Jump to content

Commons:Village pump/Technical

Add topic
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Latest comment: 17 minutes ago by MVernon (WMF) in topic Odd upload issue

Shortcuts: COM:VP/T • COM:VPT

Welcome to the Village pump technical section
Technical discussion
Village pump/Technical
 Bug reports
 Code review
Tools
 Tools/Directory
 Idea Lab



This page is used for technical questions relating to the tools, gadgets, or other technical issues about Commons; it is distinguished from the main Village pump, which handles community-wide discussion of all kinds. The page may also be used to advertise significant discussions taking place elsewhere, such as on the talk page of a Commons policy. Recent sections with no replies for 30 days and sections tagged with {{Section resolved|1=--~~~~}} may be archived; for old discussions, see the archives; recent archives: /Archive/2025/09 /Archive/2025/10.

Please note
 
SpBot archives all sections tagged with {{Section resolved|1=~~~~}} after 1 day and sections whose most recent comment is older than 30 days.

Mobile browser not showing subscribe button

[edit]

As of today my Firefox mobile browser has stopped displaying the subscribe button for discussion topics (e.g. on this page) while I'm seeing the page in mobile view. When I switch into desktop mode in the Firefox app, the subscribe is being displayed. I've tried on two different phones (two different brands). If I use a no-name Chromium-based mobile browser, I can also see the subscribe button when in mobile view. Nakonana (talk) 15:19, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply

Oh, wait, no, it's not the browser that makes the difference, it's the page. I can see the subscribe button here on Village pump/Technical but I can't see it on the normal Village pump page. Nakonana (talk) 15:22, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Also take a look at other pages to see how it works and tell me, maybe then I will understand the reason. Incall talk 18:36, 27 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for looking into it.
It looks like the regular Village Pump is the only affected page. Maybe it's due to how the sub-headings are? VP has headings for each day and then there are several threads per day.
Nakonana (talk) 19:40, 27 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Perhaps this problem comes from the JavaScript in your browser. May I suggest you try using a Convenient Discussions? Incall talk 07:05, 28 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
It's browser-independent. The problem is present in mobile Firefox and a mobile Chromium based browser, and in both browsers the problem only appears on the regular VP page. It wasn't there in the past, so I'm not sure what happened. I don't know how influential JavaScript is on mobile (I think I am using Convenient Discussions on desktop, but I'm not seeing it on mobile). Nakonana (talk) 15:39, 28 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
It seems the issue is not with the browser itself, but with the way the regular Village Pump page is structured. That page uses a special layout with daily subheadings and several threads under each section. On the mobile version of MediaWiki, this may interfere with how the «Subscribe» button is displayed, because the script does not recognize such “nested” discussions as separate topics.
To verify this, you could check other large pages with a similar structure and see if the same problem occurs there. If it does, then it’s likely a bug in the DiscussionTools extension for the mobile interface.
If you need the subscribe button all the time, you can temporarily use «Convenient Discussions» or switch to desktop mode. But ideally, it would be good to file a bug report on Phabricator so that the developers can fix the behavior in the mobile version. Incall talk 16:03, 28 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Do you know any pages that use a similar structure as the regular Village Pump by any chance? I can't think of any page of the top of my head. Nakonana (talk) 07:10, 29 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Do other users also have this problem? Probably something should be done about this. and since it's not necessarily a technical issue, a phab issue may not be good to create instead of editing the VP page / its templates. Prototyperspective (talk) 17:07, 17 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
If you don't mind testing it, just open Commons on your phone in a mobile browser app of your choice, log in and go to the VP page. Can you see the subscribe buttons below the heading and the "Latest comment" note like in File:Mobile browser showing subscribe button below last comment.png or is the button missing like in File:Mobile browser not showing subscribe button below last comment on Village Pump.png? If you can see the button, which mobile browser app did you use? Sometodark mode may also affect the display, but I have tried switching into light mode and the issue still persists. I'm also guessing that it's something about templates or the page layout that's causing the problem. And it might have been introduced by a rather recent change, iirc. Nakonana (talk) 08:25, 21 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
[edit]

