Wikitech-l October 2024

wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org

43 participants
35 discussions

The future of RSA certificates and TLS 1.2 at Wikimedia
by Brett Cornwall 03 Dec '24

03 Dec '24

The Wikimedia Foundation uses HTTPS to protect users from eavesdropping and tampering of Wikimedia project pages [1]. As time passes, security protocols gain advancements while weaknesses hamper established protocols. WMF monitors such developments and adjusts ciphers/protocols to provide a secure and performant browsing experience. Wikimedia projects serve RSA and ECDSA certificates; RSA certificates will be removed soon. Wikimedia projects are to serve only ECDSA certificates going forward [2]. RSA certificate usage comprises a fraction of traffic (~0.1%). Additionally, RSA continues weakening in security and increases our cost/overhead of certificate issuance (We pay twice for certificates: Once for ECDSA and once for RSA). In the distant future, WMF also intends on deprecating TLS 1.2 in favor of TLS 1.3 [3]. TLS 1.3 provides security and performance improvements and already comprises the majority of Wikimedia project traffic (TLS 1.2 traffic accounts for less than 4 percent of traffic to Wikimedia sites). Note that this deprecation is not scheduled anytime soon! We merely want to start coordinating with community members and projects to begin the transition. This mail only serves as a preliminary announcement of intent to eventually deprecate TLS 1.2, not as an official deprecation warning. [1] https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/HTTPS [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T370837 [3] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T367821

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Article source code style guide
by Bináris 03 Dec '24

03 Dec '24

Hi, is there anywhere a $subject? My first question is: is it better to leave an empty line under section titles or not? I would like to see pros and cons. Is there a consensus for preferred way? (I think source code style guides are primarily within the scope of programmers and not in that of users without programming experience, that's why I ask here.) -- Bináris

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Parsoid Read Views roll out on Bengali, Hindi, Pushto, and Turkish Wikivoyage this week
by C. Scott Ananian 27 Nov '24

27 Nov '24

Hello everyone, I am glad to inform you that as part of our continued rollout of Parsoid Read Views, Parsoid will be turned on this week as the default read views renderer on Bengali, Hindi, Pushto, and Turkish Wikivoyage. Here's the rationale <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid/Parser%20Unification/Confidence%20Fr…> behind our confidence to roll-out this experimental feature and collect feedback. This is an opportunity for continued experimentation as we increase the number of wikis using Parsoid for read views. If this disrupts your workflow, don’t worry you can still opt out through a user preference or turn Parsoid off on the page you’re navigating in the Tools submenu, as described at the Extension:ParserMigration <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:ParserMigration> page. To report bugs and issues, please look at our known issues <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Parsoid/Parser%20Unificat…> documentation and if you found a new bug please create a phab ticket and tag the Content Transform Team in Phabricator <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/view/5846>. There is more information about our roll-out strategy <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid/Parser_Unification/Confidence_Framew…> available. Best regards, C. Scott Ananian <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:CAnanian_(WMF)>, for the Content Transform Team >

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[Google Season of Docs] Call for documentation projects and technical writers
by Alexandra Paskulin 27 Nov '24

27 Nov '24

Hi all, We’re excited to announce Wikimedia’s participation in Google Season of Docs! 🎉 For the first time since 2020, Wikimedia is applying for Google Season of Docs[1]: a program that provides grants to technical writers to work on documentation for open-source projects. This year, we’ll be selecting one Wikimedia documentation project and, if accepted by Google, hiring one technical writer to complete the project. For details about the program and how to apply, see the wiki page[2]. Here's how you can get involved: - [Until March 22] Propose a project, share feedback on a project, or volunteer to help support a project[3]. - [Until April 28] Apply as a technical writer. We highly encourage Wikimedians to apply! Even if you’re not a professional technical writer, we value experience working on wikis. Our goal is to use this program to improve MediaWiki.org and other Wikimedia technical documentation, supplementing the work done by volunteers and staff. We’re hoping to use this year’s edition as a model to expand the program to multiple projects in future years. Let's make this a successful season of documentation together! 📚 Best, - Alex and Onyinyechi [1] - https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs [2] - https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs/2024 [3] - https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs/2024#Volunteering_to_support_… -- Alex Paskulin Technical Writer Wikimedia Foundation

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Changes to JavaScript documentation tools
by Alexandra Paskulin 12 Nov '24

