Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

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).

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. Discussions are automatically archived after remaining inactive for five days.

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Frequently asked questions (see also: Wikipedia:FAQ/Technical)

Click "[show]" next to each point to see more details.

If something looks wrong, purge the server's cache, then bypass your browser's cache.
This tends to solve most issues, including improper display of images, user-preferences not loading, and old versions of pages being shown.

No, we will not use JavaScript to set focus on the search box.
This would interfere with usability, accessibility, keyboard navigation and standard forms. See task 3864. There is an `accesskey` property on it (default to `accesskey="f"` in English). Logged-in users can enable the "Focus the cursor in the search bar on loading the Main Page" gadget in their preferences.

No, we will not add a spell-checker, or spell-checking bot.
You can use a web browser such as Firefox, which has a spell checker.

If you have problems making your fancy signature work, check Help:How to fix your signature.

If you changed to another skin and cannot change back, use this link.
Alternatively, you can press Tab until the "Save" button is highlighted, and press Enter. Using Mozilla Firefox also seems to solve the problem.

If an image thumbnail is not showing, try purging its image description page.
If the image is from Wikimedia Commons, you might have to purge there too. If it doesn't work, try again before doing anything else. Some ad blockers, proxies, or firewalls block URLs containing /ad/ or ending in common executable suffixes. This can cause some images or articles to not appear.

For server or network status, please see Wikimedia Status. If you cannot reach Wikipedia services, see Reporting a connectivity issue.

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Semi-protected talk pages crash

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T389872

Whenever I press Add topic on a semi-protected talk page(the talk page itself is protected, not the origin page) the browser crashes with error code Aw Snap SIGSEGV. This implies that the page was trying to edit a part of restricted memory. This does not happen on non-protected pages. I am using a Chromebook model name CR1104CGA updated to the latest version, and with browser version 126.0.6478.265 It seems that the computer that you are doing this on matters a lot as other computers, and even other Chromebooks do not give the same outcome. Caleb's World11 (talk) 19:39, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Start with the instructions at Google Support and report back. Izno (talk) 21:56, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Caleb's World11 I'm having the exact same issue, except it's happening pretty much everywhere, including creating pages and protected non-talk pages. Gaismagorm (talk) 12:54, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

it looks like it doesn't always crash when creating pages, but it does always crash when editing protected articles Gaismagorm (talk) 13:22, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Going in order

I am properly connected to the internet and have no issues on other web pages.
Unable to do so, however the issue persists across multiple computers.
when the only app open is wikipedia, the crash still happens. note that I am unable to remove extensions and that this is most likely not a crash due to running out of memory.
Issue persists across restarts
Chrome is on the latest version
Unable to remove all extensions because I am using a managed computer.

Caleb's World11 (talk) 14:26, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Bug report has been submitted on phabricator Caleb's World11 (talk) 16:44, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Gaismagorm (talk) 17:11, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Issue with editing any protected pages on Chromebook.

Hello, I have been having issues with editing any protected articles on my Barla chromebook. Whenever I attempt to edit it, it gives the "oh snap" error screen, with the "SIGSEGV" error code. I have tried shutting off my Chromebook, changing Wi-Fi, signing in and then out, clearing my cache/cookies, making sure my Chromebook version is up to date, and switching from visual to source editor. None of it worked. Some options are unavailable as this chromebook is run by an administration, so some features are not available.

P.S. Yes, I know that @Caleb's World11 posted on this forum with the same issue. It appears that discussion kind of went stale, so I'm relisting this. Gaismagorm (talk) 12:50, 18 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried freeing up space? And a hardware reset? Polygnotus (talk) 17:41, 18 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I tried freeing up space, didn't work. I'm gonna procrastinate on the second one since it will be a major hassle to deal with getting everything back to order once I reset the Chromebook, since, like I said, it is administration ran. Gaismagorm (talk) 18:02, 18 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Polygnotus @Caleb's World11 I found a solution. If you switch from desktop to mobile view, editing works. Gaismagorm (talk) 18:09, 18 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

~~@Polygnotus @Caleb's World11 it seems like the issue has been resolved. My best guess was that the server maitinence fixed it.~~ Gaismagorm (talk) 15:14, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

nevermind, it's not fixed. I don't know why I thought it was. Gaismagorm (talk) 15:15, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Archiving a source that verifies human before opening

There is schism between the governing bodies in the sport of kabaddi, and this article: https://www.dhakatribune.com/sport/other-sports/371289/a-kabaddi-world-cup-sans-bangladesh does a good job at explaining it. Thus, it's been used at multiple kabaddi-related articles and is vital to understanding the schism. Unfortunately, it does a human-check before you're able to access it, which means that no archiving website is able to make an archive out of it. I previously tried to find a solution at Help desk but it didn't help. So, is there any trick to go around the website's restrictions? —CX Zoom[he/him] ^{(let's talk • {C•X})} 16:47, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You could just download it yourself, passing the human verification and then upload it to the text portion of archive.org. Snævar (talk) 19:20, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have no idea how that works. @Snævar: Could you help? —CX Zoom[he/him] ^{(let's talk • {C•X})} 09:44, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

