On 11 March 2016 at 10:52, ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) <vp2007(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Failed my dream :(
>
> Any string in any language in any wikipedia project. How far is my dream?
>
I share your dream! :-)
Unfortunately, the dream is quite far away from reality. Querying every
search index would put a big performance strain on the search servers.
Additionally, it would likely return you a bunch of really irrelevant
results, so there's a lot of user experience implications that would need
to be figured out as well. Discovery is not actively working on this at
present.
Thanks,
Dan
--
Dan Garry
Lead Product Manager, Discovery
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello!
I'm very pleased to announce that we've updated the Wikipedia.org
<http://wikipedia.org/> portal page with a brand new search box that is
more prominent and will now display meta data with images (as available) in
the search results (link
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_searchbox_with_metadata.png>).
This was a large effort by the Discovery Portal team to develop a
JavaScript-only version of the language picker, so that JavaScript enabled
browsers will see all the new meta data. Alongside that effort, we also
ensured that in JavaScript (JS) disabled browsers (or older Internet
Explorer versions), our visitors won't have a bad experience when choosing
a language to search in. (Note 1: in older IE versions and JS disabled
browsers, the type-ahead and meta data search results information will not
be displayed.)
We also implemented a shorter language code (ie: EN for English, ES for
Spanish, etc) to allow for more characters to be typed into the search box.
When a user toggles the language selector, the full language name will be
displayed in the dropdown for easy finding of the language you prefer to
search in. For the more technical minded - I've also uploaded, to Commons,
a screenshot
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sample_browsers_tested.png> of one
of the ways we test our code, visually.
We're interested in hearing your feedback or if you have any questions! (Note
2: My apologies for not getting this email out yesterday, but I had had
issues with size limitations of my screenshots.)
On behalf of the very happy Wikipedia.org Portal Team,
Deb
--
Deb Tankersley
Product Manager, Discovery
Wikimedia Foundation
Dear wiki tech ambassadors,
As you may have noticed on the last Tech News issue, Collaboration team is
please to announce that *Cross-wiki notifications*
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Notifications/Cross-wiki> will be
available as a Beta feature on all wikis by *March 20th*.
Cross-wiki notifications will help you know about some activity on another
wiki. *How does it work?* Imagine someone thanks you on Commons - the next
time you open a page on your local wiki, you'll see that notification from
Commons! We hope this will help everyone who is active on multiple wikis.
You will find more information in the documentation
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Notifications/Cross-wiki> (translations
still welcome).
Of course, it is a Beta Feature. We have tested many possible cases on test
wikis, and then release that feature one month ago on MediaWiki.org,
Commons, Wikidata, French and Hebrew wikis. That first release allowed us
to solve encountered problems, but *if you experience some bugs* (and we
are sorry about that), please report them on the dedicated page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help_talk:Notifications> (in any language).
That page is also dedicated to feedback and suggestions.
To activate the feature, you will have to go on the 20th of March to your
preferences
<https://office.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafe…>,
Beta tab, and select the "Enhanced notifications" checkbox (or the
equivalent
<https://translatewiki.net/wiki/MediaWiki:Echo-pref-beta-feature-cross-wiki-…>in
your language). You will then receive Notifications when they happen on any
other wiki. You will receive these notifications only on the wiki where you
have activated the feature. If you do not activate it, nothing will change
on your Notifications panel.
If you have any questions, please leave me a message on any wiki, I'll be
notified with cross-wiki notifications.
Please spread the word! :)
Thanks,
Benoît
--
Benoît Evellin (Trizek)
Community Liaison
Wikimedia Foundation
