Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

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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).

Newcomers to the technical village pump are encouraged to read these guidelines prior to posting here. Questions about MediaWiki in general should be posted at the MediaWiki support desk.

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Can't log into Wikipedia sites using Safari browser on Apple devices

Beginning from a few days ago, I have been having trouble logging into all Wikipedia sites (specifically the English versions of Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Commons, and the Wiktionary) on my iPhone and iPad using the Safari browser (not sure which version – how do I check?). I get the error message:

There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Go back to the previous page, reload that page and then try again.

I cannot bypass this message, and neither reloading the page nor going to some other page helps. I do not know if Safari's built-in function for autofilling user-ids and passwords is causing the problem, but even if I manually enter the user-id and password the problem occurs. I tried reporting this issue to the Phabricator, but since it seems to be specific to Safari (the problem doesn't seem to occur with the Mozilla Firefox browser) I was told that it was not a problem on the Wikipedia side. Any idea how to solve this problem? — SMUconlaw (talk) 11:49, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

@Smuconlaw: try to clear your cookies (Wikimedia-related) in Safari. Stryn (talk) 18:09, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

I did try that, but it doesn't seem to have worked. — SMUconlaw (talk) 18:21, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

So no one else is experiencing this problem, and nothing can be done about it? I'm still unable to log in on my mobile devices, which is very annoying. — SMUconlaw (talk) 17:34, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

@Smuconlaw: Tried just now and it works fine for me. For reference, I'm on an iPhone 6S with iOS 10.2.1 (latest version). Find your version number by opening the Settings app -> General -> About -> Version. If you're on an older version of iOS, update by going to Settings app -> General ->Software Update. -FASTILY 07:29, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

I'm using iOS 10.2.1 too. This is really strange. Do you use Safari's saved passwords feature? I wonder if that is causing the problem. — SMUconlaw (talk) 10:11, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes, I do, and it does not cause me any problems. It sounds like you have a broken/corrupt cookie. Try deleting cookies/temporary files by opening the Settings app -> Safari -> Clear History and Website Data. Next, close all your open tabs in Safari. Then, kill all running apps on your device and reboot it. Do this for each device. That should fix the problem. -FASTILY 03:33, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, that worked! — SMUconlaw (talk) 17:24, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Watchlist

Is there an ongoing issue with the 'mark all pages as visited' button? Appears when first clicking on watchlist but then vanishes as the page completes loading. (Using Chrome). Thanks. Eagleash (talk) 01:28, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Ditto. Mine disappeared completely. —ATS 🖖 talk 01:44, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Ditto -- ferret (talk) 02:25, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Same here: Mobile Safari on iPad: brief glimpse as page loads, then it's gone. I also noticed more spacious text boxes—the edit summary, for instance—that are very welcome! — Gorthian (talk) 02:28, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

It may be an issue with gadget loading order. It's hidden by "(This loads the base style for the watchlist. Please do not disable this option.)" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. The code is in MediaWiki:Gadget-WatchlistBase.css:

#mw-watchlist-resetbutton {
    display: none;
}

It should then be unhidden if any of the two following gadgets are enabled: "Display green collapsible arrows and green bullets for changed pages in your watchlist, page history and recent changes" and "Display pages on your watchlist that have changed since your last visit in bold". They both include:

#mw-watchlist-resetbutton {
    display: block;
}

But something goes wrong and it stays hidden. It can be forced to display by placing the latter code in your CSS. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:32, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

That worked. My thanks! Now someone needs to fix the edit summary line that seems larger but covers up part of the text. —ATS 🖖 talk 02:38, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Worked for me too. With regard to the ES box, the box for adding the heading after clicking 'new section' also appeared larger when starting this 'thread'. Thanks PrimeHunter Eagleash (talk) 02:58, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

@Eagleash: I don't think that the increased size of those boxes is anything to do with the 'mark all pages as visited' button problem. See the section above - the box change occurred by 21:55, 16 February 2017, some hours before Krinkle's edit (00:47, 17 February 2017). --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:40, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

@Redrose64: Probably not; it just appeared to me at the same time. Others (see above) noted it also. Not a problem as far as I'm concerned. Eagleash (talk) 21:53, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

PrimeHunter, i don't exactly understand. L.S. inc. (talk) 05:57, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

