Forum:MediaWiki 1.15.1 upgrade

Hey all! We'll be upgrading Wikia to MediaWiki 1.15.1 on Wednesday. You can read about our release plans here. If you notice any problems once the upgrade is complete, please report them below. Thanks! --KyleH (talk) 23:31, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

What the hell is going on?
On AOL, it doesn't work, and on Safari, it says I have to download index or somethin' and when I've downloaded it, IT STILL DOESN'T WORK! Help! --Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 16:44, 26 August 2009 (UTC) Sonic Fanon Wiki


 * What are you talking about? We're still discusing MediaWiki, right? --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 17:00, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Right, I'll say it slowly. I'm young, and I'm puzzled. I read how to upgrade the uploader, but I DON'T GET IT! Help please! --Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 17:12, 26 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Can you please tell us what happens when you go to Special:Upload? Are you using Safari 4.0.3? --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 17:15, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I dunno. It worked this morning. It used to work on AOL, but now it hasn't for sometime. The other members of the wiki are going through the same problems. --Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 17:18, 26 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately, I'm still not sure what you mean - can you give us a link, either to other users reporting it, or the issue? The software upgrade only occurred today, so if this issue has been around for longer, it is unrelated. 18:04, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

http://sonicfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:HELP!!!!_Page

That's what I'm experiancing.

Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 19:06, 26 August 2009 (UTC)


 * If this is something that has been occurring before today then it's quite possibly just your connection. ~Joey~   ^Talk^  19:33, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

No, It worked about a few weeks ago, I havn't changed my connection, and its happening to everyone else...

--Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 19:50, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Also, I tried the special Upload thing, it din't work!

--Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 19:52, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * The page says that it first occurred a few days ago, so it may not have anything to do with the upgrade. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 00:46, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

wowwiki domain problems
As reported on IRC: http://no.wowwiki.com, http://es.wowwiki.com , etc redirects to www.wikia.com. Just noticed that this problem happens on every MediaWiki upgrade. --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 17:08, 26 August 2009 (UTC)


 * This should now be fixed. 18:00, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Canonical Href
It's not a problem, but Special:Version says Canonical Href is installed, but release notes of MW1.15 says that feature is now part of the MediaWiki core (link rel=canonical in redirect pages). Maybe it's now redundant? BTW I don't see any repeated link headers so there's no visible problem. --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 17:12, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Special:Recentchanges limit
Now Special:Recentchanges is limited to 500 changes. Before the upgrade, you could change the limit changing manually the url to, for example, 1000. This was useful when one returns from weekend and there are lots of recentchanges to patrol, specially on heavy edited wikis. Now I can't handle a single day without filtering per namespace. --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 17:16, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I believe that I have identified the source of the problem. I have reported it, and unless there is a compelling performance reason for the change, it should be fixed soon. --KyleH (talk) 18:57, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Any news on this? I tried looking at the edits my bot made, but since it edited more than 500 pages I can't see it's first edit in the recent changes. Quartic ~ insanity is a virtue  |  Talk  02:37, 1 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Then why not go to the contribs page of the bot ? — TulipVorlax 03:38, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I did, but it's more convenient to be able to look at it in recent changes. Quartic ~ insanity is a virtue  |  Talk  04:17, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Toolbar is gone!
The edit toolbar (With the buttons for Bold, italics, ect.) Does not appear on the Club Penguin Wiki. This started happening right after the upgrade. This does not happen on central, though. -- seahorseruler | Talk  (EditCount) Yoshi! 18:36, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Sometimes that happens to me too, but sometimes it appears!

Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 19:06, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Looks fine now. Might have been some more javascript related problems. have to remember guys, we did also release a bunch of new code of our own too today, not just the mediawiki upgrade, not every problem is from the 1.15 change. --Uberfuzzy 19:26, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

"File links" on Memory Alpha (en) not registering
All file description pages state "There are no pages that link to this file", and Special:Whatlinkshere is blank. Special:Unusedfiles looks like it contains every file on the wiki... -- Michael Warren | Talk (@MA) 19:09, 26 August 2009 (UTC) Additional: Files uploaded, or moved, from August 25th onward are displaying correctly. - Michael Warren | Talk (@MA) 19:20, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Give it a day to rebuild that data. part of the upgrade process to to flush all cached temp data out. --Uberfuzzy 19:22, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Cannot Upload Images
Please help; when I try to upload images in the Combat Arms Wiki, it works fine until I chose the file I want to upload. When I want to upload an image, I press the "Upload" button, it wants me to choose a file again! Can anyone find a solution to this? By the way, it pretty much does the same to any wiki I go to, so thanks if there's a solution! A127. YAY! 19:43, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Thats whats happening to Sonic fanon, (ABOVE).

--Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 19:47, 26 August 2009 (UTC)


 * What browser are you using, and what version? 20:36, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I use AOL 9.0 and Safari... I dunno.

--Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 22:07, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * We have confirmed the issue and are working on a fix now. Thanks! --KyleH (talk) 23:05, 26 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I Just add that its (still) not uploading images, instead offering some file "Index.php" to down load. And at times recently it has shown a wrong thumb nail image when uploading, or just gone to sleep for ages. (this is using the toolbar button without the 'new editor on' and operating Fire Fox 3.0.5 as browser). very frustrating


 * (edit) Just tried here test image and it has uploaded (after a long wait) using special:upload - (admims can delete image as was a test if you like) - BulldozerD11 01:48, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

"Stomp_Exception" happened at 0400, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
At 0400 UTC on 27 August an "Unexpected non-MediaWiki exception encountered, of type "Stomp_Exception" " happened. I can send the full details by email in case the above happens again. User:Kathleen.wright5 from Wikia:Christianity 04:40, 27 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Aye, we know of it, and are working to make sure it doesn't happen again. 17:35, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Cannot Upload Images
I have a problem. On my site, the special upload works. :D But, when I try it on the toolbar, it wants me to download that index thing again! Then when I've downloaded it, it doesn't work! What do I do?

--Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 09:07, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi. I can no longer upload images. Every time I try to do so, a dialogue box appears asking if I want to Save or Open my Index file. I'm using IE8. It was working fine until about lunchtime yesterday (27 August).

Tiktok Of Oz 09:10, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Same here, as mentioned above, but I'm using AOL. I'll try it on Safari now...

EDIT: Works on Safari! But... not AOL. :(

--Grinder The Hedgehog-HogdoukenStudios 09:14, 27 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I think people should reuse existing section of the same topic instead of creating a new one. This has been reported many times and staff are working on a solution. — TulipVorlax 09:32, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Special:Search problem
Special:Search no longer allows the option of creating a page when using it. Before, there used to be a red-link that stated:

You searched for "insert search name here"(all pages starting with "insert search name here" |all pages that link to "insert search name here") This allowed you to create the page from the red-link. Is there a way to bring it back? Also, on a somewhat related note, I noticed in the MediaWiki release notes that a new optional search feature was introduced that "added optional alternative Search form look - Go button & Advanced search link instead of Go button & Search button" How can we implement this, because it doesn't seem to be the default. Thanks! -- Meghunter99 Talk to me! 14:12, 27 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I also have this problem (well, it isn't really a problem, rather something annoying), but I also had it before the update. I think this is replaced by the Dynamic link at the sidebar. Mark (Tedjuh10) - Talk 14:34, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
 * See Forum:Changes to interface messages. It's a problem Wikia created; it doesn't have anything to do with the MediaWiki upgrade. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 17:06, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Well then is there a way to get the You searched for "insert search name here"(all pages starting with "insert search name here" |all pages that link to "insert search name here") back, because as it is now, it is very weird and cumbersome, and I can't create pages as easily as i once did. It's a major setback for me. -- Meghunter99 Talk to me! 17:38, 27 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I'll also add my 'annoyance' at yet another 'improvement' thats another backwards step for most users. If i search as stated above you used to get a red link to allow the page to be created, now you only get it after a second search. How are we supposed in the new improved Wiki interface create new pages, other than putting a red link into an existing page ? or doing a double search. (all of which take time & use more bandwidth) wikia often goes slow (too) for me after about 0:00 GMT as it is, without creating extra traffic, for no obvious reason, or is this so some users can increase their edit count easily ?


 * 'WE' (Wikia's individual sites) are not going to get new users if it gets more complicated to edit, such that you 'need' to know the system before you start editing. Its like 95% of word users only use 5% of the functions (if that & notepad would do for most of the users 95% of the time). They do not use advanced functions & customise it as the learning curve is too steep.


