Extension talk:RevisionSlider/2017

This is the feedback page for the RevisionSlider extension.

Read about what we've learned about creating a RTL-accessible extension. Please report all RTL-related issues on this talk page!

Simultaneous moving both edges

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My proposal is option (additional draggable element or keyboard combination) for moving both markers simultaneously by one mouse move. For example to quickly move to next revision. Now I need to move one slider and then to move second slider within the same number of steps. wargo (talk) 21:49, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

You can move the other marker once. They interchange by theirselves. IKhitron (talk) 22:14, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

I would get additional marker to move them both simultaneously. If I move one, the second should move in the same way. wargo (talk) 09:44, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

As I said, that's exactly what happens now. IKhitron (talk) 11:58, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

They need to move separately - this is good but sometimes I need to compare next pairs (something like compare two versions and clicking "next"/"prev" diff). wargo (talk) 14:10, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Hi @Wargo! I quite like your suggestion! I have created a ticket @ https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T155499 for the suggestion to be further didcussed. ·addshore· ^{talk to me!} 16:21, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

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RS was broken again on rtl wikis in last deployment

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Hello again, Addshore. Last deployment made something terrible: The tooltips are invisible now, because they run to the right side of the screen and more. Somehow, the tooltip location is now not an inch to right from finish line:
|--------------------------------------|
|-----^--------------------------------|
but an inch to right from start line:
|--------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------|.....^
and when we take older versions, it can be even here:
|--------------------------------------|............^
outside the screen. And there is a chance it works like this not in all browsers. I can see it in MF, for example. Could you check this, please? IKhitron (talk) 15:27, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks @IKhitron for reporting the issue. It seems that it was introduced with the latest OOjs UI update but was fixed in a follow up that is not yet deployed. - I created a ticket on Phabricator: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T159428

Best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 10:31, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for your help, Christoph. IKhitron (talk) 11:26, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

An initial fix has now been deployed. Further fixes / fixing will come next week. ·addshore· ^{talk to me!} 20:42, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

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Images, references, templates

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Hi,

A useful visualisation for moving through he history. It would be excellent if icons or colours could be used to indicate if an image or reference was changed in the edit. T.Shafee(Evo﹠Evo)^talk 08:17, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi @Evolution and evolvability

thanks for your feedback. I created a task on Phabricator to track your request. We will consider it when deciding on possible features in a future version.

See https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160323 Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 09:44, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

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

Suggestion: Add an entry point to revision slider from the history page

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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Problems

As a user, I can't easily use revision slider without clicking the "diff" link while on the history page.

As new user, it is not completely obvious how to get to the revision slider.

Background

The revision slider is a very useful tool especially for novice users who don't know how the whole wiki interface works. However, the tool has a few issues:

• Use of jargon - it assumes the user is familiar with the concept of "diff".
• Entry point unclear - Presumably this would appear in the history page, but only shows up when a "diff" is clicked. Oddly enough its header has "browse history" not browse revisions, yet it can't be seen at all in the history page.

Despite knowing of the existence of revision slider it was unclear how to get to it. In fact it made me think that it didn't work in certain namespaces after going through multiple page histories because I had forgotten that "diff" must be clicked.

Proposed solution

1. Improve readability of help - replace the word "diff" with a more user friendly term (e.g. comparison of page changes / revisions), possibly keeping the word "diff" in brackets. Alternatively link to a page explaining the concept of "diff". Note that diff isn't even a "standard" English word.
2. Add entry point(s) - a clear way to get to revision slider from the history page and possibly even to the Special:ContributionSpecial:Contributionss, without clicking "diff'.

While this is obviously a tool designed for experienced editors or regular users, a new user is not immediately familiar with all such tools and jargon. 197.218.81.246 (talk) 09:25, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Hello 197.218.81.246, 

Thanks for your well structured and graspable problem description!  I understand what you mean and I will created a ticket on Phabricator:https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160739 so it can be considered as task by the project management. Jan Dittrich (WMDE) (talk) 10:13, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

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

Animation time

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T161883

The animation time is quite slow/laggy. Maybe make an option to disable it so the arrows can move instantly? · • SUM1 • · (talk) 20:03, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi @SpikeballUnion,

could you tell us a bit more about what you mean with animation time?

Is it about the time needed until its completely loaded when initially expanded? The time it takes to load the diff when you drag the pointers to some revision? Or the delay when you quickly want to move to the "next page" of revisions by clicking the arrows on the left/right side?

Thanks for your feedback so far,

best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 09:32, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi and thanks for your response.

I refer to the time that the arrows take to move to their position. It can be quite obstructing when making a mistaken click and needing to quickly click the correct revision one intended. I understand that the page load times will remain at their speed whatever the extension is, however I think the time it takes for the arrows to move across the revision slider compounds the swift use of the extension. That's just my opinion/feedback though. · • SUM1 • · (talk) 14:27, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi @SpikeballUnion,

I looked at the things you mention and I think I got the idea now. When you click on two bars, that are right next to each other very quickly the pointer moves relatively slow to that bar. - I guess thats related to the way the animations are done there. I think in theory that could be adjusted slightly, but I am not sure if or when we will find the time to address the issue. I will file a ticket later and poke you again.

Thanks again,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 08:02, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Just created the task: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T161883 Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 09:40, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for taking into account my relatively minor feedback and suggestions. · • SUM1 • · (talk) 09:54, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Suggestion: Add keyboard shortcuts to move between revisions

Tracked here.

