Re: Get a configuration variable at runtime

The answer to both of you. The extension GlobalWatchlist needs to know for
every wikisite in a wikifarm, if it's LTR or RTL. This is because the
Special Page shows many sections, each from different wiki, on this wiki's
language. So, we need a function, that gets 'en.wikipedia.org' as a
parameter and returns 'ltr'. For now, there is a hardcoded list of rtl
language codes there, as regex, which for my sake is worse that using API,
just IMHO. It was always a bad solution, but when I implemented it years
ago, we didn't know other choice. Now I'm aware of the SiteMatrix
extension, which evaluates this mapping on runtime, and I can use the API
call to retrieve the relevant information. I looked a lot for a way to
avoid it. I think I found a way to get a direction from the language code,
but I still can't get the language code from the URL. I can guess it from '
en.wikipedia.org', but not from 'commons.wikimedia.org', and not from '
abcdefgh.catalyst.wmcloud.org'. So, as for now, I don't see another way
except for the API call.
Igal
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T412505


בתאריך יום ה׳, 18 בדצמ׳ 2025, 00:30, מאת John ‏<[email protected]>:

> One of the rules I’ve always used when proving support is don’t tell me
> how you want to do something. Tell me the goal, and we can get a solution.
> The method you are trying to use may or may not be optimal.
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM Brian Wolff <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Generally speaking, calling the action api externally is strongly
>> discouraged. Typically there is a backend function that is prefered instead.
>>
>> Whether that is actually true in your case depends on what you are doing.
>> Whether or not your case would be an acceptable exception to the general
>> rule would depend on the specifics of what you are doing and if there
>> really is no other reasonable option.
>>
>> --
>> Brian/bawolff
>>
>>
>> On Wednesday, 17 December 2025, יגאל חיטרון <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Well, I started to think, after reading a lot of documentation and a lot
>>> of gerrit code, that my previous knowledge was wrong, and I have no choice
>>> but calling API from inside Mediawiki php, despite the words in Mediawiki
>>> developers guide "If you use an API call in Mediawiki php code, you're
>>> doing something wrong." Looks like I have no other choice. If nobody here
>>> says I can't do this, I'll start to write. Thank you.
>>> Igal
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
>>> Virus-free.www.avg.com
>>> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
>>> <#m_-1276708365409787417_m_6372061225327250602_m_1407805277756859967_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
>>>
>>> ‫בתאריך יום ד׳, 17 בדצמ׳ 2025 ב-19:21 מאת יגאל חיטרון <‪
>>> [email protected]‬‏>:‬
>>>
>>>> Thanks, but I'm not so sure. I already saw this line. The API returns
>>>> something with more than 10000 lines.
>>>> https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=sitematrix&format=json&smsiteprop=url%7Cdbname%7Ccode%7Csitename%7Clang&formatversion=2.
>>>> I wanted just to call the API from PHP, until read in developers guide "If
>>>> you call API you're doing something wrong".
>>>> Igal
>>>>
>>>> בתאריך יום ד׳, 17 בדצמ׳ 2025, 19:16, מאת Brian Wolff ‏<
>>>> [email protected]>:
>>>>
>>>>> It should be defined at
>>>>> https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/g/operations/mediawiki-config/+/df0f99e231a682f63f82e4b4a00ecce52bd22ed9/wmf-config/CommonSettings.php#1324
>>>>> . As far as i can tell its not set dynamiclly so should have the same value
>>>>> at all wikimedia wikis.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Bawolff
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wednesday, 17 December 2025, יגאל חיטרון <[email protected]>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I've made a Gerrit change for a Phabricator task that uses the
>>>>>> $wgSiteMatrixSites variable, which is created at runtime. How can I view
>>>>>> its value on Meta?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The issue is that this variable seems to have a different structure
>>>>>> on each site, depending on the available data. I’ve written traversal code
>>>>>> designed to handle any possible structure, but I can’t confirm if it works
>>>>>> correctly for Meta.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If I could get the Meta value—or even just the first few pages—it
>>>>>> would be very helpful.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thank you in advance.
>>>>>> Igal (User:Ikhitron)
>>>>>>
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