Forum:Switching to the new parser

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Note: This topic has been unedited for 5759 days. It is considered archived - the discussion is over.

Hey guys and Prettiestpretty.

We are getting ready for the next mediawiki upgrade, which means a switch to a new parser. The problem is that a lot of pages may be affected - in particular templates with broken html. The new parser deals with these differently, and that can result in brokenness. There is some more background on this at [wikia:Forum:Switching to the new parser].

Our tests put Uncyc way at the top of the league for potentially broken pages. There is a big text file listing pages we think are most likely to be affected at http://ws2.poz.wikia-inc.com/~lukasz/errors/uncyclo.txt

What I think will work best, is to list a batch of these pages somewhere on-wiki, then anyone willing to help can look at the comparison and decide what needs fixing. If we start with templates, and then ask for an updated list, that should clear a lot.

The aim is to switch on March 3rd, although it's going to be a lot of work to fix everything by then! Of course, we can also fix after the switch, but it would be good to get as much as possible sorted in advance. Please let me know if you have any questions -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 20:56, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

"Top of the League"? Woo! That's quite a list, Sannse. That's got, what, every page Uncyclopedia has? Sir Modusoperandi ^Boinc! 21:19, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Having looked at a few, I think we can do some more filtering. There's a lot of 'class="mw-redirect"' which we should be able to automatically remove from the list. If anyone sees some other common irrelevant differences, please let me know. I'll talk to the guy helping with this in the morning, and get him to generate another list with those discarded -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 21:28, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

/me puts on industrial strength editing trousers... 9001 (bot)

21:35, Feb 5

I'm just amused that Flammable's page is on the list. Bloody admins. ~

22:28, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

*Pbbt!* I kick Flammable's ass:

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User_talk:Modusoperandi

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Fgallery

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Frandom

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Fawards

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Frwr

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/Image:Pulpnoveltcofdd.jpg (This one is sooo not my fault)

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Fboxofsand

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2FUnNews%3AUser_gives_wordy_and_confusing_thanks_for_whatever_it_is_for_which_he_is_thankful

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User_talk:Modusoperandi%2FUnNews%3AUser_gives_wordy_and_confusing_thanks_for_whatever_it_is_for_which_he_is_thankful

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2FUnNews%3APickled_lout_ruins_%22...of_the_Month%22_awards

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User_talk:Modusoperandi%2FUnNews%3APickled_lout_ruins_%22...of_the_Month%22_awards

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User_talk:Modusoperandi%2Fboxofsand

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/Future_%E2%98%ADf_tomorrow%2C_today%21

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2FTemplate%3AED

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User_talk:ModusOperandi

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Farchive1

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Farchive2

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Farchive3

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Farchive4

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Farchive5

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/Forum:Savethemooses_and_Modusoperandi_Funtime_Comedy_Forumstravaganza

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/Image:Moosesandmodus.jpg

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Fcss

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/Image:Modusoperandi-southpark.jpg

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/Forum:Can_anybody_who_is_both_American_and_has_an_Amazon.com_account_help_Modus_out%3F

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/Image:UnNews_modusoperandi_template.MP3

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User_talk:Modusoperandi%2FPolice_seek_prophet_in_plant_persecution

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:ParserDiffTest/User:Modusoperandi%2Fsig

...lots of these turn out to be it not liking links. The one in Future of tomorrow, today!, for instance, is flagged for things like links to proletariat. Sir Modusoperandi ^Boinc! 23:38, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

What the hell

It's harder to imagine a simpler page than my (very bad) User:Hyperbole/anyhoo. It contains no links at all. What the fuck is the parser's problem? Is it broken by, say, having any template at all on a page? I do notice that it seems to hate Pee Reviews. pillow talk 23:51, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Add this to your javascript page...

