Wikitech-ambassadors October 2013

wikitech-ambassadors@lists.wikimedia.org

30 participants
22 discussions

Re: [Wikitech-ambassadors] [Wikidata-l] 404 links in notification email
by Federico Leva (Nemo) 23 Oct '13

23 Oct '13

Andy Mabbett, 23/10/2013 20:00: > The links in the forwarded email are 404. > > The diff for the recent change is actually: > > https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Q594&curid=873&diff=81001648&old… > > I've seen this in several such mails in the last few days. Works for me. There's been some technical problem, I don'ìt know exactly what, and there are some cached versions of pages which may erroneously 404 or redirect you to another wiki, usually foundationwiki. Nemo

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Small interface change to be aware of
by Steven Walling 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

Hi all, Just a quick note that per bug 54910, the wording of the left-hand sidebar will change from "Toolbox" to "Tools" in English, and may require a retranslation in other languages. As stated on the bug, we're trying to use a simpler, less anachronistic name for the section. In some non-English languages, such as German's "Werkzeuge", the word was already translated to "Tools". In others, such as French's "Boîte à outils", it was literally translated to more awkward phrases meaning "box of tools". I missed the deadline for the latest edition of Tech News, so this will go out to all Village Pumps with the next edition, after this change goes live. -- Steven Walling, Product Manager https://wikimediafoundation.org/

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Tech newsletter (2013, week 42)
by Guillaume Paumier 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

Greetings, The latest tech newsletter is now available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2013/42 . Below is the English version. You can help write the next newsletter, and we welcome volunteers. More information on how to contribute is available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute . You can also contact me directly. As always, feedback (on- or off-list) is appreciated and encouraged. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Latest *tech news<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News> * from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2013/42>are available. *New features* - You can now choose which language to show for SVG files that contain several languages, using the "lang" option, like [[ File:Gerrit_patchset_25838_test.svg|lang=de<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/test/thumb/4/45/Gerrit_patchset_2583…> ]] for the German layer of File:Gerrit patchset 25838 test.svg<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gerrit_patchset_25838_test.svg> . - Developers are looking for wiki communities to try the new search system. [1]<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2013-October/0004…> *VisualEditor<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal>news * - You can now create and edit references inside media captions. [2]<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/50459> - You now need to press the "delete" key twice to delete a template, reference or image; the first time, they only become selected, to avoid accidental deletion of infoboxes and similar content. [3]<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/55336> - When you resize images, you will now still see them, and their size will also be seen in the center. [4]<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/54298> [5] <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/54297> *Future* - The new notifications system<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/w:en:Wikipedia:Notifications>("Echo") will be added to almost all wikis<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Release_Plan_2013>that don't already have it on October 22. It will notify you of changes and events that affect you. [6]<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2013-October/0004…> - MediaWiki 1.22wmf22<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.22/wmf22>was added to test wikis on October 17. It will arrive to non-Wikipedia wikis on October 21 and all Wikipedia wikis on October 24 (calendar<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.22/Roadmap> ). - The interface to reset your password will soon be changed<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Password_reset>. [7]<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2013-October/0004…> *Tech news <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News>prepared by tech ambassadors<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/Ambassadors>and posted by Global message delivery <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery> • Contribute<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News#contribute> • Translate<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2013/42> • Get help <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech> • Give feedback<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tech/News> • Subscribe or unsubscribe<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tech_ambass…> .* -- Guillaume Paumier Technical Communications Manager — Wikimedia Foundation https://donate.wikimedia.org

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Gadgets across projects
by Eran Rosenthal 20 Oct '13

20 Oct '13

I would like to improve the gadget sharing across Wikimedia projects. Since there is no central repository for gadgets there is a huge mess: there is no easy way to tell which gadgets exist across all wikis, small communities don't get useful gadgets and some cool gadgets are used only by small communities. I created a IEG proposal<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Visual_editor-_gadgets_compatibi…>for improving gadget sharing and visual editor support in (relevant) gadgets, and would like to have some feedback from users of other wikis. Some basic explanation on gadgets, and gadgets statistics across projects can be found now in meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gadgets>. You may browse the statistics pages, such as the one for wikipedia<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gadgets/wikipedia>to find some gadgets that can be useful. Some of the gadgets I didn't think of before and seems to be very useful (+many users enabled them) are markadmins from ru, spell mistakes labelling (Rechtschreibpruefung) used in de and fa, toolserver-integration from de, FlecheHaut (link to top) and LastContrib (shows last edit, and helps to prevent edit conflict) from fr. eranroz

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Deployment highlights - week of October 21
by Greg Grossmeier 18 Oct '13

18 Oct '13

Hello and welcome to the lastest and greatest deploy highlights email, this time for the week of October 21st. == Highlights of the week == On Tuesday October 22nd, Echo (Notifications) will be doing it's final major release. The wikis included are listed here: <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Release_Plan_2013#Final_Release> == Rest of the schedule == === Monday === * MediaWiki upgrade to non-Wikipedia project sites (eg: Commons, Wikisources, Wiktionaries, etc) ** These site will get MediaWiki 1.22wmf22 ** See: <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.22/Roadmap#Schedule_for_the_depl…> * The WMF Jenkins install will be upgraded to the latest released version, 1.509.4. This should have no impact on any editor/reader facing project or service. * There will be an upgrade to the CirrusSearch backend, but only on a network level and there should be no visible changes/impact on any user facing project or service. === Tuesday === * The afore mentioned Echo deploy (see above). === Thursday === * MediaWiki upgrade to all language Wikipedias. ** These sites will get MediaWiki 1.22wmf22 * MediaWiki upgrade to all test wikis (including mediawiki.org) ** These sites will get the first wmf branch of the next MediaWiki release, 1.23wmf1. As always, let me know if you have any questions. Greg -- | Greg Grossmeier GPG: B2FA 27B1 F7EB D327 6B8E | | identi.ca: @greg A18D 1138 8E47 FAC8 1C7D |

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Small design update on PasswordReset
by Steven Walling 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

Hi all, This is just a quick note to say that there's been an update to Special:PasswordReset in MediaWiki core. As described at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Password_reset, we've updated the form style to use the same button and form style as login and account creation. The functionality of how a password can be reset has not changed at all, so you should encounter no bugs. -- Steven Walling, Product Manager https://wikimediafoundation.org/

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VisualEditor weekly update - 2013-10-17 (MW 1.22wmf22)
by James Forrester 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

All, My weekly update<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/status#2013-10-10_.28MW_1.22wmf2…> about progress on VisualEditor: VisualEditor was updated as part of the wider MediaWiki 1.22wmf22 branch deployment <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.22/wmf22> on Thursday 17 October. In the week since 1.22wmf21, the team worked on some feature changes, infrastructure improvements, and fixing bugs. We improved media item resizing in a few ways. Firstly, inline media items can now be resized in the same way that has been possible with block ones (like thumbnails) before. When resizing a media item, you can see a live preview of how it will look as you drag it (bug 54298<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54298>). Whilst you are dragging an image to resize it, we now show a label with the current dimensions (bug 54297<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54297>). Once you have resized it, we fetch a new higher-resolution image for the media item if necessary (bug 55697<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55697>). Manual setting of media item sizes in their dialog is nearly complete and should be available next week. Beyond this work, there was a lot of preparatory work done to make it possible to re-use elements of VisualEditor outside of the full VE surface (such as in other extensions or gadgets), which should be completed soon, and adding support for switching extra parts of VisualEditor on in the forthcoming Beta Features <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Beta_Features> extension. A complete list of individual code commits is available in the 1.22/wmf22 changelog<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.22/wmf22/Changelog#VisualEditor>, and all Bugzilla bugs closed in this period are on Bugzilla's list<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=V…> . If you have any questions, please do ask. Yours, -- James D. Forrester Product Manager, VisualEditor Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. jforrester(a)wikimedia.org | @jdforrester

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Please create less user annoyance
by Romaine Wiki 14 Oct '13

14 Oct '13

In the past week a software change was executed which was in use by many users which gave negative responses as users do not know how to restore it for themselves. I understand that technical changes are needed and can't be prevented, but what can be prevented is they height of the annoyance. As technical ambassador I can explain why things change, but as I have not all the know how I was unable to deliver the code for the users vector.css (or common/vector.js) to repair the issue. I would suggest that developers/tech/everyone is aware of the consequences changes have for local users who daily have to deal with changes in the software. I am not sure if it is workable, but I still want to suggest: please have a page (or something) where I as tech ambassador or users can read how the change in the software can be restored in the personal settings. It happens too much that end users are much annoyed by changes while there is no direct answer for how to restore it in the common.css or .js, while such is possible. Romaine

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VisualEditor weekly update - 2013-10-10 (MW 1.22wmf21)
by James Forrester 11 Oct '13

