Porting templates

Simple templates can be copy/pasted but for any that transclude further templates it's only possible with exporting and importing. Complex templates are easier obtained from Wikipedia than written from scratch, where considerable work has already gone into developing and debugging these.

Export
E.g. for re-using templates and Lua modules from Wikipedia, go to Special:Export there. In the Add pages manually: box enter the name(s) of the required templates, have all three check boxes ticked and click Export.

Import
Only administrators of a wiki can use Special:Import. You can trans wiki import any templates on this wiki simply by going to Special:Import on your wiki and using the form on the bottom of the page. For any templates you require not already on this wiki, create a task listing them at Phabricator.

Customisation
Site specific templates need to be made more generally usable, e.g. replacing instances of Wikipedia with     and Wikimedia with Miraheze, etc.

Also include JavaScript and style sheets
Be sure to check for and copy any required JavaScript from MediaWiki:Common.js and any relevant styling from MediaWiki:Common.css.

Licensing
Because of CC-BY-SA licensing considerations the previous authors need to be acknowledged. Here's a list of sources and attribution templates for inserting at the bottom of the imported pages, (but not sub-pages) e.g. before &lt;/noinclude&gt;:
 * English Wikipedia -
 * English MediaWiki -