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.

A pin template

Is my pin template likely to work? To see it when substituted (as it should be), scroll down my talk page and look for the box that says the discussion is pinned, and view the source of that section. Is it likely to work as expected? To keep the discussion on my talkpage (in this case, until the start of october)? Thanks. ^{— L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 15:12, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

@L10nM4st3r: Which underlying problem would you like to solve? (Unrelated: Abusing tables for non-tabular data breaks on mobile devices, like on that talk page.) --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 18:07, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

I want to know if it would delay the bot archiving by having a future timestamp. Thanks for pointing out that issue, I'll fix it in a few hours, just before bed. ^{— L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 18:15, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

@AKlapper (WMF): ok, I'm lost. Could you please explain what tables you're talking about? Wikitables or lua tables? Or something else? ^{— L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 21:01, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Can't sign in WikiTech

I have tried several times to sign in WikiTech but failed. I need a consultation.MdaNoman (talk) 14:07, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

@MdaNoman উইকিটেক উইকিমিডিয়ার কেন্দ্রীয় লগইন সিস্টেমের (একক ব্যবহারকারী প্রবেশ) অন্তর্ভুক্ত নয়। সেখানে আলাদাভাবে অ্যাকাউন্ট খুলে নিতে হবে, অ্যাকাউন্ট খুলতে কি কোন সমস্যা হচ্ছে? —MdsShakil (talk) 14:14, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Interface language

Hello, I can't change the interface language in the wiki settings Ucsus (talk) 14:51, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

@Ucsus Hello, have you tried to select your language in your Global Preferences? 37.103.41.84 07:52, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

Coolest Tool Award 2022: Call for nominations

The fourth edition of the Coolest Tool Award welcomes your nominations! What is your favorite Wikimedia related software tool? Please submit your favorite tools by October 12, 2022! The awarded projects will be announced and showcased in a virtual ceremony in December.

MediaWiki message delivery 18:30, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

my unified login doesn't work any more

Hello, I opened an user in wikibook before years. During the time my user become a global one. I could use an Unified login for all wiki-site. For some reason, which I'm not sure which, I can't use an Unified login. In other word, when I log into my user in He-wikibook and want to write in the he-wikipedia, I need to log again with the same password and user.I don't use alot in my wiki user, therefor I apologizing if I'm not answer. Also because I don't have an unified login - I'm not sure if I would see a note while I would use my user in other wiki-site.Thanks, Illuyanka (talk) 12:09, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

@Illuyanka: Do you happen to use Firefox with Enhanced Tracking Protection, or some other privacy software? They may block the cookies needed for unified login to work across domains. (This doesn’t mean that you’ve lost your unified login or that it wouldn’t work at all – auto-login should work across wikis in the same second-level domain in Firefox, e.g. Hebrew Wikibooks and English Wikibooks (*.wikibooks.org) or Meta and Commons (*.wikimedia.org).) —Tacsipacsi (talk) 21:21, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

Tacsipacsi thank fro you answer. I tried with microsoft edge and it didn't work. I don't like to download another software to my comture at this point. Best, יולי2022 (talk) 11:51, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Tacsipacsi Now I see in meta wiki notifications from another wiki יולי2022 (talk) 11:08, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Problem and sorry my broken english.

Hello, sorry for the question I am going to ask and for my bad English. My problem is that transcribing The crosses on the water.djvu/9 I was wrong and I ended it when I didn't want it so would there be any way to solve it? Thanks in advance.

Pd:I don't know if this should be published here but I don't know where else so if it shouldn't be published here my sincere apologies. Vladivostok Men (talk) 23:12, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Pop-up notices on mobile versions of Wikipedia: Possible?

On the desktop version of the editing screen, admins can put a notice there (e.g., something to the effect that edits to a biography must cite reliable sources). I’ve found that these notices don’t appear when editing from a mobile device (both on the “m” mobile site and on the Android app). I’m wondering if there is a way to make these notices appear (i.e., we’ve been doing this wrong) or if it’s not possible to make them appear (i.e., this is a bug).

On my home Wikipedia we’ve been seeing a large number of edits that’s being described as LTA, but I’ve just discovered the way the edit screen is presented on mobile devices might have been the cause of these LTA’s and I’m wondering if there is a technical solution. Thanks!

