# Blog/2017-02

From XOWA: the free, open-source, offline wiki application

Blog links
2017

- 2017-04
- 2017-03
- 2017-02

2016

- 2017-01
- 2016-12
- 2016-11
- 2016-10
- 2016-09
- 2016-08
- 2016-07
- 2016-06
- 2016-05

Archives

## Release: v4.3.0.1702 (2017-02-21 18:00 Tue)

The PC version is a major release. It adds page deletion, category updates, wiki import, and a high-DPI machine support.

The Android version has no release.

### (Wiki) Publish 2017-02 English Wikipedia and 2017-02 Gujarati wikis

2017-02 English Wikipedia is officially up. See Wiki_setup/English_wikis

In addition, I reuploaded the entire English Wikipedia file database set. This is a periodic task which is necessary to keep the image databases small for new users.

- Without the change, new users would need to download 110 GB of data to get a full set.
- With the change, new users would only need to download 94 GB

Depending on if you're a new user or an existing user, you'd need to do the following:

- New user: Just download the task named `English Wikipedia - Images: New Users (2017-02) [94.23 GB]`. This will give you all the images for 2016-02 English Wikipedia
- Existing user: You'll probably have to do two things
  - Download the task named `English Wikipedia - Image Update: Existing Users (2017-02) [6.60 GB]`. This will give you all the images for 2017-01 and 2017-02 English Wikipedia
  - If you want to "shrink" your image databases and reclaim about 15 GB of space
    - Download the deletion database from here: https://archive.org/download/Xowa_enwiki_latest/en.wikipedia.org-file-deletion-2017.02.xowa
    - Use the page here: Dashboard/Files/Deletion

Also, per request, I generated 2017-02 Gujarati wikis. See Wiki_setup/Gujarati_wikis

### (PC) Add "Delete page" button

This build adds a `Delete page` button. To use it, do the following:

- Switch to `Edit` mode
- Press `Delete page`
- Confirm that you want to delete the page

Note the following:

- You can delete any page from the wiki, including the Main_Page
- The page is permanently deleted. If you need to recover it, you would have to restore from a backup.
- This feature is mainly intended for personal wikis. With that said, you can also delete a page from a Wikimedia wiki (like en.wikipedia.org).

### (PC) Support editable Categories

This build also adds editable Categories. To try it, do the following:

- Edit a page
- Add the following text: `[[Category:Test]]`
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page. You will see a `Categories` section and `Test` listed
- Navigate to `Category:Test`. You will see the page listed

This feature is also mainly for personal wikis. However, it will also work with Wikimedia wikis (like en.wikipedia.org)

### (PC) Add Import option for Personal wikis

The previous build didn't have an easy way to move a personal wiki from one machine to another. This build now has an import button. To use it, do the following:

- Copy the personal wiki file from the first machine to the second machine
- Go to Special:XowaWikiDirectory on the second machine
- Click the `Import` button. It's a white sheet of papers with a white arrow pointing rightwards.
- Select the file.

### (PC) Fix extremely short url bar on some machines

XOWA had issues with machines with different DPI settings. This resulted in one of the following:

- The progress bar being clipped at the bottom of the screen. This occurred on laptops or other machines with Large Fonts enabled
- The URL bar being extremely short. This occurred on machines with High DPI settings.

Both of these are resolved with this build.

### (PC) Other changes including curid, Special:XowaSql, and keyboard shortcuts

This build also has a few other notable changes:

- Navigate to page using the curid argument. For example, `en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?curid=303` will navigate to the `Alabama` page
- A new special page to easily run SQL within XOWA: Special:XowaSql. This is mainly intended for any future troubleshooting.
- Changes to some default keyboard shortcuts. This requires a longer explanation:
  - XOWA used Ctrl+U to restore the text in the URL bar. Note that all major browsers use escape for the same purpose.
  - XOWA wasn't using escape, because escape transferred focus to the main browser.
  - XOWA now uses Ctrl+M to transfer focus to the main browser
  - As such, escape now restores the text in the URL bar.

### (Dev) Change license to GPLv3 / Apache2

This change affects the XOWA source-code only. It has no direct impact on users.

Basically, XOWA's source code was offered under a more "strict" license called the AGPLv3. It is now being offered under a choice of two license:

- A "strict" licence: GPLv3
- A "permissive" license: Apache2

For more background, see https://github.com/gnosygnu/xowa/issues/115 as well as Help/License/Code

### Next release

- New 2017-02 wikis: I still need to rebuild the Linux box so wikis are on hold. I'm hoping to resume this week
- Personal wikis: I'm going to add an interwiki feature (link from one personal wiki to another) to the next release, as well as any other minor feature.

