Extension:Chart/Project/Updates

December 2024: Deployment to pilot wikis

Charts are now available for mediawiki.org and 3 pilot wikis: Hebrew, Italian, and Swedish Wikipedias. As mentioned in the last update, these will be the only deployments for the time being to provide stability over the holidays and make space for any major issues to be uncovered and addressed before a wider rollout.

Early feedback and upcoming improvements

We’ve heard your feedback about some of the challenges of working with the Data namespace and the limitations of tabular data. In the new year, we’ll be exploring ways to improve this, starting with:

Better discoverability of pages in the Data namespace using categories
Providing visibility into which wiki pages include a given chart and which charts rely on a given tabular dataset
Adding support for specifying which fields from a tabular dataset to use for a given chart in the definition

Thanks for continuing to follow along with the project and providing feedback. We’re looking forward to continuing to improve the extension as we roll out to more wikis.

November 2024: Production deployment and security review complete

This month we deployed Charts to production, and it is now enabled on Commons and testwiki. You can see a working version at testwiki:Charts. There are a few design tweaks that will come over the next few weeks, mostly to the styling of the hover tooltip.

We also got confirmation from the Wikimedia Foundation Security team that the extension is considered low risk for rollout to pilot wikis in December. We will be taking action on the recommendations from the security review over the coming months as we scale the rollout.

Pilot wiki deployment

We're close to confirming the 3 pilot wikis that will have Charts enabled first, planned for the first week of December. Once we deploy to these wikis, there will be a pause on further deployment until 2025. This is to provide stability over the holidays and make space for any major issues to be uncovered and addressed before a wider rollout. Expect to hear more about this soon!

October 2024: Working towards production deployment

Throughout September and October, the team has been working on taking the prototype that is currently deployed in the beta cluster and getting it into a production-ready state. The next major milestone we are working towards is deploying the Chart extension to testwiki and testcommons, which we are aiming to do in November. We are simultaneously working towards a security review, which is an important step for the project given security concerns were the reason the Graph extension was ultimately disabled. Following production deployment and security approval, we will begin rolling out to real wikis.

What to expect

The initial version of the Chart extension released to testwiki and testcommons in production will be fully functional, but not yet feature-complete. We've simplified the prototype to focus on the core workflows of creating and embedding charts, in addition to designing a visually accessible reading experience on mobile and desktop devices. Editors will be able to define basic line, area (stacked), bar, and pie charts on testwiki using tabular data stored on testcommons. Documentation for the extension is now available on the extension page, with a working version on beta.

Once we've deployed to production, we'll be adding more features and functionality. Notably, we want to improve the experience of working with tabular datasets and support more customization of the visual presentation of charts (e.g. customizing the colors). We will also be turning our attention towards supporting editors with migrating legacy graphs to charts.

Deployment to real wikis

Soon after deploying to the test wikis, we are planning to deploy the extension to production Commons and real wikis so that we can collect feedback about real-world use and quickly address any high priority issues. Let us know if you'd like your wiki to be one of the first to receive the new extension.

August 2024: Wikimania recap and beta cluster deployment

Recording of our Wikimania session

Wikimania recap. Thank you to everyone who joined the Wikimania session, or stopped by to discuss the project at the Product & Tech table. We learned a lot by talking to many of you and seeing the types of graphs you created before and the types of charts you hope to create in the future. Some of the major themes we picked up from our conversations at Wikimania are summarized on Phabricator. The key takeaways are to continue working on the core chart types previously enabled by the most popular graph templates and to look into support for alternative data sources like Wikidata. We're also going to investigate some of the challenges highlighted with using Commons as the centralized storage solution for charts.
Beta cluster deployment.
- You can now create charts in beta Commons (example) and embed them into pages on other beta wikis (examples: beta English Wikipedia, beta German Wikipedia)! This gets us closer to deployment on regular wikis later this fall. We will also develop more features, like support for additional chart types and visual customization. Test the charts yourself and let us know of any issues you encounter!
- Some important functionality is still missing. For example, when you edit a chart definition or data page on beta Commons, and it's used on a page on another beta wiki as a chart, its looks doesn't change. To update the chart rendering, you have to purge the page or make a null edit. We will make it update automatically: T370378.

July 2024: Key decisions made: library, chart types, definition storage. Join us at Wikimania

First, we are pleased to share that we have made three key decisions about the project:

We have selected a data visualization library. After researching and prototyping a number of options, the final two under consideration were Apache eCharts and Vega (the library previously used for Graphs), with the decision being to use eCharts. However, we're not ruling out using Vega in the future just yet. Go to the FAQ to learn more about eCharts and Vega.
We also analyzed the Graph templates/modules usage to determine which types of charts to start prototyping with and what the parameters should be. We will start with line charts. Their parameters should be reusable for other related chart types too. After line charts, we will move on to map-based visualizations, because those are quite different from the other types and might require a different approach.
Chart definitions will live on their own .chart pages on Commons, under the Data: namespace. We want to treat charts as a standalone content type, rather than just a part of an article. It will be easy to reuse the same chart across wikis, and beyond Wikimedia platforms by making them available as links. Editors who want to embed charts in an article will be able to do so with a short piece of wikitext, similar to including an image from Commons, all without needing to interact with complex templates. We will build a prototype quickly so that we can start testing our assumptions. Go to the FAQ to read more.

For those attending Wikimania: Chris and Szymon will be hosting a session: "Charts, the successor of Graphs: A secure and extensible tool for data visualization" (add to your favorites). They will speak more about the project and preview an early prototype of the new extension. It will primarily be about how charts will be defined and then embedded within articles. Join us in-person or virtually, and register to Wikimania to add sessions to favorites. For in-person attendees, there will also be a Graphs / Charts table. Anyone who can't attend the session or would like to talk further will be most welcome.

July 2024: Start of the project

We are happy to announce that the project officially started on July 1. In the first half of the month, we'll decide how charts will be used and how the underlying service will be architected.

Most importantly, we'll be selecting the data visualization library (T368336). We have included options suggested by volunteers and staff. Vega, previously used for graphs, is one of them. Additional suggestions are welcome, however there are many options out there, and we won't be able to test them all. If you have ideas on what criteria we should consider when evaluating these libraries, write on our talk page!

We will also be shortlisting the priority types of charts. Then, we will pick one to start with (T368478). As part of this, we will analyze existing graph usage and factor in comments from volunteers. This list will change as we learn more about what types of charts are most important for encyclopedic content and what's possible with the library we end up choosing.

Relatedly, we're also exploring what the syntax could look like for defining a chart in wikitext, or if it will even be defined in wikitext at all (T368350). This won't be a final decision, and we want to get a prototype of the service up soon. In addition to thinking about how easy the syntax is to understand and use, we are also thinking about how easy it will be to convert from existing graph definitions.

Once we make these early decisions, we'll set up the infrastructure required to create the first chart type. The plan is to make it available as a prototype so volunteers can start experimenting with it. In the meantime, we welcome questions and comments on the talk page or on Phabricator.

We are also encouraging you to register for Wikimania. We will give a presentation about the project there. Hopefully, we'll build enough to have interesting news to share. Registration is needed for both in-person and remote participation.

Last but not least, we are wondering what tool to use to stay in touch with community members who were involved in discussions about Graph. Would you like to receive notifications about new project updates, or do you prefer a mass message on your talk page? Let us know if you have a strong preference. Thanks!