Wikitech-l July 2024

wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org

33 participants
33 discussions

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 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

1 2

Can somebody help review this banana-i18n PR?
by psnbaotg 25 Oct '24

25 Oct '24

Hello all, I hope the maintainer of banana-i18n take a look at this PR (https://github.com/wikimedia/banana-i18n/pull/79), which is a fix for this task (https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T359822). Thank you very much! Best, Diskdance

2 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

Parsoid Read Views roll out on English and Hebrew Wikivoyage this week
by C. Scott Ananian 04 Sep '24

04 Sep '24

Hello everyone, I am glad to inform you that as part of our continued rollout of Parsoid Read Views, Parsoid is expected to be turned on this week as the default read views renderer on English and Hebrew Wikivoyage. Here's the rationale <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid/Parser_Unification/Confidence_Framew…> 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_Unificatio…> 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://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:CAnanian_(WMF)>, for the Content Transform Team

1 3

Future of the Newsletter extension in meta
by Tony Thomas 14 Aug '24

14 Aug '24

Dear Team, About six years ago, we deployed the Newsletter extension[1] to mediawiki.org. Since then, we've seen some active newsletters, with the most popular one boasting over 300 subscribers. Although there were many discussions about bringing this extension to the meta cluster, not much progress has been made. Recently, a few of us revisited these past discussions and began addressing the issue of "interwiki support" for the extension. Currently, the extension uses a local table and notifies locally on the wiki, and our goal is to make it global. Thanks to some discussions with Addshore and others in 2018, we came up with a plan to make the extension truly inter-wiki. Since I have been inactive for some time, I want some help to see if the plan still works, or if there is a better way to achieve this. The plan, in short was: 1. We install the extension on all wikis in the main cluster, but all installations point to one table in meta. We need to store some sort of a pointer in the table, hence to know what the siteId of the wiki is. I need some help/examples of how this can be done. Do we store $wgSiteId into one of the main tables, or is there some other id that we can store to identify a wiki in our clusters? Also see some initial WIP changes done during that time here [3]. Also, is it nice to have code that would look very wikimedia cluster specific in the extension? 2. Publishers publishing newsletter in their local wikis can either choose to make the newsletter available globally or locally. 3. Notifications of new newsletter issues <-- I need some clarity on this one as well, we could notify on the $wgSiteId if it exists, else on meta. So yes, we are looking for some help, specially on (1) above, and if someone has some inputs/comments, please reply here, or in the phab task [2]. Thank you. [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Newsletter [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T110645 [3] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/Newsletter/+/446590 -- Tony Thomas @tonythomas01

1 1

Change of deployment server on Monday 09:00 UTC
by Alexandros Kosiaris 30 Jul '24

30 Jul '24

Hi everyone, If you aren't deploying in production, you can skip the rest of this. On Monday 2024-07-29 09:00 UTC, I 'll be switching over the eqiad deployment server from deploy1002 to deploy1003. UX wise, this won't be different from the bi-annual switchover of deployment hosts we perform as part of the datacenter switchover. If you use the alias deployment.eqiad.wmnet, please note that the host key will change. You may want to run wmf-update-known-hosts-production if you get error/warnings. Please reach out if you encounter any issue, either by responding to this email or commenting in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T364417 Regards, -- Alexandros Kosiaris Principal Site Reliability Engineer Wikimedia Foundation

1 2

Tech News 2024, week 31
by Nick Wilson (Quiddity) 29 Jul '24

29 Jul '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/2024/31> are available. *Feature news* - Editors using the Visual Editor in languages that use non-Latin characters for numbers, such as Hindi, Manipuri and Eastern Arabic, may notice some changes in the formatting of reference numbers. This is a side effect of preparing a new sub-referencing feature, and will also allow fixing some general numbering issues in Visual Editor. If you notice any related problems on your wiki, please share details at the project talkpage <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WMDE_Technical_Wishes/Sub-referencing> . *Bugs status* - Some logged-in editors were briefly unable to edit or load pages last week. These errors <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T370304> were mainly due to the addition of new linter <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Extension:Linter> rules which led to caching problems. Fixes have been applied and investigations are continuing. - Editors can use the IP Information tool <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Trust_and_Safety_Product/…> to get information about IP addresses. This tool is available as a Beta Feature in your preferences. The tool was not available for a few days last week, but is now working again. Thank you to Shizhao for filing the bug report. You can read about that, and 28 other community-submitted tasks <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Recently_resolved_community_tasks…> that were resolved last week. *Project updates* - There are new features and improvements to Phabricator from the Release Engineering and Collaboration Services teams, and some volunteers, including: the search systems, the new task creation system, the login systems, the translation setup which has resulted in support for more languages (thanks to Pppery), and fixes for many edge-case errors. You can read details about these and other improvements in this summary <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/phame/post/view/316/iterative_improvement…> . - There is an update on the Charts project <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Chart/Project/U…>. The team has decided which visualization library to use, which chart types to start focusing on, and where to store chart definitions. - One new wiki has been created: a Wikivoyage in Czech <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9056> (voy:cs: <https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/cs:>) [1] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T370905> *Learn more* - There is a new Wikimedia Foundation data center <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2024/07/26/the-journey-to-open-our-first-data-ce…> in São Paulo, Brazil which helps to reduce load times. - There is new user research <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2024/07/22/the-perplexing-process-of-uploading-i…> on problems with the process of uploading images. - Commons Impact Metrics are now available <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2024/07/19/commons-impact-metrics-now-available-…> via data dumps and API. - The latest quarterly Technical Community Newsletter <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_Community_Newsletter/2024/July> is now available. *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/2024/31> • 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…>.*

1 0

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 July 2024