Tech

Tech Forum

Tech News

Tech Ambassadors

Wikimedia Technology

Wikimedia Product

MediaWiki

For faster (real-time) interaction, join the #wikimedia-tech IRC channel.

Archives

---

2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022

A place to talk about tech related to a Wikimedia wiki.

Have a technical wiki question? Ask here. This can include for example:

• requests for new tools, scripts, and bots;
• help with CSS or JavaScript;
• API help;
• and data collection help (including database queries).

Ask a question

Please sign by entering four tildes (~~~~) or by clicking on the signature icon ; this will automatically produce your name and the date.

Tech-related questions about third-party wikis should be asked at mw:Project:Support desk.

css element (continued)

What is the name of the main tab? The one for "Page", "Book", "Policy", "Template" ect. The tab to the main err... Not the talk page, the other one. Also, what is the "view on meta" tab id? Thanks. L10nM4st3r (talk) 11:15, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

@L10nM4st3r If you're looking for the system-names (like MediaWiki:nstab-user), you can use the mw:qqx trick (TLDR: put ?uselang=qqx at the end of the URL). If you're looking for the HTML ID's, you can use F12 to open the developer-toolbar to see them. Hope that helps. Quiddity (talk) 16:56, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

F12 huh. Where would I find that on a touch screen device? Also, the wikimedia foundation's most secret secret is out!

Jokes aside, I don't quite understand what you mean. I want it for making the tabs smaller at User:L10nM4st3r/global.css. L10nM4st3r (talk) 17:08, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

Ah, right, mobile, sorry. For CSS purposes, the tab IDs seem to be most clearly listed at mw:Manual:Remove_Tabs, plus #ca-view-foreign for "view on meta". Quiddity (talk) 18:44, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

The IDs are also present in the source code. If you’re on Android, you can for example download Termux and use curl https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech | less—it’s quite inconvenient, and it’s probably an overkill to install Termux just for this purpose, but it lets you find out the IDs on your own. (Hint: the tabs are near the top of the source code on Vector 2022, but around the end on legacy Vector.) —Tacsipacsi (talk) 14:25, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

I can't, sorry. Can somebody answer my "helpme" on my talkpage? I have no idea what's going on. (and it certainly wouldn't be any of the three accounts of a troll I probably annoyed - I checked their contribs) L10nM4st3r (talk) 15:24, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

What is the id for the search bar in monobook? Thanks in advance. ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 19:17, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

@L10nM4st3r: Go to https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tech&useskin=monobook , right-click on the search bar and select "Inspect (element)" in your web browser, and find out. :) --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 19:57, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

I feel like I havet mentioned this enough. Maybe I should put it in my signature or something. I can't "inspect elements" on a touch screen device. I'll put it on my userpage too, but I'm a bit tired right now. Tired of coming up with new ways to say that I have "bad software" / "mobile device" ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 21:05, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

It looks like this:

<div role="search" class="portlet" id="p-search">
	<h3 id="p-search-label" ><label for="searchInput">Search</label></h3>
	<div class="pBody" id="searchBody">
		<form action="/w/index.php" id="searchform">
			<input type="hidden" value="Special:Search" name="title">
			<input type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Meta" aria-label="Search Meta" autocapitalize="sentences" title="Search Meta [f]" accesskey="f" id="searchInput"/>
			<input type="submit" name="go" value="Go" title="Go to a page with this exact name if it exists" class="searchButton" id="searchButton"/>
			<input type="submit" name="fulltext" value="Search" title="Search the pages for this text" class="searchButton mw-fallbackSearchButton" id="mw-searchButton"/>
		</form>
	</div>
</div>

That’s seven different IDs, use whichever you need. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 22:06, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

Sorry. How can I move all the tabs downward? Moving them, using "position:absolute" and "position:fixed" don't work, and naming every individual tab is tiring. There are what, 15 tabs +500 added by scripts!? (I need it as I'm moving the search bar above the tabs) ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 08:20, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

nvm, I got it. div#p-cactions ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 13:56, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

How do I hide something unless I'm viewing a page diff? I assume with ":not()", but what am I checking? Thanks. ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 15:13, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

It looks like you generally can’t do that with pure CSS—the diff’s <body> has an action-view class, just like non-diff page views. You can only style (including hiding/showing) things that are part of the diff view (the diff itself and the ruler and heading just below it), or you can use JavaScript to determine whether it’s a diff view (e.g. mw.util.getParamValue('diff') !== null) and then add a custom class accordingly, which you can then use to add styles with CSS. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 21:02, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