Problem

As a user, I can't easily move to the previous (or next) set of revisions easily without using the mouse.

Background

Currently, if a user wants to move both pointers at the same time they need to click and drag the pointers twice, once to move the first pointer, and a second time to move the second one. While this makes perfect sense when the revisions are far apart, it is quite cumbersome when one wants to move to the previous (or next) two revisions.

Proposed solution

Keyboard shortcuts to move in each direction:

• Shortcut to move both pointers ( ctrl + alt + ← →) - simultaneous move the pointers to the two previous revisions.
• Shortcut to move one pointer (ctrl + ← → ) - move the left or right pointer to previous or next revision 197.218.90.49 (talk) 15:04, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

For the second shortcut since there are cases where one would want to use either the left or the right pointer, maybe these would be better:

• Move right pointer- META+⇧ Shift+← →
• Move left pointer - META+← → 197.218.90.49 (talk) 15:19, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Hej,

thanks for the feedback. I created a ticket for your proposal on Phabricator so we can keep track off the idea and consider it for a future version or volunteers that might want to work on it. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T162119

Best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 08:24, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

This seems like such an easy hack, that it would probably also be useful for mediawiki core, and it is also easy to write a simple userscript (something I'll probably do for myself).

Thanks for the prompt feedback... 197.218.80.245 (talk) 09:57, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

I created this small userscript that does this. It doesn't yet move the pointers individually because that's a bit more complex. This even works on older mediawiki versions (> mediawiki 1.19).

// This software is entirely free to re-use, adapt, or sell  (hope it makes someone rich!), without any warranty of any kind or need to attribute "the IP". Use it at your own risk.
// Use ctrl + alt + arrow (left or right) to move to previous revisions or next.
var pressedKeys = {
	ctrl: false,
	shift : false,
	left: false,
	right : false
};
var urlQry = {};
location.search.substr(1).split("&").forEach(function(token) {
	urlQry[token.split("=")[0]] = token.split("=")[1];
});
document.onkeydown = function (event) {
	if (urlQry.type === "revision" || urlQry.diff) {
		if (event.ctrlKey) {
			pressedKeys.ctrl = true;
		}
		if (event.keyCode == 37) {
			pressedKeys.left = true;
		} else if (event.keyCode == 39) {
			pressedKeys.right = true;
		}
		if (pressedKeys.ctrl && pressedKeys.left) {
			document.getElementById("differences-prevlink").click();
		} else if (pressedKeys.ctrl && pressedKeys.right) {
			document.getElementById("differences-nextlink").click();
		}
	}
};
document.onkeyup = (function(event) {
	// reset status of the button 'released' == 'false'
	if (urlQry.type === "revision" || urlQry.diff) {
		if (event.ctrlKey) {
			pressedKeys.ctrl = false;
		}
		if (event.keyCode == 37) {
			pressedKeys.left = false;
		}
		if (event.keyCode == 39) {
			pressedKeys.right = false;
		}
	}
});

197.218.83.36 (talk) 22:28, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

It is also works independently from revision slider, so maybe it will help future "searchers". 197.218.83.36 (talk) 22:29, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Perhaps it is time to move this feature out of beta?

Done : https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T163685 .

Just curious, but is this feature still beta in certain wikis?

Based on Beta Features, such features aren't meant to be left there indefinitely. Given that it seems as this extension is now stable in certain wikis, it should probably get an announcement and removed as a beta feature, see :

• https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T70860#1872056
• https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2015-December/084307.html
• https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T103102

So either this needs to become an optional full feature, or yanked from every wiki that doesn't want it. If nothing else, it might drive individual wikis to ask for it to be enabled by default for casual editors, instead of become a gravestone in "graveyard of discarded ambitions".

Considering its popularity [1] chances are that it may become a default wikimedia extension and encourage volunteer developer improve its feature set due to widescale usage ... 197.218.90.170 (talk) 14:26, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

*instead of becoming 197.218.90.170 (talk) 14:27, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Feature rollout is currently being planned :) ·addshore· ^{talk to me!} 18:57, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

You mean more feature rollout as a beta, or as a full optional feature?

Anyway, hopefully it won't beat Gmail's beta period record(http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/recycled/2009/07/why_did_it_take_google_so_long_to_take_gmail_out_of_beta.html) :).

Thanks for the update. 197.218.88.37 (talk) 09:31, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

Hi,

RevisionSlider is a beta-feature on all wikis since September 2016, see https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T143421#2632809. We're currently still testing a slightly different UI based on past user feedback (see https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160410) and after giving us some time to receive some feedback on the implementation of this we're aiming to leave the beta-feature-status on all Wikipedias soon after. Tobias Gritschacher (WMDE) (talk) 10:31, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

Unfortunately, there is still a hook bug. It looks like it should be fixed before the move. IKhitron (talk) 21:13, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Just a small update here:

The hook bug mentioned by IKhitron was fixed in the meantime.

As Tobias mentioned we are currently in the process of testing a different UI. You can find the newest version of the alternative UI on Beta, test.wikipedia.org and here on mediawiki.org.

- Please note, that the version on test and mediawiki has some minor issues with the tooltips right now. The fixes for that should be deployed during next week though.

Best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 18:04, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Hi, Christoph Jauera (WMDE), I checked just now, it still doesn't work.

Partially. Some problems disappeared indeed, not all of them. IKhitron (talk) 18:07, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Hey, @IKhitron that's sad to hear. Could you create a new ticket or comment in the existing one with the problems you still get? - That would be great!

Thanks in advance,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 18:26, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Where is the ticket, I don't remember, Christoph Jauera (WMDE)? The problem I can see is that after usage of RS, for one revision, thanks action opens thanks page, in place of regular inline question. IKhitron (talk) 18:28, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Here you go: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T142636 :-) Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 18:33, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, Christoph Jauera (WMDE). Looks as it will be deployed next week, because of the switch. So, I'll just wait. IKhitron (talk) 20:45, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

> As Tobias mentioned we are currently in the process of testing a different UI. You can find the newest version of the alternative UI on Beta, test.wikipedia.org and here on mediawiki.org.

The new UI is definitely more intuitive than the older one. Dragging and dropping with the old one was a bit confusing and hard to get used to. So this will likely be a welcome improvement.

Great work! 197.218.83.36 (talk) 22:15, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

How can I get the old one back? The new version is significantly inferior, IMHO. I probably could have just used a userscript to emulate the old version easily enough before, but now that it's out of beta that isn't so easy. Yeryry (talk) 11:36, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @Yeryry thanks a lot for your feedback! Is what is troubling you the fact that you can't click on bars anymore? We are currently working on getting this back - without losing the metaphor we introduced with the new design. If you want, you can follow https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T165831 to be up to date of our current plan. But if you are missing something else, please let us know! Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 14:09, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

Yes, being able to click above and below (not just on the bars) was much quicker and easier than it is now. Also (from T160410) "Pointers cannot be moved further than where the other pointer is" this was very useful, and while users would have needed to get used to how it works, they still do for the new version, which needs more effort to achieve the same results. I also feel the visual design of the old version was much better, but that's another question... Yeryry (talk) 16:19, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

Hey @Yeryry, thanks for specifying. I can see that moving the pointer past the other pointer is a shortcut once you understood the system. When testing the revisionSlider with people who were no experts yet, though, this was one of the things that was the most confusing. In their favor we decided to take that option out, and the new design is understood by far better if people have not trained a lot with the old design. However, I created a ticket ( https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T166541 ) so we have a place to gather ideas how to allow expert users to use the function without making it more complicated for people with less experience.

Thanks again for your feedback!

Lea Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 07:55, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Popup doesn't always appear when hovering over "bars"

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Issue

When the mouse pointer is just about 1 or 2 cm above the yellow line the hover doesn't show up.

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to a page showing revisions (e.g. https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?diff=2446749&oldid=2428873&title=Extension%3AFlow&type=revision)
2. Move the mouse to the left side of the screen (out of the revision slider area)
3. Move the mouse vertically 1 or 2 cm above the yellow revision line
4. Move the mouse horizontally between different revisions.

Expected

The popup showing revision data shows up.

Actual output

Nothing is shown.

Note: Moving the mouse a bit higher in the revision "bar" area will result in the popup showing up, but this is not intuitive. 197.218.82.45 (talk) 14:24, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

Hi there! Thank you so much for your detailed reports :-) All issues are currently in work. We will let you know once it is done! Best, Birgit Birgit Müller (WMDE) (talk) 11:43, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Great...

Well, here's one bug the developers haven't likely noticed, when a revision pointer is dragged, and then moved back to its original location, the current revision reloads needlessly. 197.218.83.250 (talk) 14:54, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Hej!

As Birgit mentioned your first post relates to one of the issues we were currently working on. The bug is fixed now and you can see the improved version of the RevisionSlider on beta: https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?diff=354925&oldid=276480&title=Main_Page&type=revision

Due to some maintenance on the Wikimedia servers the fixes for the version on mediawiki.org and test.wikipedia.org will not go live before next week. So if you like to test it a bit more please feel free to do so with the current version on the beta server above.

Thanks again for your feedback and don't hesitate if you have any more issues or questions. I will also take a look into the second thing you mentioned.

Best, Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 17:51, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

The first issue is fixed. The second one still exists.

Just to clarify, to trigger it, one needs to click and press the left mouse button over one of the revision pointers, then move it around horizontally over other revision "bars", and finally return it to its original position and then let go of the mouse. 197.218.83.36 (talk) 22:01, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Yeah, thanks. I looked into it and filled a ticket in Phabricator: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T163425 Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 09:14, 20 April 2017 (UTC)

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

Popup doesn't always appear when dragging the yellow revision pointer (e.g. yellow "ball" )

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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Issue

Selecting the revision pointer and dragging it horizontally doesn't always show the revision data popup.

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to a page showing revisions (e.g. https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?diff=2446749&oldid=2428873&title=Extension%3AFlow&type=revision)
2. Place the mouse pointer on the "yellow revision pointer" (e.g. ball)
3. Click and hold the mouse button
4. Move the mouse pointer horizontally towards the left, between different revisions.

Expected

The popup showing revision data appears.

Actual output

Popup isn't always shown for all revisions.

Note: For the first few revisions the popup is actually shown, but when going toward the last few on the left it no longer appears. This also doesn't seem to happen on pages with few revisions. 197.218.82.45 (talk) 14:30, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

Hej hej!

As above this error should be fixed on the currently deployed version on Beta that will go live on mediawiki.org and test.wikipedia.org next week. You can already test it here: https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?diff=354925&oldid=276480&title=Main_Page&type=revision

Thanks and best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 17:55, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, all these seem to be fixed in the test server ... 197.218.83.36 (talk) 21:51, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

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

Issue: Popup shows up on the far left side of the page when it is dragged close to the right edge of the window

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Problem

As a user I expect the popup to always appear close to the "revision bar".

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to a page showing revisions (e.g. https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?diff=2446749&oldid=2428873&title=Extension%3AFlow&type=revision)
2. Place the mouse pointer on the "yellow revision pointer" (e.g. ball)
3. Click and hold the mouse button
4. Move the mouse pointer horizontally towards the right until it is close to the edge of the screen / window.

Expected

The popup consistently shows close (and below) to the revision "bar".

Actual output

Sometimes the pop up shows up on the left side of the page.

Note: This is likely due to the popup tool attempting to be too smart. Whenever there isn't space on the right hand side to fully display the popup it puts it on the left hand side, instead of adjusting the arrow and keeping the "box" in the right place. 197.218.82.45 (talk) 14:45, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

Aaaand again :-)!

This error should also be fixed on the currently deployed version on Beta see here: https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?diff=354925&oldid=276480&title=Main_Page&type=revision

Really thanks a lot for your detailed error reports and best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 17:57, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Yup, this is fixed on the test server, thanks ... 197.218.83.36 (talk) 21:52, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

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

Suggestion: Introduce milestones (or markers) to mark important events in article history

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Problem

As a user, I am unable to easily see significant disruptive or constructive changes have been made to an article.

As a reader, I unable to easily evaluate the history of a page to evaluate its potential bias.

Background

One of the main problems with the regular history is that everything is jumbled up. The history page simply lays out information without highlighting anything, and revision slider makes things somewhat worse because one can only see the summary after hovering. This means that it is hard to note if the article content was completely modified after years of existence, if it was suddenly blanked, or if it had considerable reverts.

Proposed solutions

Add some markers to denote some of these changes. Some of these can be detected using the automatic edit summary (Help:Automatic_edit_summaries), e.g.:

• Red bar - whenever a newer revision is completely blank
• Red bar - whenever a revision shows more than 70% of the content being removed
• Orange bar - indicating a revert, if two adjacent revisions have the exact same sha1 hash

Other ideas include:

• Highlight the most repeated revisions - by verifying a group of revisions that has the same content or sha1. This would be a possible indicator of revert or edit disagreements without even looking at all of them individually.
• Highlight main contributor -show clusters of revisions done by major user. No matter what, a page created by a single user will always contain their biases, and is less likely to be reliable. 197.218.83.250 (talk) 14:42, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Hey and thanks for the suggestion!

I created a Phabricator ticket with your Ideas so we can keep track of it and might consider it for future versions of the RevisonSlider. You can find the ticket here: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T163366

Best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 18:23, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

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

Issue: Revision slider doesn't display the yellow lines properly when current revision is older than the one being compared

RevisionSlider breaks when revision ids do not increase in time. See ticket: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T164455

Problem

Revision slider displays the yellow pointer outside the "revision bar area" when current revision (diff=) is numerically smaller than the one being compared (oldid).

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?diff=158491&oldid=172031&title=Main_Page&type=revision
2. Click the button to load the revision slider

Expected Blue and yellow lines showing properly and not going off screen.

Actual Yellow line appears outside (to the right) of the revision bar area .

URL shows: https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?diff=NaN&oldid=NaN&title=Main_Page&type=revision

Notes: While this is a contrived example, because it isn't really easy to cause using the revision slider (unless one clicks the arrow as reported previously) it can still happen on live wikis because users can paste these links, or type them incorrectly. So the interface should fallback gracefully, switch them around, or reject such revisions. 197.218.90.84 (talk) 08:49, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Here's a priceless image after causing this layout issue, and then clicking the left arrow :) :

http://imgur.com/a/elUdA 197.218.90.84 (talk) 08:56, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Hey there,

from the link you provided I can see, that the numbers of the revisions are a bit strange. I think this is something that can only happen on beta. It seems the slider gets confused if the revision ids are not ascending the newer they are. This should not happen on any normal wiki.

Since most fixes for the bugs reported in the new UI should be deployed now you could as well do tests on https://test.wikipedia.org . I assume the above error won't appear there.

Thanks again for the great feedback,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 15:43, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Told you. IKhitron (talk) 22:14, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

>  I assume the above error won't appear there.

You're too trusting of MediaWiki. It has huge hacks everywhere, and it is quite easy to replicate the problematic part of this even in test.wikipedia.

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to https://test.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Rocket000&action=history
2. Click radio button of revision :" 15:43, 26 January 2008‎" -comment : "(making me blue)
3. Click radio button of revision:  01:41, 20 January 2008‎  - (Undid revision 185552525 by Rocket000 (talk))
4. Click compare selected revisions
5. Click button to trigger revision slider

Expected

• Yellow line showing properly and not going off screen.

Actual

• Yellow line appears outside (to the right) of the revision bar area .

----

This can even be replicated on live wikis easily:

Select these two revisions in the radioboxes of (https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Extension:ExpandCss&action=history), and repeat steps 4 and 5 in the list above.

(cur | prev) 16:54, 27 November 2006‎ HappyDog (talk | contribs)‎ m . . (3,033 bytes) (+32)‎ . . (ExpandCss moved to Extension:ExpandCss: Moved to Extension: namespace.) (undo)
(cur | prev) 16:15, 27 October 2006‎ Lcarsdata (talk | contribs)‎ m . . (3,001 bytes) (+20)‎ . . ({{MoveToMediaWiki}}) (undo)

Or try this link ( although the steps above can reproduce it):

• https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Extension%3AExpandCss&type=revision&diff=50164&oldid=51766 197.218.91.204 (talk) 23:27, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Wow, we really did not thought that something like that could happen. The RevisionSlider assumes in parts of its logic, that revision ids are increasing in time but if thats not always the case we definitely should take care of it. I will file a ticket right away.

Thanks again for all your effort, we really appreciate it. :-)

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 08:36, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

The most important reason why this would not be the case, is when edits have been imported and then get merged into an existing page. This is quite common on english wikipedia, where some pre 2002 revisions have been retroactively imported from nostalgia.wikipedia.org because they got lost during the initial import.

Note Graham's notes on this procedure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Graham87/Import

point 7 specifically :) —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 07:11, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Indeed, that's how those revisions were "easily" found . All that was needed was looking at pages using the import logs. Anyone who has used mediawiki import would be aware that it uses a very strange hack, and causes all sorts of inconsistencies in revisions.

You might want to use the timestamp (API:Revisions) instead:

• rvstart: Timestamp to start listing from. (enum)
• rvend: Timestamp to end listing at. (enum)

When two timestamps happen to be the same, then the revision id could be used as a tie breaker. Of course this may require more work than just adding a small hack when the "diff=" is smaller than the oldid. Alternatively just wait until this is solved by mediawiki developers (https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T4930#3210154). 197.218.89.38 (talk) 08:12, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Just a small update here:

The RevisionSlider does not assume that revids increase in time since some time now. The issue shown in https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Extension%3AExpandCss&type=revision&diff=50164&oldid=51766 should be fixed.

For the issue of users sharing links using the parameters wrong ( putting the "oldid" into the "diff" parameter and the other way around ) as shown in https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?diff=158491&oldid=172031&title=Main_Page&type=revision there's a ticket for that so we have it on or monitors. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T168609 Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 09:08, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

The new revision slider does not work at all on mobile devices

Hi. It's the first time I saw the new interface, in mediawikiwiki. I can see the summaries, but the bolls do not move at all. Not by clicking on different area, and not by drag and drop. The slider became unusable. Help!

Android 6.0, inner browser, desktop view. IKhitron (talk) 12:48, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

It is not clear what you mean. Revision slider is a tool designed for desktop users not mobile devices, so it is not clear why you're asking for "help". That is probably why it doesn't show up in the normal mobile view. This might require significant work. For it to work in a mobile device they need to change the interface to work with touch (and non-touch) based events and possibly reduce the number of revisions fetched due to smaller screen sizes and generally lower bandwidth.

Even then, it would probably still not work well using the desktop view. Although the older version kind of works, it still has issues, e.g. popups can't appear until clicked because there is no hover in most mobile devices, and having two diffs in a tiny screen makes it hard to read either of them.

This could be a feature request rather than a bug report ... 197.218.80.194 (talk) 13:52, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

It might be a good idea to disable it fully on mobile devices, even using the desktop view until they decide if they want to support it. 197.218.80.194 (talk) 14:08, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

You are wrong. It works very well in desktop view on mobile devices in the old version. There should not be any difference, because desktop view is the same, doesn't matter if some event is triggered by a mouse or by a touch screen, they are equivalent. Some regression code change in the new version made this. IKhitron (talk) 15:26, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your feedback. We look into it and see what can be done. A college created an issue for that on phabricator: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T164249 Jan Dittrich (WMDE) (talk) 08:22, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

I've compared the "old UI" and the "new UI" on (1) Chrome on an Android 6 phone and (2) Chrome on a Windows 10 Notebook with touch-display.

Outcome: For both UIs (old and new) touch-drag-n-drop does NOT work (I guess it never worked and this is probably limited by the draggable-library we're using) but clicking on the bars WORKS for both versions though it got slightly more difficult with the new UI since the clicking-area got smaller (you have to touch the colored, horizontal lines in order to move the pointers). Tobias Gritschacher (WMDE) (talk) 13:15, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

So, it looks like browser depended. I work on Android 6, inner browser, and the ood RS always works perfect, d&d and bars. IKhitron (talk) 13:46, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

I change my mind. It does not work by d&d now. But I'm sure it worked earlier. IKhitron (talk) 22:15, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Someone, help...No. no! Somebody's, LOST IT ALL, For the Evaluative @RE DO PURPOSE. 124.106.140.25 (talk) 01:23, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Issue: Long histories are hard to navigate

Navigating page histories with thousands of edits is really annoying. I can't find any way to speed the process up, by jumping farther at a time or even getting to the very beginning or back to the very end of a page history. I haven't been able to come up with a great solution myself, so I only pose the problem here. Florian Blaschke (talk) 17:58, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @Florian Blaschke,

thanks for your feedback I created a ticket on Phabricator so we can keep track of it and we might consider it for future versions.

One further remark: I am not sure what your specific use case is here but skipping many revisions could probably better be done on the history page and when you found the area your looking for you could switch to the diff view and start using the RevisionSlider there.

Thanks again and best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 16:58, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Ups forgot the ticket: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T164602 Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 17:00, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi Christoph,

it did occur me afterwards that using the normal history is an obvious workaround, but I think it should be easier within the RevisionSlider too.

Thank you, anyway! Florian Blaschke (talk) 18:56, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

New version does not work

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Hi. Could you, please, rollback to the old version? It does not work in mobile. but you created a patch, so I belive it will work after deployment. But it does not work at desktop computers too, so can't be used anywhere. Thank you. IKhitron (talk) 09:45, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @IKhitron, thanks for the feedback! Could you give us a bit more detail into what you mean with "does not work"? If you could show us a screen video or annotated screenshot, that would be great. A detailed lists of all things you did and what happened would be appreciated, too :)

Thanks!

