Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
You can now see the text of DjVu and PDF files in search results on wikis testing the new search tool (CirrusSearch). [1][2]
With the new version of the Wikibase DataModel extension, you can install it outside Wikimedia wikis. [3]
Images are now shown inside VisualEditor as HTML5<figure /> elements. Comments are welcome. [4]
You can now test a basic version of VisualEditor on mobile devices; see this article as an example.
Problems
On December 23, Wikimedia Labs was broken for 4 hours due to an NFS problem. [5]
Future software changes
CirrusSearch will be added as the second search method for Spanish (es), French (fr), Portuguese (pt) and Russian (ru) wikis on December 30. Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies and Wikinews users will also be able to enable it in their Beta Features options.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf9) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 2. It will be enabled on non-Wikipedia wikis on January 7 and on all Wikipedia wikis on January 9 (calendar).
On January 2, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and all Wikivoyage projects were broken for 2 hours due to language cache update issues.
On the same day, it was not possible to edit most wikis for about 30 minutes, due to a database replication problem.
Future software changes
The new search tool (CirrusSearch) will be added as the default search method for Italian Wikipedia, French Wikisource, Wikidata and all Wikivoyage sites, and as a second search method for the German Wikipedia and all Wikibooks sites on January 6. [13]
Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian Wikipedia users will also be able to enable CirrusSearch in their Beta Features options. [14]
Plural form rules for some languages will be changed. Many translations of the user interface for Belarusian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian and other languages will need to be changed. [15][16][17]
You will see a warning when you try to delete a page linked to from other pages. [18][19]
You will be able to use keyboard shortcuts in the Translate tool, by pressing Alt+1 and similar key groups. [22][23]
E-mails sent by MediaWiki will include the name of the site in their From: line. You will be able to change this name on your wiki by editing the MediaWiki:Emailsender page. [24][25]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
You can read a recent blog post about how Tech News is put together, translated and sent to you across wikis each week.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf10) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 9. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 14, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 16 (calendar).
Searching in the File: namespace on Wikimedia Commons may be slow due to a search engine issue. [28]
VisualEditor news
VisualEditor will be added for all users on several Wikipedias on January 13. [29]
You can now add and remove __NOTOC__, __FORCETOC__ and __NOEDITSECTION__ in the page metadata menu. [30][31][32]
Problems
For a few hours on January 6, it was not possible to edit pages using the Translate tool on Wikimedia Commons and the Wikimania 2013 wiki, due to a settings error. [33][34]
For about 20 minutes on January 9, there were problems with CSS and JavaScript due to high server load.
Future software changes
Wikidata will be added to all Wikisource wikis on January 14. [35]
The new search tool (CirrusSearch) will be added as the second search method for the English Wikipedia on January 13. On Wikibooks and the German Wikipedia, you will also be able to test it by adding it in your Beta Features options.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf11) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 16. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 28, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 30 (calendar).
As of January 16, you can make and use guided tours on the Asturian, Farsi and Russian Wikipedias. If you want this tool on your wiki, you need to translate it and ask in Bugzilla. [41][42]
You can give comments on an idea to have a fixed toolbar at the top of wiki pages. [43]
You can watch a video to learn how to report problems in Bugzilla. [44]
VisualEditor news
In the toolbar, the menu to edit the styles (like bold, italic, etc.) now has a down arrow (). The order of the Insert menu has also changed a little.
You can now edit <gallery /> tags with a very basic tool. [45]
You can now see a help page about keyboard shortcuts in the page menu. [46]
When you change categories, you will now see them when you save the page. [47]
When you edit templates, you will now see the parameters in the right order. The ones that you must add have a star (*). [48][49]
The page will now be saved faster, thanks to a new way of coding the text that sends 40% less text to the servers. [50]
There was a problem with search on the English and German Wikipedias between January 6 and January 14. You could not see new pages and changes in search results. [52]
There were "pool timeouts" errors on several wikis on January 13; it was caused by a code change that was made to fix another problem. [53]
On January 17, Bugzilla and Wikimedia Labs were broken for about 20 minutes due to network problems. IRC channels with recent changes (irc.wikimedia.org) were broken for about two hours. [54]
Future software changes
Orange bar with new messages
If you have removed JavaScript in your web browser, you will soon be able to see the orange bar saying that you have new messages. If you have changed how the bar looks with a gadget, you may need to change the gadget again. [55][56]
You will soon be able to add a given Flickr user to a blacklist so that their files can't be uploaded using UploadWizard on Wikimedia Commons and other wikis. [57]
You will see a warning when you try to delete a page included in at least one other page. [58]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
Pages from Wikimedia sites now load faster in your browser thanks to "module storage", a way for your browser to save data like JavaScript and CSS on your computer to avoid downloading them again. See video. [61]
The code used to show videos has changed. You should be able to play the video on the page, with the play button on top of the video. If you see the play button on the right of the video, or if clicking on the video leads you to the original file, please file a bug or tell User:Bawolff. [62]
The Special:ActiveUsers page will be removed because it's too slow. [63]
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf11) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 16. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 28, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 30 (calendar).
