Language tools

The Language team has the goal of reducing the language barrier that users face when accessing or sharing knowledge. The team has created tools to facilitate the participation of our users regardless of their language. These include the creation of multilingual content and software, facilitate language navigation, and support for easy input and proper display of different scripts. Language tools and their infrastructures need regular maintenance and update efforts. Making our language tools and infrastructure work better helps all the projects that rely on them, and saves time and efforts to the people participating in them, from developers to translators and the final users.

In July 2018, an effort was started to identify key areas to improve in our language tools during the upcoming months. The affected tools, the plan and the status updates are described next.

List of tools

Language tools are listed below:

• Translate extension . The infrastructure used to translate our software and multilingual pages. Communities of translators use it on Translatewiki.net and Wikimedia Meta-wiki.
• Universal Language selector . Provides easy access to language settings, and facilitates language selection in different contexts including interlanguage links .
• Project Milkshake. Developer libraries for internationalisation support on the web including input methods, web-fonts, and grammatical rules for languages that can be used on both Wikimedia and external projects.
• MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle . A collection of selected MediaWiki extensions needed by any wiki which desires to be multilingual.
• Content Translation . The tool to facilitate translation of Wikipedia articles across languages. Since it is in active development, the progress of this tool won't be tracked as part of the current maintenance effort, but as part of its own project page for the new version .
• MinT. A machine translation service based on open source neural machine translation models released by other organizations with an open source license. Since it is in active development, the progress of this tool won't be tracked as part of the current maintenance effort, but on its own project page.

Maintenance plan

Since there is a wide catalog of language tools and potential areas to improve, we are keeping a list of current maintenance responsibilities and levels in our team Phabricator page.

Status updates

February 2024

• Updated the name of the Mon language
• Released MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle 2024.01
• Published Language & Internationalization Newsletter for January 2024
• Additional improvements to reduce false positives in the translation security checker
• Reviewed code cleanup to the Babel extension

• New feature: Translation page filter for Special:PrefixIndex has been deployed to all wikis using the Translate extension
• Onboarded Chinook Jargon (chn) and Ibibio (ibb) to MediaWiki
• Onboarded Wikicurricula to translatewiki.net
• Fixed more false positives in the translation security checker [1][2][3
• completed a survey on users of translation notifications and identified improvements, filing them as separate tasks.
• display of outdated text and the languages list in dark mode. The {{TRANSLATIONLANGUAGE}} magic word can now be used outside translation units. Additionally, the script for importing translatable pages from another wiki now automatically marks pages for translation.
• fixed more false positives in the translation security checker [1][2],
• added a maintenance script to the Translate extension for refreshing translation progress stats, allowing to correct inaccuracies from previous bugs.

January 2024

• Onboarded Efik (efi) language to MediaWiki.
• Added Adiutor extension and Luthor to translatewiki.net for translation.
• Enabled translatable bundle status database table on Wikimedia wikis.
• Fixed an issue that caused delays in translation page updates in the Translate extension.
• Onboarded Komering (kge), Tooro (ttj), Nyoro (nyo) and Southeastern Kolami (nit) languages to MediaWiki.
• Onboarded Nupe (nup) and Chinook Jargon (chn) languages to translatewiki.net.
• Fixed gendered namespaces for Moroccan Arabic (ary).
• fixing issues related to logging, delays in updates and creation of unnecessary pages.
• Released language-data 2024.01.

December 2023

• added Kiwix for iOS/macOS to translatewiki.net
• removed web2cit-server and CustomHeader from translation on translatewiki.net.
• removal of mediawiki ui code from Universal Language Selector.
• stricter validation for plural rule syntax in translations.
• modernized code in the Translate extension
• polished the new translatable indicators.
• Fixed PHP notice in Special:TranslationStats.
• Made a bugfix release for MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle.
• Finished populating data to optimize querying of translatable pages.
• Deployed stricter validation for plural rule syntax in translations.
• Made priority language message on Special:MessageGroupStatistics nicer
• preparation work that may help if we decide to move translatable page language listing to the language selecto
• Adding Adiutor extension to translatewiki.net for translation.

November 2023

• Fixed an issue which caused MinT translation suggestions to not show up with the Translate extension sometimes.
• All translation pages now have a page property , which enables us to add features such hiding translation pages from Special:PrefixIndex.
• Updated translatable page progress indicators to be more harmonized and less distracting.
• Deployed translatable bundle status table to production.
• Added Luthor to translatewiki.net
• Enabled usage of translatable bundle status on Wikimedia sites
• Deployed translatable page progress indicators
• Refactored code to mark page for translation into a service, to enable future use in scripts and APIs. Backported a fix for a regression caused by this.
• Supported investigation of a missing language in Wikipedia portal.
• Added a unsubscribe link in talk page translation notifications.
• Improved the workflow for manually associating message renames when importing changes to translatewiki.net to make it easier to process the large number changes of Phabricator translations.
• Added Kiwix for iOS/macOS to translatewiki.net.
• Made it easier to unsubscribe from translation notifications.
• Fixed an issue that broke Special:SpecialPages when the Translate extension was used on stable MediaWiki releases

