FamilySearch Wiki:Known Issues/Archive 3

Known issues in FamilySearch Wiki are reported below, with the most recent at the top of the list:

Template:OCLC
I have created Template:OCLC which is a way to link to WorldCat automatically. I used it in the article Delaware Indians and talked about it on the discussion page of that article. The coding is from Wikipedia and is under their open source licenses. I'll come back and clean this up a bit later. FredBauder 06:33, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Migration to LDS Account
A discussion of the issues that have arisen as a result of the migration to LDS Account can be found in the FamilySearch Wiki Technical Support forum

Shorter timeouts
Users have reported that they are logged out after a shorter time period than before the change. It is believed that this is due to the wiki inheriting the timeouts from new FamilySearch which is intentionally short due to the risk of confidential information being left open by users working from public access computers. It is believed that the programmers are already working on this issue.

StringhamDB That is correct. The Research Wiki's timeout is set at 45 minutes but since the change to CIS authentication we are limited to 24 minutes. This issue needs to be set with a high priority on the Research Wiki backlog.

Return-to page after sign on
Users that are browsing a page in the Special namespace are not returned to that page after they have signed on.

StringhamDB It appears as if the page URL is being mis-translated when handed over to CIS. Redirects can be the death of the web and this is an example of that statement. More research is being put into this issue to resolve it.

01-08-2010 A fix for this can be tested out at Research Wiki Beta

Combined accounts not successful
Several users have reported that they had not been able to successfully combine their old accounts with their new LDS Accounts. This resulted in a loss of their watchlist notifications and their old edits not being shown against their new account.

This is still a problem if the user name includes spaces " " or underscores "_".

Sign-In Problems When Using Internet Explorer 8
Some users have reported being unable to sign-in using Internet Explorer 8. When clicking on wither of the sign-in links on the home page, the new sign-in page does not come up. In fact, nothing happens. A work-around is to place a short-cut on your desk-top, which takes the user to the new sign-in page from which the user can then sign-in.

Linking to GNIS (Geographic Names Information Systems)
These instructions need to be moved to the FamilySearch Wiki:Manual of Style

1. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/ is the public access point entry.

2. FAQ link has the information concerning proper linking to the GNIS records.

a. My bookmarks and links to the GNIS query do not work?

When you log on, the system adds temporary session identification numbers to the URL, so it looks like this:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=921:10:6315419807150552990

If you bookmark or copy and paste this entire URL with numbers, it will not work in the future. Delete all after the word “gnispublic.” The correct URL is:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic

b. # How do I link to an individual feature record?

To save a link to an individual feature record detail report:

1. Search for the U.S. feature and note the Feature ID.

2. Copy and paste the following URL exactly as shown for US features:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:nnnnnnn

nnnnnnn = Record identification number.

Wrong:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=116:3:827734824577216::NO::P3_FID,P3_TITLE:15257%2CAll%20Faiths%20Memorial%20Park All Faiths Memorial Cemetery

Right:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:15257

You can mask the link. In this case it would be.

All Faiths Memorial Cemetery

Hopefully this resolve the issue of proper linking. dsammy

Strange Characters Automatically Added During Edits
The following characters appear on the page when you are trying to edit:

&lt;input type="hidden" id="gwProxy"&gt;&lt;/input&gt;&lt;input type="hidden" id="jsProxy" onclick="jsCall;"&gt;&lt;/input&gt;

Resolution
This bug has been traced back to the Browser Highlighter Firefox plug-in. See the thread Weird gwProxy code is inserted in WYSIWYG textareas from the Mozilla support forum. Removing the offending add-on in Firefox should fix the problem.

Help Copying
It seems there is a large section of the Help files from Mediawiki explicitly for inclusion in new wikimedia installs. Can we get these help files copied over? http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Copying Thanks, The Earl 10:55, 17 March 2008 (MDT)


 * The MediaWiki Help pages that are relevant in the Research Wiki were copied to in April 2010. This included Help:Contents. Many of them include a notice PD Help Page at the top to indicate that they have been copied over. Once they have been checked and updated to tie in with the Research Wiki this header template can be removed --Steve 11:13, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Create Place Holder on Home page
Create Place Holder on Homepage (Done - Created Main_PageMain Page Portal)

Deleting or archiving pages
My first thoughts on this would be to allow pages to be deleted or archived for future deletion. It seems like the number of pages would get out of control after a while. However, broken links could then be a problem unless the task of fixing links is somehow made automatic. Maybe this can be taken care of by not allowing a page to be deleted/archived if other pages are linked to it.

The other problem could occur if someone does not like what someone else wrote. They can just delete the page. Problems could occur if a battle starts up. Maybe only the author can delete? I am curious how Wikipedia handles all of this.