Problems
On January 21, Universal Language Selector was turned off on all Wikimedia sites because it makes pages load slowly. If you want to use web fonts, or write in scripts that aren't on your keyboard, you need to add it as an option in your preferences. It will be turned back on when the issues are resolved. [64]
For about 20 minutes on the same day, there were problems with CSS and JavaScript due to high server load.
Future software changes
You can give comments about the new version of "Winter", a proposal to have a fixed toolbar at the top of wiki pages. [65]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf12) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 30. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 4, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 6 (calendar).
You can now link to diffs using [[Special:Diff/12345]] and similar links. [70]
There is no longer an option to hide tables of contents on all pages. [71]
Searching in the File: namespace on Wikimedia Commons is now faster, after a bug was fixed on January 29. [72]
All Wikimedia wikis now have high-resolution favicons. [73]
VisualEditor news
You can now see a list of keyboard shortcuts by pressing Ctrl+/ inside VisualEditor. [74]
Future software changes
Edits and files hidden with the Oversight tool will be moved to the RevisionDelete system. The Oversight tool will then be removed from Wikimedia wikis. [75][76][77]
For languages where not all sister projects exist, you will be able to link to other language projects using double interwikis (:ko:v, :v:ko, etc.). [78]
It will soon be possible to use the GettingStarted tool on other wikis than the English Wikipedia. You can translate it on Translatewiki.net. [79]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf13) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 6. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 11, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 13 (calendar).
The Vector search box was changed to fix old display and accessibility issues; for example, you can now use full-text search even if you have disabled JavaScript. Please report any problems you see. The option to disable the "simplified search bar" on Vector will also be removed. [85][86][87][88][89]
You are now notified when someone adds a link to your user page on wikis where it didn't work before (wikis with dates in the year-month-day order, including Hungarian, Japanese, Korean and some variants of Chinese). [90]
VisualEditor news
You can now set media items' alt text and position, and directly set their size, in the media tool. [91][92]
The gallery tool was improved and several issues were fixed. [93][94][95]
Problems
On February 3, all wikis were broken for about an hour due to a traffic balancing issue. [96]
On February 6, some wikis were broken for about half an hour in total due to a problem with the Math extension.
Future software changes
Some methods from Scribunto's mw.message library will be removed after February 18. If you use them in your templates or modules, please check to make sure that things will not break. [97][98]
You will soon be able to use GettingStarted on 23 new Wikipedias. It helps new users by listing possible tasks and giving help. The new version was also added to the English Wikipedia on February 7th. [99]
You will soon see results from other wikis when you use the new search tool (CirrusSearch). [100][101]
The WikiLove tool was redesigned and should also load faster. [102]
bugzilla.wikimedia.org will be updated this week. You won't be able to access it from 22:00 UTC on February 12 until 01:00 UTC on February 13 at the latest. [111]
The <poem> tag will be renamed to <lines>. The old tag will still work. [112]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf14) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 13. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 18, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 20 (calendar).
The new search tool (CirrusSearch) now gives more importance to content namespaces if you search in several namespaces. [115]
You can now directly link to files viewed with MultimediaViewer, the new tool for viewing media files. [116]
You can read the summary of the Wikimedia technical report for January 2014. [117]
Problems
On February 9, Wikimedia Labs was broken for about 2 hours due to an XFS file system problem. [118]
On February 11, there were problems with VisualEditor for about 20 minutes due to a server logging issue. [119]
On the same day, for about 20 minutes there were issues with page loading due to database problems.
There were issues with page loading between 21:00 UTC on February 13 and 11:00 UTC on February 14 for users in Europe. It was due to a cache server problem.
On February 14, all sites were broken for about 15 minutes for users in Southeast Asia, Oceania and the western part of North America. It was due to problems with cache servers.
VisualEditor news
The link tool now tells you when you're linking to a disambiguation or redirect page. [120]
You can now change image display (like thumbnail, frame and frameless) with VisualEditor. [121]
Wikitext warnings will now hide when you remove wikitext from paragraphs you are editing. [122]
You will soon be able to create and edit redirect pages with VisualEditor. [123][124][125]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf15) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 20. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 25, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 27 (calendar).
The new search tool (CirrusSearch) was added to the Italian Wikiquote and all Wikiversity projects. Users can now enable it in their Beta options. [126][127]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf16) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 27. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on March 4, and all Wikipedia wikis on March 6 (calendar).
When users enable web fonts by default, Universal Language Selector will now log if they don't have fonts to display pages correctly. This information will be used by developers to improve font support in the future. Read more about missing fonts. [141]
Article Feedback Tool will be removed from the English and French Wikipedias on March 3. It will also no longer be possible to add this tool to any Wikimedia wiki. [158][159]
Wikis using the new search tool will come back to the old tool for a few hours starting at 00:00 UTC on March 6. [160]
Problems
For about an hour on February 23, there were problems with page loading due to a MediaWiki bug. [161]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf17) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 6. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on March 11, and all Wikipedia wikis on March 13 (calendar).
