Jump to content

Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Wikipedia:VPT)
 Policy Technical Proposals Idea lab WMF Miscellaneous 
The technical section of the village pump is used to discuss technical issues about Wikipedia. Bug reports and feature requests should be made in Phabricator (see how to report a bug). Bugs with security implications should be reported differently (see how to report security bugs).

If you want to report a JavaScript error, please follow this guideline. Questions about MediaWiki in general should be posted at the MediaWiki support desk. Discussions are automatically archived after remaining inactive for five days.

Graphs of categories

[edit]

Is there a way to create a graph that shows how many pages are in a category (y-axis) over time (x-axis)? It would be particularly useful for error tracking categories. Failing that, a text-based way to monitor category population changes. -- GreenC 02:40, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well, there's User:MusikBot/CategoryCounter — Qwerfjkltalk 13:30, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
"Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues" .. oh forgot about that. Maybe no graph option. Unless it was like an ascii bar graph:
Jan: ------|-------
Feb: ---|--
Mar: -------|----
Apr: -----|----
May: --|-
Jun: ----|---
Jul: --|-------------
Aug: ------------|---
Sep: ---|---
Oct: ---------|-
Nov: ------|--
▅▆▂▃▂▂▂▅▂▂▅▇▂▂▂▃▆▆▆▅▃▂▂▂▁▂▂▆▁▃
Source-- GreenC 14:15, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
User:MusikBot/CategoryCounter might work in 1-3 months. The team behind Mw:Extension:Chart is pushing for an deployment soon, see phab:T372081. Template:Articles lacking sources chart/data has to move to the Data namespace on Wikimedia commons, and you also need a new page, again in the data namespace on commons, that decides how the graph looks. Snævar (talk) 14:54, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. -- GreenC 15:37, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
There's also User:SDZeroBot/Category counter which I just finished setting up. Raw counts only, no graphs for now. (I noticed that the MusikBot task, apart from being disabled, stores the counts on-wiki which seems like an unsuitable place for large-scale storage, and it also requires an admin to enable new categories for counting.) – SD0001 (talk) 18:10, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
User:SD0001 this works for my purposes. Thank you! You could also store the data on Commons, in JSON, and it would be available to Lua templates on all 300+ wikis, which might make graphic presentation possible. The only limit is JSON file size so it probably would require a new file every year, with monthly and yearly totals included in the JSON for scaled views. Example JSON. Example module that reads it (here). -- GreenC 06:45, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Duplicate, identical, and inconsistent system messages

[edit]

For context: I have been scrolling through Special:AllMessages and noticed that "delete" and "protect" exist as substantial duplicate of messages. Likewise, I have never figured out why, but MediaWiki:Edit duplicates the contents of MediaWiki:Editthispage and is inconsistent with the message actually shown to most users MediaWiki:Skin-view-edit/MediaWiki:Vector-view-edit/MediaWiki:Editsection.

I am trying to figure out if these messages are actually used for some reason or if they are no longer and can safely be deleted. I recently withdrew my own MFD of all three of these pages because I need to get more help on this. And I also withdrew a speedy criteria idea discussion also. Doing some digging in the archives I found Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 195#Inconsistent tab names in monobook for the latter two. However, looking at the default, that appears to have been fixed.

As for MediaWiki:Edit there is phab:T310529. This behavior is getting quite confusing and I need to figure out what is going on.

I wonder if we can fish out more of these messages and maybe, on a rainy day, we can figure out what to do with them; send them to MFD, or what.

Pinging the users that previously were involved in this (at least in the past couple of days or whenever). @Pppery @Xaosflux @Thryduulf @Robert McClenon

I do have other questions about MediaWiki:Rollbacklinkcount (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) and MediaWiki:Rollbacklinkcount-morethan (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs), and I remember dropping the discussion because it is a stylistic thing, but I do have concerns about if any of these overrides (especially the minor ones, minor in teh sense that they just add a comma or change the case or whatever) are being made with consensus or not, and if they are to solve a temporary problem, why they aren't being undone once that temporary problem is fixed.

