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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
This newsletter is now posted using MediaWiki message delivery.
New features
- The CommonsMetadata feature was added to all wikis. It creates metadata information about multimedia files (like their license) that can be read automatically by computer programs. It not only works for Commons, but for all wikis, and you can use it for files on your wiki by editing templates used to describe metadata. [1]
- JavaScript code used on Wikimedia sites is now saved locally on your computer to load faster. [2]
- You can now paste formatted content copied from external sources (not just as plain text) into VisualEditor; this includes copy/pasting from other VisualEditor windows. [3]
- You can now open VisualEditor by adding
?veaction=editto the page URL, regardless of your user preferences. [4] - Many bugs have been fixed, and VisualEditor should also look faster, for example when you save a page. [5]
Problems
- Due to issues, the new search tool ("CirrusSearch") was recently removed from wikis where it was enabled, then added again. [6]
Future
- MediaWiki 1.23wmf6 was added to test wikis on December 5. It will arrive to non-Wikipedia wikis on December 10 and all Wikipedia wikis on December 12 (calendar).
- The old Etherpad tool (replaced by a new version) will be removed on December 30, 2013. You can still save old pads before that date using the old address: https://etherpad-old.wikimedia.org. [7]
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