Hi, the template {{Search link}} uses Special:Search. Is there a similar template for Special:MediaSearch? Consigned (talk) 18:49, 24 August 2025 (UTC)Reply

{{Special}} (example: {{Special|MediaSearch|search=name|title=Search images}}) Incall talk 18:22, 27 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Instead of a separate similar template, could a parameter please be added to that template so that one can choose the search engine (and probably it would be good to make the new MediaSearch the default soon afterwards) as proposed on the template's talk page? Prototyperspective (talk) 23:11, 17 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

OCR for lesser used languages

[edit]

OCR for lesser used languages has improved immensely over the past few years. Four or five years ago Welsh language OCR was, rubbish, and not worth using. The improvement over the last few years has been spectacular. But when I try to upload a PDF or DjVu book to Commons with OCR it is rejected as a "corrupted file", I can't work out why. If the correct place to ask this question isn't here can I be advised where to raise the question. Not being able to load files with embedded OCR is holding this project back AlwynapHuw (talk) 04:12, 29 August 2025 (UTC)Reply

Can you upload an example file somewhere else, so people can examine it? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:37, 30 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
@AlwynapHuw sounds like a bug to report on phab:. RoyZuo (talk) 14:23, 30 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Where exactly did you get your file from? There are thousands of books with OCR here, so it's probably a problem with your specific book and how you made it/where you got it. — Alien  3
3 3
08:47, 1 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for the replies. I can't reproduce it now, because I re-uploaded the files without the problematic OCR layer, and deleted the Index page on which the problem existed. I have had the same problem on djvu and pdf files with OCR, with files taken from Archive.org, Google Books and those that I have scanned myself. I'll try again with a small book and use it to contact phab. AlwynapHuw (talk) 02:10, 11 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Upload wizard website upload

[edit]

Is there any technical reason why the Upload Wizard can’t directly upload from a whitelisted website, unlike the standard upload form? It can’t be because of copyvio spam issues as all uploadable websites would be copylefted. Anohthterwikipedian (talk) 11:06, 30 August 2025 (UTC)Reply

@Anohthterwikipedian, probably to keep it simple for new users. JayCubby (talk) 16:47, 2 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
But wouldn’t it be super useful for new users to be able to directly input a URL, instead of having to download it? I see numerous other image uploaders having the option to input either a file or a URL.
Anohthterwikipedian (talk) 21:18, 2 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
New users aren't supposed to upload from URL, as these people are much more likely to ignore copyrights, as experience tells. Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 21:52, 2 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
That wouldn’t be an issue, as they can only upload from whitelisted websites, meaning that most files uploaded that way wouldn’t be a copyright issue (ignoring derivatives). But still though, my main question hasn’t been answered, that being if there is a technical problem with implementing such a thing.
Anohthterwikipedian (talk) 23:41, 2 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
There is no technical reason why it couldn't. It would require additional work, and the UX might be complicated to get right. Its much more of a, "it doesn't seem like a good idea" type of issue than a technical one. Bawolff (talk) 08:04, 8 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
But why isn’t it a good idea? Users can only upload from freely licensed websites, meaning most images uploaded would be freely licensed.
Anohthterwikipedian (talk) 23:08, 8 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
well, maybe the people who think that are wrong. The worry is about overcomplicating the interface. The interface is already quite complex. Bawolff (talk) 17:19, 16 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
@Bawolff: I personally believe that two buttons are not complex at all, and neither are three buttons and a textbox (while the other pages are more complex, this is the only page that needs to be changed).
Anohthterwikipedian (talk) 23:21, 16 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
@Anohthterwikipedian If you have an idea on how to improve the UploadWizard, I suggest you propose it at Commons:Upload Wizard feedback, since you will more likely get the UploadWizard dev team’s attention over there. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 23:59, 16 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
@Tvpuppy: Apparently there is already a Phabricator task. Added now
Anohthterwikipedian (talk) 21:32, 17 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Tech News: 2025-36

