Appropedia's development log of notable changes (latest on top):
2024[edit | edit source]
February[edit | edit source]
- Fix backend issues with the MediaWiki job queue and Elasticsearch
- Improve mw:Skin:Poncho so that it requires sends much less CSS and JavaScript to users
- Deprecate and disable mw:Extension:CategoryTests
- Improve Extension:Appropedia so that it categorizes automatically pages with various errors, see Category:Tracking categories
- Add "title-tag" to Template:Page data to control the title meta tags and set it for all pages with titles too long
- Simplify and improve CSS and wikitext of all databoxes
- Improve mw:Skin:Poncho to support the new media format, see mw:Manual:$wgParserEnableLegacyMediaDOM
January[edit | edit source]
- Add more visible button to email users, see User:Sophivorus
- Improve mw:Skin:Poncho to avoid internal API calls, see here
- Create Template:EXISTS to avoid thousands of spurious links in Special:WantedPages and others
- Add icons to databoxes and navigation menus, see for example Template:User data and Template:NREMT menu
- Create maintenance script to automatically delete broken redirects, see deleteBrokenRedirects.php
- Template:Excerpt, Template:Wikipedia excerpt and Template:Place now use Template:Card for a more unified UI/UX
- Generalize Appropedia:Devlog into Appropedia:Changelog and transclude it in Special:RecentChanges
- Improve mw:Extension:GoogleTranslate so that only full translations get saved, see Special:Contributions/Translations bot
- Fix search and other backend issues, see Appropedia:Village pump#Search non functional?
2023[edit | edit source]
December[edit | edit source]
- Categorize user pages automatically based on email domain, see Module:Appropedia for the code and User:Long-Potato for an example
- Categorize translations in the same categories as parent page from Template:Automatic translation notice, so that they show in Special:Search, see for example Special:Search/inlanguage:de incategory:Water
- Develop Lua library for Appropedia, see https://github.com/Appropedia/extension
- Fix logspam issue with Extension:SemanticResultFormats
- Update to MediaWiki 1.39.6
- Start experimenting with Template:How to notice
- Write and run script to add Template:File data to all file pages
- Add subpages and prefixed pages to Template:Page data
- Organize and improve many categories and templates
November[edit | edit source]
- Fix internal PHP errors and warnings due to update to PHP 8.2
- Simplify and improve quiz score saving
- Highlight relevant video annotations as the video progresses, see Template:Video
- Add support for annotations for local videos and videos hosted at Commons, see Template:Video
October[edit | edit source]
- Speed up scripts/generateOpenKnowHowManifest.php
- Develop and deploy mw:Extension:CloudflarePurge to replace slow mw:Extension:Cloudflare
- Disable mw:MiniEdit for anonymous users
- Improve mw:Extension:TalkBelow
- Finally disconnect deprecated Google Universal Analytics
- Categorize content pages based on Template:Page data keywords
- Update to PHP 8.1
September[edit | edit source]
- Enable mw:Extension:Cloudflare to purge the Cloudflare cache when a page is changed
- Fix https://dev.appropedia.org and start testing Appropedia as a Progressive Web Application
- Improve accessibility standards
- Fix Twitter cards, sort of
- Replace mw:Extension:Metadata for mw:Extension:Semantic Meta Tags
Improve mw:Extension:InterwikiExtracts to be able to hit Appropedia's API and get plain text descriptions of pages- Start Appropedia:Performance
- Create mw:Extension:GoogleTagManager with code from Extension:Appropedia
- Finally fix mw:Extension:DiscussionTools, see mw:Topic:X9zviki367qeczo5 and https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T346735
- Improve performance by showing a thumbnail rather than an iframe for YouTube videos, see Template:Video
- Improve performance by lazy-loading image thumbnails, except the first of each page
- Improve mw:Extension:GoogleTranslate and mw:Extension:HTMLPurifier
- Add <meta> tags from Template:Page data
Add experimental Like button- Improve spam protection via Cloudflare
- Create mw:Extension:ReadAloud with functionality previously on Skin:Poncho
- Create mw:Extension:GoogleTranslate with functionality previously on Skin:Poncho
August[edit | edit source]
- Improve event tracking via Google Tag Manager
- Document mw:Extension:TalkBelow and improve it so that it's now possible to reply from the content pages
- Deprecate Template:Skill data and Template:Biographical data
- Improve Extension:TalkBelow so that new topics can be created from the content pages
- Add links to frequent API queries and documentation to Template:Page data and Template:File data
July[edit | edit source]
- Improve automatic translations so that old translations are not replaced by new ones unless the new ones are more complete
- Create Extension:TalkBelow to show the talk pages below the content
- Simplify Template:Header
- Create Appropedia:Initiatives
- Improve PDF generation from Template:Menu
- Create EDDIY
- Improve Appropedia logos, icons, favicons, etc.
