Forum:MediaWiki 1.13 upgrade

On Wednesday, Septemebr 10th, we upgraded MediaWiki, the software that runs Wikia, to version 1.13.1. You can check out more information about what that upgrade means here. While we don't anticipate any major problems, some issues may appear. Please report any odd site behavior on this page, and we'll try to get those issues resolved as quickly as possible.

Thanks! --KyleH (talk) 17:45, 5 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Sounds good. I like the double redirect feature.
 * WHLfan (talk to me!) 22:06, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

The upgrade has been delayed a day in order to ensure a smoother rollout - it is now planned for Wednesday. For those interested, the upgrade will be to 1.13.1, which was released a couple of days ago :) 14:03, 9 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Proxima Centauri have had trouble logging out and logging back in with the other account. We use the same computer.  Our computer is erratic.  We don't know if the problem is with our computer or yours. Barbara Shack 18:12, 9 September 2008 (UTC)


 * No update occured yet so it's not related. I hope you find help anyway. — TulipVorlax 20:07, 9 September 2008 (UTC)


 * We have been making some changes to our caching servers over the past several days. (These changes are unrelated to the MediaWiki 1.13 rollout.)  Try clearing all of the cookies in your browser, then coming back and logging in again. --KyleH (talk) 20:43, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Side topic about ads

 * I was comming here to ask if the ads are temporairly disabled (so it do not interfere with upgrading) or what ? On fr.3d and fr.guildwars i dont see them (even though i have show all ads checked). I only see a white space where the ad block should be. — TulipVorlax 20:07, 9 September 2008 (UTC)


 * We have temporarily removed most of the advertising from wikis in languages other than English or German. Right now, our foreign language sites are pretty small so it doesn't make much sense for us to devote resources to selling and managing advertising on them.  Once those languages grow some, we'll probably enable the advertisements again, but for now most ads are disabled.  --KyleH (talk) 20:43, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
 * (Should we move the separate topic elsewhere ?)
 * Ok, but why the blank space on fr.3D for exemple ? Is it caused because i still used the new column tag ?
 * While writing this, i think i understand why now... i've designed thoses main pages to accomodate the ad block using a visual clear so it doesn't cause problem with the rest of the layout... So the space may be normal as it is me who made it appear (not knowing ads were removed).
 * Thanks, i'll check this... — TulipVorlax 01:18, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Yup, you figured it out. There is nothing in your right column, so when the ad disappeared, there was nothing to fill that space.  That's why we highly recommend that you use the column tags to create a true two-column design using the column tags to create the column.  With a true two-column design using the column tags, any content in the right column will slide up when there isn't an ad there (and slide back down once it returns).  --KyleH (talk) 01:34, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

For further discussion of this, it would be best to create a new forum topic.

RC log problem
WoWWiki recent changes seem to be odd; all logs are under "Upload log", even though there are Deletions and Blocks there too. 09:32, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Seems to be fixed now, thanks. 11:12, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Category text problem
Category texts are conflicting with icons:. 09:39, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * This is likely WoWWiki specific - I'll take a look. 11:45, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Categories showing as empty
Categories show as they are empty, despite that they are not:. 09:46, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * It's possible that just needs populating. 11:45, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Okay, this was intentional in order to get the update up as fast as possible - the script to populate all these will be run shortly. 12:08, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I just looked in to it a little bit more. It appears that in the category list, the number only displays the number of subcategories rather than the number of articles in the category.  So, this behavior is intentional.  For example, check out wikipedia:Category:Wikipedia_featured_articles.

24.wikia
Thanks for implementing this new software, guys! A few concerns have come up: Can anyone assist with these? I'll see replies at my talk page sooner than here. Blue Rook 09:43, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * 1) When using the recent changes at Wiki 24, clicking the Diffs brings me to a "Database error" that says " A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was: (SQL query hidden) from within function "OutputPage::addCategoryLinks". MySQL returned error "1146: Table '24.page_props' doesn't exist (10.8.2.7)". " Essentially, diffs don't work anymore.
 * 2) Special pages has white text on white background. Ugly, ugly!


