2017 wikitext editor/ml

വിക്കിടെക്സ്റ്റ് സോഴ്സ് കോഡ് എഡിറ്റ് ചെയ്യുമ്പോൾ വിഷ്വൽ എഡിറ്റർ ടൂളുകളും ടൂൾബാറും ഉപയോഗിക്കാൻ ഉപയോക്താക്കളെ അനുവദിക്കുന്ന വിഷ്വൽ എഡിറ്റർ എക്സ്റ്റൻഷൻ എന്നതിനുള്ളിലെ ഒരു മോഡാണ് 2017 വിക്കിടെക്സ്റ്റ് എഡിറ്റർ. വിക്കിടെക്‌സ്റ്റിലേക്ക് മാറുന്നതിന് ടൂൾബാറിലെ ബട്ടണിൽ ക്ലിക്കുചെയ്‌ത് വിഷ്വൽ എഡിറ്ററിനുള്ളിൽ നിന്ന് ഇത് ആക്‌സസ് ചെയ്യാനാകും.

ഇത് സ്ഥിരസ്ഥിതിയായി ഓണല്ല. നിങ്ങളുടെ മുൻഗണനകൾ എന്നതിലേക്ക് പോയി "പുതിയ വിക്കിടെക്സ്റ്റ് മോഡ്" എന്നതിനായുള്ള ചെക്ക് ബോക്സിൽ ക്ലിക്കുചെയ്ത് "സംരക്ഷിക്കുക" ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്ത് ഡെസ്ക്ടോപ്പ് ബീറ്റ ഫീച്ചറായി വിക്കിമീഡിയ വിക്കികളിൽ ഇത് ഉപയോഗിക്കാൻ നിങ്ങൾക്ക് തിരഞ്ഞെടുക്കാം.

അതെന്താണ്
2016–2017 വാർഷിക പദ്ധതിയിലെ ലക്ഷ്യങ്ങളിൽ ഒന്നിനെ പിന്തുണച്ചുകൊണ്ട്, "നിലവിലെ ഉള്ളടക്ക നിർമ്മാണവും ക്യൂറേഷൻ ഇന്റർഫേസുകളും പരിപാലിക്കുകയും വർദ്ധിപ്പിക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുക", എഡിറ്റിംഗ് ഡിപ്പാർട്ട്‌മെന്റ് '''പുതിയ വിക്കിടെക്‌സ്‌റ്റിൽ പ്രവർത്തിക്കുന്നു. എഡിറ്റർ'''.

രണ്ടിനും ഇടയിൽ മികച്ച സ്വിച്ചിംഗിനായി ഇത് വിഷ്വൽ എഡിറ്ററിലേക്ക് സംയോജിപ്പിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. ഇതിന് സമാനമായ രൂപകൽപ്പനയും citoid സേവനം ഉൾപ്പെടെയുള്ള നിരവധി ഉപകരണങ്ങളും വിഷ്വൽ എഡിറ്ററിൽ ഉണ്ട്. പുതിയ വിക്കിടെക്സ്റ്റ് എഡിറ്റ് മോഡ് ഡെസ്‌ക്‌ടോപ്പ് ഉപയോക്താക്കൾക്ക് ഒരു ബീറ്റ ഫീച്ചറായി ലഭ്യമാണ്. ഫാബ്രിക്കേറ്ററിലെ പ്രധാന ജോലി ആണ് (സോഫ്റ്റ്‌വെയർ ചിലപ്പോൾ "ആധുനിക വിക്കിടെക്സ്റ്റ് എഡിറ്റർ" അല്ലെങ്കിൽ "പുതിയ വിക്കിടെക്സ്റ്റ് എഡിറ്റർ"/"NWE" എന്നും അറിയപ്പെടുന്നു).

ഇതൊരു പുതിയ എഡിറ്ററാണ്, നിലവിലുള്ള വിക്കിടെക്സ്റ്റ് എഡിറ്ററിലുള്ള പരിഷ്ക്കരണമല്ല. ബീറ്റ ഫീച്ചർ മോഡ് ഫീഡ്‌ബാക്ക് നൽകാൻ ഉപയോക്താക്കളെ അനുവദിക്കുന്നു കൂടാതെ എഡിറ്റർമാരെ പെട്ടെന്ന് തടസ്സപ്പെടുത്തുന്നതും നിലവിലുള്ള ഗാഡ്‌ജെറ്റുകൾ തകർക്കുന്നതും ഒഴിവാക്കാൻ സമയം നൽകും.