(Disclaimer: I’m not an admin on my home wiki or any other wiki; just a regular user) Al12si (talk) 19:48, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

I assume that Al12si is talking about mw:Manual:Interface/Edit notice messages which can be set per-namespace and per-page by creating the appropriate MediaWiki: namespace page. An example here on metawiki would be MediaWiki:Editnotice-0-Tech-News which shows when attempting to edit Tech/News via the desktop web UI. -- BDavis (WMF) (talk) 20:59, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

On w:Wikipedia:Editnotice I found a link to phab:T278838 which includes a nice table of various methods of providing notices to user and which platforms they do/do not work with. To answer your original question @Al12si, there are open bug reports for the lack of edit notice support in mobile frontend and the iOS native app. The Android native app added support for edit notices in its 2.7.50386-alpha-2021-11-18 version. -- BDavis (WMF) (talk) 21:11, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for the additional information. I wonder what’s holding back the alpha Android app; it’s been almost a year since the ticket was marked resolved but I only installed the Android app yesterday and there’s still no edit notices. Do you know how I can install the alpha app so that I can test it? Thanks! Al12si (talk) 23:38, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

@Al12si, I have asked for clarification on the Phabricator task. I will try to remember to relay updates here, but it might be easier for you to create a Phabricator account for yourself and subscribe to the task yourself. This would be especially useful if the response is that more information is needed to confirm or resolve the issue. -- BDavis (WMF) (talk) 21:18, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Thank you. I just created an account and subscribed myself.

The Phabricator interface is terrible: the Subscribe button is hard to find and there’s no feedback when I click it, so when I clicked it and saw nothing happening, I clicked it again and of course I unsubscribed myself. Al12si (talk) 22:41, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Edit SiteMatrix page

Special:SiteMatrix page contains two rows with беларуская (тарашкевіца) (Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)) title.

Second one is for previous subdomain be-x-old. (from 2015 this subdomain is redirected to be-tarask , you can try https://be-x-old.wikipedia.org)

First one is for modern be-tarask.

Problem is: this request https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?action=sitematrix&uselang=en&format=json return empty list for site node for be-tarask

		"31": {
			"code": "be-tarask",
			"name": "беларуская (тарашкевіца)",
			"site": [],
			"dir": "ltr",
			"localname": "Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)"
		},
		"32": {
			"code": "be-x-old",
			"name": "беларуская (тарашкевіца)",
			"site": [
				{
					"url": "https://be-tarask.wikipedia.org",
					"dbname": "be_x_oldwiki",
					"code": "wiki",
					"sitename": "Вікіпэдыя"
				}
			],
			"dir": "ltr",
			"localname": "Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)"
		},

As result openstreetmap projects cannot show link to Wikipedia articles. Who can copy 'site' content from 32 be-x-old to 31 be-tarask sections? be-x-old also should be as current, please not remove it. Michael L. Shapiro (talk) 20:49, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

@Michael L. Shapiro: Is this the same as phab:T111876? --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 14:22, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

I am not sure if my question is about dbnames. Sorry, but I do not have a knowledge about how it works in nutshell, I only found this issue with json result when site node is empty for be-tarask. Michael L. Shapiro (talk) 08:48, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Special:Statistics Hebrew wikibook

Hello, Seems there is a problem with Special:Statistics in the Hebrew wikibook. The count stop to working. Prehaps there is a need to udate the media wiki for this special site. Best, יולי2022 (talk) 09:49, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

In addition, the lock of Recent changes is wrong for Israel clock. The hour here right now is 2pm and 10 min (14:11). I will look also under my Preferences because I see that also when I signature the time is wrong. יולי2022 (talk) 11:12, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

I fix the time clock. Can be removed from the list help. Special:Statistics stil not sure יולי2022 (talk) 11:19, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

So it is this page, right: b:he:Special:Statistics? Which field (count) stopped working? What's the evidence? --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 12:14, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Matěj Suchánek, Not sure. I'm not a programmer. For long time MediaWiki didn't update on the web. Because of luck of programmers mangers I think part of the data is stuck. Best, --יולי2022 (talk) 05:24, 26 October 2022 (UTC)

You don't have to be a programmer to tell what makes you think the stats stopped working.

Also it isn't true that For long time MediaWiki didn't update on the web. It's updated every week, most recently yesterday with the newest version.

You may ask the system administrators in Phabricator to run a script that will refresh the stats, but that won't fix them if they are stuck (or maybe it will).

If they are indeed stuck, you may report it as a bug. --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 08:01, 27 October 2022 (UTC)

Hiding the main page title in the mobile view

Hello,

Have been trying to update the Mongolian Wikipedia with a few tweaks. Am currently trying to hide the main page title in the mobile view of the site (mn.m.wikipedia.org) to make it consistent with the desktop site - and have tried adding the following CSS selectors in the MediaWiki:mobile.css:

body.page-Нүүр_хуудас .pre-content {
    display: none;
}

However, this causes a flicker on the title (it shows up very briefly and then hides itself.

Was wondering how this can be achieved cleanly and where I can head to to read more documentation? chinneeb-talk 22:53, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

Meta-wiki translation tool hijacking keys

As the translation tool on meta binds alt for its own purposes, editing on macOS, which uses the same key for entering special characters, is a major pain. A solution would be greatly appreciated. Madeline (part of me) 13:20, 28 October 2022 (UTC)