October 2023

• Manually fixed a synchronization issue which caused some outdated messages to be unfindable in translatewiki.net.
• Translatewiki.net configuration change for Wikidata Mismatch Finder.
• Added DataMaps for translation
• Set up translation backports for 1.41 branches
• Semantic MediaWiki extension was undeployed from translatewiki.net.
• Deployed Code Mirror extension to make it easier to edit templates and pages using a lot of templates
• Removed irrelevant entries from the new languages tracker
• Fixed an error that blocked translation updates for MediaWiki
• Optimized running time of a certain statistics calculation job from around 12 hours to 30 seconds
• Junicode font was updated to latest version, which should improve text rendering for medieval scripts used especially in WikiSources.
• Removed a QUnit test that recently started failing, though it probably never worked correctly in the first place
• When moving a translatable page, there is now an option to leave redirects
• Fixing layout breaks on Special:SearchTranslations and other special pages by forcing line breaks in middle of words if necessary
• Improved error handling for Special:PagePreparation (patch contributed by Sam Reed)
• Fixed bugs related to translatable pages with very long titles
• Long words should no longer break the page layout on Special:SearchTranslations
• Refactored the code to delete a translatable bundle into a service
• Released Language data library version 2023.10
• Released MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle 2023.10

September 2023

• Added Adiutor to translatewiki.net. Project is now available for translation on translatewiki.net
• MinT is now enabled for use with Translate extension on wikimaniawiki, incubatorwiki, foundationwiki, and wikidatawikiTranslate extension on commonswiki, outreachwiki, sourceswiki, specieswiki and wikifunctionswiki, Mediawiki and Meta-Wiki
• WikiScore is now available for translation on translatewiki.net: https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:WikiScore
• Investigate and fix more issues with long running requests timing out on Translatewiki.net
• Improved support for transferring translations between wikis
• Fixed translation synchronization failure for Wikimedia commons Android app & Isa
• Enforced maximum length of a translatable page
• Added a lowercase translation for turkish
• Added Karai-Karai namespace translations to MediaWiki core.
• Added Plural support for Kildin Sámi language
• Removed 1.38 branch from translation backports

August 2023

• Enabled Mint for translatewiki
• Enabled Mint for translatable pages on test wiki
• Improved accessibility by ensuring that proper focus is retained when closing the language menu.
• Removed usage of jQuery.ui library from the Translate extension.
• Ensured that the UniversalLangaugeSelector does not store preferences for temporary user accounts.
• Fix for Language selector broken: Uncaught TypeError: mw.uls.isNamed is not a function
• Fixed an interface glitch in Special:Translate search input
• Provided translatewiki.net deployment access and training for Jon Harald Søby
• Fixed an issue affecting delivery of translation notifications to some subscribers
• Enabled support for West Coast Bajau (bdr) in MediaWiki
• On translatewiki.net, ensure that users get a welcome message after they have been approved on the translation sandbox
• Fixed broken language selection button on Wikimedia wikis
• Fix for Universal Language selector in the in HTTP Accept-Language header
• Fixed Moroccan Arabic shown as LTR in MobileFrontend's interlanguage links list
• Allowed per project customization of the commit message
• Fix for Translation updates blocker for WS Export

July 2023

• Enabled MinT translation service on translatewiki
• Completed Translatable Pages User Research. Summary of the research can be found here
• Released of MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle
• Deployed a change on production to ensure that inactive subscribers are unsubscribed periodically
• Ensured that the Translate extension does not save options for temporary users
• Enabled MinT translation service on translatewiki
• Made various improvements to Special:PagePreparation to help admins prepare pages for translation [1][[2]
• Fixes for the Buginese language: changed the autonym and split the localization by two scripts.
• Added some language codes to language-data

June 2023

• Fix incorrect warning displaying in tux that a translation maybe outdated
• Added user provided reason to the logs when a translatable bundle is moved.
• Added functionality to specify a title for message bundles
• Added support for the MinT translation service to the Translate extension.
• Reduced tech debt by moving more classes into namespaces
• Worked on logging the user provided reason to the logs when a translatable bundle is moved.
• fixed an issue with unexpected "In other languages" section appearing in Vector 22 sidebar
• Skipped modifying translatable pages, translations and translation units when using the ReplaceText extension.
• Fixed empty warning box displayed on Special:Translate
• Investigated and fixed issues with the visibility of the translate tab on translation pages
• Investigated and fix issues with improper session initialization in the AbuseFilter extension
• Added new projects to translatewiki including WikiEdit and Discord extension

May 2023

• Fix for autonyms on Special:ActiveLanguages subpages to have HTML language tag
• Released a new version for the jQuery.i18n library.
• Investigated and fixed issues with email digest notifications being broken for translators.
• Fix for repository
• Investigated issues with moved pages being marked as translatable
• Fixed font related issues with the Babel extension.
• Documented the approach to  a way to configure readable and writable ttm services separately and worked with the search platform team to enable this on Wikimedia production servers.
• Fixed an edge case causing logspam when fetching messages for translation
• Fix for missing translate button on foundation wiki to provide possibility to translate directly translate from that page

