Mobile-l December 2015

mobile-l@lists.wikimedia.org

26 participants
30 discussions

[Apps] Stripping content inside brackets from the first sentence of articles
by Dan Garry 07 Oct '19

07 Oct '19

Hi everyone, *tl;dr: We'll be stripping all content contained inside brackets from the first sentence of articles in the Wikipedia app.* The Mobile Apps Team is focussed on making the app a beautiful and engaging reader experience, and trying to support use cases like wanting to look something up quickly to find what it is. Unfortunately, there are several aspects of Wikipedia at present that are actively detrimental to that goal. One example of this are the lead sentences. As mentioned in the other thread on this matter <https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mobile-l/2015-March/008715.html>, lead sentences are poorly formatted and contain information that is detrimental to quickly looking up a topic. The team did a quick audit <https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheets/d/1BJ7uDgzO8IJT0M3UM2q…> of the information available inside brackets in the first sentences, and typically it is pronunciation information which is probably better placed in the infobox rather than breaking up the first sentence. The other problem is that this information was typically inserted and previewed on a platform where space is not at a premium, and that calculation is different on mobile devices. In order to better serve the quick lookup use case, the team has reached the decision to strip anything inside brackets in the first sentence of articles in the Wikipedia app. Stripping content is not a decision to be made lightly. People took the time to write it, and that should be respected. We realise this is controversial. That said, it's the opinion of the team that the problem is pretty clear: this content is not optimised for users quickly looking things up on mobile devices at all, and will take a long time to solve through alternative means. A quicker solution is required. The screenshots below are mockups of the before and after of the change. These are not final, I just put them together quickly to illustrate what I'm talking about. - Before: http://i.imgur.com/VwKerbv.jpg - After: http://i.imgur.com/2A5PLmy.jpg If you have any questions, let me know. Thanks, Dan -- Dan Garry Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps Wikimedia Foundation

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MobileWikiAppShareAFact event stream was: [Analytics] Stopping eventlogging events into MobileWikiAppShareAFact table
by Nuria Ruiz 05 Jan '16

05 Jan '16

Team: This schema MobileWikiAppShareAFact is sending a lot of events, maybe is worth thinking whether we need that many. It is again a case where tables are becoming huge and hard to query fast. cc-ing Jon as schema owner. Can this data be sampled at a higher sampling rate? I have filed a ticket to this fact: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T122224 Thanks, Nuria On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 8:35 AM, Adam Baso <abaso(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: > Replacing mobile-tech with mobile-l (internal mobile-tech list > discontinued). > > > On Tuesday, December 22, 2015, Nuria Ruiz <nuria(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: > >> Team: >> >> As part of our effort of converting eventlogging mysql database to the >> tokudb engine we need to stop eventlogging events from flowing into the MobileWikiAppShareAFact >> table, we are using this one table to see how long the conversion will take >> in order to plan for a larger outage window. >> >> >> Let us know if data should be backfilled as it can be, we anticipate >> events will not flow into table for the better part of one day. >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> Nuria >> >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Mobile-l mailing list > Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l > >

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New iOS app: "Curiosity Shows You Useful Wikipedia Articles Right When You Need Them"
by Tilman Bayer 29 Dec '15

29 Dec '15

Launched on December 8. See http://lifehacker.com/curiosity-shows-you-useful-wikipedia-articles-right-w… http://9to5mac.com/community/curiosity-by-tamper-a-beautiful-context-aware-… Features (from https://tamper.io/curiosity/ ): " Nearby [...] Curiosity uses your location to find interesting articles nearby. Popular [...] Curiosity displays the most popular articles for a given day, week, or month all in one place. Explore [...] Receive articles from hand-picked categories that adapt to factors such as time, location, and current events. Learn about Famous Inventors, Movies Filmed Nearby, or many other categories being added and updated regularly. Bookmarks & History [...] Search [...] Read & Share [...] " It's *almost* like they saw https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IOS_Wikipedia_App_5.0_Update.pdf ;) -- Tilman Bayer Senior Analyst Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB

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Wikipedia iOS app git history rewrite
by Brian Gerstle 28 Dec '15

28 Dec '15

Hey all, Just a quick heads up that we've rewritten the Wikipedia iOS app <https://github.com/wikimedia/wikipedia-ios> git history to amend some mistakes with author information. If you have a local copy of the repo, please re-checkout the new master. Merging or rebasing are not recommended, as a lot of the commits have new SHA identifiers. If you have an outstanding branch with changes you'd like to apply to the new master, it's probably best to cherry-pick them individually onto the new master. Feel free to ping me via email or on IRC with any questions (#wikimedia-mobile, #wikimedia-ios). Cheers, Brian -- EN Wikipedia user page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Brian.gerstle IRC: bgerstle

