Project:Tech News

Tech News: 2015-01
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Software changes
 * There are no technical changes this week.

Feedback about Tech News in 2014
 * The writers of the technical newsletter are asking for your opinion. Did you get the information you wanted this year? Did we miss important technical news in 2014? What kind of information was too late? Please tell us at m:Talk:Tech/News. You can write in your language. Thank you!

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:52, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-03
 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
 * Rotated PDF files in landscape format used to show too small. They will now display correctly. You may need to purge older files.
 * You can now use the  magic word instead of Template:!. Many wikis used the template to create a pipe  in tables and templates. You can delete the template.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki ( 1.25wmf14 ) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since January 7. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from January 13. It will be on all Wikipedias from January 14 (calendar).
 * A bug in VisualEditor sometimes added a  (Sun) character. This is now fixed.
 * The search and replace tool in VisualEditor is now much faster in long pages.
 * The TemplateData editor now uses the same design as VisualEditor.
 * The  option is now shown in your language in the help of the classic editor toolbar.

Future changes
 * You can sign up to answer questions from designers. It will help them make editing easier.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:47, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-04
 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 download the new version of the Wikipedia app for Android. The new version shows lead images, better galleries and content from Wikidata. It also has many other new features.
 * Programs and bots still can't read information about images on many wikis. You can see the list of wikis with the most files to fix. Wikipedia in Italian, Indonesian and Japanese language have the most files to fix. On the biggest wikis you should use bots. Bots can add information templates to groups of files. You can ask other tech users to help you.

Problems
 * All JavaScript on Commons was broken for a few minutes on Tuesday. It was because of old code in the HotCat tool. The same problem happened on some Wikipedias on Wednesday. It is now fixed.

Software changes this week
 * There are no software changes this week and next week due to annual meetings.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  18:12, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-05
 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
 * You can now translate articles with the new ContentTranslation tool on several wikis.

This week
 * There are no software changes this week due to annual meetings.

Future changes
 * You can join a project to improve WikiProjects.
 * The Compact Personal Bar will be removed for now. It has a bug that breaks the tool to choose your language. It will come back when the bug is fixed.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:08, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-06
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems
 * There was a security issue on Wikimedia Labs. Many Labs tools were down after the issue was fixed.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since January 14. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from February 3. It will be on all Wikipedias from February 4 (calendar).
 * The "Save page" button in the VisualEditor toolbar is now blue rather than green. This is the same as on the mobile site.
 * You can now edit pages on the draft namespace with VisualEditor on the Russian Wikipedia and Hebrew Wikipedia. You can ask to get VisualEditor for a namespace on your wiki. When your community agrees, ask in Phabricator.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:31, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-07
 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
 * You can now use  to transclude a section with its title.

Problems
 * MediaWiki was reverted to the previous version on February 4. It was because of a performance issue. It was restored later.
 * UploadWizard was broken on February 4 because of the revert of MediaWiki.
 * All sites were broken for 30 minutes on February 5. It was due to a network problem.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since February 5. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from February 10. It will be on all Wikipedias from February 11 (calendar).
 * You can have one user page for all wikis. Your Meta user page will show if you don't have a user page on a wiki. You can test this tool on test wikis.
 * You can search for media files in VisualEditor more easily. Images are bigger and you see the size and license.
 * It is easier to review your changes when you save the page in VisualEditor. The window is wider.
 * You can read the latest news about VisualEditor. You can now join weekly meetings with developers. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The first meeting is on February 11 at 20:00 (UTC).

Future changes
 * Administrators will soon be able to delete change tags used fewer than 5,000 times.
 * In the future you will be able to have personal lists of articles on the mobile site.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:26, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-08
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since February 11. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from February 17. It will be on all Wikipedias from February 18 (calendar).
 * On Wednesday your Meta user page will be shown if you don't have a user page on a wiki.
 * You can now change the order of categories in VisualEditor using drag-and-drop.
 * In VisualEditor, you now need to make a change before you can "Apply Changes" to citations and templates.
 * The way the cursor moves in VisualEditor is changing. Your browser now handles the cursor directly. Most of you will see no change. In right-to-left text, the cursor now moves in a 'visible' rather than 'logical' way. This is like other sites but you may be surprised at first.​

Meetings
 * The VisualEditor Team had their first public bug triage meeting on February 11. They will post the results on the meeting page.
 * You can join the second weekly meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on February 18 at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.
 * You can join a meeting with the developers of the Content Translation tool. It will be on February 18 at 13:00 (UTC).

Future changes
 * You can comment on a proposal about abandoned Labs tools.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  17:57, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-09
 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
 * All new accounts are now global.
 * Your Meta user page is now shown if you don't have a user page on a wiki. You can report problems if you see any. You can ask a bot to delete your old user pages.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since February 18. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from February 25. It will be on all Wikipedias from February 26 (calendar).
 * It is now easier to see template fields in VisualEditor. The fields are bigger.
 * It is now easier to see when a button is disabled in VisualEditor.
 * Sometimes when you copy-pasted a template in VisualEditor, it was replaced by HTML. This problem is now fixed.
 * Tools in Labs will stop working for a few hours on February 24.

