Hi,

The latest tech newsletter is now available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/07 . 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.

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Latest *tech news https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News* from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translationshttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/07are available.

*Recent software changes*

- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf13https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/wmf13) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 6. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 11, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 13 (calendar https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/Roadmap). - The Vector search box was changed to fix old display and accessibility issues; for example, you can now use full-text search even if you have disabled JavaScript. Please report any problems you see. The option to disable the "simplified search bar" on Vector will also be removed. [1]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/50660 [2] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/25127 [3]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/24248 [4] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/82100/ [5]https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/99422/ - You are now notifiedhttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Notificationswhen someone adds a link to your user page on wikis where it didn't work before (wikis with dates in the year-month-day order, including Hungarian, Japanese, Korean and some variants of Chinese). [6]https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/108329/

*VisualEditor news*

- You can now set media items' alt text and position, and directly set their size, in the media tool. [7] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/38129 [8] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/51293 - The gallery tool was improved and several issues were fixed. [9]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/60307 [10] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/60502 [11]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/60779

*Problems*

- On February 3, all wikis were broken for about an hour due to a traffic balancing issue. [12]https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Incident_documentation/20140203-LVS - On February 6, some wikis were broken for about half an hour in total due to a problem with the Mathhttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Mathextension.

*Future software changes*

- Some methods from Scribunto's mw.message libraryhttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Scribunto/Lua_reference_manual#Message_librarywill be removed after February 18. If you use them in your templates or modules, please check to make sure that things will not break. [13]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/60758 [14] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/110983/ - You will soon be able to use GettingStartedhttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStartedon 23 new Wikipedias. It helps new users by listing possible taskshttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Onboarding_new_Wikipediansand giving help. The new version was also added to the English Wikipedia on February 7th. [15] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/111460/ - You will soon see results from other wikis when you use the new search tool (CirrusSearch https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Search). [16]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/44420 [17] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/105986/ - The WikiLove https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Wikilove tool was redesigned and should also load faster. [18]http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/design/2014-February/001462.html - Edits made with WikiLove or after a GettingStartedhttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStartedsuggestion will be tagged https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Tags. [19]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/60911 [20] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/110315/ - It will soon no longer be possible to hide section editing links in your preferences. [21] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/52811 - You will soon be able to use the revision deletionhttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:RevisionDeletefeature via the API. [22] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/23005 - You will soon be able to choose mobile view on non-mobile devices using a Beta Feature option. [23] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/36636 [24] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/102866/ - If you have questions about Universal Language Selectorhttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Universal_Language_Selector, you can join an IRC meeting https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC on February 12 at 17:00 UTC, in the #wikimedia-office channel on Freenode. [25]http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2014-February/074308.html - Developers are preparing for Google Summer of Code 2014https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2014. You can propose ideashttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_projects#Featured_project_ideas. [26]http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2014-February/000574.html - bugzilla.wikimedia.org will be updated this week. You won't be able to access it from 22:00 UTC on February 12 until 01:00 UTC on February 13 at the latest. [27]http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2014-February/074347.html - The <poem> tag will be renamed to <lines>. The old tag will still work. [28]http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2014-February/074337.html

*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 MediaWiki message delivery 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/2014/07 • 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.*