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"Free Basics" Facebook in India under review by government
by Pine W 25 Dec '15

25 Dec '15

For those interested in matters related to WP0 and net neutrality: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35169226 Pine

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Re: [WikimediaMobile] Stopping eventlogging events into MobileWikiAppShareAFact table
by Nuria Ruiz 23 Dec '15

23 Dec '15

Stream of events to MobileWikiAppShareAFact table has been restored. Outage of events was a bit less than 3 hours , please let us know if this data needs to be backfilled. Thanks, Nuria On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 8:30 AM, Nuria Ruiz <nuria(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: > Team: > > As part of our effort of converting eventlogging mysql database to the > tokudb engine we need to stop eventlogging events from flowing into the MobileWikiAppShareAFact > table, we are using this one table to see how long the conversion will take > in order to plan for a larger outage window. > > > Let us know if data should be backfilled as it can be, we anticipate > events will not flow into table for the better part of one day. > > > Thanks, > > Nuria > > >

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Beta of Wikipedia 5.0.0 for iOS
by Joshua Minor 22 Dec '15

22 Dec '15

Hello, Since last quarter the WMF’s iOS team [1] (part of the Reading product group) has been working on a major version update to our iOS app [2]. Rather than adding new features to the existing app, the team took on the goal of re-thinking our mobile readers, and how we could provide them with a delightful, app-specific, experience that will keep them reading Wikipedia on iOS. After an extended alpha period we’re ready to share that work with you, and we’re looking forward to your feedback! Sign up for the Beta by registering here: https://goo.gl/forms/hNxPJah57p Once we are approved by Apple, you will receive a notification to install the beta via the TestFlight platform. I will also be giving a walkthrough of the app, as a lighting talk tomorrow at 11 PST. It will be one of several to the WMF’s monthly lightning talks for Dec, which will stream here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIqhGxtXFbg Thanks, Josh Minor Product Manager, Reading ==More info[3]== What’s New? Our aim was to give our users an easier and more inviting way to discover and read Wikipedia on iOS, and find experiences to keep them engaged. So, there are few new features or changes to the core features, but an all new look-and-feel, and many changes to navigation around that core. 5.0 is a complete overhaul from the ground up, but some major highlights include: - New Explore screen, a mobile-friendly way to enable that Wikipedia moment of serendipity - “First time user experience” that helps users get oriented and configure the app - All new user interface look-and-feel - Tab based navigation for one tap access to your History and Saved pages - Redesigned reader experience, with new page information and table of contents - Easy access to language switching while searching and reading Why is the app so different than the previous one? Although the existing iOS app is well reviewed, and has been featured by Apple, it has never been able to build a sizable audience. Compared to other content sites on the internet, our official apps have not been able to keep our iOS users engaged as they shifted from desktop browsers to mobile apps. In order to “try again” to see if we could engage readers, and also keep them engaged, we’re trying a totally new way of presenting ourselves on iOS. You can read a lot more about this on our project wiki [2] and in this product presentation [4]. What’s this Explore thing? The app’s Explore screen is a new, mobile friendly, way to experience the joy of discovery on Wikipedia. It mixes community curated content (from the en.wikipedia Main Page and Commons) with personally relevant content (based on articles you’ve read and your device location). All this is compiled locally on device and presented in a UI paradigm that is friendly to short, touch based sessions for casual consumption of media. It is an attempt to find a new way to engage, and re-engage, readers on a regular basis, by providing them a wide variety of dynamically changing content, presented in a familiar format. We think it can be very powerful way to enable mobile users to have that magic Wikipedia moment of discovery. Where’s my favorite old feature? Many features that were previously part of the “W” menu are now included in the Explore page. Random articles and articles near your location can both be found by exploring your feed. Other parts of the app now live in the main tab bar (Recent and Saved pages), or in the upper bar (Settings). Not finding something you loved? Fill out our feedback form and let us know [5]. What’s missing? Known issues? - Feed language and site: Currently the Explore page takes its content from your current “site”, based on your current search language. We will need to add more nuance to our site and language controls. If you are a multilingual user of the app, we’re particularly interested to get your feedback. - The app can be overly aggressive about updating/refreshing content. We erred on the side of getting the “latest” content. - Some localizations and RTL language support are incomplete (especially on iOS 8). We are actively working on this. - Navigation issues: although the tab based main interface has been well liked by users, the new navigation flows have introduced some inconveniences for longer sessions and quickly accessing some less frequently used but much loved features. We look forward to hearing from you about what you like, and don’t, about the new navigation. How can I give feedback? We have a feedback form you can fill out (anonymously) here [5] or on the project’s wiki talk page here [2]. The team will also be at the wiki dev summit <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Developer_Summit_2016>, if you want to talk IRL! [1] - https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team/iOS [2] - https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team/Why_5 [3] - Also available on wiki at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/FAQ_about_5.0 [4] - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IOS_Wikipedia_App_5.0_Update.pdf [5] - https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/forms/d/1NDBPJvWZ0idh9OuQ8pt684c9Mw…