12 Nov '24

Hi everyone, tl;dr The tools we use to document Wikimedia JavaScript code are changing. In the short term, you can read the complete MediaWiki core JavaScript docs using the 1.41 version[0] while we migrate to the new system[1]. If you use JavaScript documentation on doc.wikimedia.org, please share your feedback on wiki[2]. Wikimedia JavaScript codebases are switching from using JSDuck[3] to JSDoc[4] for documentation. Started in 2016, this migration is necessary because JSDuck is currently unmaintained and does not support the ES6 standard[5]. Several Wikimedia JavaScript codebases, including Vector and GlobalWatchlist, already use JSDoc, while several others, such as VisualEditor and MediaWiki core, still use JSDuck. The migration project consists of two parts: changing the codebases to support JSDoc and improving the usability of the JSDoc WMF theme. For more information, see phab:T138401[6]. == Migrating MediaWiki core to JSDoc == We are migrating MediaWiki core to JSDoc incrementally. While the migration is in progress, the master branch docs will be incomplete, containing only those modules that have been migrated. To read the old JSDuck docs, see the MediaWiki 1.41 docs[0]. To help with migration, choose a module from the list in phab:T352308[7], and follow the guide on phab:T138401[6] to translate the tags from JSDuck to JSDoc. == Migrating other codebases == You can find a list of codebases that use JSDuck on phab:T138401[6]. (Please add any that are missing.) To help migrate a codebase that uses JSDuck, follow the instructions to set up JSDoc[8], and use the guide in phab:T138401[6] to translate the tags from JSDuck to JSDoc. == Improving the JSDoc WMF theme == One of the biggest differences between JSDuck and JSDoc is the HTML interface for reading the docs. The WMF theme for JSDoc is not as full-featured as the JSDuck theme, but to support this migration, the Wikimedia Foundation Web, Design Systems, and Technical Documentation teams are working to prioritize and complete a set of improvements to the JSDoc theme, with the goal of releasing version 1 of jsdoc-wmf-theme in 2024. If you use JavaScript documentation on doc.wikimedia.org, please leave a comment on the JSDoc WMF theme talk page[2] and let us know how you use the docs and which features of the theme are the most important to you. Thank you for reading! Alex, Kamil, Jon, Roan, and Anne [0]: https://doc.wikimedia.org/mediawiki-core/REL1_41/js/ [1]: https://doc.wikimedia.org/mediawiki-core/master/js/ [2]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:JSDoc_WMF_theme [3]: https://github.com/senchalabs/jsduck [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSDoc [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECMAScript [6]: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T138401 [7]: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T352308 [8]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/JSDoc -- Alex Paskulin Technical Writer Wikimedia Foundation

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schedule-deployment.toolforge.org now allows per-window scheduling
by Bryan Davis 01 Nov '24

01 Nov '24

Back in June I announced https://schedule-deployment.toolforge.org/ as a new tool to help simplify editing the https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Deployments page.[0] Today I am back to let y'all know that thanks to a feature request by Gergő [1] you can now use the tool by first browsing [[wikitech:Deployments]] to find the backport window you would like to use. When you have found the window that will work best for you, you can click the green circled plus icon in the upper right corner of the window's "changes" section. That link will take you to a view on the scheduler tool showing the same deployment window's current patches and a form to add your Gerrit change set. Submitting this form puts you in the same workflow that you would get from the link on a backport eligible Gerrit change, but with the addition of having the window pre-selected in the scheduling form. A related workflow change is that once you have scheduled a change set for deployment using the tool you will now be redirected to that window's view rather than the tool's landing page. There were a few hiccups with the schedule-deployment tool earlier today. These ended up being less than awesome handling of unexpected data in the Deployments page. Hopefully my fixes will keep things running smoothly for the foreseeable future. My thanks go out to Kosta for reporting these issues and continuing to use the tool even though he is so good at finding the sharp edges. [0]: https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/… [1]: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T372059 Bryan -- Bryan Davis Wikimedia Foundation Principal Software Engineer Boise, ID USA [[m:User:BDavis_(WMF)]] irc: bd808

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cxserver v1 endpoints removal as part of the RESTBase Sunset effort
by Mateus Santos 30 Oct '24