[edit]

MediaWiki message delivery 20:45, 1 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Blurry thumbnail on JPEG diagram

[edit]
ScissorFlat.jpg
500px
300px
100px

I encountered this diagram at w:en:Scissor section flat and was baffled at how blurry it was on the article. After clicking to view it on Commons, I discovered it appears normal only on the file description page, and is blurry when used in articles at any size (see figure). The blur seems far too extreme and if I open the file on my computer and zoom out to a comparable size, the text is still legible. What's going on here? Is it a weird quirk of JPEG or something specific to the MediaWiki thumbnail generator? Dan Leonard (talk) 06:01, 4 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

The image width is 893px, viewing it as a generated 893px JPEG thumbnail adds blur as well (original here). I tried to download it and the image is interestingly PNG-ish (no typical JPEG artifacts at borders, solid one colour areas...). My guess was some error in MIME type (e.g. PNG image uploaded as a JPEG), but MIME seems to be correct... — Draceane talkcontrib. 06:58, 4 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
I'm not sure if it's related, but the file is apparently a CMYK (cyan, yellow, magenta, black) JPEG file rather than the much more common RGB (red, green, blue) type. Aside for pedants: yes, I know they're really YCrCb. identify says ScissorFlat.jpg JPEG 893x400 893x400+0+0 8-bit CMYK 726497B 0.000u 0:00.003. I wouldn't be surprised if the thumbnailer handled such weird files poorly. It might be worth converting it to a more normal JPEG or a PNG. --bjh21 (talk) 09:09, 4 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
This diagram should probably be redrawn from scratch as an SVG anyway - some of the floors are crooked, and the stairs don't match the slope of the floor under them. Omphalographer (talk) 22:46, 6 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
If you display it on something that doesn't support colour profiles, the text and the background are almost the same colour. If the scaling is being performed not in the colour space, maybe the text and background being almost the same colour causes them to blend together Bawolff (talk) 08:17, 8 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
PNG seems to work + it's lossless compression — Draceane talkcontrib. 13:02, 4 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Tech News: 2025-37

[edit]

MediaWiki message delivery 01:09, 9 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Template:Protected padlocks displaying incorrectly

[edit]

Problem: Currently, Template:Protected has a semiprotected padlock topicon for me, and it's tooltip is the same. The Main Page has an autopatroller padlock topicon, but the tooltip says "This page is protected from editing", and the Edit source link is available, and when I edit the page the Edit notice correctly says "This page has been protected so that only administrators can edit it."

I checked again now one hour later, even in Incognito mode Template:Protected shows semi-protected padlock, with semi tooltip, yet it's cascading protected. Waddie96 (talk) 22:38, 9 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Could this be due to this? This is intentional; checking cascade protection status is quite an expensive operation, so we avoid doing it when it's not needed, i.e. on page views - when the edit operation commences, we do a full check.phab:T13700 Prototyperspective (talk) 21:28, 17 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Autotranslate template issue?

[edit]

Something is broken, see this diff and other similar messeges from user talk:Velopilger. {{Autotranslate}} is broken or what?—KEmel49(📝,📤) 18:42, 10 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

@KEmel49 Perhaps the error is caused by the talk page being too long? I can see the sections properly if I preview them individually, but when I preview the entire page, the sections at the end aren’t displaying properly like you said. However, if I remove some contents (at the beginning), they start showing up properly in the whole page preview. Tvpuppy (talk) 19:33, 10 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
This happens because there are too many templates on the page (ie the page is too long so Tvpuppy is right on that). This also happens on Wikipedia if you have too many references on a page which makes all references starting at some point in the article disappear which I think is a big problem that should be fixed even if there aren't many articles like that (in part because people then split them up or remove references to work around this problem). See the issues at Help:Template limits#Post-expand include size. Prototyperspective (talk) 21:21, 17 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Idea for mass DRs - make it easier to view all files

[edit]

VisualFileChange is extremely helpful for putting together large DRs containing many files. However, one challenge of this is that it's difficult for readers of the DR to assess each item in the DR - today I have to click each one to open them. Am I missing some really helpful tool (that's available to non-admins), or does everyone else struggle with this?

