Hi,

The latest tech newsletter is now available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/46 . 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 http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Next.

More information on how to contribute is available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute . 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/2014/46 are available.

*Recent software changes*

- You may see a new tool on the mobile site of the English Wikipedia. It asks simple questions to make the article better. In the future, your answers will go to Wikidata. [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend/WikiGrok [2] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=72465 - The MediaWiki API https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page now shows information in a nice format. You can translate it in translatewiki.net https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translate&group=mediawiki-api . [3] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mediawiki-api-announce/2014-October/000071.html

*File information cleanup https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/File_metadata_cleanup_drive*

- Reminder: You can help fix file information https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/File_metadata_cleanup_drive/How_to_fix_metadata on your wiki. It will help robots understand the information https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/11/07/cleaning-up-file-metadata-for-humans-and-robots/. After that, it will be easier for you to search files and re-use them. - You can join two IRC chats https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours this week to learn more about the file cleanup project. One will be on Wednesday at 18:00 (UTC) http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=18&min=00&sec=0&day=12&month=11&year=2014 and the other on Thursday at 04:00 (UTC) http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=04&min=00&sec=0&day=13&month=11&year=2014. You can ask questions during the chat if you need help to fix files on your wiki. - You can see a list of files to fix on the Labs tool https://tools.wmflabs.org/mrmetadata. You can report bugs and ask questions on the talk page https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:File_metadata_cleanup_drive.

*Problems*

- Wikimedia Labs was broken for a few hours on Thursday. It was due to a hardware problem. [4] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/labs-l/2014-November/003099.html

*Software changes this week*

- The new version of MediaWiki (1.25wmf7 https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.25/wmf7) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since November 5. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from November 11, and on all Wikipedias from November 12 (calendar https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.25/Roadmap). - You can now use more editing tools for tables in VisualEditor. You can add rows and columns, merge cells, and edit table captions. [5] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52181 [6] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52179 - The style and insert menus in the toolbar of VisualEditor now show fewer tools. This helps you see the most common tasks. You can see all items by clicking "More". [7] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/170126/ - The way windows inside VisualEditor work has changed. VisualEditor should be faster and have fewer bugs. [8] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52486

*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 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/2014/46 • 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.*