To be clear, I have no trouble whatsoever with the overrides made for Wikipedia's sake, like those that link to Wikipedia policies or Wikipedia help pages or adding appropriate styling. This is primarily about "minor edits" where different punctuation, capitalization, or phrasing is used as opposed to the original message. If there indeed is a problem with a system message for all wikis (not just Wikipedia), then the wording should be fixed in the software.

There are somewhere around less than 1000 overrides going from the data on AllMessages. Reviewing them all is probably going to be a pain, especially because most of these messages don't have adequate documentation on MediaWiki. Awesome Aasim 02:19, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for withdrawing the MFD nominations pending further research. I don't understand the details of how those files are used, and I would prefer. before voting on whether to delete something, to know what it is and what it is used for:
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Robert McClenon (talk) 03:47, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

These three are very old messages, and I don't have time to code search anywhere they could be in play. As phab:T310529 noted, at least one of them is still being imported in the current skins. Most of the use of these has been migrated to newer messages, but something could still be using them. Unless there is an actual problem, I'd leave them along. Code problems certainly should be raised on phab. — xaosflux Talk 10:48, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Let's actually see... Vector 2022 Vector 2010 Monobook Timeless Minerva
I am not seeing (edit) anywhere. (skin-view-edit) yes, but not (edit). Maybe there is something that is missing? Awesome Aasim 14:58, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Previewing the use of a message in the place you think it will appear does not correctly assess whether it will appear there. mw:Codesearch is the appropriate tool. Izno (talk) 16:58, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
And even with codesearch, some messages are used in pretty unconventional ways and can be difficult to locate (Dynamic definitions and compound definitions exist). —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 22:31, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
In any case, changing MediaWiki:Edit to say "Edit" does have advantages, namely that it permits editors to use the system message in templates. Same with MediaWiki:Protect and MediaWiki:Delete.
Any administrators: Is "delete" and "protect" appearing in lowercase when you are using a skin that is not MonoBook? By default it should be capitalized. Awesome Aasim 19:18, 11 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Vector 2022 shows capitalized Delete and Protect from fallback messages: Mediawiki:Vector-2022-action-delete / Mediawiki:Skin-action-delete and Mediawiki:Vector-2022-action-protect / Mediawiki:Skin-action-protect. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:11, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I hope I am at the right place with this issue - if not, I would very much appreciate redirection! I have been trying to fix the appearance of template:Chloroplast DNA, which is supposed to provide a clickable version of File:Nicotiana tabacum Choroplast genome.svg, but I am failing to make it display properly on both desktop and mobile (see template talk:Chloroplast DNA). It is used on Chloroplast and Chloroplast DNA, two fairly important articles, the former of which is currently being tidied up. I have a nagging feeling that there should be a completely different way of doing this than how [[[:template:Chloroplast DNA]] goes about it.

I've mocked up the template on User:Felix QW/sandbox 2 with a test page at User:Felix QW/sandbox if anyone would like to mess about with it without affecting mainspace. Thanks in advance to anyone who would be happy to have a look into this! Felix QW (talk) 12:06, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A template using a mass of display absolutes overtop an image is going to have a hard time on mobile, yes. Mobile has different assumptions about how wide an image is, even if you would prefer it to have a certain size. Izno (talk) 16:56, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps using mw:Extension:ImageMap instead would work. * Pppery * it has begun... 22:34, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much for the pointer—That was exactly the sort of solution I was thinking off! Felix QW (talk) 22:37, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Having thought about it a bit more, I am not sure how ImageMap would work with an svg image that doesn't necessarily have an "original size". Is the "nominal size" of 1,125 × 960 pixels reported on Commons an "original size" in this sense? Felix QW (talk) 11:40, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It does work, at least if the <svg>...</svg> element has width= and height= attributes having non-zero values without units, e.g. width="1125" height="960" as with c:File:Nicotiana tabacum Choroplast genome.svg. See also mw:Extension:ImageMap#Syntax description, which says All coordinates are according to the full-size image, not the visible image. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 15:36, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! I have also found Template:World image map, which is also an image map overlaying a svg. When I have some spare time, I will play around with ImageMapEdit and see what I can do. Felix QW (talk) 15:51, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Mysterious category in The Joke's on Us

[edit]