ഈ പദ്ധതിയുടെ കാരണങ്ങൾ എന്തൊക്കെയാണ്?
2010-ൽ, വിക്കിമീഡിയ ഫൗണ്ടേഷൻ ഉപയോഗക്ഷമത പ്രോജക്റ്റ് പൂർത്തിയാക്കി (ഇത് ഞങ്ങൾക്ക് നിലവിലെ വെക്റ്റർ സ്കിൻ, അപ്‌ലോഡ് ടൂൾ, ഉള്ളടക്ക എഡിറ്റർ എന്നിവ നൽകി) 2010-2015 സ്ട്രാറ്റജിയിൽ കമ്മ്യൂണിറ്റി തിരഞ്ഞെടുത്ത പ്രശ്‌നങ്ങളിലേക്ക് മാറി. അറിയിപ്പുകൾക്കും മറ്റ് മെച്ചപ്പെടുത്തലുകൾക്കുമൊപ്പം എഡിറ്റിംഗ് ടൂളുകൾക്കായുള്ള നിരവധി മെച്ചപ്പെടുത്തലുകൾ ഇതിൽ ഉൾപ്പെടുന്നു, പ്രത്യേകിച്ച് വിഷ്വൽ എഡിറ്റർ. എന്നിരുന്നാലും, ഈ തന്ത്രം വിക്കിടെക്‌സ്‌റ്റിനെ മാറ്റിസ്ഥാപിക്കുന്നതല്ല. വിക്കിമീഡിയ പദ്ധതികൾ ഇപ്പോഴുള്ളതു പോലെ വിജയകരമാക്കാൻ സമൂഹത്തെ സഹായിക്കുന്നതിന്, എഡിറ്റിംഗിനുള്ള രണ്ട് സംവിധാനങ്ങളും ദീർഘകാലാടിസ്ഥാനത്തിൽ പ്രധാനപ്പെട്ടതായി ഞങ്ങൾ കാണുന്നു.

As of December 2016, on almost all Wikimedia wikis we provide three main content editors. They are inconsistent for users in their appearance, operation, performance, and in help and support. One of these is the 2010-era desktop wikitext editor called WikiEditor, another is the visual editor in its desktop and mobile forms, and the final one is the bare-bones mobile wikitext editor.

Since 2010, we have learned a great deal about how users, both new and experienced, use our software and what they would like to see changed in our editing software. Our research has informed the construction of the visual editor around designs that work well for editors, giving clear signs to new users on how to use it whilst getting out of the way of those experienced users who prefer the WikiEditor that they already know. Though imperfect, we've seen strong preferences from new users for the visual editor's design, workflow cues, and overall experience. We've also learned a great deal in terms of engineering, and have built it in such a way that it can be used on a page (as when you click "") or inside a tool (as in Flow) and on desktop or mobile, and in a manner which is extensible by other features.

Having three inconsistent editing systems is bad. It is bad for newer editors because whatever they have learned from one editor cannot be applied to other contexts (such as editing a talk page). It is bad for experienced editors, who must address several questions before they can work out what the situation for the newbie is and so how to help. It is bad for sysops, who need to separately set up what their community needs in each of the editors—or else discover that they cannot get it in some editors. It is bad for script and gadget developers, who must deal with lots of different situations (or ignore them). It is bad for developers, who have to take three times as many parts of complexity into account whenever they need to fix something or add a feature. And it is bad for the donors to the Wikimedia Foundation, whose donations are spent supporting these multiple parallel work streams.

Consequently, we're working on a new wikitext editor, the 2017 wikitext editor. This will provide a single, integrated, consistent experience between desktop and mobile, and wikitext and visual editors. It will be a platform that can be integrated into other editors, so that the experience can be as close as possible between situations and content types. We'll give users as good an experience as we can, while limiting breakage of existing functionality.

Please note that the current phase of deployment is providing this as a Beta Feature and getting feedback. Only once we've met our quality requirements (including new-user testing and experienced-user happiness), probably in mid-2017, we'll begin to provide it by default in place of the current wikitext editor. Users who don't like it will of course be able to not use it whilst it's a Beta Feature, and to disable it along with the visual editor once it's released to everyone. The current wikitext editor is not going anywhere, at least for the next few years. While we may eventually sunset it, anyone who likes it can keep it.

First release (Beta Feature)
The initial goals for the project were to have parity with the existing wikitext editor, WikiEditor, using the same toolbar with the same buttons in the same positions as in the visual editor so users have consistent experience. This means providing at least all the controls in the wikitext editor, with very few exceptions for very rare buttons:


 * Basic tools (bold, italics, signature, links and images);
 * Advanced tools (headings, bullet lists, numbered lists, big, small, superscript and subscript, galleries and tables);
 * Special character insertion; and
 * Find-and-replace.