11 Oct '13

All, As before, the regular update<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/status#2013-10-10_.28MW_1.22wmf2…> about progress on VisualEditor (a little late this week; my apologies!): VisualEditor was updated as part of the wider MediaWiki 1.22wmf21 branch deployment <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.22/wmf21> on Thursday 10 October. In the week since 1.22wmf20, the team worked on fixing bugs and stability improvements to VisualEditor. When you delete or backspace over a node (like a template, reference or image), the node will first will become selected before a second press of the key will delete it, making it more obvious what you are doing and avoiding accidental removals of infoboxes and similar (bug 55336<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55336> ). If you hold down the ⇧ Shift key whilst resizing an image, it will now snap to a 10 pixel grid instead of the normal free-hand sizing. A number of improvements were made to the transactions system which make the undo/redo system able to cope better with real-time collaboration, where multiple users will be able to edit a page at the same time in one session. The save dialog was re-written to use the same code as all other dialogs (bug 48566 <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=48566>), and in the process fixed a number of issues. The save dialog is re-accessible if it loses focus (bug 50722<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50722>), or if you review a null edit (bug 53313<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=53313>); its checkboxes for minor edit, watch the page, and flagged revisions options now layout much more cleanly (bug 52175<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52175>), and the tab order of the buttons is now closer to what users will expect (bug 51918 <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51918>). The code for the action buttons on the right (RTL environments: left) of the toolbar was re-written slightly to improve its flexibility. The display of the help and edit notice menus is now improved, including the addition of a close button (bug 52386<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52386>). The width of the format drop-down was made adjustable so that long labels don't cause it to break (bug 54870<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54870>), and a bug that caused the toolbar's menus to get shorter or even blank when scrolled down the page in Firefox is now fixed (bug 55343<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55343> ). A complete list of individual code commits is available in the 1.22/wmf21 changelog<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.22/wmf21/Changelog#VisualEditor>, and all Bugzilla bugs closed in this period are on Bugzilla's list<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=V…> . If you have any questions, please do ask. Yours, -- James D. Forrester Product Manager, VisualEditor Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. jforrester(a)wikimedia.org | @jdforrester

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VisualEditor weekly update - 2013-10-03 (MW 1.22wmf20)
by James Forrester 04 Oct '13

04 Oct '13

All, As before, the regular update<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/status#2013-10-03_.28MW_1.22wmf2…> about progress on VisualEditor (a little late this week; my apologies!): VisualEditor was updated as part of the wider MediaWiki 1.22wmf20 branch deployment <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.22/wmf20> on Thursday 3 October. In the week since 1.22wmf19, the team worked on fixing bugs and stability improvements to VisualEditor. References are now editable when they appear inside a media item's caption (bug 50459 <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50459>), thanks to a major re-write of the back-end (bug 52102<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52102>) that will help us finally provide proper copy-and-paste support in the near future. We tweaked the wording for the warning message that appears for a blank reference list of the default group, and no longer talk about 'the group ""' (bug 51873 <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51873> ). Editing in the "slug" at the start of a page no longer shows up a pawn character ("♙") in some circumstances (bug 54791<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54791>). In Firefox, blanking the page using select-all and then delete used to break editing; this is now fixed (bug 50947<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50947>). Generated content blocks which get re-rendered as they are updated, like the experimental (and available on MediaWiki.org) formula editor now doesn't cause the inspector to judder to the begging and back when updating the image (bug 54584 <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54584> ). There were a number of urgent fixes made to the code behind VisualEditor during the week, to fix issues that developed. Firstly, there was a bug that meant that it was impossible to move the cursor using the keyboard away from a selected node (like a reference or template) once it had been selected (bug 54443 <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54443>). Another bug meant that links with a final punctuation character in them broke extending them in some circumstances (bug 54332<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54332>). The "page settings" dialog was broken twice, first in a way that made removing categories impossible, though adding them worked (bug 54727<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54727>), and later entirely, though only in a development branch (bug 54928<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54928>). A broken deployment script meant that briefly VisualEditor was broken for all Wikipedias (bug 54935<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54935>). Finally, 'snowmen' characters ("☃") no longer appear near newly-added references, templates and other nodes (bug 54712<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54712> ). A complete list of individual code commits is available in the 1.22/wmf20 changelog<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.22/wmf20/Changelog#VisualEditor>, and all Bugzilla bugs closed in this period are on Bugzilla's list<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=V…> . If you have any questions, please do ask. Yours, -- James D. Forrester Product Manager, VisualEditor Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. jforrester(a)wikimedia.org | @jdforrester

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Wikitech-ambassadors October 2013