April 2023

• Improved usability of the Special:ImportTranslations page
• Added new tool Wikidata Mismatch Finder for localisation on translatewiki.net.
• Added new extension Appropedia for localisation on translatewiki.net.
• Made it easier and faster to select a message group in Special:ExportTranslations
• Fixed issues with the script that bootstraps the translation memory with the MySQL / MariaDB backend.
• Improved the UX when exporting empty translations for a message groups via Special:ExportTranslation
• Fix for TUX failing to scroll to last unit after saving second to last unit & Incorrect capitalization of "Võro" (in English)
• Released language-data 2023.04 & MLEB 2023.04
• Move several classes in the translate root directly to namespace.
• Ability to reload the import page after a successful import of translations using the Translate extension.
• Removed desktop / mobile only targeted code from language team extensions
• Added subpage backlink for the MovePage forms for translatable content
• Added subpage backlink on Special:PageTranslationDeletePage
• Standardize with MediaWiki core through through Use addBacklinkSubtitle on Special:PageTranslation
• Fix for translatable pages production error

March 2023

• Move several classes in the translate root directly to namespace.
• Add back-end support for Special:MessageGroupStats for showing stats for message prefixes
• Make translation statistics bar vertically aligned with other elements around
• Remove some unnecessary messages that were offered to translators for translation on translatewiki.net
• fixed an issue reported with importing translations via the import translations special page
• fixed cropped placeholder text in the language selector dropdown
• Shared localisation platform research summary on translatewiki.net
• Fixed an issue with invalid translation aid displayed if the source text contained complex unicode characters
• Fixed an issue with incorrect capitalization of "Võro" language (in English)
• Adjustments for Language selector on multilingual wikis including Misalignment between button and panel and Quick actions menu.
• Fixed for Language selector Unexpected "Page contents not supported in other languages" in non-article namespace

February 2023

• Installed discussion tools on translatewiki
• Added MWoffliner to translatewiki
• Add back-end support for Special:MessageGroupStats for showing stats for message prefixes
• Remove some unnecessary messages that were offered to translators for translation on translatewiki.net
• Make translation statistics bar vertically aligned

January 2023

• Added support for PhET Interactive Simulations on translatewiki.net
• Fixed an issue with translation units that have space in their ID not being handled properly when generating translations
• Fixed an issue with shortcuts not working on Firefox in Translation editor.
• Deployed a fix for an issue found with the feature to notify translators about new translations available.
• Completed feature development to add support for up/down arrow keys in the Language selector.
• Added a feature to the maintenance script that imports translations from projects on translatewiki.net that will help reduce the number of messages that need to be reviewed manually.
• Released a new version of the MediaWiki Langauge Extension Bundle 2023.01
• Released a new version of the language-data library

December 2022

• Adapted the Translate Language header list design to better match the Vector 2022 design and meet the Wikimedia design guidelines.
• As per MLEB release policy, dropped support for MediaWiki 1.37 from the Translate extension.
• Replaced mail delivery infrastructure for translatewiki.net
• Installed the Scribunto extension on translatewiki.net
• Enabled British English translation exports for Wikimedia Developer portal

November 2022

• Added more parts of EditCountNeue to  translatewiki.net for translation
• Added WikiLearn to translatewiki.net for translation
• Improved how message bundles are displayed and formatted when editing
• Fixed a bug that prevented some WikiLearn message groups from being registered.
• Fixed a bug that prevented removing priority languages from translatable pages.
• Modernized the UI for notifying translators of translation requests.
• Improved search improving search results and  a new updated version of elasticsearch
• Fixed broken Phabricator translation exports from translatewiki.net

October 2022

• Added a warning in the translation interface when a variant of the source language is selected
• Added a feature to automatically mark Message Bundle translations as outdated when the source text changes, keep track of their status and prevent access to blocked users.
• Added a feature that allows linking to a specific section of a translatable page in any language
• Released MLEB 2022.10
• Released language-data 2022.10
• Improved error messages in translatewiki.net sign-up form.
• Added Open Historical Map and Web2Cit to translatewiki.net
• Enabled Nastaleeq font for Western Punjabi.
• Added more translation validators for Wikipedia iOS app & Improved responsiveness of translation validators.
• Addressing issues in the new automatic section anchor feature for translatable pages.
• Updated translatewiki.net configuration after a skin moved to another repository.
• completed removal of an unused class as part of reducing the code debt.

September 2022

• Disabled machine translation suggestions from Apertium for some language pairs in the Translate extension based on user requests.
• Explored options on how to improve the performance of Special:PageTranslation while also supporting new filtering features.
• Improved the feature to show latest edit summaries to translators by improving the layout and formatting of relative dates.
• Fixed a workflow issue with aggregate message groups in the Translate extension.
• Deployed a fix for a bug that was resulting in an empty recent changes when no language was selected
• Investigated and fixed an issue that was causing a delay in updating translation pages
• Deployed a fix that blocks translations from users for a blocked translatable page.