All these were completed as of August 2016, along with a lot of tools not in the existing wikitext editor (like strikethrough, underline, template inserting and so on), and features like pasted HTML being turned into wikitext automatically. In particular, we also provide the "citoid" auto-citation tool, which lets users quickly add references based on URLs or DOIs. This is similar to, but more advanced than, the gadgets that a few wikis like the English Wikipedia had written for themselves already, and they will now be available for all wikis.

We undertook extensive QA testing that the features work as expected, and a design review and structured user testing. Once we were happy that it is adequately working as intended, and is (at least) no worse for new users, we have sought feedback from experienced users of all levels via a Beta Feature.

Final beta release (before general release)
The point of the first release as a beta feature is to get some initial feedback on how well this new editor works for people. We expect the feedback to include a lot of suggestions for changes. There are a number of improvements that we're already considering. Some of these probably need to be addressed before the new wikitext editor would be released outside of a beta feature. Some of these are technically difficult and so have been postponed, whilst others would benefit from real-world feedback from existing users to shape the features as usefully as possible.

For the first category (big challenges), we believe that we will need to address section editing, in which clicking edit will show small parts of the page to edit, and a fully responsive design, so that the interface can scale up and down more cleanly for smaller devices, where users are zoomed-in, or other accessibility and platform reasons; these will let us provide the feature in mobile as a beta example as well, to ensure it works for all our editors, not just those on desktop.

For the second category (feedback needed), we will need to provide in-editor help to guide users through the editing process from the very first time they click edit and also later in their editing careers. Right now the wikitext editor has a "help" tab with some brief wikitext guidance; in the visual editor, we have a link to the user-guide, which we could replicate for this purpose. How this should work, and what it should highlight, is likely to be something on which many members of our communities have expert ideas. We will also need to clean up how gadgets extend the editor, as the new editor integration right now is complex and confusing. This would make converting some gadgets harder than it should be. Many wiki communities depend on particular gadgets to speed up their editing workflow, and it's important that we preserve the ability for wikis to flexibly experiment with improvements like this.

Naturally, any change of this scale is likely to be disruptive for some users' workflows, and will have a few issues with relative 'edge cases' not being addressed. We look forward to uncovering and addressing these over the weeks and months following the release of the beta feature.

Nice-to-haves
Alongside the above, there are other, new features we'd love to provide if possible, but which may prove too costly to develop or too slow for users, and so are not planned from the outset. One feature we'd be interested in providing is saving automatic local drafts as users edit, so that if their browser or computer crashes or loses power mid-edit they can resume rather than having to restart. This would rescue users from quite frustrating, if uncommon, occurrences, particularly people with old computers or poor network connections.

A big feature that often gets discussed is syntax highlighting of wikitext to help guide people's eyes to the right content for which they're looking. This feature was in fact built for the existing wikitext editor back in 2011, but we had to abandon it because the very high complexity of wikitext means that this was exceedingly slow for most users. Five years later, most users' machines are a fair bit faster than they were back then, which helps a little. Also, it might be worth exploring how performant we could make a feature doing this if we were to make some simplifications of the kinds of wikitext which we try to highlight.

(In the meantime, syntax highlighting is provided by Remember the dot's syntax highlighter and, which are available on some wikis as gadgets). Syntax highlighting has also been introduced 343878 to the 2017 wikitext editor using.

More complex and error-prone than syntax highlighting, but possibly even more useful, would be a feature for folding wikitext structures into blocks so that users can easily ignore things they don't want to edit without having to read through them. For example, long infobox invocations or references could be folded up into blocks until you want to edit them. The technologies we built for the visual editor are particularly well-suited for providing this use case in a reliable fashion, so this may be something we could look at doing. Again, as with syntax highlighting we might need to compromise on the complexity of wikitext that we recognize in return for providing something performant enough to be useful to most of our users.

Another nice feature we could provide would be to prompt users when they save with two or three buttons to add one-click edit summaries based on their recent activities. This kind of feature is quite popular on some wikis as a gadget and it would be nice to provide it to all users on all wikis, without those wikis needing to have a gadget guru on hand to help set it up and maintain it.

Resources

 * An early rough design mockup from April 2016 is available here. To see the wikitext editor, click the brackets icon in the top-right corner.
 * An old rough demo video is also available as of mid-May 2016 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgd2ZHOZGBE.
 * Video demo of the 2017 wikitext editor from the December 2016 CREDIT showcase
 * The current version can be seen via Beta Features at Special:Preferences; enable the "new wikitext editor" item, go to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Sandbox?veaction=editsource (for example) and see what it looks like when you switch back and forth.