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. 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.

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User sandbox pages in mainspace categories

User:Sj/Update Congress, a user sandbox page, is appearing in several mainspace categories. User sandbox pages aren't allowed to do this, so the categories have to be removed, but the problem is that there are no category declarations directly on the page at all — the categories are there because the page is transcluding a mainspace article rather than copying its text, such that my first attempt to remove the categories actually had the unintended effect of stripping them from the article rather than the sandbox page. So I'm stuck: is there any other way to get it out of the mainspace categories? Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 23:03, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

I have used Module:String#replace to turn categories into category links with a colon.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 23:55, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

A userspace page should not transclude a mainspace article, but only link to it. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 23:56, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

It looks like this editor wants to edit sections of the mainspace page and have easy access to the reference links they added to the top. I don't think there's any policy against transcluding articles into userspace pages. The closest I can think of is WP:FAKEARTICLE, but that doesn't really apply here. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 00:07, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

I can't think of a good reason why it would be the case, but if a mainspace page is frequently transcluded for some reason, you can also wrap the category calls in <noinclude></noinclude> tags. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 00:07, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

I'm just wondering, would a template like {{Draft categories}} work in a case like this? If the categories on the mainspace article are placed in the template, they should appear as normal in the article but as links in the transclusion, right? Or is the order of template expansion not suitable for this? rchard2scout (talk) 07:49, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

I made {{Draft categories}} but it's currently primitive and assumes the only wikitext syntax is categories. I have used Module:Suppress categories instead.[2] It completely removes categories instead of linking them. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:40, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

I like the {{Draft categories}} approach best normally, but for transclusion maybe have a {{Transclusion from mainspace}} wrapper that injects Module:Suppress categories mentioned above? Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 12:50, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

last_active API

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T194916

The last_active API suddenly broke.

 baduser_ucuser: Invalid value "User:Hawkeye7" for user parameter "ucuser".

Anybody have any information about this? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:58, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

@Hawkeye7: Sounds like the value you pass is User:Hawkeye7, which is not a username, but a page. You need to pass it the value Hawkeye7. Not sure what tool you are using exactly, so if you could link to that, that would be very helpful. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 08:07, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

It's the Perl MediaWiki::Bot module. The API has been working until now. I've had to shut down the MilHistBot monthly membership update run. I didn't have time to investigate further this morning. I had considered the same thing as you. The call in question simply says:

my $last_active = $editor->last_active ('Hawkeye7') or
    error_exit ("last_active failed");

So the module is prepending the 'User:'. It hasn't changed, so a bug has been introduced into the Mediawiki software itself. There should, therefore, be an entry in phabricator. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 08:19, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Our instincts were correct. That is indeed the error, and it means that someone put a major change in without testing it. The Mediawiki code needs to be reverted asap. Where's DCausse (WMF)? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 08:35, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Ticket filed. This was undocumented behavior of the API, that apparently the volunteer maintained perl library depends upon. BTW. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:34, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I have submitted a change to MediaWiki::Bot but I don't know if/when it will be implemented. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 03:04, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

RfC: Enabling TemplateStyles

Should Extension:TemplateStyles (help) be enabled on the English Wikipedia as soon as technically possible? Jc86035 (talk) 12:28, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Background

The TemplateStyles extension will, in brief, allow custom CSS pages to be used to style content without an administrator having to edit sitewide CSS. This will make it more convenient for editors to style templates; for example, those templates for which the sitewide CSS for the mobile skin or another skin (e.g. Timeless) currently negatively affects the display of the template. The extension is already in use on some other Wikipedias, and should not open any avenues for vandalism which are not already possible with existing templates and inline styling. However, it cannot be implemented until HTML Tidy is replaced with RemexHtml, which is scheduled to happen for the English Wikipedia after June 2018.

Currently, TemplateStyles is being enabled for Wikipedias on a case-by-case basis, and if this RfC is successful then a Phabricator task will be made requesting the extension's deployment at the same time as RemexHtml.