## Release: v4.2.0.1702 (2017-02-11 10:00 Sun)

The PC version is a major release. It adds support for personal wikis.

The Android version has no release.

### (PC) Support creation of personal wikis. See App/Personal_wikis

A user was kind enough to suggest supporting personal wikis. These are standalone wikis that are entirely created and edited by a user. A reddit thread was created and there looks like there's some interest in the worldbuilding community:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/5t35ys/i_finally_found_a_wikipedialike_desktop_program/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/xowa/comments/5t3ead/worldbuilders_test_feedback_thread/

To use it, do the following:

- From the Main Menu, do `Personal wikis` -> `New personal wiki`
- Fill out domain, name, folder
- Press the `Save icon`
- Experiment in the new wiki

I've used the XOWA home wiki as a personal wiki for over three years, and find it useful. Hopefully others will as well.

### (PC) Add minor changes to Download Central

There were basically two minor changes:

- A `minus icon` to remove items from the Available list.
- Moving items between the list add them back to the correct spot (instead of at the bottom of the list)

### Next release

- New 2017-02 wikis: I'm almost done uploading 2017-02 English Wikipedia, but am waiting on archive.org to release some things. I've hit a snag in terms of building new wikis as my Linux box is effectively broken. I'm going to rebuild it this week, but that may set me back
- Shrinking XOWA wikis: I'll also release a deletion database for 2017-02 English Wikipedia. The final size of images should be around 92 GB
- Personal wikis: Depending on feedback from others, I may work on personal wiki features.

## Release: v4.1.0.1702 (2017-02-04 21:00 Sat)

The PC version is a major release. It adds a new in-app updater and better support for images in custom wikis

The Android version has no release.

### (PC) Add new in-app updater

v4.1.0 has a new in-app updater. It has two main features:

- A new page to show any pending updates : This can be reached by doing Help -> Update XOWA or by going to Special:XowaAppUpdate
- An in-app update feature : If an update is availabe, it can be installed with a click of a button.

More info is available at App/Setup/Update/In-app

### (PC) Add better support for images in Wikia and other custom wikis

XOWA had only minimal support for images in Wikia wikis. However, as a result of tickets #124 and #125, the following changes were made:

- Images in the File namespace will now show: For example, https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/File:Keyboard_shortcuts.svg . Note that clicking on an image here will also open it up in the image viewer.
- File names with spaces are automatically renamed to use underscores: For example, `SpellIcon PsionicBlast.png` will be renamed to `SpellIcon_PsionicBlast.png`
- SVG thumbnails will now use ".png" instead of ".svg": For example, "C:\xowa\file\nethackwiki.com\thumb\8\3\f\d\Keyboard_shortcuts.svg\800px.png"
- View HTML will now show the img src and width info: For example, <img id="xoimg_1" alt="File%3AKeyboard+shortcuts.svg" src="file:///D:/xowa_temp/file/nethackwiki.com/thumb/8/3/f/d/Keyboard_shortcuts.svg/800px.png" width="800" height="293" />
- Images are now integrated directly into the app file cache: See `home/wiki/Special:XowaCfg?grp=xowa.files.general`. This means that a separate thumbs directory is no longer generated
- A startup script is no longer needed: No startup script is needed at `home/wiki/Special:XowaCfg?grp=xowa.app.startup`. XOWA now automatically assumes that all non-WMF wikis will have offline files in the wiki directory. For example, `C:\\xowa\\wiki\\your_wiki\\file\\orig\\`
- Updated instructions: Instructions were updated at http://xowa.org/home/wiki/App/Wiki_types/Wikia.com

### (PC) Fix Random not working for HTML databases

This was reported in issue #121: https://github.com/gnosygnu/xowa/issues/121

Basically, the Random feature was not working for wikis downloaded through Download Central.

Thanks to Ope30 for reporting the issue

### (PC) Add Creative Commons footer to bottom of page

This was a minor request made by Ope30 also. Pages will now show the Creative Commons footer at the bottom of the page. I also redesigned the footer as well.

### Next release

- New 2017-02 wikis: I skipped the 2017-01 series due to personal reasons. I should have a 2017-02 English Wikipedia in the coming week
- Shrinking XOWA wikis: I'm going to try to reduce the size of the XOWA wikis. Among other things, I'm planning to remove obsolete images (images once used, but since removed) and also do some configurable downloads for Category / other namespaces

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