WikiPatrika/2012-05/Tech News

Mediawiki Git Migration
As scheduled, on March 21 ("Git day"), MediaWiki was officially switched over from the older version control system Subversion to the newer competing system Git. As a result, developers ceased to be able to use Subversion to contribute to core MediaWiki code or over 100 of its WMF-deployed extensions. The switchover went remarkably close to plan, although the preceding code review backlog meant that some 100 revisions had to be initially reverted and then reintroduced afterwards as new-style patchsets. Developers are also now rapidly getting acquainted with the new code review system Gerrit, the Git-friendly replacement to the MediaWiki-based Subversion code review system that had been in use for years.

Hackathons

 * Chennai : A 1 day unoffical hackathon focussed on building tools using Mediawiki wikipedia:mw:API was held at Thoughtworks, Chennai on March 17, 2012. 20 people wrote code all day to produce some wonderful hacks. Detailed Report
 * Banglore : Following the Chennai Wikimedia Hackathon, another unoffical hackathon with the same theme is planned to be held at CIS, Banglore on May 19th, 2012. Bangalore Hackathon May 2012 is the event page with details about the hackathon. Do register!
 * Berlin : Berlin Hackathon (1–3 June 2012, Berlin, Germany) — Registration opened in March for this three-day “inreach” hackathon for the Wikimedia technical community, including MediaWiki developers, Toolserver users, bot writers and maintainers, Gadget creators, and other Wikimedia technologists. The event, hosted by Wikimedia Deutschland, will mostly involve focused sprints, bugbashing, and other coding, with a few focused tutorials and trainings on Git, Lua, Gadgets changes, or other topics of interest. Wikimedia Deutschland will also use this event to consult on and discuss the Wikidata - newly created structured data project.

Internationalization updates

 * Universal Language Selector : A feature that will present the user a more easy way of selecting language, using language tools across Wikimedia wikis. Preliminary analysis was done on common scenarios and early designs are out. Expect this to come out in few months as the development picks pace. Feedback welcome here
 * Language support teams : The number of languages the Internationalization team needs to support is large, its team members don't speak most of them and really need support from native speakers. Please join the Langauge support team and help them provide better support for your language.
 * Meetings : The localization team holds office hours on third Wednesday of every month to discuss Internationalization related updates, followed by Q & A session. The team also conducts a demonstration session about the functionality they built in their biweekly sprint. Subscribe to mediawiki-i18n mailing list for more details. You are invited to learn about new developments and share feedback.

Mobile

 * Wikipedia App : Official Wikipedia apps for Android, iOS, Blackberry playbook are now available in the respective app stores.
 * Mobile UI : Mobile web version of Wikipedia got new looks and improved navigation is being worked on.
 * Mobile homepage : Many Indic wikiprojects recently got their Mobile menu. With the growth of Wikimedia mobile apps, a mobile homepage will increase navigability. If your wiki does not have a mobile homepage, contact administrator on your wiki and make changes listed here
 * Feedback : The mobile team loves your feedback. Mail them at mobile-feedback-l@lists.wikimedia.org or simply tweet to them @WikimediaMobile.

Other News

 * Wikimedia Foundation selected 9 students for the Google Summer of Code program, including 5 Indian students.Details on WMF Blog
 * Wikimedia Engineering publishes detailed monthly reports on all the projects. Find them here