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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).

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something wrong in a module of Hakka wikipedia

I have copied a module from Min Nan wikipedia (zh-min-nan:Module:Authority control) to Hakka wikipedia (hak:Module:Authority control), but it seems doesn't work. See hak:Template:Authority control, it says: "Lua error in Module:HtmlBuilder 92 lines： Tried to write global getAttr". can someone help me fix it?--el caballero de los Leones (talk) 10:40, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

@唐吉訶德的侍從: hak:Module:Navbox and hak:Module:Navbar needed to be updated. However, some new texts appeared in the English version since last copying, so these are still in English (I’ve marked them by adding a -- TODO translate before them, which can be safely removed in its entirety after translating), while other texts use Chinese characters; you may want to use Latin instead. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 12:52, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

Thank you very much!--el caballero de los Leones (talk) 16:45, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

Watchlist

Feature could be useful to add : running on mobile version, the watchlist only displays conventionnal pages (articles). Yhe talk pages and the help pages are not in sight. So you cannot withdraw them easily from your list. Apoart from that, the design is very nice on mobile version. 109.62.69.39 20:46, 5 August 2019 (UTC) Le Vernaculaire Post Scriptm : I've got an English account but I mostly contribute over french wiki

multiple issues in Hakka wikipedia

There are multiple issues in Hakka wikipedia. Let's see the page hak:Liû Tet-fà, it looks ugly:

1. First, the template {{Infobox}} should have a frame and float to right just like its English version.
2. Second, the template {{Navbox}} should have a "show/hide" botton just like its English version. In Hakka, " hién-sṳ " = show, " yún-chhòng " = hide.--el caballero de los Leones (talk) 12:24, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

@唐吉訶德的侍從: Fixed both. The navbox toggle links don’t use your translations but already existing translations from translatewiki.net (translatewiki:MediaWiki:Collapsible-expand/hak and translatewiki:MediaWiki:Collapsible-collapse/hak). Feel free to correct them if they’re wrong, but please note that you need a separate account to change translations on Translatewiki. Also I noticed that the collapse text is broken into two lines for me. This is because of the rule in hak:MediaWiki:Common.css, line 266 (you can see line numbers if you click on the “Khon ngièn-sṳ́-mâ” tab). Probably a bit larger number is needed for Hakka text (8em looks good for me), but you need to ask for help at Steward requests/Miscellaneous for steward help to change it as only stewards and interface administrators can modify Common.css (see Interface administrators for explanation), and currently there are no interface admins on Hakka Wikipedia. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 22:29, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

Thanks a lot!--el caballero de los Leones (talk) 10:56, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

Abuse Filter

Does anyone know the process to enable abuse filter having the ability to block editors on a project? Thanks, Vermont (talk) 22:49, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

The project would need to have consensus for such a change, and then file a phab ticket. [1]. Killiondude (talk) 03:47, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Out of interest

Hi, Just out of interest, with your Tech News, how are you adding in news from the future if you know what I mean? [Do you have some sort of contract].

Cheers, Beeney :)

@Beeney xx: Hi, what do you mean by "news from the future" ? Examples always help!

You can read more about Tech News at Tech/News, which might answer your questions. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 19:33, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Well on this talk page is states 2019-36 for example? What does the 36 represent?

Cheers

Beeney :)

• On the talk page I was directed from. [If you know which one I mean]

somthing wrong in a template of Hakka wikipedia

The template hak:模板:Infobox officeholder looks ugly. Let's see the article hak:Chhai Yîn-vùn, why it looks quite different from en:Tsai Ing-wen? can someone fix it?--el caballero de los Leones (talk) 12:33, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

Issue on sc.wikipedia and Wikidata

Hi, I'm a sysop on sc.wiki and a user told me that he repeatedly had problems with Wikidata. After creating a new article, when he tries to add links to other languages, he sometimes receives this message:

Error: $ 1.

You need to carry out this action.

This page has been protected to prevent editing or other actions.