August 2022

• Added Ajapaik Flutter App, Wikimedia Server Connectivity and Lingua Libre SignIt to translatewiki.net
• Added ability to provide a description for MessageBundle message groups
• Translatewiki.net main page can now be indexed by search engines
• Complicated translatewiki.net deployment due to Vector related issues and database code changes in MediaWiki core.
• Imported translations via CSV for Privacy statement templates.
• Deployed an improvement to the translation editor that makes interactions with translation aids more predictable. 
• Fixed a few regressions ([1], [2], [3]) caused due to our modernization work for the Translate extension.
• Fixed a create missing translation bug with a maintenance script in the Translate extension noticed during the CSV imports.

July 2022

• Released a new version (v1.1.0) of the  language-data library
• Released MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle 2022.07
• Fixed a regression due to which translation pages were not updated when units of translation were deleted
• Reviewed and deployed a patch to fix incorrect redirection when marking pages for translation from mobile phone
• Investigated the reason why batch deletions using Special:Nuke extension left translation pages outdated.
• Reviewed Mass import translations from CSV file for MSG termbase that was using the new import translations from CSV file feature that we had previously implemented.
• Fixed a regression that prevented reviewing translations
• Fixed a regression in the translation search Action API
• Fixed a display regression on Special:Translate on the new Vector skin
• Completed development to add support for displaying descriptions for courses
• Dropping support from MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle (MLEB) for older versions of MediaWiki core.

June 2022

• Added the TabberNeue extension for translation in translatewiki.net.
• Finished one task in a series of tasks about modernizing the Translate extension codebase to use today’s best practices.
• Fixed an issue caused by code refactoring that prevented deleting some translation pages
• Message bundles now support a custom source language and limiting the set of target languages.
• reduced the number of messages that trigger manual security review to speed up translation updates.
• Optimized an inefficient database query for listing translations of a translatable page.
• improved the interaction of the Translate and the Nuke extension to avoid re-creating translation pages that were being deleted.
• Clearer to translation admins (who are approving new translators) when a reminder to complete the registration process was last sent.
• Fixed extensions that are using deprecated code which are deployed to translatewiki.net
• Added functionality to delete Message bundles
• Removed an unused maintenance script in the Translate extension that was in need of an update.
• Made it easier to go to source page and the translation page on Special:Translate

May 2022

• Fixed Division by zero possibility in ttmserver-export.php
• Resolved Several messages on Wikidata now show ‎<translate> tags
• Completed Setup an instance for WikiLearn and OpenStreetMap wiki testing
• Deployed and tested the functionality to  move Message bundles on Translatewiki.
• Fixed Add variable validator for Commons Android App
• Shared updated documentation about subtitle translation to WikiLearn
• Resolved Require full deployments for configuration changes
• Created a fix for showing wrong message on translatable pages for translation admins
• Added Wikimedia Developer Portal to translatewiki.net for translation
• Fixed a regression affecting a message shown to translation admins on translation pages
• Finished our part of sunsetting the LocalisationUpdate extension

April 2022

• Added WikiAuthBot to translatewiki.net
• Made changes to avoid  extension losing translations when splitting message groups
• Moved web service consumers to namespace and use service injection
• Fixed a high priority issue where translation memory suggestions were no longer working on Wikimedia servers
• Fixed compatibility issues in Babel and Translate with MediaWiki 1.36
• Setup testing instance of the Translate extension for collaboration with other parties
• Released version 1.0.9 of the language-data library
• Released MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle version 2022.04
• Added Kiwix Serve to translatewiki.net

March 2022

• Avoid fetching language stats for all groups when Special:Translate is loaded
• Fix error logging in TranslateRenderJob
• Move SpecialPages to namespace and use service injection
• Preventing future instances of message deletion during imports.
• Fix use of warningbox in MassMessage
• Fix use of successbox in TranslationNotification.
• Deletion reasons on Special:PageTranslationDeletePage doesn't parse magic words
• Preventing the insertion in translation editor from translation helper without translator rights
• Provide feedback when saving a translation in proofreading mode
• Sort by usage the suggestions with the same percentage.
• Translation backports for REL1_38
• ULS button in personal bar broken with classic vector
• A different language cannot be selected in the ime selector in the Vector 2022 search box
• Review Transifex
• Add WikiAuthBot to translatewiki.net.

