Hello,
TLDR: The following hooks are deprecated in 1.35: SkinTemplateBuildNavUrlsNav_urlsAfterPermalink, SkinTemplatePreventOtherActiveTabs, SkinTemplateTabAction, BaseTemplateAfterPortlet, SkinTemplateToolboxEnd, BaseTemplateToolbox, SkinTemplateOutputPageBeforeExe.
The longer version: As part of the desktop improvements project http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Desktop%20improvements we've been making some exciting changes in MediaWiki's skin architecture. This has involved migrating away from the BaseTemplate PHP class to Mustache as the render engine for Vector. In 1.36, the Vector skin plans to use the new SkinMustache class https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki/blob/master/includes/skins/SkinMustache.php and do away with the BaseTemplate class. This meant that we had to deprecate various BaseTemplate hooks, providing more suitable generic alternatives in the shared Skin.php layer. We also took the opportunity to reduce the number of active hooks that operate in the skin layer for developer sanity.
From now on it is intended that any skin modifications are done *prior *to
rendering. The renderer whether it is BaseTemplate or SkinMustache will simply render the data that's been provided.
As a result of this I have various changes to report!
The *SidebarBeforeOutput https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Hooks/SidebarBeforeOutput *hook now can be used to modify the toolbox and languages portals. Previously these sidebar menus had their own bespoke hooks.
The SkinTemplateBuildNavUrlsNav_urlsAfterPermalink hook https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/SkinTemplateBuildNavUrlsNav_urlsAfterPermalink is deprecated and can be replaced with the new and improved SidebarBeforeOutput hook.
The SkinTemplatePreventOtherActiveTabs and SkinTemplateTabAction hooks https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T253814were seldom used and replaced with SkinTemplateNavigation::Universal .
All BaseTemplate hooks should now be considered deprecated per T253809 https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T253809.
- BaseTemplateAfterPortlet https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/BaseTemplateAfterPortlet is replaced with the template-rendering agnostic SkinAfterPortlet https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/SkinAfterPortlet - SkinTemplateToolboxEnd https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/SkinTemplateToolboxEndis replaced with the new and improved version of SidebarBeforeOutput - BaseTemplateToolbox https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/BaseTemplateToolbox is replaced with the new and improved version of SidebarBeforeOutput
Finally a big one: The SkinTemplateOutputPageBeforeExec hook is now deprecated https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T60137. Previously this hook could do a lot of things and often in ways that were hard to reason with. For example, previously this hook was used alongside other hooks to add items to the footer and to override skin internals to display portals that were normally hidden. We looked through all the use cases for this hook and are confident we've caught the most confident use cases. Migration depends on what it was previously used for but are documented on mediawiki.org https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/SkinTemplateOutputPageBeforeExec#Migration_notes. It's possible there are other use cases, we missed and if so we plan to cover those during the 1.36 release.
If you are an extension developer and have any questions about migration please feel free to ping me on the associated Phabricator ticket or hook talk page, we will be happy to improve the documentation and help you find the right way to upgrade your code.
As we go into 1.36 we plan to make changes that simplify MediaWiki skin development and make the ecosystem friendlier to frontend developers and make skins easier to maintain. In fact, in future, it will be possible to write skins without a single line of PHP. If you are excited or intrigued by these changes and want to get involved in the conversations I urge you to subscribe to our board. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/4795/
I'm particularly interested in hearing from developers who are keen to make skins in the new ecosystem. Your input and creativity would be much appreciated. Feel free to drop me a private mail or engage in open conversations.
In addition to all the extension developers who helped review changes to their hook contracts, I would like to especially thank the following people for getting us to this landmark: Ammarpad, Timo, Volker and Mainframe98. I'd like to give a specific shout out for Ammarpad who has been a huge driving force here, preventing various bugs from occurring and swiftly responding to many of the unexpected regressions that we encountered during this work. We couldn't have done this without you!
Thanks for reading! Jon
Hi Jon,
Thanks to you and the team for the awesome work around various hook deprecations in relation to the new skinning project :).
I second Jon's shout out to Ammarpad for the great work. Keep it up and I'm glad you're working with Jon. Him and others within the Wikimedia developer ecosystem are very good at guiding one become better at these things :).