Recently I've been playing around with a few tricks to try to help with this by using {{Search link}} and and a unique string that was applied to each file in the {{Delete}} template:

Is it worth considering implementing something like this in VisualFileChange, for it to apply a unique code when adding {{Delete}} to files (just a timestamp might be unique enough, when used in conjunction with the page name of the DR) and automatically add a search link to view those files? Are there other options that should be considered, like this unique code being built right into {{Delete}}, or categories, or something else? I'm asking here on the technical page since at this point it seems to be more of a technical question than an actual proposal. -Consigned (talk) 08:55, 11 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

great work.
i've considered this problem and potential solutions too:
  1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Deletion_requests_September_2025&from=08%23Files%20in%20Category:Old%20Trapper%27s%20Lodge for your example. the point to jump is constructed by dd (date of request made) + %23 + DR subpage title.
  2. make a gadget that, when you click it, displays all the [[:File:...]] links on a page in a gallery style.
RoyZuo (talk) 14:15, 11 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
here's a maybe more precise search method based on your idea.
hastemplate:delete insource:"DR subpage title"
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=hastemplate:delete+insource:%22Files+in+Category:Old+Trapper's+Lodge%22&title=Special:MediaSearch for your example. RoyZuo (talk) 14:23, 11 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Wouldn't the solution be as simple as to include a gallery, maybe in a collapsible box, above the itemised list of files in the DR? That way, anyone who parses the DR and encounter a mass DR will be able to get a visual display of the nominated files at will, and having code that wraps these files into {{collapse |title= Gallery of nominated files |1= <gallery>FILES NOMINATED</gallery>}} shouldn't be difficult to implement into the VFC, I think. Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 14:33, 11 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Including a gallery in the DR - even in a collapsed box - will cause all of the images to be loaded when someone views the daily DR page. This isn't great from a server load perspective, as daily DR pages can contain a lot of files; it also means that, if an image containing illegal content like CSAM is DRed (which it shouldn't be, but it happens sometimes), users will end up loading thumbnails of that image. A better solution will probably be to create a Javascript gadget to view DR images, or to <noinclude> the gallery so that it only appears on the individual DR page. Omphalographer (talk) 18:48, 12 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Option 1 is interesting, never seen that functionality; that it continues after the DR is a bit annoying. -Consigned (talk) 09:06, 15 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
  • RoyZuo's more precise search is helpful but hits another issue (admittedly an edge case) - when multiple DRs are open as sections in the same DR page. For example, Commons:Deletion requests/Files uploaded by Caterpillar84 by Grand-Duc had multiple DRs opened at the same time (which was helpful by putting all discussions in one place and at the same time splitting into smaller groups to be more easily discussed). But the {{Delete}} on each file just points to the top of the page (e.g. File:Sculpture 4 amelia.jpg) which was tricky when multiple big DRs were open at the same time, and even pointing to section titles usually wouldn't help because section titles are almost always identical (though in this case, helpfully, they are not). It would be nice if each individual DR (section) had a unique identifier that could be used for matching both the file's {{Delete}} to the correct section and also back from the DR to the file via a gallery or search link (though I would not want to add any extra steps or complication/confusion for users who are creating DRs manually - 99%+ of the time linking to the page name rather than section is perfectly usable). -Consigned (talk) 09:14, 15 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
    Today I learned that section headings with identical titles are numbered and can be linked to that way, this can be seen when navigating to that section via the table of contents. It would be cool if when one of our tools creates a DR as a new section to an existing page, the {{Delete}} tag would be linked to that section heading (e.g. if the {{Delete}} tag on File:Coldingham.png linked to Commons:Deletion requests/Files uploaded by Kellycrak88#Files uploaded by Kellycrak88 (talk · contribs) 3 rather than just the overall page). Consigned (talk) 20:01, 20 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

"Error: An exception occurred: DownloadError: b'ERROR: [youtube] wAI7avge5SM: Video unavailable. This content isn\xe2\x80\x99t available.'"