- Improve icons in mw:Skin:Poncho
- Improve support for project branding, see Fashion Revolution and SELF
June[edit | edit source]
- Set up Cloudflare for anonymous visits
- Fix responsive Poncho and enable on mobile devices, so that the interface and cache is the same
- Improve Poncho so that the HTML of anons is always the same and can be cached
- Fix and improve Cloudflare cache
- Add icons to sidebar
- Improve Template:Notice so that only the title is shown in mobile devices, and the rest when the user clicks "more"
- Mark many pages as topics with Template:Topic notice and add "Topics" as a page type filter, see Special:Search
- Deprecate Template:References in favor of plain <references /> tag due to better compatibility with visual editor
- Simplify sidebar and move link to Appropedia:Admin panel to user menu (only for sysops)
- Refine main page
- Wikitext standardization is now done by User:StandardWikitext bot and User:Appropedia bot rather than by the account of the user doing the edit
- Fix file pages created with the visual editor
- Improve mw:Skin:Poncho so that thumbs in wikitables look better, see Uniplanar External Fixation/Materials and Equipment
- Empty Special:DeadendPages
- Extension:Appropedia now adds Template:Page data and moves categories to the bottom automatically
- Merge and rename "Interwiki links" section to "External links"
- Start categorizing automatic translations
- Internationalize search filters, see Special:Search
- Rewrite guidelines on use of AI
- Empty Category:Pages with no parent by replacing / with \ and update Appropedia:Page naming accordingly
May[edit | edit source]
- Install Google Tag Manager
- Rewrite and repurpose mw:Extension:Metadata to replace the mw:Extension:SemanticRESTAPI and some of SMW itself
- Create Template:Topic notice and add it to relevant pages in Appropedia:Top
- Deprecate "type" parameter in Template:Page data
- Install Extension:MediaSearch for advanced media search, see Special:MediaSearch
- Create signup form for the newsletter and add link to the home page
- Improve WikiEdit tool with a checkbox to mark edits as minor and a field to input an edit summary
- Improve read aloud feature to highlight what's being read and to allow jumping anywhere with a click
- Add rule to .htaccess to fix accidental requests to /wiki, see for example https://www.appropedia.org/wiki/Water
- Disable mw:Extension:PageForms
- Fix backend issue that delayed edit requests
- Fix errors in Extension:Antispam and Extension:DiscussionTools
- Fix https://dev.appropedia.org/
- Add support for up to 50 items to Template:Bill of materials
- Refine spam protection to improve performance
- Fix email sending
- More improvements to WikiEdit, now it can edit many other elements besides paragraphs
- Improve new edit feature for paragraphs (and now also list items), see MediaWiki:Gadget-WikiEdit.js
- Enable mw:Extension:Gadgets
April[edit | edit source]
- Add new edit feature, see little [edit] button when hovering over paragraphs
- Add "Skills" to search filters, see Special:Search
- Create Category:Pages with no parent
- Update MediaWiki from 1.39.1 to 1.39.3, see Special:Version
- Migrate stuff in the MediaWiki namespace to Extension:Appropedia, see remaining stuff
- Delete unused Modules, see remaining modules
- Add messages of Extension:Appropedia to translatewiki.net, see translation project
- Fix and improve mw:Extension:StandardWikitext
- Document and simplify data structure, see Property:Type
- Add "Papers", "Books" and "Literature reviews" to search filters, and remove Location filter, see Special:Search
- Request that Extension:Appropedia gets added to translatewiki.net, see https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T334684
- Add custom interface messages to Extension:Appropedia
March[edit | edit source]
- Improve Appropedia:Admin panel
- Deploy Extension:Appropedia
- Fix and improve Template:Set reminder
- Create Extension:Appropedia to clump together all PHP, JavaScript and CSS Appropedia-specific
- Fix and improve Appropedia:New page on mobile
- Fix mw:Extension:DiscussionTools, again
- Mark edits made by bots so they don't appear in recent changes
- Fix and improve automatic translation script, see MediaWiki:Translate.js
