Hi,
The latest tech newsletter is now available at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/46 .
Below is the English version.
You can help write the next newsletter: whenever you see information about
Wikimedia technology that you think should be distributed more broadly, you
can add it to the next newsletter at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Next
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Next>.
More information on how to contribute is available at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute> . You can also
contact me directly.
As always, feedback (on- or off-list) is appreciated and encouraged.
—————————————————————————————
Other languages:
čeština <https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/cs> • English •
suomi <https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/fi> • français
<https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/fr> • עברית
<https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/he> • 日本語
<https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/ja> • português
<https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/pt> • русский
<https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/ru> • svenska
<https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/sv> • українська
<https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/uk> • 中文
<https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/46/zh>
Latest *tech news
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News>* from the
Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes.
Not all changes will affect you. Translations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/46> are
available.
*Recent software changes*
- You may see a new tool on the mobile site of the English Wikipedia. It
asks simple questions to make the article better. In the future, your
answers will go to Wikidata. [1]
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend/WikiGrok> [2]
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=72465>
- The MediaWiki API <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page> now
shows information in a nice format. You can translate it in
translatewiki.net
<https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translate&group=mediawiki-api>
. [3]
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mediawiki-api-announce/2014-October/000071.html>
*File information cleanup
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/File_metadata_cleanup_drive>*
- Reminder: You can help fix file information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/File_metadata_cleanup_drive/How_to_fix_metadata>
on
your wiki. It will help robots understand the information
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/11/07/cleaning-up-file-metadata-for-humans-and-robots/>.
After that, it will be easier for you to search files and re-use them.
- You can join two IRC chats
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours> this week to learn
more about the file cleanup project. One will be on Wednesday at 18:00
(UTC)
<http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=18&min=00&sec=0&day=12&month=11&year=2014>
and
the other on Thursday at 04:00 (UTC)
<http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=04&min=00&sec=0&day=13&month=11&year=2014>.
You can ask questions during the chat if you need help to fix files on your
wiki.
- You can see a list of files to fix on the Labs tool
<https://tools.wmflabs.org/mrmetadata>. You can report bugs and ask
questions on the talk page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:File_metadata_cleanup_drive>.
*Problems*
- Wikimedia Labs was broken for a few hours on Thursday. It was due to a
hardware problem. [4]
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/labs-l/2014-November/003099.html>
*Software changes this week*
- The new version of MediaWiki (1.25wmf7
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.25/wmf7>) has been on test
wikis and
MediaWiki.org since November 5. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis
from November 11, and on all Wikipedias from November 12 (calendar
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.25/Roadmap>).
- You can now use more editing tools for tables in VisualEditor. You can
add rows and columns, merge cells, and edit table captions. [5]
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52181> [6]
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52179>
- The style and insert menus in the toolbar of VisualEditor now show
fewer tools. This helps you see the most common tasks. You can see all
items by clicking "More". [7]
<https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/170126/>
- The way windows inside VisualEditor work has changed. VisualEditor
should be faster and have fewer bugs. [8]
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52486>
*Tech news
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News> prepared
by tech ambassadors
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/Ambassadors> and
posted by bot
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/User:MediaWiki_message_delivery>
• Contribute
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News#contribute>
• Translate
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/46> • Get
help <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech> • Give feedback
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tech/News> • Subscribe or unsubscribe
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tech_ambassadors>.*
--
Guillaume Paumier