[edit]

Have anyone found a way around this in video2commons? Trade (talk) 20:32, 11 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Audio files embed code needs updating

[edit]

I recently used the embed code for an audio file with closed captions (via clicking the "🌎 Use this file" button; you can test yourself by pasting code like <iframe src="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maryana_Iskander_self-narrated_biography.ogg?embedplayer=yes" width="300" height="20" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allow="autoplay; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> into a code sandbox). There are several issues with it that should be fixed:

  • The current code uses a height of 20px, which cuts off half the bar. This can be fixed by changing the code generated, but we should be generating the correct code by default.
  • When larger heights are used, such as 150px, there is room to include the closed captions, but these are displayed in a miniscule font size, since I think they're set to take up a percentage of the available space, rather than rendering at a reasonable size, filling up however much room is available.
  • Even when larger heights are used, the file name is never put anywhere, so e.g. if you're embedding a song there's nowhere in the embed that gives the title of the song.

I'm not sure exactly how the embeds are currently generated, and I don't know how to fix these things myself, so would appreciate help! Sdkbtalk 18:20, 12 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

For reference, this comes from MediaWiki:Gadget-Stockphoto.js Bawolff (talk) 05:06, 13 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Good find; could you create the issue(s) on phabricator? Another case of low support for audio and outdated audio player; relevant: m:Community_Wishlist/Wishes/A_proper_audio_player. I think one can also not see the subtitles with audios embedded the normal way in articles and so far I haven't found a way to show the file titles of audios embedded in Music genres. Prototyperspective (talk) 21:32, 17 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
@Prototyperspective, sure, created Phabricator tasks:
phab:T404934 (Audio files embedding cuts off half the bar)
phab:T404935 (Audio files embedding results in miniscule closed captions)
phab:T404937 (Embedded audio files should include a title)
Cheers, Sdkbtalk 02:42, 18 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Thanks! I don't understand why issue "Audio files embedding cuts off half the bar" was closed for being caused by the gadget – the "🌎 Use this file" button is displayed by default also for logged-out users so I think such issues also be tracked there and fixed by devs even if it's from a gadget (and as is the case for some other gadgets). Krinkle is the current developer/maintainer of that gadget – could you please fix the issues that can be solved within the gadget code? Prototyperspective (talk) 09:22, 18 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
The gadget is unmaintained. While Krinkle was the last person to touch it, it's unlikely that he is going to look into this. —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 12:18, 19 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Tech News: 2025-38

[edit]

MediaWiki message delivery 17:02, 15 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Something not mentioned here that might be of interest to commons. Starting Wednesday, newly uploaded png files will have embedded exif data extracted (provided it is embedded using the official eXIf chunk). Previously only XMP and png textual data was extracted. Bawolff (talk) 17:16, 16 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Wishful thinking: will this display the metadata which identifies ChatGPT-generated PNG images? Omphalographer (talk) 16:58, 19 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
I believe chatgpt uses C2PA metadata which we currently don't support. Bawolff (talk) 20:02, 19 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Oh, that's unfortunate. Hopefully that data can be surfaced in some way - even without full C2PA verification, just knowing that the claims exist would be incredibly helpful in identifying images which are likely to be AI-generated. Omphalographer (talk) 23:06, 19 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
For reference, this is phab:T387075 Bawolff (talk) 00:37, 20 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
I did just take a gander through Category:PD-algorithm and the majority do not seem to have C2PA metadata (I tried about 10 recent ones at random, only File:GPT-4o Studio Ghibli portrait of Donald Trump.png had it). So i guess its just ChatGPT and not other AI providers. XMP (IPTCExt) also has a property called DigitalSourceType [17] which can be used to mark images as AI generated. This would be easier to extract since we already have support for other IPTC metadata so we just have to add an extra property not a whole new metadata format. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like that property is used very much in the wild. Bawolff (talk) 02:20, 20 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Which files did you look at? A couple of recent AI-generated uploads which do have C2PA metadata include:
Omphalographer (talk) 02:38, 20 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
I picked about 10 at random from the list at https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=categorymembers&cmtitle=Category:PD-algorithm&cmsort=timestamp&cmlimit=max&formatversion=2 . Maybe my random picks just weren't very good. The File:Blason Famille Abzac (d').png is interesting. All it seems to say is its signed by "Galaxy S24 FE c2pa-rs/0.37.0", so maybe its not AI at all but just an image editor that actually supports c2pa. The signature was untrusted when I tried with https://contentcredentials.org/verify and gave errors when i tried with exiftool, so perhaps it was someone testing things (Edit: After reading more, it looks like the timestamp signature is invalid but the main one isn't. The main signature is associated with com.samsung.android.visual.cloudcore, and all the C2PA data says is that the provenance of the original file is unknown. So I guess all that means is it was edited on a phone). Interestingly, a lot of the chatgpt files give invalid when i use the web app or c2patool (error: first action must be created or opened), but work fine with exiftool. Bawolff (talk) 03:26, 20 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Template:Regions of Ethiopia