It is now easier to edit templates. Complex tools are now in the "advanced" mode. [164][165]
It is also easier to edit images. You now have more options and they are explained better. [166]
VisualEditor adds fake blank lines so you can put your cursor there. They are now smaller and animated to be different from actual blank lines. [167]
We have improved the tool to add special characters. The buttons are now larger. More changes are coming. [168]
You can now use new keyboard shortcuts to undo the last action, clear formatting, and show the shortcut help window. [169][170][171]
Future software changes
You will soon be able to use a Beta option to show a shorter list of language links. That way, Universal Language Selector will only show languages that are relevant to you. You will still be able to search for other languages. [172]
An IRC discussion with the Wikimedia Foundation Language Engineering team will take place on March 12 at 17:00 UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on Freenode (time conversion). [176]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf18) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 13. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on March 18, and all Wikipedia wikis on March 20 (calendar).
You can now view smaller versions of PNG images bigger than 20 megapixels. [177]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf19) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 20. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on March 25, and all Wikipedia wikis on March 27 (calendar).
VisualEditor news
You can now double-click or press the ↲ Enter key on an image or template to change its settings. [189][190]
Pages that don't exist will now show as red links in the edit mode. [191]
You will no longer be able to try to use VisualEditor on pages translated using the Translate extension, and you will see a warning if you try to edit pages marked for translation. [192]
You will now see a full warning, including the most recent log entry, when you try to edit protected pages with VisualEditor. [193]
Future software changes
Typography Refresh will be enabled for test wiki and MediaWiki.org users who use the Vector skin on March 27. For users on non-Wikipedia wikis, it will be enabled on April 1, and for Wikipedia users on April 3. If you don't use Vector as your skin, you will not be affected.
You will be able to use the Hovercards tool as a beta feature on all wikis from March 26.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf20) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 27. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on April 1, and all Wikipedia wikis on April 3 (calendar).
Typography Refresh was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 27. You'll only see it if you use the Vector skin. For users on non-Wikipedia wikis, it will be enabled on April 1, and for Wikipedia users on April 3.
CirrusSearch, the new search tool, was enabled as a beta feature on over 30 new wikis on March 27. [196][197]
VisualEditor news
Blocked users now see the same messages in VisualEditor as in the wikitext editor. [198][199]
The search box for re-using a reference in VisualEditor is now cleared after each use. [200]
New links on sub-pages no longer point to the wrong location in VisualEditor. [201]
VisualEditor's media dialog no longer breaks when opening some types of images. [202]
Future software changes
You will not be able to use the Wikitech wiki for a short period around 16:00 UTC on April 1 due to a server change. [203]
CirrusSearch will become the main search engine for all non-Wikipedia wikis except Commons, Meta and Incubator on April 2.
You will soon be able to use a new special page listing duplicate files. [204]
Deleting a version of a file or a version of its description page will soon be shown differently in the logs. [205]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf21) was scheduled to be deployed to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on April 3, however it was temporarily put on hold due to localization issues. (calendar).
Typography Refresh was enabled on non-Wikipedia wikis on April 1, and on all Wikipedias on April 3. You'll only see it if you use the Vector skin.
CirrusSearch was enabled as the primary search method on over 400 non-Wikipedia wikis on April 2. [206]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
We are looking for contributors to help write new issues every week. If you would like to help, please contact us.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf22) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on April 10. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on April 15, and all Wikipedias on April 17 (calendar).
MediaViewer was enabled for all users on MediaWiki.org on April 10. It will be enabled for all users on the Catalan (ca), Hungarian (hu) and Korean (ko) Wikipedias and English Wikivoyage on April 17. Comments are welcome. [214][215][216]
You will now see only three options when you try to add a template parameter in VisualEditor; you will see other options after a click. [219]
The size changing controls in VisualEditor media editing dialog were simplified further.
The wikitext editor tab will now fold into a drop-down menu in the Vector skin if there is not enough space on your screen. [220][221]
Future software changes
The font used for body text on Wikimedia wikis will change to your system default sans-serif font. This temporary change will be enabled on all non-Wikipedia wikis on April 15, and on all Wikipedias on April 17. [222][223]
Files from Commons seen on another wiki will soon have a tab saying "View on Wikimedia Commons". The create tab will change to "Add local description" (see screenshot). [224]
An IRC discussion with the Wikimedia Foundation Multimedia team will take place on April 16 at 18:00 UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on Freenode (time conversion). [234]
Problems
Wikimedia Foundation servers were updated after a security bug called Heartbleed was discovered last week. You should change your password as an extra precaution. [235]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
We are looking for contributors to help write a new issue every week. If you would like to help, please contact us.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf1) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on April 17. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on April 22, and all Wikipedias on April 24 (calendar).