And then he can't continue. If, instead, I try to do the same, there is no problem. The last time it happened the article was this one: sc:Asteròide. I asked him if he was using a VPN and he said he wasn't, so what could be the problem?--L2212 (talk) 17:09, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

No mysteries here: the page is semiprotected on Wikidata and sadly 50 edits are required to become autoconfirmed on Wikidata, but the user only has 10. The "confirmed" permission can be asked at wikidata:Wikidata:Requests_for_permissions. Nemo 18:50, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

Ah, ok! Thank you very much, I'll let him know!--L2212 (talk) 09:46, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

{{Usertalkback}}

I don't know since when, but {{Usertalkback}} used to align @ center but now aligns at the left to me. screenshot

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_14_6) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/12.1.2 Safari/605.1.15 (Safari)

— regards, Revi 10:33, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

@-revi: phab:T233359, we’re waiting for deployment. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 12:40, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Problems with editnotice (Group notice / Page notice)

Please see [2]. I can see and edit a page notice if it has already been edited, but not if it hasn't. I am an admin on en.wiki. I have changed browsers and cleared cookies, and switched to my mobile, etc, none of these resolve the problem for me. I'm not sure if the problem is peculiar to my account. I have removed (and then replaced) all the scripts I have. Any suggestions? SilkTork (talk) 18:58, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Reverting the new "collapsed search interface" on Special:Contribs

How do I disable the "collapsed" search interface on Special:Contribs? On group1 wikis, I see this but on group2 I see this. As part of my S work I frequently keep one Contribs tab open and keep searching the contribs on and on and on and the idea that I have to make an extra one click is horrible (at best). I have locked 424 accounts in 2019, and this new feature means I have to click 423 more times to complete my job. JavaScript, pref config, whatever, I want to stop this insanity. — regards, Revi 07:32, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Offending commit was phab:rMW275b77452adeff8f6e4cac5bef416e2824998e9c (ticket phab:T191868). — regards, Revi 07:39, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Hi Revi, a very quick solution would be to add .mw-special-Contributions .oo-ui-fieldsetLayout-group.mw-collapsible-content { display: block !important; } to your common.css --Volker E. (WMF) (talk) 07:55, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

I've also added .mw-special-Contributions .oo-ui-fieldsetLayout-header { display: none !important; } to hide the "Search for contributions" header. stwalkerster (talk) 22:14, 3 October 2019 (UTC) Edited to add missing !important stwalkerster (talk) 22:17, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Please note, that a “pinning” functionality is discussed for users, who want the form always collapsed in phab:T234569. --Volker E. (WMF) (talk) 03:42, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Disable Tagger script for a particular project

Hello, I've installed Tagger script on my global.js. Would you mind helping me to disable the script for a particular project (Such as enwiki or commonswiki only)? Thank you for your time! Kind regards, — Tulsi Bhagat (contribs | talk) 04:58, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

See the bottom of my global.js for what I do. I think this should work for you:

// This tool can tag pages with a few clicks (which is much faster than editing the whole page per Hand).
// by [[m:user:Hoo man]] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Hoo_man/Scripts/Tagger>
if ( $.inArray( mw.config.get("wgDBname"), ['excluded_dbname1', 'excluded_dbname2', '...'] ) === -1 ) {
mw.loader.load('//meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Hoo_man/tagger.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');
}

—MarcoAurelio (talk) 11:20, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

@MarcoAurelio: Thank you so much! Kind regards, — Tulsi Bhagat (contribs | talk) 15:49, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

@Tulsi Bhagat: You're welcome. Did it work? —MarcoAurelio (talk) 16:26, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes, it worked. Kind regards, — Tulsi Bhagat (contribs | talk) 16:31, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

Google Code-In will soon take place again! Mentor tasks to help new contributors!