February 2022

• Allow multilingual headings for translated MassMessage newsletters.
• More reliable import process avoiding messages appear as missing.
• Restored wrongly translated messages for WikiLambda.
• Review of Weblate
• Facilitate translation status review with specific group selector component.
• Release of MLEB 2022.01
• Localization support for CeJS

January 2022

• Migrated jquery.i18n CI from Travis to GitHub actions
• Initial support for translatable modules by supporting new type of message groups.
• Release language data
• Update keyboard name for bn-nkb to 'Jatiyo'
• Localization support for ISA
• Review license status for localization projects.
• Updated welcome notification icon on translatewiki.net
• More reliable localization update by avoiding unexpected deletions
• More reliable statistics by showing competed languages
• Enabled "MediaWikiwiki" prefix in translatewiki.net
• More solid ULS by avoiding incompatibility issues.
• More reliable Continuous Integration process by improving Yaml validation
• Better script support in ULS by updating GentiumPlus to the latest version.
• Drop support for old versions of MediaWiki for ULS and for Translate
• Support for allowing enablement of language converter on Portal:zh

December 2021

• More clear experience to prevent translations in the wrong language by making the target language selector more prominent and showing the target language as part of the translation text area placeholder.
• Improved scannability for the aggregate groups list by providing support for collapsing.
• Issues with Special:Block and with Special:ActiveLanguages fixed after regressions.
• Reduced manual steps by scheduling Mediawiki backports.
• Cleaner error messages when moving pages
• Improved namespace localization for MassMessage
• Improved query performance on Special:ActiveLanguages
• Remove unused extensions
• Code formatting improvements for LanguageNameSearchData

November 2021

• Allow excluding certain messages from validation
• Add script to easily update maintained extensions
• Support search suggestions in Page Migration
• Avoid export issues with export due to namespaces.
• Support doing translation update backports to stable branches
• Make Translate master compatible with 1.37
• Update SMW to add support for MW 1.38
• Exposed database tables of the Translate extension to users in replicas on Toolforge
• Adjust support links per project for Semantic MediaWiki and for Commons android app.
• Release of MLEB 2021.10, and MLEB-2021.11

September 2021

• Supporting improvements to the language button.
• Preparing for translatewiki.net operating system upgrade to Debian 11. Making compatibility fixes to SMW.
• Working on to resolve two production issues with the Translate extension: one JavaScript error and one about inefficient database queries
• Better customization for projects by allowing more specific links to each project tracking systems.

August 2021

• Published blog post about recent support to send messages in the best language available.
• Improve exports by simplifying their processing to use a single invocation.

July 2021

• Automating key steps of the localization process by supporting a stronger synchronization in RepoNG and Translate, preventing all translation units to become outdated when moving a translatable page, and avoid log entry changes to consider a translatable page as broken.
• Provide access to language settings on new Vector from the language selector.
• Make the localization platform more reliable by avoiding messages to become empty when translate din page mode, and issues with the trim function and with message group stats.

June 2021

• Due to an outage during translatewiki.net deployment caused by the way we deploy LocalisationCache, this is now part of the deployment tag.
• We improved Gettext file format parsing code to avoid situations where source language strings would incorrectly be imported as translations.
• Released MLEB 2021.06.
• Translate is no longer compatible with MediaWiki 1.34.
• The Translate extension no longer uses deprecated methods, allowing them to be removed later once all other uses elsewhere have been removed.

May 2021

• Released language-data 2021.04.
• Once a MessageUpdateJob has failed, the administrator can now investigate the issue, and has the ability to mark the error with the message as resolved.
• Created a maintenance script for moving big translatable pages so that there is a reliable way to perform these large renames.
• Added Wikimedia OCR to translatewiki.net.
• Yearly statistics are now available in Special:TranslationStats.
• Corrected code that caused a silent and permanent deletion of settings of translatable pages when associated translation page was deleted so that now translatable page settings are no longer disappearing unexpectedly.
• Translatable pages consisting of too many pages can no longer be moved through the web interface; such pages can be only moved using a command line maintenance script.
• Created a "Getting started" guide for developers that covers the following topics: (1) Local development environment setup, (2) How to pick tasks, and (3) Coding conventions.
• It is now possible to create pages with "message bundle" content format that includes basic schema validation.

April 2021

• Until current errors can be resolved by the translate administrator, they will be tracked via the Group synchronization cache.
• Added Cita to translatewiki.net.
• Added a new JSON file containing partner descriptions to translatewiki.net.
• Clarified and updated Ojibwe language codes on ranslatewiki.net.
• Improved wrapping of page contents delivered using MassMessage to avoid regressions.

March 2021

• Added EDTF (PHP library) to translatewiki.net.
• Added Wikidata Lexeme Forms to translatewiki.net.
• Resolved fatal error that prevented exporting.
• Translatable templates are usable on translatable pages with the normal syntax for transclusion.
• Limited the max number of translatable pages that can be moved via Special:MovePage.
• To facilitate the Translate Extension’s transition to be compatible with the new Parsoid, we explored an approach that makes it easier for users to edit translatable pages, and could inform improvements in both Visual Editor and Parsoid.

February 2021

• Released MLEB 2021.01 on 28 January 2021.
• Translations are no longer incorrectly shown as outdated due to message definition getting out of sync.
• Definitions, translation and message documentation with no content are now treated in the same as those with content to avoid build/CI failures.
• There is a knob for a removal threshold, which is configurable per project and it defaults to 0% now, meaning files without translations are deleted.
• Previously, when a language fell under the export threshold (% of translations completed), it would no longer get any updates from translatewiki.net. This lead to problems and now we keep updating such languages.
• Message groups with only optional messages now get exported if other conditions are met.
• Met with Brian Choo, Patrick Earley, and Samuel Guebo regarding the Universal Code of Conduct's translation process so that the language team could better understand their translation situation and come up with solutions for next time to avoid errors and issues.
• Added WS Export to translatewiki.net.