1. Get an account. 2. Print as PDF 3. s:Help:Internet_Archive#Adding_files, but ignore the OCR bit. Think of the OCR bit as a troubleshooting step if you can not select text in the pdf, which also makes it non-searchable. Snævar (talk) 13:53, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That method works, though it depends on nobody taking the file down by the request of the site owner. There are other solutions at https://webrecorder.net/developer-tools/ for technical users. Basically you create a WARC of the page, host it on any web server with some JavaScript files, and there you go it will display and you are in control of it like your own private Wayback Machine. Example setup: https://replayweb.page/docs/embedding/#self-hosting -- GreenC 15:47, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Can no longer edit articles

Hi,

I’m having trouble editing existing Wikipedia pages. When I try to edit, I only see the "Edit source" option and not the regular "Edit" button. This issue affects all pages I’ve tried, and I can’t make any changes to existing articles.

I have 29 edits on my account, and I haven’t edited for about 7 months, but I was previously able to edit normally

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Vickylizholmes (talk) 11:05, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Vickylizholmes Go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing and set "Editing mode" to "Show me both editor tabs". --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 15:29, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That worked. Thanks so much! Vickylizholmes (talk) 07:40, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Gadget proposal: Citation Watchlist

I would like to propose adding the Citation Watchlist script as a new gadget. The purpose of Citation Watchlist is to add visual indicators in recent changes feeds, watchlists, page histories, and user contributions pages when links to certain domain names are added. These domain names are often considered unreliable sources or otherwise require closer examination; this script makes it easier to identify when and where such links are added. New lists can be added to Wikipedia:Citation Watchlist/Lists and existing lists can be updated there. If you can edit a wiki page, you can create and update a domain list.

Citation Watchlist is under active development by the nonprofit Hacks/Hackers, with support from Wikimedia Switzerland. New versions are initially tested on test.wikipedia.org, then staged on English Wikipedia for additional tests before being released, to ensure that the script does not randomly break. To run through the requirements for gadgets:

Gadgets must work if just included with no further configuration. They can be configurable via personal common.js, but must work unconfigured.
Citation Watchlist works out of the box with no further configuration required.
Gadgets must be compatible with all major browsers, i.e., they must not terminate with errors.
Citation Watchlist has been tested and confirmed to work on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari.
Gadgets should be functional in most major browsers (cross-browser compatibility). Exceptions must be clearly stated.
As stated above, Citation Watchlist works in all major browsers. Note that on mobile devices, you can't hover over indicators to get additional information, as mobile devices lack a hover action.
Duplication of gadgets should only be made if it is reasonable.
Citation Watchlist provides functionality not available in other gadgets. While there are other gadgets that deal with references and source reliability, they do not operate in the same parts of the interface as Citation Watchlist, which focuses on revision log pages: page histories, watchlists, recent changes, and user contributions.
Collections of scripts should be split if they have disparate functions.
Citation Watchlist is not a collection of disparate scripts.
Gadgets requiring permissions must be marked and must fail gracefully if the permissions aren't present.
Citation Watchlist requires no special permissions.
Gadgets only working in some skins must be marked as such if that data is available.
Citation Watchlist has been tested and confirmed to work in Vector 2022, Vector 2010, Monobook, Minerva, and Timeless.

I am happy to answer any questions you have. If you would like to make changes to the code, I recommend doing so on Test Wikipedia so changes can be properly tested before altering the experience for existing users. Harej (talk) 18:50, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Gadgets usually require a large usage; this one is used by only about 50 people. Izno (talk) 20:28, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Meh seems fine to me. More wondering why the url is hardcoded, when we have wgScriptPath and wgArticlePath config variables available. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:18, 18 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Which URL are you referring to? Harej (talk) 16:06, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If I understand the implementation correctly, it fetches the actual diff of every page in the displayed list every time such a list is displayed. So if I go to a page-history (default is most recent 50 changes), it fetches 50 diffs. If I then change to 500, it fetches 500. And 250 fetches when I look at my watchlist whose pref I set to 250. If I'm understanding that correctly, it seems like a pretty big resource use (I don't want to slam WMF's server and I also don't want to bog down my own browser every time). When I went to the "Deprecated sources recent changes filter" example at Wikipedia:Citation Watchlist, which is only 50 entries, it took an extra 5 seconds to finish loading and I could watch as the original display gradually had the flags added. In addition to simple resource usage, if I'm seeing an entry in a long list that doesn't have a flag, it might be that the flagging process simply hadn't finished. How about an alternative implementation that is triggerable by a toolbox link rather than automatically applied every time? DMacks (talk) 10:51, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Trouble staying logged in?

Anyone else having issues today with randomly finding themselves logged out? Just had that happen a couple of times when opening pages in new tabs, and had it happen earlier once on Commons while uploading. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 00:37, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And just had it happen again on Wikidata, between adding variables to a page. Quite weird. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 01:02, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And again on Commons. Just refreshing makes it "log back in". Maybe it's something with my connection... - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 01:17, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've been having the same issue for several hours. I'm guessing it's either a Firefox thing or something related to the SUL work. Jay8g [V•T•E] 03:42, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@The Bushranger If you use cookie / ad blockers, you might have to allowlist the domain auth.wikimedia.org now. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:53, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This is probably the same issue that has been reported at T389159 (and maybe the same as #I need help with my Ip address? though that's a bit vague). It's probably caused by the SUL3 changes in some way or another (sorry!). Some information that would help:

your browser (and whether you use non-standard privacy/security settings, like incognito mode, an ad filter, third-party cookie blocking in Chrome)
if you have an idea exactly when this started happening
whether you are browsing multiple wikis at the same time and the behavior seems related to that (e.g. when you visit a page on wiki 1, you get logged out on wiki 2)
whether getting logged out seems to correspond with inactivity (specifically, not doing anything on a specific wiki for 5 or 10 minutes)
whether fully logging out and logging back in helps

Thanks! Tgr (WMF) (talk) 21:50, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Have Firefox (136.0.2), NoScript and uBlock Origin. There have been occasional, very very rare, instances of this for awhile but it happened "regularly" yesterday. Was happening mid-editing on single pages on Wikis - for instance opening a page from my Watchlist on en. in a new tab logged it out once. Another time I was logged out on Wikidata in between entering parameters on the same page back to back. Another time on Commons I was uploading an image, hit upload, sat uploading for a bit and then said "cannot upload because you're logged out". Seemed to get better later on though? Note that the first one described there I was logged out completely until I clicked "log in" - where I did not have to enter any data, it just logged me right back in - but all the other times simply refreshing the page saw me recognized as loggedin. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 22:19, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Can you maybe reconstruct from your edit history when exactly it started happening? Tgr (WMF) (talk) 10:21, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This particular time it was "immediately on the first 'hist' I clicked on on my watchlist after logging in ". But it hasn't happened yesterday or today. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 02:18, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This happened to me yesterday afternoon/evening. I also have Firefox. Scared the dickens out of me, but seems OK now. It was very strange. I thought I had been hijacked or something. It happened right in the middle of my reading/scrolling Articles for deletion/Log/2025 March 20 — Maile (talk) 20:06, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly the same, although with GoogleChrome, yesterday and today, seemingly random. Sometimes saying I was logged out, but accepting edits, sometimes not. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:31, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have had this problem in the past as well. Catfurball (talk) 21:11, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think it might be somehow related to connection stability, as I had a foul connection the other day when it was happening. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 02:18, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Are you still having problems? I can't find any bugs in the login code (which is not saying much, it's a very complex system), and the person who first reported T389159 isn't experiencing it anymore.

If you are still being affected, do you feel we could set up a debug session with a developer where you look at things on your browser's developer toolbar (such as what cookies are set, or what requests are made) and describe them via chat or in a video meeting or similar realtime communication? It's very hard to diagnose login problems without seeing what actually happens in the browser. --Tgr (WMF) (talk) 21:43, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi,
A reader of the Oberon book asked me to add at the top and bottom of each page, navigation buttons similar to the "← previous" "↑ top" "next →" links of some Web based documents. A reasonable request and I've put two mock-ups in my sandbox. In Wikipedia the button templates work except for the style attribute. According to the table at the bottom of the button document style is available. Seems my syntax is wrong. Furthermore, the template is unavailable in Wikibooks?

In the div box mock-up, the text is linked; not the whole box. The person asking for navigation insisted the box be clickable. He noted "... really frustrating to click a box, only to find out that you have to click the link." I agree but couldn't make the markup work. Help to fix either of these arrangements appreciated. Thanks, ... PeterEasthope (talk) 18:31, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You might find {{Skip to top and bottom}} useful. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:43, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Jonesey95, appears we're at crossed purposes. The skip templates are for navigation within a page; correct? I'm interested in navigating between pages. Thx, ... 22:12, 23 March 2025 (UTC) PeterEasthope (talk) 22:12, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Surely this is a matter for b:WB:TECH? The regulars there may know if a template already exists for this. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:44, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@PeterEasthope According to the table at the bottom of the button document style is available. Seems my syntax is wrong - you need to remove the quotation marks from the values, and "BG" is not a valid CSS selector - it needs to be "background-color". I've fixed the ones in your sandbox.

Furthermore, the template is unavailable in Wikibooks? - you would need to ask an admin on wikibooks to import it, along with all it's prerequisite templates.

In the div box mock-up, the text is linked; not the whole box. You need to replace the divs with spans, add the class "mw-ui-button" to the span elements, and move the spans inside the link markup.

I've made these changes to your sandbox for you so you can see what they do. 86.23.109.101 (talk) 23:37, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@86.23.109.101 Many thanks. I was baffled. PeterEasthope (talk) 13:53, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Error message

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T389734

Just for documentation, in case it is a bigger problem:

MediaWiki internal error.

Original exception: [c946df9e-af42-4d60-87c9-0136bcf9d82d] 2025-03-19 20:28:25: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\RequestTimeout\EmergencyTimeoutException"

Exception caught inside exception handler.

Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information.

— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:33, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What were you doing when this occurred? — xaosflux ^Talk 22:03, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Xaosflux According to my contributions, leaving a talk page message for someone who asked a Teahouse question. Even though it was an old question, it looked like something the person might still want the answer to.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 14:35, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Xaosflux I've been getting the same error, mostly when visiting Special:MyContributions.

The most recent one (approx 5 mins ago).

MediaWiki internal error.

Original exception: [c2b93251-f505-4c5f-9026-64c87b61f28c] 2025-03-20 11:03:13: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\RequestTimeout\EmergencyTimeoutException"

Exception caught inside exception handler.

Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information.

I think they've just moved dumps generation back to the main database Phab:T368098#10641387, I seem to recall that dumps generation was causing similar disruption in the past? 86.23.109.101 (talk) 11:11, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I just experienced this exact error by clicking View history on this page... only this one time though.

The error happened almost instantly, not even a second, so I don't understand the "timeout" part. – 2804:F1...7F:79A0 (::/32) (talk) 18:18, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki internal error.

I have no idea how significant this is. Went to the history of a page I'd just edited (Ming Xia), and got this error message:

MediaWiki internal error.
Original exception: [0fce64a5-248a-4907-aaa2-f2546651ae9c] 2025-03-20 22:32:02: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\RequestTimeout\EmergencyTimeoutException"
Exception caught inside exception handler.
Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information.

Moments later I was able to view the page history as normal. Posting here for the eyes of those who understand this sort of thing. DuncanHill (talk) 22:43, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm also seeing this error, only intermittently, when clicking on another editor's contributions.-- Ponyo^{bons mots} 20:00, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I had this message about 30 minutes ago. At first I wondered if it was because the editors edit had remained on my screen (I went to make a cuppa) but I've done that before, and for longer and never had that notice. It has only happened once, so far. Knitsey (talk) 20:04, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Just happened again. Loggingthe message here. Clocked on an edit to view it and it came up with this...

MediaWiki internal error.

Original exception: [694e5180-5ffd-47ba-8b0e-ff44245737e2] 2025-03-21 21:13:21: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\RequestTimeout\EmergencyTimeoutException"

Exception caught inside exception handler.

Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information. Knitsey (talk) 21:17, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Me too.

MediaWiki internal error.

Original exception: [e769a451-ba7d-44c9-a141-3d95e8d86266] 2025-03-22 03:10:59: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBUnexpectedError"

Exception caught inside exception handler.

Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information.

wbm1058 (talk) 03:17, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I got the error when going to an editor's contributions page. I did a hard refresh of the page and got the error three or four times. I went to another browser, where I am logged out, and the page worked. When I went back to my main browser, a hard refresh of the page worked fine, showing the contributions. – Jonesey95 (talk) 12:58, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Just had it again, this time trying to view history of List of ghost towns in Oklahoma:

MediaWiki internal error.
Original exception: [fd2a3012-a533-4401-9fc2-e2cc86e2f104] 2025-03-23 00:50:33: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\RequestTimeout\EmergencyTimeoutException"
Exception caught inside exception handler.
Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information.

Again I clicked to reload and it cleared. DuncanHill (talk) 00:53, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've filed a Phabricator ticket (T389734) given the suspicious increase in the rate of these errors - I'm seeing them reported elsewhere too. Sam Walton (talk) 11:38, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In case it helps, I just hit:

Original exception: [cdbe9231-712e-4418-86b1-50cd13482f3c] 2025-03-24 03:20:31: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBUnexpectedError"

The rest of the message was the same as the others above. It persisted for perhaps half a minuteish. CMD (talk) 03:27, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I got this error ([89a1c80c-8a68-426a-a142-c6d17893edd3] 2025-03-24 17:41:41) at [1]. I don't get how there is a "RequestTimeout" because it appeared immediately after I clicked "View history". 216.58.25.209 (talk) 17:44, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Like others above, encountered the following when visiting my contributions page:

MediaWiki internal error.
Original exception: [3343407a-0463-4fe2-97c7-8026a81ccac7] 2025-03-24 23:13:07: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\RequestTimeout\EmergencyTimeoutException"
Exception caught inside exception handler.
Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information.

—Rotideypoc41352 (talk · contribs) 23:18, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What is this error code?

[000d64e7-255a-44aa-87ed-87adb75c67ea] 2025-03-25 08:53:12: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\RequestTimeout\EmergencyTimeoutException"

This error popped up when I opened my contribs, it was not easy to reproduce though, I tried several times and combinations of reloading my user page and it finally showed up again for me to copy it. —Mint Keyphase (Did I mess up? What have I done?) 08:56, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Mint Keyphase See the #Error message section above. 86.23.109.101 (talk) 09:25, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I just had this error again when I tried loading 500 revisions of an IP range, again more or less just a second after clicking, it is just a blank page with just the error message: [imgur.com]

Here is the id and time as text, in case it's useful: [b2a9764b-706e-4b76-9bd2-4cf67a6b740b] 2025-03-25 18:50:08. – 2804:F1...9:7D6E (::/32) (talk) 18:59, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Bottom of page overflowing into footer

