TL;DR: * Several deprecated methods in MediaWiki's JavaScript modules will be removed in a few weeks' time. * Ensure your code no longer uses these methods and update it if needed. * Check and fix any gadgets or scripts you or your wikis rely upon.

As part of the regular update cycle, a number of deprecated methods in our JavaScript modules will be removed in the MediaWiki 1.25 release. This is an announcement to give people notice they should update any extensions, gadgets and scripts they have written, maintain, or rely upon.

Usually we don't give this much attention to removal of deprecated methods, but due to this being our first proper development cycle for our front-end code base, I want to make sure this reaches everyone. You're likely not yet in the habit of updating front-end code between MediaWiki releases.

Deprecated methods to be removed in MediaWiki 1.25:

* Remove mw.user.name() method. [1] Deprecated since MediaWiki 1.20. Use mw.user.getName() instead.

* Remove mw.user.anon() method. [1] Deprecated since MediaWiki 1.20: Use mw.user.isAnon() instead.

* Remove mediawiki.api methods' "ok" and "err" callback parameters. [2] Deprecated since MediaWiki 1.23. Use the returned Promise interface instead.

* Remove mediawiki.api.category "async" parameter. [2] Deprecated since MediaWiki 1.23. The ability to override $.ajax() to be synchronous has been removed. The default (asynchronous) behaviour remains. Use the Promise interface to retreive the fetched data from the API.

* Remove jquery.json module. Deprecated since MediaWiki 1.24. [3] Use standardised JSON.stringify and JSON.parse methods. And depend on the "json" module which will automatically load a polyfill in older browsers.

## Timeline

These removals will land in MediaWiki 1.25alpha in early October 2014, and deployed to Wikimedia wikis the week after from October 4th onwards (1.25wmf2).

The MediaWiki 1.25.0 stable release is expected to come out around April 2015.

You should make sure that your code is updated before your wiki upgrades to MediaWiki 1.25. If you know code you rely upon will be affected but don't know how to fix it, please check with your wiki's community for local experts. If none of them can help, you can ask for assistance on the wikitech-ambassadors mailing list. [5]

## Reminders

In case you've missed the previous announcements:

* The migration period for jQuery core is still on-going and is also scheduled for MediaWiki 1.25. [4] More about that in the mail from June 2014: https://www.mail-archive.com/mediawiki-l%40lists.wikimedia.org/msg13651.html

* Learn about deprecation notices and how you can see them in your browser. https://www.mail-archive.com/wikitech-l%40lists.wikimedia.org/msg72198.html

[1] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/111422/ [2] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/118733/ [3] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/140560/ [4] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/137168/ [5] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-ambassadors

-- Krinkle

PS: You can get a sense of the progress on our different migrations, past and present, via these graphs: http://codepen.io/Krinkle/full/zyodJ/