The method I explain here gives you access to the MediaWiki API class as opposed to the standard MediaWiki rendering class. Most of this code came from MediaWiki’s api.php which you can find in MediaWiki 1.13.

Here’s what the API output will look like for the Foobar page on Wikipedia (in XML).

I spent quite a bit of time poking around in the MediaWiki /includes directory and trying different hack-ish methods before this page that had exactly what I needed! It did need updating, but I was happy to oblige. I even had this whole post written up using a sloppier approach before finding the FauxRequest class that I explain below.

The code

Let’s start with the sample code, then go over the details.

$mediawiki_root = '/Users/eyeRmonkey/www/mediawiki-test';
putenv("MW_INSTALL_PATH=$mediawiki_root");
// Initialise common code
require ($mediawiki_root . '/includes/WebStart.php');

class MediaWikiAPIWrapper {
	public function make_fake_request($params) {
		$request = new FauxRequest($params, true);

		$api = new ApiMain($request);

		// Process data & use an output buffer to capture the resutls
		$api->execute();
		$result = $api->getResult();
		$data = &$result->getData();

		return $data;
	}
}

Initializing

The first matter of business is lines 1 through 4. These need to be called outside of any function or class. I spent some time trying to figure out why none of MediaWiki’s global variables were showing up in print_r($GLOBALS) before thinking to require_once() it outside of any functions. Duh. Make sure you get the path to your MediaWiki installation root correct (no trailing slash, obviously).

Most of the work get’s done on line 4. This get’s all the code ready for a standard API call from the web. This whole approach is meant to be used by an extension, so we need to play catchup by initializing the core MediaWiki code.

Faking the Request

The good folks at MediaWiki were are kind enough to provide us with a class specifically meant for faking an API request! Joy! It’s called FauxRequest and it extends the WebRequest object that is used by default for API calls. The FauxRequest class takes an array of keys and values that represent what would’ve been passed in the URL.

The API manual has more information on formats and different queries you can make to the API.

Here is what your $params array might look like to grab the Main Page:

$data = array(
		'action' => 'parse',
		'page' => 'Main_Page'
	);

Running the API

Lines 10 through 15 create an instance of the API and pass in our FauxRequest object to get things rolling!

The $data array will hold all of the information that you would get from a format=php API call. As always, you could use print_r() to display the Array for debugging purposes.

That’s it!

mod_rewrite Issues

On my wiki, the .htaccess mod_rewrite rules that I have seem to be preventing the API from functioning totally correctly. A workaround I discovered is to use the following API call: /api.php?action=parse&title=Main_Page&text={{:Main_Page}}. This works by asking the API to translate the text parameter into rendered text. The {{:Main_Page}} says that the text is actually a transclusion-ed page. It’s definitely a hack, but it works on servers with weird rewrite rules for pretty URLs.

Further reading

• API: Query Properties
• API: Expanding templates and rendering – Relevant to the transclusion workaround.

Features

• Brings iTunes to the front if it isn’t already the front window
• Highlights the track that is currently playing (if one is playing)
• If iTunes is already the front window, this script will hide the window (similar to using ⌘H

Steps

1. Make sure Quicksilver is installed.
2. Copy the code below into a text file.
3. Save that file in a directory (preferably somewhere in your home directory). Mine is saved at /Users/auzigog/Apple Scripts/showplayingtrack.scpt.
4. Open quicksilver by pressing your hot key (likely ⌘L) and press the arrow in the top right to open the menu. Select Triggers
5. Press the + button to add a new hot key.
   1. Into the first box, type ~/Apple Scripts/showplayingtrack.scpt (modify this if you saved it somewhere else).
   2. Press save
6. Assign a hot key
   1. Select the item you just added and double-click the area that says “none”.
   2. Put your curson in the “Hot Key” box and press the keys you want to use to trigger this script. I chose ^⌘L (Ctrl + Apple + L) to mimic the built in iTunes command

You’re done!

That’s it! Leave a comment if you find this helpful!

The code

on run
	tell application "iTunes"
		if frontmost is true then
			tell application "System Events"
				set app_name to name of the first process whose frontmost is true
				set visible of process app_name to false
			end tell
		else
			set frontmost to true
			if player state is playing then
				reveal current track
			end if
		end if
	end tell
end run

Please add a comment if you have any suggestions for improvement.

Apache

Apache comes with Leopard. Enable it by going to System Preferences > Sharing > check “Web Sharing”

Edit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf in your favorite text editor.
To change your root web directory from the default (/Library/WebServer/Documents), Modify your DocumentRoot on line 163:

DocumentRoot "/Users/yourUserNameHere/workspace"

… and change your Directory settings near line 190:

   ...
   AllowOverride All
   ...

To activate the PHP module, uncomment this near line 114:

LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so 

… and add this near line 383 to make Apache handle .php files:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

MySQL

Download and install MySQL. Install the MySQLStartupItem.pkg package as well. Go to System Preferences > MySQL, start MySQL and check the box to “Automatically Start MySQL Server on Startup”.

Change the MySQL root password:

$ mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD

Fix permissions for root account

$ mysql -u root -p

mysql> grant all on *.* to 'root'@'%' identified by 'NEWPASSWORD';

Fix the missing mysql.sock file:

$ sudo mkdir /var/mysql
$ sudo chown _mysql /var/mysql
$ sudo ln -s /tmp/mysql.sock /var/mysql/mysql.sock

PHP

PHP is already installed at /user/bin/php.

Create a configuration file:

$ sudo cp /etc/php.ini.default /etc/php.ini

phpMyAdmin

Download phpMyAdmin and extract it to ~/workspace/pma. Rename config.sample.inc.php to config.inc.php and open it in a text editor.

Near line 17, change your blowfish secret.

PEAR

$ curl http://pear.php.net/go-pear > go-pear.php
$ sudo php -q go-pear.php
$ sudo mkdir /usr/bin/pear

In the installer, choose to edit option and change it to /usr/bin/pear

Edit line 469 in /etc/php.ini to add PEAR to PHP’s include path:

include_path = ".:/usr/bin/pear"

Sources

Guides I used to get this all straightened out

• OS X Apache, MySQL, PHP guide
• OS X PHP/PEAR guide