Wikitech-l December 2021

wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org

28 participants
39 discussions

List related to repositories which haven't mediawiki/mediawiki-codesniffer
by Zoran Dori 11 Jan '23

11 Jan '23

Hello, can someone to update list https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/P10500 which contains repositories which haven't mediawiki/mediawiki-codesniffer. I found in list that much repositories are empty, and repositories which aren't available on Gerrit. So, can someone please update this list of repositories (in mediawiki/extensions) which haven't mediawiki/mediawiki-codesniffer, but at least, contains one PHP file. or to provide me command with which I can update list when I want, so I don't need to request it every time. Best regards, Zoran. P. S.: Happy weekend! :)

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Uplifting the multimedia stack (was: Community Wishlist Survery)
by Strainu 28 Jan '22

28 Jan '22

> So where is the best current place to discuss scaling Commons, and all that entails? My impression is that we don't have one. All we hear is "it needs to be planned", but there is no transparency on what that planning involves or when it actually happens. > I'd be surprised if the bottleneck were people or budget The main problem I see is that we end up in this kind of situation. Scaling and bug fixing critical features should be part of the annual budget. Each line of code deployed to production wikis should have an owner and associated maintenance budget each year. Without this, the team will not even commit reviews - see the thread on wikitech a few months back where a volunteer programmer willing to work on Upload Wizard was basically told "We will not review your code. Go fork." > Some examples from recent discussions Also improvements to the Upload Wizard. There are quite a few open items in Phab on this. I really hope you will have better luck than others with bringing this issue up in the priority list for next year - multimedia support is growing more outdated by the minute. Strainu Pe joi, 30 decembrie 2021, Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com> a scris: > Separate thread. I'm not sure which list is appropriate. > ... but not all the way to sentience. > > The annual community wishlist survey (implemented by a small team, possibly in isolation?) may not be the mechanism for prioritizing large changes, but the latter also deserves a community-curated priority queue. To complement the staff-maintained priorities in phab ~ > For core challenges (like Commons stability and capacity), I'd be surprised if the bottleneck were people or budget. We do need a shared understanding of what issues are most important and most urgent, and how to solve them. For instance, a way to turn Amir's recent email about the problem (and related phab tickets) into a family of persistent, implementable specs and proposals and their articulated obstacles. > An issue tracker like phab is good for tracking the progress and dependencies of agreed-upon tasks, but weak for discussing what is important, what we know about it, how to address it. And weak for discussing ecosystem-design issues that are important and need persistent updating but don't have a simple checklist of steps. > So where is the best current place to discuss scaling Commons, and all that entails? Some examples from recent discussions (most from the wm-l thread below): > - Uploads: Support for large file uploads / Keeping bulk upload tools online > - Video: Debugging + rolling out the videojs player > - Formats: Adding support for CML and dozens of other common high-demand file formats > - Thumbs: Updating thumbor and librsvg > - Search: WCQS still down, noauth option wanted for tools > - General: Finish implementing redesign of the image table > > SJ > On Wed, Dec 29, 2021 at 6:26 AM Amir Sarabadani <ladsgroup(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> >> I'm not debating your note. It is very valid that we lack proper support for multimedia stack. I myself wrote a detailed rant on how broken it is [1] but three notes: >> - Fixing something like this takes time, you need to assign the budget for it (which means it has to be done during the annual planning) and if gets approved, you need to start it with the fiscal year (meaning July 2022) and then hire (meaning, write JD, do recruitment, interview lots of people, get them hired) which can take from several months to years. Once they are hired, you need to onboard them and let them learn about our technical infrastructure which takes at least two good months. Software engineering is not magic, it takes time, blood and sweat. [2] >> - Making another team focus on multimedia requires changes in planning, budget, OKR, etc. etc. Are we sure moving the focus of teams is a good idea? Most teams are already focusing on vital parts of wikimedia and changing the focus will turn this into a whack-a-mole game where we fix multimedia but now we have critical issues in security or performance. >> - Voting Wishlist survey is a good band-aid in the meantime. To at least address the worst parts for now. >> >> I don't understand your point tbh, either you think it's a good idea to make requests for improvements in multimedia in the wishlist survey or you think it's not. If you think it's not, then it's offtopic to this thread. >> [1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org… >> [2] There is a classic book in this topic called "The Mythical Man-month" >> >> On Wed, Dec 29, 2021 at 11:41 AM Gnangarra <gnangarra(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> we have to vote for regular maintenance and support for essential functions like uploading files which is the core mission of Wikimedia Commons