January 2021

• A Retrospective was held on 2020-12-22 on translatewiki.net deployment practices; new tasks were filed as a result.
• It is now possible to access language selector for input methods on Special:Translate as previous issues were fixed.
• Added Toolhub to translatewiki.net as a new project.
• Added VideoCutTool to translatewiki.net.
• Added Miraheze Landing Page to Translatewiki.net.
• Reverted changes due to errors caused by incorrectly mapped code paths and tables.
• A bug that caused Special:SupportedLanguages to not work on translatewiki.net was fixed.
• It is now possible again to move translatable pages on translatewiki.net and in other wikis outside Wikimedia production.
• Translatewiki.net translation administrators can again use the message key rename support of Special:ManageMessageGroups instead of having to spend more time to perform those renames manually.
• We fixed a small style regression that caused inconsistent styling when using the Timeless skin caused by a change in the Timeless skin.
• The display of a button on Special:ManageMessageGroups was broken while updating, but this was resolved.

December 2020

• Updated code so that title prefixes are only displayed if there is something to display, reducing log errors.
• Removed FCFontFinder as it is no longer used in the Translate extension.
• Updated the Phabricator template to make adding a new project to Translatewiki.net easier.

• Restored the help link and its functionality on Special:AggregateGroups when using the Timeless theme.
• Corrected code used to fix a recent regression that broke the statistics display on the main page of translatewiki.net.
• Wikidata query builder was added to translatewiki.net, providing a visual interface for building a simple Wikidata query.
• Addressed PHP 7.4 notices associated with MediaWiki 1.35.0 in the next MLEB release.
• Reviewed and added more Etherpad lite plugins to translatewiki.net based on user feedback.

• Added Anvesha application to translatewiki.net as a user’s request.
• Adjusted which folder Insertables to are mapped to, improving user experience.  
• Added support for sending only the specified section of a page for both non-translatable and translatable pages.

November 2020

• MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle (MLEB) 2020.10 was released, see release notes here.
• New system admins are now able to do puppet changes for translatewiki.net after reading our new documentation.

October 2020

• Improved accessibility for the Translation statistics by enabling screen readers to access translation statistics graphs.
• Added in syntax validation step for yaml files in the translatewiki repository
• Enabled Wikipedia IOS to use the Pull Request (PR) feature on translatewiki by reviewing, approving, and merging appropriate PRs.
• Enabled Wikipedia Android to use the Pull Request (PR) feature on translatewiki by reviewing, approving, and merging appropriate PRs.
• Added official etherpad-lite plugins to translatewiki.net.
• After correcting sync errors caused by replication lags, all translation pages are now showing all the latest changes.
• Corrected a typeError that caused Webfonts to be on the incorrect page.
• Replaced phplot graphs with JavaScript library solution to improve user experience.
• It is not possible to produce statistics about registrations using Special:TranslationStats or translationstats Action Api, as a result we removed this metric.
• Corrected an MW_Version error associated with MLEB 2020.07.
• Released an updated version of Language-data.
• Improved code health by removing unnecessary code that supports MW 1.33 and below now that MW 1.35 has been released.
• Published documentation explaining the current translation memory architecture to improve user understanding.
• Added SWViewer to translatewiki.net in support of detecting and reverting vandalism.
• Unparsed <bdi> tags are no longer shown in the priority languages warning in Special:Translate.

September 2020

• Fixed the error that caused translation aids to not work for one message group in Wikimedia Commons.
• For translatable pages, added syntax to prevent wrapping in places where text wrapping is inappropriate.   
• A change in MediaWiki core caused all patches for Translate to fail code quality tests which effectively blocked merging all changes; the unavoidable test failures were suppressed.
• For translatable pages, added a wikitext magic word which returns the correct language for a translation unit depending on if it is translated or not.
• Translation page output is now tagged correctly with regards to language and writing direction.
• Translators are now able to translate pages recently marked for translation with a decrease in production issues related to the message index.
• Updated code so that any page with custom translation unit identifiers containing the letter n can now be marked for translation.
• Numbers are now formatted properly as the language allows in the translation statistics graph.
• Altered TranslationStats graphs so that they are oriented horizontally.
• Corrected errors that lead to the wrong tvar information to display.
• Converted Special:MovePage to OOUI.
• Improved documentation for what happens when a page is marked for Translation with diagrams and descriptions.

August 2020

• A new release of the language-data library is now available on npm and packagist, see changelog here.
• MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle 2020.07 was released, see release notes.
• Volunteer translators are now able to support translation of Wikipedia Preview elements.
• New developers are aware of the local conventions when they change Translate code, due to the new Developer Guide for the Translate extension.
• Project Dibabel was added to translatewiki.net to help synchronize template and module pages with the master copy.
• Fixed broken language selector on the Special:NotifyTranslator page that caused javascript errors.