Can't wait to see how skinning will have a turn around in the next couple of years. Cheers!
*--*
*Derick A.*
*From One Developer to Another!*
On Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 12:19 AM Jon Robson jrobson@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello,
TLDR: The following hooks are deprecated in 1.35: SkinTemplateBuildNavUrlsNav_urlsAfterPermalink, SkinTemplatePreventOtherActiveTabs, SkinTemplateTabAction, BaseTemplateAfterPortlet, SkinTemplateToolboxEnd, BaseTemplateToolbox, SkinTemplateOutputPageBeforeExe.
The longer version: As part of the desktop improvements project http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Desktop%20improvements we've been making some exciting changes in MediaWiki's skin architecture. This has involved migrating away from the BaseTemplate PHP class to Mustache as the render engine for Vector. In 1.36, the Vector skin plans to use the new SkinMustache class < https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki/blob/master/includes/skins/SkinMustac...
and do away with the BaseTemplate class. This meant that we had to deprecate various BaseTemplate hooks, providing more suitable generic alternatives in the shared Skin.php layer. We also took the opportunity to reduce the number of active hooks that operate in the skin layer for developer sanity.
From now on it is intended that any skin modifications are done *prior *to rendering. The renderer whether it is BaseTemplate or SkinMustache will simply render the data that's been provided.
As a result of this I have various changes to report!
The *SidebarBeforeOutput < https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Hooks/SidebarBefore...
*hook now can be used to modify the toolbox and languages portals. Previously these sidebar menus had their own bespoke hooks.
The SkinTemplateBuildNavUrlsNav_urlsAfterPermalink hook < https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/SkinTemplateBuildNavUrlsNav_urls...
is deprecated and can be replaced with the new and improved SidebarBeforeOutput hook.
The SkinTemplatePreventOtherActiveTabs and SkinTemplateTabAction hooks https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T253814were seldom used and replaced with SkinTemplateNavigation::Universal .
All BaseTemplate hooks should now be considered deprecated per T253809 https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T253809.
- BaseTemplateAfterPortlet
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/BaseTemplateAfterPortlet is replaced with the template-rendering agnostic SkinAfterPortlet https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/SkinAfterPortlet
- SkinTemplateToolboxEnd
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/SkinTemplateToolboxEndis replaced with the new and improved version of SidebarBeforeOutput
- BaseTemplateToolbox
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/BaseTemplateToolbox is replaced with the new and improved version of SidebarBeforeOutput
Finally a big one: The SkinTemplateOutputPageBeforeExec hook is now deprecated https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T60137. Previously this hook could do a lot of things and often in ways that were hard to reason with. For example, previously this hook was used alongside other hooks to add items to the footer and to override skin internals to display portals that were normally hidden. We looked through all the use cases for this hook and are confident we've caught the most confident use cases. Migration depends on what it was previously used for but are documented on mediawiki.org < https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/SkinTemplateOutputPageBeforeExec...
.
It's possible there are other use cases, we missed and if so we plan to cover those during the 1.36 release.
If you are an extension developer and have any questions about migration please feel free to ping me on the associated Phabricator ticket or hook talk page, we will be happy to improve the documentation and help you find the right way to upgrade your code.
As we go into 1.36 we plan to make changes that simplify MediaWiki skin development and make the ecosystem friendlier to frontend developers and make skins easier to maintain. In fact, in future, it will be possible to write skins without a single line of PHP. If you are excited or intrigued by these changes and want to get involved in the conversations I urge you to subscribe to our board. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/4795/
I'm particularly interested in hearing from developers who are keen to make skins in the new ecosystem. Your input and creativity would be much appreciated. Feel free to drop me a private mail or engage in open conversations.
In addition to all the extension developers who helped review changes to their hook contracts, I would like to especially thank the following people for getting us to this landmark: Ammarpad, Timo, Volker and Mainframe98. I'd like to give a specific shout out for Ammarpad who has been a huge driving force here, preventing various bugs from occurring and swiftly responding to many of the unexpected regressions that we encountered during this work. We couldn't have done this without you!
Thanks for reading! Jon _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
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