Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/archives/2015/March

Tech News: 2015-10
 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
 * A Lua function to use Wikidata has changed. You need to update the pages that use it.
 * You can use the Content Translation tool on Wikipedia in Uzbek and Minangkabau. You need to enable it in your Beta options.
 * You can now hide banners if you don't have an account.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since February 25. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from March 3. It will be on all Wikipedias from March 4 (calendar).
 * You can use the Content Translation tool on Wikipedia in Punjabi and Kyrgyz. You can ask for the tool in other languages.
 * Editing the fake blank line in VisualEditor is now simpler. This change also fixed a few bugs.
 * The TemplateData editor now warns you if a related page already has TemplateData.
 * The TemplateData table now tells you if a template doesn't take any parameters.

Meetings
 * You can read the notes from the last meeting with the VisualEditor team.
 * You can join the next weekly meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on March 4 at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.
 * You can join technical meetings in France and Mexico this year. You will be able to ask for help if you can't pay yourself.

Future changes
 * You will be able to get a direct link for a section of a page.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:41, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-11
 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 changes
 * You can now create books on almost all wikis. It doesn't work yet on wikis using the language converter.
 * VisualEditor had problems with categories in Safari. It sometimes moved or removed the categories. The issue is now fixed.

Changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since March 4. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from March 10. It will be on all Wikipedias from March 11 (calendar).
 * In VisualEditor the "Edit beta" button is now called "Edit" on the English Wikipedia.
 * The feedback tool in VisualEditor now looks like the other tools. It also asks for information about your browser to help fix bugs.
 * You now see the VisualEditor toolbar even if the rest of the page is still loading.
 * You now see more information when you edit a link, a reference or other items in VisualEditor. You also see a clearer edit button in those tools.
 * If you use the ContentTranslation tool you now see red links in the list of articles in other languages. The link is red if the article doesn't exist in the language of your options or of your browser. You can translate the article by clicking on the red link.

Meetings
 * You can read the notes from the last meeting with the VisualEditor team.
 * You can join the next weekly meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on March 11 at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
 * You can join a technical meeting in France in May. You can ask for help if you can't pay yourself.

Future changes
 * You can get help to become a developer. You can learn more on the Google Summer of Code and Outreachy pages.
 * You will soon be able to read technical reports in Phabricator.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  15:18, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-12
 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 changes
 * The servers that resize images are using new software. You should report new problems that you notice with images.
 * You can now see lists of bugs about Commons, Wikisource and Wiktionary.
 * It is now easier to add special characters in VisualEditor. You can edit the list of characters for your wiki.

Problems
 * Wikis were broken for a few minutes on Thursday due to a code error.

Changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since March 11. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from March 17. It will be on all Wikipedias from March 18 (calendar).
 * A puzzle piece icon (VisualEditor - Icon - Template-big.svg) now shows hidden templates in VisualEditor. You can edit the template by clicking the icon. For example, you can now edit anchor templates.
 * You can now add examples, and details about old parameters, in TemplateData.

Meetings
 * You can read the notes from the last meeting with the VisualEditor team.
 * You can join the next weekly meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on March 18 at 23:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * The list of bad user names on your wiki will no longer work. The global list will replace it. You can ask to add rules for bad user names on Meta.
 * You can comment on how you want to see Wikidata edits in your watchlist on other wikis.
 * The final steps of single user login (SUL) will happen in April. You can see the rules to rename accounts.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  15:14, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-13
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes this week Meetings
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since March 18. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from March 24. It will be on all Wikipedias from March 25 (calendar).
 * The text of a reference is now more visible when you click on it. It has a blue background. Many wikis already have the blue color. Those wikis can now remove it from their CSS page.
 * VisualEditor is now much faster. For many users it is now at least as fast as the wikitext editor.
 * When you add a list of references in VisualEditor, you now see it right away. You can still change its group by editing it.
 * You can read the notes from the last meeting with the VisualEditor team.
 * You can join the next weekly meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on March 25 at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * Talk pages using "LiquidThreads" on mediawiki.org will soon use the new system.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  15:09, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-14
 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 changes
 * You can now hide site banners even if you don't have an account.
 * You can now add citations more easily with VisualEditor on the French and Italian Wikipedia. The tool adds the information when you add some types of links. In the future you will be able to add this tool to your wiki.
 * All sites should now be faster if you have a recent browser.
 * You could see a serious bug when editing some templates with VisualEditor. It was fixed quickly.
 * VisualEditor could break when you edited an image. The issue was fixed quickly.

Changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since March 25. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from March 31. It will be on all Wikipedias from April 1 (calendar).
 * VisualEditor is now the main editing tool on 53 more Wikipedias.
 * You can now edit the mobile site of all wikis without an account.
 * You can test a new tool on the beta mobile site on the English Wikipedia. With the new tool, you can create lists of articles.
 * You can now see that VisualEditor is opening even if you're not looking at the top of the page.
 * VisualEditor doesn't leave empty titles with just nowiki tags any more.

Meetings
 * You can join a meeting with the Wikidata team. The meeting will be on IRC on March 31 at 16:00 (UTC).
 * You can read the notes from the last meeting with the VisualEditor team.
 * You can join the next weekly meeting with the Editing team. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on April 1 at 18:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  15:18, 30 March 2015 (UTC)