<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div><div>Tester's Guide to Software Development at WMF</div><div><br></div><div>circa June 2013</div><div><br></div><div>At any given time there are a number of software development projects underway both by and for the Wikimedia Foundation. All of these projects produce copious amounts of documentation, information, and conversation that newcomers will likely find daunting if not overwhelming. Here is a summary of those software development projects with notes on testing and testability, as well as links to further information for those who would like to have more context for testing. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Editor Engagement aka E2</div><div><br></div><div>The biggest challenge facing Wikipedia today is to bring in new editors and to retain existing editors for Wikipedia. The E2 team builds the large-scale Encyclopedia-wide features intended to help editors of Wikipedia both experienced and new. Right now the three biggest projects in E2 are</div>
<div><br></div><div>* Wrapping up development for the feature called "Echo", the new notifications for Wikipedia</div><div>* Starting work on "Flow", the new user messaging system for Wikipedia</div><div>
* Maintaining the Article Feedback feature on multiple language wikis. New feature development on AFT is finished, but certain ongoing maintenance tasks are still required.</div><div><br></div><div>We have some automated browser tests for AFT. Since Echo is an asynchronous message delivery service it does not lend itself to automated browser testing. However, right now would be a great time to see if exploratory testing can identify any undiscovered edge case issues in Echo while the deployed code is still fresh. This would also be a good time to start considering test charters for Flow, before full-scale development ramps up. </div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editor_Engagement" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editor_Engagement</a></div><div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo</a></div>
<div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow_Portal" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow_Portal</a></div><div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5</a></div>
<div>IRC: #wikimedia-ee</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/aftv5.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/aftv5.feature</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Editor Engagement Experiments aka E3</div><div><br></div><div>Where E2 is building large-scale features for Wikipedia editors, E3 is doing short, simple experiments and a lot of A/B testing to discover what workflow and UX aspects may encourage or discourage users from editing Wikipedia. E3 moves very quickly, but when an E3 experiment succeeds, it becomes part of the normal code base. One example of an E3 experiment come to maturity is a new-user experience called "Getting Started" which is built on a foundation called a "Guided Tour". We have some automated browser tests in place for Getting Started that have found regression problems and been proven valuable.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Some ongoing E3 projects are "Account Creation User Experience" or ACUX, new login screens, etc.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/E3" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/E3</a></div>
<div><a href="https://trello.com/board/editor-engagement-experiments/5032806a85f7309c527929de" target="_blank">https://trello.com/board/editor-engagement-experiments/5032806a85f7309c527929de</a></div><div>IRC: #wikimedia-e3</div>
<div><br>
</div><div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/guided_tour.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/guided_tour.feature</a></div><div>
<br></div><div>
<br></div><div>VisualEditor aka VE</div><div><br></div><div>There has never been a WYSIWYG editor for Wikipedia, but the Foundation is building one now. A blog post on the WMF tech blog from some time ago explains why such a project is both technically challenging and expensive to implement. The release schedule for VE is ambitious, and the possibility of significant issues in production code is high, so testing VE is important. Rachel Thomas will be working to help us test VE over the summer with both exploratory tests and browser test automation as part of the Outreach Program for Women project, but any other scrutiny we can bring to VE will be valuable. </div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor</a></div><div><a href="http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/04/parsoid-how-wikipedia-catches-up-with-the-web/" target="_blank">http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/04/parsoid-how-wikipedia-catches-up-with-the-web/</a></div>
<div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Rachel99/OPW_proposal" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Rachel99/OPW_proposal</a></div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/visual_editor.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/visual_editor.feature</a> (spike, likely to be refactored)</div>
<div><br></div><div>Language</div><div><br></div><div>The Language team at WMF is one of two projects with a dedicated QA/tester person, Runa Batterji. Language is close to releasing the Universal Language Selector, an ambitious project to allow users to control the language(s) their wikis display. We have begun some automated browser tests for ULS. </div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_engineering" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_engineering</a></div><div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UniversalLanguageSelector" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UniversalLanguageSelector</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/uls_cog_sidebar_logged_user.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/uls_cog_sidebar_logged_user.feature</a></div>
<div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/uls.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/uls.feature</a></div><div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/uls_accept_language.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/uls_accept_language.feature</a></div>
<div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/uls_ime.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/uls_ime.feature</a></div><div><br></div><div>
<br></div><div>
Mobile</div><div><br></div><div>The Mobile team at WMF is the other team at WMF with a dedicated QA/tester person, Michelle Grover. The automated tests for our Mobile web are somewhat out of date, and we are looking to explore new automation tools, in particular Appium for Mobile testing. </div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering/Contribute" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering/Contribute</a></div><div>IRC: #wikimedia-mobile</div>
<div><br>
</div><div>Platform and/or Features</div><div><br></div><div>There are any number of software projects and features on Wikipedia for which no team is directly responsible. Some of these features are developed and supported by volunteers, some by the Foundation, some by a combination. Some of these projects amenable to testing are: </div>
<div><br></div><div>* UploadWizard for uploading files to Commons</div><div>* The Math extension</div><div>* TMH, TimedMediaHandler for displaying video and audio</div><div>* Print/export (PediaPress)</div><div>* PageTriage/NewPagesFeed</div>
<div>* Editing on Wikisource (has implications for VE)</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UploadWizard" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UploadWizard</a></div>
<div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TimedMediaHandler" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TimedMediaHandler</a></div>
<div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Math" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Math</a></div><div><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:PDF_Writer" target="_blank">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:PDF_Writer</a></div>
<div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Special:NewPagesFeed" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Special:NewPagesFeed</a></div><div><br></div><div>IRC: #wikimedia-dev, #mediawiki</div>
<div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/math_readonly.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/math_readonly.feature</a></div>
<div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/page_triage_readonly.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/page_triage_readonly.feature</a></div>
<div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/pdf_readonly.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/pdf_readonly.feature</a></div>
<div><a href="https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/upload_wizard.feature" target="_blank">https://github.com/wikimedia/qa-browsertests/blob/master/features/upload_wizard.feature</a></div><div>
<br></div><div>
<br>
</div><div>* etc., etc., etc.</div><div><br></div><div>Labs</div><div><br></div><div>Wikimedia Labs is the umbrella term for a number of different projects, among them: </div><div><br></div><div>* to provide free hosted VMS for Mediawiki development</div>
<div>* to provide a free host for Wikipedia bots and other 3rd-party tools</div><div><br></div><div>and probably of most interest to testers, </div><div><br></div><div>* to provide a shared public test environment containing a reference implementation of Wikipedia software <a href="http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/</a> (etc.)</div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page</a></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/</a></div>
<div>IRC: #wikimedia-labs</div><div><br></div><div>Misc</div><div><br></div><div>This is mostly out of date but worth looking at: <a href="https://mingle.corp.wikimedia.org/projects" target="_blank">https://mingle.corp.wikimedia.org/projects</a></div>
<div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><br>
</div></div>
</blockquote></div><br></div>
</div><br></div>