Examples

• mw:Template:Stylish (css)
• mw:Template:ResponsiveAmboxExample (css)

Survey

• Support. Jc86035 (talk) 12:28, 18 May 2018 (UTC)
• Yesss Galobtter (pingó mió) 16:00, 18 May 2018 (UTC)
• Yes please. I have lots of templates that i could fix if only I had these capabilities. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:37, 18 May 2018 (UTC)
• Support - I can think of excellent use cases for this - making templates responsive with media queries is the first one that comes to mind. Richard⁰⁶¹² 17:48, 18 May 2018 (UTC)
• Support, because it will be much easier for any template editor (not that particular user right, but an editor of template) to request a custom styling for certain templates. I, too, can think of places where custom CSS will be very handy. epicgenius (talk) 21:19, 18 May 2018 (UTC)
• Maybe? I'd like to use an actual use / example before deciding. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 22:34, 18 May 2018 (UTC)
  • @Headbomb: A small example can be seen at mw:Template:ResponsiveAmboxExample, the image gets hidden if your browser window is narrow enough. Think of doing something similar with navboxes so the mobile site can stop hiding them. Anomie⚔ 07:46, 19 May 2018 (UTC)
    • So basically, this can't (at least straightforwardly) change say an existing string to a different string, but would rather apply things like font changes, width changes, and other CSS type of changes on a per-template basis? I think we still ought to have some restrictions on that (Evad37's restrictions/best practices below seem very reasonable) especially for accessibility reasons, but I don't why what that couldn't be rolled out now (i.e. support), with the understanding that people using this are careful/use WP:COMMONSENSE. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 11:43, 19 May 2018 (UTC)
• Conditional support, if we get some sort of guidelines and/or best-practices in place first. Stuff like "only style the template's output", "avoid using !important", "use selectors and class names that are highly likely to be unique to that template (i.e. myTemplate-row rather than row)", "only images which don't require attribution can be used as background images". - Evad37 [talk] 02:01, 19 May 2018 (UTC)
• Support I've been waiting a long time for this. This will allow us to fix a lot of templates for mobile, and also to reduce the size of the HTML we produce by getting rid of duplicated inline CSS. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 07:38, 19 May 2018 (UTC)
• Sure, seems useful. I'd worry about abuse and keeping track of it all — it seems like the potential for pages could be huge — and would definitely support some level of baseline protection status (probably AC default, elevate to TE if heavily used). Basically, if TheDJ and Stradivarius think it'd be good, it's probably good. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 11:58, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

• Support This sounds great. I was concerned about mal-use but the measures in place look well thought-out. Cesdeva ^(talk) 07:23, 22 May 2018 (UTC)
• Support It looks like it would be useful. Guidance will be developed in the usual way. There may be occasional misuses but they will be reversible. I assume changes will show up on watchlists in the usual way? · · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 08:29, 22 May 2018 (UTC)
• Support Not having any useful way to code responsively (or even use CSS correctly) is a real pain, it's like trying to build a car with no wheels and the wrong chassis, and it makes everything on wikipedia look like it's from the early 2000's. Because it is. This would be so helpful. JLJ001 (talk) 17:19, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Discussion (TemplateStyles)

Sounds scary - if I understand correctly, a template in one part of an article would be able to completely or partially mangle the display/styling of a different template in a completely different section of the page. And not just from vandalism, but also good-faith edits if they just happen to result in templates with conflicting rules, which might not be obvious at the time of editing. - Evad37 [talk] 15:41, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Hmm, people who make use of it should I hope make sure their styling does not affect the rest of the page/other templates but only the target template. People who vandalize can perfectly well cover screen-fuls of page with image vandalism so not going to dramatically up the possibilities of vandalism Galobtter (pingó mió) 16:00, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Correct, but if that becomes unmanageable, we could elevate edit permissions to templateeditor or something. the benefits will outweigh the negatives. Besides. postion:absolute bothers me on half the user pages and that seems perfectly acceptable to the community. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:37, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

+1 for banning position:absolute and other crimes against design. :P Richard⁰⁶¹² 17:50, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

@Richard0612: I think a blanket ban on position:absolute wouldn't be very practical, since there are e.g. 26 Lua modules which use it for largely legitimate purposes such as overlaying images. Jc86035 (talk) 17:57, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

@Jc86035: I was being entirely flippant with my comment - of course it does have sensible uses (image overlays, charts, etc.) and shouldn't be banned. I've just seen a lot of user-space z-order abominations (not that I like CSS much as a technology anyway, but it's the best we have). Richard⁰⁶¹² 18:05, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

It seems I left my irony–sarcasm meter off. Jc86035 (talk) 18:07, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Easily done, no harm! :) Richard⁰⁶¹² 18:10, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

So for this custom CSS, which namespace would it be hosted in? Would users be restricted from editing these CSS pages (e.g. limiting these pages to administrators/template-editors only)? epicgenius (talk) 21:19, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

