Mark the MobileView API as deprecated
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Description

Given our discussions on ticket T99009 we should mark the mobile view API as deprecated.
The deprecation message should link to the mediawiki.org page which will be used to communicate this change.

Note: With a deprecation we can take as long as we want so this does not mean we need to mark a day it will be removed just yet but we can at least start getting feedback from users of the API!

Notes

MobileFrontend's mobileview module accounts for ~0.73% of Wikipedia's daily action API traffic (see P7873).

Acceptance criteria

The deprecation warning says "This API is marked as deprecated. Please see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend/MobileViewAPI for more information.

Details

	Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
	Mark the mobileview API as deprecated	mediawiki/extensions/MobileFrontend	master	+9 -0

Customize query in gerrit

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Status	Assigned	Task
Declined	None	T208761 [Epic] Improve PHPUnit coverage in MobileFrontend to 50%
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T186627 Remove the MobileView API
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T210808 Mark the MobileView API as deprecated

Event Timeline

Jdlrobson triaged this task as Medium priority.Nov 29 2018, 11:09 PM

Jdlrobson created this task.

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T99009: Remove noimages transform (was inconsistent parameter names for action=mobileview when you compare with action=parse).

Jdlrobson moved this task from Incoming to Upcoming on the Web-Team-Backlog board.Nov 29 2018, 11:11 PM

Aklapper added a project: Technical-Debt.Nov 30 2018, 10:18 AM

Given our discussions on ticket T99009 we should mark the mobile view API as deprecated.

Is this correct? In T99009: Remove noimages transform (was inconsistent parameter names for action=mobileview when you compare with action=parse) we confirmed that the mobile apps don't rely on the noimages parameter (which affects the parse query module when the MobileFrontend extension is loaded and the mobileview module), not that they don't rely on the mobileview API.

phuedx updated the task description. (Show Details)Nov 30 2018, 1:44 PM

@phuedx my understanding per T186627#3954391 and T99009 is that we're working towards this within WMF. We can set something as deprecated and remove it 5 years later if we want to, but the importance of marking it as deprecated early would be to identify consumers and their needs as early as possible. So I think setting this intention is important and it also gives us permission/flexibility to deprecate things as we see fit.

Jdlrobson moved this task from Upcoming to Triaged but Future on the Web-Team-Backlog board.Jan 2 2019, 9:25 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T173379: Remove mobileview API call for main page.Jan 16 2019, 5:55 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from Triaged but Future to Upcoming on the Web-Team-Backlog board.Mar 12 2019, 7:05 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from Upcoming to Triaged but Future on the Web-Team-Backlog board.Apr 1 2019, 9:53 PM

Jdlrobson lowered the priority of this task from Medium to Low.Jul 31 2019, 6:50 PM

ovasileva raised the priority of this task from Low to Medium.Oct 15 2019, 4:49 PM

@JoeWalsh friendly ping - just wondering how close we are from being able to remove the mobile view API ?
The team talked about this task today, and we want to mark the API as deprecated (but not remove it).

Change 546685 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jdlrobson; owner: Jdlrobson):
[mediawiki/extensions/MobileFrontend@master] Mark the mobileview API as deprecated

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/546685

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Oct 28 2019, 7:23 PM

@Jdlrobson I filed two new tickets to specifically track what's blocking removal of the mobile view API: T236733 and T236731

The iOS app is planning to switch to away from the mobile view API by January or February of 2020. Then, enough users have to upgrade to satisfy T236731. I don't have a timeline for the mobile-html switch away from mobile view as that is blocked by parsoid language variant support: T43716

Thanks @JoeWalsh that's really useful to know! I've noted the rough timeline in T186627.

In T210808#5613061, @JoeWalsh wrote:

@Jdlrobson I filed two new tickets to specifically track what's blocking removal of the mobile view API: T236733 and T236731

Thanks, @JoeWalsh!

There's a small patch that outlines intention. There's little to no risk in starting to communicate out to people that we plan to remove it eventually.

Jdlrobson moved this task from Inbox to Next up on the User-Jdlrobson board.Nov 5 2019, 5:35 PM

Change 546685 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/MobileFrontend@master] Mark the mobileview API as deprecated

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/546685