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 February 26 at 00:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * At the moment you need to log in to edit Wikimedia wikis on mobile devices. You can say if anyone should be allowed to edit on the mobile sites. The discussion ends on March 15.
 * Images in the interface will soon work better in Opera 12.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:28, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-10
<section begin="technews-2015-W10"/> 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. <section end="technews-2015-W10"/> 16:41, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-11
<section begin="technews-2015-W11"/> 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. <section end="technews-2015-W11"/> 15:18, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-12
<section begin="technews-2015-W12"/> 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. <section end="technews-2015-W12"/> 15:14, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-13
<section begin="technews-2015-W13"/> 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. <section end="technews-2015-W13"/> 15:09, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-14
<section begin="technews-2015-W14"/> 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. <section end="technews-2015-W14"/> 15:18, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-15
<section begin="technews-2015-W15"/> 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 join a new email list for important news about Wikimedia Labs.
 * You can read the last monthly report. In the future you can read team reports every three months. You can see current work on the roadmap.
 * The number of articles in Special:Statistics is now updated once a month.
 * You can use a new version of the Wikipedia app for Android. Using the app, you can now share a fact with your friends.

Problems
 * The import tool was broken for a few days. Imports didn't add log entries. You can delete and import pages again if necessary.
 * Labs was broken several times this week.

'''Changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since April 1. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from April 7. It will be on all Wikipedias from April 8 (calendar).
 * You can now add the same special characters with VisualEditor as with the wikitext editor.
 * Many bugs around copy-paste in VisualEditor are now fixed.
 * You can now use basic tools of VisualEditor in the new talk tool. You can add links, bold and italics. You can also mention people.

Meetings
 * 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 8 at 18:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * You can again comment on how you want to see Wikidata edits in your watchlist on other wikis.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W15"/> 15:41, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-16
<section begin="technews-2015-W16"/> 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 read the latest news about VisualEditor.
 * You can now use the new translation tool on 22 Wikipedias. You now see the tool the first time you create a new page.
 * The list of bad user names on your wiki no longer works. The global list replaces it. You can ask to add rules for bad user names on Meta.

Problems
 * Some wikis had issues on Wednesday.

Changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since April 8. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from April 14. It will be on all Wikipedias from April 15 (calendar).
 * Developers will start to rename 1.5 million accounts on Wednesday. After that all accounts will be unique and will work on all wikis.
 * All users can now test link previews ("Hovercards") on several Wikipedias.

Meetings
 * 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 15 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. <section end="technews-2015-W16"/> 16:40, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-17
<section begin="technews-2015-W17"/> 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
 * There was sometimes a problem when saving a page in VisualEditor. It is now fixed on all wikis.
 * VisualEditor sometimes showed empty warnings for wikis using Flagged Revisions. This is now fixed on all wikis.
 * You can get the new version of the Wikipedia app for iOS. With it you can share facts with your friends.
 * If you write JavaScript, you should stop using importScript and importStylesheet.

Problems
 * There was a problem with Labs on Monday.

Changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since April 15. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from April 21. It will be on all Wikipedias from April 22 (calendar).
 * Developers are renaming 1.5 million accounts. After that all accounts will be unique and will work on all wikis.
 * If your wiki has the auto-fill tool for citations, you can now use it when you edit a reference.
 * You can now give examples for template options in TemplateData.

Meetings
 * You can join the next weekly meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on April 22 at 18:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * You will soon be able to add and remove tags on edits.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W17"/> 15:30, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-18
<section begin="technews-2015-W18"/> 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
 * All accounts are now unique and work on all wikis.
 * You can read a report from experts who tested the security of MediaWiki.
 * There was a problem between VisualEditor and an antivirus software. It is now fixed.
 * You can help test VisualEditor to see if it works in your language.

Problems
 * Some Labs tools had problems due to a software bug.

Changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since April 22. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from April 28. It will be on all Wikipedias from April 29 (calendar).
 * It is now clearer that you can delete several rows and columns when you edit tables in VisualEditor.
 * You now see more information when you search for a template in VisualEditor.
 * You can now cancel when you add citations on desktop, or edit links on mobile, in VisualEditor.
 * You can now see the list of other formats for videos only after they're ready.

Meetings
 * You can join the next weekly meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on April 29 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. <section end="technews-2015-W18"/> 15:10, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Support request with team editing experiment project
Dear tech ambassadors, instead of spamming the Village Pump of each Wikipedia about my tiny project proposal for researching team editing (see here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Research_team_editing), I have decided to leave to your own discretion if the matter is relevant enough to inform a wider audience already. I would appreciate if you could appraise if the Wikipedia community you are more familiar with could have interest in testing group editing "on their own grounds" and with their own guidance. In a nutshell: it consists in editing pages as a group instead of as an individual. This social experiment might involve redefining some aspects of the workflow we are all used to, with the hope of creating a more friendly and collaborative environment since editing under a group umbrella creates less social exposure than traditional "individual editing". I send you this message also as a proof that the Inspire Campaign is already gearing up. As said I would appreciate of *you* just a comment on the talk page/endorsement of my project noting your general perception about the idea. Nothing else. Your contribution helps to shape the future! (which I hope it will be very bright, with colors, and Wikipedia everywhere) Regards from User:Micru on meta.

Tech News: 2015-19
<section begin="technews-2015-W19"/> 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 chat with other users in Phabricator.
 * There was a rare problem with VisualEditor. The text of another wiki could be added to your edit. The issue is now fixed.

Changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since April 29. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from May 5. It will be on all Wikipedias from May 6 (calendar).
 * It is now easier to add a link in VisualEditor. You can see an image and a description about the page.

Meetings
 * You can join a meeting with the Language team. The meeting will be on May 5 at 14:30 (UTC).
 * You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on May 6 at 18:00 (UTC). See how to join.
 * You can join an event in France on May 22−25. You need to sign up before May 8.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W19"/> 15:04, 4 May 2015 (UTC)