It would be in the Template: namespace, and protection could be applied as needed. High-exposure pages will inevitably be TE-protected. Richard⁰⁶¹² 21:30, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. epicgenius (talk) 22:30, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

I started a draft guideline page at Wikipedia:TemplateStyles; it could do with some expansion and/or discussion - Evad37 [talk] 02:48, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

• A usage guideline I'm thinking we should have if going forward is that styles should be easily able to be identified and edited by being associated with a specific template or group of templates. In general, this means it should be a subpage related to the such as: Template:xxxx/styleyyyy.css. Explicitly, for articles styles should never be configured to pull from the User: namespace. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:51, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

  TemplateStyles CSS pages must have the sanitized-css (Sanitized CSS) content model, which is the default for subpages in the template namespace that end with .css (Template:Foo/bar.css). Only users with changecontentmodel (admins only here) can create them elsewhere. — JJMC89 (T·C) 23:02, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

  @JJMC89: perhaps that is a side affect of having that extension installed...currently template subpages ending in .css are in model wikitext (e.g. Template:X1/style.css). — xaosflux ^Talk 23:37, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

  Yes. You should be able to test on testwiki. — JJMC89 (T·C) 00:39, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

  Saw it there, sample for anyone watching at testwiki:Template:-/test.css. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:10, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

If allowed - default protection?

To touch on some points above, by default any confirmed user would be able to create/edit these type of pages. If we want the default to be something else we can implement controls in a few ways. The title blacklist could be used limit creations to templateeditors similar to the way we do editnotices. We could also do various things with the edit filter. As mentioned in the above section, individual pages could always be dealt with via page protections. If moving forward, do we want to establish any technical controls here? — xaosflux ^Talk 21:47, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

Is there any reason not to restrict these like editnotices? I'm not sure what a usecase would be where it would be necessary to make these visible and frequently edited. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 01:02, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Why should the styles of a template be harder to edit that the template itself. {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 01:04, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

They should really have the same protection level as their parent template. Otherwise you just encourage styles to remain inline, or get inline styles added on top of the TemplateStyles CSS since the template was editable but not the css. Perhaps an adminbot could do the protections automatically? - Evad37 [talk] 03:32, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Or just create a category akin to Category:Templates using under-protected Lua modules. {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 03:47, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

If a template is unprotected, presumably its css page would also be unprotected. What would there be to prevent a rule being maliciously added to that css page? For example, one having a selector that is not specific to the template's code, but perhaps matches some other part of a page - maybe as broad as

body { /* ... */ }

- this could potentially compromise all pages using that template. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 09:51, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

The styles are scoped to prevent that kind of thing - basically you can't mess with anything that isn't contained in an element with the class .mw-parser-output. There's still potential for abuse, don't get me wrong, but it's not that bad. Richard⁰⁶¹² 10:33, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

It says "Styles included by a template can currently affect content on the page outside of the content generated by that template" which is what I am worried about. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:06, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Oh that's true, absolutely. If there's (e.g.) a div on the page that the CSS selects, it'll be affected. But the styles couldn't affect the body or any other elements of the interface. Then again, if a vandal could edit the CSS to cause chaos, they could edit the template itself to cause chaos. Hence the logic that the CSS should have the same level of protection as its parent template. Richard⁰⁶¹² 20:20, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia talk:TemplateStyles#RFC: Adopt as a guideline

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:TemplateStyles#RFC: Adopt as a guideline. - Evad37 [talk] 08:26, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

wikitable css

Hi, I'm trying to modify the wikitable, here, but nothing worked so far, even with the !important declaration. I tried bypassing the cache, but no results after that either. So what I'm doing wrong? Thanks! --SE ^(talk) 18:13, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

@Dsm.wiki: "Warning: There is no skin "Common". Custom .css, .json, and .js pages use a lowercase title, e.g. User:Foo/vector.css as opposed to User:Foo/Vector.css."  ;) I moved the page for you. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:23, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Ow, I see it. Could you delete the redirect page too. Thank you in advance! --SE ^(talk) 18:27, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering has links to all your skin pages so you don't risk a wrong name. Click "Preferences" at top of any page and then "Appearance" to get there. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:46, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

In that case, PrimeHunter or TheDJ would you like to delete the css. I'll stick with the global one. Thank you! --SE ^(talk) 20:25, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

Deleted under WP:CSD#U1. You could have added {{db-user}} to the page. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:31, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

RFC

Please share your views on Template talk:Infobox writer#Convert to wrapper. Capankajsmilyo^{(Talk | Infobox assistance)} 02:09, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Missing links to Portuguese version of article

A reader asserts that the Portuguese version of many articles is not shown in the list of languages for many articles.

ticket:2018051810012492

The example they gave is Brazil.