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Small Wiki Tools User Feedback Survey
by Alexandra Shagzhina 15 Jan '22

15 Jan '22

Hello everyone, I am an Outreachy participant in Round 23 [1], <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreachy/Round_23> working on a project to develop demo videos and toolkits to demonstrate the use of essential tools for smaller wiki communities: <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T292135> [2]. <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T292135> This Outreachy project is part of the larger Small wiki toolkits project to build technical capacity in smaller language wiki communities. More about the initiative: <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_wiki_toolkits> [3]. <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_wiki_toolkits> As part of the project, we are running a survey to gather information about the tools that you find most helpful for your work on the wikis that might benefit for video documentation for others. It will not take longer than 5 minutes to fill out this survey; your feedback will be super valuable for us! < https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQHjansDXfLBGWPNhGBpqWTrhRdAWc5tA…> [4]. <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQHjansDXfLBGWPNhGBpqWTrhRdAWc5tA…> This survey is conducted via a third-party service, which may subject it to additional terms. For more information on privacy and data handling, see the survey privacy statement: < https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Popular_Tools_for_Wikipedia,_Wikidata…> [5]. Best, Alexandra [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreachy/Round_23 [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T292135 [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_wiki_toolkits [4] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQHjansDXfLBGWPNhGBpqWTrhRdAWc5tA… <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQHjansDXfLBGWPNhGBpqWTrhRdAWc5tA…> [5] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Popular_Tools_for_Wikipedia,_Wikidata…

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Wikimedia Enterprise HTML dumps available for public download
by Ariel Glenn WMF 02 Jan '22

02 Jan '22

I am pleased to announce that Wikimedia Enterprise's HTML dumps [1] for October 17-18th are available for public download; see https://dumps.wikimedia.org/other/enterprise_html/ for more information. We expect to make updated versions of these files available around the 1st/2nd of the month and the 20th/21st of the month, following the cadence of the standard SQL/XML dumps. This is still an experimental service, so there may be hiccups from time to time. Please be patient and report issues as you find them. Thanks! Ariel "Dumps Wrangler" Glenn [1] See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise for much more about Wikimedia Enterprise and its API.

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Fwd: Cloud VPS users, please claim your projects (and, introducing Komla)
by Seyram Komla Sapaty 01 Jan '22