30 Oct '24

Hello everyone, As part of the RESTBase Sunset effort, some endpoints will be phased out in favor of better and more stable alternatives. The endpoints related to cxserver v1 will be removed from the restbase codebase. After further investigations led by the Language and Product Localization team, we agreed that these endpoints are ready for sunset. More information about cxserver v2 can be found here <https://cxserver.wikimedia.org/v2?doc> and here <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Content_translation/cxserver>. *Next steps: *Because the endpoints currently routed through RESTBase are either not supported and not working correctly or do not have relevant traffic due to the CX server v2 replacement, we decided to apply the existing policy for REST endpoints <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API_versioning#Deprecated> and turn it off in a short period of time, considering those endpoints deprecated. It's important to note that the status of these endpoints wasn't reflected in the RESTBase documentation. Still, the migration to v2 already happened a long time ago, and these endpoints have bee*n* considered in deprecation mode since then. Traffic to this endpoint will be *blocked soon, depending on the Traffic team's availability*, and the code will be removed after that. Details about the deprecation can be found in this phabricator task, T375616 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T375616>. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or concerns. Best regards, -- Mateus Santos Product Manager - MediaWiki Engineering Group Wikimedia Foundation

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Forthcoming maintenance to irc.wikimedia.org - Moving to ircstream
by Moritz Mühlenhoff 30 Oct '24

30 Oct '24

Hi all, we're moving irc.wikimedia.org to a new infrastructure [1]. This service is unrelated to the IRC network (Libera) we use for real time discussions. Instead irc.wikimedia.org is an IRC service for broadcasting recent changes events from public Wikimedia wikis to be used by various bots connected to per-wiki IRC channels. irc.wikimedia.org should not be used for any new bots (which should rather use Eventstreams[2]), but we still have various important bots relying on the legacy IRC-based infrastructure. The current setup is full of technical debt and ultimately based on a patched version of a very old release of ircd-ratbox with a relay service written in Python 2. We are replacing it with a modern standalone implementation in Python, which broadcasts IRC notifications in a format compatible to what is currently in use by the legacy setup: https://github.com/paravoid/ircstream Last week during the SRE Infrastructure Foundations hackathon the ircstream production setup was created. All our tests have been successful, so on Thursday October 10 at 08:00 UTC we'll switch the irc.wikimedia.org DNS name to the new setup. No changes are needed to any bots, but if you run into any issues after the switch, please notify us in the #wikimedia-sre-foundations IRC channel or leave a note at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T376014. Cheers, Luca, Simon and Moritz Footnotes: [1] https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Irc.wikimedia.org [2] https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event_Platform/EventStreams_HTTP_Service

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Tech News 2024, week 44
by Uzoma Ozurumba 28 Oct '24

28 Oct '24

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/2024/44> are available. *Updates for editors* - Later in November, the Charts extension will be deployed to the test wikis in order to help identify and fix any issue. A security review is underway to then enable deployment to pilot wikis for broader testing. You can read the October project update <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Chart/Project/U…> and see the latest documentation and examples on Beta Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Charts>. - View all 32 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/Recently_resol…>. For example, Pediapress.com <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:PediaPress>, an external service that creates books from Wikipedia, can now use Wikimedia Maps <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Maps> to include existing pre-rendered infobox map images in their printed books on Wikipedia. [1] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T375761> *Updates for technical contributors* - Wikis can use the Guided Tour extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Extension:GuidedTour> to help newcomers understand how to edit. The Guided Tours extension now works with dark mode <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Dark_mode>. Guided Tour maintainers can check their tours to see that nothing looks odd. They can also set emitTransitionOnStep to true to fix an old bug. They can use the new flag allowAutomaticBack to avoid back-buttons they don't want. [2] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T73927#10241528> - Administrators in the Wikimedia projects who use the Nuke Extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Extension:Nuke> will notice that mass deletions done with this tool have the "Nuke" tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier. [3] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T366068> *Tech news <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News> prepared by Tech News writers <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/Writers> and posted by bot <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/User:MediaWiki_message_d…> • Contribute <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News#contribute> • Translate <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2024/44> • 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_ambass…>.* -- Uzoma Ozurumba (She/her) Movement Communications Specialist (Product and Tech) meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:UOzurumba_(WMF)

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Problem with Special:Notifications
by Esteban Zarate 28 Oct '24

28 Oct '24

I am having this issue since yesterday ( [4b1c4e51-b2f4-4f50-9350-1f4caed99296] 2024-10-27 22:51:08: Excepción grave de tipo "InvalidArgumentException" ), when I click in Especial:Notificaciones in eswikipedia. I report in phabricator my ticket was merged with another and closed but I continue seeing the same, I am the unique user in eswikipedia having this issue, I checked with another accounts and doesn't appears this issue. Regards!!!

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Wikitech-l October 2024