 * The diffs appear to be working okay for me now. You?
 * The section titles will need to be fixed by a local CSS tweak. Any other wikis using dark skins will need to do it too, unfortunately. 11:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The following in MediaWiki:Monaco.css will fix the specialpages heading, by making the background darker (change the colour if you want for your wiki):

/* Special:Specialpages fix */ h4.mw-specialpagesgroup { background-color:#222; }
 * However, there appears to be a bit of lag with updating CSS atm, so it may take a short while to update. 12:20, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Kirkburn, thanks so much for addressing these things. The diffs do work now, which is the important thing. The color on the special page is still off, but like ya said it just might take awhile for it to be fixed. Blue Rook 18:28, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Either the above fix doesn't work, or else it's taking an *awfully* long time for CSS to update. The Special Pages h4 headers are still wrong on both 24 and Memory Alpha. -- Renegade54 15:02, 12 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The CSS loaded on 24 appears to have been updated (this), however, it's not doing the override - I'm not sure why (and Firebug isn't showing anything odd). WoWWiki appears to be okay with the same code. MA doesn't as their local CSS has not been updated. 17:39, 12 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I think I identified an error in the 24 CSS, which should fix it. Also, I've updated MA's CSS. 18:08, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Spam filter with incorrect block
Spam filter is broken. Can't save a page with "a-r-r-a-y" in it. Kind of a biggie. -- Darth Culator  (Talk) 11:06, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Reported, being looked into. 11:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The problem has been identified, and is being fixed! Edit: fix is now being deployed ... techs have confirmed fix 12:05, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

minor edit box gone
Posted this over @ User talk:KyleH before finding this; as well as the special pages problem, minor edit box is gone when editing with cologneblue skin.. only happens on TibiaWiki though, it's normal here. -- Sixorish 11:25, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Confirming - see for example ... I cannot reproduce on any other wiki, though.  11:57, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * It's not just CologneBlue; just tried with any other skin, looks like a problem with the wiki. -- Sixorish 12:31, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Aye, can confirm. I've passed it on. 13:27, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Link Suggest problem
Is it just me or are sugestions not coming up when you type in part of a link when editing on the Harry Potter Wiki? 11:27, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, it doesn't appear to be working for me either. Will report. 11:59, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Techs are looking into the issue. 12:36, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Should now be fixed! 13:45, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * What was the fix? This feature is working as expected at Wikia central but not at the Rappelz Wiki. See also: this post at the help desk there. najevi 03:30, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

AJAX RC broken
For those of you who use User:Kirkburn/global.js or similar, it is currently broken. It's likely due to a small change in MediaWiki - once the original author is online, I'll see what he can find out. 12:36, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Aaand the change is tiny. See here for the change to make. CamelCase ftw! 13:22, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Duplications

