Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-10-14/Technology report

A new "2017 wikitext editor" is under development. This will be similar to the Visual Editor, in terms of interface style and available tools, such as the Citoid referencing feature. There will also be improved switching between visual editing and wikitext editing. Other features that could be developed, depending on expense and performance impact, include the ability to:

• automatically save local drafts during editing, to prevent loss of work when power is lost or a tab is closed;
• syntax highlighting and folding blocks of wikitext, such as long infobox templates; and
• add edit summaries with one click, based on recent activity.

The new editing system will be designed with ease of customisation as a goal; however, existing scripts and gadgets will not work unless they are adapted. The current (and previous) wikitext editors will continue to be available, and it will still be possible to edit without Javascript – there are no plans to remove these features.

An early, "very alpha" version of the 2017 wikitext editor is available for testing on the Beta Cluster test site. A separate account is required; once created, the new wikitext editor can be opted into via Special:Preferences § Beta features. To test it, start editing with the visual editor and then switch to wikitext. Feedback can be given at WP:VEF; there was also discussion at the thread on the technical village pump before it was archived.

Tidy will be replaced as part of an effort to make pages' underlying HTML more compliant. Tidy cleans up mistakes editors make, such as improper table syntax and invalid HTML included in wikitext. More specifically, Tidy parses the MediaWiki output and cleans it up to ensure that valid HTML is rendered. For example, <br>, </br>, <br/>, <br.> will all render as <br />.

Tidy is based on the old HTML4 semantics. The new HTML 5 parsing algorithm will be more consistent with Parsoid, which is used in features such as VisualEditor and Flow. One feature enabled by the replacement will be visual diffs. The replacement will not occur until 2017, because it would otherwise cause problems on a number of wikis. Pages with broken wikitext or bad HTML will need to be fixed first, otherwise they will appear broken. To find out how to help on the English Wikipedia, see WikiProject Check Wikipedia, or ask on the project talkpage.

The WMF tested a new backup data center in Dallas, Texas in April 2016. The servers were switched from Virginia to Texas for a few days to test the reliability of such a switch, which might be needed to keep Wikimedia sites online after a natural disaster or other emergency. The test resulted in wikis being read-only for brief periods on two days, and in delays to edits appearing in the recent changes log. Though originally scheduled for late 2016, the next round of testing has been delayed until February 2017 at the earliest.

In response to community requests, several improvements have been made to the workflow for the creation and review of new articles:

• New (non-auto-confirmed) users will see a customized edit notice when attempting to create a new article. This edit notice includes buttons for switching to the user's sandbox (if they want to experiment) or going through the Article Wizard. Users will still be free to create an article the normal way if they choose. Auto-confirmed users will still see the original edit notice when creating new articles.
• All newly created articles will be marked noindex until they are reviewed or patrolled, or the article is no longer eligible to be patrolled (that is, it is older than 30 days).(further info) This is to prevent spam and attack pages from being indexed by search engines such as Google before admins delete them. To bridge the period between when a problematic article is reviewed and when it is deleted, pages tagged with speedy deletion templates can also automatically be noindexed. These changes were originally requested in an RFC in 2012.
• The maintenance tags available in the page curation toolbar now match those available in Twinkle. This can be configured by admins, by editing this JavaScript page: MediaWiki:PageTriageExternalTagsOptions.js.

In addition to these changes, the community recently approved an RFC to create a new page-patrolling user group and to remove the right to patrol from all other user groups except admins and higher. This RFC will be presented to the WMF once a related RfC, concerning qualifications for the new right, concludes.

New user scripts to customise your Wikipedia experience

• Wikiplus (source available on GitHub) by User:镜音铃 (zh) – Edit sources in a popup window.
• Watchlist-hideAWB (source) by User:Evad37 – hide/show option for edits made using WP:AWB. Options appear in the "More" dropdown (Vector skin) or on a tab next to "Special page" (Monobook skin).

Newly approved bot tasks

• DatBot (approval) – Converts {{WikiProject Belgrade}} banner to WikiProject Serbia/Belgrade task force
• DatBot (task 2) – Adds Tour de France task force to {{WikiProject Cycling}} banners
• KMLbot (approval) – Adds {{Attached KML}} to articles which have KML files available through Wikidata

Template error reports

• The monthly reports generated by the Template Parameters tool (see previous Signpost coverage) are now linked from template documentation pages using the {{TemplateData header}} template. The reports can also be linked using {{Template error report}}, but still require TemplateData to have been added to the template.
• Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
  • 2016 #39
  • 2016 #40
  • 2016 #41
• Recent changes
  • If a Wikimedia wiki wants numerical sorting in categories you can request it after a community decision. See how to request it. Numerical sorting is already active on English Wikipedia (see previous Signpost coverage). (email list discussion)
  • When you edit existing text to add a link to a user page, and add your signature in the same edit, that user will receive a mention notification. Previously, such notifications only occurred under stricter conditions which required the edit to be an addition of new text. phabricator:T138938
  • Users are notified if they are mentioned in a section where you add your own signature even if you edit more than one section. Previously, users were not notified if you edited more than one section in one edit. phabricator:T141863
  • The notification badge is coloured if you have notifications. When you check the notification the badge will now turn grey on all wikis instead of just the local one. phabricator:T134855
  • You can show Special:RecentChanges on a page by using {{Special:RecentChanges}}. You can now use tag filters by using {{Special:RecentChanges/tagfilter=tagname}}. phabricator:T142878
  • Colours used in the Wikimedia wikis' main interface changed slightly. This is to make them easier to see for readers and editors with reduced eyesight. phabricator:T109915
• Changes this week
  • Hidden HTML comments will be more visible in editing mode when using VisualEditor. <!-- You write hidden HTML comments like this. --> phabricator:T147089
• Future changes
  • Abandoned tools on Tool Labs could be taken over by other developers. There was a discussion on Meta, which formally ended 12 October 2016. phabricator:T87730
  • <slippymap> will not work on Wikivoyage after 24 October. You should use <mapframe> instead. If you need help to fix this before 24 October you should ask for it as soon as possible. phabricator:T136768
  • Language converter syntax will soon no longer work inside external links. Wikitext like http://-{zh-cn:foo.com; zh-hk:bar.com; zh-tw:baz.com}- must be replaced. You will have to write -{zh-cn: http://foo.com ; zh-hk: http://bar.com ; zh-tw:http://baz.com }- instead. This only affects languages with Language Converter enabled. Examples of such languages are Chinese and Serbian. (diff)