@Tacsipacsi: Sadly, JavaScript I write won't run. Neither will twinkle scripts I've enabled in preferences. I am convinced that that is to do with my hardware/software. I'll remember this though, for when I get an upgrade. Thanks for the help though! (yes it is enabled, or I couldn't log in) ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 07:22, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Now how can I check page name, or more specifically, do some styling on certain pages (when viewing them only) and certain wikis? Thanks again. Doing me wonders. ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 13:04, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

Check generic JavaScript documentation. Things like window.location.href or window.location.pathname exist. --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 14:24, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

Can't use java script™ ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 15:28, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

@L10nM4st3r: Why? --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 15:54, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

I guess a device limitation. Twinkle and other popular scripts dont work on my device either, despite enabling them in preferences, so it's not a problem I can solve. ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 16:15, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

@L10nM4st3r: What exactly makes you think so? What device, which browser and browser version? --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 16:24, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

Amazon kindle, default web browser, latest version. I'll look further for actual names. ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 18:43, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

10th gen, firmware version 5.14.3.0.1 (no idea what that even means) ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 18:50, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

css files do work though, exept for importing images or other css files with url(). ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 18:53, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

What is the ID for the main tab in the file namespace? In monobook? It's not #ca-nstab-file or #ca-nstab-media. ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 09:26, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

ca-nstab-image. This is not skin dependent. --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 10:02, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

enwiki database dump intervals

I run a bot to update geodata tags on enwiki that works by parsing enwiki database dumps. At the moment, we have two dumps of enwiki per month; one is set off on the 1st of the month, and the other is set off on the 20th. This means that we have a dump interval of alternating periods of (roughly) 10 and 20 days, meaning that one bot run does roughly twice the work of the other, and the maximum lag between data change and bot action is about 20 days.

Would it be possible to set the second dump off on the 15th (or perhaps 16th) of each month instead of the 20th, so that the dump intervals are a bit more uniform? The Anome (talk) 21:17, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

I turned this question into a ticket at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T315263 Mutante (talk) 21:26, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

Hello again, let me forward the full response we got on the Phabricator ticket. I hope this is helpful, The Anome. Mutante (talk) 20:59, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

The first sql/xml dumps run (1st of every month) is a full run, this means it contains all historical data and takes longer to dump. Currently we still have the wikidata dumps ongoing, and expect it to complete tomorrow. This gives us a margin of a few days in case there are errors causing us to delay or rerun some parts.

The second run starts on the 20th and is a partial run (current revision only) which is why it finishes well before the end of the month, giving us again a few days in case we need to troubleshoot or rerun some parts.

While the specific wiki, enwiki, does complete well before the 15th, splitting up the wikis so that some are dumped on a 1st and 15th schedule and some are dumped on a 1st and 20th schedule would add more complexity than we want to manage.

I hope this helps to answer your questions, and we would be happy to respond if you need further information.

Thank you

Thank you. That all makes sense. The Anome (talk) 08:10, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

Great. So they are asking if they can close that ticket on their side now. I'll say yes but you can always leave your own comments on the ticket as well. Your existing wiki user should also work as login there. Mutante (talk) 00:36, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

Yes, I'm fine with closing the ticket. I'll also try logging in to phabricator myself. The Anome (talk) 21:44, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Not enough memory in Mon Wiktionary