 * 1) The forum box at the top of this page is duplicated.
 * 2) The category box has a double border on Monobook; this duplication causes an HTML error because of a duplicated ID (that's the only HTML error on Monobook pages). The erroneous code is  . --◄mendel► 14:59, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * This duplication is intended - it's in two different forums.
 * Do you have a link to an example of this? What you should be getting is . I know of a problem on the old custom wowwiki skin - is this also a specific custom monobook skin? Edit: I see it affects uncyc, so it looks like wikis using their own custom skin have this problem. This does not affect wikis who just customize using local CSS  15:43, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Ah, ok, hadn't noticed (I think I noticed a few days ago, but forgot again).
 * Yes, it is a custom monobook skin. Any hints as to what we need to edit? --◄mendel► 16:08, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Nothing to edit on your end - it's a skin PHP code issue. The techs have just spotted the change, and have made a fix. 17:20, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The fix hasn't been deployed yet? Because I'm still seeing double on the cat box. --◄mendel► 10:37, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * This fix is now deployed. Let me know if you see anything strange. --KyleH (talk) 21:27, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Double Redirects
I think I saw something about it fixing Double Redirects, if so, is there now any point in having the Double Redirects special page? - Kingpin13 on Birds and on Wookieepedia (Talk) 16:26, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The double redirects are only fixed on page moves - so most cases are covered, but it's still possible to create them otherwise. 16:31, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Okay, thanks - Kingpin13 on Birds and on Wookieepedia (Talk) 16:35, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * This isn't enabled by default with moves, but the box must be checked to have it done. Is there any way to make this box checked by default and uncheck it when necessary?  We'd like to do the same thing for moving the subpages associated with the page.
 * Peteparker 21:46, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Currently there is no way to do this (that I can find), but I'll pass the option along as a suggestion. --KyleH (talk) 22:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Weird tab in prefs
There's a wierd tab in preferences titled "# 9" and it dont seems to have any purpose. — TulipVorlax 17:01, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I assume you're using Internet Explorer? Twas spotted yesterday on Yugioh (which got 1.13 first) - I've updated the report to the techs to say it's now sitewide. Thanks! 17:06, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh yeah, sorry, forgot to talk about specs... I'm on IE7 in Win XP Home. I just checked Firefox, it's not there. — TulipVorlax 22:45, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Inaccesible
On this inactive wiki, the Main Page (and I think all mainspace articles) don't load. --YOWUZA TALK 2 ME! 17:29, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * That should be fixed now. We've noticed this problem on a few other wikis and are working on a way to find them and fix them automatically.  In the mean time, if you see any more with SQL errors on all pages, post them here so we can fix them. --KyleH (talk) 17:38, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

User:WikiaBot
Will it mess up the bot if pages like this are categorized (so that other users know not to delete them)? For that matter, is it okay to delete the pages when upgrade discussions here and on the listserv have died down? Yes, I searched for documentation of the bot here, and on inside, and on help; I found no explanations. Ryan W 19:32, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * The bot is editing that page to make sure that your wiki was upgraded successfully (and fix it if it wasn't). It is safe to delete that page at any point, but you may want to wait a few days because it may be recreated as we continue to test to make sure that everything rolled out successfully.  --KyleH (talk) 19:46, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * That makes sense. Thank you.    Ryan W 20:30, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Special:Allmessages
This may just be a problem with my computer, but I can't get Special:Allmessages to display on any wiki. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 19:50, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It's fixed now. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 19:59, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Glad to hear that. I was having trouble replicating the problem myself--did you do something to fix it, or did it just start working?  --KyleH (talk) 20:03, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I did absolutely nothing; the next time I tried, it just started to work. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 20:13, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Logs
In the recent changes at Brickipedia it shows somebody moving a page under the upload log. MarioGalaxy2433g5 10+ { talk /contribs/Logs} 21:53, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * As I read above, it seems that all logs are under it. MarioGalaxy2433g5  10+ { talk /contribs/Logs} 21:58, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not seeing this myself. Can you provide a link to where you're seeing that?  And which article you're seeing there?  --KyleH (talk) 22:56, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * c:lego:Special:RecentChanges. This is what I see pretty much:
 * 22:05 (Upload log)‎ [MarioGalaxy2433g5‎; TYLERAF‎ (2×)]


 * 22:05 . . TYLERAF (Talk | contribs) (uploaded "Image:Lego AAT Box.JPG")
 * 22:03 . . MarioGalaxy2433g5 (Talk | contribs) (The page Lego roboriders, moved to RoboRiders: Actual name)
 * 22:02 . . TYLERAF (Talk | contribs) (uploaded "Image:Lego Republic Attack Shuttle Box.JPG")


 * -- MarioGalaxy2433g5  10+ { talk /contribs/Logs} 23:07, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Ahhh, I see. It appears that in recent changes, all log items are grouped under the most recent log entry.  I'll report it.  Thanks!  --KyleH (talk) 23:13, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Special:ListGroupRights

