Hello all,

This is an important announcement for all the tool builders and maintainers
who access Wikidata’s data by *querying directly Labs database replicas*.

In May-June 2019, the Wikidata development team will drop the wb_terms
table from the database in favor of a new optimized schema. Over years,
this table has become too big, causing various issues.

This change requires the tools using wb_terms to be updated. Developers and
maintainers will need to *adapt their code* to the new schema before the
migration starts and switch to the new code when the migration starts.

The migration will start on *May 29th*. On May 15th, a test system will be
available for you to test your code.

The table being used by plenty of external tools, we are setting up a
process to make sure that the change can be done together with the
developers and maintainers, without causing issues and broken tools. Most
of the documentation and updates will take place on Phabricator:

   - In this Phabricator task <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T221764>,
   you can find a description of the changes and the process, and you can ask
   for more details or for help in the comments. This is also where updates
   will be announced if necessary.
   - On the Tool Builders Migration board
   <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/wb_terms_-_tool_builders_migration>
   you will find all the details about the migration, how to update your
   tool <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T221765>, and you can add your
   own tasks.
   - If you need to discuss with the Wikidata developers or get more
   specific help, we set up two dedicated IRC meetings and a session at the
   Wikimedia hackathon. More information in this task
   <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T221764>.

We are aware that this change will ask you to make some important changes
in your code, and we are willing to help you as much as our resources allow
us to. We hope that you will understand that this change is made to avoid
bigger issues in the near future.

Note that this change is not impacting Wikibase instances outside of
Wikidata. A dedicated migration plan and announcement will follow.

We strongly encourage you to not wait until last minute to make the changes
in your code. If you have any question or issue, we will be happy to help.
In order to keep the discussions in one place, please ask questions or
raise issues directly in the Phabricator task and board.

Thanks for your understanding,
Cheers,
-- 
Léa Lacroix
Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.

Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
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