Talk:Wikimedia mobile engineering

Share your ideas on how to make Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia better below

Editing

 * I'd love to be able to edit on my mobile phone. Tfinc 22:58, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

Display of routemaps in mobile view
I recently attempted to view a railway related article on a Samsung Galaxy SII. The display of the associated route map was corrupted. The text of the associated discussion which led me here is below:

from en:Wikipedia talk:Route diagram template

I was looking at several RDT in mobile view (smart phone) over the past day. I have noticed that when various BS templates are used in an RDT, for example en:Template:Glasgow Central which uses BS-5, BS-7 and BS-9 vertical alignment is lost, hence the vertical lines through the template are lost. Looking at a template which has a constant BS - en:Template:Dalry and North Johnstone Line which only has BS-3 the vertical line through the template is maintained. Mobile view also was showing white space between each line, however this was not too much of a viewing issue.

Thoughts? --Stewart '''(talk 11:24, 15 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't use mobile to browse website. Can you capture the screenshots from your phone so we can get a better idea? -- Sameboat - 同舟 (talk) 01:03, 16 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Going to have to work out how to get screenshots from the mobile - may have to revert to a digital camera. In the meantime have a look at and . This is not exactly the same as the mobile, but illustrates the issue. You might like to pick up the "mobile view" option at the bottom of any page. --Stewart '''(talk 22:09, 17 August 2011 (UTC)


 * If the mobile view option on a "standard" computer browser is close to the actual rendering on the mobile phone, I would say this is unfortunately incurable, UNLESS our mobile staff modify the global css of mobile view. Seemingly the primaily cause of the breakings is that the width and height of the table cell are stretched greater of equal precentage (which is not intended by the RDT project.) This is better reported to meta staff m:Mobile Projects, but I doubt they would take this issue too seriously. -- Sameboat - 同舟 (talk) 01:17, 18 August 2011 (UTC)


 * The rendering via the mobile view on a "standard" copmputer browser illustrates the main display features on a smartphone. So I guess it is off to Mobile Projects. It does raise an interesting point in my mind with respect to the increased use of mobile devices - Android, Blackberry and iPhone - and also tables for example the iPad and (if the copyright issues are sorted) the Samsung Galaxy tablet, as the latter two have a lot of similarities with thier respective assocaited smartphones. Incidentally it is a Galaxy SII that I have recently been trialling. --Stewart '''(talk 11:37, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

Thoughts / observations / help on this would be most gratefully received. --Pencefn 11:55, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

Mobile site - language links
copied from en:Wikipedia:Help desk. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 03:58, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

Many times, in MOBILE SITE, i need to change the laguage of the subjects: especially from domestic language to English. Is it possibbly to put a "English language link" in mobile site? Sincerely, Kemal [e-mail ] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.166.7.216 (talk) 18:47, 27 October 2011 (UTC)


 * It turns out the language links are in beta now and are available for testing on any mobile browser. Steven Walling (WMF) &bull; talk   17:49, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

Catalan?
The interface of the app for Android is in the language of the OS. This is a disadvantage for hundreds of languages ​​and a contradiction with the principles of Wikipedia.

One example is Catalan case. Android is not in Catalan and most Catalan speakers have their phone in Spanish or English. Consequently, the interface of the app is in Spanish or English.

As Wikipedia is a multilingual and collaborative project, I propose that the users could also choose the interface language, not just the articles language, as happens now. Thanks you ;-) -- Davidpar (talk) 23:28, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Mobile site: Skin switch to Chick
Regarding, it would be a nice feature to have a toggle switch between the mobile skin and the Chick skin, just as there is a (oneway) switch to the default skin. You could sell Chick as "expert mode"/"author mode" or something along the line.--217.226.79.206 19:12, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

Cache entire encyclopedia for offline
I frequently don't have Internet connectivity, rendering the app useless. There should be an option to download a snapshot of the entire encyclopedia sans embedded media to the SD card. That way, the app can be used offline. FYI weekly snapshots are already uploaded to the web.

I'm willing to help with development, but I warn you I am a noob programmer :'( Richard.decal (talk) 15:56, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Analyzing Wikipedia Mobile Browser Energy Consumption
Hello, just in case you haven't seen this:
 * Who Killed My Battery: Analyzing Mobile Browser Energy Consumption Narendran Thiagarajany, Gaurav Aggarwaly, Angela Nicoara, Dan Bonehy, Jatinder Pal Singh, World Wide Web 2012 conference in Lyon, France:
 * Using our energy measurements we suggest guidelines for building energy-efficient web pages, namely pages that reduce energy use on the client. For example, by applying our guidelines to the Wikipedia mobile site we reduced its energy consumption from 35 Joules to 25 Joules, a saving of 29%. Our modification simply changes how Javascript works on the page, without affecting the user experience. (...) The Wikipedia webpage has two Javascript files linked to the page - application.js and jquery.js. (...) The Javascript in jquery.js is used primarily for a single purpose - to dynamically identify the correct section based on the id of the button clicked. But loading this Javascript to the memory alone takes 4 Joules. In order to prove that this energy is avoidable, we redesigned the page with a different Javascript. This time each text section and the button are given the same id and the Javascript function uses document.getElementById to get the right section and element. value=show/hide is used. The application.js is now replaced by this simple Javascript. We found that in cache mode, the modified Wikipedia page renders with 9.5 Joules. Just adding the application. js and jquery.js files as link to the page increases the energy consumption to 15 Joules.