 * Information on the Bureaucrat group is missing.
 * Information on userrights in the staff group is missing.
 * Some groups, such as forumadmin, have very vague information such as "dummyforumadminpermission" (huh?) Dtm142 23:43, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I've reported these issues. Thanks. --KyleH (talk) 00:00, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Further, the page should probably have the left cells be vertical-align: top with their CSS. Apparently, Kirkburn was having that view (using who knows what), while I and another on IRC had it as vertically aligned to the center of the row. --Sky (talk) 01:52, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I still think you're crazy, cause I can't get it to valign middle, either in Firefox or Internet Explorer :P 11:08, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I just checked the page in Firefox 3, Firefox 2, IE7, and IE6 and the left cells appear valigned to the top on all 4 browsers. On what browser and what wiki are you seeing them valigned to the middle of the cell?  --KyleH (talk) 21:08, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I have seen a similar thing already long before de upgrade; it was in the Wii Opera browser. — TulipVorlax 22:40, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Ahhh, thanks. I was able to reproduce this issue in the latest version of Opera.  I'll pass it along.  --KyleH (talk) 23:38, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Recent changes widget
It seems if a page is deleted, it will still be visible in the widget as a diff=0 link. -- 23:49, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I believe that this behavior is intentional, but I'll check on it. --KyleH (talk) 00:04, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Don't think it was intended to show at all if deleted. It didn't in 1.12 -- 00:05, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It looks to me like edits are removed from the recent changes widget for deleted pages, but moves persist. Are you seeing something different?  --KyleH (talk) 00:08, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Ahhh, it looks like moves didn't show up at all in the old recent changes widget. That explains the difference ... --KyleH (talk) 00:14, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, seems to only affect deleted moves, I tested it again. -- 00:15, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Seems to also affect deleted image revisions. If I delete an old image revision it appears in the widget as if the image had been edited with a diff=0 link. -- 10:50, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I've reported the issue.  --KyleH (talk) 21:50, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

The PAGESIZE parser function is absent on some wikis
Meta says the function is new for MW1.13. The usage is, e.g. or  , and here on central Wikia that works:  or. It works on wowwiki as well, but it doesn't on spore.wikia.com, guildwars.wikia.com , guestbook.wikia.com, redwall.wikia.com, warriors.wikia.com , ... . I haven't tested if any other parser functions are affected. --◄mendel► 10:28, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * It may be related to whether those wikis have the new parser/preprocessor active. It's a big improvement on the normal parser, and was introduced in 1.12, but it can require some small template updates so it has not been enabled Wikia-wide yet. There are plans to do so soon, and we'll try and make sure everyone knows what changes. In the meantime, you can view this which gives a rather more technical overview. Note: if any wikis are desperate to use these things, we are willing to switch you to the new parser early, so long as there is someone knowledgeable who can fix any problems that might arise with templates. 11:20, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I just tested this and confirmed that the new parser functions only work when the new parser is enabled. If you want the new parser enabled, just let us know, but make sure you understand the implications of doing so.  Special:ParserDiffTest is enabled on all wikis so that you can test the new parser before asking to have it enabled.  If you don't have a compelling reason to ask for the new parser to be enabled, however, we would prefer that you wait until we roll it out Wikia-wide rather than asking for it now.  --KyleH (talk) 21:15, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Can't access user talk page
Wiki: RuneScape Wiki

Talkpage: User talk:Azliq7

Error: Internal error

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

Reported by: Az 14:29, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Getting the same error when editing @ TibiaWiki; have any changes been made in the last few hours? (example) Edit: nevermind -- seems to work properly now -- Sixorish 14:34, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Aye, there was a brief error in the system, got reported on IRC. All is well :) 16:20, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Spamtrap's busted
Hey, whatever you're updating has broken the wikia-wide spamtrap. Pages containing the word "a r r a y" (even in a filename!) can no longer be edited at all.

