What I need for my Wiki is pretty much a sandbox where members can develop pages which are hidden to the public until they are finally ready for prime time. I have read the security page concerning access control and what Mediawiki can do and what it can't ( http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_issues_with_authorization_extensions ), plus the recommendation to use a CMS instead, but given the nature of my project I do believe a CMS just isn't the way to go.
Anyway - I've looked into the available options, and boiled it down to the following alternatives:
1. The manual ( http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access#Restrict_viewing_of_certain_specific_pages ) suggests to set up two (2) Wikis and bridge them for the scenario I described - I only see one problem: To implement what I need, I would have to be able to easily move pages from the hidden half to the public one (and possibly back). But I guess that isn't possible (or is it?).
2. The other option is the plugin I found here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:AccessControl Compared to other alternatives, it seems to be relatively mature, and they have also clearly read the security concerns raised on the Mediawiki page and tried to address them. Does anyone have experience with this addon, or are there any further suggestions?
Many thanks in advance!