Problems with various fonts in SVG files were fixed last week. Files that use DejaVu Sans Condensed, DejaVu Serif Condensed, DejaVu Sans Light, Kochi Gothic and Kochi Mincho fonts now show correctly. [239][240][241][242]
You can read a summary of the Wikimedia technical report for March 2014. [244]
VisualEditor news
If you try to add a category which redirects to another category, VisualEditor will now suggest adding the target category directly. [245][246]
VisualEditor tabs will no longer appear on Education Program pages. [247][248]
You can now use VisualEditor on Meta-Wiki and the French Wikinews by enabling it in your preferences. [249][250][251]
Future software changes
MediaViewer will be enabled for all users on the Czech (cs), Estonian (et), Finnish (fi), Hebrew (he), Polish (pl), Romanian (ro), Slovak (sk), Thai (th) and Vietnamese (vi) Wikipedias on April 24. Feedback is welcome. [252]
Edits by anonymous users will now be marked with a new CSS class (mw-anonuserlink). This way, you can easily make those edits use a different color, font or background. [253][254]
An IRC discussion about Phabricator will take place on April 22 at 03:30 AM UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on freenode (time conversion). [264]
Problems
For about 40 minutes on April 17, there were problems with page loading due to high server load.
There is a problem with the rendering of formulas with MathJax. If you enabled MathJax in your preferences, you might need to turn it off and on again. [265]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf2) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on April 24. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on April 29, and all Wikipedias on May 1 (calendar).
You can now use interwiki prefix c: to link to pages on Wikimedia Commons. [266]
VisualEditor news
You will soon be able to set content language and direction with VisualEditor. [267]
VisualEditor now works on all Wikipedias after broken MediaWiki:Common.js pages (and similar) were fixed last week. [268]
VisualEditor dialogs now use an animation of moving lines rather than animated GIF images.
Future software changes
CirrusSearch will be enabled as a beta feature on 41 new wikis, including Meta-Wiki and the Swedish (sv), Russian (ru), Polish (pl), Japanese (ja) and Chinese (zh) Wikipedias next week. This change means that CirrusSearch will now be enabled on all Wikimedia wikis.
MediaViewer will be enabled for all users on the French (fr) and Dutch (nl) Wikipedias on May 1. Feedback is welcome. [269]
The mobile version of Wikimedia wikis will soon include filters to limit the number of uploaded files that are copyright violations. [270]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf3) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on May 1. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on May 6, and all Wikipedias on May 8 (calendar).
The Compact Personal Bar was added as a beta feature to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on May 1. It will be added as a beta feature to non-Wikipedia wikis on May 6, and to all Wikipedias on May 8. To test it, you can enable it now in your preferences on MediaWiki.org. [278]
External links in VisualEditor are now in the same light blue color as in MediaWiki. [280]
The template tool now tells you if a parameter is obsolete. [281]
You can now add "suggested" parameters in TemplateData; VisualEditor will add them like required ones. [282]
There is a new type for TemplateData parameters: wiki-file-name for file names. [283][284]
Editing formulae in VisualEditor will soon be enabled for all users. [285][286]
You will soon be able to try a new beta feature to edit text in another language. [287][288]
Future software changes
MediaViewer will be enabled for all users on the Japanese (ja), Portuguese (pt), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv) and Telugu (te) Wikipedias on May 8. Feedback is welcome. [289]
You can help translate about 100 new language names that have been added to our data source. They are used, for example, as hover text for interwiki links. Send an e-mail to Nemo if you want to help.
If you click on a redirect page in your watchlist, you will soon access the redirect itself. [290][291]
Problems
For about 40 minutes around 00:20 UTC on April 29, there were problems with page loading due to high server load.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf4) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on May 8. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on May 13, and all Wikipedias on May 15 (calendar).
VisualEditor news
A new citation system in VisualEditor was enabled on the English Wikipedia. It will soon be enabled on more wikis. [292]
Templates that were previously broken in VisualEditor should now appear correctly. [293]
Future software changes
It will soon be possible to move category description pages. Pages in changed categories will still have to be moved independently. [294][295]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Tech News updates
Tech News is one year old this week; thank you for being with us!
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf5) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on May 15. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on May 20, and all Wikipedias on May 22 (calendar).
The jQuery JavaScript library was updated on May 16. Please check that your gadgets and scripts still work. [310][311][312]
MediaViewer was enabled for all users on the Kannada (kn) and Telugu (te) Wikipedias on May 13. It will be enabled on the German (de), English (en), Italian (it) and Russian (ru) Wikipedias and on all Wikisource wikis on May 22. Feedback is welcome. [313][314]
VisualEditor was added as a beta feature to Wikimedia Commons on May 15. You can enable it in your preferences. [315][316]
You can read a summary of the Wikimedia technical report for April 2014.