- Add coordinates parameter to Template:Place to reduce requests to https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org
- Fix and improve Template:Set reminder
- Develop and deploy mw:Extension:StandardWikitext
- Reduce and simplify semantic structure
- Create Template:Set reminder and improve and simplify the "persistent notice" system (now called "reminders")
February[edit | edit source]
- Create Template:Search results
- Create mw:Extension:SearchParserFunction
- General improvements to all databoxes
- Remove or limit styling parameters in most templates because they don't work well with dark-mode, mobile and other site-wide styling
- Improve styling and behavior of Template:Header
- Improve Template:Page data, see "creation", "last edit", "automatic translations" and "what links here" fields
- Improve MediaWiki:Translate.js
- Create persistent notices system, see Template:Persistent notice and links thereof
- Improve mainpage gallery
- Improve mw:Skin:Poncho with fixed table of contents and many details and improvements under-the-hood
- Improve automatic translation script
- Disable mw:Extension:Antispam for autoconfirmed users
- Search results now show the "display title" rather than the title, which is crucial for automatic translations, see this
- Deprecate "keywords" parameter in Template:File data
- Delete obsolete notices and improve existing ones
- Rename notices in Category:Notice templates so that all end in "notice"
- Again improve logo handling of mw:Skin:Poncho
January[edit | edit source]
- Update to SemanticMediaWiki 4.1 to get rid of deprecation errors
- Replace 99% of mainspace calls to parser functions for appropriate templates
- Fix mw:Extension:MyVariables, see https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/MyVariables/+/873502
- Improve logo handling of mw:Skin:Poncho
- Update mw:Extension:NumberFormat, see https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/NumberFormat/+/880467
- Simplify.htaccess
- Use mw:Extension:HitCounters to track impact instead of mw:Extension:Metadata
- Update hit_counters table with data from Google Analytics
- Rebuild semantic metadata to fix duplicated entities bug
- Fix, update and improve all widgets
- Enable GoogleTagManager
- Clean database by removing obsolete tables
- Fix DiscussionTools by reverting to 1.35 version
- Create https://dev.appropedia.org to debug DiscussionTools and for future development and testing
- Install mw:Extension:QRLite and create Template:QR code
- Install mw:Extension:QuickInstantCommons
- Debug and fix job queue
2022[edit | edit source]
December[edit | edit source]
- Start experiment with cards in search results, see Special:Search/water
- Simplify and improve search logic in Special:Search
- Add Translations field to Template:Page data
- Change "published" for "years" in Template:Page data
- Patch Extension:MyVariables to fix Template:Gallery and others
- Update mw:Extension:RottenLinks, see Special:RottenLinks
- Rename database user from "appropedia_2020" to "appropedia"
- Replace all file copyright templates for "license" parameter in Template:File data
- Improve Template:Create to replace Widget:Create
- Fix issue with Elastic Search due to update to MediaWiki 1.39
- Change logo to fix display issue in mobile devices due to update to MediaWiki 1.39
- Convert all file pages to simpler standard format
- Update mw:Extension:SearchThumbs for compatibility with MediaWiki 1.39
- Update Appropedia to MediaWiki 1.39
- Update mw:Skin:Poncho for compatibility with MediaWiki 1.39
- Add Property:Hardware license and Property:Software license to Template:Device data
- Add "navigation-not-searchable" and "searchaux" classes to Template:Databox and other templates to improve search results, see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:CirrusSearch#Exclude_content_from_the_search_index
Add snippet to LocalSettings.php that adds Template:Page data automatically to all content pages that don't have it- Update documentation of book functionality, see Help:Books, Template:Menu and Category:Appropedia books
- Load MediaWiki:Mobile.css asynchronously to prevent flash of unstyled content
- Simplify Special:Search UI on mobile
