Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2018-08-30/Technology report

Automated bare url expansion
Citation bot now expands select bare url citations. For example, see this diff.

This doesn't work with bare urls, but it will work with urls to Google Books, arXiv, bibcode, JSTOR, doi, PMID and several other identifiers. If you see such bare urls in an article, you can activate Citation bot here or use the one-click citation expander gadget in your preferences. The Google Books output in particular will need to be reviewed, as sometimes Google Books links to magazine, rather than books proper. It shouldn't give anything, but the citation might not have the full details, list a publisher for author, or might need to be converted to cite magazine or something.

Many thanks to User:AManWithNoPlan for this. Headbomb {t · c · p · b}

(adapted from village pump post &#91;permanent link&#93;)

Automatic mapframe maps in Infoboxes
and now automatically displays dynamic  maps by default, if available. If you are interested in any articles using this infobox, please review how the map displays in those articles: you can adjust the size, frame center point, initial zoom level, and marker icon using various optional parameters; the mapframe map may also be turned off using no.

See Template talk:Infobox building and Template talk:Infobox shopping mall for further information and discussions.

Non-CC0 licenses for the Data namespace
Following previous discussions, legal approval and tech work it is now possible to have tabular and map data in one of the following free licenses:


 * CC0-1.0 (as previously)
 * CC-BY versions: CC-BY-1.0, CC-BY-2.0, CC-BY-2.5, CC-BY-3.0, CC-BY-4.0, CC-BY-4.0+
 * CC-BY-SA versions: CC-BY-SA-1.0, CC-BY-SA-2.0, CC-BY-SA-2.5, CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC-BY-SA-4.0, CC-BY-SA-4.0+
 * ODbL-1.0

The default license is empty string (e.g invalid license) and when user tries to save page with invalid license, he/she will get notified of the allowed licenses. (there is a task to make it slightly more clear: T201758).

You can see an example how to declare such license here (diff).

Whenever you consider to release tabular data with licenses other than CC0 please keep in mind that any templates that pull data from non-CC0 licensed datasets need to comply with the relevant attribution terms, hence it is highly encouraged to prefer CC0 whenever possible.

Thanks, Eran

(adapted from Commons village pump post &#91;permanent link&#93;)

Server switch coming up
The Wikimedia Foundation will once more be performing server switches, to test its secondary data centre. This has been scheduled for Wednesday 12 September and Wednesday 10 October 2018, both rounds starting at 14:00 UTC. During the switches, you will be able to read but not make any edits for up to an hour. Further information is available on Meta-Wiki and on Wikitech.

In brief

 * Octicons-tools.svg Cloud Services purge – Cloud VPS projects which are not marked as actived will not be migrated to the new cloud region. Instances and projects will be eligible for suspension or shutdown from October 1, and removal from November 1.

New user scripts to customise your Wikipedia experience

 * ToggleSmall (source)  by User:Danski454 – enables small text to be made default size.
 * reply-link (source)  by User:Enterprisey – adds a link after signatures to open an inline reply form; no need to use the edit window! Still in alpha testing and slightly buggy.
 * Category Page Links (source)  by User:AlexTheWhovian – adds individual Talk, Edit and History links to every article listed in a category, similar to pagelinks.

Recently approved tasks

 * – Approved 13:58, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
 * – Approved 18:09, 18 August 2018 (UTC)
 * – Approved 02:47, 4 August 2018 (UTC)
 * – Approved 02:42, 4 August 2018 (UTC)
 * – Approved 01:54, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * – Approved 01:43, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * – Approved 19:43, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Current requests for approval

 * – Open
 * – Open
 * – Open
 * – Open
 * – Open
 * – Open
 * – In trial
 * – In trial
 * – Trial complete
 * – Extended trial
 * – Extended trial
 * – Trial complete

Latest tech news
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community: 2018 #31, #32, #33, #34, and #35. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available on Meta.

Recent changes

 * The design on Special:Log has changed. It will change again soon. Developers are working on fixing problems. (source)
 * Special:NewPages now has the OOUI look. (source)
 * Octicons-tools.svg CSS in templates can now be stored in a separate page on all wikis. This is called TemplateStyles. This is to make it easier to edit how templates look. (source)
 * You can now see moved paragraphs in diffs in the mobile view. It also works on all languages in the desktop view. (source)
 * After a community discussion, a new group "Interface administrators" was created. These will be the only users allowed to edit interface pages like MediaWiki:Common.css or MediaWiki:Common.js. This was done to avoid technical issues and improve security.
 * Bureaucrats on all Wikimedia wikis can now remove the interface admin user right. (source)

Problems

 * Some diffs show lines in the wrong order. The developers are working on fixing it. (source)

Changes later this week

 * The message you see when you thank a user will change. This is to make it easier to understand. (source)
 * AWB will stop adding  in the edit summary.  Instead it will add a tag that says  . (source)
 * Octicons-tools.svg Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says . An example is   which is now  . (source)
 * Octicons-tools.svg Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is . (source)

Future changes

 * The developers are planning more ways to block users. This could be blocking someone from just a page or a namespace. You can read more. You can leave feedback on the talk page.
 * The 2018 Community Wishlist Survey begins on 29 October. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can post proposals from 29 October to 11 November. You can vote on proposals from 16 November to 30 November.
 * Octicons-tools.svg Legacy JavaScript global variables have been deprecated for seven years. They will soon be removed from all wikis. Gadgets and scripts that use them will stop working. You can test your community's gadgets on "group0" wikis. For example Test Wikipedia or mediawiki.org. The legacy JavaScript global variables are already disabled there. You can read the migration guide to fix old scripts. (source)

Meetings

 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting takes place every Wednesday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. UTC. See how to join here.