July 2020

• Confirmed resolution of incorrect translations mapped to Catalan when they’re from non-catalan languages.
• Corrected errors that broke regular software translation updates from translatewiki.net, caused by Gerrit upgrade.
• Added support for sending multilingual messages using translatable pages, including fallback languages, to the Mass Message extension.
• Fixed parsing of pluralization markup in translations to avoid export errors on translatewiki.net.
• The WPCleaner project was added to translatewiki.net.
• It is now easier for editors editing translatable pages to find documentation describing the Translate extension specific markup.

• Author attributions in translation files were restored after being incorrectly transferred.
• Corrected errors that happened while editing messages documentation.
• New translatable pages will use the new syntax version, old pages can now be migrated by translation admins by ticking a checkbox when marking a page.
• Resolved errors that led to page freezes when using the translation interface and translation target language was equal to the source language.
• Reduced Technical debt in Translate, improving the experience for Translate extension users.
• Corrected errors that lead message groups to cause console errors and not appear on the search translation page.

June 2020

• Translation memory suggestions on Wikimedia projects are no longer duplicated and now suggestions are loaded faster.
• Translatewiki.net MediaWiki debug log files are now rotated, limiting the space they use and automatically purging potentially sensitive information after a given time period.
• Fixed the Translation Notification extension so that translation notifications are now reliable and translation admins can send them without restrictions.
• Released Language-data library in both Packagist and NPM package repositories.
• Added convenient-discussions, a JavaScript tool that allows the user to post and edit comments without switching to a separate page, to translatewiki.net.
• Improved handling of the backslash character in translations exported from translatewiki.net, reducing errors.

• Resolved errors on TranslatorSignup so that it is possible to select the wiki where you want a notification to be delivered.
• Added project Skin:Citizen, a fully responsive skin compatible with any MediaWiki installation 1.31 or higher, to translatewiki.net.
• Oppia project now receives translations through pull requests to avoid build failures in development branch.
• Translation notifications are now reliable and translation admins can send them without restrictions.

May 2020

• Released the most recent version of MLEB.
• Corrected the popup box for subprojects disappearing immediately on Translatewiki.
• Updated translate extensions to not reparse certain files, reducing errors.
• Removed incorrect count columns from Special:Statistics to reduce confusion caused by displaying out of date information.
• Enabled Kiwix Desktop 2.0 for use with Translatewiki.
• Enabled default fonts for translatewiki, correcting a past error.
• Resolved MediaWiki console errors, improving functionality and decreasing spam in error logs.
• Resolved errors that lead to failed Translation statistics reports, improving reporting.
• Corrected errors that caused translated subpages to not move correctly with the parent pages.
• Updated code to now support offline translation exports from the command line.
• Corrected the fatal error of an uncommon code path in the Translation extension due to a missing autoloader entry.
• Removed unnecessary language statistics and validation scripts from MediaWiki core since checks are performed on the translatewiki.net side.

April 2020

• Making the list of supported languages more reliable by solving fatal errors.
• Improved QA process by providing access to code changes before deploying them to all users ("canary")
• Better documentation and code quality for managing localization repositories.
• Better access to translation context by fixing the access to instructional documentation.
• Added localization support for Page Content Service.
• Increased the quantity and quality of support apps by adding Bitmark/SPRING support for mobile apps
• Increased translation visibility by adjusting the workflow surrounding translation exporting
• Improve code quality to reduce PHP warnings
• Better offline translation support by fixing issues in the export process
• Increased stability of some translate extensions by fixing errors
• Improved accuracy for the code that updates language name
• Improve code quality to fix errors associated with certain database transactions
• Fixed code errors that prevented adjusting the title and namespace when moving a page in the Chavacano de Zamboanga (cbk-zam) Wikipedia
• Refactored and updated code for Translatewiki.net to increase speed of queries and reduce the chances for outages.

March 2020

• Analyzed the performance issues with Central Notice localization messages, identifying the cost of dealing with a large number of smaller message groups and defining follow-up steps to improve the way those are handled.
• Migrated WikimediaTools projects to the new framework and added plural validation for the ajapaik-app project for more flexible validation of translated messages. Projects previously migrated to the new validator framewok present no issues after the observation period.
• Removed the deprecated checker code to complete the migration to the new validator framework after the observation period.
• Reorganization of insertables (quick suggestions for the user to add when translating) to reduce redundancy of frequent cases defined by each project.
• More reliable translations by applying the new validator framework to check variables in the ajapalk-app project.
• Localization support for QRMedia project added.
• Improved compatibility of Translate with recent PHP versions.
• Added localization support for the COVID-19 poster from the Finnish Institute for Health and welfare.
• Better support for message renames by fixing an error when fetching content of unavailable messages.