@L.S. inc.: Click "your CSS", create the page if it doesn't exist, copy the above three lines with display: block;, and save. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:05, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Krinkle edited MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition 41 minutes before the first report.[1] That may be the cause. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:57, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

The gadget definitions have been corrected by Amire80 since, and this problem should be fixed now (it is for me at least on Vector). The new gadget feature that triggered this, gives lots of opportunities to remove the late changes to the UI changes when the page loads btw. So gadget authors can get to work :) —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:03, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

I removed my personal CSS and it also works for me now. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:23, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Don’t know if this is related, but for the first time in a while my watchilist is bolding unvisited pages. That’s as well as the green dots that are the advertised way of highlighting such pages. Tried clearing my browser cache in case but it made no difference. It’s happening whether or not I have 'Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent' enabled.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 12:38, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

PrimeHunter,thanks so much. L.S. inc. ^(talk) 14:17, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

JohnBlackburne, the "Display pages on your watchlist that have changed since your last visit in bold (see customizing watchlists for more options)" button at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets is on. if not, than ask again in detail. L.S. inc. ^(talk) 14:21, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Oh, and when you are done at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets, go to the bottom of the page and press the "save" button.L.S. inc. ^(talk) 14:28, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

No, that is off. I did not realise there was such an option, I must have turned it off a long time ago. So confirming: " Display pages on your watchlist that have changed since your last visit in bold" is off, but my watchlist is bolding all items I have not visited.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 14:30, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

You are not alone. My check box is unchecked (has always been unchecked); my watchlist has gone bold (before Thursday wasn't bold). Hasn't this just recently been broken and then fixed? And now is broken again? Why? How about fixing it and leaving it fixed? Is that so hard?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 14:45, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Now the same with my watchlist.PrimeHunter, did the CSS thing have anything to do with this? L.S. inc. ^(talk) 14:51, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Trappist the monk, calm down. Nearly everyone has the same thing. L.S. inc. ^(talk) 14:54, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Why? You wrote in your reply to Editor JohnBlackburne that his "Display pages on your watchlist that have changed since your last visit in bold ..." button ... is on. You jumped to the conclusion that this problem was his fault. Clearly that is not true.

Is it not true that we have recently had this problem? Did it not recently get fixed? Is it unreasonable to ask why we are broken again? Is it unreasonable to ask that it get fixed and remain fixed?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:09, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Tried toggling that setting, in case it did something. Nope, no change switching it on or off. Yes, L.S. inc. was a bit presumptuous assuming it might be my fault, but they are a new user, may have just discovered how it worked themselves, so may have assumed it’s new to other people. L.S. inc., if you enable Navigation Popups on the same prefs panel you can easily see when editors have been around for a while and probably have a lot of experience of WP.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 15:42, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

" Is it unreasonable to ask why we are broken again? Is it unreasonable to ask that it get fixed and remain fixed?" not unreasonable, but yeah. gadgets and user scripts break. That's what they do. This one is easily fixable. Unfortunately i'm going on vacation, so I can't get around to this as fast as I would like... —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:57, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

This (the bolding of every unvisited page on my watchlist) is a bit annoying. But what a I really don't understand is why a gadget breaking effects me when I don't have that gadget enabled? Jenks24 (talk) 22:43, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Bolding is the default in MediaWiki itself. If no gadgets are enabled or work then you get bolding. The English Wikipedia has chosen to remove the bolding with a default gadget: "(This loads the base style for the watchlist. Please do not disable this option.)". Another gadget can add it back (if it works): "Display pages on your watchlist that have changed since your last visit in bold". PrimeHunter (talk) 23:15, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

OK, that makes sense. Though I suppose figuring out why it's the MediaWiki default isn't worth going into. And the bolding problem has now been fixed, thanks to whoever did that. Jenks24 (talk) 00:28, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Why exactly are we telling people not to disable that gadget? Surely watchlist style should be each individual editor's choice about whether they want green dots and/or bold-faced titles. "Please do not disable" makes it sound like we're discouraging people from having whatever style they want. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:32, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

@WhatamIdoing: It predated 'hidden' gadgets, and it was because we changed the site wide defaults (you could reenable with the 'bold' gadget two gadgets lower). We can do some further cleanup there, but we probably have to do some experimenting on test.wp first. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:39, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

www.wikipedia.org page looks weird

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T158782

the page https://www.wikipedia.org doesn't seem to work properly. The images don't load and it doesn't auto-finish my search.

