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 MediaWiki and related software. Documentation for Wikimedia projects is widely spread across different wikis and websites.

Resources and guidelines

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

Types and locations

• On MediaWiki.org :
  • 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 Special pages provide some on-demand documentation.

Some documentation is yet to be migrated from meta.wikimedia.org. See MetaProject to transfer content to MediaWiki.org

• 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.

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

Contact and outreach

• Friends of the Docs ‒ a group interested in advocating for better technical documentation for Wikimedia projects
• Suggested Technical Documentation Tasks for Hack-a-thons