Hi folks,
I'm happy to let you know that Beta Features and Media Viewer have now been released
on Commons and MetaWiki, in addition to
MediaWiki.org!
Beta Features (1) is a new program from the Wikimedia Foundation that lets you try out new
features before they are released for everyone. Think of it as a digital laboratory where
community members can preview upcoming software and give feedback to help improve them.
This special preference page lets designers and engineers experiment with new features on
a broad scale, but in a way that's not disruptive.
One of the first beta features we will be testing together is Media Viewer (2), which aims
to improve the viewing experience by displaying images in larger size and with less
clutter than the current file pages. This first version 0.1 is still in early stages of
development, with many known bugs, but we invite community feedback right away for this
feature, so we can improve it together in coming months. For a sneak peek at the next
version 0.2 of the Media Viewer, check out these first mockups. (3)
Beta Features and Media Viewer are now ready for early testing by logged-in users on
Wikimedia Commons (4), on
Meta.Wikimedia.org (5) and on
MediaWiki.org (6). Based on test
results, we aim to release these beta features on all wikis worldwide on 21 November,
2013.
Here are some of the other beta features in our pipeline:
• VisualEditor Formulæ — edit algebra or equations on your pages (only on
MediaWiki.org)
(7)
• Typography Refresh — make text more readable (scheduled for first release Thursday, 14
November) (8)
Would you like to try out Beta Features and Media Viewer now? After you log in, a small
'Beta' link will appear next to your 'Preferences'. Click on it to see
features you can test, check the ones you want, then click 'Save'. After
you've tested Beta Features, please let us know what you think on this discussion page
(9) -- or report any bugs here on Bugzilla. (10)
You're also welcome to join tomorrow's IRC office hours chat on Friday, 8 November
at 18:30 UTC. (11)
Beta Features and Media Viewer were developed by the Wikimedia Foundation's Multimedia
team, in collaboration with the Design, Mobile and VisualEditor teams. Along with other
developers, we will be adding new features to this experimental program every few weeks.
We are very grateful to all the community and team members who made these projects
possible — and look forward to many more productive collaborations in the future. :)
Enjoy, and don't forget to let us know what you think!
Fabrice
[ 1 ]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/07/introducing-beta-features/
[ 2 ]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer
[ 3 ]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer#Next_Version
[ 4 ]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betaf…
[ 5 ]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeat…
[ 6 ]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatu…
[ 7 ]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Beta_Features/Formulae
[ 8 ]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Typography_Update
[ 9 ]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:About_Beta_Features
[10]
http://wmbug.com/new?product=MediaWiki%20extensions&component=BetaFeatu…
[11]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#Upcoming_office_hours
_______________________________
Fabrice Florin
Product Manager, Multimedia
Wikimedia Foundation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF)
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia