2017 wikitext editor/Feedback/2022

Post your feedback about using the first iteration of the 2017 wikitext editor as a Beta Feature. While you can disable it by unchecking the New wikitext mode checkbox in your Preferences (Beta tab), the Contributors team welcomes your feedback and ideas, especially on user interface decisions and the priorities for adding new features. All comments are read, in any language, but personal replies are not guaranteed: the team will try and go through reports here at least once a week. Need more attention? Report directly in Phabricator. You can learn how to structure well your submission.

If you are reporting a problem directly on this page, please include your web browser, computer operating system, and wiki skin (usually Vector, sometimes Monobook). Also, while editing to reproduce a problem, please try to append &safemode=1 at the end of the URL; if the problem disappears, you are using a gadget or script that interferes with the editor.

We are trying to keep the page tidy by providing links to relevant tasks while closing threads. You can help by adding {{tracked|T######}}. By all means, feel free to re-open a thread if you need to!

See also:

View open developer tasks – Complete workboard – Report a new bug in Phabricator – Join the IRC channel

User scripts

I use a number of helpful user scripts on enwiki, such as Wikipedia:User:Frietjes/findargdups and the date formatting scripts by Ohconfucius. However, these do not appear in the 2017 wikitext editor, nor is it possible to force them to edit the text. What facility can be provided to allow these useful scripts used by power users to work? I'm slowly converting from wikEd as its functionality is degrading over time, but aside from what wikEd brings to the table, even the basic old wikitext editor has some important linkages to features I use often, so I was wondering if it's possible for them to be adapted to work in a 2017 editor environment. Sammi Brie (talk) 02:36, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

As I understand it, existing user scripts will not work in 2017 editor without significant modification. You would either have to ask the original author to make a new version, or find some other volunteer willing to do it. However I wouldn't expect much luck with that....

The 2017 editor has been a Zombie project for the last 5 years. It was rejected by EnWiki. The Foundation seriously should have either (a) engaged the community seeking a constructive mutual-path forward, or (b) formally terminate the project and removed it from the beta-test options. Alsee (talk) 17:53, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Would helpful if the needed changes were documented somewhere? Simply breaking all existing scripts without a migration path is going to be jarring for many users. phatom87 (talk) 14:13, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

See VisualEditor/Gadgets and related pages. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 06:10, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

not working category nor other special marks

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:98.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/98.0

URL: https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenni_Lainesalo?venotify=created&veaction=editsource Höyhens (talk) 07:24, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

@Stryn, could you take a look at this article? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:10, 6 April 2022 (UTC)

Yeah, already solved. Höyhens used some wrong mark, not the right colon mark. Stryn (talk) 03:54, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, I appreciate the update. Wikitext isn't the easiest thing, unfortunately. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:54, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

I totally agree. Höyhens (talk) 21:05, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

Can't switch to visual editor

On English Wikipedia, after enabling this beta feature, I tried editing a whole article, and section of an article, user page, and talk page. The option to switch to visual editing was greyed out and in all cases I could not click on it.

BTW, is this project dead, or is this still planning on being deployed some day? Beland (talk) 19:23, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

Deployment (default-off) could have happened a couple of years ago. I don't know when it will happen. Hopefully phab:T202921 will happen first.

I can't reproduce this problem. The visual editor is disabled on talk pages, so that's expected. But you should be able to switch in articles and on your user page. Is this still a problem for you? Is it a problem on this wiki? You can use User:Whatamidoing (WMF)/Sandbox to test it here. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:47, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

The switching to visual editing is working for me at User:Whatamidoing (WMF)/Sandbox but not at e.g. w:Earth. I tried turning off all the other beta features, and returning to the Vector 2010 skin, but those didn't make a difference. Perhaps it is one of the non-default gadgets I have enabled in my preferences? Beland (talk) 05:15, 12 April 2022 (UTC)

If it's a gadget problem, then safemode should be able to prove that. You need to hand-edit the URL to something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth?veaction=edit&safemode=1 Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:12, 13 April 2022 (UTC)

I'm getting some very strange behavior. I went to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth?veaction=edit&safemode=1 and was able to switch between. I then went to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth and tried disabling non-default gadgets a few at a time to figure out which was the problem, to no effect. Then I tried disabling all the default gadgets, and even after re-enabling those, I can't get the new wikitext editor at all from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth nor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth?safemode=1 even though the beta feature is enabled in my preferences and I've shift+reloaded. And I don't see any way to get to the visual editor, either. Perhaps this is because I normally don't use the visual editor?

I can still get the beta editor and switch back and forth if I go directly to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth?veaction=edit&safemode=1 Beland (talk) 23:43, 13 April 2022 (UTC)

Have you tried blanking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Beland/common.js ? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:53, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Just tried that; symptoms are the same. -- Beland (talk) 03:08, 28 May 2022 (UTC)

Just a note to say that I haven't forgotten you. I'm just not sure what the problem is. If it works in safemode, then it's some sort of gadget or user script. Help:Locating broken scripts or a request for help at w:en:WP:VPT might be your best bets. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:34, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

Is it possible to receive edittools in 2017 wikitext editor?

I'm editing Wiktionary and I often need to quickly add a template, and it's much faster to do through the editools menu. Unfortunately, it's only available in wikitext editor 2010. Is it possible to receive it in 2017 editor? Bicolino34 (talk) 07:25, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

Do you mean "the editing toolbar" of 2010 wikitext editor?

"Is it possible to receive it in 2017 editor?"

NO, 2017 wikitext editor is not enabled by default, so you can continue to use the 2010 wikitext editor. 1992 FARHAAD (talk) 07:52, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

It seems you was refering to MediaWiki:edittools 1992 FARHAAD (talk) 07:58, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

phab:T96710 suggests being able to choose templates from a menu. The idea is that each wiki could make a short list of the most popular templates, and for anything else, you could search for them. Does that sound like something that would meet your goal?

It could probably be written as a VisualEditor/Gadgets, but I don't think anyone has ever tried it. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:29, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, that's exactly what I need. Bicolino34 (talk) 08:36, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

Not working with flood

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T200089

On simplewiki, my home wiki, I often make lots of minor changes in a short amount of time and when I do so, I use flood, where the changes I make are hidden from recent changes through a "flooder" user right. Edits made when I have flood on are marked as bot edits, but in 2017 wikitext editor, the edits still appear in recent changes for some reason, and I'm not sure why. --Ferien (talk) 20:50, 6 May 2022 (UTC)

That's strange. Does the same thing happen with edits you make in the visual editor? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:34, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

I'm not sure, I haven't tried yet. I will test that when I can. --Ferien (talk) 21:02, 28 May 2022 (UTC)

@Whatamidoing (WMF) I have just tested it in visual editor. Yes, edits made in visual editor aren't marked as bot edits either --Ferien (talk) 17:50, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

Quiddity (WMF), do you still have flood rights somewhere? Could you try to reproduce this problem in VE for me? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:36, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

Confirmed (with 'bot' usergroup, but functionally the same) on officewiki.

I made an edit with the 2010-editor and it was correctly marked as 'b' in RecentChanges. I made another edit with VE and it wasn't.

Searching phab, it appears this is already filed as phab:T284855. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 00:57, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, Quiddity. From the looks of the Phab tasks, the answer is buried somewhere in the interaction between the 2017WTE and the API. Unfortunately, my best guess is "won't be fixed any time soon". Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:47, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Does not show "Show preview" and "Show changes" features

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T153306

The only way to preview an article after source editing is by switching to visual editor, which is a bit inconvenient. Excellenc1 (talk) 07:29, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

It does but hidden away (kind of) in the Publish changes button which upon clicking brings up a modal which is where the "Show preview" and "Show changes" resides in. This "issue" was already raised before couple of times by various editors including me as well but so far no solution has been pushed out yet. Alternatively, for now, you can use "Alt + Shift + P" for preview and "Alt + Shift + V" for show changes. Paper9oll 12:17, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

While having a easier working text box and better tools is nice, it's not worth having no solid preview/changes tab. The shortcuts work but not completely. Unlike before when you could view your preview while editing, it now takes you to a separate page where you can't edit, pretty annoying. Will be sticking with the old wikitext. 204.195.34.9 (talk) 04:57, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

Problems with copypasting and clipboard from the latest update

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T319090

Having the problems with the clipboard and some difficulties with copy-paste in code mode, which are started somewhere around 1,5 weeks ago.