I see a link to the Portuguese version so I'm not quite sure how to help them. Asked for a screenshot but they didn't know what that meant.

I have a vague recollection that the displayed interlanguage links can be configured and perhaps they have it configured wrong, but this is just a guess.

Any thoughts?--S Philbrick(Talk) 21:29, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

@Sphilbrick: This is Compact Language Links. Various factors determine which languages are shown to each user. — JJMC89 (T·C) 21:37, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks, sounds like the answer.--S Philbrick(Talk) 21:48, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

MusicBrainz in authority control box

Whether or not MusicBrainz ID numbers should be included in {{authority control}} is currently discussed at Wikipedia:External links/Noticeboard#MusicBrainz. Please discuss there, not here. --Francis Schonken (talk) 08:14, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

Show only a part of an image?

Let us say an image is 1000x500 pixels in dimensions. Is there a way to only show a 500x500 pixel portion of the image without uploading a new image? Thanks. SharkD  Talk  08:37, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

Not without a lot of CSS trickery which could make the wiki markup harder for other users to read and edit. What exactly are you trying to achieve? Richard⁰⁶¹² 08:50, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

{{CSS image crop}} can do it but it's usually better to upload a cropped version of the image. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:28, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

Ah, you learn something new every day! :) Richard⁰⁶¹² 10:30, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the template! Actually it is for other wikis like Wikia and Gamepedia. I will ask, maybe they can implement the template. SharkD  Talk  23:10, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

Always say if a question is not about the English Wikipedia. Those wikis aren't even Wikimedia wikis. Special:ExpandTemplates can show the code produced by a template but a wiki may dislike if complicated code like that is saved for a specific image. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:09, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Reflinks

Looks like the link to the tool is broken? All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 12:11, 21 May 2018 (UTC).

Which link and where do you see the link? https://tools.wmflabs.org/dispenser/cgi-bin/webreflinks.py leads to https://dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/webreflinks.py which works for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:06, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

There's also this tool, hosted at Labs. — Diannaa 🍁 (talk) 23:00, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

I've used it several time today and it has worked normally. One advantage that reflinks has over reFill is that it can format PDF's. OTOH, neither of them is foolproof and there are some refs that just have to be formatted by hand. MarnetteD|Talk 23:24, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-21

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

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 22 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 23 May. It will be on all wikis from 24 May (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 23 May at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• It could become easier to reference different pages of a book in an article. You can give feedback. The last day for feedback is 27 May.

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

17:33, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

CSD backlog?

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T195397

CAT:CSD is reporting a backlog even though there are less than 50 items in the cat. — RHaworth (talk · contribs) 12:05, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

I think the template counts sub-categories as well, so the items might be there only. Regards SoWhy 12:30, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Category:Candidates for speedy deletion has no real subcategories. The listed "Subcategories" are wikitext made by {{CSD/Subcategories}} in the category text. The problem is that {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Candidates for speedy deletion}} produces 152 at the time of writing (6 at the time this page was last rendered) while the category page only displays 13 pages at the time of writing. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:52, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Assume this is related. Admin dashboard has been reporting an inflated CSD backlog for the last two days. And the problem seems to be getting worse. I first noticed it yesterday when it reported a backlog of 133 when we only had 43. Then it went to a backlog of 176 when the actual figure was 37. Currently, we have 66 backlog, but Dashboard says it's 209. — Maile (talk) 14:43, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Dashboard now says there are 204 CSD backlog. There are only 27 CSD at the moment. There is one item only in a sub category. — Maile (talk) 18:37, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Only became noticeable this week: {{PAGESINCATEGORY|Candidates for speedy deletion}} currently showing 6, hugely in excess of the actual number: Noyster (talk), 19:19, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Phabricator login broken?

Moved from WP:AN

I'd create a phab ticket on this, but, well...

