Context:

• T107188: Sunset ShortUrl extension in favour of UrlShortener extension
• T187045: Code Stewardship Review: ShortUrl Extension
• T122708: ShortUrl must not write to master db on page views (DBPerformance warning)

In T107188#6275214, @Krinkle wrote:

In T107188#1489103, @Legoktm wrote:

The main thing is that we no longer expose (old) ShortUrls anywhere, and we don't create any *new* ones.

In T107188#2299648, @yuvipanda wrote:

we could keep ShortUrl as is, put it in a readonly mode.

So it looks like the outcome willl be that the current UI deployed on some wikis where short URLs are eagerly generated on page view (violates DBPerf, T122708) and shows them atop the page for sharing, is something that will no longer be supported.

Instead, people would need to use https://w.wiki, possibly via a gadget that produces a link like https://w.wiki/?url=URL so that users can still get there easily and then only have to submit the form to find or make the short url accordingly.

Perhaps we can already remove the current UI and eager generation today, ahead of T187045 and this task (T107188). If not, what is blocking that?

For this task:

• Develop a read-only flag to the legacy ShortUrl extension.
• Create a snippet on mediawiki.org as example gadget that provides a sidebar-integrated replacement for ShortUrl.
• Reach out to communities of the wikis where this is currently deployed, informing them that the "title caption" UI will be disappearing in favour of http://w.wiki.
• Set the read-only flag. This will automaticallyu resolve T122708.
• After a week, remove the now-dead code and then continue at T107188.

Current wikis per CommonSettings.php source

// NO FURTHER DEPLOYMENTS OF THIS EXTENSION.
'wmgUseShortUrl' => [
	'default' => false,
	'bdwikimedia' => true, // T146014
	'bhwiki' => true, // T113348
	'bnwiki' => true, // T62956
	'bnwikisource' => true, // T127968
	'eswikibooks' => true, // T96668
	'gomwiki' => true, // T206741
	'hiwiki' => true,
	'hiwikiversity' => true, // T177187
	'knwiki' => true, // T97218
	'knwikisource' => true, // T189287
	'maiwiki' => true, // T125802
	'mrwiki' => true, // T103646
	'newiki' => true, // T92820
	'orwiki' => true,
	'orwikisource' => true, // T124429
	'orwiktionary' => true, // T103644
	'pawiki' => true, // T178919
	'sawiki' => true, // T94660
	'sawikibooks' => true, // T94660
	'sawikiquote' => true, // T94660
	'sawikisource' => true, // T94660
	'sawiktionary' => true, // T94660
	'tawiki' => true,
	'tawikibooks' => true,
	'tawikinews' => true,
	'tawikiquote' => true,
	'tawikisource' => true,
	'tawiktionary' => true,
	'tcywiki' => true, // T150166
	'test2wiki' => true,
	'urwiki' => true, // T138507
],

Current UI example: