Wikitech-l June 2024

wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org

47 participants
59 discussions

User style to reduce Gerritbot comments on Phabricator
by Bartosz Dziewoński 09 Jan '26

09 Jan '26

Do your eyes glaze over when trying to make sense of Phabricator tasks with a long and troubled history of patches? Do you struggle to find the real people in the sea of automated bot comments? I've made myself a user style to compact the Gerritbot comments on Phabricator. You might like it too: https://userstyles.world/style/13140/wikimedia-phabricator-reduce-gerritbot… (See screenshots and installation instructions there.) -- Bartosz Dziewoński

10 23

Database dumps
by Byrial Jensen 17 Apr '25

17 Apr '25

Until some weeks ago http://dumps.wikimedia.org/backup-index.html used to show 4 dumps in progress at the same time. That meant that new database dumps normally was available within about 3 weeks for all databases except for enwiki and maybe dewiki where the dump process due to size took longer time. However the 4 dumps processes at one time become 3 some weeks ago. And after massive failures at June 4, only one dump has been in progress at the same time. So at the current speed it will take several months to come thru all dumps. Is it possible to speed up the process again using several dump processes at the same time? Thank you, Byrial

3 2

User-Agent:
by Domas Mituzas 17 Apr '25

17 Apr '25

Hi! from now on specific per-bot/per-software/per-client User-Agent header is mandatory for contacting Wikimedia sites. Domas

19 61

API issue
by ovskmendov＠proton.me 17 Apr '25

17 Apr '25

Whenever I access the API, I get "Wikimedia Error: Our servers are currently under maintenance or experiencing a technical problem." Sometimes if I wait a bit, I'll get a few good requests, but it will shortly go back to the previous message. My code was working just fine a few days ago and I didn't change anything. Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/) secure email.

7 12

Acquiring list of templates including external links
by Takashi OTA 17 Apr '25

17 Apr '25

Hoi, This is an inquiry from my friend in academia, researching about Wikipedia. He would like to know whether there's a way to acquire a list of templates including external links. Here are some examples including external links. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:JOI/doc https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Twitter/doc Such links are stored in externallinks.sql.gz, in an expanded form. When you want to check increase/decrease of linked domains in chronological order through edit history, you have to check pages-meta-history1.xml etc. In a such case, traditional links and links by templates are mixed, Therefore, the latter ones (links by templates) should be expanded to traditional link forms. Sorry if what I am saying does not make sense. Thanks in advance, --Takashi Ota [[U:Takot]]

13 24

EBNF grammar project status?
by Steve Bennett 01 Apr '25

01 Apr '25

What's the status of the project to create a grammar for Wikitext in EBNF? There are two pages: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikitext_Metasyntax http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Markup_spec Nothing seems to have happened since January this year. Also the comments on the latter page seem to indicate a lack of clear goal: is this just a fun project, is it to improve the existing parser, or is it to facilititate a new parser? It's obviously a lot of work, so it needs to be of clear benefit. Brion requested the grammar IIRC (and there's a comment to that effect at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7 ), so I'm wondering what became of it. Is there still a goal of replacing the parser? Or is there some alternative plan? Steve

26 217

Phabricator upstream shutdown
by Brian Wolff 21 Mar '25

21 Mar '25

It sounds like phabricator upstream is going away: https://admin.phacility.com/phame/post/view/11/phacility_is_winding_down_op… Just curious, are we planning to continue using it long term or move to something else? -- Brian

10 12

Empowering Businesses with Innovative Digital Solutions
by consultancyservices393＠gmail.com 15 Feb '25

15 Feb '25

MCS offers software consulting and development services, delivering digital transformation. Our services includes web application development, mobile application development, chatbot development, Data Science & AI Development Services, MVP Development, End-to-End IT Strategy & Consulting and implementation support, intuitive digital solutions, and leveraging the latest technologies. visit here: https://www.mayuraconsultancy.com

2 3

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

4 6

[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

1 1

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

1 2

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]]

10 11

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

11 14

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

6 8

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

2 2

Logging indefinite blocks
by Bináris 28 Jun '24

28 Jun '24

Hi folks, I can choose either infinite or indefinite block, it is being logged publicly as infinite. Once we have two different types, they should be logged separately. Indefinite blocks are ususally connected to some condition, such as changing an unacceptable name, and the public infinite appearance sometimes causes misunterstandings among users. Is it a bug or a feature? -- Bináris

6 9

MediaWiki 1.40 is End of Life
by Sam Reed 28 Jun '24

28 Jun '24

As per the MediaWiki version lifecycle[1], I would like to announce the formal end of life (EOL) of MediaWiki 1.38 as of today, Friday June 28, 2024. 1.40.4 is expected to be the last release for this branch. This means that MediaWiki 1.40 will no longer receive maintenance or security backports. It is therefore strongly discouraged that you continue to use it. It is recommended to upgrade either to MediaWiki 1.41, which will be supported until December 2024, or 1.42, which will be supported until June 2025. Thanks! [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Version_lifecycle