... It should give you a link called "New parser" in the toolbox. Simply go to a page that you suspect will turn messy under the new implementation and click the link; it will show you what the page is going to look like with the new parser.

if(!wgCanonicalSpecialPageName) addOnloadHook(function() { 
 var url = wgServer + wgArticlePath.replace(/\$1/,wgPageName) + "?timtest=newpp"
 addPortletLink('p-tb',url,'New parser','ca-diffparser','View this page with new parser.',); 
});

-- The Colonel (talk) 08:01, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Source: [1]

New List

OK, it seems the list I had wasn't the filtered version. Some differences that show on many pages are irrelevant - they don't change the output of the page. So the list in place now is one that leaves out some of those identified irrelevancies, which should make this a lot more manageable! -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 11:42, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

...so you're saying this is going to make my user page messier than it is? Sweet. -

Admiral Enzo Aquarius-Dial the Gate

20:04, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm wondering what strange stuff may happen... AH! THE HORROR! -Sockpuppet of an unregistered user 20:09, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Not exactly Enzo, except that it may end up breaking some of those obsolete HTML tags you use there (e.g. "center"). Also, the "position" property for inline styling seems to behave differently as well. Dunno know why that's the case, though. -- The Colonel (talk) 23:59, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

So I, and by "I" I mean "someone else," will have to go through the wiki, replacing every single instance of a center tag with some other html tag that does the exact same thing? - T.L.B. WotM, UotM, FPrize, AotM, ANotM, PLS, UN:HS, GUN 01:39, Feb 7

Well, that's what the "timtest" thing tells me. *sigh* -- The Colonel (talk) 02:35, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

9762 pages to check is manageable? Also a good few of those are just differences in how TOC anchor links are numbered. • Spang • ☃ • talk • 22:44, 06 Feb 2009

Certainly there are things not in anyone's control. As long as the Wikia staff do their part, we should try the best we can to fix the broken page, don't you agree? -- The Colonel (talk) 23:59, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Never! • Spang • ☃ • talk • 02:51, 07 Feb 2009

I told you not to vote for Obama! Sir Modusoperandi ^Boinc! 04:09, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Obama jokes aside, there are certain things I do find a bit odd with the parser diff test. If you perform it on the forumpages template, you will find that the results for both sides are equally broken. That simply doesn't make any sense, and I hope Sannse or someone who knows how it actually works can shed some light on the matter. -- The Colonel (talk) 11:09, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

9000 is a lot better than the first bot runs to find pages with differences! We couldn't filter all possible "false positives" (remember we are doing this on 10,000 or so wikis) but we got rid of some. So there are still some pages that show a difference, but mean nothing. I'm going to work on this for uncyc tomorrow... basically by making a clickable list on-wiki, then removing any that I can see are irrelevant. If you are helping, and there are pages where you don't know if the difference matters or not, then please paste the link here for me (or anyone) to comment on. Ta -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 20:24, 7 February 2009 (UTC)sannse<staff/> (talk) 20:24, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Wait wait WAIT! Wait just one goddamned minute!

There's ads on Uncyc now? -OptyC Sucks! CUN14:51, 7 Feb

huh? (she says intelligently...) -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 20:19, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Have I told you I love you lately Sannse? -OptyC Sucks!

CUN20:29, 7 Feb

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You, Sannse? (note: swap "Sannse" for "baby" in the lyrics) Sir Modusoperandi ^Boinc! 21:35, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Anyone figured this out yet?

We have got... Um, dare I say it over 9000 edits to make here. I'm trying to find a way to get MrN9001 to do this, but what is needed is a set of rules which can be used to do find and replace type stuff. I found this but it appears to be a maybe list. Is there something more specific? My next question is... How did Wikipedia handle this? I'm guessing they already have a AWB config file which has all this set-up already? Mr N Fork you! 04:28, Feb 14

Wikipedia had a Splarka. Who did an amazing amount of work in finding and fixing problems. Sadly, we don't have one of them any more, and AWB won't help. But basically, all you need to do is grab some links from the list, decide if the page is really broken or the differences are irrelevant, then fix the template that's missing a close tag and breaking the page (in the vast majority of cases). For example, this template is causing a lot of problems. If someone can fix that, it will be a big help - so far I can't see what is missing and where it should be, -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 18:16, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Uberfuzzy has fixed it - although it doesn't show that way on the difs, we'll just have to ignore any that show as strange due to that template (the we is me and all you others helping with this...) -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 18:13, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Options

So, there are two weeks before Uncyc is due to be switched to the new parser. Just to lay out the options here, you can:

fix errors in advance to prevent broken pages
fix errors after the switch when you find broken pages
not switch to the new parser.

If you decide on 3, then it won't be possible to upgrade to MediaWiki 1.14 when it's released - the next version requires the new parser. (Wikipedia uses a pre-release version of MediaWiki, so is already on 1.15 and the new parser of course). Please can you let me know what you would like to do, so that I can exclude Uncyc from the switch and the upgrade if necessary. Thanks -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 12:27, 18 February 2009 (UTC)