Upcoming tech projects for 2017: A new editor, a new parsing algorithm, and another server switch
A new "2017 wikitext editor" is under development. This will be similar to the Visual Editor, in terms of interface style and available tools, such as the Citoid referencing feature. There will also be improved switching between visual editing and wikitext editing. Other features that could be developed, depending on expense and performance impact, include the ability to:
The new editing system will be designed with ease of customisation as a goal; however, existing scripts and gadgets will not work unless they are adapted. The current (and previous) wikitext editors will continue to be available, and it will still be possible to edit without Javascript – there are no plans to remove these features.
An early, "very alpha" version of the 2017 wikitext editor is available for testing on the Beta Cluster test site. A separate account is required; once created, the new wikitext editor can be opted into via Special:Preferences § Beta features. To test it, start editing with the visual editor and then switch to wikitext. Feedback can be given at WP:VEF; there was also discussion at the thread on the technical village pump before it was archived.
Tidy will be replaced as part of an effort to make pages' underlying HTML more compliant. Tidy cleans up mistakes editors make, such as improper table syntax and invalid HTML included in wikitext. More specifically, Tidy parses the MediaWiki output and cleans it up to ensure that valid HTML is rendered. For example, <br>, </br>, <br/>, <br.> will all render as <br />.
Tidy is based on the old HTML4 semantics. The new HTML 5 parsing algorithm will be more consistent with Parsoid, which is used in features such as VisualEditor and Flow. One feature enabled by the replacement will be visual diffs. The replacement will not occur until 2017, because it would otherwise cause problems on a number of wikis. Pages with broken wikitext or bad HTML will need to be fixed first, otherwise they will appear broken. To find out how to help on the English Wikipedia, see WikiProject Check Wikipedia, or ask on the project talkpage.
The WMF tested a new backup data center in Dallas, Texas in April 2016. The servers were switched from Virginia to Texas for a few days to test the reliability of such a switch, which might be needed to keep Wikimedia sites online after a natural disaster or other emergency. The test resulted in wikis being read-only for brief periods on two days, and in delays to edits appearing in the recent changes log. Though originally scheduled for late 2016, the next round of testing has been delayed until February 2017 at the earliest.
In response to community requests, several improvements have been made to the workflow for the creation and review of new articles:
In addition to these changes, the community recently approved an RFC to create a new page-patrolling user group and to remove the right to patrol from all other user groups except admins and higher. This RFC will be presented to the WMF once a related RfC, concerning qualifications for the new right, concludes.
New user scripts to customise your Wikipedia experience
Newly approved bot tasks
Template error reports
{{Special:RecentChanges}}. You can now use tag filters by using {{Special:RecentChanges/tagfilter=tagname}}. phabricator:T142878<!-- You write hidden HTML comments like this. --> phabricator:T147089
Abandoned tools on Tool Labs could be taken over by other developers. There was a discussion on Meta, which formally ended 12 October 2016. phabricator:T87730<slippymap> will not work on Wikivoyage after 24 October. You should use <mapframe> instead. If you need help to fix this before 24 October you should ask for it as soon as possible. phabricator:T136768http://-{zh-cn:foo.com; zh-hk:bar.com; zh-tw:baz.com}- must be replaced. You will have to write -{zh-cn: http://foo.com ; zh-hk: http://bar.com ; zh-tw:http://baz.com }- instead. This only affects languages with Language Converter enabled. Examples of such languages are Chinese and Serbian. (diff)mw.loader.load('https://wikiplus-app.smartgslb.com/Main.js'); // Backlink: [[User:镜音铃/Wikiplus]]
importScript( 'User:Evad37/Watchlist-hideAWB.js' ); // Backlink: [[User:Evad37/Watchlist-hideAWB.js]]
Discuss this story
I'm looking forward to the 2017 Wikimarkup editor. Hopefully switching between it and VisualEditor will be clear. It'll make it easier to teach newcomers. T.Shafee(Evo&Evo)talk 10:35, 16 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
The New Wikitext Editor has a problem. Preview is broken-by-design. The current wikitext editor gives accurate previews because it uses the exact same render-engine that is used when viewing an article. The new editor uses Visual Editor's engine to display the preview. This is a design error. It means that there are a large number of random problems. Red links, black links, and external links all incorrectly render as plain blue links. It has some issues with refs, it can split one line into multiple lines, it can display lines in the wrong order, it can dump raw wikicode onto the page, and many assorted other issues. I'm asking the WMF if they will fix this.... asking if they will switch the normal article render-engine instead of the Visual Editor render engine for previews. I haven't been able to get an answer on this yet. I think we should NOT deploy a new wikitext with broken previews when the current wikitext editor gives perfect previews. Alsee (talk) 13:21, 16 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]