Wikitech-l May 2024

wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org

44 participants
36 discussions

[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 13 Nov '24

13 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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Missing Section Headings
by Marc Riddell 13 Sep '24

13 Sep '24

Hello, I have been a WP editor since 2006. I hope you can help me. For some reason I no longer have Section Heading titles showing in the Articles. This is true of all Headings including the one that carries the Article subject's name. When there is a Table of Contents, it appears fine and, when I click on a particular Section, it goes to that Section, but all that is there is a straight line separating the Sections. There is also no button to edit a Section. If I edit the page and remove the "== ==" markers from the Section Titles, the Title then shows up, but not as a Section Heading. Also, I don't have any Date separators on my Want List. This started 2 days ago. Any thoughts? Thanks, Marc Riddell [[User:Michael David]]

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Drop dedicated support for IE 11, Edge Legacy and Opera
by Volker E. 06 Sep '24

06 Sep '24

Hi everyone, the Design System Team (DST) is proposing the following changes to MediaWiki browser support [1]: - Drop support for Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) - Drop support for all versions of Edge Legacy - Drop support for Opera - Increase Basic (Grade C) support for Chrome and Firefox to versions 49+, Safari and iOS to versions 10+. What this means: The browsers we’re phasing out won’t be tested for layout rendering anymore. While users on these browsers might and will still be able to read and basically interact with content, they might experience some quirks. This step helps us integrate modern web features more seamlessly. These changes will unlock the ability to use specific newer browser features that cannot be safely used today without requiring a fallback, notably CSS custom properties (used in upcoming reading customization features like Night Mode) and the <summary> and <details> HTML elements that can be used to replace the checkbox hack. This will reduce the amount of code sent to 99.9% of users and cut down on software development costs and maintenance burdens. See the full announcement for more details; PDF to download [2]. On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Design System Team, Volker [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Compatibility#Browser_support_matrix [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/F52025988

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Collect telemetry (using WikimediaEvents) for a gadget
by psnbaotg 09 Jul '24

09 Jul '24

Hi there, I'm User:Diskdance, and recently I'm developing a default gadget for Chinese Wikipedia enhancing MediaWiki's variant handling logic, and under certain circumstances a prompt is shown at page load asking for a user's preferred variant. Consider it as a conditional Cookie notice, and its English screenshot can be found at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VariantAlly-En.png. Iknowthis can be very disruptive on UX, so I tend to be careful about its negative impact on page views. If the gadget can collect telemetry data about the prompt's display frequency and user interactions(using e.g. WikimediaEvents), I can know about its possible impact. Is this possible? It would be much appreciated if anybody could provide assistance. Best wishes,Diskdance

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Can we do better than just redirect HTTP API requests to HTTPS?
by psnbaotg 06 Jul '24

06 Jul '24

I noticed an interesting post on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40504756 (https://jviide.iki.fi/http-redirects) Basically, this article argues that for reasons, API should "fail early", such as returning with 403 and revoking all credentials sent via plain text, rather than redirecting all HTTP requests to HTTPS. In my humble opinion, this article's point make perfect sense. Because we cannot expect an arbitrary client to follow HSTS and a simple typo can cause serious credential leak. I found that all our APIs (action API, Wikimedia REST, and even Wikimedia Enterprise) are doing redirects: ``` $ curl -I "http://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/title/Earth" HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently content-length: 0 location: https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/title/Earth server: HAProxy x-cache: cp5023 int x-cache-status: int-tls connection: close $ curl -I "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=info&titles=Earth" HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently content-length: 0 location: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=info&titles=Earth server: HAProxy x-cache: cp5023 int x-cache-status: int-tls connection: close $ curl -I http://api.enterprise.wikimedia.com/v2/snapshots HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently Server: awselb/2.0 Date: Wed, 29 May 2024 10:03:24 GMT Content-Type: text/html Content-Length: 134 Connection: keep-alive Location: https://api.enterprise.wikimedia.com:443/v2/snapshots ``` I'm asking security folks, should we consider making above changes, like those services listed in the article? Thanks you. Best regards, diskdance

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How to make commits from mirrored Wikimedia repos show up on your GitHub profile
by Bartosz Dziewoński 28 Jun '24

