Help:Extension:CollaborationKit

CollaborationKit is a MediaWiki extension for building on-wiki workspaces, including WikiProjects and edit-a-thons. It was developed as part of a broader effort to improve the experience of creating and running WikiProjects.

Features include: CollaborationKit introduces two new types of pages: Collaboration Hubs, which are workspaces representing a project and include tasks to work on, and Collaboration Lists, which are structured lists of pages to work on. These pages separate the content from its presentation, making it easier for bots to update the page and allowing us to build specialized editing interfaces not feasible with traditional wiki pages. That said, they can still be moved, deleted, etc. like regular pages.
 * Easy-to-use forms for creating and editing collaborative workspaces.
 * One-click sign-up for projects, including a member list that automatically sorts active and inactive members.
 * New functionality to build lists of articles to work on and selectively transclude them on other pages.

For detailed technical documentation, see Extension:CollaborationKit/Technical documentation.

Principles
In designing CollaborationKit, there were some principles we kept in mind:
 * Straightforward interfaces. It should be possible to figure out how to use our creation and editing interfaces with little effort. CollaborationKit was designed to fit in with MediaWiki's existing workflows as much as possible while improving on them with specialized interfaces intended for building collaborative interfaces. Of course, if you are so inclined, you can edit the underlying JSON code instead of using the editing interfaces.
 * Compatibility with the rest of MediaWiki. CollaborationKit was designed to accommodate wiki novices and power users alike. Collaboration Hubs and Collaboration Lists can be moved, deleted, etc. just like other pages, and we tried to minimize visual and interface clashes that would make for a jarring experience.
 * Judicious use of space. Projects can potentially have a great deal of information to handle, especially on Wikipedia where a WikiProject will often have several thousand articles in its purview. With many things to work on, it is important to highlight opportunities to do work without overwhelming users. This is why we optimize space usage on Collaboration Hubs and Collaboration Lists by making use of as much screen space as possible, making sure page elements are properly spaced, avoiding excessive whitespace, and constraining what appears on Collaboration Hubs.
 * Focusing on opportunities to participate. The goals when visiting a Collaboration Hub: (a) figure out what a project is about and (b) figuring out what work there is to do. This is why, for instance, lists of project members are relegated to another page and why we replaced the traditional table of contents with a version that uses less space. The most important and relevant information should be front and center. We further advise those setting up Collaboration Hubs to put the most recent and important information closer to the top of the page, with supplemental information lower on the page.

Setting up a Collaboration Hub
Setting up a new Collaboration Hub is easy:
 * 1) Go to Special:CreateCollaborationHub
 * 2) Fill out the form. Details include:
 * 3) * Page title – the wiki page where this new project will be set up. This is divided into two parts: the namespace and the rest of the page title. By default, Collaboration Hubs can be set up in the project namespace or the user namespace.
 * 4) * Hub display name (optional) – A display title, if you want the title to appear to be something else
 * 5) * Hub theme – customization options for your project, including a theme colour and an identifying picture. (If JavaScript is disabled, you will see two separate form fields: one to input the name of an image, and another to choose the colour.)
 * 6) * Introduction – text introducing your project. You can use wiki markup here.
 * 7) Submit the form, and your hub will be created! You will also be added as the first member.