Latest *tech news <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News>* from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2025/07> are available.
*Weekly highlight* - The Product and Technology Advisory Council (PTAC) has published a draft of their recommendations <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Product_and_Technology_Advisory_Council/February_2025_draft_PTAC_recommendation_for_feedback> for the Wikimedia Foundation's Product and Technology department. They have recommended focusing on mobile experiences <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Product_and_Technology_Advisory_Council/February_2025_draft_PTAC_recommendation_for_feedback/Mobile_experiences>, particularly contributions. They request community feedback at the talk page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Product_and_Technology_Advisory_Council/February_2025_draft_PTAC_recommendation_for_feedback> by 21 February. *Updates for editors* - The "Special pages" portlet link will be moved from the "Toolbox" into the "Navigation" section of the main menu's sidebar by default. This change is because the Toolbox is intended for tools relating to the current page, not tools relating to the site, so the link will be more logically and consistently located. To modify this behavior and update CSS styling, administrators can follow the instructions at T385346 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T385346>. [1] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T333211> - As part of this year's work around improving the ways readers discover content on the wikis, the Web team will be running an experiment with a small number of readers that displays some suggestions for related or interesting articles within the search bar. Please check out the project page <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Reading/Web/Content_Discovery_Experiments#Experiment_1:_Display_article_recommendations_in_more_prominent_locations,_search> for more information. - [image: Advanced item] Template editors who use TemplateStyles can now customize output for users with specific accessibility needs by using accessibility related media queries (prefers-reduced-motion <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/prefers-reduced-motion>, prefers-reduced-transparency <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/prefers-reduced-transparency>, prefers-contrast <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/prefers-contrast>, and forced-colors <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/forced-colors>). Thanks to user Bawolff for these improvements. [2] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T384175> - [image: Recurrent item] View all 22 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/Recently_resolved_community_tasks>. For example, the global blocks log will now be shown directly on the Special:CentralAuth page, similarly to global locks, to simplify the workflows for stewards. [3] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T377024> *Updates for technical contributors* - Wikidata now supports a special language as a "default for all languages" <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Default_values_for_labels_and_aliases> for labels and aliases. This is to avoid excessive duplication of the same information across many languages. If your Wikidata queries use labels, you may need to update them as some existing labels are getting removed. [4] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T312511> - The function getDescription was invoked on every Wiki page read and accounts for ~2.5% of a page's total load time. The calculated value will now be cached, reducing load on Wikimedia servers. [5] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T383660> - As part of the RESTBase deprecation effort <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/RESTBase/deprecation>, the /page/related endpoint has been blocked as of February 6, 2025, and will be removed soon. This timeline was chosen to align with the deprecation schedules for older Android and iOS versions. The stable alternative is the "morelike" action API in MediaWiki, and a migration example <https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/services/mobileapps/%2B/982154/13/pagelib/src/transform/FooterReadMore.js> is available. The MediaWiki Interfaces team can be contacted <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T376297> for any questions. [6] <https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/thread/GFC2IJO7L4BWO3YTM7C5HF4MCCBE2RJ2/> *In depth* - The latest quarterly Language and Internationalization newsletter <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/Newsletter/2025/January> is available. It includes: Updates about the "Contribute" menu; details on some of the newest language editions of Wikipedia; details on new languages supported by the MediaWiki interface; updates on the Community-defined lists feature; and more. - The latest Chart Project newsletter <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Chart/Project/Updates#January_2025:_Better_visibility_into_charts_and_tabular_data_usage> is available. It includes updates on the progress towards bringing better visibility into global charts usage and support for categorizing pages in the Data namespace on Commons. *Tech news <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News> prepared by Tech News writers <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/Writers> and posted by bot <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/User:MediaWiki_message_delivery> • Contribute <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News#contribute> • Translate <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2025/07> • Get help <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech> • Give feedback <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tech/News> • Subscribe or unsubscribe <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tech_ambassadors>.*
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