28 Jun '24

I know it has been annoying a couple of people other than me, so now that I've learned how to make it work I'll share the knowledge here. tl;dr: Star the repositories. No, seriously. (And yes, you need to star each extension repo separately.) (Is there a place on mw.org to put this tidbit on?) ------- Forwarded message ------- From: "Brian Levine" <support(a)github.com> (GitHub Staff) To: matma.rex(a)gmail.com Cc: Subject: Re: Commits in mirrored repositories not showing up on my profile Date: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 06:47:19 +0200 Hi Bartosz In order to link your commits to your GitHub account, you need to have some association with the repository other than authoring the commit. Usually, having push access gives you that connection. In this case, you don't have push permission, so we don't link you to the commit. The easy solution here is for you to star the repository. If you star it - along with the other repositories that are giving you this problem - we'll see that you're connected to the repository and you'll get contribution credit for those commits. Cheers Brian -- Matma Rex

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Research FAQ gets a facelift
by Dario Taraborelli 25 Jun '24

25 Jun '24

We just released a new version of Research:FAQ on Meta [1], significantly expanded and updated, to make our processes at WMF more transparent and to meet an explicit FDC request to clarify the role and responsibilities of individual teams involved in research across the organization. The previous version – written from the perspective of the (now inactive) Research:Committee, and mostly obsolete since the release of WMF's open access policy [2] – can still be found here [3]. Comments and bold edits to the new version of the document are welcome. For any question or concern, you can drop me a line or ping my username on-wiki. Thanks, Dario [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:FAQ [2] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Open_access_policy [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Research:FAQ&oldid=15176953 *Dario Taraborelli *Head of Research, Wikimedia Foundation wikimediafoundation.org • nitens.org • @readermeter <http://twitter.com/readermeter>

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Gerrit upgrade Monday June 3rd at 8am UTC
by Antoine Musso 03 Jun '24

03 Jun '24

Hello, I will be *upgrading Gerrit* from the 3.8 series to the 3.9 series. I have scheduled the upgrade for *Monday June 3rd at 8am UTC*. It is immediately after the UTC morning backport & config window. The upgrade requires the Gerrit service to be stopped for the duration of the upgrade. Given we do not need to reindex all the changes, the downtime should be just a few minutes. Gerrit 3.9 brings: * Support for diff3 rendering for changes having conflict markers (T359821 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T359821>) which corresponds to cgit merge.conflictStyle=diff3. * User Suggested Edits <http://gerrit-documentation.storage.googleapis.com/Documentation/3.9.5/user…>, an easy way for reviewers to suggest code changes which can be easily applied by the change owner. One can imagine CI would be able to offers suggestions as well (such as phpcb from PHP CodeSniffer or eslint?). * Gerrit would now use "Revert^2" syntax when crafting a revert instead of chaining them as "Revert "Revert "Revert...". * And more UI changes <https://www.gerritcodereview.com/3.9.html#gerrit-ui-changes> The release notes: https://www.gerritcodereview.com/3.9.html <https://www.gerritcodereview.com/3.9.html>The upgrade task: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T354887 Deployment calendar entry <https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Deployments#deploycal-item-20240603T0800> Antoine "hashar" Musso Wikimedia Release Engineering

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(Possible breaking change) XML pages-articles dumps bug with missing revision text for some records; fix in progress with schema change
by Adam Baso 01 Jun '24

01 Jun '24

As described on Phabricator a bug [1] surfaced whereby the "pages-articles" XML dumps on https://dumps.wikimedia.org/ bear incomplete records. A possible fix has been identified, and it involves bumping the dump schema version from version 0.10 to version 0.11 [2], which could be a breaking change for some. MORE DETAILS: Due to the bug that surfaced, a nontrivial number of <text> nodes representing article text shows in a fashion like so as empty. <text bytes="123456789" /> A potential fix in T365155 [3] has been identified. Assuming further testing looks good, XML dumps will be kicked off again starting next week in order to restore the missing records as soon as possible. It will take a while for new dumps to be generated as it is a compute intensive operation. More progress will be reported at T365155 and new dumps will eventually show up on dumps.wikimedia.org . Although a number of pipelines may not notice the change associated with the schema bump, if your dump ingestion tooling or use of Special:Export relies on the specific shape of the XML at version 0.10 (e.g., because of code generation tools), please examine the differences between version 0.10 and version 0.11. One notable addition in version 0.11 is addition of MCR [4] fields. Thank you for your patience while this issue is resolved. -Adam [1] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T365501 [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.10.xsd and https://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.11.xsd Schema version 0.11 has existed in MediaWiki for over 6 years, but Wikimedia wikis have been using version 0.10. [3] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T365155#9851025 and https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T365155#9851160 [4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multi-Content_Revisions

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Wikitech-l May 2024