User talk:RandomDSdevel/Archive 2

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

New features

• The Beta Features announced before are now available on all Wikimedia wikis. You can test new features easily bychanging your Beta preferences. VisualEditor is one of those features on sites where it works and isn't automatically enabled. There is also a new media viewer and changes in the article text style.
• Tools developers can now create tools that use the OAuth protocol to connect to accounts on Wikimedia sites. As a user, you can use those tools to make edits and other changes with your account without giving the tool your password.

Problems

• Wikis that are currently testing CirrusSearch had problems with search results on November 18 from 16:00 to 20:00 UTC.

Future

• There will be no major code changes on the week of November 25 because many developers will be on holiday for Thanksgiving.
• The editing interface of Page: pages on Wikisource (working with the Proofread Page extension) will soon also work without JavaScript.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

This newsletter is now posted using MediaWiki message delivery.

New features

• The CommonsMetadata feature was added to all wikis. It creates metadata information about multimedia files (like their license) that can be read automatically by computer programs. It not only works for Commons, but for all wikis, and you can use it for files on your wiki byediting templates used to describe metadata.
• JavaScript code used on Wikimedia sites is now saved locally on your computer to load faster.

VisualEditor

• You can now paste formatted content copied from external sources (not just as plain text) into VisualEditor; this includes copy/pasting from other VisualEditor windows.
• You can now open VisualEditor by adding ?veaction=edit to the page URL, regardless of your user preferences.
• Many bugs have been fixed, and VisualEditor should also look faster, for example when you save a page.

Problems

• Due to issues, the new search tool ("CirrusSearch") was recently removed from wikis where it was enabled, then added again.

Future

• MediaWiki 1.23wmf6 was added to test wikis on December 5. It will arrive to non-Wikipedia wikis on December 10 and all Wikipedia wikis on December 12 (calendar).
• The old Etherpad tool (replaced by a new version) will be removed on December 30, 2013. You can still save old pads before that date using the old address: https://etherpad-old.wikimedia.org.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

New features

• You can now see a legend on Special:RecentChanges and Special:Watchlist that explains the symbols used.
• If your wiki is testing the new search tool ("CirrusSearch"), you can now test it by adding "New search" in your Beta features preferences.

VisualEditor

• The toolbar is now simpler; all text styles (bold, italics, underline, subscript, etc.) are in the same menu, and the "More" menu is called "Insert".
• You can now use a basic tool to add special characters to your text. You can add more characters (useful in your language) by editing the MediaWiki interface on translatewiki.net.
• The tool to add and edit mathematical text is now called "formula".

Problems

• There was a problem with the "Create a book" tool (Collection); books could only be exported to PDF format. The change has been undone.
• The log-in system for external tools ("OAuth") was broken on wikis that tested the new search tool. It was fixed last week.
• Because of a bug, this newsletter is delivered to users using the new MediaWiki message delivery, and to community pages using the old EdwardsBot.

Future

• MediaWiki 1.23wmf7 was added to test wikis on December 12. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on December 17 and all Wikipedia wikis on December 19 (calendar).
• You will soon be able to select the language of SVG images that have translations using a drop-down menu on the image page. (see example)
• GLAMToolset, a tool to help GLAM groups (like museums) upload many pictures to Commons, will be added to Commons on December 17.
• A Draft namespace will be added to the English Wikipedia to make it easier to create new pages. You will be able to use VisualEditor for drafts if you have enabled it.

Other

• You can read the summary of the technical report for November 2013 to learn more about VisualEditor, Mobile and other features.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf8) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on December 19. It will be enabled on non-Wikipedia wikis on December 31 and on all Wikipedia wikis on January 2, 2014 (calendar).
• You can now test the new search tool ("CirrusSearch") on all Wikisource, Wiktionary and Wikimedia chapter wikis hosted on Foundation servers. Enable "New search" in your Beta features preferences.
• There was a bug where notifications were not sent when the signature of the user leaving the message linked to a translated namespace. The problem was fixed in the software and will soon be fixed on Wikimedia sites.
• You can now use the log-in system for external tools (OAuth) on all Wikimedia wikis that use the unified login.
• If your wiki adds stars or other icons to interwiki links for featured articles in other languages, you may need to change the JavaScript code.
• You can thank other users for their edits even if your browser does not have JavaScript.
• All edits made through Flow, the new discussion system for MediaWiki, are now visible in user's contributions. You can test it on the Flow talk page on MediaWiki.org.
• You can test a visual tool that shows edits made to an article over time. It only works for English Wikipedia pages for now and is slow on long articles.
• You can test the first version of the new mobile Wikipedia app for Android and iOS.
• Translatewiki.net, the site where you can translate the MediaWiki software, now has a new main page for users without an account.

