Wikifunctions:Status

From Wikifunctions

This page aims to give a reasonably current view on the current status of Wikifunctions. If something does not work, this page is a good first stop to check if that is a known issue.

This page is not the complete source of details. A more immediate view is the "Abstract Wikipedia" Phabricator board. This page just aims to provide a good and more easily understandable overview of major known issues and problems.

See Wikifunctions:Report a technical problem for details on how to report a bug or make a feature request.

Summary: This page is not complete. We don't plan to list every single user facing issue, but merely the main ones.

Prioritisation framework

This is the framework the development team use to make sure we're working on the important things for you.

Task prioritisation framework for Wikifunctions issues, July 2023
Level Meaning Timeliness Areas of concern Example
P0 A critical concern in production that must be fixed immediately Fix immediately. Drop everything.
  • Data corruption
  • Damage to integrity of the system
  • Leaking of sensitive data
  • Any time someone presses 'Publish', the page is instead broken for everyone until reverted
  • Abusive calls at a scale that overwhelms the system so real users can't do anything
  • Unauthorised users can see the IP used by a user making a function call
P1 The service is significantly limited, for a large number of users Fix within a week.
  • Major functionality loss for many people
  • Significant performance issue for most users
  • The editing system doesn't work on mobile devices
  • When most users press "Evaluate", they instead get a "Sorry, system busy" message
P2 The service is limited, for a smaller number of users Fix within a month.
  • Minor functionality loss for only a few people
  • Minor performance issue that doesn't impact most users
  • The function calling system doesn't work for users of a minor browser
  • For a few minutes a day, functions take ten or so seconds to reply instead of less than one.
P3 The service is imperfect, or could do better (including new feature requests) Triage and set expectations.
  • User experience leads to confusion
  • Non-optimal experience
  • Some key system labels have been translated very expansively or technocratically, and the UX feels very clunky or intimidating
  • After making an edit, the new page flashes into view rather than smoothly transitions from one state to the next

Short-term current issues to fix

These are issues that we're trying to fix immediately.

No current known issues!

Medium-term improvements

These are issues that we hope to fix or improve in the next few weeks and months, based on your feedback.

Type creation is locked-down to staff

Tracked in Phabricator:
Task T343469

For now, we only support a limited number and nature of types, and creation is limited to only staff. There are a number of built-in functions, e.g. first element of a list, typed list, and many others, which are currently not well-supported for custom types, which we are looking at addressing. Generic types and generic functions require a bit of development and bug-fixing, and are not ready yet.

Multi-lingual support is in early version

A language switcher is live on top of the page. We hope it works and you consistently stay in your chosen language. Please report issues. We have fixed some issues but others remain open, and we ask you to keep an eye open for issues in our multi-lingual support so that we can continue improving.

Diffs are ugly

For now, diffs "work" but shows ugly blobs of JSON rather than a nice, understandable, formatted result. We want an experience like Wikidata's or better.

Long-term plans

These are issues that we will prioritise based on your feedback and ideas, as part of the bigger plans for Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia.

You cannot fetch an Entity or Lexeme from Wikidata in your function

This will be a key part of the work for natural language generation and other needs.

You cannot embed Wikifunctions calls in Wikipedia articles, Wiktionary entries, etc.

This will be a vital part of helping communities get the benefit of Wikifunctions, as well as building towards the Abstract Wikipedia goal.

Function pages don't show you where or how much they're used

This would be an important way for the Wikifunctions community to decide how to focus effort and warn users of changes, like how the GlobalUsage tool guides the Commons community.

Search is ugly

For now, the search "works" but shows ugly blobs of JSON rather than a nice, understandable, formatted result, and you can't filter by type of object (e.g. "show me only Implementations that match my search").