Lea Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 10:10, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

The screenshot will not help.

1. I open hewiki diff in firefox windows 7.
2. I try to move the bolls with a mouse - it works.
3. I try to click some bar so the boll will move there - does not work.
4. I try to move the bolls so they will exchange (old over new or vv) - does not work.

Thank you. IKhitron (talk) 12:11, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification! The behavior you explain there is actually something we deliberately changed to work that way. The old behavior (click on a bar and one of the pointers moves there / move one pointer past the other pointer) had the problem, that it is very difficult for users to predict what will happen when they move a pointer. It was not intuitive that one pointer reacted to activity above the line, while the other to activity below the line. Therefore we decided to make the behavior more clear: You now have slider which show you exactly where you can move a ball to, and you know that the blue ball will always be associated with the one revision and the yellow ball with the other. Of course this comes with drawbacks, too (the ones you described). However, if you prefer to click rather than drag, you can still click on the slider area to move the ball without dragging it. Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 13:08, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. It's wrong, but at least it's not a bug.

The problem is that "you can still click on the slider area to move the ball without dragging it" does not work. IKhitron (talk) 13:10, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @IKhitron,

does clicking on the slider line also not work for you? Thanks for specifying :) Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 10:54, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

What do you mean in "slider line"? I click on the bar, as always. IKhitron (talk) 10:55, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

I mean the blue and yellow lines that the knobs navigate on - very much in the middle where the upper and lower bars meet. Does that work for you? Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 11:02, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Yes, it does. Please do not tell me that it should work there only. IKhitron (talk) 11:03, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

@IKhitron see https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160410 for the specification how the new interface should work. The area to move the pointers by click was reduced to a clickable area around the yellow and blue horizontal lines. Reasoning against making the whole bar clickable is especially outlined in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160410#3157264 and https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160410#3157497. If you have suggestions how to further improve the experience for users that prefer clicking, please don't hesitate to share. Tobias Gritschacher (WMDE) (talk) 12:53, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

I see. Thank you. It's too late. So, until there will be a possibility to choose between the old slider and the useless one, if any, I turned it off. A pity, because I used it a lot of times every day, but I have no choise. Thank you for the wonderful months. IKhitron (talk) 13:37, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @IKhitron, one thing to add to the reasoning above: We decided against using all bars as a clickable area, because on touch screens, there is no hovering. Therefore, users cannot hover, and see the tooltip, and click, and change the revision. Therefore on mobile, you see the tooltip in the upper part of the bar and and can change the revision on the lower bar.

However, we are in discussion how to improve the clickability of bars. I'll add you to the phabricator ticket once we decided how, maybe it will make you reconsider :) Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 15:26, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Are you interested to know my reasons, Lea Voget (WMDE)? IKhitron (talk) 15:27, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Of course! Please share :) Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 18:07, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Well, there are 2 X 2 cases: 2 for desktop vs mobile and 2 for between bolls vs outside of them. Let's check these cases one by one, sorted by ascending problemacity.

1. Mobile outside the bars - no problem at all.
2. Desktop outside the bars - not so convenient, because the user should click in much smaller area, so it increases the time needed to open some diff, more or less to the time needed to do this in history page. But load the history page takes much more time, so it's not so bad.
3. Desktop between the bars - very bad, because you should be very precise to click on the right line, when they are very close each to other. It's possible, but will take a lot of time - at least a second and maybe even more. So the advantage from the previous paragraph disappears, the diff opening using the history page is much faster.
4. Mobile between the bars - extremally bad, because you can't touch at all the screen on one line without touching the other, as the distance between the lines is less than the finger diameter, and it should be at least 1.5 such diameters.

Summary - there is no sence to use it on desktop, and it's absolutely impossible to use it on mobile. If even one of these was working, I would use the slider, but if noone - I can't. IKhitron (talk) 20:10, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

<blockquote>Therefore, users cannot hover, and see the tooltip, and click, and change the revision. Therefore on mobile, you see the tooltip in the upper part of the bar and and can change the revision on the lower bar.</blockquote>

It was not particularly intuitive, although the help menu clearly notes this. Perhaps it could work if instead of single click to move the knob or ball, it could happen on double click. On mobile, double tap might be designed to do the same.

Alternatively, it might make sense to increase the size of the yellow / blue lines, to about maybe 2 mm (more or less) to highlight the "slideable" area. It isn't particularly obvious that the lines "highlight" when the pointer is hovered close to them (indicating that something could be done). It is not often the case that such a big object is a attached to a small rail, so it can be a bit surprising considering that this isn't a standard interface design that people are used to.

This is generally an interesting interface to keep experimenting with until a solution that works reasonably is found. 197.218.90.114 (talk) 20:45, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

The tooltips never worked right for me in mobile. But I understood that there is nothing to do, and just suffered. The diff, in opposite, are very important. IKhitron (talk) 20:59, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

One idea might be to have a translucent / transparent (ghost like) knob showing on the rail where the pointer is as a way to indicate that someone can click there and move easily, e.g.:

-------◯---------⬤----------

^

On mobile devices this could be made bigger so that it is easier to click, or the default knob / ball could be enlarged (to a reasonable size) to ensure it works without any mobile specific changes. 197.218.90.114 (talk) 21:11, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

The tooltips never worked right for me in mobile. But I understood that there is nothing to do, and just suffered. The diff, in opposite, are very important.