Future software changes

• There will be no technical changes this week (December 23 to December 29) due to end-of-year holidays.
• When someone deletes, restores, uploads, or moves a file on Commons, pages on all wikis that use that file will be refreshed.
• New users will soon have their user and talk pages added to their watchlist as soon as they create an account. .
• The new search tool (CirrusSearch) will not show the text of versions of a page that have been hidden.
• You will soon be able to see the raw HTML created by some wikitext by using the Special:ExpandTemplates tool.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes

• You can now see the text of DjVu and PDF files in search results on wikis testing the new search tool (CirrusSearch).
• With the new version of the Wikibase DataModel extension, you can install it outside Wikimedia wikis.

VisualEditor news

• Images are now shown inside VisualEditor as HTML5 <figure /> elements. Comments are welcome.
• You can now test a basic version of VisualEditor on mobile devices; see this article as an example.

Problems

• On December 23, Wikimedia Labs was broken for 4 hours due to an NFS problem.

Future software changes

• CirrusSearch will be added as the second search method for Spanish (es), French (fr), Portuguese (pt) and Russian (ru) wikis on December 30. Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies and Wikinews users will also be able to enable it in their Beta Features options.
• AbuseFilter log entries will be visible in CheckUser tool reports.
• It will soon be possible to search for log entries done by users without an account.
• It will no longer be possible to globally hide users with more than 1,000 edits.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf9) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 2. It will be enabled on non-Wikipedia wikis on January 7 and on all Wikipedia wikis on January 9 (calendar).
• The old note-taking site (Etherpad) was removed on December 30, 2013. You can see most of the documents on the new site.

Problems

• On January 2, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and all Wikivoyage projects were broken for 2 hours due to language cache update issues.
• On the same day, it was not possible to edit most wikis for about 30 minutes, due to a database replication problem.

Future software changes

• The new search tool (CirrusSearch) will be added as the default search method for Italian Wikipedia, French Wikisource, Wikidata and all Wikivoyage sites, and as a second search method for the German Wikipedia and all Wikibooks sites on January 6.
• Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian Wikipedia users will also be able to enable CirrusSearch in their Beta Features options.
• Plural form rules for some languages will be changed. Many translations of the user interface for Belarusian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian and other languages will need to be changed.
• You will see a warning when you try to delete a page linked to from other pages.
• You will be able to hide redirect pages on the list of protected pages.
• You will be able to use keyboard shortcuts in the Translate tool, by pressing Alt+1 and similar key groups.
• E-mails sent by MediaWiki will include the name of the site in their From: line. You will be able to change this name on your wiki by editing the MediaWiki:Emailsender page.
• Images viewed in the Beta Features media viewer will load faster.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

You can read a recent blog post about how Tech News is put together, translated and sent to you across wikis each week.

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf10) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 9. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 14, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 16 (calendar).
• Searching in the File: namespace on Wikimedia Commons may be slow due to a search engine issue.

VisualEditor news

• VisualEditor will be added for all users on several Wikipedias on January 13.
• You can now add and remove __NOTOC__, __FORCETOC__ and __NOEDITSECTION__ in the page metadata menu.

Problems

• For a few hours on January 6, it was not possible to edit pages using the Translate tool on Wikimedia Commons and the Wikimania 2013 wiki, due to a settings error.
• For about 20 minutes on January 9, there were problems with CSS and JavaScript due to high server load.