 * (addition) - Had forgot about the 'new' new page button that appears "some" of the time on the left side bar menu, I as looked to side bar here & could not see anything. But it dose not solve the creating new pages after searching for 'similar' pages first that the 'old' search generated red link did, reducing duplicate similar (named) pages. (A problem is also the sensitivity to capital letters being different in the search box to the link suggestions pop up list & the loss of link suggest past the first word unless you type firstword_secondword is still a pain. (additional comment added - BulldozerD11 12:05, 28 August 2009 (UTC))


 * Hi Michaeldsuarez - As far as users are concerned it does not matter if its the 'mediawiki upgrade' or a 'Wikia upgrade'. what was fine before is now 'broke' from a user point of view. "If it aint broke dont fix it" applies to things like this. - BulldozerD11 23:30, 27 August 2009 (UTC)


 * (addition) Most of us (users) only visit central occasionally (if at all) & trawling through many fragmented comments / different sections to find the 'right' place for particular bits of info / problems is not a priority. Getting to central is not that intuitive any way as the big "Wikia" link at the top of individual wikia pages dumps you a the "splash" front page which does not link well to items like the Forum section or allow direct access to your Watch list, you have to go via another page to get there ! (perhaps a update is needed for usability).


 * (addition) BTW - Michaeldsuarez the earlier comment (which on re reading could be interpreted as being aimed at you personally) was meant as 'feedback on wikia's sometimes quirky (imo) set up'. You do great work helping people with problems at central & on wikia in general & it is just a reply linked to your earlier comment and is about 'wikia's' Improvements / updates in general. (addition comment added to clarify statement that may be ambiguous in meaning) - BulldozerD11 12:05, 28 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry about that. Nevertheless, I'm not a Wikia staff member or technician. I don't work for Wikia, so it doesn't really make any sense to address me in complaints, since I can't actually do anything about these problems. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 20:24, 28 August 2009 (UTC)
 * OH ! There it is ! I confirm it appear on "second search".
 * That's so weird... — TulipVorlax 02:58, 28 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Can confirm for the Third Turn. It takes a second search for the "red link" to appear. --DaNASCAT 06:37, 28 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for confirming this 'quirky wikia' behaviour. - BulldozerD11 12:05, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

I suggest continuing any further discussion on Forum:Changes to interface messages, so it can be kept track of more easily. 18:23, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

headerMenuButton graphical bug
The headerMenuButton for Entertainment wikis is cut off in FF2 and IE. Not sure if it has to do with the upgrade.--Sxerks 17:36, 27 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks. Apart from recommending you upgrade to Fx3.5 (of course), what version of IE are you seeing it in? (I'm not seeing it on Fx3.5 and IE8). 21:15, 27 August 2009 (UTC)


 * IE8 is installed, but at the time I was using a IE frontend called Slimbrowser, which apparently must use some older IE components.--Sxerks 00:20, September 9, 2009 (UTC)

Special:PrefixIndex
There's a problem with PrefixIndex special page. For example, go to Special:PrefixIndex/Wikia_Central. And then, without changin anything, hit the submit buttom. It should give you the exact same results as before, but it doesn't. Instead, it behaves like Special:Allpages. This is not a Wikia bug, but a MediaWiki bug, solved in the next release. I just put it here so other people are aware of this issue. This is why doesn't happen on all WikiMedia sites. --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 16:23, 30 August 2009 (UTC)


 * It doesn't seems to affect when prefixindex is included in others pages though. — TulipVorlax 01:06, 31 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Aye, we've adjust it to match. http://trac.wikia-code.com/changeset/12295 Should be live this week, or next. --Uberfuzzy 21:01, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Automatically logging me out
I can be found at Wookieepedia and I've been logged out automatically several times today. - JMAS 19:37, 31 August 2009 (UTC)


 * In the past few days, i've been logged out like at max 10 times per day.
 * I bit anoying for me, i have a software wich type my login infos for me but i'm thinking it to be more anoying for others. — TulipVorlax 01:16, 1 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Ditto from me. Auto-logout is not a welcome change. Contributors don't need more obstacles to contributing. (I would not be surprised if this has more to with advertising strategy than a MW upgrade. - Recall that: Logged out users see advertising!)
 * --najevi 23:50, September 8, 2009 (UTC)


 * This is a bug that we've been trying to track down for a few weeks. It's not related to the MW upgrade; it seems to be a cache problem. We're hoping that some new machines that we're getting this week will help us to solve the problem once and for all. It's absolutely not intentional -- please remember to assume good faith! -- Danny (talk ) 23:52, September 8, 2009 (UTC)

Editing gives download screen
When I try to edit a page on the Dofus Wiki I sometimes get a screen that asks me if I want to download index.php, and I won't be able to edit the article. This doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, it stays for several minutes. (Confirmed by another person) Mark (Tedjuh10) - Talk 19:47, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * this happens when the servers are overloaded, or the connection is slow (or both). it breaks in the middle of the transfer, and your browser doesnt know it should show it as a webpage, so it defaults back to trying to give it to you as a download. --Uberfuzzy 20:57, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Special:Export doesn't allow the "offset" parameter anymore?
Previously, I have been successfully using the "offset" parameter to download the XML of specific revisions of pages. After this upgrade, all revisions (the full history) is being downloaded. Is this a bug, or part of the upgrade? --Az 18:34, September 1, 2009 (UTC)

