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.