Merijn2 (talk) 15:49, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Same here. From the console there seems to be a fatal problem with the Javascript code for the page.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 16:06, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Filed as phab:T158782. Matma Rex talk 17:10, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Per the phab report it seems fixed now, though I needed to empty my browser cache to see it.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 18:54, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

The incident report is at wikitech:Incident_documentation/20170222-www-portals. Christian75 (talk) 22:10, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

JohnBlackburne it still looks like in the image above for me. Joseph2302 (talk) 07:33, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

How you fix ir is browser dependent – here is some help: Wikipedia:Bypass your cache.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 08:56, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Sweden Democrats not showing in search bar

For some reason, searching "Sweden Democrats" in the search bar doesn't give the party's article as a result until the last letter (i.e., exact title) is typed; even up to "Sweden Dem", only Sweden Democratic Youth and Sweden-Denmark relations are offered as results. Any insights as to why? The party's Swedish name Sverigedemokraterna seems to be similarly affected; none of the other Swedish political parties are similarly affected. Mélencron (talk) 01:30, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

@Mélencron: It was probably the same problem as § Page not appearing as suggestion in search box. It seems to be working now for Sweden Democrats. - Evad37 [talk] 07:34, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Infobox in Wikipedia app

I don't seem to be able to figure out how to view the infobox in articles in the Wikipedia mobile app. Is there in fact a way to do this? Air.light (talk) 03:31, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

You mean an infobox that is usually in top, or the navbox (usually near the bottom) that does not show in mobile view? Could you give an example article name? -DePiep (talk) 09:00, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

The Vancouver article is one such example. I'm talking about the infobox that appears at the top right of an article when viewing on a desktop computer. Air.light (talk) 00:56, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

@Air.light: Which mobile app, on which app platform ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:04, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

The app simply called "Wikipedia", on Android. Air.light (talk) 22:41, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Watchlist preference anomaly

There's an anomaly in Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-watchlist - one tickbox is labelled "Add pages I create and files I upload to my watchlist", and another "Add new files I upload to my watchlist". Is there any reason for this? I haven't tested it to see if files are watched if one box is ticked but not the other. Optimist on the run (talk) 09:29, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

I assume an action is watched if there is at least one enabled setting saying to watch it. I don't see a problem with some overlap. Uploading a new file creates a file page so uploads are a subset of page creations which is itself a subset of edits. It would be possible to make all settings disjoint but then you get silly options like "Add pages I edit except pages I create". Who would choose that without also choosing "Add pages I create"? PrimeHunter (talk) 10:24, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

By that argument, the first option should be "Add pages I create to my watchlist" - this would cover all pages created (including files), and remove the disjointedness. Optimist on the run (talk) 11:04, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

It said that in the past before a setting was added to only watch uploads. Many users wouldn't know whether an upload counts as a page creation. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:49, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

The action of uploading a file is distinct from creating a page. If you upload a new version of an existing file, you are not creating a page, so only the setting in "Add new files I upload to my watchlist" would be used. On the other hand, if you create a file page by clicking the "Create" tab (such as creating a file redirect), you are not uploading a file, so only the setting in "Add pages I create and files I upload to my watchlist" would be used. If you upload a brand new file, then the page would be added to your watchlist if one or both of those settings are checked (as PrimeHunter suggested). I haven't verified any of this, but it seems likely that this is the way it would work. — This, that and the other (talk) 12:25, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

File:Malaga del Fresno (GUA) Igl de los Santos Justo y Pastor 0 Ficha.pdf

I'm running Windows 10 with the latest version of the IE browser [not Microsoft Edge, of which I'm not fond], and when I try to load this file, I get nothingness; clicking on it returns the same results as merely loading the file page. I'm tempted to delete it under Commons:GCSD#1, but before that I'd like input from someone with a different computer — ideally, an Apple user who's using neither Windows nor IE. Can you load this file? Nyttend (talk) 12:24, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

