The mobile skin has traditionally used the template variable 'language_urls' in SkinTemplate to access the list of alternative languages of an article. We are now seeing a lot of friction and bugs as we try to move our codebase closer to core.
Question 1: What does 'language_urls' mean - is it acceptable for anything other than a real language to be in that list?
Over the course of 3 weeks however we have had 3 bugs that have added things that are not languages to this list. This has caused various noticeable problems with how languages works on mobile.
Question 2: Why do developers abuse it in this way - is there not a better more semantic way to do this?
Currently we have an issue live on all wikipedias which makes a language button show up on all pages - even those without articles. x https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diggers_%26_Dealers&title=D... When the language button at the bottom of the screen is clicked it says "This page is available in 1 language: Edit links (Edit interlanguage links)
As a result I've now proposed a change for our skin to override this [1] so that we can control the list contents and override the effects of the hook.
This however is rather frustrating - especially given none of our template variables are documented and open to this kind of interpretation
Question 3: Should we document these template variables? If so where and how?
Thanks for your opinions on this matter.
[1] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/99693
I created a bug around killing this hook in favour of more specific clearer hooks - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58137 - I don't think we should be tinkering with template variables personally under any circumstances and if we are making changes we should be doing them higher up the stack. I would be interested in your thoughts and inevitable screams about how I'm proposing terrible things ;-)
On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 10:37 AM, Jon Robson jdlrobson@gmail.com wrote:
The mobile skin has traditionally used the template variable 'language_urls' in SkinTemplate to access the list of alternative languages of an article. We are now seeing a lot of friction and bugs as we try to move our codebase closer to core.
Question 1: What does 'language_urls' mean - is it acceptable for anything other than a real language to be in that list?
Over the course of 3 weeks however we have had 3 bugs that have added things that are not languages to this list. This has caused various noticeable problems with how languages works on mobile.
Question 2: Why do developers abuse it in this way - is there not a better more semantic way to do this?
Currently we have an issue live on all wikipedias which makes a language button show up on all pages - even those without articles. x https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diggers_%26_Dealers&title=D... When the language button at the bottom of the screen is clicked it says "This page is available in 1 language: Edit links (Edit interlanguage links)
As a result I've now proposed a change for our skin to override this [1] so that we can control the list contents and override the effects of the hook.
This however is rather frustrating - especially given none of our template variables are documented and open to this kind of interpretation
Question 3: Should we document these template variables? If so where and how?
Thanks for your opinions on this matter.
[1] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/99693
-- Jon Robson http://jonrobson.me.uk @rakugojon
On Sat, Dec 7, 2013 at 1:44 AM, Jon Robson jdlrobson@gmail.com wrote:
I created a bug around killing this hook in favour of more specific clearer hooks - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58137 - I don't think we should be tinkering with template variables personally under any circumstances and if we are making changes we should be doing them higher up the stack. I would be interested in your thoughts and inevitable screams about how I'm proposing terrible things ;-)
I have a core patch that adds a hook for adding stuff at the end of portlets, separate from stuff like the language links list.
https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/101895/
This will allow Wikibase to add the "edit / add links" link in a cleaner way.
Feedback would be great on this approach or if anyone has a better suggestion. :)
Cheers, Katie
On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 10:37 AM, Jon Robson jdlrobson@gmail.com wrote:
The mobile skin has traditionally used the template variable 'language_urls' in SkinTemplate to access the list of alternative languages of an article. We are now seeing a lot of friction and bugs as we try to move our codebase closer to core.
Question 1: What does 'language_urls' mean - is it acceptable for anything other than a real language to be in that list?
Over the course of 3 weeks however we have had 3 bugs that have added things that are not languages to this list. This has caused various noticeable problems with how languages works on mobile.
Question 2: Why do developers abuse it in this way - is there not a better more semantic way to do this?
Currently we have an issue live on all wikipedias which makes a language button show up on all pages - even those without articles. x
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diggers_%26_Dealers&title=D...
When the language button at the bottom of the screen is clicked it says "This page is available in 1 language: Edit links (Edit interlanguage links)
As a result I've now proposed a change for our skin to override this [1] so that we can control the list contents and override the effects of the hook.
This however is rather frustrating - especially given none of our template variables are documented and open to this kind of interpretation
Question 3: Should we document these template variables? If so where and how?
Thanks for your opinions on this matter.
[1] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/99693
-- Jon Robson http://jonrobson.me.uk @rakugojon
-- Jon Robson http://jonrobson.me.uk @rakugojon
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
On 12/06/2013 01:37 PM, Jon Robson wrote:
Currently we have an issue live on all wikipedias which makes a language button show up on all pages - even those without articles. x https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diggers_%26_Dealers&title=D... When the language button at the bottom of the screen is clicked it says "This page is available in 1 language: Edit links (Edit interlanguage links)
This is Wikibase, so I'm CCing the wikidata-tech list.
Matt Flaschen
wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org