I have previously logged into phab using my mediawiki account. Now, when I open https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/ and click the login button, I'm offered buttons to 'Log in or register' with Mediawiki or 'Developer log in' with a Wikitech Account (LDAP). Clicking the first of these takes me to the mediawiki.org OAuth page, where I click the 'Allow' button. This redirects me to Auth > Mediawiki > Register (https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/auth/register/<key redacted>/) where it asks me to fill in a username and email. If I try to do so, it says that a user with this username and email is already registered (which is not unexpected). There appears to be no way to log in.

Is there anyone here who can help? GoldenRing (talk) 06:49, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

WP:VPT would be better for reporting this. I don't know, but a first check would be to ensure that nothing is blocking cookies or scripts. A solution might involve partially or fully clearing your browser history. Johnuniq (talk) 07:13, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Alternatively, try logging in using incognito/private browsing mode - that'll allow you to test with a fresh slate without having to clear your entire history. Richard⁰⁶¹² 09:26, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestion, but I get the same response in incognito mode. I'll move this to VPT. GoldenRing (talk) 13:04, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

You want User:AKlapper (WMF) for problems with Phabricator. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 14:50, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

@GoldenRing: had this happen to me a while ago and someone was kind enough to create a task to fix the issue. Would you like me to file one for you? --Cameron₁₁₅₉₈ ^(Talk) 17:13, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

@Whatamidoing (WMF):, @GoldenRing: Hi, best to bring up Phab issues on mw:Talk:Phabricator/Help (as linked from the Phab front page), so problems are not blocked on a single person (I'm on vacation this week). :) Does the "Advanced" section at mw:Phabricator/Help#Creating your account help? --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 12:04, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Russian, Japanese, and French Wikipedias will be read-only for a few minutes next Tuesday

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T194939

This project will not affect the English Wikipedia, but I'm posting this just in case you get questions here:

Remember the server switches in 2016 and 2017, when nobody could edit for half an hour while Ops did some complex maintenance work? Think of this project as a one-time, miniature version for just three Wikipedias. I understand that they're putting in new hardware for ruwiki, jawiki, and frwiki. To avoid database problems, they're going to first turn off editing, turn off the old hardware, turn on the new hardware, and then turn editing back on.

If all goes well, the read-only database lock could last as little as five minutes (maybe as long as 15 minutes). The estimated time of the outage is Tuesday, May 29th, somewhere between 10:00 and 12:00 UTC (late morning in Europe; very early morning in the Americas).

The usual processes apply: Probably nobody will post anything here, but if you happen to get questions, then you can tell people that it's expected and should be over in less than 15 minutes. If it goes on longer than expected or if something weird happens, then please report urgent problems via IRC in the #wikimedia-tech ^connect channel. You can also ping User:Trizek (WMF) on wiki, as he is much more likely to be awake at that hour than I am. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:52, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Error tracking category added by translation tool

I have noticed three or four cases where someone created a page using mw:Content translation and where an error tracking category (Category:Age error) was inserted in the translation. Examples: User:OMAR YLIF/Natalie Moszkowska (from fr:Natalie Moszkowska) and User:Dri1com/Jean Dabry (from fr:Jean Dabry). Editing the page shows the wikitext for the category in the middle of the article. This is a trivial issue but it's puzzling—how could that category end up in the translation? Johnuniq (talk) 04:00, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Is there a way of having a collapsable list similar to how the CategoryTree extension displays

Hi

I want to create a simple collapsable list of regions with countries in them for a competition I'm setting up. Is there a way I can produce something I can edit manually and specify the links that looks a little or a lot to how CategoryTree works?

If not what options are there?

Thanks

John Cummings (talk) 09:42, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

You specifically say "collapsible list" so maybe you already know {{Collapsible list}}. It has similar functionality but does not look similar. Example with nested lists:

Europe

• Western Europe

  • Germany
  • Portugal
  • Benelux

    • Belgium
    • Netherlands
    • Luxembourg
• Eastern Europe

  • Russia
  • Ukraine

PrimeHunter (talk) 10:26, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks very much @PrimeHunter:, that's very helpful, I think I found an additional option as well which looks like this.