The bottom of the main content of pages is now overflowing into the footer so they are rendered over categories. As I create this new talk section right now, the "Welcome to the village pump" instructions banner is rendered mostly behind the section above mine (the "i" icon is on top though). I am using Monobook theme with Chrome 135.0.7049.17. Disabling the code in my common.css did not help. I had enabled some gadgets but I can't figure out what would cause this (it's not HotCat). yutsi (talk) 22:47, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Does it happen to you in safe mode? Does it happen on all pages, or just when editing? (If the latter, which editor are you using?) DLynch (WMF) (talk) 01:00, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It does not occur in safe mode. It happens on all pages without editing otherwise. yutsi (talk) 01:16, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If it's not happening in safe mode, and you've already tried disabling your own common.css, the next step is probably to start turning off gadgets and seeing when it stops happening. DLynch (WMF) (talk) 01:33, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Yutsi and Enterprisey: It's caused by importing User:Enterprisey/hover-edit-section.js in User:Yutsi/common.js. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:55, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. It was fixed by removing that script. yutsi (talk) 19:02, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

edit api with oauth javascript (not nodejs) (not mediawiki js) example

Hello, https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Edit#JavaScript actually is nodejs. Could you please share with me an example, that allows to auth using OAuth and create a page with content I have in my variable in JavaScript, for client-side in-browser JavaScript without involving nodejs? It will be outside of wiki page, so I won't have access to mw.utils and the like. Could you please share a few examples? (I've asked here also hoping for faster replies here.) Gryllida (talk, e-mail) 04:27, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Gryllida You're in luck, because this was just recently made possible thanks to @Lucas Werkmeister's work. See the links in this comment and below, there are code examples: T322944#10590515. Matma Rex talk 16:33, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I could only find nodejs examples there? Gryllida (talk, e-mail) 09:48, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This example runs in the browser, you just need Node to either serve or build it (because it was easier to set up this way). Lucas Werkmeister (talk) 10:46, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Lucas

It looks too complicated for me, as I am not familiar with the corresponding libraries used nor with npm. I have code like this: (there actually is more, as user generated page content from a few other variables in my app, but this is the part I am having trouble with)

var pageName='Gryllida Test 2';
var url = 'http://test.wikipedia.org';
var content='Hello world';

What is the code to insert afterwards to get this content added to the page with this pageName on that wiki?

Regards, Gryllida (talk, e-mail) 00:44, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Leaderboard Gryllida (talk, e-mail) 20:05, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not familiar with this, sorry. From what I understand, you need to install node.js (https://nodejs.org/en/download) and install the dependencies locally on your system? Looks like the app would run locally as a result. Leaderboard (talk) 04:49, 26 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Gryllida: This should work, once you have the OAUTH 2.0 access token:

Extended content

var pageName='Gryllida Test 2';
var url = 'http://test.wikipedia.org';
var content='Hello world';
var summary='API test';
const oauthToken = "OAUTHAccessToken";
var apiEndpoint = url + '/w/api.php';

var params = {
	action: 'query',
	meta: 'tokens',
	format: 'json',
	formatversion: '2',
	crossorigin: ''
};
var queryURL = new URL(apiEndpoint);
queryURL.search = new URLSearchParams(params);

fetch(queryURL, {method: 'GET', headers: {'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + oauthToken}})
	.then(function(response){return response.text()})
	.then(function(text){try {const data=JSON.parse(text);return data} catch (e) {return text}})
	.then(function(data){
		var csrfToken = data?.query?.tokens?.csrftoken;
		if (csrfToken) {
			console.log(csrfToken);
			params = {
				title: pageName,
				text: content,
				summary: summary,
				format: 'json',
				formatversion: '2',
				token: csrfToken
			};
			var body = new URLSearchParams(params);
			queryURL = new URL(apiEndpoint);
			queryURL.search = new URLSearchParams( {action: 'edit', crossorigin: ''} );
			fetch(queryURL, {method: 'POST', headers: {'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + oauthToken}, body: body})
				.then(function(response){return response.text()})
				.then(function(text){try {const data=JSON.parse(text);return data} catch (e) {return text}})
				.then(function(data){
					var result = data?.edit?.result;
					if (result) {
						console.log(result);
					} else {
						console.error("Error posting edit!");
						console.error(data);
					}
				});
		} else {
			console.error("Error retrieving CSRF token!");
			console.error(data);
		}
	});

--Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 20:35, 26 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, I will try it out. Gryllida (talk, e-mail) 22:58, 26 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

infobox-label text-align:left on mobile

Previously asked at Template talk:Infobox#Labels are centered on m.wikipedia. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:36, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In many infoboxes on en.m.wikipedia.org the left column is centered instead of being left-aligned, which leads to weird placement of normally indented/bulleted labels. Why is that? Compare m.wiki vs. desktop. What is overriding the common.css setting of .infobox-label {text-align: left}, can that be fixed? (previously asked here) Ponor (talk) 11:56, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Common.css is not loaded on the mobile site, so the .infobox-label {text-align: left} is not there in the first place. There's a separate mobile.css for MobileFrontend, although these days people tend to prefer moving styles for specific templates to TemplateStyles. Anomie ⚔ 12:09, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like a job for an interface admin to add