1 0

Unlocking the Power of Guest Blogging: A Win-Win Strategy for Bloggers
by whattoconsider986＠gmail.com 28 Jun '24

28 Jun '24

In the fast-paced world of digital marketing and content creation, bloggers are constantly seeking innovative ways to expand their reach, engage with new audiences, and establish themselves as authorities in their respective niches. One such strategy that has stood the test of time and continues to deliver remarkable results is guest blogging. Guest blogging, simply put, is the practice of writing and publishing content on someone else’s blog or website. While the concept may seem straightforward, its potential impact is profound, offering a multitude of benefits for both the guest blogger and the host site. Read full here: https://medium.com/@whattoconsider986/unlocking-the-power-of-guest-blogging…

1 0

What to Consider + Write for us
by whattoconsider986＠gmail.com 28 Jun '24

28 Jun '24

What to Consider is an informational platform. We do share information in a blog form, We convey helpful and informative details for any business. We provide valuable guidance and insights to the audience. Currently, We are providing information related to business tips from how to start a business to What to Consider during the process, along with some other niche-specific information related to Home Improvement, Education, and Law. Visit website to know more: https://www.whattoconsider.com.au

1 0

Anchorage Length of Rebars
by activityonline75＠gmail.com 28 Jun '24

28 Jun '24

Adequate anchorage length of rebars is a primary requirement for the safety of a member,especially a beam.When Analysis including seismic, structural design, manual design etc is important, proper detailing of a structure is equally important. https://www.civilera.com/post/anchorage

1 0

Anchorage Length of Rebars
by activityonline75＠gmail.com 28 Jun '24

28 Jun '24

1 0

Civil engineering online courses
by activityonline75＠gmail.com 28 Jun '24

28 Jun '24

Civilera offers world class Structural Engineering courses in a Structural consulting perspective covering basics,manual designs & software alike. We focus on ETABS Tutorials StaadPro Training, Revit structures, Foundation design using SAFE. We enable students to have a career in structures & help experienced engineers in other fields to shift their career to structural engineering. All civil engineering online courses are available in different payment plans. visit here for full info: https://www.civilera.com

1 0

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

3 3

Maintenance release: 1.39.8 / 1.40.4 / 1.41.2 / 1.42.1
by Sam Reed 27 Jun '24

27 Jun '24

1 0

Announcing MediaWiki 1.42.0
by Mateus Santos 27 Jun '24

27 Jun '24

I am happy to announce the availability of the general release of MediaWiki 1.42! Tarballs have already been uploaded, and the git tag has been pushed. Thanks to everyone who helped out with this release, especially thanks to those who tested out the release candidate and provided feedback, as well as the developers who worked on fixes for the 1.42 final release. To see what's changed in 1.42, see the release notes file.[0] If you encounter any issues, please file a task.[1] You can see open tasks for the branch on Phabricator.[2] MediaWiki 1.42 is the first release of MediaWiki to formally drop PHP 7.4 and PHP 8.0 support; you should use PHP 8.1, 8.2, or 8.3. We also now have dropped support for Composer 1.x, and require Composer 2.x for those systems using it. MediaWiki 1.42 is due to be supported until the end of June 2025. It is noted that MediaWiki 1.40 is due to become end-of-life at the end of June 2024. A formal announcement will be made later this month, and will coincide with the next security and maintenance release which is also scheduled for the of June 2024. === Changes since MediaWiki 1.42.0-rc.0 === * Localisation updates. * wrapOldPasswords: Improve progress output and decrease batch size. * (T365060) Serialization test cases: fix filename after ParserOutput namespacing. * Use virtual domain when running update maintenance scripts. * (T361367) ApiFeedWatchlist: Fix handling of array parameters. * (T366130) EncryptedPassword: Store default parameters as strings. Release notes: [0] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/mediawiki/core/+/refs/heads/… Bug report form: [1] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/task/edit/form/1/?tags=MW-1.42-… Open Bugs: [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/mw-1.42-release/ ********************************************************************** Download: https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-1.42.0.tar.gz https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-1.42.0.zip Download without bundled extensions: https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-core-1.42.0.tar.gz https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-core-1.42.0.zip Patch to previous version (1.42.0-rc.0): https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-1.42.0.patch.gz https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-1.42.0.patch.zip GPG signatures for the above: https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-core-1.42.0.tar.gz.… https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-core-1.42.0.zip.sig https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-1.42.0.tar.gz.sig https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-1.42.0.zip.sig https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-1.42.0.patch.gz.sig https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-1.42.0.patch.zip.sig Public keys: https://www.mediawiki.org/keys/keys.html

1 0

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

Wikitech-l June 2024