The PDF loads in Microsoft Edge with screwy fonts, and in Google Chrome with garbled characters in part of the heading, so I suspect the PDF is slightly corrupt (or at least, poorly generated). It displays correctly in Adobe Acrobat. In any case, I don't think it is in scope for Commons (PDF files are rarely in scope), so it ought to be deleted one way or another. — This, that and the other (talk) 12:30, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Using Chrome on a Mac, it "almost" comes thru perfectly. But actually the "almost" is important. The title, everything above the foto except the word "(Guadalajara)" is all scrambled in crazy fonts. Hope this helps. Let me know if you want me to save the foto, but all I know how to do is take a screen shot. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 01:40, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Page not appearing as suggestion in search box

Hello,

The page Freedom of speech in the United States does not appear as a suggestion when typing in the search box. This happened on both my Android smartphone using Chrome and on my laptop running Windows 10 using Firefox. After completely typing the article name and pressing enter, I am taken to the article and there's nothing under the title saying "Redirected from X". On the Windows laptop, I didn't previously have that page open (Firefox clears all data when it's closed). Also, the article is not new. AHeneen (talk) 13:55, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

AHeneen, what precisely did you type? The search box can be really finicky if you don't do things precisely the way it likes them, so giving the precise text string will help with the diagnosis. Nyttend (talk) 16:15, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

@AHeneen: I looked at the data the search engine had about the page and it was empty. These kinds of errors are very rare but they do crop up sometimes for a variety of different reasons, some of which we know about and some of which we don't. This was possibly caused by a full reindex of enwiki content that we did recently, but it's hard to say for sure. Normally the best advice I can give is "make a null edit and wait 24 hours" which will fix most problems with pages being missing from search. Since making a null edit, the search index now has information about the page (as you can see from ?action=cirrusdump) so the search box should pick up the article in the next 24 hours or so. Hope that helps! :-) --Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:46, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

@AHeneen: Following up, the page now appears as a suggestion in the search box. Hope that helps! --Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 15:48, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

 Resolved Thanks, User:Deskana (WMF). @Nyttend: I simply typed the characters and normal spaces on a regular US keyboard. Thanks for your help. AHeneen (talk) 22:29, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Two questions from a newbie template editor: template insertion via Twinkle RfD nom + parsing a string in template

Apologies if this is misplaced, but I could really not find a better place to ask. I recently created {{link current revision}} (it took a bit of trial-and-error but I got what I wanted) and have two related questions (please see the template doc).

1. After a Twinkle RfD nomination, I had to edit the page to force the template to substitute, because it printed in plain text in the Twinkle nomination. Is it a known Twinkle glitch, a miscoding of the template...?
2. I wish to add a way to link to the current revision with a particular section anchor, so as to be able to make calls such as {{subst:link current revision|Wikipedia:Help Desk#Some section of interest}}. Algorithmically, it is fairly simple: if the page argument includes a # (e.g. Foo#Bar) then split the string at that point, apply the regular processing to the first part (Foo), then append "#" + the second part (#Bar). However, I could not find a way to do that in mediawiki language in Help:Template and related pages - does this need Lua modules?

Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 16:41, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Help with edit filters on Kurdish Wikipedia

Hi all, I'm trying to help the Kurdish community to improve their language Wikipedias (there are 2 of them) and one of the problems is a lot of vandalism. I am in touch with a lot of bilingual English/Kurdish speakers and they are looking for someone to give them advice about how they can implement edit filters to prevent some of the vandalism they are experiencing. Can anyone point me in the direction of someone who can help? Jwslubbock (talk) 16:46, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

It depends on the kind of vandalism that this wiki experiences. You can look at our filters or you can ask this question at m:Help_Forum where members of m:Small_Wiki_Monitoring_Team can help you. Ruslik_Zero 18:56, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

People familiar with edit filters on English Wikipedia tend to hang around WP:EFN. --Izno (talk) 01:24, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Picture and list

Hello. I want to use a picture. Under the picture I want, if I click one it, to show a list. Is there an example of that in an article to see how it can be done? Xaris333 (talk) 13:02, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Not really, afaik. You can have an image and you can have a collapsed list, but you expand the list by hitting show, rather than clicking the image. --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:52, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

