Hello.
Could you explain me, please, why the <ref> tag parameter follow= is not
turned off in wiki sites that are not wikisource? Who needs it there at all?
Thank you,
Igal (User:IKhitron)
I've been meaning to document this for a while.
If you're finding yourself visiting Special:Export/Import often for the
purpose of MediaWiki development there is a much better way to get content
into your local wiki for testing purposes.
This short video explains how MobileFrontend extension provides tooling to
help you debug live on-wiki content via $wgMFContentProviderClass [1]
https://youtu.be/uRQzjN0hBlY
Hope it saves someone lots of time!
[1]
https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki-extensions-MobileFrontend/blob/maste…
--
Jon Robson
Senior Software Engineer
📘 Read this post on Phabricator at
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/phame/live/1/post/129/
-------
How’d we do in our strive for operational excellence last month? Read on to
find out!
- Month in numbers.
- Current problems.
- Highlighted stories.
## 📊 *Month in numbers*
* 4 documented incidents in November 2018. [1]
* 42 Wikimedia-prod-error tasks closed in November 2018. [2]
* 36 Wikimedia-prod-error tasks created in November 2018. [3]
* 165 currently open Wikimedia-prod-error tasks (as of 12 December 2018).
Terminology:
* An *Exception* (or fatal) causes user actions to be prevented. For
example, a page would display “Exception: Unable to render page”, instead
the article content.
* An *Error* (or non-fatal, or warning) can produce page views that are
technically unaware of a problem, but may show corrupt, incorrect, or
incomplete information. Examples – an article would display the code word
“null” instead of the actual content, a user looking for Vegetables may be
taken to an article about Vegetarians, a user may receive a notification
that says “*You have (null) new messages.*”
With that behind us... Let’s celebrate this month’s highlights!
## *️⃣ *DB exception at wikitech.wikimedia.org
<http://wikitech.wikimedia.org>*
Quiddity reported that he was unable to disable a spam account, due to a
fatal exception. Andre Klapper used the Exception ID to find the stack
trace in the logs. The trace revealed that a table was missing in
Wikitech’s database.
The MediaWiki software was recently expanded with a “Partial blocking”
ability. [4] This involved introducing a new database table that stores
block metadata differently. This software update was deployed to Wikitech,
but this new table was not created.
@Marostegui (Database administrator) quickly applied the schema patches
that create the missing table. Thanks Manuel, Andre, and Quiddity; Teamwork!
– https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T209674
## *️⃣ *Big-page Deletion Unleashed!*
It had been known for years, [5] that users are unable to delete or restore
pages with more than a few hundred revisions. Attempts to do so could fail,
with a fatal “DBTransactionSizeError” exception. This error indicates that
the change is too big or too slow. Such changes risk replication lag, and
may impact the stability of the infrastructure.
The database structure used by MediaWiki for page archives dates back to
2003 (over 15 years ago). I'll spare you the details, but it depends on
database interactions that are inherently slow when applied to systems as
big as Wikipedia! RFC T20493 intends to modernise this structure for the
long-term.
Then along came @BPirkle. Bill joined the WMF Core platform team earlier
this year. He took on the challenge of making page deletion work for any
size page, today.
Previously, page deletion happened in a single step. This simple approach
had the benefit of either succeeding in its entirety, or safely rolling
back like nothing happened. It also meant that the database protected us
against conflicting changes. In August, Bill started a two-month effort
that carefully split the logic for “delete a page” into smaller steps that
each are safe and quick. It now uses our JobQueue to schedule and run these
steps, without the user waiting for it.
– https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T198176 /
https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/456035
## 📉 *Current problems*
Take a look at the workboard and look for tasks that might need your help.
The workboard lists known issues, grouped by the week in which they were
first observed.
→ https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/wikimedia-production-error/
I’d like to draw attention to a subset of PHP fatal errors. Specifically,
those that are publicly exposed (e.g. don’t require elevated user rights)
and use an HTTP 500 status code.
* CentralNotice: Some Special:CentralNoticeBanners urls fatal. –
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T149240
* Flow: Unable to view certain talk pages due to workflow
InvalidDataException. – https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T70526
* JsonConfig: Unable to diff certain “.map” pages on Commons. –
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T203063
* MediaWiki (Parser): Parse API exposes fatal content model error. –
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T206253
* MediaWiki (Special-pages): Special:DoubleRedirects unavailable on ttwiki.
