Android/Setup
From XOWA: the free, open-source, offline wiki application
Contents
Installing the XOWA Android App
Choose one of the following:
- (Android) Open Google Play and search for "xowa"
- (Browser) Go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.xowa and press Install
- (Offline) Go to https://github.com/gnosygnu/xowa/releases and grab the latest xowa_app_android_v*.apk
Setting up a wiki: Simple Wikipedia
For a brief test, let's start with Simple Wikipedia.
Download the html-only version on your desktop
- Download the html-only version. This will not have any images. It's about 500 MB.
- Unzip the 7z file using 7-zip
-
Assuming you downloaded to the C drive, you should have a folder like
C:\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org. This folder will have these files:- C:\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-text.xowa
- C:\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-html.xowa
- C:\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-file.xowa
- C:\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-file-user.xowa
-
Move the files to your microSD card with a folder structure of
\Android\data\org.xowa\[1]. Assuming your microSD card is attached as the X drive, you will have files like these:
-
- X:\Android\data\org.xowa\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-text.xowa
- X:\Android\data\org.xowa\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-html.xowa
- X:\Android\data\org.xowa\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-file.xowa
- X:\Android\data\org.xowa\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-file-user.xowa
Download the images on your desktop
If you have time and space, you should also download the images
- Download the image file. This file is 2 GB.
- Unzip the 7z file
-
Assuming you downloaded to the C drive, you should have a folder like
C:\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org. This folder will have these files:- C:\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-file.xowa
- C:\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-file-user.xowa
- Note that these files have the same names as those in the html download. These files should overwrite the existing files in the html download.
Open the wiki in XOWA Android
- Insert the microSD into your Android device
- Launch XOWA on your Android device
-
Press the
menubutton in the top left-hand corner -
Press the
XOWAbutton -
Press the
blue plusimage in the top right-hand corner of the grid
- If you're on Marshmallow, you will get a prompt to allow XOWA to read your SD card. Please allow it. For more information on XOWA's privacy policy, see Help/Privacy/Android
- Go to the wiki folder on your SD card
-
For example, on an LG G4 device, you would navigate to
storage->CARD-CODE->xowa->wiki->simple.wikipedia.org
-
Press the file with the XOWA icon. In this case it would be
simple.wikipedia.org-text.xowa -
Press the link for simple.wikipedia.org on the
XOWApage. You will be navigated tosimple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.
Setting up a wiki: English Wikipedia or any other
The process is the same as Simple Wikipedia, except you will be downloading many more files.
-
For the html-only version, you will be downloading 28 GB. See the
htmllinks below for English Wikipedia -
For images, you will be downloading another 82 GB. See the
filelinks below for English Wikipedia
Note that all files are not required. You can download some files and the wiki will still work. For example:
- You can download the html-only files. You do not need images in order to use the wiki
- You can download some of the html databases and skip others
-
For example, if you don't download
html.category articles, you won't be able to read categories (articles in the [[Category]] namespace)
- You can download some of the image databases and skip others
-
For example, if you don't download
images.main articles.part-02, you won't have 500,000 random images.
Finally, the following files are required:
-
If you're running html-only:
- html.core
- html.file stubs
-
If you're running html and images:
- html.core
- html.file stubs
- images.core
Android wikis [2]
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^
-
The
\Android\data\org.xowa\folder is strongly recommended.-
Android Kit-Kat devices can only write to an external folder with this hierarchy:
\Android\data\org.xowa\ - XOWA Android currently does not write to any databases, but it will in the coming months. I'm working on an auto-update "merge" facility which will split a wiki into pieces and merge them together. The merging will require write permissions.
-
Android Kit-Kat devices can only write to an external folder with this hierarchy:
- If you only want to have read-only access, you can use any other path. For example, X:\xowa\wiki\simple.wikipedia.org\simple.wikipedia.org-text.xowa .
-
The
- ^ More wikis will be generated over the coming months. If you want a specific wiki, please make a request at https://github.com/gnosygnu/xowa/issues