US gallon -> litre conversion is inconsistent

At MV Joyita, {{convert|2,500|USgal|litre}} resulted in "2,500 US gallons (9,500 L)". Fair enough, and a second conversion with 3,000 US gallons resulted in 11,000 L. The ratio 2500:3000 is 1.2, and therefore the second conversion should have resulted in 11,400 litres. What's wrong here? Akld guy (talk) 14:22, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Probably rounding of some sort. I seem to remember this question pops up periodically, and that's normally the answer. --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:28, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Template:Convert#Default rounding may help. --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:29, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

That's a huge rounding. Akld guy (talk) 14:37, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

I got it right with 0 rounding, like this: {{convert|2,500|USgal|litre|0}} which results in "2,500 US gallons (9,464 L)". Akld guy (talk) 14:48, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

@Akld guy: That's probably too precise, rounding to the nearest 1 litre – per MOS:CONVERSIONS "Converted quantity values should use a level of precision similar to that of the source quantity value". I would suggest using |sigfig= e.g. {{convert|3000|USgal|litre|sigfig=3}} → 3,000 US gallons (11,400 L), or use a negative number for rounding e.g. {{convert|3000|USgal|litre|-2}} → 3,000 US gallons (11,400 L) - Evad37 [talk] 15:00, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

@Evad37: Thank you for that. The -2 option was just what was required and I have changed the article accordingly. Akld guy (talk) 15:12, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Regular expression

Hi, i'm from Bengali wikipedia. I need help. Sometime i use WP:AWB there. I need help with regular expression. I have a words like [[ঢাকা|ঢাকার]] and i want to replace it with [[ঢাকা]]র. How can i do it using regular expression? --Aftabuzzaman (talk) 21:44, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Is your red character a variable item? s"\[\[ঢাকা|ঢাকা\([^\]*]\]\]"\[\[ঢাকা\]\]\1" will do the replacement in sed. (that's not AWB though) The number of "\" may differ depending on the shell. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:24, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Come on over and ask at Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser.Naraht (talk) 12:35, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Bug in mobile view

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T159100

Mobile view apparently does not correctly display in-line images in a table header after the first section header. Here's what I observe:

• special:permalink/767458153 Table in the lede displays OK in mobile and desktop view
• special:diff/767458153/767458154 Adding a section header before the table
• special:permalink/767458154 ... misplaces the icons in the table header in mobile view
• special:diff/767458154/767458155 Adding text between section head and table
• special:permalink/767458155 but mobile view still displays wrong (desktop view is OK)

If I've missed something glaring, let me know. Otherwise, please direct me to where I can report this as a bug. Many thanks. YBG (talk) 01:48, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

This is a bug, and like any bug, you can report it on phabricator, as mentioned in the 2nd line of the header of this page. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:00, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. I should have seen that. YBG (talk) 23:46, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Breaking a part of list into columns

(I originally posted it at Wikipedia:Help desk, but I'll ask here instead.)

I'm planning to fix List of songs in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic article to counter legibility issues (especially on small screens), and this is what I came up with, so far.

; "Episode Whatever"
# "First song"
#* '''Music:''' John Doe
#* '''Lyrics:''' Jane Public
#; Performer (character)
#: Actress A (Pony A)
#; Backing vocals
#: Actress B (Unicorn B)
#: Actress C (Pegasus A)
#; Context: Pony A has a problem so Unicorn B and Pegasus A cheer her.
# "Second song"
#* '''Music:''' John Doe
#* '''Lyrics:''' Jane Public
#; Performer (character)
#: Actress A (Pony A)
#; Context: Pony A wonders if her problem was solved well.

Resulting:

"Episode Whatever"

1. "First song"
   • Music: John Doe
   • Lyrics: Jane Public

   Performer (character)

   Actress A (Pony A)

   Backing vocals

   Actress B (Unicorn B)

   Actress C (Pegasus A)

   Context

   Pony A has a problem so Unicorn B and Pegasus A cheer her.

2. "Second song"
   • Music: John Doe
   • Lyrics: Jane Public

   Performer (character)

   Actress A (Pony A)

   Context

   Pony A wonders if her problem was solved well.

I'm thinking of using some trick so the list would be (roughly) look like:

"Episode title" 1. "Song title"
Music: composer Lyrics: writer	Vocals List of credited performers
Context All the context

Of course, I'd use adaptive column template so it would look like not broken into columns on smartphones.