Future software changes

• Wikidata will be added to all Wikisource wikis on January 14.
• The new search tool (CirrusSearch) will be added as the second search method for the English Wikipedia on January 13. On Wikibooks and the German Wikipedia, you will also be able to test it by adding it in your Beta Features options.
• You will soon be able to export page collections into other formats than PDF.
• It will soon be possible to upload groups of photos from Flickr using UploadWizard.
• The Wikimedia Foundation has shared a multimedia vision for 2016. You are invited to comment.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf11) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 16. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 28, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 30 (calendar).
• You can now see relatively recent results on special pages like Special:DoubleRedirects, Special:UncategorizedPages or Special:WantedCategories. They were disabled before because they were very slow. The results are now updated once a month.
• As of January 16, you can make and use guided tours on the Asturian, Farsi and Russian Wikipedias. If you want this tool on your wiki, you need to translate it and ask in Bugzilla.
• You can give comments on an idea to have a fixed toolbar at the top of wiki pages.
• You can watch a video to learn how to report problems in Bugzilla.

VisualEditor news

• In the toolbar, the menu to edit the styles (like bold, italic, etc.) now has a down arrow (). The order of the Insert menu has also changed a little.
• You can now edit <gallery /> tags with a very basic tool.
• You can now see a help page about keyboard shortcuts in the page menu.
• When you change categories, you will now see them when you save the page.
• When you edit templates, you will now see the parameters in the right order. The ones that you must add have a star (*).
• The page will now be saved faster, thanks to a new way of coding the text that sends 40% less text to the servers.
• Your wiki can ask to test a new tool to edit TemplateData.

Problems

• There was a problem with search on the English and German Wikipedias between January 6 and January 14. You could not see new pages and changes in search results.
• There were "pool timeouts" errors on several wikis on January 13; it was caused by a code change that was made to fix another problem.
• On January 17, Bugzilla and Wikimedia Labs were broken for about 20 minutes due to network problems. IRC channels with recent changes (irc.wikimedia.org) were broken for about two hours.

Future software changes

• If you have removed JavaScript in your web browser, you will soon be able to see the orange bar saying that you have new messages. If you have changed how the bar looks with a gadget, you may need to change the gadget again.
• You will soon be able to add a given Flickr user to a blacklist so that their files can't be uploaded using UploadWizard on Wikimedia Commons and other wikis.
• You will see a warning when you try to delete a page included in at least one other page.
• You will so longer see disambiguation pages in Special:LonelyPages.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes

• Pages from Wikimedia sites now load faster in your browser thanks to "module storage", a way for your browser to save data like JavaScript and CSS on your computer to avoid downloading them again. See video.
• The code used to show videos has changed. You should be able to play the video on the page, with the play button on top of the video. If you see the play button on the right of the video, or if clicking on the video leads you to the original file, please file a bug or tell User:Bawolff.
• The Special:ActiveUsers page will be removed because it's too slow.
• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf11) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 16. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 28, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 30 (calendar).

Problems

• On January 21, Universal Language Selector was turned off on all Wikimedia sites because it makes pages load slowly. If you want to use web fonts, or write in scripts that aren't on your keyboard, you need to add it as an option in your preferences. It will be turned back on when the issues are resolved.
• For about 20 minutes on the same day, there were problems with CSS and JavaScript due to high server load.

Future software changes

• You can give comments about the new version of "Winter", a proposal to have a fixed toolbar at the top of wiki pages.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf12) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 30. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 4, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 6 (calendar).
• Global AbuseFilter rules are now active on all small wikis.
• The buttons used in pages like log-in, account creation and search are now using the same colors and styles.
• You can now link to diffs using [[Special:Diff/12345]] and similar links.
• There is no longer an option to hide tables of contents on all pages.
• Searching in the File: namespace on Wikimedia Commons is now faster, after a bug was fixed on January 29.
• All Wikimedia wikis now have high-resolution favicons.

VisualEditor news

• You can now see a list of keyboard shortcuts by pressing Ctrl+/ inside VisualEditor.