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Cross-post: pageviews.js—A JavaScript Client Library for the Wikimedia Pageviews API for Node.js and the browser
by Adam Baso 22 Dec '15

22 Dec '15

Interesting! Also, so is this: http://top.hatnote.com ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *Thomas Steiner* <tomac(a)google.com> Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 Subject: [Wiki-research-l] pageviews.js—A JavaScript Client Library for the Wikimedia Pageviews API for Node.js and the browser To: Research into Wikimedia content and communities < wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Cc: Analytics List <analytics(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Dear all, First and foremost, thanks for making the Wikimedia Pageviews API available; your work is highly appreciated and super useful! As a modest "thank you", I am happy to release the JavaScript client library pageviews.js for Node.js and the browser to make working with this API easy for JavaScript developers. Please find the code and all instructions at [1]. The library adds some convenience functions (getting batch pageviews and limiting the number of results) that were inspired by Dan Andreescu's Python library [2] and is Promise-based: === var pageviews = require('pageviews'); // Getting pageviews for a single article pageviews.getPerArticlePageviews({ article: 'Berlin', project: 'en.wikipedia', start: '20151201', end: '20151202' }).then(function(result) { console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2)); }).catch(function(error) { console.log(error); }); // Getting top-n items ranked by pageviews for multiple projects pageviews.getTopPageviews({ projects: ['en.wikipedia', 'de.wikipedia'], // Plural year: '2015', month: '12', day: '01', limit: 2 // Limit to the first n results }).then(function(result) { console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2)); }).catch(function(error) { console.log(error); }); === On a more technical note—trying to be a good citizen [3]—the client library sets an identifying User-Agent header in Node.js mode. However, trying to set the corresponding X-User-Agent (note the "X-") header from a browser context (XMLHttpRequest cannot override the browser's intrinsic User-Agent for security reasons), this fails with an error message "Request header field X-User-Agent is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Headers in preflight response". Maybe you could change your CORS settings and include X-User-Agent in your Access-Control-Allow-Headers?! Hope this is useful. Thanks, Tom -- [1] pageviews.js: https://github.com/tomayac/pageviews.js [2] python-mwviews: https://github.com/mediawiki-utilities/python-mwviews [3] User-Agent requirement: https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/?doc -- Dr. Thomas Steiner, Employee (blog.tomayac.com, twitter.com/tomayac) Google Germany GmbH, ABC-Str. 19, 20354 Hamburg Geschäftsführer: Matthew Scott Sucherman, Paul Terence Manicle Registergericht und -nummer: Hamburg, HRB 86891 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.29 (GNU/Linux) iFy0uwAntT0bE3xtRa5AfeCheCkthAtTh3reSabiGbl0ck0fjumBl3DCharaCTersAttH3b0ttom.hTtP5://xKcd.c0m/1181/ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Wiki-research-l mailing list Wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org <javascript:;> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l

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Re: [WikimediaMobile] [Analytics] Stopping eventlogging events into MobileWikiAppShareAFact table
by Adam Baso 22 Dec '15

22 Dec '15

Replacing mobile-tech with mobile-l (internal mobile-tech list discontinued). On Tuesday, December 22, 2015, Nuria Ruiz <nuria(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: > Team: > > As part of our effort of converting eventlogging mysql database to the > tokudb engine we need to stop eventlogging events from flowing into the MobileWikiAppShareAFact > table, we are using this one table to see how long the conversion will take > in order to plan for a larger outage window. > > > Let us know if data should be backfilled as it can be, we anticipate > events will not flow into table for the better part of one day. > > > Thanks, > > Nuria > > >

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User essay about editing Wikipedia on a smartphone using the desktop version
by Tilman Bayer 16 Dec '15

16 Dec '15

Interesting, if lengthy essay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cullen328/Smartphone_editing The author's assertion "In my experience, many productive mobile device editors prefer the desktop site" is actually open to empirical testing. Has anyone every tried to find out the percentage of edits from mobile devices that use the desktop version? These observations on the talk page about the shortcomings of the mobile web interface for curation purposes are also worth reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Cullen328/Smartphone_editing#PamD.2… -- Tilman Bayer Senior Analyst Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB

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Mobile-l December 2015