But is there a solution to achieve that, while numbers are not broken like 1. "First song" and 1. "Second song"? JSH-alive/^{talk/cont/mail} 08:56, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

No, there isn't a way to do that without having odd breaks. Either way, the information that we're presenting at the article presently, and which you are trying to change the representation thereof, is correctly tabular information, and should probably continue to use the tabular method. --Izno (talk) 20:10, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

User groups shown in plural form in mobile

When I view any mobile diff such as [2], the user groups are now shown in the plural form rather than the singular. Special:ListUsers still uses the singular form. GeoffreyT2000 (talk, contribs) 16:06, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

The mobile link uses for example MediaWiki:Group-rollbacker ("Rollbackers") while Listusers uses MediaWiki:Group-rollbacker-member ("rollbacker"). I don't see the different choices as a problem. Special:UserRights/GeoffreyT2000 uses MediaWiki:Group-rollbacker-member like mobile. In addition it says "Member of:" so plural is logical there while both could be used in the other cases. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:15, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Sortable lists

Is it possible to set this sortable list to default open with the fifth column ("Total English speakers") sorted? Or do sortable lists always default open with the first column sorted? --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 16:22, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

@Anthonyhcole: Help:Sorting#Initial sort order of rows documents that the table default is however the wikitext is formatted - so fix it in the editor. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:56, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Just what I was looking for. Thank you, User:Xaosflux. Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 17:51, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Publishing Javascript

Hello. I've written a custom Javascript that filters the watchlist based on various criteria. A few questions:

1. How can I publish this code as a global preference on Commons?
2. Does the Wikimedia minifier transpile ES6 features yet? I've run the code through a BabelJS feature, but this caused CommonsMaintenanceBot to get quite cross with me.

Magog the Ogre (t • c) 05:12, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

1. We don't have global preferences
2. You are probably thinking about a Gadget. Ask on Commons on their village pump, or at commons:MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition.
3. No, MediaWiki does not transpile ES6.

—TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:46, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

@TheDJ: why isn't it appearing?[3] The console is still saying jquery is an invalid dependency even though I already removed it.[4] Magog the Ogre (t • c) 00:14, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

@Magog the Ogre: because the gadget file it refers to doesn't exist. commons:MediaWiki:Gadget-ExpandedWatchlist.js. See also commons:Special:Gadgets. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 07:59, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes, move commons:MediaWiki:ExpandedWatchlist.js and update the instructions in commons:User:Magog the Ogre/ExpandedWatchlist.js. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:41, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Add link to Wikidata search results

RFC here -> MediaWiki_talk:Wdsearch.js#Add_link_to_search. --Superchilum^{(talk to me!)} 08:11, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Infobox in Infobox

Is it possible to include Infobox (ex. 1 and 2) in Infobox (ex. A) to get result not in column, but side by side?

No

Infobox A

subInfobox 1

subInfobox 2

Yes

Infobox A

subInfobox 1 | subInfobox 2

Thanks. - Kareyac (talk) 12:21, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Many things are possible, but what's the use case, and is that a valid use case ? The infobox is meant as a single element on a page or section, to describe the facts of that topic. It is highly recognisable element that creates expectations both for readers, but also for software reusing our content. If you need to use two next to each other, than you are breaking those expectations. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:34, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

I meant Infoboxes like Battle, Bilarerial relations, Couple, that could have 2 and more equal sides. We have additional infoboxes in infoboxes ex. Template:Infobox album, details in Template:Infobox#Subboxes. _{subInfobox in table is for Subbox}- Kareyac (talk) 12:59, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

URL encoding

I understand URI's should use url encoding only, not HTML:

• Correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%26
• Incorrect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/& (display is a little mangled here to demonstrate the idea of using & in a URI)

I understand URI's should not mix-in proprietary encoding formats such as Wikitext

• Correct: https://wn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%3D
• Incorrect: https://wn.wikipedia.org/wiki/{{=}}

This is based on numerous RFC's such as RFC3986 which say URI's (which are universal objects) only use percent encoding. URL's from Wikipedia can be used by bots and other downstream processes (Wikidata) without requiring built-in HTML decoding engines, or a built-in Wikitext decoding engines, or whatever-decoding engine. Bots and other downstream process can rest assured there is no mixture of multiple encoding types within a URI which result in ambiguous encoding that's impossible to decode. This is why url encoding was created - a single universal encoding type for URIs.