VisualEditor news
VisualEditor's buttons and icons can now be accessed using keyboard keys. [317][318]
VisualEditor's new citation tool now matches templates like {{cite_web}} and not just {{Cite web}}. [319][320]
VisualEditor's welcome message will no longer be shown to users who have already seen it. [321][322]
VisualEditor now shows a clearer message when you cancel an edit. [323]
The toolbar of the PageTriage extension will no longer be visible inside VisualEditor. [324][325]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf6) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on May 22. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on May 27, and all Wikipedias on May 29 (calendar).
MediaViewer will be enabled on all Wikisource wikis on May 29, and on the German (de) and English (en) Wikipedias on June 3. Feedback is welcome.
VisualEditor news
VisualEditor's welcome message and wikitext warning now say that you can switch to source mode editing and keep your edits without saving them. [329][330][331][332]
A bug that caused files not to appear after saving edits in the File: namespace was fixed last week. [333][334]
VisualEditor tabs will no longer appear in namespaces where VisualEditor is disabled. [335][336]
It is now possible to edit inline images with VisualEditor; many minor bugs related to images have also been fixed. [337]
VisualEditor will no longer convert spaces to underscores inside links to pages in namespaces that include spaces in their names. [338]
Future software changes
Wikimedia Labs will stop working for about 10 minutes around 18:00 UTC on May 30 due to a server upgrade. [339]
It will soon no longer be possible to upload different files under the same name at the same time using the UploadWizard tool. [340][341]
Links to TIFF, DjVu or PDF files created with the syntax [[File:Name.ext|thumb|page 15 is my favourite]] will now show an image caption if there is any text after page number; previously they caused the given page to appear. [342][343][344]
You will soon see information about global blocks for IP addresses on their contributions page on your local wiki. [345][346]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf7) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on May 29. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on June 3, and to all Wikipedias on June 5 (calendar).
CirrusSearch was enabled as the primary search method on all Wikipedias with less than 100,000 pages on May 30. [347]
VisualEditor news
Templates that redirect to other templates now get the TemplateData of their target. [348]
The toolbar of the PageTriage extension will no longer be visible after you save an edit with VisualEditor. [349][350]
VisualEditor now checks if your browser supports SVG files to avoid displaying broken icons. [351]
There is now a new type for TemplateData parameters: date for dates and times in the ISO 8601 format. [352]
Future software changes
MediaViewer will be enabled on the German (de) and English (en) Wikipedias on June 3. Feedback is welcome.
You will soon see a warning if you visit a contributions page for a user that does not exist. [353][354]
The search tab will soon be removed from user preferences. You will be able to set your search preferences on Special:Search. [355][356]
You will soon see a label next to the little triangle arrow for the Actions menu in the Vector skin (screenshot). [357][358]
Problems
For about 20 minutes on May 29, all wikis were broken due to a configuration error. [359]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf8) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on June 5. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on June 10, and to all Wikipedias on June 12 (calendar).
You can now use guided tours on the Arabic (ar), Bengali (bn) and Norwegian (no) Wikipedias. If you want this tool on your wiki, you need to translate it and ask in Bugzilla. [360][361]
VisualEditor news
You should no longer be able to add empty references with VisualEditor. [362][363]
The "use an existing reference" button in the reference tool is now shown as disabled, rather than hidden, when the reference has content. [364][365][366]
You will now see category contents again after saving an edit to a category page with VisualEditor. [367][368]
You will be able to use information from Wikidata directly in Wikiquote pages starting on June 10. [370]
On wikis with the Translate extension enabled, translation administrators will soon be able to use the page migration tool to import existing translations to the new system. [371][372]
You will soon see metadata on file description pages for Ogg files (example video, example audio). Some metadata with non-English characters may need to be purged or transcoded to UTF-8 before they show correctly. [373][374]
Templates containing <ref> or <references> tags will no longer need dummy parameters to prevent caching. [375][376][377]
You will no longer be able to use Special:Thanks directly. The page will soon show an error message when you visit it. [378][379]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Reminder
You can subscribe to the wikitech-ambassadors mailing list to get news more quickly and to send feedback or report problems.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf9) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on June 12. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on June 17, and to all Wikipedias on June 19 (calendar).
You can now read a summary of the Wikimedia technical report for May 2014.
VisualEditor news
You can now easily see the target of a link or other information using the context menu. [381]
When you edit a reference, you can now empty it and click the "use an existing reference" button to switch it to re-use another reference. [382][383]
You can now add and edit {{DISPLAYTITLE}} and __DISAMBIG__ in the page settings menu. [384][385][386][387]
The tool to insert special characters is now wider and simpler; the order of mathematical symbols is now correct. [388][389][390]
You will no longer see image thumbnails on search results pages on Wikibooks and Wikisource wikis. [393][394]
It will soon be possible to globally rename global (SUL) users. [395][396]
Tablet users will be redirected to the mobile view of Wikimedia wikis starting on June 17. [397]
The special page that lists most linked-to templates will soon include pages from all namespaces; it will also be renamed to Special:MostTranscludedPages. [398]
An IRC discussion about Phabricator will take place on June 17 at 17:30 UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on freenode (time conversion). You can also read a blog post about the upcoming switch to Phabricator.