.mw-parser-output .infobox-label {text-align: left;} to MediaWiki:Minerva.css, at least until everything {{infobox}}-related is in its own TS. Thnx. Ponor (talk) 12:24, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This would be fixed by MediaWiki talk:Common.css/to do#Infobox getting done (it's slow going) or by MediaWiki talk:Common.css/to do#Turn mobile.css/js totally off getting done, which is just waiting on phab:T375538. I can probably upload a patch to resolve that one but I will need to bug the developer I was working with on it and he said something a couple days ago that made me twitch on the point so I'm not hopping fast right now. (And haven't hopped fast in general just because I got distracted with other things and I wanted to give him time to figure out what exactly he was intending to do. He hasn't hopped fast either....) Izno (talk) 22:26, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I gently bugged the task on Phab, I will ping him later if necessary. Izno (talk) 22:47, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject Australia pages too wide on phone

Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Australia is too wide on a phone screen, requiring horizontal scrolling on both Mobile and Desktop skins.

It may be something to with the transclusion of Wikipedia:WikiProject Australia/Navigation and Wikipedia:WikiProject Australia/Tab header.

Wikipedia:WikiProject Australia/Help uses those transclusions and does behave well on Desktop, but not Mobile.

Could be an offending div somewhere and maybe a solution is conversion to using {{page tabs}}.

When the problem is found it would be interesting to do a search to find other markup breaking the phone experience across Wikipedia. Commander Keane (talk) 00:59, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Each of the tabs in the tab header is set to a fixed width of 15em, so the tabs force the table to be wide. Someone could modify Wikipedia:WikiProject Australia/Tab header to display two rows of tabs. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:26, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The issue was caused by the category names in the WP:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Australia#Australia-related Categories for Discussion. Underscores had been used instead of spaces in the wikilinks, which stops the formatter from word wrapping the links correctly. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 20:25, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In fact as both categories were deleted last year, so I've removed them. I'm not sure why they were still listed, isn't there a bot to clean these up? -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 20:31, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Pagemove semiprotection

Administrators can semiprotect pages from moves, i.e. you can't move the page unless you're confirmed or autoconfirmed. What's the point? HELP:MOVE notes that you have to be autoconfirmed to move a page in the first place, so functionally, all pages have this level of protection already. Nyttend (talk) 04:03, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Nyttend: The move right is a MediaWiki configuration setting where the default is all registered users. We have set it to autoconfirmed/confirmed. MediaWiki could be coded to detect this and remove the option on the protect form but I don't think there is a good reason this complication. And a wiki could change the setting later. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:31, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Even if someone were to code that, I don't think it'd take effect here because the page movers group can grant move without editsemiprotected, so it's possible that the protection would have an effect in the case of someone who's not autoconfirmed or confirmed but is a page mover. It's the same reason why semiprotection is an option in the MediaWiki namespace despite code existing since 2013 to filter out protection levels that namespace-level protection filters out, because the interface-admin group could (at a technical level) be given to an account not already confirmed or autoconfirmed. Anomie ⚔ 13:51, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I didn't mean to ask what you thought I was asking. I understand why this level is available, since the site might be configured otherwise, and MediaWiki developers shouldn't prevent it from being available. I meant — since en:wp is configured to prevent pagemoves unless you're autoconfirmed, why would anyone apply this level of protection? I see it comparatively frequently, and I can't imagine any reason to use it. Nyttend (talk) 19:27, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If you're talking about protections like this one that apply both 'edit' and 'move' protection, most likely it's because it's easier to leave the "Unlock further protect options" checkbox unchecked when semiprotecting (and not expecting pagemove vandalism) rather than checking it and adjusting the 'move' part of the form. Anomie ⚔ 21:41, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Photo preview cropping and positioning on Wikipedia app

In the Wikipedia app (iOS 18.3.1), the “preview” photo at the top of the page is often cropped, resulting the main content of image being hidden. Is there a guideline for how to set the origin point or cropping behaviour?

screenshot of the behaviour here:

[2]

Davidley (talk) 14:51, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Most images work fine as they have a normal aspect ration. The used image on Forest Hill station (Toronto) is square but there is a lot of empty space. Will propose a crop to it. Sjoerd de Bruin (talk) 09:58, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Preferred skin changes in other wikis

Resolved

– Special:GlobalPreferences should be used for cross-project settings. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:31, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It appears, for me at least, that now each Wikipedia in another language ignores the skin preference of a logged-in user in English Wikipedia, requiring its own setting (in my case I have to set preferred old Vector 2010 skin in Russian and Azeri Wikipedia I'm logged in). Is it sort of a bug or was it a taken decision? Brandmeister^talk 20:11, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

None of your preferences set on English Wikipedia affect any other wiki. However, you can set your skin (and other settings) in global preferences: Special:GlobalPreferences#mw-prefsection-rendering and that will affect all wikis. (You can find this page again the future under the "Set your global preferences" button on the normal preferences page.) Matma Rex talk 20:25, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, perhaps I had a false memory of a skin setting affecting other wikis... Brandmeister^talk 20:33, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Attack at Fromelles

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T389860
Duplicate

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T285875
Declined

Does anyone know why the map in the infobox has gone invisible? Thanks Keith-264 (talk) 20:45, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's also broken at the other articles that use it. But it does display correctly at File:NYTMapNeuveChapelle1915.png. DuncanHill (talk) 23:12, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Could this be a skin/browser issue? The image is displaying correctly for me (android, chrome, 2010 skin, desktop site) in all cases. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 23:17, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

For me:

- /wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/...NYTMapNeuveChapelle1915.png is a page that says "Error" "Too Many Requests";

- /wikipedia/commons/a/...NYTMapNeuveChapelle1915.png works though.

