Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/archives/2014/July

Tech News: 2014-28
 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


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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.
 * 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.
 * You can now use a graphical interface to edit TemplateData information on the English (en), French (fr) and Italian (it) Wikipedias.

VisualEditor news
 * Saving an edit with VisualEditor will now be much faster.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * The reference tool that adds empty  tags is now at the bottom of the Cite menu, below references that use templates like.
 * Context menus will no longer be shown over items that you can edit directly, for example formulæ.

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.
 * 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  tag (or a template).
 * Black-and-white XCF images will soon display correctly.
 * 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.

Problems
 * Between July 2-3, there were problems with loading pages on multiple wikis due to a configuration issue.
 * For a few hours on July 1, there were problems with uploading new files on Wikimedia Commons due to a configuration error.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  07:07, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-29
 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).
 * It is now possible to globally rename global (SUL ) users. Please go to the username changes page on Meta if you want to rename your account on all wikis.
 * You can now read a summary of the Wikimedia technical report for June 2014.
 * You can now read the latest issue of the Wikidata newsletter and translate it into your language.

VisualEditor news
 * The tool to add templates and citations will now work for templates that include HTML comments or templates in their titles.
 * The button to make images full size should now work correctly.
 * References will now be shown in the default font size again.

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.
 * The Special:Version page will soon show the exact version of MediaWiki and all extensions installed on your wiki (example).
 * 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.
 * Pages that use  more than once will soon show a warning. You can use   to hide it.
 * Pages that have the list of references added automatically will soon be added to a tracking category. Administrators will be able to configure the name of the category on their wikis.
 * Administrators will soon be able to easily merge histories of two pages using Special:MergeHistory.
 * Administrators will soon see links to delete files on Special:ListFiles.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  07:48, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-30
 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.
 * 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.
 * Translation memory for newly translatable pages should now offer more suggestions.
 * A tool to convert MediaWiki pages to LaTeX is now available on [//tools.wmflabs.org/ Tool Labs].

VisualEditor news
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * You can now easily open links inside the link editor, for example to see their target.
 * Several bugs related to the positioning of the cursor around some items (like images and references) were fixed last week.

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.
 * You can give comments about the new version of Winter, a proposal to have a fixed toolbar at the top of wiki pages.
 * An IRC meeting to organize Pywikibot bugs will take place from July 24 to July 27 on the channel #pywikibot on freenode.
 * A request for comments on how to improve MediaWiki API was re-started on MediaWiki.org. Your feedback is welcome.

Problems
 * Mailing lists were broken for about 16 hours between July 14 and July 15 due to a server problem.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  07:41, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-31
 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.

VisualEditor news
 * You can now create, edit, and view HTML comments in VisualEditor.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * You will no longer be able to edit a page if you can't create it, for example on pages protected against recreation.

Future software changes
 * You will soon be able to filter [//meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=rights&user=&page=&year=&month=-1&tagfilter=&hide_patrol_log=1&hide_review_log=1&hide_thanks_log=1 Meta-Wiki's user rights log] by wiki and user.
 * 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 [//meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata/Development/Badges Wikidata's list].
 * It will soon be possible to directly create empty pages, for example in the user namespace.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  08:08, 28 July 2014 (UTC)