system in Wikipedia. However it requires additional files ("categorylinks") and takes up more space (as much as 10 GB for English Wikipedia)
    For more info, see App/Category
  2. ^ Use this button to import the selected wiki now.
  3. ^ Use these buttons to...
    • Generate the script
    • Edit it by hand, or copy for later reference
    • Run the script when ready

Namespaces

XOWA

Getting started

Android

Help

Blog

Donate