You can now comment on the draft 2014-15 goals of the Wikimedia Foundation engineering department. [399]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf10) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on June 19. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on June 24, and to all Wikipedias on June 26 (calendar).
VisualEditor news
You can now drag-and-drop selections of content, not just files and templates. [400][401]
When dragging an item, you will now see a line that helps you to drop it. [402][403]
You can now only move an image to the start of a paragraph, not to the middle of it, so you don't accidentally split it. [404][405]
You will now be warned if you add wikitext to file captions and references. [406][407]
Future software changes
You will no longer be able to upload files on wikis that do not have any copyright tags. [408][409]
CirrusSearch results will soon take into account categories, the first paragraph and the wikitext of a page. You will also be able to use regular expressions to search the wikitext. It will take a few days for the changes to be enabled on all wikis. [411]
An IRC meeting to organize old high priority MediaWiki bug reports will take place on June 24 at 17:00 UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on freenode (time conversion). [414]
Problems
On June 19, all wikis were broken for about 15 minutes due to a high server load.
Between June 13 and June 15 there were problems with the scaling of video files due to a configuration error. [415]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf11) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on June 26. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on July 1, and to all Wikipedias on July 3 (calendar).
VisualEditor news
Context menus in VisualEditor will no longer flicker and disappear when you insert a new reference, formula, image, etc. [416][417]
A bug that prevented relocating items due to cache was fixed last week. [418][419]
VisualEditor will no longer scroll to the bottom of the page when you try to edit section 0. When you try to add a formula, VisualEditor will no longer scroll to the top of the page. [420][421][422][423]
Links to category pages or file pages added with VisualEditor will now work correctly. [424][425]
Future software changes
You will no longer be able to upload files on wikis that do not have any copyright tags. [426][427]
Toolserver tools will be stopped on June 30. Please make sure to change gadgets that link to the Toolserver to point to Tool Labs instead.
CirrusSearch will be enabled on June 30 as the primary search method on 34 new wikis, including the Czech (cs), Danish (da), Finnish (fi) and Hebrew (he) Wikipedias. [428]
All Wikimedia wikis will be using a security method called perfect forward secrecy starting on July 1. If you see a problem, please report it. [429][430]
Starting on July 1, it will be possible to globally rename global (SUL) users. [431]
You will soon see block information when you visit the contributions page or try to edit the user page or user talk page of a user who is affected by an IP range block. [432][433]
You will soon be able to use {{!}} as a magic word to produce the pipe character, for instance for use in tables. [434]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Tech News updates
We are looking for contributors to help write a new issue every week. If you would like to help, please contact us.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf12) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on July 3. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on July 8, and to all Wikipedias on July 10 (calendar).
CirrusSearch was enabled on July 1 as the primary search method on 36 new wikis, including the Norwegian (no), Portuguese (pt) and Ukrainian (uk) Wikipedias. [435]
It is now possible to create Atom or RSS feeds for Word of the Day, Word of the Week and similar entries on Wiktionary wikis. [436][437]
Saving an edit with VisualEditor will now be much faster. [440][441]
You can now add a caption when you add a file to a page with VisualEditor. You can also change the file to a different one and keep the existing caption. [442][443][444]
When you switch to the Edit source tab, you are now asked to keep your changes. You no longer need to find the option in the menus. [445][446][447]
The reference tool that adds empty <ref></ref> tags is now at the bottom of the Cite menu, below references that use templates like {{Cite web}}. [448]
Context menus will no longer be shown over items that you can edit directly, for example formulæ. [449][450][451]
Future software changes
Starting on July 9, it will be possible to globally rename global (SUL) users. The feature was first scheduled for July 1, but was delayed due to bugs.
A plan to enable CirrusSearch as the primary search method on the 11 largest Wikimedia wikis has now been prepared. [452]
If you use references on a page, you will soon always see them at the bottom of the page, even if you forget to add the <references /> tag (or a template). [453][454]
Black-and-white XCF images will soon display correctly. [455][456]
Description pages of SVG files will soon always show download links for multiple resolutions (example). The links were previously shown only for SVG files in large original resolutions. [457][458]
Problems
Between July 2-3, there were problems with loading pages on multiple wikis due to a configuration issue. [459][460]
For a few hours on July 1, there were problems with uploading new files on Wikimedia Commons due to a configuration error. [461][462]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf13) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on July 10. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on July 15, and to all Wikipedias on July 17 (calendar).