Africa

▼

	List item 1 List item 2

John Cummings (talk) 13:47, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Searching among drafts among a particular category

Is there a way in which I can search for India related drafts?(Best if anyone can do it without fancy tools/SQL/regex or whatever.i.e something that I can remember the next time I want to do the same thing) — FR⁺ 13:58, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Drafts should not have categories or WikiProject tags so it may be hard to do better than searching the draft namespace for the string India or Indian: [3]. If you want pending submissions then add incategory:"Pending AfC submissions": [4] PrimeHunter (talk) 14:36, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

@FR30799386: There is Category:Draft-Class India articles, although some article may be missing from that category since pages need to be manually tagged with the wikiproject template to appear in that category (either by directly editing the talk page or using User:Enterprisey/draft-sorter). --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 18:34, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Why should drafts not have WikiProject tags? Surely the discussion some years ago at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 114#Widen usage of Draft-class indicates that they often should? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 09:43, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

I didn't know that practice. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:08, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Specifying an image width as a percentage of the screen rather than a number of px

Hi all

I'm putting together a competition and would like to add a banner to the top of the page, can someone tell me if there is a way of specifying that an image stretch the whole width of the page (perhaps with a maximum number of pixels for very high res screens). I want to avoid the page looking good on desktop and then breaking on mobile phones.

Thanks very much

John Cummings (talk) 14:35, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

If you're doing this on meta wiki you can specify a background image for a div(using TemplateStyles) and then specify the height and width...I don't know of a way to do it on enwiki before June 2018(When TemplateStyles goes live here) thought — FR⁺ 14:43, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks very much @FR30799386:, do you know if this available on Commons? I'm looking at the Phabricator board for template styles and I can't see either en.wiki or Commons on there.... Do you know where I can find an example I can copy from to work on Meta? Or where any instructions are? I feel like this is a bit:

Step 1: Log in,

Step 2: Do a computer science degree,

Step 3: Make the computer do the thing you want.

Thanks again

15:40, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

@John Cummings:-Umm...Sorry I made an error...it is not deployed on Meta...neither on Commons nor on enwiki — FR⁺ 16:10, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

@FR30799386:, no problem, maybe something to look forward to for next year then :) John Cummings (talk) 16:12, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Help please! – I can't type a tilde

Help please! I am going to be unable to sign this posting as when I press the normal four tildes sign on my computer, I get four vertical lines instead of what I always used to get - it like so ||||. Does any one know what has gone wrong on my computer and how this can be rectified? If this is of any assistance, it might be worth my saying that the @ and the " keys on my computer seemed to have reversed functions. Many thanks for in advance for any co-operation. |||| — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vorbee (talk • contribs) 2018-05-24T18:54:00 (UTC)

It sounds like you changed your keyboard layout in your operating system, check for controls there. Also, in the edit tools above this editing box there should be a sign button above and/or below the box. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:59, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Just in case anyone wonders who I am, I am User: Vorbee. ||||

I think the solution is that from now on, you will be known as ||||. Natureium (talk) 19:06, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Vorbee, it sounds like you might have enabled the IPA keyboard. Do you get other oddities, when you type other (non-basic) characters? If so, then look around in the corner of the editing windows for a little keyboard-style pop-up button. Click that, and switch back to something that isn't IPA. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:53, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

I tried switching to "International Phonetic Alphabet" (IPA), and it didn't give me a vertical bar in place of a tilde. --Pipetricker (talk) 23:03, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Vorbee, above the wikitext editing area, do you have a toolbar looking like any of these?:

If you have this toolbar, clicking on the button marked by the arrow will give you four tildes.

If you have this toolbar, clicking on the button marked by the red square will give you four tildes.

Or, if below your wikitext editing area you have something looking like the below, then you should be able to find a button with four tildes in the upper row:

––

Questions to find out where the problem is: Do you use Windows or Mac, and which version?

If you write text on your computer, but not in Wikipedia, such as A) on a Google search page, or B) not in your web browser, but for example in Microsoft Word or similar, do you have this problem if you try typing a tilde?

--Pipetricker (talk) 00:01, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks for your help. I have now found a way to get four tildes - if press on "Edit this page" and then go to symbols, I find the tilde symbol and can then click on that. Thank you a lot for every one's help, it is appreciated. Vorbee (talk) 08:15, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

@Vorbee: I have a desktop PC with a UK keyboard, and my Windows is set up for UK keyboard layout. Occasionally, the browser forgets this and defaults to the US keyboard layout; as you note, the tilde key generates a pipe (|) instead. Other keys move around too: the at-sign (@) and double quote (") exchange places, and the tilde moves to the key to the left of that for the figure one (1 !) - this is the one marked with three symbols (` ¦ ¬), and when shifted, produces the tilde instead of the ¬ character. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 09:50, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Collapsible sections of tables?