– https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T204800
* MobileFrontend: Some Special:MobileDiff urls fatal. –
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T156293
* ProofreadPage: Unable to edit certain pages on Wikisource. –
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T176196
* Translate: Some Special:Translate urls fatal. –
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T204833
* Wikibase: Clicking “undo” for some revisions fatals with a
PatcherException. – https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T97146
Public user requests resulting in fatals can (and have) caused alerts to
fire that notify SRE of wikis potentially being less available or down.
💡*ProTip*: Cross-reference one workboard with another via “Open Tasks” >
“Advanced Filter” and enter Tag(s) to apply as a filter.
## 🎉 *Thank you*
Thank you to everyone who helped by reporting or investigating problems in
Wikimedia production; and for implementing or reviewing their solutions.
Including: tstarling, thiemowmde, thcipriani, Tgr, Steinsplitter, Quiddity,
pmiazga, Nikerabbit, Mvolz, Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE, kostajh, jrbs, JJMC89,
Jdforrester-WMF, hashar, Gilles, Daimona, Ciencia_Al_Poder, Catrope,
BPirkle, Barkeep49, Anomie, and Aklapper.
Thanks!
Until next time,
– Timo Tijhof
-------
Footnotes:
[1] Incidents. –
https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:AllPages?from=Incident+document…
[2] Tasks closed. –
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/query/.PkyGL4Rz_4i/#R
[3] Tasks opened. –
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/query/WsqbAxlHPLwk/#R
[4] Partial blocks. –
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_health_initiative/Per-user_page,_…
[5] Bug report about page deletion, 2007. –
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T13402
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Scrum_of_scrums/2018-12-12
=*2018-12-12*=
== Callouts ==
* Fundraising campaigns
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CentralNotice/Calendar
* Dec 24th and Dec 31st are freeze weeks.
* Goal planning in progress. If you have requests from SRE, now is the time
to do so.
** Session Service RFC is heading to last call ending Wednesday December
12th 1pm PST https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T206010
* Release Engineering: No Train weeks of December 24th and December 31st
== Audiences ==
=== Contributors ===
==== Community Tech ====
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
==== Anti-Harassment Tools ====
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
==== Editing ====
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
** Updates:
**
==== Growth ====
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
==== Language ====
* Blocked by: None. Thanks to Editing for updates on Blocket tasks.
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
=== Readers ===
==== iOS native app ====
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
==== Android native app ====
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
** Released minor update to production:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/APAW/history/master/;r/2.7.268-…
==== Readers Web ====
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
** Summary: mostly MobileFrontend architecture project tasks and some
advanced mobile contributions planning.
** Mobile website (MinervaNeue / MobileFrontend):
*** Invest in the MobileFrontend & MinervaNeue frontend architecture
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Projects/Invest_in_the_MobileFro…
**** MobileFrontend should not have a global event emitter T156186
**** Collapse mobile.search* ResourceLoader modules into mobile.startup
T210207
**** Reduce View inheritance and improve composition support T209007
**** Add tests for Drawer and CtaDrawer T208920
**** Webpackify watchstar T208921
*** Advanced mobile contributions
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Advanced_mobile_contributions
**** Investigate opt-in audience and instrumentation T211195
**** Team planning
*** Page issues
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Projects/Mobile_Page_Issues
**** Distinct issues should not be grouped T202349
**** Split pageIssues.js into smaller functions T211257
**** Planning deployment to all wikis except enwiki on December 17th T210553
** Desktop website (Popups) https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Previews
*** Maintenance T209314
** PDF rendering (Proton)
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/PDF_Functionality
*** Remaining work tracked in deploy Proton T181084
==== Readers Infrastructure ====
* no updates this week
==== Multimedia ====
* Updates
**
==== Parsing ====
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
==== UI Standardization ====
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
** No OOUI release this week, work on scheduled last release of the year
next Tuesday ongoing.