I don't understand at all what the problem of not enough memory means, so I don't understand what to do next. Please check this ထး page, if possible, I would like to get help to solve this problem, so I'm still not good at using wikis and I still have a lot to learn about using wikis. Current, I am currently working alone on Mon Wiktionary, thanks.--Music writer Dr.Intobesa of Japanese idol NMB48 and BNK48. (talk) 01:01, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@咽頭べさ: For context, this thread is a continuation of phab:T316094. The problem is that wikt:mnw:ထာမ်ပလိက်:inh not being performant. And it is also broken - see the link. --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 03:23, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@AKlapper (WMF):Yes, I'm not authorized to do anything on Mon Wiktionary, so I can't fix this problem. I think only admins can solve this problem, could you please solve this problem?, thanks.--Music writer Dr.Intobesa of Japanese idol NMB48 and BNK48. (talk) 03:35, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@咽頭べさ: I am not an "admin", and I don't see why you cannot edit? If you think you cannot edit, please explain what exactly makes you think that you cannot edit. Thanks, --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 03:38, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@AKlapper (WMF):Yes, my guess is that have to check MediaWiki to solve this problem, I am not authorized to edit MediaWiki. MediaWiki still has a lot to Mon translate, I wanted to edit some things in MediaWiki, but I didn't have permission to do anything. thanks.--Music writer Dr.Intobesa of Japanese idol NMB48 and BNK48. (talk) 05:43, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@咽頭べさ: Hi, please be more specific to avoid misunderstandings. What does "check MediaWiki" mean? Why do you think you are "not authorized to edit MediaWiki"? Please always provide full links and clear steps what does happen. This is about editing wikt:mnw:ထာမ်ပလိက်:inh and wikt:mnw:မဝ်ဂျူ:etymology/templates, not about editing MediaWiki. This is not about translating. If there are problems with translating, please start a separate thread and explain what exactly the problems are (including full steps to reproduce, links, and what does happen after these steps). Thanks, --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 10:24, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@AKlapper (WMF): hi, the MediaWiki I'm talking about means MediaWiki, which is managed by Template and Module from Wiktionary, See MediaWiki:Transli.js for example, thanks.--Music writer Dr.Intobesa of Japanese idol NMB48 and BNK48. (talk) 12:06, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@咽頭べさ: I'm afraid that I don't understand what the problem is, and why you think that there is a problem. See my previous comments here. --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 12:10, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@AKlapper (WMF): hi, Check out the two ထး page links (en) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%80%91%E1%80%B8 (mnw) https://mnw.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%80%91%E1%80%B8 thanks.--Music writer Dr.Intobesa of Japanese idol NMB48 and BNK48. (talk) 12:36, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@咽頭べさ: See the difference between https://mnw.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=ထာမ်ပလိက်::inherited&action=edit and https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Template:inherited&action=edit . See especially https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Template%3Ainherited&type=revision&diff=65434588&oldid=52395235 . --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 19:09, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

@AKlapper (WMF): Hi friend, I have rarely found the source of the main problem. Actually, the main problem is not Template inherited and Module etymology/templates, only Module languages/datax and Module languages/data3/o. I was able to solve these problems, thank you very much for participating in the discussion.--Music writer Dr.Intobesa of Japanese idol NMB48 and BNK48. (talk) 03:51, 28 August 2022 (UTC)

Special pages as templates

Why does w:Special:PendingChanges work as a template, but not w:Special:UnreviewedPages? At least on Wikibooks. And is there a way around this? Thanks. ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 08:32, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

@L10nM4st3r: Please provide sufficient context, plus references. What does "work as a template" mean exactly? Thanks, --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 17:44, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

@AKlapper (WMF): See b:User:L10nM4st3r/ReviewTool. I want to see the unreviewed pages instead of a link to the special page when used as a template. ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 17:51, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

Only a few Special pages can be transcluded. There are partial lists at mw:Transclusion#Special_pages and mw:Help:Special_pages#List_of_special_pages.

I would guess that "Special:UnreviewedPages" cannot be transcluded (at least partially, and perhaps other reasons) because even looking at the page is limited to editors with the "Reviewers" user-group (try opening it whilst logged-out). Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 20:18, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

Why would viewing them as a non-reviewer cause harm? It wouldn't allow an IP to do anything, would it? ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 21:05, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

It’s probably less of a concern on English Wikibooks, but on wikis where reviewed versions of pages are shown by default, vandalism is not immediately visible, except if the page hasn’t been reviewed ever (since there’s no reviewed version to show instead of the vandalized one). So unreviewed pages are ideal targets for people looking for a page to vandalize, which is probably the reason why it’s not visible to anyone. (b:Special:PendingChanges, in contrast, is visible even for anons, since that’s not risky.) —Tacsipacsi (talk) 22:30, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

Ahh, that makes sense. I didn't look at it like that. Thanks! ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 06:02, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Archives template didn't work on hi.wikiquote

I copied the code for the Archives template on Hindi Wikiquote from the template on Hindi Wikipedia. It was working fine for the Hindi Wikipedia's community discussion page (header link), but didn't work the same way for the Wikiquote's page (header link). I purged the pages and tried changing the name of the archive page, but nothing worked. I read the Help:Templates page on mediawiki, but couldn't figure out the solution. Kindly suggest some way out. Thanks in advance. सूरजमुखी (talk) 16:58, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

@सूरजमुखी: Hi, please explicitly describe what "doesn't work", what you expected, and what happens instead. Thanks, --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 17:48, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

Email invitation to vote

Is it technically possible that when mass emails are sent inviting people to vote and participate in elections, users without the right to vote will be excluded and not receive such emails? In my personal experience, which happened several times, I found this annoying because the text of the email explicitly mentions the possibility of voting and this causes misunderstanding. IamMM (talk) 07:14, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

@IamMM: Hi, is this a technical question about using mw:Extension:MassMessage? Or a general question about the currently ongoing Board of Trustees elections? Or something else? If the current elections, does your second sentence imply that you somehow (how?) found out that you are not eligible to vote though you received an email which explicitly stated that you would be eligible to vote? Please provide more context. Thanks, --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 09:23, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Hi AKlapper. Email text: "You are receiving this email because you are eligible to vote in the Wikimedia Foundation 2022 Board of Trustees election...Nearly 67,000 members of the communities are asked to vote. That includes you!"