I'm a bot writer and constantly running into URLs that I can't decode easily or at all. For example {{BillboardURLbyName}} instructs editors to use it within CS1|2 templates .. I can't decode that nor can anyone else who isn't the Enwiki rendering engine. It even gets mixed together with a normal URI like this.

Do we have standards or policy about URIs and encoding that is in-line with the IETF RFCs? -- GreenC 15:26, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

You seem to be confusing URIs with the wikitext that produces HTML that includes links to URIs. Anomie⚔ 01:53, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

URI's in wikitext are not actually URIs? -- GreenC 06:13, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

@Green Cardamom: No, they only have to be URIs after the templates have been processed. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:29, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

This is surprising. Is that documented somewhere? It creates all sorts of issues with bots and other processes. For example, migrating URLs to Wikidata. Link rot bots maintaining dead links. -- GreenC 13:47, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-09

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

• On 22 February the wikipedia.org portal did not work for an hour. This was because of a problem with a JavaScript file. [5]

Changes this week

• You will be able to use <chem> to write chemical formulas in the visual editor. Previously this only worked in the wikitext editor. [6]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 1 March. It will be on all wikis from 2 March (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 28 February at 20:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• You can soon upload 3D files to Commons. The file formats are AMF and STL. The plan is for this to work later this week but it could be later. [7]
• The name "Wikipedia" will be more obvious at the top of the page when you read Wikipedia in the mobile view. This is because many readers don't realize they are on Wikipedia. [8][9]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

19:55, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Mobile "languages" interface is visually broken (search text area)

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T159180

See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture#/languages --fireattack (talk) 21:03, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

@Fireattack: Please describe what you are seeing, and what you are expecting to see a bit more thoroughly. "visually broken" doesn't really help people, as they can't see what you are seeing on your screen. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:15, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

@TheDJ: Sorry I thought it's pretty obvious if you open the link. There are a whole batch of magnifying glasses, instead of just one. And they're blocking/overlapping on what you type in.

It's reproducible on different devices/browsers (tested in Firefox, Chrome, and Chrome Android).--fireattack (talk) 21:23, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

I disabled the mobile website beta setting, and i can now confirm. I have reported it in phabricator. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:31, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Thank you!--fireattack (talk) 22:03, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Single-article abuse filter

Has there been any attempt to create a modified version of the Abuse Filter extension that would apply to single pages only? I'm not talking about a local edit filter that's applied to one page only — I'm interested in a hypothetical piece of Mediawiki software that would work the same way but be able to work with one page only. Of course it doesn't exist; I just wonder about past history before making a formal request for a new feature. Rationale: our Wikipedia:Artist biography article template page repeatedly has its contents replaced with actual biographies, which isn't good, but creating an edit filter that checks every single edit made to Wikipedia would be a poor use of resources. It would be nice if we had the ability to create a filter specifically for this page that would reject an edit if it met certain criteria, without worrying about the filter checking edits to other pages. Nyttend (talk) 12:24, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Such a technology would prove useful in a variety of pages. It could eliminate most cases of page protection resulting from meme-based vandalism or BLP violations. Ian.thomson (talk) 12:28, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

• This was requested but declined in phab:T20247. It probably couldn't be made significantly more efficient. Cenarium (talk) 16:05, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Log sheet missing on AfD

Afternoon all, The log sheet for the 19th February appears to be missing on the main WP:AFD page. I have found it manually, but cannot see as to why it has been ommitted? Thanks Nördic Nightfury 13:50, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

@Nordic Nightfury: A bot has removed it from Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Old after checking that all the discussions for that day have been closed. Only the days with long-running discussions are still listed. John of Reading (talk) 14:05, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Google custom search

I noticed that Wikipedia:Google Custom Search imports a google css, as can be seen here. Chrome does not load it because the imported script uses http instead of https. What's a good place to report this? Coderzombie (talk) 14:53, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Google Custom Search says to import User:Csewiki/vector.js or User:Csewiki/monobook.js. User:Csewiki has not edited since 2009 and may have been created for the purpose. The pages were last edited by User:TheDJ who is still active and would be the natural person to contact. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:23, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. Good idea to ping @TheDJ: Coderzombie (talk) 15:39, 28 February 2017 (UTC)