Hi,
The latest tech newsletter is now available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2013/49 . 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.
The newsletter is now being delivered across wikis using the new MassMessage system, which should be faster than the previous bot-powered system. I've done several tests, but since it's the first time we're using MassMessage for Tech news, please let me know if you notice any issues.
As always, feedback (on- or off-list) is appreciated and encouraged.
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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
This newsletter is now posted using MediaWiki message delivery.
New features
- The CommonsMetadata
feature was added to all wikis. It creates metadata information about
multimedia files (like their license) that can be read automatically by
computer programs. It not only works for Commons, but for all wikis, and
you can use it for files on your wiki by editing templates used to describe metadata. [1]
- JavaScript code used on Wikimedia sites is now saved locally on your computer to load faster. [2]
VisualEditor
- You can now paste formatted content copied from external sources
(not just as plain text) into VisualEditor; this includes copy/pasting
from other VisualEditor windows. [3]
- You can now open VisualEditor by adding
?veaction=edit to the page URL, regardless of your user preferences. [4]
- Many bugs have been fixed, and VisualEditor should also look faster, for example when you save a page. [5]
Problems
- Due to issues, the new search tool ("CirrusSearch") was recently removed from wikis where it was enabled, then added again. [6]
Future
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
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Guillaume Paumier
Technical Communications Manager — Wikimedia Foundation