Is there a reason The Joke's on Us is showing a redlinked category Pages using the JsonConfig extension? I can't figure out how to remove it. Ten Pound Hammer(What did I screw up now?) 18:41, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A WP:NULLEDIT did the trick. * Pppery * it has begun... 18:44, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

css style page turned into an article

[edit]

On sinhala wikipedia i tried manually importing Help:Your first article/styles.css from here to there si:උදවු:Your first article/styles.css. But it turned into to an article type page. Never happened to me before. Can someone fix this? VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 19:45, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

can an admin please change the content model of this page si:උදවු:Your first article/styles.css VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 19:54, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You need to ask someone who has admin rights on siwiki. Nobody here does. * Pppery * it has begun... 20:04, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Ah right. Thanks. BTW, aren't there admins in existence who have admin right all over every wikipedia project?who might be able to do this types of edits on cross wiki projects if asked for help. Just curious VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 20:12, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
m:Global sysops and m:Stewards do exist. * Pppery * it has begun... 20:16, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Got it done from a global sysop. VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 20:30, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Creating new css style pages

[edit]

How to create a "sanitized css" page from scratch? Everytime i try, the page creating window is for a article type new page(don't know the technical term) and not a css content model page. VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 22:28, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You can only create them in Template space, with the .css postfix. But after that, you can move them to another namespace. See also TemplateStyles usage. —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 22:34, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
... you can also create them as such in the Module namespace. Izno (talk) 01:20, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
If you're an administrator, you can also use Special:ChangeContentModel and enter a title of a page that doesn't exist to create it with that content model. Matma Rex talk 21:06, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Non-reviewed pages can appear in search results for articles they're redirected to

[edit]

I recently made a chain of edits on the topic of the high school in Fultondale, Georgia, US. The page Fultondale High School was moved to Fultondale High School (1965–2021) - leaving a redirect at Fultondale High School. After this, the page Fultondale High School (2023–present) was created. Finally, a redirect from Fultondale High School to Fultondale High School (2023–present) was made.

I then decided to search Fultondale High School on Google. I saw that the Wikipedia result had remained at the 1965-2021 article. However, upon clicking on this, the page redirects to the 2023-present article, as a redirect from the Fultondale High School article (now a redirect, but formerly a reviewed article).

This is most likely unintended. I clicked on the search result for the 1965-2021 school but was redirected to the 2023-present article. I was using Google, and I haven't received the notification that the 2023-present article has been reviewed yet. Departure– (talk) 02:58, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Regardless of what search engines do, you should have made a disambiguation page instead of creating a WP:MISPLACED situation. I've done so, which moots this. * Pppery * it has begun... 03:10, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I wasn't aware of WP:MISPLACED in this context, cheers! But the search engines still did what they probably shouldn't. Not much of an issue for a local high school in Alabama, but this could happen to rogue autoconfirmed users on pages where the Wikipedia result is the first on searches of major topics in potentially less-than-ideal circumstances. Departure– (talk) 03:15, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Google cached https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fultondale_High_School when it was a redirect to Fultondale High School (1965–2021), so the title and excerpt on the Google search results page is from that article until they revisit the page and update their cache at an unknown time. I guess Google wouldn't have linked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fultondale_High_School on the result if MediaWiki made real HTTP redirects. It makes a "fake" redirect where it gives a HTTP 200 OK status code (redirects are 3xx) and stays on the page but displays the same content as the redirect target with "(Redirected from ...)" added at the top. If a browser has JavaScript enabled then MediaWiki rewrites the url in the address bar to the redirect target but that url is never actually loaded by the browser or Googlebot. I don't see an issue we should try to fix. The content of the unreviewed article is not indexed by Google. Somebody may merely click a link which leads to the article. Wikipedia itself has such links including in our own search results which do index unreviewed articles. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:17, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
[edit]

Is anyone able to explain or fix the issue behind this glitch? Is this a known issue that has occurred before? Left guide (talk) 10:13, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A used template had added links to a disambiguation page since the article was last edited.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 11:37, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

question about partial blocking and page creation

[edit]

