Tech News 2025, week 46

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/2025/46> are
available.

*Updates for editors*
[image: Screenshot of the visual improvements made on talk pages]
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Talk_pages_default_look_(April_2023).jpg>Example
of a talk page with the new design, in French.

   - Starting November 12, users will see a change in the appearance of
   talk pages
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Talk_pages_project/Feature_summary#Usability_improvements>
    on some Wikipedias <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T379264>. Almost all
   wikis <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T392121> have received this
   design change; English Wikipedia
   <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T409297> will get these changes
   later. You can read more on *Diff*
   <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2024/05/02/making-talk-pages-better-for-everyone/>.
   Users can opt out of these changes in their user preferences
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing>
in
   "Show discussion activity". [1]
   <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T379264>
   - MediaWiki can now display a page indicator
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Protection_indicators>
automatically
   while a page is protected. This feature is disabled by default. It can be
   enabled by community request
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Requesting_wiki_configuration_changes>
   . [2] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T12347>
   - Using the "Show preview" or "Show changes" buttons in the wikitext
   editor will now carry over certain URL parameters like 'useskin
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Parameters_to_index.php#useskin>',
   'uselang
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Parameters_to_index.php#uselang>'
   and 'section
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Section#Editing_sections>'.
   This update also fixes an issue where, if the browser crashed while
   previewing an edit to a single section, saving this edit could overwrite
   the entire page with just that section’s content. [3]
   <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T62744>[4]
   <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T24029>[5]
   <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T155097>
   - Wikivoyage wikis can use colored map markers in the article text
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Extension:Kartographer#Markers_and_counters>.
   The text of these markers will now be shown in contrasting black or white
   color, instead of always being white. Local workarounds for the problem can
   be removed. [6] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T369454>
   - The Activity tab in the Wikipedia Android app is now available for all
   users. The new tab offers personalized insights into reading, editing, and
   donation activity, while simplifying navigation and making app use more
   engaging. [7]
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team/Android/Activity_Tab_Experiment>
   - The Reader Growth team is launching an experiment called "Image
   browsing" to test how to make it easier for readers to browse and discover
   images on Wikipedia articles. This experiment, a mobile-only A/B test, will
   go live on English Wikipedia in the week of November 17 and will run for
   four weeks, affecting 0.05% of users on English wiki. The test launched on
   November 3 on Arabic, Chinese, French, Indonesian, and Vietnamese wikis,
   affecting up to 10% of users on those wikis. [8]
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Readers/Reader_Growth/WE3.1.3_Image_Browsing>
   - [image: Recurrent item] View all 27 community-submitted tasks that
   were resolved last week
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/Recently_resolved_community_tasks>.
   For example the inability to lock accounts on mobile sites has been fixed.
   [9] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T256185>

*Updates for technical contributors*

   - Nominations are open on Wikitech
   <https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help_talk:Toolforge/Toolforge_standards_committee#November_2025_committee_nominations>
for
   new Toolforge standards committee
   <https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Toolforge/Toolforge_standards_committee>
members.
   The committee oversees the Toolforge Right to fork policy
   <https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Toolforge/Right_to_fork_policy>
    and Abandoned tool policy
   <https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Toolforge/Abandoned_tool_policy>
among
   other duties. Nominations will remain open through 2025-11-28.
   - The JWT issuer field
   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON_Web_Token#Standard_fields> in OAuth
   2 access tokens
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/OAuth/For_Developers#OAuth_2>
    for SUL wikis
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Unified_login> has
   been changed to https://meta.wikimedia.org. Old access tokens will still
   work. [10] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T399199>
   - The JWT subject field
   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON_Web_Token#Standard_fields> in OAuth
   2 access tokens
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/OAuth/For_Developers#OAuth_2>
will
   soon change from <user id> to mw:<identity type>:<user id>, where <identity
   type> is typically CentralAuth: (for SUL wikis
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Unified_login>)
   or local:<wiki id> (for other wikis). This is to avoid conflicts between
   different user ID types, and to make OAuth 2 access tokens and the
   sessionJwt cookie more similar. Old access tokens will still work. [11]
   <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T399199>
   - MediaWiki's block messages (blockedtext
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Blockedtext>,
   blockedtext-partial
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Blockedtext-partial>,
   autoblockedtext
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Autoblockedtext>,
   systemblockedtext
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Systemblockedtext>,
   blockedtext-tempuser
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Blockedtext-tempuser>,
   autoblockedtext-tempuser
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Autoblockedtext-tempuser>)
   now support additional parameters indicating whether the user is blocked
   from editing their own user talk page $9 or emailing other users $10.
   [12] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T285612>
   - A REL1_45 branch for MediaWiki core and each of the extensions and
   skins in Wikimedia git has been created. This is the first step in the
   release process for MediaWiki 1.45.0, scheduled for late November 2025. If
   you are working on a critical bug fix or working on a new feature, you may
   need to take note of this change. [13]
   <https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/thread/ZUY7TY3Z6XPZWZVAZV63OPO5OW52Q6GE/>
   - The process for generating CirrusSearch dumps has been updated due to
   slowing performance. If you encounter any issues migrating to the
   replacement dumps, please contact the Search Platform Team for support.
   [14] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T366248>[15]
   <https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/thread/3KQPOR6ACVN6OVLMLZPIBXQSWQKW4E3K/>
   - [image: Recurrent item] Detailed code updates later this week:
   MediaWiki <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.46/wmf.2>

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-- 
Uzoma Ozurumba (She/her)
Movement Communications Specialist (Product and Tech)
meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:UOzurumba_(WMF)

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