Hi,
The latest technical newsletter is now available at <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2019/18>gt;.
Below is the English version.
You can help write the next newsletter: whenever you see information about
Wikimedia technology that you think should be distributed more broadly, you
can add it to the next newsletter at <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Next>gt;.
More information on how to contribute is available at <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute>gt;. You can also contact
me directly.
As always, feedback (on- or off-list) is appreciated and encouraged.
———————————————————————————
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Latest *tech news
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News>* from the
Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes.
Not all changes will affect you. Translations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2019/18> are
available.
*Recent changes*
- The Wikipedia app
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Apps> for
Android now invites users to add Wikidata descriptions to Wikidata objects
that have Wikipedia articles but no Wikidata descriptions. It will only
invite users who have added a number of Wikidata descriptions in the app
without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. [1]
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team/Android/AppEditorTasks>
[2] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T205125>
*Problems*
- Tech News was late last week because of a MassMessage
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Extension:MassMessage>
bug.
Other newsletters had the same problem. [3]
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T221570>
*Changes later this week*
- You will see when you last refreshed the recent changes page. This is
so you can see how recent the changes are. [4]
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T200353>
- When you write a comment in Structured Discussions
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Structured_Discussions>
but
have not posted it yet your web browser
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Web_browser> will save it in local
storage
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Web_storage#Local_and_session_storage>
instead
of session storage
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Web_storage#Local_and_session_storage>.
This means you do not lose them even if you close your web browser.
Structured Discussions used to be called Flow. [5]
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T93612>
- You will be able to turn off milestone notifications
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Notifications/Notifications_types#Milestone>.
Milestone notifications congratulate you when you have made certain numbers
of edits. [6] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T169924>
- [image: Recurrent item] The new version
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.33/wmf.3> of MediaWiki will
be on test wikis and
MediaWiki.org from 30 April. It will be on
non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 1 May. It will be on all wikis
from 2 May (calendar
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.33/Roadmap>).
*Meetings*
- [image: Recurrent item] [image: Advanced item] You can join the
technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers
can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 1 May at 15:00 (UTC)
<https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20190501T15>.
See how to join
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_Advice_IRC_Meeting>.
*Future changes*
- [image: Advanced item] The Wikidata wb_terms table will be dropped.
This will affect some Wikidata tools. They need to be updated. The table
has become too big which is causing problems. This will happen on 29 May.
You can read more
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikidata/2019-April/012987.html>.
You can ask for help if you need it.
- [image: Advanced item] Wikimedia wikis will soon use a token when you
log out. This changes how the API works. Some tools might need to be
updated. [7] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T25227>
*Tech news
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News> prepared
by Tech News writers
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/Writers> and
posted by bot
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/User:MediaWiki_message_delivery>
• Contribute
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News#contribute>
• Translate
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2019/18> • 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_ambassadors>.*
//Johan Jönsson