Transclusion

Transclusion is generally the inclusion of the content of a document into another document by reference. In the Wikipedian context, it is the use of the template functionality of MediaWiki to include the same content in multiple documents without having to edit those documents separately.

Examples
This very page uses template transclusion. The section above entitled "How transclusion works" is actually transcluded from the document Transclusion/How_Transclusion_Works. That section is included by reference, by using the MediaWiki markup   to include it.

The template Flu at Template:Flu and text Spanish flu research at Spanish flu research are transcluded to Spanish flu using "" and "" respectively.

Note that transcluding prose (not templates) in the main (article) namespace (such as the "" example) is currently a debated issue (see the links in the following sections). The alternative for substantial articles is to put a short introduction in the linking article and add a normal wikilink to the target, probably using the Template:Main or Template:Further templates.

Pages related to MediaWiki transclusion

 * Transclusion costs and benefits
 * MediaWiki namespace
 * m:Help:MediaWiki namespace
 * m:Help:Variable
 * Wikipedia talk:Template namespace

Templates

 * m:Help:Template
 * Template namspace
 * Template messages
 * Template limits
 * Avoid using meta-templates (rejected)