The tool to add templates and citations will now work for templates that include HTML comments or templates in their titles. [465][466]
The button to make images full size should now work correctly. [467][468][469]
References will now be shown in the default font size again. [470]
Future software changes
CirrusSearch will be enabled as the primary search method on the Dutch (nl) and Japanese (ja) Wikipedias on July 14, and on the Polish (pl) and Russian (ru) Wikipedias on July 16. [471]
The Special:Version page will soon show the exact version of MediaWiki and all extensions installed on your wiki (example). [472][473]
It will soon no longer be possible to order printed books of wiki articles via PediaPress. You will still be able to create PDF files. [474]
Pages that use {{DISPLAYTITLE:''title''}} more than once will soon show a warning. You can use {{DISPLAYTITLE:''title''|noerror}} to hide it. [475][476]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf14) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on July 17. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on July 22, and to all Wikipedias on July 24 (calendar).
CirrusSearch was removed as the primary search method from Wikimedia Commons and the Spanish (es) Wikipedia due to a high server load. The plan to enable it on the Dutch (nl), Japanese (ja), Polish (pl) and Russian (ru) Wikipedias was also postponed to a later date. [482][483][484]
The tool that stores information about languages (CLDR) was updated to its latest version. You can still help translate language names into your own language so they can be used in the sidebar and other places. [485]
Tablet users visiting the mobile version of Wikimedia wikis will be able to use a special version of VisualEditor starting on July 31. You can test the new tool by choosing the beta version of the mobile view in the Settings menu. Feedback is welcome. [489]
All windows in VisualEditor have now a new design. Main action buttons will always be located in the top bar and will use simple words rather than icons. [490]
You can now easily open links inside the link editor, for example to see their target. [491]
Several bugs related to the positioning of the cursor around some items (like images and references) were fixed last week. [492][493][494][495][496][497]
Future software changes
It will soon be possible to watch individual discussions in the Topic namespace rather than whole pages for talk pages using Flow. [498]
You can give comments about the new version of Winter, a proposal to have a fixed toolbar at the top of wiki pages. [499]
An IRC meeting to organize Pywikibot bugs will take place from July 24 to July 27 on the channel #pywikibot on freenode. [500]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf15) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on July 24. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on July 29, and to all Wikipedias on July 31 (calendar).
You can now download the latest version of the anti-vandalism tool Huggle.
The cancel button in VisualEditor toolbar has been removed. You can still use the Read tab and the Back button in your browser to cancel your edit. [504]
If you try to use a template which has no suggested or required parameters in TemplateData, you will now be asked to add the parameters. [505][506]
You will no longer be able to edit a page if you can't create it, for example on pages protected against recreation. [507][508]
Wikidata will soon be able to store data about article status, for example "good article" or "featured article". If your wiki has highlighted content, please make sure it is on Wikidata's list. [511]
It will soon be possible to directly create empty pages, for example in the user namespace. [512][513]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Tech News updates
Tech News will be presented at the Wikimania 2014 conference in London! If you will be attending the conference, please join us in Auditorium 2 at 14:30 local time on Sunday, August 10.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf16) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on July 31. Due to the Wikimania 2014 conference, it will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on August 12, and to all Wikipedias on August 14 (calendar). [514]
You can now test a new tool to render wiki pages as PDF files. [515][516][517]
You can now download an update to the archive of Wikimedia Commons files (uploaded up to December 31, 2013). If you have free space on your computer, please help preserve the files. [518]
New users using the mobile Commons site now need to make 75 edits before they can upload a file. [519][520]
VisualEditor news
You will no longer see an edit confirmation message after making a null edit with VisualEditor. [521][522]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
Due to the Wikimania 2014 conference, there were no MediaWiki changes this week. The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf16) will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on August 12, and to all Wikipedias on August 14 (calendar). [538]
Bureaucrats on all Wikivoyage wikis are no longer able to merge two accounts into one. [539]
VisualEditor news
Tablet users visiting the mobile version of non-Wikipedia wikis will be able to use VisualEditor starting on August 12. The feature will also be enabled on all Wikipedias on August 14. [540]
Future software changes
Internet Explorer 6 users will soon see a JavaScript-free version of Wikimedia wikis; JavaScript tools and scripts will no longer work on that browser. If you use Internet Explorer 6, make sure to update to a newer browser! [541][542][543]
If you visit a special page that requires you to be logged-in, you will soon be automatically redirected to the log-in page instead of seeing a warning. [544][545]
You will now always see recent changes to the source language text when editing a translation with the Translate extension. [546][547]
An IRC meeting to discuss VisualEditor will take place on August 14 at 09:00 UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on freenode (time conversion). [548]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf17) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since August 14. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on August 19, and on all Wikipedias on August 21 (calendar).
There is a new protection level called superprotection. At the moment, only some Wikimedia Foundation employees have access to it. Administrators can't edit "superprotected" pages. [549][550][551]
You can now create empty pages directly. A message asks you to confirm that you want to create an empty page. [552][553]
You can watch the first videos from Wikimania 2014. Some of them are about technical topics. More videos will come later.