It there a way to have something like

Table

Date	Player	Result
2015 [hide]
2015-05-06	Bob	Won
2015-08-06	Suzy	Lost
2016 [hide]
2016-05-06	Bob	Won
2016-05-09	Bob	Won

Where the 2015 [hide] would collapse the 2015 rows, but leave the 2016 rows displayed? Thanks. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 18:57, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

@Headbomb: You could always fake it with separate tables:

Table

Date	Player	Result

2015
2015-05-06	Bob	Won
2015-08-06	Suzy	Lost

2016
2016-05-06	Bob	Won
2016-05-09	Bob	Won

--Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 19:22, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

@Ahecht: Was hoping for something that'd still be sortable at the end of the day. And something that would inherit all the properties from the top level, rather than have to specify every width in sub-levels to ensure consistency. Not sure if that's doable. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 09:52, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Adblock Plus is blocking something in popups

I've just noticed that whenever I hover my mouse over a link to get the popup on a Wikipedia page, Adblock Plus's counter on the status bar shows it blocked something. The filter lists I'm using are the latest versions of Adblock Warning Removal List, EasyPrivacy, Fanboy's Social Blocking List and EasyList. The counter gets incremented but there's seemingly no difference in the content display whether Adblock Plus is disabled or enabled. I don't know how to find out which element is Adblock Plus blocking. What is going on? 93.136.122.81 (talk) 19:37, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Ehm.. ask adblock ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:15, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

You can check what adblock is blocking in your own browser. For example in Firefox, click the Tools menu, Web Developer, Toggle Tools and then Adblock plus. Then reload the page. Entries with an red font are the entries that Adblock is blocking on that page.--Snaevar (talk) 10:35, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

"Sorry! This site is experiencing technical difficulties"

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T195520

Hi, I keep getting:
Sorry! This site is experiencing technical difficulties.
Try waiting a few minutes and reloading.

(Cannot access the database: Cannot access the database: No working replica DB server: Unknown error (10.64.16.84:3318))
When I click on prev, diffs and history,
Wasn't sure if those behind the scenes knew so thought I'd give a heads up, Thanks, –Davey2010^Talk 19:38, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

me too! GrahamHardy (talk) 19:48, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Those behind the scenes are working on it :) - Phab's here for anyone interested > https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T195520. –Davey2010^Talk 19:51, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

I can't login, or rather I can but then get the error message above. Somehow I got logged out, maybe fat thumbs on my iPad. Is 2FA affected by this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.11.114.177 (talk) 19:55, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

This has also been happening to me for the last 10 minutes or so; I hope it can be fixed soon! Every morning (there's a halo...) 20:00, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I'm having issues as well. I can only hope this edit goes through. Master of Time (talk) 20:01, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

My question is whether the information which I had typed and was saving when the message popped up is irretrievably lost? SusunW (talk) 20:13, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

I've been copying edits before I try to save them, just in case I have to repaste and try again. Despite that, sometimes I've had to do the repaste thing, but I have also had some edits where I got the error message but they somehow went through anyway. Bearcat (talk) 20:16, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

@SusunW: (e/c) Unless you went back in your history when you received the error (in a modern browser that keeps state) and then copy-pasted what you typed, then likely yes it is gone. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:18, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

This problem is also occurring on Commons, so perhaps is a Mediawiki/Metawiki problem. --Animalparty! (talk) 20:17, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

It was a problem throughout most of the Wikimedia properties. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:20, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

@Bearcat: thanks for that. Animalparty I was able to hit my back key three times and eventually get to the information that I was trying to add. 2,547 bites would've been a lot to recreate. I will start making copies for a bit to prevent problems. SusunW (talk) 20:21, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Will this edit work?— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:24, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Finally. I tried to start a thread here and couldn't. I tried to reply when I discovered this one and couldn't. Tried again a few minutes later and couldn't.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:25, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Just FYI, this hotfix has resolved the issue temporarily while the devs figure out a permanent fix for what appears to be Wikidata object disambiguation DoS-ing the database servers. Richard⁰⁶¹² 21:06, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

And as an FYI to that FYI, note that this hotfix has disabled some Wikidata functionality:

Status summary:
* PropertySuggester is disabled
* TermSqlIndex::getMatchingTerms is monkey-patched to return an empty list, https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/q/I4a8cd1028fd2c5bfc83e8780eea82f0eb79d817f
* Properties referenced by name from Lua or parser functions are not found (resolvePropertyId returns flase negatives).
* Special:ItemDisambiguation falsely returns no results
* ArticlePlaceholder does not offer matches on Special:Search and should probably be disabled for now

There are some suggestions of further actions on https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/wb_terms_solution. Needs cleaning up and proper task breakdown.