Yes, designing for multiple devices requires tradeoffs. That's why some experts suggest starting with designs for mobile and then creating designs for desktops. Mobile devices always have limitations, so it is tends to be better to make features limited, and then enhance them when making the "full" mobile version.

This is especially a problem because the term mobile isn't well defined at all. There are too many things that can be mobile, e.g. a "gameboy" with internet (https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/54188-gameboy-owners-will-surf-the-web), portable tv, (http://www.dx.com/p/fulljoin-nmp001-2-4-lcd-portable-internet-tv-radio-multimedia-av-player-w-wi-fi-tf-black-176527) and so forth. Most people think "phone" when they think of mobile, but many mobile devices don't even have a touchscreen or a "normal" way to interact with a site.

I really don't envy anyone who decides to design (or support) anything for mobile devices. 197.218.90.114 (talk) 21:21, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the detailed information what you are looking for, and ideas how to solve this! I will get back to you as soon as there are news from our side :) Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 12:16, 18 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @IKhitron and 197.218.90.114,

a clickable revision slider version can now be found on beta:

https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?diff=276480&oldid=275924&title=Main_Page&action=historysubmit&type=revision

Does it work for you? If there is something that works differently than expected, what is it and what did you expect?

Thanks and greetings :) Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 11:26, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

Hello. Thank you! It looks good in desktop. I'll try in mobile later. But there is a bug: If you use the side arrows, and then play with a slider a little, the clickability stops. I tried a couple of times, it's always the same. IKhitron (talk) 12:18, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

Tried on mobile. Works the same, has the same bug. IKhitron (talk) 00:22, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

Seems to work rather well (apparently it has been deployed on this wiki), and it is back to being quite intuitive.

After testing it out for a few minutes it showed this (https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Extension%20talk%3ARevisionSlider/2017#h-Issue%3A_Console_errors_when_hovering_over_revision_line-2017-08-17T10%3A41%3A00.000Z) console error. However, it still seemed to work despite the error.

The only thing that might be related to IKhitron's report is when the the two knobs are pushed out of the revision bar area after the side arrows are clicked. In this case, this seems to happen because only one knob can move. Either the blue one if knobs are on the left hand side, or the yellow one if the knobs are on the right.

In either of those cases, one has to either click the top revision bar area , or the bottom revision bar area, depending on which knob has a ownership (a line) over all revisions. 197.218.82.231 (talk) 10:54, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

Yes, most of the times. But sometimes both can't move. IKhitron (talk) 11:51, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

Thank you both for the fast feedback!

197.218.82.231 you wrote:

>The only thing that might be related to IKhitron's report is when the the two knobs are pushed out of >the revision bar area after the side arrows are clicked. In this case, this seems to happen because >only one knob can move. Either the blue one if knobs are on the left hand side, or the yellow one if >the knobs are on the right.

Did you perceive this as an error or is this just an observation? How do you feel about this behavior and why? Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 13:45, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

> Did you perceive this as an error or is this just an observation?

It seems like an error.

> How do you feel about this behavior

It is not particularly intuitive because it breaks the expectation of the user. The user is expecting some action when any bar is clicked.

> and why?

If only one knob can move, then it doesn't really matter if one clicks the bottom or top.

This is similar to how the old history page works. If both radio boxes are at the end, e.g. (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=history) then clicking any remaining radiobox makes the relevant radiobox highlighted, and also makes it clear that one can now click any of the other checkboxes. 197.218.83.153 (talk) 14:48, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

Thanks 197.218.83.153,

we now decided to make all areas clickable, but we want to keep the top/bottom metaphor. More infos here: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T173566

I will close this thread again now, thank you both again for your very valuable feedback! Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 11:00, 18 August 2017 (UTC)

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

Slider extension would be much better without a slider

Re phab:T163685 and since I was asked there to provide feedback on this feature here:

I think in the current version it just looks like an example of software bloat. Sure, ability to move through diffs with AJAX is a lot better than the current way for the most editors, I will not dispute that. But the whole premise of RevisionSlider is wrong for one very major reason: this is not normal, the fact that the previous revision is +23 and it is almost half the height of the +984 one is not normal.

The bars don’t represent any real information in any shape or form, the graph isn’t showing anything, therefore it should’ve not been done in the first place. Developers could’ve just made an insert of history page and a scroll in that exact space and it would’ve not been such a mental disaster as parsing this thing through.

(I am not going to excite a riot or anything in my local community about turning this feature on by default, but it is really a sad state of affairs that communities are being notified about the future change in 1 day timeframe. Consider this my last comment on the situation, I am really disappointed with WMDE developers conduct and replies [such as repeating question ‘Did you care and provide feedback?’ over and over again as if we had any timeframe for turning it on by default], even if my messages might’ve come across as angry at IRC.) stjn^[ru] 16:28, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi stjn, just a clarification if you refer to our IRC conversation yesterday (the last sentence sounds a bit like it): I am not a WMDE developer and your messages did not come across as angry but rather direct (a communication style that I also prefer, so I hope I didn't come across as angry or such either). As I said, from my personal point of view it's a good idea to make it clearer whether a feature which is about to leave its beta status will become enabled by default or not. My two cents. Again, thanks for your feedback! Malyacko (talk) 19:47, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @Saint Johann,

thanks for your feedback. You say that the height of the bars as shown in the RevisionSlider is misleading, since the height is not linear to the actual change size. We discussed this issue when designing the RevisionSlider. The issue we had was that on a linear scale one big revision made the whole slider unusable. Either the slider would suddenly be really high (which we don't want, since we still want to see the contents of the compared revisions below) or all other revisions would suddenly be really small, and differences between them would not be visible. Since we thought that it is more important to see a difference between a 2 Byte change and a 4 Byte change rather than between a 1000 Byte change and 1002 Byte change, we decided for a logarithmic scale.While this solution solves the issues I described, it of course has the drawback of what you described.