During the elections and some other cases, such emails are sent to those eligible to vote, but after clicking on the SecurePoll link, it reminds me that I am not eligible to vote due to being blocked in two wikis. Because this is the third time that exactly the same thing has happened to me, I report it so that if possible, changes can be made in the way emails are sent only to users who are really eligible to vote. -- IamMM (talk) 10:30, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

@IamMM: Ah, thanks for clarifying. Please feel free to file a bug report at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/task/edit/form/43/?projects=MediaWiki-extensions-SecurePoll (as this sounds different from e.g. phab:T288887). See mw:Phabricator/Help for more info. Thanks, --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 10:38, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Autoarchive

On my talk page, I set up auto archiving. At least two discussions fit the criteria I set to be archived. Does anybody know why they won't get archived? ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 08:14, 8 September 2022 (UTC)

@L10nM4st3r I don't know about the archiving problem, but I use the new Vector 2022 layout, and I can't see the Edit/Add topic/View history links at the top of your talk page. They seem to be hidden by some code you added to the page. kyykaarme (talk) 12:41, 8 September 2022 (UTC)

It broke when trying to hide the title and replace it. If DISPLAYTITLE worked, I may not have done that. ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 12:58, 8 September 2022 (UTC)

Fixed ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 08:53, 10 September 2022 (UTC)

Page counter problem in categories in KaWikt

Hello everyone. There is something wrong with the page counter in Georgian Wiktionary categories. Instead of showing the number of pages, it writes nonsense: "there is only this page in this category" (see Georgian screen). In addition, there is also a problem when going to the next page: some users report that the link to go to the next page does not work at all. However, as soon as I change the Georgian language to English in my personal configuration, everything is fine (see English screen). We have no idea what could be the reason. Please help us, thanks. Deu. 08:06, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

@Deu: Please provide links to where you took these screenshots, so that other users, who do not know the script, can verify and help. --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 10:38, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

After some searching, this seems to be https://ka.wiktionary.org/wiki/კატეგორია:არსებითი_სახელი_(ქართული) (en). It is indeed doing something weird. However, other categories do show the proper number, e.g. [1] Platonides (talk) 21:37, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

category-article-count uses a plural on the number of articles. I suspect it is somehow parsing the value "1,987" as "1", and thus it's showing the text for when there is a single article. Not that I'm being able to reproduce it, though. Platonides (talk) 21:43, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

It seems you are almost right.

When I go to my wiki (cs.wikipedia) and switch the language to Georgian (ka) on a category page with 1000-1999 entries, I get the message for just one entry in the category, too. {{PLURAL:1,985|...}} (tested using wikt:ka:Special:ExpandTemplates) prints correctly, but {{PLURAL:1 985|...}} (which seems to correspond to the number format used in Georgian) does not, and it seems to parse just the "1". (In fact, there is a   instead of a space, but the behavior is the same.)

I wonder though why the message works in Czech (which uses the same number format), but not in Georgian... --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 12:11, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

AutoLink Gadget

Could someone please help/advise to fix issues with autolink gadget reported at phab:T316977 and WM:RFH? Kind regards, — Tulsi 24x7 07:20, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

string.gsub in lua

How can I remove the number after using it? Specifically for b:en:Template:Replace ^{-- L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 08:19, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

Do

function p.replace(frame)
  local s, _ = string.gsub(frame.args.text,frame.args.what,frame.args.with)
  return s
end

Note #1: You may want to use mw.ustring.gsub instead.

Note #2: You may want to use a copy of w:Module:String. --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 08:39, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

Extension:NewUserMessage

The bot in Nepali Wiki doesn't seem to be working anymore. For ref see this बडा काजी (talk) 18:51, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Huh, I don't see any issue. It is working fine. See ne:Special:Contributions/नेपाली विकिपिडिया स्वागत. Kind regards, — Tulsi 24x7 02:35, 20 September 2022 (UTC)

@Tulsi, Today 4 accounts were created but the bot only welcomed one user. Yesterday none. बडा काजी (talk) 13:34, 20 September 2022 (UTC)