Extension:NewArticleTemplates

**MediaWiki extensions manual**
NewArticleTemplates; Release status: stable
Implementation	User interface
Description	Prefills newly created pages with some text.
Author(s)	Mathias Ertl (MathiasErtltalk)
Latest version	1.4.1 (2026-02-03)
MediaWiki	1.43+
Database changes	No
	Parameters $wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault; $wgNewArticleTemplatesEnabledNamespaces; $wgNewArticleTemplatesNamespaceTemplates; $wgNewArticleTemplatesApplyToSubpages;
	Hooks used EditPage::showEditForm:initial;
Licence	GNU General Public License 3.0 or later
Download	GitHub: project page; git repository URL; commit history; ; Note:; No localisation updates are; provided by translatewiki.net. ; Changelog
Example	see below

The NewArticleTemplates extension allows to automatically prefill text of new pages with the contents of other predefined wiki-pages. It is possible to distinguish between namespaces and specify a different text for new subpages.

Installation

From your MediaWiki installation directory, clone the extension into the extensions directory:

cd extensions/
git clone https://github.com/jmnote/NewArticleTemplates.git

Then enable the extension in your Manual:LocalSettings.php file:

wfLoadExtension( 'NewArticleTemplates' );
$wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault = 'Template:New page';

The $wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault setting specifies the template page whose contents will be prefilled when a new page is created. Without this setting, no template content will be applied by default.

Configuration (version 1.4 and later)

Starting with version 1.4, NewArticleTemplates uses extension.json-based configuration variables. The old variables are no longer supported.

Configuration variables

Variable	Description	Default
$wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault	Default template page title to preload.	""
$wgNewArticleTemplatesEnabledNamespaces	List of namespace IDs where templates are applied. If empty or unset, applies to all namespaces.	[]
$wgNewArticleTemplatesNamespaceTemplates	Map of namespace ID ⇒ template page title.	[]
$wgNewArticleTemplatesApplyToSubpages	Whether templates are applied to subpages.	true

Minimal configuration

The simplest configuration applies a single template to all namespaces.

$wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault = 'Template:New page';

Full configuration example

Namespace-specific templates override the default template.

$wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault = 'Template:New page';

$wgNewArticleTemplatesEnabledNamespaces = [
    NS_MAIN,
    NS_HELP,
    NS_PROJECT,
];

$wgNewArticleTemplatesNamespaceTemplates = [
    NS_MAIN => 'Template:New article',
    NS_HELP => 'Template:Help page',
];

$wgNewArticleTemplatesApplyToSubpages = true;

Notes

Templates are plain wiki pages. The extension loads the template content and strips <noinclude></noinclude> sections and <includeonly></includeonly> tags.
If a namespace has a specific entry in $wgNewArticleTemplatesNamespaceTemplates, that template takes precedence over $wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault.
If $wgNewArticleTemplatesEnabledNamespaces is empty or unset, templates apply to all namespaces.
Subpages are included by default. Set $wgNewArticleTemplatesApplyToSubpages = false to opt out.
Template titles must match the actual page title, including case and spacing.

How templates are selected

Templates are applied only when creating a page for the first time.

When a page is created, the extension selects a template in the following order:

If $wgNewArticleTemplatesNamespaceTemplates contains an entry for the page namespace, that template is used.
Otherwise, $wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault is used (if set).
If no template is configured, the edit form is left empty.

This selection logic ensures that namespace-specific templates always take precedence over the default template.

Subpage handling

A page is considered a subpage only if the base page (the part of the title before the first "/") already exists. If subpage support is enabled (default: true) and the page is a subpage, the extension will look for a template page named <template>/Subpage. If such a page exists, it is used instead of the base template. Otherwise, the base template is applied.

Template content processing

The extension loads the wikitext of the selected template page and preprocesses it before inserting it into the edit form.

The following elements are stripped from the template content:

<noinclude>...</noinclude> sections
<includeonly></includeonly> tags (the inner content is preserved)

This allows template pages to be reused safely both for transclusion and for preloading new page content.

Legacy configuration (version 1.3 and earlier)

This section documents configuration options used in versions 1.3 and earlier. Behavior and template handling are identical to version 1.4.

Variable	Description	Default
$wgNewArticleTemplatesNamespaces	List of namespaces where templates are applied.	[]
$wgNewArticleTemplatesPerNamespace	Per-namespace template mapping.	[]
$wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault	Default template page title to preload.	""
$wgNewArticleTemplatesOnSubpages	Whether templates are applied to subpages.	true

The extension provides several configuration options for fine-grained control. It is recommended that you use pages in the MediaWiki namespace for the templates, otherwise the templates are editable by everyone, which is probably not what you want. Here is a (hopefully) self-explanatory snippet of LocalSettings.php:

wfLoadExtension( 'NewArticleTemplates' );

# Templates are used in these namespaces:
$wgNewArticleTemplatesNamespaces = [
        NS_MAIN                 => 1,
        100                     => 1,
        102                     => 1,
        104                     => 1,
        106                     => 1
];

# new pages in the main namespace use MediaWiki:NewArticleTemplates:
$wgNewArticleTemplatesPerNamespace = array(
        NS_MAIN                 => "MediaWiki:NewArticleTemplates",
);

# new pages in any other namespace defined by $wgNewArticleTemplatesNamespaces use MediaWiki:NewArticleTemplatesDefault:
$wgNewArticleTemplatesDefault = "MediaWiki:NewArticleTemplatesDefault";

Changelog

1.4.1 (2026-02-23)

Configuration variables were renamed and restructured
Migrated to extension.json-based configuration
Old configuration variables are no longer supported
Verified to work with MediaWiki 1.43

1.3 (2021-06-30)

Update for MediaWiki 1.35 and later

1.2 (2018-03-29)

Update for MediaWiki 1.29 and later

1.1 (rev. 187)

fixed a typo in the global imports
much refined handling of subpages
if the new page is a subpage and a subpage of the template named 'Subpage' exists, it is used instead

1.0

first version documented here