StarterKit Essential Tasks: Enable a useful editing gadget
Closed, ResolvedPublic4 Estimated Story Points
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	ngkountas
	Apr 7 2026, 11:30 AM

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	F83292076: Screenshot 2026-05-21 at 5.26.22 PM.png
	Fri, May 22, 12:27 AM

	F83292065: Screenshot 2026-05-21 at 5.22.25 PM.png
	Fri, May 22, 12:27 AM

	F78728166: image.png
	Apr 29 2026, 6:02 PM

	F75231271: image.png
	Apr 7 2026, 11:30 AM

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Description

Overview

As part of the Essential Tasks block in the Starter Kit Dashboard, we need to implement a card that provides information and support for installing a useful editing gadget, and specifically the the HotCat gadget. This can be expanded to include other editing gadgets, in the future.

Interactive prototype: Link

Screenshot

User journey

Install. Install HotCat and confirm it's active in Preferences
Find. App surfaces uncategorized articles from your wiki, pick one.
Categorize. Open the article, follow popup instructions to add categories; app detects the edit.

Card Implementation details

Category: Editing
Tool: Gadgets
Difficulty: Beginner

Possible blockers

None at this point for HotCat support.

Details

Related Changes in GitLab:

Title	Reference	Author	Source Branch	Dest Branch
Add HotCat description page	repos/lpl/starterkit-v1!83	eamedina	hotcat-description	main
Feat: detect HotCat user preference and unify step UI tokens	repos/lpl/starterkit-v1!71	ngkountas	feat/hotcat-preference-check	main
Feat: add completion button and completion screen for HotCat task	repos/lpl/starterkit-v1!55	ngkountas	feat/complete-hotcat-task-button-and-screen	main
Refactor: modularize HotCat installation steps into separate components	repos/lpl/starterkit-v1!53	ngkountas	refactor/split-hotcat-tool-into-components	main
Add introduction step for "Install gadget" essential task	repos/lpl/starterkit-v1!38	ngkountas	fix/add-intro-to-gadget-essential-task	main
Implement steps 2 and 3 of hotcat installer flow	repos/lpl/starterkit-v1!31	eamedina	T422481-full-journey	main
Add HotCat gadget installer	repos/lpl/starterkit-v1!23	eamedina	T422481	main

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Status	Assigned	Task
Open	srishakatux	T410699 Explore the concept of a semi-automated starter kit for new and small wikis
Open	srishakatux	T420073 Explore concepts and designs for starter kit dashboard
Open	srishakatux	T422214 Explore concepts and designs for essential tasks
Resolved	eamedina	T422481 StarterKit Essential Tasks: Enable a useful editing gadget

Event Timeline

ngkountas created this task.Apr 7 2026, 11:30 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptApr 7 2026, 11:30 AM

This task specifically targets the HotCat gadget. Supporting additional gadgets does not appear to be a requirement, and extending the list would likely require case-by-case consideration and implementation, as the user journey is tailored to HotCat and may differ significantly for other gadgets.

The implementation of the feature as currently described in this task is simple and straightforward, given that we already have a proof of concept regarding installing gadgets from external sources (e.g. "en" wiki). I'm assigning 4 story points for the time being.

ngkountas set the point value for this task to 4.Apr 7 2026, 11:51 AM

srishakatux added a parent task: T422214: Explore concepts and designs for essential tasks.Apr 8 2026, 3:33 AM

MaryMunyoki triaged this task as Medium priority.Apr 9 2026, 10:21 AM

MaryMunyoki added a project: Starter Kit.Apr 9 2026, 1:18 PM

MaryMunyoki moved this task from Backlog to Essential Tasks on the Starter Kit board.

As discussed assigning this to you @eamedina

eamedina moved this task from Incoming Requests to In Progress on the LPL Onboarding and Development board.Apr 22 2026, 12:33 AM

eamedina opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/23

Draft: Gadget installer

MaryMunyoki raised the priority of this task from Medium to High.Apr 27 2026, 4:47 PM

One learning so far is that this feature will require we update the provided permission grants to our registered consumer (Starter Kit app). In order for the gadget to be installed, we need to create/edit a page under the Mediawiki namespace (/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition) as well as creating a page that adds JavaScript (to load the gadget, ie /wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-HotCat.js ). The table below compares the current permissions granted with what I needed for it work locally:

Current grants	Needed grants to install a gadget
High-volume (bot) access	High-volume (bot) access
Edit existing pages	Edit existing pages
Create, edit, and move pages	Create, edit, and move pages
	Edit protected pages (risk rating: vandalism)
	Edit your user CSS/JSON/JavaScript (risk rating: security)
	Edit your user preferences and JSON configuration
	Edit the MediaWiki namespace and sitewide/user JSON
	Edit sitewide and user CSS/JS

We may be able to reduce extra needed grants with further testing and finetuning, but sharing what I'm seeing so far

ngkountas merged https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/23

Add HotCat gadget installer

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Apr 29 2026, 11:31 AM

User journey

Install. Install HotCat and confirm it's active in Preferences

Find. App surfaces uncategorized articles from your wiki, pick one.