I assume this is because someone forgot to escape something in the new code. Tsk-tsk. -Derik 10:46, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * This issue has been resolved. Moving it here to consolidate MediaWiki 1.13 upgrade issues. --KyleH (talk) 23:27, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Special: Categories is empty since Mediawiki 1.13 update
Special:Categories says "The following categories contain pages or media." But the list have no entries. You can select next 20, 50, 100 and all, but allways no category will see. — anonymous 09:29, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * For some reason only categories added since the update seem to show up: wowwiki:Special:Categories. 09:58, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Need we now Null edit all articles to have Categories right to see? — anonymous 12:09, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Maybe for some reason, the software need to rebuild that information, it might take some time... — TulipVorlax 13:49, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * We're aware of this issue and are working to resolve it. --KyleH (talk) 23:32, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Summary so far
A quick compilation of user-oriented things and solutions/explanations:

Dark-skin wikis
The following in MediaWiki:Monaco.css will fix the specialpages heading, by making the background darker (change the colour if you want for your wiki): /* Special:Specialpages fix */ h4.mw-specialpagesgroup { background-color:#222; } There is a delay with updating CSS at the moment, so you may not see the change show up immediately. 13:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Categories with "0" next to them
"It appears that in the category list, the number only displays the number of subcategories rather than the number of articles in the category. So, this behavior is intentional.  For example, check out wikipedia:Category:Wikipedia_featured_articles." 13:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

AJAX RC fix
For those of you who use User:Kirkburn/global.js or similar, you need to make a small tweak - see here for the change to make. CamelCase ftw! 13:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Problems from being on the old parser
MediaWiki has a new parser/preprocessor which was introduced in 1.12 - it seems some additions in 1.13 rely on it. It's a big improvement on the old parser, but it can require some small template updates so it has not been enabled Wikia-wide yet. There are plans to do so soon, and we'll try and make sure everyone knows what changes. In the meantime, you can view this which gives a rather more technical overview.

Special:ParserDiffTest is enabled on all wikis so that you can test the new parser before asking to have it enabled. If you don't have a compelling reason to ask for the new parser to be enabled, however, we would prefer that you wait until we roll it out Wikia-wide rather than asking for it now. 13:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Hiding Categories
Hi, I've tried using the new __HIDDENCAT__ tag on category pages, but it doesn't seem to be hiding on the article page. I'm sure this is just something stupid on my end. Ex. DaNASCAT 22:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It looks like this is another feature that requires the new parser to function properly. Take a look at the section above ... we can enable the new parser for you if you would like.  --KyleH (talk) 00:23, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't seem to have any of the templates possibly being affected by this change. Feel free to go ahead and change it. Thanks DaNASCAT 01:26, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Done. You'll need to make an edit to any categories to which you have added the __HIDDENCAT__ tag. --KyleH (talk) 02:06, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Episode Templates
Hi...the episode titles via the episode templates are no longer being recognized on our Episode Guide...The code hasn't changed and is the same for Season 1, which is turning up, but not for 2-4. Help! --ABrose 04:14, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Heya! I took a look at it, and I believe that I have fixed the issue by simplifying your ep template.  MediaWiki 1.13 has a limit on how many times you can call "expensive parser functions" on each page, and because of that template, you were using #ifexists (which is an expensive parser function) 4 times for each episode.  I simplified the template to replicate the same behavior while only calling it once, but it's only a matter of time before you run up against that limit again (approximately 26 episodes from now).  You may end up needing to eventually split up seasons; however, given the way that you're using it, you could probably eliminate that last #ifexists as well (ping me on my talk page if/when it becomes a problem and we can figure it out). --KyleH (talk) 06:20, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Pywikipediabot broken?
Don't know if this is related, but the "Pywikipediabot" is currently broken, erroring out with the following message when trying to get page content: "Got incorrect export page. Sleeping for XX seconds...". Did the behaviour of Special:Export change with the update? -- Cid Highwind 17:01, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I've been using Pywikipediabot on Wookieepedia before and after the upgrade with no such issues. Are you using a recent SVN and have you edited your family file to reflect the upgrade? -- Darth Culator  (Talk) 05:00, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I've been using both the somewhat old version that still worked before the upgrade, and a recent nightly (2008-09-12). Some of the family changes were missing on my end, but adding those didn't resolve the situation. Will have to investigate further, perhaps it's an issue specific to the Memory Alpha wikis. Thanks for your help, though. :) -- Cid Highwind 14:56, 14 September 2008 (UTC)