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Technology report

Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

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By Wikimedia tech ambassadors
Editor's note: the Signpost has arranged to mirror Tech news from Meta-Wiki to supplement the long-form tech coverage in our infrequent Technology report..

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. [1]
  • 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. [2] [3]

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. [4] [5] [6] [7]
  • The TemplateData editor now warns you if a related page already has TemplateData. [8]
  • The TemplateData table now tells you if a template doesn't take any parameters. [9]
  • A new feature allowing one to more easily link to sections within an article was deployed this week as a default setting. [10]

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. [11]

Future changes

  • You will be able to get a direct link for a section of a page. [12]


Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
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W00t the tech report as a succinct list is back. —Ynhockey (Talk) 13:30, 8 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure I like this BOT report -- Page view statistics

For one thing no one reads the feedback, or answers questions here. I came here hoping to find information about the problematic Page view statistics after asking over and over at:

  • the village pump
  • the help desk
  • the creator's talk page
  • Signpost suggestiions

but this place seems just as deserted (for this purpose) as the others. Ottawahitech (talk) 14:58, 8 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Ottawahitech: We're a fistful of editors managing a widely-distributed weekly publication in our free time, we just don't have the manpower (or, in this case, the technical knowledge) to get everything we want published published. We really, really wish we had a regular tech news columnist, but we don't, because no one has come in to fill those shoes. In the absence of a regular column a bot report will do. ResMar 04:11, 12 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
As for page view statistics, they appear to be working to me. ResMar 04:13, 12 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Wandered in here via a 'Wikipedia:Page view statistics' search; wasn't able to tell what @Ottawahitech:s complaint was (didn't like whole idea of statistics, was how I first read it); found a 2014 complaint of Ottawa's here; and that it was operational problems in a well-liked system that was the complaint. Back to present: It's a system which to my purposes is currently suffering another outage as noted here by me and a few others. @Resident Mario: Since the complaint there and the one fielded here have maybe a theme -- stretched volunteer talent -- in common I thought I'd do this little review/elaboration for the record. Cheers, all. Swliv (talk) 15:08, 2 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The Signpost needs your help putting together the next issue.
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