Hello, in the next coming months, these changes will happen in databases
and the infrastructure. And it might affect you if you rely on them in your
tools or queries. This list is ordered based on how soon the change will
happen.
We understand that updating your tools and systems can be time consuming,
hence we are giving an advanced notice. I truly apologize for the
inconvenience but many of these changes are needed to keep the site running
smoothly.
Image table redesign
Around fourteen years after the creation of T28741
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T28741>, we are implementing the changes
described therein. Currently, every current version of an image has a row
in the image table and if there are older versions of that file, those rows
could be found in the oldimage table. These two tables (image and oldimage)
will be dropped in around two months. The replacement will be two main
tables: file and filerevision. Every file will have a row in the file table
describing the name and the type. Every version of the file (current and
old) will have a row in filerevision describing the file-specific
information such as its size or the hash of the file, similar to the
existing distinction between pages and revisions. Another improvement is
that every file and file revision will get a unique auto increment id
simplifying many operations and queries. You can check T28741
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T28741> for more information. The new
tables are already accessible in wikireplicas but the data hasn’t been
fully migrated yet.
Term store split out of wikidata’s database
Wikidata’s database has been growing too fast and we need to move the term
store (tables starting with wbt_) to a dedicated cluster to allow growth
and improve wikidata’s performance by utilizing cache locality. The new
section will be called x3 and you will be able to access it in wikireplicas
but this also means you won’t be able to join these tables with the rest of
wikidata’s database (such as page table) since they will be residing in two
physically separate servers that also means most of your queries to
wikidata’s database (and term store) will become faster. We are aiming for
the switch to happen in three months’ time. You can follow the work in
T351820 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T351820>.
Additionally, wb_type table will be dropped and the mapping will be
hard-coded in the code instead. See gerrit:1110810
<https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/Wikibase/+/1110810>
for more details. This helped us simplify a lot of Wikibase code (example
<https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/Wikibase/+/1110720>).
Categorylinks normalization
Categorylinks is the next table in the series of links tables being
normalized via the linktarget table (parent ticket
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T300222>, RFC
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T222224>). Similar to templatelinks and
pagelinks tables, cl_to will be dropped and instead the new field
cl_target_id will point to lt_id in the linktarget table. We will also drop
the cl_collation field and replace it with cl_collation_id which will point
to the collation_id field on the new table we are introducing called
collation. We are aiming to get this fully done by the end of the next
quarter (end of June 2025) but it depends on how fast the migration script
can operate and that’s outside of our control. You can follow the work in
T299951 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T299951>.It’s worth noting that
after this migration is done, we will start working on the imagelinks table.
Thank you
--
*Amir Sarabadani (he/him)*
Staff Database Architect
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
*(This [SIGNIFICANT Change Announcement] is relevant for all Wikidata users
working with Labels and Aliases.)*
Hello,
You may recall our previous announcement
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikidata@lists.wikimedia.org/me…>
inviting you to test out the “default values for all languages” feature,
introducing the language code "mul" for labels and aliases, on
https://test.wikidata.org. I'm pleased to announce that we are now
proceeding with a limited release on Wikidata. This feature will be
available for testing starting July 29.
Note of Caution and Tips for Testing
-
To try out the new feature during this limited release, you need to add
the language code “mul” to your Babel boxes
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Userboxes#Babel>. A full release
will follow on the week of August 12, displaying default values to everyone
by default.
-
Please refrain from starting any Bot-runs for mul during the limited
release. We will use this limited release to test the performance and
verify that everything works as planned. Bot-runs for mul should only
commence after the full feature is released.
-
Please also test the help page
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help:Default_values_for_labels_and_aliases>
explaining how to use the feature. It will be important to get this help
page right, as the full release will initially contain an onboarding
element that guides people to this help page.
I would like to thank everyone who has participated in the previous testing
phases or provided feedback thus far. We are eager to hear more from you
during this limited release. Please do not hesitate to reach out with
questions or concerns on the talk page of the Help page
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help_talk:Default_values_for_labels_and_alias…>,
or for technical details, in this Phabricator ticket (phab:T356169
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T356169>)
There has also been some discussion on the help page
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help_talk:Default_values_for_labels_and_alias…>
regarding the copy used for the language. We would like to reach a
consensus before the full release. Join the discussion to add your thoughts
and input on the thread. This week, a survey will be included in the Weekly
Summary for those who prefer to provide anonymous feedback.
Cheers!
-Mohammed
On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 9:00 AM Mohammed Sadat Abdulai <
mohammed.abdulai(a)wikimedia.de> wrote:
> (This announcement is relevant for all Wikidata users working with Labels
> and Aliases.)
>
>
> Hello,
>
> We're excited to invite you to participate in the community testing of the
> “default values for labels and aliases” feature. Based on a long-standing
> community request around language fallback (T285156
> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T285156>), and based on your feedback
> from our previous announcement
> <https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikidata@lists.wikimedia.org/me…>,
> we are currently testing this feature on https://test.wikidata.org
> <https://test.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42> with the release planned for Q1 2024.
>
> What is coming?
>
> 1.
>
> Default values for labels and aliases (mul): Items that repeat the
> same label and aliases over and over are hard to maintain and can strain
> our infrastructure, especially the Wikidata Query Service. As a solution,
> we are introducing the option for default values in the termbox. The
> default values are considered in the language fallback chain (language code
> “mul”).
>
>
>
> 2.
>
> Visualisation of the language fallback chain: Previously, Wikidata’s
> fallback chain was not visible in the user interface, making it challenging
> to determine if additional information was needed. As a first step toward
> improvement, we will now clearly show what content is already available via
> language fallback in the placeholders for labels (including default values).
>
>
> We need your feedback
>
> Please leave your feedback on Help talk:Default values for labels and
> aliases
> <https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Help_talk:Default_values_for_lab…>.
> Your feedback will play a crucial role in verifying if the current version
> is ready for Wikidata. Additionally, you can find some test Items, known
> limitations and open questions there for you to review. We will analyze
> your feedback one week after today's announcement.
>
> The next steps
>
> After you have left your feedback, please make sure that the guidelines
> on Help:Default values for labels and aliases
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help:Default_values_for_labels_and_aliases>
> are ready for the launch. You can also already plan bot-runs for mul, but
> please be sure to start with uncontroversial cases. If there are no
> blockers, we will then prepare a limited release on Wikidata in the
> coming weeks. The limited release will only be visible if you put mul in
> your Babel boxes. We will use this limited release to test the performance
> and verify that everything works as planned. Please don’t start any
> bot-runs for mul during the limited release. A full release will follow a
> few weeks later, displaying default values for everyone by default, and
> featuring an onboarding element that will guide people to the help page.
> Bot-runs for mul can commence at this stage.
>
> Do not hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns in the talk page
> of the help page
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help_talk:Default_values_for_labels_and_alias…>
> and for technical details in this Phabricator ticket (T356169
> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T356169>).
>
>
> Thank you for your support!
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Mohammed Sadat Abdulai
> *Community Communications Manager, Wikidata*
>
> Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
> Phone: +49 (0) 30 577 116 2466
> https://wikimedia.de
>
> Grab a spot in my calendar for a chat: calendly.com/masssly.
>
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