Hi! Thanks for taking the time to poke around and write back!

1. "Update all outdated" is designed for mass updates once a module has been effectively "globalized". In other words, once a developer has analyzed the situation of a particular module, went through the process of designing the master version of a module so that it works in all wikis (following the guide), and carefully updated one-by-one all the copies to the master version, then, whenever a new version of the master module goes live, all the other copies can be updated in a single click (but after a confirmation message). At least, that's what I did and currently do with the modules I developed and maintain (Module:Excerpt and Module:Transcluder).

2. I've had a long conversation with User:Uzume in which we discussed this topic (and many others). Probably the best solution will be to set a "sitelink badge" in Wikidata to set the master version of each module. However, most modules will start out without such a badge, so a fallback system and corresponding UI will be needed, which does take a few hours to write. I'll do so eventually, but until some people actually start using the tool, I see little point in continuing to throw hours into it. It's quite sophisticated and friendly already.

3. If you hover over the terms and buttons, a tooltip will appear with an explanation. Some modules don't have an Update button because they are already updated to the latest version. The Analyze button appears only next to Forked modules because it displays information only relevant to such cases. Let me know if you can think of a better way to convey any of this.

Finally, thanks for letting me know about those sharing channels, I'll drop a note!
Kind regards,

On Fri, Jul 28, 2023 at 8:43 PM Srishti Sethi <ssethi@wikimedia.org> wrote:

Hi! I poked around it a bit; it looks super neat! I had a few design-related questions while digging into this: 

  • "Update all outdated" looks like a scary button. In which scenarios someone might want to edit all modules at once?
  • Is there a way to automatically populate the master version for a module without letting users hunt for it? 
  • Why don't some modules have an analyze/update button next to them? Certain terminologies used on the tool page are confusing, for example, what unrelated means?


As the target is Lua developers, which maybe aren't that many in Wikiverse, I wonder how to recruit them to use this tool and share more feedback. If you haven't done so already, you could consider dropping a note in two of these Telegram channels (Wikimedia Hackathon, Small wiki toolkits)  and consider sharing more about the tool in a synchronous format here: <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Knowledge_Sharing/Connect/Resources#Other_Wikiproject-related_or_technical_skills>.


Cheers,

Srishti


On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 6:09 AM Felipe Schenone <schenonef@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi! As many of you know, a central global repository for Lua modules and templates has been a frequent request since the early days of the movement. 

This year, I programmed a JavaScript tool called Synchronizer
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Synchronizer
(inspired on a previous tool called DiBabel by User:Yurik)
The tool allows to synchronize (that is, automatically copy) Lua modules across Wikimedia wikis, and provides other features to help developers update and maintain global modules.

I also re-wrote the documentation at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multilingual_Templates_and_Modules to account for the new tool. It basically describes how to develop a Lua module that can be copied unchanged to any wiki, by abstracting things like user-readable strings and config.

Admittedly, this is a "poor man's version" of a proper solution to the problem, but one I find invaluable while developing and maintaining modules. Hopefully some of you may find it useful too!
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