Seems unlikely to be a skin issue.

I'm reminded of #Broken icon (T383023), though that was a 'unauthorized' error. – 2804:F1...96:5BD7 (::/32) (talk) 00:47, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

After waiting a bit the error I got was "Our servers are currently under maintenance or experiencing a technical issue", though after refreshing it went back to being "Too Many Requests" again. – 2804:F1...96:5BD7 (::/32) (talk) 00:57, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the help but it's still playing dead on my laptop (Firefox browser). Regards Keith-264 (talk) 01:14, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It occurs on my Windows desktop. In both Firefox and Google Chrome. My MacOS laptop sitting right next to it loads the page correctly. I am getting "Error Too Many Requests - Request served via cp5026 cp5026, Varnish XID 574968787 Upstream caches: cp5026 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Mon, 24 Mar 2025 04:49:34 GMT" from thumb. (Although the Mac loads the page correctly, it gets the same error from the thumb link.) Hawkeye7 (discuss) 04:48, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The HTML on desktop is:

<img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/NYTMapNeuveChapelle1915.png/270px-NYTMapNeuveChapelle1915.png" decoding="async" width="270" height="334" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/NYTMapNeuveChapelle1915.png/405px-NYTMapNeuveChapelle1915.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/NYTMapNeuveChapelle1915.png 2x" data-file-width="480" data-file-height="593">

. That means MediaWiki offers three sizes to the browser which picks one depending on circumstances. This is normal. The first two are 270px and 405px resizings which don't work for me. The last is the original upload which works for me. MediaWiki is unable to make any resizing I have tested. I guess it just varies which size people are getting. PrimeHunter (talk) 07:04, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This appears to be the same effect as reported at c:COM:VPT#File:DEU Weißeritzkreis COA.png as seen in Weißeritzkreis#Coat of arms. DMacks (talk) 15:40, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've looked at them from production side. It's triggering 500 so it's very very likely an issue with thumbor. Please create a ticket against thumbor in phabricator. It can be also an issue with original file not being available in the local datacenter that thumbor is trying to access (mediawiki's implementation of swift API is known to have issues like this). Let me check that. Ladsgroup^overleg 17:29, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Created phab:T389860 Hawkeye7 (discuss) 18:57, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! But I think the VPT diff-link you mentioned in it is to a different server-error section. DMacks (talk) 19:56, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This image has now been repaired. Phabricator closed as a duplicate of a declined ticket. Looks like failures will have to be reported as they are encountered. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 04:51, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Hawkeye and everyone. Keith-264 (talk) 12:29, 26 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Do archived adminship templates need to be substituted?

These are {{rfap}}, {{rfaf}}, and {{rfab}}. I'm sure that since {{subst:finaltally}} automatically fills the tally when substituted, it makes sense for that to be substituted when closing an RfA. But do the archive top and bottom templates need to be? 0xDeadbeef→∞ (talk to me) 11:17, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Well they all have {{subst only}} on them ... I'd argue yes, because the RFA almost always doesn't change after it's closed and neither should what's on its page change due to modifications of the templates. We substitute {{Afd top}}, {{Mfd top}}, etc. Graham87 (talk) 06:06, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia log in

Hi. This happened once before and as I recall the answer was check back later. I am trying to reach the Wikipedia Library for a couple days. The Wkimedia log in page gives me the error: Incorrect username or password entered. Please try again. -SusanLesch (talk) 18:23, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@SusanLesch If you use a password manager, and you have several accounts in Wikimedia-adjacent projects (e.g. something like Phabricator), double-check that it's filling in the password for the correct account. Recent changes to logins (see recent Tech News entry) have made it easier to mix them up. Matma Rex talk 18:55, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the link to the news. I do use a password manager, and double checked the entry. But no luck. -SusanLesch (talk) 19:40, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm locked out for the second time today. -SusanLesch (talk) 21:24, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to please access the Wikipedia Library. Can anybody here help? -SusanLesch (talk) 18:04, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@SusanLesch Hi, we've reviewed the system logs related to logins to your account to try to get to the bottom of this. They indicate that your password was changed earlier this year. I may be able to share more details with you, but I don't think I should share them on this public page, so please feel free to contact me by email if that would help you (I have the address on my WMF user page, or you can use Special:EmailUser). As far as we can tell, this is not caused by any problem with the Wikipedia Library or with the new login system. --Matma Rex / Bartosz Dziewoński (WMF) (talk) 19:21, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2025-13

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

Weekly highlight

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking your feedback on the drafts of the objectives and key results that will shape the Foundation's Product and Technology priorities for the next fiscal year (starting in July). The objectives are broad high-level areas, and the key-results are measurable ways to track the success of their objectives. Please share your feedback on the talkpage, in any language, ideally before the end of April.

