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Wikimedia Search Team/Meeting minutes/2015-05-18

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2015-05-18

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Checkins

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Nik

  • Did rolling restarts of elastic
  • Worked on query parser (has 50+ tests mimicking our integration tests)
    • Maybe 4 person-days away from being able _start_ replace the hated query_string
  • Trying to figure out when upstream releases Elasticsearch 1.6 - we wants it so badly!
  • Fixing some issues Elasticsearch has filed against features I wrote in Elasticsearch
  • Can now remove a bunch of dynamic groovy which will make ops happy.
    • We’ll need one more rolling restart after we merge and deploy some Cirrus changes to make turning it off really really real.

Stas

  • Released 0.0.1 to maven central
  • Need to set up semi-public endpoint for hackathon and others
  • Should we use blazegraph demo or create a front-end
    • Standard front end has a lot of features we intentionally don’t support (e.g. readonly)
  • Needs help. Can’t be alone. Especially around all this Java.

James

  • Has been working with S Page on API docs (focus on simplicity)
    • Want to create a portal, maybe including snippets, demos, etc.
    • Created quickie front-end for current WDQ front end
      • Could be a good starting point for WDQS front end
  • Meetings, reviews. Later in the week, continue on docs. Will create phab tasks

Max

  • Postgres optimization. Needs to be faster before adding more features.
  • Then will work on missing necessary features, then polishing

Yuri

  • Gave presentation of how to use new graph feature in wiki
    • Hungarian already uses over 200 graphs
  • Working w/Max on mapping features
  • Creating map presentation for hackathon (will also give graph presentation)
  • Plan to create vector graphics demo
  • Hope to create “wow” demo, maybe something with overlays

Erik

  • Wildcards now enabled in cirrus for other wikis, without performance problems
  • Improving multitasking in hhvm. Forking scripts causes some issues.
  • Added tests to some of Nik’s code
  • Will be making search index updates pause-able
    • Nik thinks they might be related to multi datacenter work
  • Will be somewhat unavailable intermittent over the next couple weeks

Oliver

  • Still working on data visualisation dashboard
    • Still from static snapshot, until things settle out
  • “Find out how API users are using search”
  • Working on non-search project
  • Wrote a C++ tool to geolocate readers/editors - https://github.com/Ironholds/rgeolocate
  • Will continue on API and non-search work, as well as hiring

Dan

  • Was out some of last week

Wes (Didn’t attend, but sent these notes)

  • primarily planning for hackathon, wikidata conversations there and planning offsite
  • Met last week with Google discussing Wikidata Query Service
    • will follow up with Dan regarding that, and planning.


Workboard Walkthrough

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https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/search-team/

  • Not necessary yet; will probably become part of the agenda later

Scrum of Scrums

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Info/To Discuss

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  • Should James learn more about metrics/measurement?
    • Hiring is going slower than hoped (opening req took a while too)
    • Nik thinks we should build internal expertise rather than hiring
    • James is already sort of on that path; happy to do it; overburdened?
    • Oliver may have some sources of potential talent (less engineer-y)
  • Are we hiring a front-end developer?
    • We hope to open a req “soon”
  • Who can look at dynamic script removal?
    • James volunteered
  • Who can help Stas with Java stuff
    • James is interviewing a candidate w/Java experience
  • Proposal to keep feature-specific projects around
    • Yuri had some concerns, but they were resolved in offline discussions w/Kevin
  • Pushback on our team’s wiki page name (“Search and Discovery”)
    • Should it have “Team” at the end? “Department”
    • Is it reasonable that “Search” redirects to our team page?
    • “Editing” is in a similar position
  • Initial WDQS release (0.0.1) Status https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T96579

FYI

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