February 2020

• Cleaner codebase by removing backward compatibility code to support old MediaWiki versions.
• Better communication of language changes by asking for user confirmation when accessing a link that request a change of language.
• Migrated 9 projects to the new framework for more flexible validation of translated messages: Pywikibot, Citation Hunt, Internet Archive Bot, GapFinder, Wikipedia Library Card Platform, MantisBT, Mazi, Mifos, and FUDForm.
• Migrated Android Mobile and lib.reviews projects to the new framework for more flexible validation of translated messages.

January 2020

• Migration of Open Street Map (website) and FreeCol projects to the new validator framework.
• Improved support for validating plural forms in translation messages to ensure consistency with the source message and the plural rules of each language.
• Updated auto-size libraries and data formats used.
• Improved performance of translation export process to prevent timeouts.
• Cleaner configuration for MLEB releases.

December 2019

• Simplified access to similar messages.
• More reliable import process for translations by ensuring the information is immediately updated at the end of the process.
• Improved saving process by keeping the list of languages immediately up to date.
• Improved performance when selecting a message group to translate.
• Improved validation by allowing to enforce that translation keys use certain values, and limit the validation to specific messages.
• Migration of Nocc to the new validator framework.
• More reliable diffs for translation messages.
• Support for language variants in the title of multilingual pages which was not possible to convert before.
• Technical updates for translatewiki.net related to SSL and searching.
• Improved stability with improvements to performance when loading translators, processing fuzzy translations, and less noisy certificate-related notifications.

November 2019

• Improved import process for translations by better presenting and handling messages that were renamed.
• Better context for translators by providing access to other messages using the proposed machine translation suggestions.
• Better approval process for translators by correcting issue with duplicate approvals.
• Support localization of DiscordWikiBot
• Improved integration of language selection into the personal toolbar by adjusting the visual alignment.
• Better representation of HTML special characters in translation suggestions.
• Fixed issues with extension missing path information.
• Improved control on translations with an option to allow translations only for the defined priority languages.
• More reliable export process by preventing failures in one project to prevent exporting others.
• Improved backup system for translatewiki.net

October 2019

• Improved database access for Translate
• Support for Global CheckUser on translatewiki.net
• Translation support for WhoWroteThat extension.
• Support for changes in AbuseFilter and SpamBlacklist APIs
• Reduce visual noise by removing separator in translatable pages.
• Support for localization of KaiOS Wikipedia app and Femiwiki.
• Compatibility support for language tools with new PHP versions, with older MediaWiki version and with function deprecation of new MediaWiki versions.
• More clearly surface duplicated content errors before users mark pages for translation.

September 2019

• Export repo migration for Encyclopedia of Life project.
• Avoid running Hip Hop Virtual Machine (HHVM) specific tests when such virtual machine is not used.
• Deprecation alerts as part of the migration process to use the new registration system for extensions.
• Improved support for moving translated categories and database load balancing.
• Improvements in the validation framework to check consistency of empty lines, and migration of a new project (Dissemin) to use the new validation framework.
• More reliable support for marking translations as discouraged.
• Migration of a new project (WMCZ-Tracker) to the new validator framework.

August 2019

• Improvements in the sign up process for Translate extension
• Fixed issues that made documentation for translations link to the wrong namespace, and issues from deprecated parsing functions.
• Better alignment with new standards by using the new extension registration system for Translate and for translatewiki.net, avoid using deprecated functions when moving translatable pages, and fixing issues with export functions on new PHP versions and the Hip Hop virtual machine (HHVM).

July 2019

• Improved translation message integrity by supporting custom checks with a new validation framework.
• More fluent account creation process by better communicating the wait to the user and making username available for previously rejected user applications.
• Better support for exporting by preventing issues with empty groups of messages to translate and support for Phabricator translations.

May 2019

• More reliable sharing/bookmarking of messages to translate by ensuring the link considers the current language when it changes.
• Better support for source language by preventing actions that do not apply such as proofreading, or changing the translation status.
• More clarity to communicate priority languages by showing a proper notice when translation to non-priority languages is blocked, avoid showing the message when already translating to a priority language, avoid showing the notice when translating documentation, and including also other languages in the stats.
• Better support for importing translation updates by clarifying the possible merge actions, and the link to import pre-existing translations.
• More reliable language selection by avoiding Simple English to be missing in the interlanguage links when it should be available.

April 2019

• Improved font support for Church Slavonic.

February 2019

• Better handling of searches with a large number of results.

January 2019

• More reliable update for translation statistics.

December 2018

• Support for Microsoft translation restored.
• Message group stats improvements to include review stats and avoid timeout errors.
• More reliably showing the progress of translations.

November 2018

• Improvements on code review infrastructure to prevent false positives in code review.
• Improvements in the list of message groups to provide more clarity by adjusting the colors.
• Better support for moving translatable sub-pages by avoiding moves to affect the parent page.
• Better proofreading support by avoiding translations to be automatically marked as reviewed when they are not.
• More reliable access to message groups by avoiding errors due to the truncation of long IDs, improved query performance, and avoided warnings.

October 2018

• More reliable support for moving and deleting translated pages.

September 2018

• List of proposed interventions documented on wiki for discussion.

July 2018

• Initial discussion on initial potential areas based on the Language goals and whishlist page.