On 10 December 2015 at 17:12, Jon Robson <jrobson(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
So I enabled a beta feature today that is part of
reading web's
quarterly goals (read more about read more here if interested [1])
When enabled it showed up in desktop beta features (yey) but the
JavaScript module wasn't loading...
Investigating I discovered that BetaFeatures::isEnabled consults a
config variable called wgBetaFeaturesWhitelist
This makes the feature return false if the feature is not in
wgBetaFeaturesWhitelist
Apparently however you make the feature show up in the
GetBetaFeaturePreferences hook - so the whitelist doesn't actually
apply to things we show to users (which I would say would be more
important...) [2]
Hmm. That's an odd bug. I'm pretty sure it didn't used to work if it
wasn't in the whitelist at all, not merely partially. Thanks for the bug
report, and I see you've filed it as
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T121182. Thank you; I'll see if we can
get it fixed PDQ.
The whitelist also asks when enabling to check with
James Forrester and
Greg
and to note a date 6 months after the last major change. According to
these comments all the listed beta features have passed their expiry
dates.
Yeah, this is my fault, sorry. Each of them has an update from the dates
lists, but I haven't updated them and clearly neither had anyone else. :-)
I've done a commit to update the dates here –
https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/258409 – but you're right, I've also been
far too lax in letting un- and semi-developed ideas scrape along for too
long; sorry.
Will they live here forever - or is it time to talk
about beta features?
Beta Features was always for high-ish quality features which we wanted to
give our users a taste of ahead of release, reworking, or killing them
off. It is not and must not be a graveyard of discarded ambitions. The six
month "deadline" was our attempt to make sure it didn't turn into that, but
it requires someone (me) to actually do so, and I clearly haven't. :-( I'll
get the teams of each overdue feature to respond as to whether we're
killing them or improving them.
J.
--
James D. Forrester
Lead Product Manager, Editing
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
jforrester(a)wikimedia.org | @jdforrester