Hi!
The latest tech newsletter is now available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/11.
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.
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 from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf17) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 6. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on March 11, and all Wikipedia wikis on March 13 (calendar).
- You can now use the new search tool (CirrusSearch) on all Wikiquote projects. You can now enable it in your Beta options.
VisualEditor news
- It is now easier to edit templates. Complex tools are now in the "advanced" mode.
- It is also easier to edit images. You now have more options and they are explained better.
- VisualEditor adds fake blank lines so you can put your cursor there. They are now smaller and animated to be different from actual blank lines.
- We have improved the tool to add special characters. The buttons are now larger. More changes are coming.
- You can now use new keyboard shortcuts to undo the last action, clear formatting, and show the shortcut help window.
Future software changes
- You will soon be able to use a Beta option to show a shorter list of language links. That way, Universal Language Selector will only show languages that are relevant to you. You will still be able to search for other languages.
- CirrusSearch will soon automatically index newly imported pages.
- It will soon be possible to use CSS to style buttons in templates on all Wikimedia wikis, without needing JavaScript.
- An IRC discussion with the Wikimedia Foundation Language Engineering team will take place on March 12 at 17:00 UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on Freenode (time conversion).
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.