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Maniphest T300498

Sunset the LocalisationUpdate extension
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Description

Context

Language team has enabled translation backports as a service in 2022. This is for most parts the same thing that Localisation Update (LU) extension does. By doing it "as a service", people using MediaWiki releases do not need to setup LU to get updated translations.

Wikimedia has stopped using LU long time ago. To our knowledge, even though LU is shipped with MLEB and bundled with MediaWiki tarballs, there are no or very few users of the LU extension, because it needs to be enabled separately.

The goal is for the Language team to stop maintaining the Localisation Update extension.

Differences

Translation backports run on a weekly schedule. Wikis get updates either by following the stable release branch in git, or by updating to maintenance release of MediaWiki.
Localisation Update can be configured to run on any schedule, not dependent of other updates.

Translation backports supports MediaWiki core, extensions and skins hosted on Gerrit. There isn't yet support for extensions or skins hosted elsewhere.
Localisation Update can in theory support any hosting, but requires special configuration.

Translation backports does not require any setup.
LocalisationUpdate is slow (when using GitHub mirrors) and require special configuration.

Proposed plan

Details

SubjectRepoBranchLines +/-
Stop branching LocalisationUpdate for the MediaWiki tarballmediawiki/tools/releasemaster+0 -1
Remove LocalisationUpdate from MLEBtranslatewikimaster+0 -1
Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Event Timeline

Nikerabbit created this task.Jan 31 2022, 12:19 PM
Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptJan 31 2022, 12:19 PM
Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE subscribed.Jan 31 2022, 12:34 PM

Ths probably means that T158360: RFC: Reevaluate LocalisationUpdate extension for WMF and related tasks can be closed.

Nikerabbit added a comment.Jan 31 2022, 12:51 PM

Yes, but the Language team is still interested in working with release engineering to achieve more frequent translation updates. The solution is unlikely to include the LocalisationUpdate extension.

Nikerabbit updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 1 2022, 8:17 AM
Nikerabbit removed a project: Language-Team.Feb 7 2022, 11:09 AM
Nikerabbit added a subscriber: Lens0021.Mar 1 2022, 1:09 PM

@Lens0021 You have an open patch for this extension. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this proposal.

Lens0021 added a comment.Mar 1 2022, 1:28 PM
In T300498#7744433, @Nikerabbit wrote:

@Lens0021 You have an open patch for this extension. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this proposal.

A major MediaWiki release contains many new messages and there are commonly not translated before the release, especially for extensions not deployed by Wikipedia. As maintenance releases have no regular schedule to release, I prefer LU. With translation backports, foreign users on not-WMF wikis might have to encounter many not-yet-translated messages for a random period.

But I respect the decision of your team. Thank you for asking my thoughts.

Nikerabbit set the point value for this task to 2.Mar 31 2022, 11:09 AM
Nikerabbit moved this task from Backlog to 2022.04 on the MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle board.Mar 31 2022, 12:27 PM
Nikerabbit mentioned this in T305141: Release MLEB 2022.04.Mar 31 2022, 12:30 PM
Nikerabbit triaged this task as High priority.Apr 5 2022, 10:15 AM
Nikerabbit added a project: Language-Team (Language-2022-April-June).
Nikerabbit moved this task from Quarter Backlog to Priority: Localization infrastructure on the Language-Team (Language-2022-April-June) board.
Jdforrester-WMF subscribed.Apr 27 2022, 2:15 PM
In T300498#7744455, @Lens0021 wrote:

As maintenance releases have no regular schedule to release, I prefer LU.

Maintenance releases are released on a schedule, every three months. See the release policy.

gerritbot added a comment.May 9 2022, 12:30 PM

Change 790356 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jforrester; author: Jforrester):

[mediawiki/tools/release@master] [DNM] Stop branching LocalisationUpdate for the MediaWiki tarball

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/790356

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.May 9 2022, 12:30 PM
Krinkle awarded a token.May 10 2022, 7:14 PM
Nikerabbit claimed this task.May 16 2022, 3:02 PM
gerritbot added a comment.May 16 2022, 3:04 PM

Change 792222 had a related patch set uploaded (by Nikerabbit; author: Nikerabbit):

[translatewiki@master] Remove LocalisationUpdate from MLEB

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/792222

gerritbot added a comment.May 17 2022, 11:19 AM

Change 792222 merged by jenkins-bot:

[translatewiki@master] Remove LocalisationUpdate from MLEB

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/792222

Jdforrester-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)May 17 2022, 11:45 PM
Nikerabbit moved this task from Priority: Localization infrastructure to In Progress on the Language-Team (Language-2022-April-June) board.May 19 2022, 6:49 AM

I think it's okay to move forward and mark the extension unmaintained as next step. @Lens0021 are you planning to keep using the extension? In that case we are not going to request archiving.

Nikerabbit mentioned this in Language-Team.May 19 2022, 6:52 AM
Lens0021 added a comment.May 19 2022, 6:53 AM
In T300498#7940631, @Nikerabbit wrote:

@Lens0021 are you planning to keep using the extension? In that case we are not going to request archiving.

I removed my usage earlier this month. Thank you, anyway.

Lens0021 added a subscriber: Universal_Omega.May 19 2022, 6:59 AM

I guess Miraheze wikis use LU? At least it seems to be installed currently. CC @Universal_Omega

Nikerabbit updated the task description. (Show Details)May 19 2022, 7:01 AM
Jdforrester-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)May 26 2022, 7:21 PM
Universal_Omega added a comment.May 26 2022, 7:25 PM
In T300498#7940638, @Lens0021 wrote:

I guess Miraheze wikis use LU? At least it seems to be installed currently. CC @Universal_Omega

Thanks for the ping, Miraheze has now uninstalled it.

gerritbot added a comment.May 26 2022, 7:26 PM

Change 790356 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/tools/release@master] Stop branching LocalisationUpdate for the MediaWiki tarball

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/790356

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.May 26 2022, 7:30 PM
Nikerabbit mentioned this in T309694: Archive the LocalisationUpdate extension (late 2023).Jun 1 2022, 11:15 AM
Nikerabbit updated the task description. (Show Details)
Nikerabbit closed this task as Resolved.Jun 1 2022, 11:17 AM
Nikerabbit moved this task from In Progress to Done on the Language-Team (Language-2022-April-June) board.

I created an archival request task, but for practical purposes I don't think it can be completed until late 2023. People still have time until that to step up and oppose archival or claim maintainership.

Aklapper mentioned this in T54060: Un-bundle (remove) LocalisationUpdate extension from bundled MediaWiki extensions.Jul 24 2022, 6:16 PM
lcawte mentioned this in T337026: Create process to pull in translatewiki updates to mediawiki.May 23 2023, 8:57 AM
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