• The clipboard does not work between browser tabs. It is as if the pages have their own built-in clipboard

• Copying text into it now happens by any text highlighting. In doing so, copied lines often cut off the first or last character in the line.

• The copying works in some random way, each time chunks of random text are copied from the current cursor position. Even if I did not highlight text or press Ctrl+C

• Ctrl+X does not work as it should, but deletes the text completely and copies all subsequent text

All this only happens in the code editor when "New wikitext mode" is enabled. I've tried disabling all scripts and resetting wikipedia settings - it doesn't help. Problems appear for me in both in ruwiki and enwiki where I work and also both in Firefox and Chrome. There are no such problems in the standard code editor or any other sites. Solidest (talk) 16:38, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

Do you have the colorful CodeMirror syntax highlighting turned on? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:37, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

Yep Solidest (talk) 22:52, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

But the bug occurs even when markup is switched off. Although sometimes it does not appear immediately, but only after some work with the page code (mostly after several iterations of ctrl+x and ctrl+c). And then literally the only proper way to make a cut-paste work is by selecting and dragging text with the cursor to the needed space... This makes the visual editor simply unusable. Solidest (talk) 18:50, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

I'm facing the same issue. Have you figured out the solution? Chelsdog (talk) 17:26, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Nope. Only keep finding even stranger cases of occurrence. For example if you open a new page - press edit code - select all, cut and paste to the same page - then all code will be written in one line without line breaks, and sometimes the highlighting continues to act as with a "shadow" of the original version of the page, selecting empty line formatting behind the current text. I think it's a bug within the visual editor, which started at the end of July. Solidest (talk) 23:29, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

What's your operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.)?

Do you use the middle mouse button for copying and pasting? (See Talk:Talk pages project/Replying/2022#h-Parts_of_the_text_are_erased_or_scrambled-20220718173300.)

Do you have problems with text getting "scrambled"? For example, you're typing at the end of a sentence, but the letters are added to the middle? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 01:34, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Windows.

Not using middle mouse.

No, there are no problems with normal typing as far as I remember, only copying and pasting. Solidest (talk) 13:20, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Links for deleted revisions and logs are unusable

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Hello,

As a sysop, when I try to re-create a previously deleted page using the 2017 editor, the following text is displayed: View or undelete one deleted edit? (view logs for this page | view abuse log), but it is disabled, I cannot click on any of the links. This issue does not arise when I use the classic editor. Huñvreüs (talk) 13:54, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Yes, I observe this, too. I want to view (as an admin) someones deleted page, I click that redlink and it tries to create a new page in Visual Editor, and even if I clear the templated message, the 'view/undelete' link does not function. I have to select 'Create Source' before the view/undelete link is functions. Nick Moyes (talk) 15:58, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Hooks for gadgets

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Hi, I'm creating a gadget for improved source editing. Are there any hooks that I can use?

So far, I am aware of the following ways to edit wikitext:

• Traditional <textarea> (action=edit)
  • Hook: wikipage.editform
  • Edit with: $("#wpTextbox1")
• Syntax highlighting with CodeMirror (action=edit)
  • Hook: ext.CodeMirror.switch
  • Edit with: elementFromHook.CodeMirror
• 2017 wikitext editor (veaction=editsource)
  • Hook: ???
  • Edit with: $(".ve-ce-documentNode") - do you have anything more exact?

Also, is there a good way and place to show warnings that the user will see before saving? Skalman (talk) 09:51, 16 October 2022 (UTC)

Check this out for 2017: VisualEditor/Gadgets#User's position in the model. Seems to work fine for inserting text. Note that you can use `new ve.Range( 0 )` to insert at the beginning of the text.

The hook seems to be `ve.wikitextInteractive`, but haven't tested this. Nux (talk) 04:36, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the pointers, Nux. That link was very helpful! Skalman (talk) 20:05, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

أين زر نقل المقال إلى الصفحة الرئيسة

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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وكيل المستخدم: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/106.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/106.0.1370.47

مسار: https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AF%D9%85:Lana_ansari/%D9%85%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A8?action=edit Lana ansari (talk) 10:13, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

It's Special:MovePage. It is separate from the editing software. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:55, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Copy-pasting links doesn't work

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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It's a very annoying bug that in the code editor mode you cannot paste an URL. It simply auto-grabs the title of the page and no URL shows up. Yeah, you can use the Reference button but this doesn't help for example when I need to manually put an archive link to a source. It would simply be faster to copypaste. There is no use to keep the code editing part of the editor if you cannot edit the code.... Xia (talk) 11:33, 2 November 2022 (UTC)

If you choose "paste and match style" in your web browser, you'll get the full URL. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:51, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

I don't think this is obvious for the average user. I've been editing for 17 years and this still wasn't obvious for me. Imagine a noob. Xia (talk) 08:25, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

Or imagine someone who doesn't know much about computers in general. In some parts of the world, editing Wikipedia may be one of the first things someone does frequently on a computer.

How often do you need to display the full URL to a Wikipedia article on wiki? (If you're pasting a URL to an external website, it should give you the full URL automatically.)

Also, does this happen consistently for you? Yesterday, I pasted a URL to a Wikipedia article, and it auto-converted. Today I did the same thing, and it didn't. (Perhaps a difference between Safari and Chrome?) Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:50, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

It was only happening in this hybrid editor I turned on for testing, and partially in the new comment layout on talk pages until the latter was resolved with a ticket. In the hybrid editor it was constant for me, and thus very annoying, to the extent that I stopped using the feature. As I often need to paste links, this wasn't a minor bug for me. Imagine trying to fix broken links in an older article that contains 300+ broken references. it was beyond annoying... Xia (talk) 18:52, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Garbled wikitext

Hello. I'd like to report a bug when using 'New wikitext mode' in the English Wikipedia. The lines of wikitext overlap with each other and also with the editing interface when I am editing on mobile with the desktop view. I'm using Chrome in Android (Samsung phone), but toggle the desktop view. TadejM (talk) 14:36, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

Is the text colorful? If so, the problem is in CodeMirror (the syntax highlighting software). You can turn it off in the "hamburger" menu (three lines near the big blue Publish button). Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:53, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. I've figured out wikEd was the cause.[1] I've turned it off, but this is less than an optimal solution. Anyway, I suppose it was causing other trouble as well. TadejM (talk) 20:27, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

It turned out wikEd was not the true problem since the problem persists but the page displays correctly if I reload it on mobile... I will let you know as soon as I figure this out. --TadejM (talk) 21:11, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

I have not figured out the exact cause. None of the gadgets or beta functions seem to resolve the issue. I'm attaching the link to a screenshot.[2] As said, when I reload the page, it displays correctly. I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S21 phone with Android 13 and opening the file in Chrome 108 (desktop view). TadejM (talk) 21:31, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

After disabling all gadgets and removing all custom css and js, I've now found that the issue is strictly caused by the option 'New wikitext mode' (i.e. 2017 wikitext editor) under Preferences/Beta features. It appears when I enable this mode and disappears when I disable it. I tested this in the English Wikipedia.

(In addition, wikEd does not work with this mode. I guess though that this must be resolved by its developer.) TadejM (talk) 19:21, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

In addition, the responsiveContent gadget caused me problems when working on desktop. I had to disable it since when it was enabled, I was unable to correctly select wikisyntax. It is described as "Improved appearance for mobile, narrow and wide screens". I don't know if it caused any problems on mobile. Blank space was selected and when I tried to delete it, the wikitext was deleted instead. TadejM (talk) 20:58, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

TheDJ will want to know about the gadget.

What happens if you go to the "hamburger" (three lines) menu and turn off syntax highlighting? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:00, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

I left TheDJ a message on his talk page. The issue only occurs when syntax highlighting is enabled. Otherwise, everything seems to work fine. TadejM (talk) 18:00, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

I encountered this today, with desktop view on my phone (Android 13). The code was colorful, but the cursor seems to be at wrong place, so I could edit nothing (except by switching back to mobile view) until I turned the feature off. My browser is Ecosia. Illud Sine Nomine (talk) 12:25, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

I had the same garbled text prob in the English Wikipedia (but not in other Wikipedias) as @TadejM had before. It is possible to bypass the bug by turning off either New Wikitext mode or CodeMirror in the Hamburger Menu while editing.

After turning these on again the bug reappears. Thus it seems like CodeMirror is producing the bug as @Whatamidoing (WMF) mentioned, but it must be a different cause:

• The garbled text bug did not appear in other Wikipedias while I was editing and where CodeMirror and New Wikitext mode turned on, too, e.g. the German Wikipedia.
• And I finally managed to get rid of the bug completely:
  • While I edited an article in the English Wikipedia where the garbled text bug appeared I switched to Preferences --> Gagdets --> Editing and turned off the Syntax Hightlighter (which is not CodeMirror but the Syntax highlighter by Remember the dot) and saved prefs.
    • Note: CodeMirror and New WikiText Mode were on all the time and I did not change their modes/prefs.
  • I reloaded the tab with the article in edit mode - the mix up of colorful overlayed text disappeared.
  • Later I turned on the "Syntax highlighter" in Gadgets again to reproduce the bug. But curiosly the bug did not return... not in the article I was editing, not in other edit sessions. Not even after I restarted my browser (Firefox) which completely clears my sessions, cookies, caches, etc. and forces me to log in again.
  • BTW: I have wikEd generally turned off.

Hope that will help you, too. with best wishes from VINCENZO1492 14:39, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

If anyone can figure out how to force the bug to appear reliably, I'd love to hear the instructions. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 05:58, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Issue with source editing

I tried out the new wikitext editor and found it slow and awkward. There is a tab labelled '''Read''', but rather than giving me the expected preview it asks whether I want to leave the page.

I saw in another page that preview is hidden in '''Publish''', which is highly unobvious. Even less obvious is getting back to source editing.

Also, is there a way to get into the old editor without first disabling the beta? Chatul (talk) 14:51, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

If you want to use an older wikitext editor, you can hand-edit the URL to say action=submit instead of veaction=editsource. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:49, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

It would be more convenient to have the "Preview" button/option be visible from the getgo instead of having to look for it and accidentally stumble upon it in the "Publish" menu. ~ Renamed user e2bceb05e0c43dd19cc50e3291d6fac5 (talk) 14:12, 14 February 2023 (UTC)

As I said in my own feedback, I strongly support moving the "preview" button into the main editing area, not hiding it in a dusty closet behind "Publish Changes". Edward-Woodrow (talk) 16:00, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

The main problem is that the toolbar is already full, for people on smaller screens. There's one editor at the English Wikipedia for whom the toolbar is wrapped, so that it fills two full lines. If we add anything else, he'll end up with three rows of toolbar, and almost no place to type. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:31, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

Hi, Whatamidoing (WMF). I suppose that makes sense. By the way, there is clearly some kind of discussion tool that is enabled by default here and on frwiki – the one that involves the "Topic" namespace, and signatures at the top of comments, and so on. I find it very annoying. How do I disable this? Thanks, Edward-Woodrow (talk) 23:42, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

You don't, really. It's enabled per page. This is the first phase of "Flow", aka Structured Discussions. I think it'll be removed sometime in the next year or so (or the next time it breaks). Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:01, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

Ugh. I despise it passionately. Edward-Woodrow (talk) 19:36, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

And this is a reply to my previous comment. Indentation? No! It's just one hideous mess. Edward-Woodrow (talk) 19:37, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

If memory serves, they cancelled the project in the middle of the design work about indentation. At the moment, if you reply to something in the middle of a thread, then it indents that, but anything added to the end is not indented.

Also, to be fair to the project, it was meant to handle complex workflows, specifically including enwiki's ArbCom case pages and AFD. (Imagine a world in which ArbCom votes aren't tallied by hand.) They only got as far as "post messages on a talk page" when the project was cancelled. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:40, 29 September 2023 (UTC)