== Technology ==
=== Analytics ===
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
=== Cloud Services ===
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
=== Fundraising Tech ===
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
** Campaign going well so far
** FR-tech supporting the rest of the team with processor switching &
investigation
** CentralNotice tweaks such as reducing log spam for protection
** CiviCRM performance optimizations
** Getting new hire oriented
** Minor upgrades for CiviCRM components
** Still working on a form variant for payments-wiki
=== MediaWiki Core Platform ===
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
=== Performance ===
* Blocked by:
**
* Blocking:
**
* Updates:
**
=== Release Engineering ===
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
** Train Health:
*** Last week: No train due to the Release Engineering Offsite
*** This week: 1.33.0-wmf.8 deployment blockers
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T206662
**** T211774 Full table scans on oldimage table - Anomie and Ladsgroup
probably fixed it, will move train forward after SoS and see
*** Next week: 1.33.0-wmf.9 deployment blockers
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T206663
*** No Train weeks of December 24th and December 31st
=== Research ===
* Blocked by: None
* Blocking: None
* Updates:
** Working on building a 'morelike' API for article recommendations:
*** https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T201192 and subtasks
** Working on setting up a production pipeline for generating article
recommendations and importing them into the database:
*** https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T208622
*** https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T210844
** Research: Eliciting new editor interests:
***
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Voice_and_exit_in_a_voluntary_work…
*** We had to delay sending out emails last week. We're sending them out
this week.
=== Scoring Platform ===
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
=== Search Platform ===
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
** Wikidata autocompletion A/B done, results positive, slight improvement
in click positions: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T193701
** Fixed failed jobs when trying to index invalid titles:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T208932
** Set up news servers in codfw: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T210265
** Refactored “second try” search code:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T204255
** Working on data corruption issues in WDQS:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T210044,
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T210901
** Working on ES 6 upgrade: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T183282
** Working on running multiple Elastic instances on the same hardware:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T193654
** Working on “wrong keyboard” detection:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T138958
** Working on query parsing refactoring:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T185108
=== Security ===
* Blocked by:None
* Blocking:None I am aware of
* Updates:
**T144467: Security review for Google MT for Content Translation -
completed by Security Team
**T207990: Security review for TheWikipediaLibrary extension - Analyst will
start soon
**T202143: Security review for Guzzle 6.3.3 - completed by Security Team
=== Site Reliability Engineering ===
* Blocked by:
** None
* Blocking:
** None
* Updates:
** Nothing really
== Wikidata ==
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
== German Technical Wishlist ==
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
== Multi-Content Revisions ==
* Blocked by:
* Blocking:
* Updates:
**
== SoS Meeting Bookkeeping ==
* Updates:
**
Reminder: Technical Advice IRC meeting again **Wednesday 4-5 pm UTC** on
#wikimedia-tech.
Question can be asked in English & German.
The Technical Advice IRC Meeting is a weekly support event for volunteer
developers. Every Wednesday, two full-time developers are available to help
you with all your questions about Mediawiki, gadgets, tools and more! This
can be anything from "how to get started" over "who would be the best
contact for X" to specific questions on your project.
If you know already what you would like to discuss or ask, please add your
topic to the next meeting:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_Advice_IRC_Meeting
Hope to see you there!
Michi (for the Technical Advice IRC Meeting crew)
--
Michael F. Schönitzer
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
http://wikimedia.de
Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an der Menge allen
Wissens frei teilhaben kann. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
http://spenden.wikimedia.de/
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
Hi,
this is a follow-up to Part 1 (Audiences) in
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2018-September/090886.html
when I asked for help and comments to define which audiences to cover.
While there has not been a lot of feedback, most of it was pretty
helpful.
You can find the results under
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki/Homepage_improvements_2018#Audienc…
The next step for the next three weeks is to decide on the content. An
initial proposal (and explanations of challenges) can be found under
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki/Homepage_improvements_2018#Content
The proposal is not too different from the current content and tries to
use clearer phrasing, avoids some of the current content duplication,
removes a smaller number of some currently unhelpful pages and adds
better information mostly for sysadmins and people who heard about
MediaWiki for the very first time.
If this sounds interesting, please take a look at the link above and
let's discuss on the corresponding discussion page!
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and input!
andre
--
Andre Klapper | Bugwrangler / Developer Advocate
https://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper/
Am 11.12.2018 um 01:15 schrieb Evans, Richard K. (GRC-H000):
> Is there any option to attend remotely?
>
> /Rich
We plan to have a live streaming via YouTube plus recording. Stay tuned and watch
https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/SMWCon_Fall_2018
to get notified. Hopefully we get the setup working (Multicamera with PictureInPicture + Complex Audio Setup, puuuh....). Keep fingers crossed.
/Alexander