[edit]

Hi everybody. Can someone help me to check this Template:Regions of Ethiopia. It doesn' work. Thank you in advance. MrKeefeJohn (talk) 12:31, 16 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

@MrKeefeJohn, I just took brief look and it seems all the prefix parameters are missing a vertical bar, I think it should be {{{prefix|}}} instead of just {{{prefix}}}. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 13:37, 16 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
@MrKeefeJohn, I noticed that most of these are regions in Italy, not Ethiopia. Perhaps wait until the template is ironed out, before adding it to other pages. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 16:38, 16 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

spanish templates

[edit]

I made a spanish version of 2 Commons templates at PD-US-alien property/es and PD-US/hr it doesn't come up, what do i do? Ilikeyoshi (talk) 20:33, 16 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

@Ilikeyoshi, I’m not sure what do you mean by “it doesn’t come up”. I can see both translations appearing properly in the template page and in the images that includes those two templates. Tvpuppy (talk) 20:47, 16 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
That, e.g. (though it's actually the reality) in the Croatian template's documentation there is no thing that says
hrvatski
(croatian in croatian) and in the Spanish alien property template it doesn't say español or spanish in the section that says that it's autotranslated with {{Autotranslate}} — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ilikeyoshi (talk • contribs) 00:01, 17 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
@Ilikeyoshi I understand what you mean now. For the language name to appear in the documentation, you have to add them to {{PD-US-alien property/lang}} and {{PD-US/lang}}.
For {{PD-US/lang}}, since the page is protected, you will need to put a {{Edit request}} to the talk page. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 00:41, 17 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
@Ilikeyoshi: when you changed Template:PD-US-alien property/lang you marked the spanish translation with the japanese /ja subpage. I fixed that. I also added {{Translated tag}} to Template:PD-US-alien property/es. MKFI (talk) 10:19, 17 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Template:String templates see also

[edit]

Anyone know why {{String templates see also}} repeating every list's contents 5 times? Waddie96 (talk) 13:01, 18 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Tvpuppy (talk) 16:21, 18 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
[edit]

I have a list of (currently 45) files and I want to gather add license and creator of each one for proper reuse. How can I get them except one by one? Geraki TLG 16:41, 18 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Tech News: 2025-39

[edit]

MediaWiki message delivery 22:51, 22 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Page protection setting interfering with edit gadget

[edit]

BEGIN moved from Commons:Help desk - Jmabel ! talk 06:07, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Hello, as I asked on VPT with Commons:Village pump/Technical#Deletion request shortlink not working on autopatrol-protected page(s), I observed a short while ago the phenomenon that the "nominate for deletion" gadget is not working on protected page (protection level "autopatrol") - it simply isn't shown in the toolbar menu. This holds true for QuickDelete too, BTW. The reason cannot be that I do not have sufficient rights, as license reviewer and patroller, I'm certainly able to edit file with such a protection level (evidence).
Sadly, I did not get answers yet, hence my reposting here.
As a workaround: can some admin explicitly (temporarily) grant me "autopatrol" to test whether the issue can be solved that way? Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 00:07, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