01 Jan '22

Hello cloud-vps users, There are still about 84 unclaimed projects at https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/News/Cloud_VPS_2021_Purge Please take a moment to look at that page and mark projects that you are using. Unclaimed projects will be in danger of shutdown on February 1st, 2022. Thank you to those of you who have already acted on this. Thank you! - Komla -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Cloud VPS users, please claim your projects (and, introducing Komla) Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2021 14:42:08 -0600 From: Andrew Bogott <abogott(a)wikimedia.org> <abogott(a)wikimedia.org> Reply-To: abogott(a)wikimedia.org Organization: The Wikimedia Foundation To: Cloud-announce(a)lists.wikimedia.org CC: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Hello cloud-vps users! It's time for our annual cleanup of unused projects and resources. Our new developer advocate Komla Sapaty will be guiding this process; please respond promptly to his emails and do your best to make him feel welcome! Every year or so the Cloud Services team tries to identify and clean up unused projects and VMs. We do this via an opt-in process: anyone can mark a project as 'in use,' and that project will be preserved for another year. I've created a wiki page that lists all existing projects, here: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/News/Cloud_VPS_2021_Purge If you are a VPS user, please visit that page and mark any projects that you use as {{Used}}. Note that it's not necessary for you to be a project admin to mark something -- if you know that you're currently using a resource and want to keep using it, go ahead and mark it accordingly. If you /are/ a project admin, please take a moment to mark which VMs are or aren't used in your projects. When February arrives, I will shut down and begin the process of reclaiming resources from unused projects. If you think you use a VPS project but aren't sure which, I encourage you to poke around on https://tools.wmflabs.org/openstack-browser/ to see what looks familiar. Worst case, just email cloud(a)lists.wikimedia.org with a description of your use case and we'll sort it out there. Exclusive toolforge users are free to ignore this email and future related things. Thank you! -Andrew and the WMCS team

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PoC: Using MediaWiki as a static site generator
by lens0021 lens0021 27 Dec '21

27 Dec '21

Hi, I have written a set of scripts to use MediaWiki as a static site generator and am writing this mail to inform those who are interested in it. The tool, ThisIsNotAWiki depends on Docker and the MediaWiki's file caching. A docker container would launch an actual MediaWiki instance, import wikitext files, and generate HTML files when ThisIsNotAWiki runs. Unlike other static site generators that support Wikitext, ThisIsNotAWiki uses the same engine as real wikis, therefore all syntax is available, and skins and extensions can be enabled separately as needed. [1] The tool is currently still in its infancy and it's why I prepended PoC on the title. You can visit the repository on Github [2] or the project site [3] which was generated by the tool itself for details. Thanks, Lens0021 [1]: It now only supports the bundled extensions/skins. [2]: https://github.com/lens0021/this-is-not-a-wiki [3]: https://lens0021.github.io/this-is-not-a-wiki/

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Developer Portal status update
by Andre Klapper 23 Dec '21

23 Dec '21

Hej hej, as you may remember from previous[1] posts[2], we (Alex[3], Bryan[4], Sarah[5], Tricia[6], and me[7]) are working on a developer portal for technical documentation[8] and updating key technical documents. The goal is to make it easier for everyone to find the help and information you need about the technical side of MediaWiki software and Wikimedia projects and to improve the overall quality and discoverability of technical documentation. I'm going to share what has happened over the last months (also see the general schedule[9]). Regarding the technical stack, we decided on a platform[10]. Its work- in-progress codebase is in Gerrit[11] and there might be a demo server soon[12]. This is the technical scaffold; actual content will be added when we get closer to launching in a few months (see the corresponding task graph[13] for work to sort out before launching). We defined core audiences[14] and had nine user tests completed[15] so far. The feedback helped iterate on the Developer Portal content layout draft prototype[16] (which evolved from a unified to a multipage approach). We are also in the process of reviewing and improving many key technical documentation pages (which will get linked from the developer portal). These updates and accuracy checks are based on a review checklist[17]. The checklist may also be helpful for anyone else interested in good technical documentation. For planning documentation review work, we use a Phabricator workboard[18]; you can also find the list of key pages on the project wiki page[19]. To get involved, sign up[20] to participate in user testing for the developer portal. For questions and feedback, leave us a comment on the project talk page[21]. All these efforts are part of the goal to have discoverable docs and paths to entry[22]. Cheers, andre [1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/… [2] https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/… [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:APaskulin_(WMF) [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:BDavis_(WMF) [5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SRodlund_(WMF) [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:TBurmeister_(WMF) [7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:AKlapper_(WMF) [8] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal [9] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal#Timeline [10] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T287175 [11] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/g/wikimedia/developer-portal/ [12] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T297800 [13] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T261510 [14] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal#Core_aud… [15] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal/Call_for… [16] https://apaskulin.github.io/wmf-dev-portal-draft/ [17] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation/Review_template [18] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/profile/5409/ [19] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal#Key_land… [20] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal/Call_for…! [21] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal [22] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technology/Annual_Plans/ERF_OKR:_T… -- Andre Klapper (he/him) | Bugwrangler / Developer Advocate https://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper/