Best wishes --Atlasowa (talk) 13:28, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia Windows 8 App Does not Display Long Equations Correctly
Long, single line equations currently are cut off in the Windows 8 Wikipedia. For example, check out the Noether's Theorem article. It seems that when an equation is written using a tabular form in Latex it will show up in an "expand table" block, but when it is just one line (very common in physics articles) the image of the equation is cut off and there is no way to expand it to see the whole thing.

Wikipedia Windows 8 App - More Metro
The Tile of the Wikipedia app for Windows 8 simply doesn't fit the Metro principle. If it should look Metro-like, you should replace the "W" in the small logo and the "Wikipedia" in the wide logo with the Wikipedia Logo (ball with letters), but 100% white/transparent (white ball, transparent letters as example), but keep the white "Wikipedia" in the left corner. Do the same with the Splash Screen (remove "Wikipedia" and simplify the ball). The background of the Tile and Splash Screen should be the gray color of the in-app top bar. And to fit the Metro principle even more, delete the button "Read in..." in the App Bar and move it as "Language" into the Settings Pane. The language should be saved, so you don't have to switch every time you open the app. Then, if you close the app, it should save the current article and display it on the next start. Then you should disable Sharing while on the start page (simply check for the UniqueID). Also you should be able to pin an article to the Start Page, if you right click an article in the start page, same for sharing. These changes would be really cool!

Metro is simple: Not much animation, not much color-play and nearly always looks the same in each app.

Scaling error with SVG and tables
I noticed that pages that show the football line up are not displayed correctly on the Wikipedia App for smart phones. The player list to the right of the line-up can not be seen. Tablets work ok because they have bigger screens. I'm not sure if the wikicode has to be changed, the svg, or the Wikipedia app itself. Anyway I attached a screenshot that shows the error. The app doesn't allow horizontal scrolling which would solve the problem, but make it more difficult to use in my opinion. Another solution would be to make horizontal scrolling only possible for tables that are too wide to fit the screen. The rest of the content would stay in place and just the table would move horizontally so if one decides to scroll vertically there is no scrolling into white space. This can be seen for example in the Wolfram Alpha app. Compare this site to the screenshot: UEFA_Euro_2012_Group_A#Poland_vs_Russia. --Tobias1984 (talk) 08:43, 13 June 2012 (UTC)



Always show 2 copies of lists in "References"
Android APK will show 2 copies of lists with exact the same content in the section "References" of every topic.
 * This was reported on Bugzilla and should be fixed with the next update. Thanks :) Maryana (WMF) (talk) 19:56, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

local storage not available occasionally while connection broken or slow
I saved some pages to local storage so I can read it offline some later. Everything is OK if I keep on connection to or disconnect from internet. But some time, if wiki andriod app is requesting the content from server on a slow or unstable connection and didn't return for long time, then I click "saved pages", but it will show an empty list even if I exited and restarted this app again. But everything will recover after a successful request, e.g. I got a good connection, open the app and show some page successfully, received some later.

-- some supplement: in fact the local saved pages will not be available if the last time of visiting online wikipedia is failed or no visit to online wikipedia after power on of phone.

Another suggestion for improvement on local storage: it should be better if provide indexes or categories for local saved pages, and it will be great if user can customize the categories, so there should be another tab page on "saved pages".

By Wang Hongqi (hongqi.wang@gmail.com)

Android app error "You are offline..."
I hope this is the correct area to post this. I tried looking for the support page/site for the official Wikipedia Android app and this is the page I found. If this is not the correct place to post this, would you please let me know where I can?

As you may or may not know, (as of November 2012) the Android Wikipedia app is having issues connecting to the internet. I am unsure to exactly when the issue first started, but there are many reviews of the Google Play store that are reporting the same issue.

The app opens to the page that displays, "Sorry, this page is not available. You are offline and the page has not been previously saved.  You can open a saved page or go online and search." Wikipedia is still accessible via an internet browser on the Android device, yet if the app is used to try and open the same article, the error page comes up. --Marcusaxavier77 (talk) 19:20, 11 November 2012 (UTC)


 * The team just released a new version of the app that should address this issue. Please continue to keep us updated and let us know if you're still experiencing problems! Maryana (WMF) (talk) 00:19, 14 November 2012 (UTC)


 * A ton of people, myself included, are still having this problem even after the update. Reinstalls didn't help. Problem is in both the normal and the beta apps. Crcarlin (talk) 20:41, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

BlackBerry PlayBook version doesn't display articles
I found the Wikipedia app on the BlackBerry PlayBook quite useful until a recent OS update, now the Wikipedia app searches but doesn't display the articles anymore. It only shows a blank screen. The current BlackBerry OS is 2.1.0.1008. I'm not sure is there is a fix for this. Thanks.

Native iOS app?
I posted on Bugzilla but was told that this is a better place for discussion.

Do you think we should convert the Wikipedia app for iOS into a native iOS app? It would probably improve the performance, and it would make it look and feel like iOS apps are supposed to. Thoughts? The Anonymouse (talk) 17:56, 19 November 2012 (UTC)