There's a discussion at ANI right now that is heading in the direction of banning a user from creating new articles, a sub-proposal has emerged to allow them to use WP:AFC instead. My question would be this: if you check the "Creating new pages and uploading new files" is that sitewide or will it only apply to the namespace selected for the partial block? Or would we have to just consider it an traditional topic ban with no technical implementation? Just Step Sideways from this world ..... today 22:22, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Just Step Sideways that is a sitewide control. The 'namespace' blocks are only about editing. — xaosflux Talk 23:39, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I kinda figured that was the answer, thanks. Just Step Sideways from this world ..... today 23:40, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Novem Linguae will trout me for suggesting this: Edit Filter to stop that editor from creating new articles in the mainspace. (But no, don't please. If the editor has no self-control after the consensus to topic ban them, they might just earn a ticket to being blocked.) – robertsky (talk) 14:11, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Edit filters are expensive in terms of performance when submitting an edit, and of maintaining them, so should not typically be written to stop a single user from doing something. So yes, probably better to have the user just exercise some self-control :) –Novem Linguae (talk) 14:15, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
+2. abusefilter shouldn't be used to restrict a single named user. — xaosflux Talk 14:32, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Protected filter discussion at the edit filter noticeboard

[edit]

There is an ongoing discussion about protected filters and for consensus to add abusefilter-access-protected-vars to non-administrator edit filter helpers and managers. For more information or for participation, please see Wikipedia:Edit filter noticeboard#Protected filters. Codename Noreste 🤔 Talk 00:19, 11 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2024-46

[edit]

MediaWiki message delivery 00:04, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No pictures show on wikipedia for me

[edit]
Example.png

pictures do not show on any page Topjimz (talk) 01:20, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like an issue with your browser or the way it is configured, unless you have taken measures to suppress the display of images(per WP:NOSEE). 331dot (talk) 01:58, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Topjimz: Images are loaded from upload.wikimedia.org, e.g. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Example.png which I see here in this section. If you see it at upload.wikimedia.org but not here then your browser may be blocking images if they are loaded from another domain. If you don't see it at upload.wikimedia.org then your browser or Internet connection may be blocking that domain. Some interface images are loaded from en.wikipedia.org, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/resources/assets/poweredby_mediawiki.svg. Do you see that? PrimeHunter (talk) 03:03, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
what I meant was, when I view a person on your site, I can't see the picture of them.
Topjimz 174.251.64.54 (talk) 05:40, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
what I meant was, when I view a person on your site, I can't see the picture of them.
Topjimz Topjimz (talk) 05:42, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
What kind of person? Are you talking about biographical articles about well-known people, or other users of the site? Do you have a link to a page where you have this problem? Nardog (talk) 07:24, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
All people I look up, there picture does not come up, but a little box is in place of the picture where the picture of the person usually is. Topjimz (talk) 08:34, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Can you give a specific example of an article you looked at? 331dot (talk) 08:52, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Is this happening only when logged in, or both logged in and logged out? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 09:01, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Both. Topjimz (talk) 10:02, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It sounds like then that your browser is configured in some manner to block images, perhaps as PrimeHunter suggests above. 331dot (talk) 10:11, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Topjimz: We need more information to give more help.
  1. Do you see an image saying "This is just an example" in this section?
  2. Do you see it at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Example.png?
  3. Do you see an image at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/resources/assets/poweredby_mediawiki.svg
  4. Do you see images at unrelated websites like the Google logo at https://www.google.com/?
  5. What is your browser and device?
  6. Can you try another browser?
  7. Can you try another Internet connection?
PrimeHunter (talk) 11:56, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I use Chrome that has the problem and use Firefox very rarely. To much drain from firefox. Topjimz (talk) 12:44, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Import taxonomy templates

