Collapse and expand wiki page content

This page contains notes on using MediaWiki features that allow you to collapse and expand content sections.

MediaWiki default capabilities

For a block that starts collapsed:

<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
This content is hidden initially.

You can put normal wikitext here:
* Item one
* Item two
* Item three
</div>
</div>

mw-collapsible makes the element collapsible, while mw-collapsed makes it start collapsed. MediaWiki then supplies the Expand/Collapse control. MediaWiki

For something more useful, with a visible title:

<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
My additional information
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
Here is all of the additional information that I don't
want displayed until the reader expands it.

* Item one
* Item two
* Item three
</div>
</div>

You can also change the words used for the control:

Additional information
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
This is the hidden content.
</div>
</div>

That functionality is built into MediaWiki's jquery.makeCollapsible module.

MediaWiki Details extension

There is now an Extension:Details extension that I think is particularly worth considering for your personal wiki. It lets you write:

<details>
<summary>My additional information</summary>

Here is the information.

* Item one
* Item two
* Item three

</details>

The result behaves like the familiar disclosure/accordion control on modern websites: click the summary and the content opens underneath it.

You can also make it initially open:

<details open>
<summary>My additional information</summary>

Content here.

</details>

The Details extension is currently marked stable, supports MediaWiki 1.39+, and uses the browser's semantic <details>/<summary> mechanism. One advantage is that browsers understand the hidden material as actual page content; things such as links to anchors and Find-in-Page can interact with it more intelligently. MediaWiki

Installation is simply:

wfLoadExtension( 'Details' );

after putting the extension in the extensions/Details directory. MediaWiki

MediaWiki CollapsibleSections extension

CollapsibleSections can make entire MediaWiki sections collapsible, which is useful if you want something like:

=== Travel Plans ===

Lots of content...

=== Books to Read ===

Lots more content...

and want each section to collapse from its heading. It can be configured for desktop use and whether sections start collapsed. MediaWiki

Server configurations

The following commands were added to LocalSettings.php

# CollapsibleSections
wfLoadExtension( 'CollapsibleSections' );

$wgCollapsibleSectionsCollapsedByDefault = false;
$wgCollapsibleSectionsEnableDesktop = true;
$wgCollapsibleSectionsTag = 'h3';

MediaWiki Spoilers extension

Provides {{#spoiler:...}} https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension%3ASpoilers?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Its purpose is specifically hiding spoiler-like content. MediaWiki

MediaWiki custom template

One other possibility is creating your own {{Collapse}} template around MediaWiki's built-in functionality. MediaWiki.org itself has a Collapse template with parameters such as title, content, background, alignment, and initial state. MediaWiki