As mentioned on [[Help:Books/Feedback/Archives/2010/May#The_extension_is_not_parsing_templates]], the extension is not expanding templates before loading a collection.
Currently, in the function loadCollection[1] we have a loop for parsing each line of the collection, but it uses the value of $article->getContent() in the following loop
foreach ( preg_split( '/[\r\n]+/', $article->getContent() ) as $line ) {
Instead of that, it should be used the preprocessed text, such as that which appears on [[Special:ExpandTemplates]]. The code of this ExpandTemplates extension uses
$output = $wgParser->preprocess( $input, $title, $options );
to get the expanded content in the special page. I believe the same function can be used for Collection extension.
[1] http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/Collection/Collection.body.php?view=markup
[2] http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/ExpandTemplates/ExpandTemplates_body.php?revision=77003&view=markup
Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Books/Feedback/Archives/2010/May#The_extension_is_not_parsing_templates