Hi everybody! Google Code-in (GCI) will soon take place again - a seven week long contest for 13-17 year old students to contribute to free software projects. Tasks should take an experienced contributor about two or three hours and can be of the categories Code, Documentation/Training, Outreach/Research, Quality Assurance, and User Interface/Design. Do you have any Lua, template, gadget/script or similar task that would benefit your wiki? Or maybe some of your tools need better documentation? If so, and you can imagine enjoying mentoring such a task to help a new contributor, please check out mw:Google Code-in/2019 and become a mentor. If you have any questions, feel free to ask at our talk page. Many thanks in advance! --Martin Urbanec 07:28, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

To make a developer-friendly image available for download

I wish there was a image (.iso or docker or something) which people can download to get the latest copy of any wiki and its currently installed extensions and scripts on their pc. With the difference being that they're a full admin and crat and everything else they can possibly fancy there. Then they can use it to develop extensions and scripts and whatnot. I believe this may increase engagement of more people in development work. But I don't know (a) whether it's better to have QEMU or DOCKER or what else (b) who is the best expert in this to guide me with creating a vanilla debian image and setting a wiki on it which is developer friendly.

This was raised at the community wishlist survey here, but was out of scope, and where Tacsipacsi commented "I’m not sure if it’s feasible at all, even if we mask out sensitive personal data such as email addresses, password hashes or checkuser logs". I would be greatly interested in knowing what problems would remain in that case.

Thanks and best regards,
--Gryllida/ 22:52, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

The closest thing to this that currently exists is mw:MediaWiki-Vagrant. That is the most complete system that I know of for setting up MediaWiki in a local development machine and automating the deployment and configuration of a large number (but not all) of extensions used on the Wikimedia wiki farm. Getting the content of the wikis included into this type of testing environment would be something between difficult and impossible. Using monthly dumps from the Data dumps project would be the most reasonable way to get content which had been properly sanitized to ensure that non-public data was removed.

Coincidentally, the focus of mw:Wikimedia Technical Conference/2019 which will be taking place next week is "Developer Productivity" and will include several sessions directly related to improving the tools and data provided for MediaWiki and Wikimedia development. You might take a look at the session descriptions and see if there is one where you could leave comments about specific things you would like to be able to do with a local MediaWiki that are unclear today. --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 22:08, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

Thank you. I tried vagrant before but could not find an option to get a WMF wiki in it, eg its settings or extensions (opt in not all) or gadgets (this is important) or selected parts of content. Are these options available anywhere? Please see also the new question below. Thanks and best regards, --Gryllida 05:02, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

@Gryllida: Removing nonpublic data can hurt the integrity of the database—for example, deleted revisions are still present in the database and it was not designed to make it easy to remove them. Also, many things are global now (global user accounts, global rights, global preferences, global Wikidata data and Commons images etc.), which may break seriously on isolated local systems. –Tacsipacsi (talk) 11:46, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Can a global-like setup be re-created locally? Please see also the new question below. Thanks and best regards, --Gryllida 05:02, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

I believe some wmf wikis are re-created at wmflabs without importing the global accounts - but I forgot the link, only remember it had 'beta' in it - how is that done? --Gryllida 05:02, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

@Gryllida: The "Beta Cluster" is a Cloud VPS project named "deployment-prep". The OpenStack Browser tool lets us see what resources are in use there. At the time I am writing this comment, deployment-prep uses 78 instances (virtual machines) which collectively use 193 CPU cores and 370GB of RAM (approximately 24 times as much CPU and RAM as the laptop I am using at the moment). This environment hosts 34 wikis, but none of them are up to date copies of a production project. Most of these wikis are small collections of content which was exported from a production wiki using Special:Export plus some locally created content. I believe the beta version of simplewiki was at one time a complete export of simplewiki, but a comparison of Special:Statistics shows that is no longer the case. --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 07:13, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

Thanks BDavis (WMF). I think that's about 6 CPU cores per wiki and about 11GB of RAM for one wiki. How do I install one wiki like this, and share it with my friends who are also interested? --Gryllida 04:23, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

@Gryllida: I’m not sure if the globality-independent issues would allow replicating the global setup, but even if they did, it would mean tens of millions of users, hundreds of millions of pages and billions of edits to be stored on your local computer. I don’t think any single hard disk have ever existed that could store this amount of data, and I bet you don’t have a sufficient cluster in your basement (not to mention how “easy” setting this up would be). —Tacsipacsi (talk) 21:00, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