Categorize. Open the article, follow popup instructions to add categories; app detects the edit.

I like that the 3-step process feels friendly and inviting. Am I correct to assume the original intention or purpose of this journey is mostly educational? Besides the actual HotCat installation, it's to guide the user through a first use and teach how to use the gadget. I think there's probably room for some simplification:

1... confirm it's active in Preferences

We can ask/encourage the user to verify the gadget is active in the preferences tab, but we can probably simplify and remove at least one button click here (from what's seen in demo link)

3... Open the article, follow popup instructions to add categories; app detects the edit.

The third step is where the educational intent is felt the most, we can provide brief instructions and can link to official gadgets docs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:HotCat#How_to_use). I don't believe the "app detecting the edit" part is necessary, I think the HotCat gadget is intuitive enough in that it shows immediate visual feedback of the category being added. We could simplify be removing that part

In T422481#11872837, @eamedina wrote:

I like that the 3-step process feels friendly and inviting. Am I correct to assume the original intention or purpose of this journey is mostly educational? Besides the actual HotCat installation, it's to guide the user through a first use and teach how to use the gadget. I think there's probably room for some simplification:

Yes, this makes sense, and I agree the flow can be simplified further. We can remove the preferences verification step and also skip detecting whether the category was edited. I have updated the prototype. New link is here.

srishakatux mentioned this in T422485: StarterKit Essential Tasks: Translate core interface messages.Apr 29 2026, 8:01 PM

MaryMunyoki mentioned this in T425027: Starter Kit Dashboard Layout.Apr 30 2026, 6:28 PM

eamedina opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/31

Implement steps 2 and 3 of hotcat installer flow

MaryMunyoki moved this task from In Progress to Needs Review on the LPL Onboarding and Development board.May 11 2026, 4:56 PM

ngkountas merged https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/31

Implement steps 2 and 3 of hotcat installer flow

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.May 11 2026, 6:31 PM

ngkountas opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/38

Add introduction step for "Install gadget" essential task

eamedina merged https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/38

Add introduction step for "Install gadget" essential task

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.May 13 2026, 2:31 PM

eamedina moved this task from Needs Review to Waiting for Deployment on the LPL Onboarding and Development board.Sun, May 17, 12:34 AM

ngkountas updated the task description. (Show Details)Mon, May 18, 10:45 AM

ngkountas opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/53

Refactor: embed EssentialTaskIntro as step 0 in tool pages

ngkountas opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/54

Refactor: adjust widths and layout in essential tool pages

ngkountas updated https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/53

Refactor: modularize HotCat installation steps into separate components

ngkountas opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/55

Feat: add completion button and completion screen for HotCat task

eamedina merged https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/53

Refactor: modularize HotCat installation steps into separate components

eamedina merged https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/54

Refactor: adjust widths and layout in essential tool pages

eamedina merged https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/55

Feat: add completion button and completion screen for HotCat task

ngkountas moved this task from Waiting for Deployment to Done on the LPL Onboarding and Development board.Thu, May 21, 9:19 AM

Noticed an issue while testing this feature on test.wikipedia.org:

On the feature page, it says: “HotCat is active - Available to all registered editors on test.wikipedia.org” while I see that ⧼gadget-Hotcat⧽ is available but not checked on https://test.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets.

Screenshot 2026-05-21 at 5.22.25 PM.png (2,118×1,442 px, 191 KB)

Screenshot 2026-05-21 at 5.26.22 PM.png (1,672×450 px, 94 KB)

In this case, when I continue, I am being asked to use the gadget to add categories to articles, but I don't see the gadget in action. At what point will the “Add Categories” step become ticked and green?

ngkountas opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/71

Feat: detect HotCat user preference and unify step UI tokens

toluayo merged https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/71

Feat: detect HotCat user preference and unify step UI tokens

This is the behavior I'm seeing in test.wikipedia.org at the moment: https://imgur.com/a/16JO1ws. Enabling the gadget in preferences should be automatically picked up by the app and allow the user to continue. Do you see anything similar if you try again?

I will submit a followup patch for the missing string <gadget-Hotcat>, thanks for pointing that out!

eamedina opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/83

Add HotCat description page

ngkountas merged https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/83

Add HotCat description page

@eamedina! It works well now. I see a new warning to enable the hot cat gadget from preferences if it is not enabled.

srishakatux closed this task as Resolved.Wed, Jun 10, 6:42 AM

srishakatux moved this task from Essential Tasks to Done on the Starter Kit board.Wed, Jun 10, 6:59 AM

StarterKit Essential Tasks: Enable a useful editing gadgetClosed, ResolvedPublic4 Estimated Story PointsActions