Logging more info now, see https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/q/Id9fdc74829e6268ecc3861602adf6666c2eaffc4

--Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 21:58, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

CSS question

Just browsing List of Police Camera Action episodes and noticed this:

<tr class="vevent" style="text-align:center;background:inherit">

Why are these inline CSS and not in the MediaWiki/Common.css for the vevent declarations? Just trying to learn some CSS for my own stylesheets. --Chelston-temp-1 (talk) 23:07, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

The right link is List of Police Camera Action! episodes. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:19, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for correcting the link. Tried to put code in but didn't quite work. --Chelston-temp-1 (talk) 08:29, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

@Chelston-temp-1: a very good question. The reason is because "MediaWiki:Common.css" is loaded on EVERY page, for EVERY user. We have a lot of CSS that is specific to a small subset of pages and moving all of that into a central page would be highly inefficient. So instead, we only have the most common/widely spread css into this central file and statements that are much rarer remain as style attributes.

However, very soon, we will have TemplateStyles, specifically to deal with this problem. It will then be possible for templates to include style sheets specific to that template, that will then be included only on the pages that are using those style statements. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:57, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

I didn't know that. I tried to replicate parts of the table when doing HTML the other day! --Chelston-temp-1 (talk) 10:08, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

@Chelston-temp-1: In HTML, classes have several purposes, and construction of selectors in style sheets is just one of them. Another use is in web scraping: external software might use a class in order to pick out certain data from a web page, and I am pretty certain that this is the purpose of the vevent class.

As regards where we also use that class, have a look at e.g. Wikipedia:UK Wikipedians' notice board, the section headed "Meetups". The list in that section is a table, and every entry for a single meetup has the vevent class. If the styling text-align:center;background:inherit were to be added to the style sheet for that class, this table would have centred text and a pink background, which we probably do not wish. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 11:50, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Help compiling a list of editors by experience level

I am a little out of my depth on this one, so would appreciate a bit of help. The background for this is to help identify a pool of editors from which might be found candidates to invite to join New Page Patrol and/or Articles for Creation.

I would like to compile a list of editors (listed by edit count) who:

• Are not members of the new page reviewer or administrator user groups,
• Have >3000 main space edits,
• Have >500 edits in the last 365 days,
• Have been registered longer than 365 days,
• Have a clean block log for at least 365 days,
• Have performed at least 5 page moves,
• Have created at least 2 non-stub articles in main space,
• Have had no created articles deleted in the last 365 days.

While I would prefer to be able to run it as an SQL query through Quarry, Xaosflux mentioned that it might have to come from a dump, because with the many criteria its run time might be too long for Quarry. Xaosflux mentioned that NKohli (WMF) might be able to help there.

First though I need to have a query to run, and I am sad to report that my coding experience is limited to copy pasting and stitching bits of other people's queries together into bizarre Frankenstein's monster queries. When it comes to making something like this from scratch I need some help (I need someone to write it for me). If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. Cheers, — Insertcleverphrasehere ^{(or here)} 03:05, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Best ask those at Wikipedia:WikiProject edit counters....that said see Wikipedia:Edit count lots of tools there.--Moxy (talk) 03:17, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

I am well aware of all the lists. I previously used the top Wikipedian's list for my last round of invites, however, manually sorting editors on basic criteria such as activity level was very time consuming. I am hoping to narrow the field beforehand this time (the process will still involve manual checks on some stuff, but if I can run a query for editors meeting ALL of the above, then most of the work will be done before I start. Edit counter tools are great for analysing individual users, and the edit count lists are great for specific things, but I am looking for a complex combination of criteria that can only be put together via a custom query. — Insertcleverphrasehere ^{(or here)} 03:31, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Please note I only mentioned NKohli in the event you wanted this to be a recurring Database Report that was run by User:Community_Tech_bot. — xaosflux ^Talk 03:53, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

If there's a remotely efficient way to query any of that besides user groups and registry time without a specific user to check, its beyond my ability. (I've got a query that's the polar opposite of "remotely efficient" running for everything up to and including the block log check running; I'll check in on it in the morning, and be very unsurprised if it's still running.) You might get more luck, or at least a different audience, at Wikipedia:Request a query. —Cryptic 04:37, 25 May 2018 (UTC)