Future software changes

• Edits and files hidden with the Oversight tool will be moved to the RevisionDelete system. The Oversight tool will then be removed from Wikimedia wikis.
• For languages where not all sister projects exist, you will be able to link to other language projects using double interwikis (:ko:v, :v:ko, etc.).
• It will soon be possible to use the GettingStarted tool on other wikis than the English Wikipedia. You can translate it on Translatewiki.net.
• You will soon be able to include the Special:Contributions page into other pages.
• You will be able to see where a file is used inside MultimediaViewer, the new tool for viewing media files.
• It will soon be possible to send MassMessage messages using the API.
• You will soon see audio statistics on the Special:TimedMediaHandler page.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf13) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 6. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 11, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 13 (calendar).
• The Vector search box was changed to fix old display and accessibility issues; for example, you can now use full-text search even if you have disabled JavaScript. Please report any problems you see. The option to disable the "simplified search bar" on Vector will also be removed.
• You are now notified when someone adds a link to your user page on wikis where it didn't work before (wikis with dates in the year-month-day order, including Hungarian, Japanese, Korean and some variants of Chinese).

VisualEditor news

• You can now set media items' alt text and position, and directly set their size, in the media tool.
• The gallery tool was improved and several issues were fixed.

Problems

• On February 3, all wikis were broken for about an hour due to a traffic balancing issue.
• On February 6, some wikis were broken for about half an hour in total due to a problem with the Math extension.

Future software changes

• Some methods from Scribunto's mw.message library will be removed after February 18. If you use them in your templates or modules, please check to make sure that things will not break.
• You will soon be able to use GettingStarted on 23 new Wikipedias. It helps new users by listing possible tasks and giving help. The new version was also added to the English Wikipedia on February 7th.
• You will soon see results from other wikis when you use the new search tool (CirrusSearch).
• The WikiLove tool was redesigned and should also load faster.
• Edits made with WikiLove or after a GettingStarted suggestion will be tagged.
• It will soon no longer be possible to hide section editing links in your preferences.
• You will soon be able to use the revision deletion feature via the API.
• You will soon be able to choose mobile view on non-mobile devices using a Beta Feature option.
• If you have questions about Universal Language Selector, you can join an IRC meeting on February 12 at 17:00 UTC, in the #wikimedia-office channel on Freenode.
• Developers are preparing for Google Summer of Code 2014. You can propose ideas.
• bugzilla.wikimedia.org will be updated this week. You won't be able to access it from 22:00 UTC on February 12 until 01:00 UTC on February 13 at the latest.
• The <poem> tag will be renamed to <lines>. The old tag will still work.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf14) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 13. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 18, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 20 (calendar).
• You can now use the list of active users again.
• The new search tool (CirrusSearch) now gives more importance to content namespaces if you search in several namespaces.
• You can now directly link to files viewed with MultimediaViewer, the new tool for viewing media files.
• You can read the summary of the Wikimedia technical report for January 2014.

Problems

• On February 9, Wikimedia Labs was broken for about 2 hours due to an XFS file system problem.
• On February 11, there were problems with VisualEditor for about 20 minutes due to a server logging issue.
• On the same day, for about 20 minutes there were issues with page loading due to database problems.
• There were issues with page loading between 21:00 UTC on February 13 and 11:00 UTC on February 14 for users in Europe. It was due to a cache server problem.
• On February 14, all sites were broken for about 15 minutes for users in Southeast Asia, Oceania and the western part of North America. It was due to problems with cache servers.

VisualEditor news

• The link tool now tells you when you're linking to a disambiguation or redirect page.
• You can now change image display (like thumbnail, frame and frameless) with VisualEditor.
• Wikitext warnings will now hide when you remove wikitext from paragraphs you are editing.
• You will soon be able to create and edit redirect pages with VisualEditor.

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf15) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 20. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 25, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 27 (calendar).
• The new search tool (CirrusSearch) was added to the Italian Wikiquote and all Wikiversity projects. Users can now enable it in their Beta options.
• The Universal Language Selector was enabled on all Wikimedia wikis again. You can enable web fonts in your ULS options (see how).

VisualEditor news

• You will soon be able to add and edit __STATICREDIRECT__, __[NO]INDEX__ and __[NO]NEWEDITSECTION__ in the page settings menu.
• You will soon be able to use the Ctrl+Alt+S or ⌘+Opt+S shortcuts to open the save window in VisualEditor.
• You will soon be able to preview your edit summary when checking your changes in the save window.

Future software changes

• You will soon be able to use the <categorytree> tag again.
• You will soon be able to post messages with the MassMessage tool in all talk namespaces.
• Notifications will soon work in all namespaces.

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