OK, Rosenzweig gave me Autopatrol to test the gadget, to no avail. Is that worth a bugreport on Phabricator? Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 00:51, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Actual example: File:Matsushima 1913.png, I wanted to submit a DR with the rationale: COM:NOTUSED, too small, usable alternative available with File:Letzel 1913.png. But I could currently do so only manually (or using VisualFileChange), not with the tool. Grand-Duc (talk) 01:30, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Same problem for me too.  Question to admins, are you able to see the “nominate for deletion” link for autopatrol-protected files? Just checking if the problem affects everyone or not. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 01:09, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Nope, I don't see it either. - Jmabel ! talk 02:29, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

I tried to debug the error and I think the problem is coming from MediaWiki:Gadget-AjaxQuickDelete.js (the code for the gadget). In line 118-122 (see below), this is where it checks for edit protections of the page, and it will only display the gadget link in the toolbox if the user has the corresponding right as the protection level.

Line 118-122:

// Check edit restrictions and do not install anything if protected
	if ( conf.wgRestrictionEdit && conf.wgRestrictionEdit.length &&
		conf.wgUserGroups.indexOf( conf.wgRestrictionEdit[ 0 ] ) === -1 ) {
		return;
	}

I will break down what each component in the above section is returning for me when I visit File:Matsushima 1913.png:

  • conf.wgRestrictionEdit : ["editautopatrolprotected"]
  • conf.wgRestrictionEdit.length: 1
  • conf.wgUserGroups: ['image-reviewer', 'rollbacker', '*', 'user', 'autoconfirmed']
  • conf.wgRestrictionEdit[ 0 ]: "editautopatrolprotected"
  • conf.wgUserGroups.indexOf( conf.wgRestrictionEdit[ 0 ] ): -1

So, combining them:

  • conf.wgRestrictionEdit && conf.wgRestrictionEdit.length && conf.wgUserGroups.indexOf( conf.wgRestrictionEdit[ 0 ] ) === -1 : true

So per above, I think the problem is the code is trying to use the protection level name ("editautopatrolprotected") as the name of an user group. This means it will only display the gadget link to users in the user group "editautopatrolprotected". Obviously, there is no user group by that name, so the code will not display the gadget link to anyone.

However, I don’t know how to fix this problem, so perhaps someone more knowledgeable with this code can help solve it. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 05:08, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

END moved from Commons:Help desk - Jmabel ! talk 06:07, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

@PerfektesChaos, @Wurgl: you came into my mind as colleagues with a good understanding of code. Do you have some ideas for debugging the thing? Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 06:14, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Sorry, I do not have any experiance with groups an restrictions. However, it seems that in MediaWiki:Gadget-ImageAnnotator.js (no line numbers, search for "wgUserGroups") there is some dfferent solution, seems to be added by inactive User:Lupo --Wurgl (talk) 08:39, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

The naming of protection levels is individual per project; I am not involved in Commons.

  • However, you got the right conclusion already: The code is nonsense, might work for sysop only.

You need to introduce some numeric levels for protection levels, perhaps something like (no idea of keywords):

  • 0 – [no protection]
  • 1 – confirmed
  • 2 – editautopatrolprotected
  • 3 – template editor
  • 4 – sysop

Next step is to walk through wgUserGroups elements. Each membership needs to get assigned to a level:

{ "*":              0,
  "user":           0,
  "autoconfirmed":  1,
  "confirmed":      1,
  "image-reviewer": 2,
  "rollbacker":     2,
  "sysop":          4 }

You need to go through local groups and rights and check which membership is allowed to do what.

  • For each wgUserGroups element the level is to be retrieved from the map above, and if higher then lift up the permission.
  • Finally, compare highest permission with required protection for greater or equal.