Wikidata
After August 19, you can use Wikidata for inter language links on Wikinews. [555]
After August 19, you can use Wikidata for badges like "good" or "featured" articles. Next week, you will be able to show the badges in the article sidebar on Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wikiquote. [556]
Problems
There was an issue with ProofreadPage and WikiEditor on Wikisource wikis. It is now fixed. [557][558]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
VisualEditor news
There was a error when you put your cursor directly after a reference list. It is now fixed. [559]
You can now add colors to links in the editor using gadgets. You can do this to see links to redirects or disambiguation pages. [560]
If you use Internet Explorer, you will soon be able to use VisualEditor. [561][562][563]
Future software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf18) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since August 21. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on August 26, and on all Wikipedias on August 28 (calendar).
After August 26, you will have a central JavaScript and CSS page. They will be on Meta-Wiki and will work on all wikis. Read more on the help page. [564]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
You can now test a new Beta Feature to see links to other wikis in the sidebar. The links come from Wikidata. [565][566]
You can now search pages that link to a page. Use the linksto: keyword in your search. [567][568]
A redirect to a section now changes the URL in the address bar of your browser. If "Dog" redirects to "Animals#Dog", you now see "Animals#Dog" instead of "Dog#Dog". [569][570]
If you are testing Flow, you now have a Flow tab in your Notifications. It is called "Messages". [571]
VisualEditor news
You can no longer delete required fields in templates. [572]
We fixed many Internet Explorer bugs. If you use Internet Explorer 11, you will get VisualEditor next week. Support for earlier versions is coming next. [573][574][575]
We fixed a bug where some of your typing could be undone when you used "cut" (Ctrl+X). [577]
You will no longer see empty or deleted categories among the suggestions when you add a category. [578]
Future software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf19) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since August 28. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on September 2, and on all Wikipedias on September 4 (calendar).
There is a proposal to build a database on Commons for file data. It will make it easier to see the author, license and topics. You can give feedback on this idea. You can also come to the IRC chat on September 3 at 18:00 (UTC) in #wikimedia-office at freenode. [579]
You can give feedback on Media Viewer until September 7. You can say what needs to be improved and ask other people to give feedback too. [580]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
VisualEditor news
From Thursday, Internet Explorer 11 users will get VisualEditor. Support for earlier versions is coming next. [582][583][584]
Future software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf20) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since September 4. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on September 9, and on all Wikipedias on September 11 (calendar).
You will soon confirm a "Thanks" inline instead of in a dialog. [585]
You can read more about the plan to move to Phabricator, a tool that will help people develop the MediaWiki software and report bugs. [586]
Problems
There were problems with JavaScript and CSS on Friday, September 5 because of a code error.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
You can now change the style of links to disambiguation pages. This is done with the mw-disambigCSS class. [587][588]
There was a problem on right-to-left wikis with Wikidata log entries. The text was messy in watchlists and recent changes. The problem is now fixed. The same problem will be fixed soon for user names. [589][590][591]
New users are randomly chosen for a test on 12 Wikipedias. They get messages with ideas of articles to edit. The ideas come from what they have already edited. [592]
Problems
There was a problem with loading images on September 10. [593]
VisualEditor news
If you don't select text when you add a link, the link now shows a number. [594]
The citation tool no longer offers to reuse a citation if there are none on the page yet. [595][596]
You can now use help buttons in the "Sideindstillinger" menu to see what the options are for. [597]
Future software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf21) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since September 11. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on September 16, and on all Wikipedias on September 18 (calendar).
These changes are coming with the new version:
If you use Internet Explorer 7, JavaScript will no longer work. JavaScript tools and scripts will no longer work in that browser. You should update to a newer browser. [598][599][600]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
You can test a new Beta Feature called HHVM. It should make editing faster. Please report bugs if you see them. [601]
Problems
There was a problem on the English Wikipedia on September 19. It was due to edits on a template used on many pages.
Sites were down for users in the Pacific area around 7:00 UTC on September 20. It was due to a problem in the San Francisco data center.
There were two bad bugs messing up articles in some browsers in VisualEditor. We fixed the bugs and updated the sites. [602][603]
Software changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf22) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since September 18. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on September 23, and on all Wikipedias on September 25 (calendar).
If you have more than 2000 notifications, the oldest ones will be removed.[604][605]
In the "Vector" skin, the icon used for users will show a neutral gender. [606][607]
The VisualEditor template tool now tells you if a required field is missing. [608]
The "Cancel" button of the VisualEditor save window is now called "Resume editing". This shows that you can still edit and you won't lose your changes. [609]
There are new keyboard shortcuts in VisualEditor. Use Ctrl+Shift+6 for code and Ctrl+Shift+5 for strikethrough. [610][611]
In VisualEditor, you can now see that you are switching to the source editing mode. Before, it was not clear it was happening. [612]
Future site changes
You can see a plan for the move to Phabricator. It's the new tool to track bugs. A guided tour will be done via video on September 24. [613]
). The order of the Insert menu has also changed a little.
