Phabricator/Creating and renaming projects

New projects
In order to keep some sanity and consistency, new projects must be proposed before being created (except sprints and releases). This is true for everybody, project creators included. There is no formal decision process; common sense prevails. Depending on how well the proposal fits the guidelines, project creators will resolve it within minutes or a couple of days at most.

To request a new project, just create a new task under Project-Creators including these details:


 * Name
 * Description
 * Type of project
 * Policy (only if different from the default)

Renaming projects
By default, all users can rename a project. The requirements are project consensus (obviously, and the Phabricator maintainers will not check that you got it) and compliance with the guidelines listed below on this page.

Renaming a project is similar to renaming a wiki page. You need to make sure that you are not leaving broken links after the change of name.


 * Make sure the current hashtag is kept as an additional hashtag. Otherwise, the references to your project that people added in comments and descriptions will break.
 * Phabricator will not allow you to rename the project and add the current hashtag in a single step. You must first rename and then add the hashtag.
 * Remember to update the links in your project pages and templates. For instance, extension projects need to update their infobox.

Something to consider if you project has a volatile name: use URLs with the project number in wiki pages and other external resources. This saves you problems when the project is renamed, since the project number stays the same.

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/view/5/ vs https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/phabricator/ https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/5/ vs https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/phabricator/board/

Guidelines
Project requests following the guidelines are likely to be resolved pretty fast.

Name

 * Think of the shortest name that users can find easily typing ahead.
 * Ideally one word, otherwise multiple words must be connected with dashes (see T43 for reasons).
 * Unnecessary use of frequent words like "Wikimedia" or "MediaWiki" should be avoided.
 * Title case by default.

Good: Phabricator, MediaViewer, Code-Review, Phabricator-Production-Instance...

Bad: Wikimedia Phabricator, MediaViewer-for-MediaWiki, Code Review for Phabricator...

Description

 * Describe the project in a way a newcomer would understand it.
 * Add links to the relevant project pages.
 * Subprojects should link to their Phabricator parent project.

Type of project


There are several types of projects in Wikimedia Phabricator, and each type must follow the purpose, color, and icon defined in these guidelines.


 * Component is the default option (currently called Briefcase by the interface).
 * Team corresponds to an existing team. If you belong to a team that will manage several projects, then the first step is to create a project for your team.
 * Sprint is for subprojects of a team being worked on in a certain timeframe. You are encouraged (but not required) to name it with a "Sprint-" prefix.
 * Release is for subprojects that belong to a specific deployment defined by a date or a (future) software version.
 * Tag is used as a keyword (like "accessiblity")
 * Private is for exceptional projects with tasks that are not public.

Additional hashtags
Hashtags are used to link to projects in descriptions and comments, as well as to call them in searches typing ahead.


 * Optional field, you can leave it empty.
 * Or you can add shorter / alternative tags that clearly identify with your project.

Good:  for Affiliations-Committee.

Bad: acronyms nobody will guess, misleading tags...

Policy
IMPORTANT: this policy applies to the project page itself, not to the tasks assigned to it!

Default policy
The default access policies for Wikimedia Phabricator projects should be set to:
 * Visible To Public (no login required) - Note that this is not the default offered by Phabricator!
 * Editable By All Users
 * Joinable By All Users

This corresponds to the policies of wiki pages of teams, projects, extensions, etc, in mediawiki.org. Just like there is no reason to protect project wiki pages by default, there is no reason to protect Phabricator project pages by default.

Restricting Visible To
There should be no reason to restrict the visibility of a project page. All Wikimedia Phabricator projects should be Visible To Public (no login required).

Restricting Editable By
Similarly to wiki pages, protecting project pages from being edited by All Users should be an exceptional measure to prevent or respond to abuse.

Restricting Joinable By
This is an option to be used mainly for Team projects where membership provides special access to features. If you want to restrict this option you need to justify this decision in your request.

Note that Phabricator allows to subscribe and watch projects only to their members. If you want more users following your activity, you should let them join the projects. If you want to define who is an official member of your team, you can do so editing the project description.