Make maxlag configurable in Wikidata extension

[wetneb]

Maxlag is a parameter that controls how aggressive a mass-editing tool should be when uploading edits to Wikidata.

With the current issues around Wikidata's stability it is often impossible to edit with maxlag set to 5 seconds, the default value recommended by the guidelines (and the one set in OpenRefine by default).

As part of #1640 we want to make the configuration of the Wikibase instance user-configurable (instead of being hard-coded to Wikidata) and part of that includes letting users set the maxlag value as they wish.

[james-cui]

Hey @wetneb, I want to take a look at this as the potential GSoC applicant. May I know where the variable was set to 5 sec by default? Also, where is the place that user should put configs?

Thanks!

[wetneb]

Sure!
Maxlag is set by default to 5 in Wikidata-Toolkit itself and can be changed here:
http://wikidata.github.io/Wikidata-Toolkit/org/wikidata/wdtk/wikibaseapi/WikibaseDataEditor.html#setMaxLag(int)

User preferences can be stored in the PreferenceStore (which can be accessed from the start page, in the "Preferences" section).

[james-cui]

@wetneb Here is the request to merge
af09b05

[tfmorris]

With the current issues around Wikidata's stability it is often impossible to edit with maxlag set to 5 seconds

That's the whole point, as I understand it. Allowing users to defeat this opens OpenRefine to being used as a tool for abuse.

Should this be added to the set of Wikibase configuration parameters so that a sysadmin can advertise the maximum value allowed and then users can set it to a lower, but not higher, value? That way if Wikidata advertises 5, users won't be able to change it to 10.