BarebonesMediaWiki

The Problem
There is a need for building microsites for projects that support and document Wikimedia activities like API documentation for community developers or the Wikimedia transparency report. These microsites can function as a good place to present content in a light-weight way, with its design customized for the project's specific needs.

Proposal
A "bare-bones" version of MediaWiki with an ability to hide and control most of its user interface. For example, pages related to the Wikipedia SOPA blackout or the Wikipedia donate page are built on MediaWiki, with most of MediaWiki's chrome hidden to better focus on the page's purpose and content.

Why use MediaWiki?

 * Already have developers with expertise for writing and maintaining it.
 * Building Barebones MediaWiki will help MediaWiki go beyond just building wikis.
 * Content translation and localization can be done through TranslateWiki and other existing tools.
 * The community can collaborate to build features and extensions.
 * WMF already supports MediaWiki, building microsites on any other framework will need extra support effort.

Features Needed

 * Translation through TranslateWiki and other existing tools.
 * Seperate MediaWiki installs per site.
 * Ability to include external JavaScript libraries. Hopefully making it a bit easier than it is right now on MediaWiki to reference and add external libraries. Maybe an extension manage third-party libraries.

Some Questions

 * Can we remove all the chrome? Probably : Wikipedia donate page removes site chrome
 * Can we prohibit editing of site and/or give a select few access to edit?
 * Write/integrate way of uploading and visualizing CSV file (new extension?)
 * Interactive JS on pages
 * Most likely see action item below

Action Items

 * Create template for clean page, with skin styles stripped out


 * Extension for installing and using JS libraries


 * Extension for uploading and parsing CSV


 * Styled  footer with Mediawiki project links


 * Styled Language switcher component


 * Microsite Mediawiki (no skin, no page structure)

Clients

 * API Documentation & Developer Hub, Analytics
 * Transparency Report, CLA
 * Marketing site, Wikipedia zero