Updates for editors

The CampaignEvents extension will be released to multiple wikis (see deployment plan for details) in April 2025, and the team has begun the process of engaging communities on the identified wikis. The extension provides tools to organize, manage, and promote collaborative activities (like events, edit-a-thons, and WikiProjects) on the wikis. The extension has three tools: Event Registration, Collaboration List, and Invitation Lists. It is currently on 13 Wikipedias, including English Wikipedia, French Wikipedia, and Spanish Wikipedia, as well as Wikidata. Questions or requests can be directed to the extension talk page or in Phabricator (with #campaigns-product-team tag).
Starting the week of March 31st, wikis will be able to set which user groups can view private registrants in Event Registration, as part of the CampaignEvents extension. By default, event organizers and the local wiki admins will be able to see private registrants. This is a change from the current behavior, in which only event organizers can see private registrants. Wikis can change the default setup by requesting a configuration change in Phabricator (and adding the #campaigns-product-team tag). Participants of past events can cancel their registration at any time.
Administrators at wikis that have a customized MediaWiki:Sidebar should check that it contains an entry for the Special pages listing. If it does not, they should add it using * specialpages-url|specialpages. Wikis with a default sidebar will see the link moved from the page toolbox into the sidebar menu in April. [3]
The Minerva skin (mobile web) combines both Notice and Alert notifications within the bell icon (). There was a long-standing bug where an indication for new notifications was only shown if you had unseen Alerts. This bug is now fixed. In the future, Minerva users will notice a counter atop the bell icon when you have 1 or more unseen Notices and/or Alerts. [4]
View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.

Updates for technical contributors

VisualEditor has introduced a new client-side hook for developers to use when integrating with the VisualEditor target lifecycle. This hook should replace the existing lifecycle-related hooks, and be more consistent between different platforms. In addition, the new hook will apply to uses of VisualEditor outside of just full article editing, allowing gadgets to interact with the editor in DiscussionTools as well. The Editing Team intends to deprecate and eventually remove the old lifecycle hooks, so any use cases that this new hook does not cover would be of interest to them and can be shared in the task.
Developers who use the mw.Api JavaScript library, can now identify the tool using it with the userAgent parameter: var api = new mw.Api( { userAgent: 'GadgetNameHere/1.0.1' } );. If you maintain a gadget or user script, please set a user agent, because it helps with library and server maintenance and with differentiating between legitimate and illegitimate traffic. [5][6]
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki

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

MediaWiki message delivery 22:39, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

How to wrap text for presentation

At Talk:March 2025 lunar eclipse#Content dispute, I'm trying to wrap a large bit of text in a box for presentation to readers. I've used a "quote" template, but it looks wonky. Is there a better way? Thank you! Magnolia677 (talk) 11:00, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not entirely sure what the technical question is, but in general.. don't wrap text, as it severely limits the flexibility of presentation on multiple devices. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:28, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Homepage

Can Special:Homepage be changed on this wiki, or do we need a Phabricator ticket?

Mine currently tells me:

Your recent activity (last 60 days) - 1,000 Edits - 300 Views on articles you've edited

The latter figure is clearly bogus, and I suspect the boilerplate should say something like "on articles you've edited in that period". Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:52, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Impact/Pigsonthewing currently says "163,246 Views on articles edited". Do you really see 300 at Special:Homepage? uselang=qqx shows we can change the text at MediaWiki:Growthexperiments-homepage-impact-edited-articles-trend-chart-count-label. The following text says "Most viewed (since your edit)". It sounds to me like the total is supposed to be views since your edit for all articles you edited in the last 60 days, but the number is only the sum of the top five under "Most viewed" at Special:Impact/Pigsonthewing. It's the same for other users I tried. And your number said something around 198,000 when I first saw it. Did an edit really fall off the 60-day limit in that time? The rule may be more complicated or arbitrary than it sounds. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:22, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I saw 300 before posting here (the text was cut-&-pasted), 163,246 now. I've also made many more than 1000 edits in 60 days, BTW. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:47, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It appears it only examines the last 1000 edits for efficiency reasons. That would help explain why the view count changes so fast. I now see 96,277 but 300 still sems far too low. I found mw:Help:Growth/Tools/Impact module#On the impact module, why are some of the numbers displayed inaccurate? You are just too busy for the feature.PrimeHunter (talk) 15:47, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Category misplacement

Category:American jockeys - how did Frank O’Neill get in the D’s section?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_jockeys D Hilton Dabson Dan Davis (writer) Robbie Davis Wantha Davis Pat Day Eddie Delahoussaye Alberto Delgado (jockey) Anthony DeSpirito Frank O'Neill (jockey) Earl Dew Douglas Dodson Samuel Doggett Ramon Domínguez Edward Donnally William Donohue (jockey) Ruperto Donoso René R. Douglas Eddie Dugan Dylan Davis Xavier Newcombe (talk) 13:33, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

{{DEFAULTSORT}} was set to "Dettori, Frankie"[7]. An error that was in the article when it was created in 2018. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 14:01, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]