Thomas Lerman 01:03, 5 March 2008 (MST)


 * Wikipedia marks pages for deletion, then has an admin actually perform the deletion. Controversial pages are often tagged as such, so admins can know if a page is contested. Currently on this wiki, only admins can actually delete a page, users should mark pages for deletion by replacing the text of the page with 'Deleted'. The Earl 15:16, 13 March 2008 (MDT)


 * Updated answer to questions regarding the deletion of pages in the wiki: There are two separate "Delete" request maintenance templates. One is for delete requests that need immediate attention. The second is for delete requests that can be taken care of as time permits. See the delete templates, and all other maintenance templates at FamilySearch Wiki:Maintenance Templates. Only administrators can delete a page. Prior to fulfilling the requests for deletion the page is checked for unresolved links to the page. -Fran 04:54, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

Editing existing pages
See discussion at Edit a page

How do I upload files or images?
The article Uploading files or images has minimal information. We need additional instructions.

Creating and Populating Tables
I seem to be able to create a table, specify the number of rows and columns, size of cell, etc. But I couldn't get the table centered. I used the centering feature but the table remained on the left side of the page. What am I doing wrong. Also, how do I populate the cells of the table. As I started to type in a cell, the sizes of the columns changed. Jbparker 11:14, 14 February 2008 (MST)

Go to Help:Tables for more information about working with tables. Molliewog 14:11, 6 March 2008 (MST)

Is there a training manual?
Currently, help articles can be found at Category:Help Molliewog 14:26, 6 March 2008 (MST)

HTML and other unusual characters in Search Results
We have documented an issue with HTML and other Wiki syntax showing up in the search results. For example, if you search on Alaska, the following items will be included in the results:

3: * Alaska State Archives&lt;br /&gt;141 Willoughby Avenue &lt;br ... 4: ...41&lt;br /&gt;Internet: http://www.archives.gov/pacific-alaska/anchorage/&lt;br /&gt; 5: * Genealogical Society of Southeastern Alaska&lt;br /&gt;P.O. Box 6313 &lt;br /&gt;Ketchikan, AK 99901 6: ...&lt;br /&gt;Fax: 907-276-1596&lt;br /&gt;Internet: http://www.alaskahistoricalsociety.org/&lt;br /&gt; 7: * Alaska State Library&lt;br /&gt;Alaska Historical Collections&lt;br /&gt;State Office Building... If you click on the Wikitext button (upper left corner of the tool bar) while you are in the edit mode and delete the HTML language it will disappear from the final saved page--usually.

This appears to no longer be an issue. Molliewog 14:54, 6 March 2008 (MST)

FamilySearch Wikis in other languages
For a discussion about this site and languages, please see FamilySearch Wiki:Non-English versions of the wiki -Molliewog 15:14, 6 March 2008 (MST)

General Structure
Please join the discussion at Talk:Meta:US_Structure. The Earl 17:24, 7 March 2008 (MST)

Integrating Family History Library Internet favorites
See discussion at Talk:Feedback:_Integrating_Family_History_Library_Internet_favorites

Look and feel and navigation
This page was created when the content in Plone was ported over to the Wiki. Some concerns were raised dealing with the look and feel of the new home for content and also the navigation. The concerns at the time have been resolved. See the discussion that took place at Talk:Look and feel and navigation

Search problems
See discussion at Searching for specific articles or topics

Editor bugs
See discussion at Comments on the FCK Editor

Missing content
See discussion at Content from previous version is missing or links are missing

I don't know what I'm doing. I found some web pages that indicated "Web Page cannot be found" while in the Georgia, Pulaski Co., cemetary listing. Should I submit the names of the cemetaries here? Thanks

foreach
Could you install #FOREACH for me? http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:LoopFunctions Thanks The Earl 18:00, 7 March 2008 (MST)

If you have a new feature or process you'd like to suggest -- or if you feel an existing plugin/extension fills a customer need -- please submit a proposal to the wiki forum. (It's also a good idea to attach a poll to your post.) This allows the community to discuss and refine the idea. If the community agrees that the idea should be deployed, our development team will prioritize the request against the others in the queue. When we are planning an iteration (or a release), we add features/ideas/use cases to it using the requests as they are prioritized in the queue. Thanks. Molliewog 10:01, 11 March 2008 (MDT)


 * I have started a forum topic as to why the forum is a bad place to discuss wiki issues. Please comment there. http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1091 That said, if the above is the preferred way to submit requests, I will do so there. Thanks The Earl 13:53, 11 March 2008 (MDT)


 * I have started a forum topic about extensions since I had a request as well. You may find it at: http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1106 Thank you, Thomas Lerman 15:36, 13 March 2008 (MDT)
 * Poll for Parser functions and #foreach is at http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1126. Thanks The Earl 10:53, 17 March 2008 (MDT)