Date stamp formatting is broken
Okay, here's a less controversial one. :>  The date in my sig is suddenly being written as Mmmm D, YYYY even though I have had my preferences set to DD Mmmm YYYY since time immemorial. Examples:. Ryan W 18:41, September 1, 2009 (UTC)
 * Same here. --Az 19:03, September 1, 2009 (UTC)
 * That's ... a good question. How odd. 20:34, September 1, 2009 (UTC)


 * Actually, this isn't related to the upgrade; that's just a change to the default that we made today. There's a setting in Preferences for your preferred date format -- January 15, 2001; 15 January 2001; or 2001 January 15. The default is "No preference", which gives you the 15 January 2001 format.


 * Most of the world uses 15 January 2001. January 15, 2001 is used by the United States, Canada and a few other countries. About half of the traffic on Wikia comes from the US/Canada; the other half from the rest of the world.


 * This came up recently because the new user masthead (which will launch in a few weeks) uses the date of a contributor's first edit in a fairly prominent way. Given that, we could keep presenting the non-US/Canada date format as the default, or switch to the US/Canada format as the default -- still with the option for people to change it in their own preferences. After some discussion between American and British staff members, we decided to switch to the US/Canada format.


 * The one change that's universal (not dependent on individual preferences) is the format in signatures. In MediaWiki, signatures always use the default, whether you change your own preference or not. So -- a minor change, which is noticeable but not particularly meaningful one way or the other. -- Danny (talk ) 21:38, September 1, 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for explaining so promptly. As usual, I do not understand why high-salaried developers are being asked for modifications classified in advance as "not meaningful".  But at least we know nothing's haywire.    Ryan W 22:22, September 1, 2009 (UTC)


 * Isn't there a way of bypassing this default date format? I find this "minor" change highly unnecessary. What is the point of asking for personal preferences of the date format when your own signature doesn't follow this preference. =O Az 08:17, 2 September 2009 (UTC) <- I had to manually change the date format


 * Unfortunately, the same can be said either way. The user preference affects the display on recent changes and contributions, but the signature uses the basic default no matter what your preference is. So before this default change, if you chose the US/Canada format in your preferences, you'd still get the non-US format in your signatures.


 * This seems to be a weakness in the original MediaWiki programming. You might want to suggest it to MediaWiki so they can fix it in their next upgrade? -- Danny (talk ) 21:11, September 2, 2009 (UTC)


 * It would be crazy to have a system which shows some signatures with one date format, and other signatures in other formats. Also, it would be crazy to do anything different from practice on Wikipedia. JohnBeckett 01:54, September 3, 2009 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is not god.--AB 12:05, September 3, 2009 (UTC)
 * Wikimedia and MediaWiki work side-by-side, AB, so yes, Wikipedia is sort of the "god" of MediaWiki software. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 13:31, September 3, 2009 (UTC)


 * So, Wikipedia = God. MediaWiki = Supergod/Deity. Got that right???? :P -- Meghunter99 Talk to me! 13:49, September 3, 2009 (UTC)


 * This is weird for non-english wikis. This would be better to use:

if (wgContLang == "en") { // US-Date format } else { // International format }
 * --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 18:16, September 3, 2009 (UTC)
 * Listen - if you don't like the way a time is being formatted, I'm sure someone could draw up some JavaScript that could reformat it for you. Just look in the main div for the page, specify the regex, and change it. I don't expect it could be too hard. Sadly, all the JavaScript I write fails; then someone else writes something identical, and it works. :-S But some kind user might write it for you. Ti mer ootT • C • E 23:36, September 6, 2009 (UTC)

Special:DoubleRedirects
Just a minor bug but a little annoying: The "Edit" links on Special:DoubleRedirects are being redirected instead of pointing to the origin page. For example, you have:
 * Page 1 (edit) -> Page 2 -> Page 3

If you click on "edit", you are being taken to "Page 2" instead of to "Page 1" in editing mode. Not sure whether this was caused by the update, but it seems the most likely cause to me. -- Porter21 (talk) 19:30, September 14, 2009 (UTC)


 * Yup, I can confirm - strange (and annoying). We'll look into it. 13:42, September 15, 2009 (UTC)