User:AKlapper (WMF)/Sandbox/Documentation

This page is for writers and maintainers of technical documentation for MediaWiki and related software. For documentation how to use MediaWiki, see Help:Contents. For documentation how to administrate MediaWiki or develop MediaWiki code, see Manual:Contents.

Overview
Technical documentation refers to any documentation that contains information regarding a technical product, process, or task.

This page focuses on technical documentation for and related software. Documentation for Wikimedia projects is widely spread across different wikis and websites.

Resources and guidelines

 * ‒ Best practices, standards, and tips for writing clear, concise documentation in plain language
 * ‒ Tips for designing and writing in specific types (genres) of technical documentation
 * ‒ Common layout templates on mediawiki.org to format text and information
 * ‒ How to effectively plan, produce and present technical documentation
 * ‒ How to use Phabricator as a tool to manage work on documentation tasks
 * ‒ Learn how to contribute to Wikimedia technical documentation

Types and locations

 * On :


 * A Technical Manual for information about the MediaWiki Software.


 * Project based documentation. This includes user guides, API documentation, tutorials, development information and reference materials related to specific projects.


 * Help pages contain end-user specific documentation and  provide some on-demand documentation.


 * Auto-generated API documentation:
 * Action API reference
 * REST API reference


 * Auto-generated documentation from the source code of MediaWiki: doc.wikimedia.org.


 * Text files in the  /docs directory of the MediaWiki code repository have code related information.

Supporting resources include blogs, talk pages and discussion forums.

Audiences and consumers
Primary users of the MediaWiki documentation and the most useful set of pages for each user-group are listed below.

at and meta are concise forms of end-user documentation. Pages linked to Category:MediaWiki for site admins and contain sysadmin specific information. Manual:Contents serves as the reference guide. MediaWiki Administrator's Handbook and contain resources for administrators. serves as the reference guide. , and linked pages are a starting point for beginners. Experienced developers refer to. References include, , , , , etc., besides the software installation guidelines. Pages linked to. and for getting started followed by the project specific mediawiki pages.
 * Wiki users (end users of the MediaWiki software)
 * System administrators
 * Wiki administrators
 * Developers
 * Code developers and administrators
 * Add-ons developers
 * Designers
 * Translators and technical writers

Contact and outreach

 * Friends of the Docs ‒ a group interested in advocating for better technical documentation for Wikimedia projects
 * ‒ an annual outreach program
 * Suggested