Visual editor
| Group: | Features |
| Start: | 2011-05-15 |
| End: | |
| Lead: | Alolita Sharma |
| Team: | Trevor Parscal, Inez Korczyński, Roan Kattouw, Gabriel Wicke, Rob Moen |
The Visual editor project aims to create a reliable rich-text editor for MediaWiki. It is being developed as a MediaWiki extension and currently being tested in the visual editor sandbox.
Contents |
[edit] Rationale
The decline in new contributor growth is the single most serious challenge facing the Wikimedia movement in the year 2011. Removing the avoidable technical impediments associated with Wikimedia's editing interface is a necessary precondition for increasing the number of Wikimedia contributors.
[edit] Status
- (2012-01-31) January was a bit slower on the visual editor front, as parts of the team took some well-deserved vacation after the successful prototype launch in December. During the SF Hackathon, a lot of issues were fleshed out. Plans for the second phase of the editor project were formulated. Inez Korczynski investigated a possible use of
contenteditableto help with input methods and text selections on mobile devices. Gabriel Wicke extended the parser with the ability to fetch and expand templates in a parallel and asynchronous fashion. The parser now supports most parts of the English Wikipedia Main Page. [edit status] or [add new]
[edit] Timeline
Some level of exploration was done in 2010 by the Wikipedia Usability Initiative.
The 2011 product whitepaper published by the Wikimedia Foundation's strategic product team identified rich-text editing as one of the "Great Movement Projects". Work subsequently started in May 2011.
First prototypes are expected in 2011; the final feature is expected to be delivered in late 2012. The Wikimedia annual plan, released July 2011, states a goal for the Visual Editor: "First opt-in user-facing production usage by December 2011, and first small wiki default deployment by June 2012."
[edit] Additional documents
- User requirements:
- Specifications:
- Test plan:
- Documentation plan:
- User interface design docs:
- Schedule:
- Release management plan:
- Communications plan:
- Status updates
- Feedback page for developer prototype
