MediaWiki Stakeholders' Group/Tasks/Feature wishlist/2015 assessment

This is a list of features commonly and widely requested by non-WMF users.

Rights management

 * Access Control List, cf. m:Grants:IdeaLab/A place to work together
 * SMW: HaloACL testing, documentation and avoiding patching in future. How to get MediaWiki.org to keep things in core that we need for HaloACL New HaloACL GitRepository : https://github.com/HaloACL/HaloACL1.8

Extension management

 * SMW: Extension documentation on mediawiki.org: power it by an SMW instance: show showcase of updated smw.referata.com
 * Installing extension as easy as in wordpress
 * SMW: Extension repository: Drupal/Wordpress: browse for plugins/extension, click on “install” or “upgrade”
 * precondition: extensions moved to composer? requires detailed analysis
 * what about “uninstall” - solved with a)
 * deactivate vs. uninstall
 * where to put code/documentation: clear guidelines for developers: github used by many) or gerrit (official, with translatewiki support). mirroring how to do this, needs to be documented, ask Jeroen). move from gerrit to phabricator?
 * directions on how to update existing extensions
 * A repository for templates and dependencies, e.g. Scribunto modules, Lua modules, JavaScript, CSS, etc. Otherwise non-WMF wikis have to export/import and debug, these from wikipedia. Making a mess of the wiki with unwanted Wikipedia specific bits. See bug 64475
 * A repository for JavaScript gadgets, and other bits and pieces but separate from templates
 * Easy extension maintenance/updating, not having to check the status of each extension at every upgrade

Release policy

 * Stable releases that don't break anything during/after upgrading.
 * That the distribution and extensions etc. take into account that small wikis using economical hosting might have only restricted access to the shell, e.g. they can't use git, nor make.
 * MediaWiki as framework: Standardized interfaces in MediaWiki for different solutions or distributions (documentation, translation, public wikis ... SMW)

Skinning

 * SMW: For a start: SMW community, add to https://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Skins
 * SMW: Skinning is a MW topic, but it is a mess:: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Skinning
 * Standardized interfaces in MediaWiki skins for the integration of new functions without customizing the skin.
 * SMW: Supported skins and skins in the future
 * Bootstrap extension: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:BootStrapSkin
 * See also the skin mentioned at the conference: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Chameleon
 * See also https://github.com/thingles/foreground/
 * Not skins, but idea dumping grounds
 * What’s happening with Athena? https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Athena If going on, could broader community benefit?
 * See also Winter: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Winter

Specific ideas for extensions

 * A calender management system to use different calender systems.
 * An improved pdf handler.
 * Upload of Office documents (docx etc.). Security issue. Needs changes in MW core. (see |talk page discussion)
 * A way to automatically archive any new external link to e.g. WebCite or archive.today. For citations with link rot to be repointed to the archived copy.
 * A way to scan through all external links and to offer repointing any failed ones to a new URL, e.g. if necessary to Archive.org. (see Extension:ExternalLinks)
 * Install extension VisualEditor along with Parsoid easily.
 * Interwiki links to other wikis.

Marketing tools and user support

 * Places for brochures, promotion videos and screencasts and project descriptions


 * Navigable user support, i.e. easy to find solutions. Currently there are multiple routes to use, Bugzilla, MediaWiki-l mailing list, talk pages, Project:Support desk, etc.
 * Cf. Wikimedia technical search
 * Include a way to moderate/sandbox new users as an anti-spam measure, or have a way to approve genuine new users. For example a slimmed down mw:Extension:ConfirmAccount, where it only asks "Hello, please tell us briefly about yourself and why you'd like to edit this wiki?". Currently any new non-WMF wiki is unexpectedly left open to spambots.
 * Support and maintain the obsolete Extension:WikiTeX or something more user friendly. So that users can illustrate articles, in a consistent style, without having to make much more effort than regular editing.
 * Ways to encourage users to register and contribute to the wiki, e.g. wysiwyg editing, social networking, rewarding user contributions by keeping a score/rank, etc.
 * Talent pool, central resource for technical writers, illustrators, coders, etc. to offer their services, free or paid, to work on wikis.
 * MediaWiki vendors?

Further feature lists

 * Metawiki: MediaWiki Feature Request (Archive)
 * MediaWiki.org:
 * Enterprise hub
 * Academic hub
 * Software bundles
 * MediaWiki4Intranet
 * semantic-mediawiki.org: SMWCon Fall 2014/Create camp
 * Planned Features for SMW (2012)