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MediaWiki skins (another call to action)
by Jon Robson 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

Exactly a year ago today, we had 55 usable skins for MediaWiki [1]. Now, we have a much more healthy 79. There are >= 23 skins that used to work with MediaWiki that no longer do. This week 5 skins were added thanks to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Bluelib being added to MediaWiki.org ! All usable skins are all showcased on https://skins.wmflabs.org I believe that the more skins MediaWiki supports, the more vibrant our ecosystem can be for developers and end-users. I dream of a world where not every MediaWiki instance looks like an instance of Wikipedia. In 2022, the work being done on https://mediawiki.org/wiki/Desktop_improvements will see the number of usable skins rise to at least 80 skins and I am personally exploring a script that converts WordPress themes [2] into MediaWiki skins that should add another 10 skins at least (Feel free to message me offline if you want to talk more about this ). However, there is still much work to be done if we want to have a healthy skin ecosystem! * 13 of these 79 skins are throwing deprecation warnings, meaning they may break in future MediaWiki versions [3]. Please help get those patched! * Fix an unstable skin! We have 9 skins that do not work on the current MediaWiki master. Can you help fix one of them? [4] * Make a new skin! Skin development has changed a lot in the last 2 years. It is more constrained and does not require knowledge of PHP. Take our documentation [5] for a spin and see if you can create one and let us know where the documentation can be improved and the limitations that you ran into with the platform while building them [6]. Check out the online skin builder tool if you haven't already. [7] * Improve the mediawiki.org documentation! Add screenshots, add links, translate a skin.. anything that might help someone use a skin. * Write a patch to help improve the core skin architecture where a patch is welcome [8] Wishing everyone a happy holiday and happy skin-building. [1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/… <https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/…> [2] https://wordpress.org/themes/ [3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Skins_using_deprecated_features [4] https://mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Unstable_skins [5] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:How_to_make_a_MediaWiki_skin [6] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/4795 [7] https://skins.wmflabs.org/#/add [8] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/4795/?filter=bGQ_G2ii8IJ7 On Sat, Dec 18, 2021 at 4:11 PM Jon Robson <jdlrobson(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Only skins now that cannot be previewerd > > Check out https://github.com/Steffo99/mediawiki-skins-Bluelib >

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Microsoft Word to Wiki (via LibreOffice)
by Greg Rundlett (freephile) 18 Dec '21

18 Dec '21

Our users have found that using LibreOffice to convert MS Word documents to wikitext is the best approach to getting 'mostly there' when you want to create a wiki page from some MS Word document. In the past, I've created a headless LibreOffice setup to accept file uploads to give editors a conversion service. I don't have that setup available anymore. My question is: "Does anyone know of a service that *is* setup to use LibreOffice to convert MS Word to wikitext?" I searched the ToolHub to no avail. Thanks, Greg

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Save the date! Coolest Tool Award 2021: Friday, January 14th, 17:00 UTC
by Andre Klapper 17 Dec '21

17 Dec '21

Hi everyone! The second edition of the Coolest Tool Award https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Coolest_Tool_Award will happen online on Friday 14 January 2022 at 17:00 UTC! See https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1642179615 for your timezone. The awarded tools will be showcased in a virtual event, with broadcasted video and chat channels for socializing. We will send more details and links soon. Save the date, and join us celebrating the great work volunteer developers do for the Wikimedia communities. We hope to see you there! andre, for the Coolest Tool Academy 2021 -- Andre Klapper (he/him) | Bugwrangler / Developer Advocate https://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper/

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Wikitech-l December 2021