- Merge Template:Book into Template:Menu
- Install mw:Extension:CodeEditor
- Rethink, redesign, simplify and improve Template:Book
- Simplify, debug and improve print mode and book printing
- Test Appropedia ZIM file for offline use with Kiwix, see https://github.com/openzim/mwoffliner/issues/1556
- Fix bug with Extension:InterwikiExtracts
- Improve feedback form
- Simplify and improve UI of Special:UploadWizard, Appropedia:New page and MediaWiki:Sidebar
- Track clicks to sidebar, search filters and other elements using new Google Analytics 4
November[edit | edit source]
- Track custom events in Google Analytics 4
- Set allowed values for Property:SDG and fix 100+ pages with typos in their SDGs
- Add location filter to user search
- Fix backend errors and warnings
- Distribute map locations in pages of no more than 50 locations to avoid excessive geocoding requests to Open Street Map
- Improve UX and UI based on Hotjar recordings
- Update, simplify and organize MediaWiki:Common.css
- Delete old temp files and backups to free disk space
- Create Template:Search and start to link it from databoxes
- Simplify sidebar by moving some links to footer
- mw:Extension:Page Forms deprecated and no longer used except for the #arraymap parser function, see Special:Forms
- Improve search filters, see Special:Search
- Track and fix misc fatal errors that were bringing down the server
- Install newrelic.com to monitor server performance
October[edit | edit source]
- Improve and simplify search interface
- Install New Relic to monitor server performance
- Add "info" parameter to Template:Databox and use it in existing databoxes
- Update and trim main.htaccess file
- Disable mw:Extension:RegexFunctions per no longer used
- Improve mw:Extension:InterwikiExtracts with an "api" parameter to specify api endpoints directly
- Update, fix and trim all interwiki links, see Special:Interwiki
- Improve Template:Wikipedia excerpt and Template:Wikipedia definition so that they get content from the appropriate language Wikipedia
- Fix all errors at Special:ProcessingErrorList and Category:Pages with math errors
- Increase PHP memory_limit to 256M to allow large file uploads
- Simplify, fix and improve collapse behavior in Template:Menu, Template:Horizontal menu and Template:Databox
- Develop generateKiwixList.php for generating ZIM files of public Appropedia pages, see https://github.com/openzim/mwoffliner/issues/1556
- Merge Appropedia and GSTC logo at Global Surgical Training Challenge
- Develop Widget:Civics to embed maps in community action pages
- Show resource type in search results, see for example Special:Search/panel
- Replace page review script for comment script that runs in content pages after 30 seconds (see MediaWiki:Common.js) because 90%+ of page reviews were empty or useless, see for example Talk:Save the planet board game
- Limit custom error reporting to fatal errors, see /home/appropedia/logs/fatal_error_log
- Develop first version of custom error reporting, see /home/appropedia/logs/custom_error_log
- Create Category:Pages with math errors and fix math errors
- Remove edit section links from previous automatic translations using Appropedia:AutoWikiBrowser
- Improve MediaWiki:Translate.js so that it doesn't save edit section links and translations render ok in mobile
- Disable MediaWiki:Comment.js due to disuse
- Fix PHP errors due to recent update to PHP 7.4
Previous[edit | edit source]
- Appropedia:Dashboard now gathers all key links and data for admins
- Appropedia:UI now gathers all key interface messages and tips
- Wikivideos are now available
- CERN-OHL-S-2.0 is now the default hardware license
- New Template:Tabs for creating up to 9 tabs
- Template:Page data now detects and reports page issues automatically
- New Template:List for generating dynamic lists of pages
- mw:Extension:ExternalData is now enabled, allowing us to query and reuse data from external sites, like Template:Databox/greenweb
- New Template:News for creating news as semantic objects that can be listed anywhere using Template:Newslist
- mw:Skin:Poncho now features a persistent sidebar (menu icon on the top left), a dark mode and a read mode (eye icon on the top right)