Enjoy --PerfektesChaos (talk) 19:55, 30 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Cut out object in TIF file

[edit]

To me it seems the actual object is cut out in File:Guinea Coast, Ghana, Asante, 19th century - Soul Disk Pendant - 1944.290 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif and best solution would be upload of a new version. I ask here to confirm: The issue is with the file, not some kind of presentation issue of Commons, right? Thanks in advance, --Marsupium (talk) 09:24, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

@Marsupium Something is weird about that file. Some programs I open it in show the expected image, while others don't have the pin. "Thousands of Incompatible File Formats" strikes again. The current file available at https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1944.290 seems to be more normal, so I've overwritten the file. AntiCompositeNumber (they/them) (talk) 15:46, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for testing and thanks for re-uploading! --Marsupium (talk) 15:49, 27 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Upload to WLM 2025

[edit]

Hi! I tried to upload a File to WLM. The upload itself went ok, as before with others, but somehow it failed to reach WLM. How can I move the file to the WLM contingent by now? Foeniz (talk) 16:56, 28 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

I have added the template, thanks for uploading. Ymblanter (talk) 17:39, 28 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Thank you very much! Foeniz (talk) 18:40, 28 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Tech News: 2025-40

[edit]

MediaWiki message delivery 20:47, 29 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Add OWID visualization gadget to Commons

[edit]

We at Wiki Project Med have build a gadget that allows visualization of multiple SVG heatmaps and country graphs on Commons. The gadget is currently active on EU and UK Wikipedia, for example on UK WP.[24]

We would like to request activation of this gadget on Commons. We are gradually uploading interactive graphs and listing them at Commons:List_of_interactive_graphs per discussion at Commons:Village_pump/Proposals#OWID_visualizations.

Steps to activate this are:

Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 22:51, 29 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Support Sohom (talk) 12:54, 30 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
 Support but I don't think there need to be or should be two requests / discussions. There already is unanimous substantial support so far at the VP/P discussion. Prototyperspective (talk) 16:09, 30 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
That was just for keeping a list of templates here, this is for activation of the gadget itself... Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 16:12, 30 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
 Support The Squirrel Conspiracy (talk) 17:51, 30 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Videos loading slow?

[edit]

Since recently, videos often take long to start and then load very slowly. Since 2 days or so sometimes images and maybe just the site also take long to load. Is anybody else having similar issues? During these times, other sites like YouTube videos still load quickly. Didn't have this before and at other times like right now, Commons videos load as quick as ever. Prototyperspective (talk) 23:08, 30 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Odd upload issue

[edit]

At File:Yuen Chin performing home energy audit for Seattle City Light, 1993 (50166856626).jpg I don't seem to be able to see the thumbnail for the new high-res version even if I purge everything I can think of. Any thoughts? Is it just "caching problem, will resolve itself"? - Jmabel ! talk 01:05, 1 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Similar issues at File:Seattle - Boating at Seward Park, 1930 (42952454160).jpg, File:Seattle - Regrading work at 6th and Columbia, 1914 (46800556422).jpg.

Weirdly, it does not seem to affect use of the images elsewhere, just on the file pages. - Jmabel ! talk 03:01, 1 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

It looks like something went wrong with thumbnailing servers and they became overloaded. hnowlan is currently investigating/fixing it. Bawolff (talk) 12:12, 1 October 2025 (UTC)Reply
Could you please post once this has been fixed? I was just starting some uploads so would be great to know. wuppertaler Post um 12:36, 1 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

There was a problem with thumbnailing (and spill-over into swift itself), but we did publish a status update about the incident - https://www.wikimediastatus.net/incidents/cll27hvs2wj5. It is worth checking the status page if something seems amiss... MVernon (WMF) (talk) 12:52, 1 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Upload problem

[edit]

Right now all my attempts to upload an image fail with the error message An unknown error occurred in storage backend "local-swift-codfw". We had the very same problem before. According to the T396186, this happened due to some filtering to address abuse. Is anyone else experiencing this? --AFBorchert (talk) 12:33, 1 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

There was an open incident (see [25] ). MVernon (WMF) (talk) 12:48, 1 October 2025 (UTC)Reply