[edit]

is there a way to import all the taxonomy templates to a different wikipedia project (eg: Sinhala wikipedia) in one go? I've been manually making one by one when someone make a new article for an animal or plant and the infobox error popup saying missing template. There's no translation of names going on since they're are scientific names and in rare cases they get directed to the same name written in local letters. it there a way to import all these way easier so later ppl can make the relevant missing article pages of clades, genus, families etc and not have to copy paste each template one by one. Hope i was clear VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 09:35, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The ability of other Wikipedias to use the taxonomy templates comes up quite often. There are currently 119k taxonomy templates. I assume one could get a list using the API, but don't know if that can be used get a bulk download and then import them elsewhere. There is a category: Category:Taxonomy_templates.  —  Jts1882 | talk  13:22, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I've done a little research and think it can be done in two steps.
  • First, export the taxonomy templates from English Wikipedia to an XML file. Use Special:Export and export file from Category:Taxonomy_templates. I tested this and downloaded a 4Mb file.
  • Second, import into target wikipedia. This needs special permissions so only can be done by an administrator. I can't even access the page to see the options, but I assume there is an option to import the downloaded XML file.
Hope this helps. I would be interested in knowing if it works as we often get asked about interwike use on the automated taxobox talk pages.  —  Jts1882 | talk  16:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Do keep in mind that English Wikipedia doesn't have taxonomy templates for all taxa with articles (let alone the taxa that don't have articles). There are around 20,000 taxa with articles that don't have a taxonomy template yet. Plantdrew (talk) 20:49, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I see. Noted VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 05:23, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
So i asked for importer/inter wiki importer rights from an admin there, they said they don't have power to give me that right but a steward can. where can i find stewards VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 05:23, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
To receive importer rights yourself, you would first need to make a request on your wiki to demonstrate there is consensus for you to be given this permission. This request must meet the requirements laid out in meta:Steward requests/Permissions/Minimum voting requirements § Temporary Importer (per meta:Importer, permanent importer access will not be granted unless the local community has a policy specifically allowing it). As an example, the most recent request for importer access on enwiki is here, though that was a request for permanent access. Then, you would file a request to the stewards at meta:SRP. Note that this is a very sensitive permission—it essentially gives the ability to add fake edits to a page's history—so standards for granting it are (or at least should be) high.
If you don't anticipate using this permission frequently, I believe you could instead start a discussion on your wiki seeking approval for these specific imports. If that discussion were successful, you would then file a request at meta:SRM for a steward to handle the imports. The other alternative, which avoids the issue of import permissions entirely, would be to have a bot copy the templates to your wiki (subject to your local bot policy, of course). 50.223.140.130 (talk) 07:55, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah. A steward handling the imports sounds better. Ill try that way. Safer too. VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 08:31, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
That should work, but note that importing from an XML file can only be done by importers (or more specifically, users with the importupload right); other admins can only import via an interwiki, which can only do one page at a time. 50.223.140.130 (talk) 07:15, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Syncing across different wikis

[edit]

Is there a way to sync template/list contents across wikis?
Eg: Template:Totd, Imagine another wikiproject has this template too, is there a code we can enter so whatever that is updated/added/changed/showed in the Template on the english wiki also updates/adds/changes/shows on the other wiki through their template. Gonna be useful for things like technical news, Totd etc VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 11:41, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's a long-standing wish, see phab:T121470. CMD (talk) 13:27, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oh maaaan. Thanks btw VihirLak007hmu!/duh. 05:23, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@VihirLak007 There was a bot providing this functionality, but I think it broke. I think now this functionality only syncs Modules (which makes sense, cause these are easier to make language and wiki independent than templates). —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 12:47, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
There are two aspects of this, one is the global template wiki/synchronization, the other is multilingual support. Usually modules with '/config' or '/configuration' sub pages are easier to sync, as the multilingual settings and translations are on those config pages. Then on top of that you have modules changing the arguments, prompting a change in the transclusions on all of the wikis. So, not a copy/paste job. Snævar (talk) 14:03, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Problems with dark mode

[edit]

Class mw-no-invert, used to ensure that colors display correctly in dark mode, does not seem to work on International Fujita scale anywhere except in the side tables titled "Tornado rating classifications". –LaundryPizza03 (d) 20:18, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The page looks great to me in dark mode (Brave browser on Mac OS). Can you give a specific example of one part of the article that does not display as expected? What part of the article, what is it doing, and what were you hoping it would do? – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:29, 12 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Script error on mobile causing headings to stop rendering

[edit]

If you check https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election on Chrome with developer tools and Galaxy S20 turned on, no headings under Results render, and the debugger pauses on a jQuery error. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 19:42, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The headings should be fixed now. Not sure of the jQuery error. It might be from a user script. – Ammarpad (talk) 22:28, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]