User:Sbmeirow/Offline

How To Read Wikipedia Offline

by Steve Meirowsky (User:Sbmeirow)

Warning

Please do not throw rocks at me, since this article is currently located in my user space. I welcome useful edits and constructive input.

Introduction

This page is a collection of links and notes about using Wikipedia Offline. Some of this may be moved over to other existing Wikipedia articles later.

Read Wikipedia Online

Web Sites Optimized For Mobile Devices

• via Wikipedia, official site
• via HAWHAW, converts larger article into smaller pieces for faster viewing
• via Wapedia, optimized for older phones with tiny screens
• via 7val

Software for Mobile Devices

• See Help For Wikipedia Mobile Access
• Wikipedia Mobile, iPhone, by Wikimedia Foundation

Read Wikipedia Offline

Dedicated Portable Device

• WikiReader, $99 retail, $29/yr for updates

Software for Mobile Devices

• See Help For Wikipedia Mobile Access
• AllOfWiki, iPad / iPhone / iPod, I need to read further to determine which dump file format this app uses.
• WikiPock, Android / Blackberry / Symbian / Windows Mobile, I need to read further to determine which dump file format this app uses.
• Kiwix, Symbian, requires user to download 3rd-party high-compressed dump files in ZIM file format.

Software for Desktop Computers

• XOWA
• WikiTaxi, Windows, requires user to download official BZ2 dump files, then requires the user to run a utility to do a one-time lengthy uncompression of the BZ2 dump file.
• BzReader, Windows, requires user to download official BZ2 dump files, and allows browsing of BZ2 without any conversion.
• MzReader, Windows, makes the output of BzReader look more like Wikipedia website.
• Kiwix, Windows / OSX / Linux, requires user to download 3rd-party high-compressed dump files in ZIM file format.
• Okawix, Windows / Linux / Mac, uses torrents to download 3rd-party dump files (not sure if still in Zeno file format since they were working to convert to ZIM format in 2009/2010).
• Offline Wikipedia Project, Linux

Software to Download Large Files

• FlashGet, Windows.
• μTorrent, Windows / Mac, excellent software to download torrents.

Download Wikipedia

• Wikimedia DVD and Offline Downloads
• Log of latest dumps.
• The following BZ2 files are the original official database dump files.

Wikipedia

• http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/latest/, directory for english dumps
• http://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwiki/latest/enwiki-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 (6.8GB+) (too large for FAT32 file system drives)

WikiBooks

• http://download.wikimedia.org/enwikibooks/latest/, directory for english dumps
• http://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwikibooks/latest/enwikibooks-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 (90MB+)

WikiNews

• http://download.wikimedia.org/enwikinews/latest/, directory for english dumps
• http://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwikinews/latest/enwikinews-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 (29MB+)

WikiQuote

• http://download.wikimedia.org/enwikiquote/latest/, directory for english dumps
• http://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwikiquote/latest/enwikiquote-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 (53MB+)

WikiSource

• http://download.wikimedia.org/enwikisource/latest/, directory for english dumps
• http://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwikisource/latest/enwikisource-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 (995MB+)

WikiVersity

• http://download.wikimedia.org/enwikiversity/latest/, directory for english dumps
• http://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwikiversity/latest/enwikiversity-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 (29MB+)

Wiktionary

• http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiktionary/latest/, directory for english dumps
• http://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwiktionary/latest/enwiktionary-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 (194MB+)

Simple English Wikipedia

• http://dumps.wikimedia.org/simplewiki/latest/, directory for english dumps
• http://dumps.wikimedia.org/simplewiki/latest/simplewiki-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 (74MB+)

See also

• See Wikipedia:Database download, a very geeky article that needs refinement.

External links

Articles

• 10 Ways To Download Wikipedia For Offline Browsing
• 4 Free Tools For Taking Wikipedia Offline
• Offline Wikipedia For Linux
• Wikimedia Static Version Tools

Warnings