As I said initially, "The closest thing to this that currently exists is mw:MediaWiki-Vagrant." The beta cluster is a "custom" system rather than a "product". MediaWiki-Vagrant was built to be a shared solution for local development and testing in a "product" sense, mostly meaning that it is intended for used by multiple people with multiple goals in multiple deployments on local machines. --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 15:24, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

onchange on global.js

Hello there! Why an OnChange event listener does not work on a global.js? In a local js everything works, but via the global script event does not happen. What could be the problem? Thanks.—Iluvatar (talk) 23:35, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

When I load it, it throws TypeError: document.getElementById(...) is null. I recommend using pure jQuery, not this legacy syntax. --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 08:59, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

This script should work only on &action=delete page when user choise reason to delete from a drop down menu. In other places wpDeleteReasonList is not exist, therefore null.—Iluvatar (talk) 10:28, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

@Matěj Suchánek: Of course it throws an error when loaded not on an &action=delete page (which is not nice, but should cause no problem). However, it doesn’t work on delete pages either, without throwing any error. Neither works

$('#wpDeleteReasonList').change(function () { alert(this.value); })

—it looks like OOjs doesn’t fire the change event (manually calling $('#wpDeleteReasonList').change() executes both the pure JavaScript and the jQuery event, so that part works). @Iluvatar, am I right “local js” means a non-WMF wiki, which doesn’t use OOUI? —Tacsipacsi (talk) 10:31, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

@Tacsipacsi, no, any local vector.js. For example, ruwiki.—Iluvatar (talk) 11:18, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Weird. I can’t test it on ruwiki as I’m not an admin there, but it didn’t work for me from browser console on huwikibooks. Have you tried the global script on ruwiki? And loading your local script from the global one using the following code?

mw.loader.load('https://ru.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar/test.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript')

—Tacsipacsi (talk) 11:38, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

I do not understand anything.

On ruwiki: all works is fine. Local, global, local as global from ruwiki and from be-tarask.

Others wiki: local, global, local as global not works.—Iluvatar (talk) 12:23, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Then most probably ruwiki has some site-global JavaScript (or something loaded in your vector.js) that makes it work. Probably you should ask there what this on-wiki bug fix may be. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 12:56, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Yes, but why does this simple script not work on other sites? Bug? Maybe I should report about it on phab? (this script need to me as global, not on ruwiki) Event listeners used in many anothers global scripts.—Iluvatar (talk) 13:10, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

┌───────────────────────┘
I can imagine there’s a bug which has been worked around on ruwiki. So I think it’s easier to ask on ruwiki—maybe some tech gurus there know what this bug is, and probably they’ve already reported it on Phabricator. Or they haven’t, but now they create a more informative task than what we could do. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 21:07, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

Your wiki will be in read-only on November 26

Hello!

Sorry to use English. Please help translate to your language. Thank you.

Your wiki will be on read-only mode for a maintenance task on 26th November, from 06:00 to 06:30 AM UTC. The read-only mode is supposed to take a couple of minutes.

Edits won't be possible, but reading will still be possible. A banner will be displayed to warn users before the operation.

This is due to a database moved to a different server. To know more, please check phab:T238046.

Please share this announcement with your community, and post it at the right places if needed.

Thank you, Trizek (WMF) (talk) 18:03, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia Contribution Request - "Own Amount" does not work ...

I got the contribution request pop-up and tried to enter my own amount.

I selected "Once" "Other amount" and "Paypal". Upon continuation, there is only an error message saying "You can't enter a zero amount" or something similar. There is no way to continue.

Is this a known problem? If I'm posting in the wrong place, be so kind and advise.

Thanks, Digidietze (talk) 13:57, 24 November 2019 (UTC)

Module in ka.wiktionary

Dear colleagues, today I create several Module pages in Georgian wiktionary for Template:senseid (see also Template:senseid in en.wiktionary); it works, but there is little problem. For example, in that article first meaning is well, but the second has "dot" (•) after list mark [2]. Template:senseid works in that case: # {{senseid|en|..., but we use [2] and not 2. (or 1.) at numbering of list. Can someone help me in removing that "dot", or in changing mark # —> 1. 2. 3. to # —> [1] [2] [3]. Best regards, გიო ოქრო (talk) 15:20, 6 December 2019 (UTC)