To the timeframe of communication: We decided to notify the community 2 days in advance, because we wanted to make sure that people still remember the announcement when the RevisionSlider is enabled. In many village pumps, information is out of sight quickly. We made this decision based on the very good feedback we had received until then. We even had self organized community consensus tickets by 3 communities (apart from the German one). We expect the RevisionSlider to be a positive change for the broad majority of users. If wanted, users may also disable the RevisionSlider in their user settings. And as I said in the phabricator ticket, we will disable the feature if a community requests that - we develop software to support users, not to hinder them.

I am sorry you had an unpleasant experience on IRC, but as @Malyacko said, this was not with anyone from WMDE.

Best,

Lea Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 20:35, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Disabling

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The "tutorial" should have a clear and very visible link for disabling this feature. ~ Shearonink (talk) 15:48, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

You do'nt use the "~~~~" magicWord to sign you posts on ~Flow. 83.28.192.72 (talk) 15:57, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Hey, it's me again...can someone please post (without being snarky thanks) about how to disable this feature? And not just "go to settings" - step-by-step instructions gratefully appreciated. Shearonink (talk) 17:18, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Special:Preferences->Appearance->Don't show the RevisionSlider wargo (talk) 17:53, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Thank you Wargo. Shearonink (talk) 22:15, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

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Thanks!

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This new tool is awesome and will save on many frustrasting trips back and forth in the history. Barnstars for all involved! L3X1 (talk) 23:10, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks @L3X1! We are very happy to hear that :)

Best,

Lea Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 12:17, 18 May 2017 (UTC)

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View history vs. Difference between revisions

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Hi, this tool works the first day on Czech Wikipedia and I am very excited about it. :-) One question: I can open the tool only on "Difference between revisions" page. I would recommend to add some link or button for opening the tool on "View history" page as well. Now I have to start with the "old" system to get to the "new" and its a bit confusing and unnecessary. Vojtěch Veselý (talk) 21:53, 18 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @Vojtěch Veselý, we are very happy that you are excited about the RevisionSlider! Thanks for the feedback on the location of the RevisionSlider, the right phabricator link can be found in the summary :) Lea Voget (WMDE) (talk) 14:50, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

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Display issues

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I've encountered a few display issues in using this tool. First, when I first opened the tool from a diff page the tutorial box popped up; however, the slider displayed over top / overlapping with the tutorial, so I actually couldn't close or move through the tutorial at all. Second, if I hover over a diff-bar and then close the tool, the popup showing information about the diff (username, size, etc) remains on my screen, and actually follows my view as I scroll down the page. Nikkimaria (talk) 21:27, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

Hey @Nikkimaria,

thanks for your feedback. To reproduce and fix the issue it would be great if you could give us some more information around the issue:

What browser ( e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera ) and operating system ( e.g. Windows, Apple, Linux ) did you use when the issue appeared? Did you use a computer or a mobile device like an iPad?

Thanks again and best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 11:30, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Windows computer, Firefox53 Nikkimaria (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Hmm, sorry but it seem that I can not reproduce the issue with that configuration alone. :-/

I assume that some specific setting on your machine or with your account interferes with the extension. To better understand what's happening I guess I need a few more things, it would be the best if you could provide me additional input on:

- what specific wiki the issue appeared on ( e.g. en.wikipedia.org / en.wikivoyage.org ... )

- gadgets you have activated there ( see Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets )

- other user scripts you might have installed

If you could post a screenshot with the issue it would also be super helpful.

Thanks in advance,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 15:42, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

... Add ons of Firefox. IKhitron (talk) 18:27, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

This screencast demonstrates the second issue (the tutorial no longer appears so I can't reproduce that): https://www.screencast.com/t/Rxd5inB4G

It occurred on en.wikipedia.org. I use the Modern skin and a number of gadgets and scripts, including nav popups, Twinkle, reference tooltips, HotCat, WikEd, and RefToolbar. Nikkimaria (talk) 00:22, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Ok I could reproduce the issue with the help dialog. It seems to be related to the Modern skin. I created a ticket for that: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T166209

I will further investigate whats happening with the tooltip. Thanks so far for your input! Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 08:40, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

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Initial range of slider

When the tool has just been opened, in its initial range, the blue dot (newer revision) is placed at the far right of the slider. Previous revisions are shown, but later revisions are not, until the user presses the forward arrow. Basically, I have to press the forward arrow every time... It would be better if dots were initially placed towards the middle of the slider, instead of the far right (unless, of course, the user started from the last revision). Bultro (talk) 14:24, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @Bultro,

thanks for your post. The issue you describe is already known to us and there is a ticket on Phabricator: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T145645 for it. Improving the situation there without increasing the loading time for every use is not trivial that's why we - for now - do not work on it. You can look the conversation up in the ticket. If there are any new developments around the topic we will keep it updated.

Best and thanks again,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 15:26, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

It is now on English Wikipedia and it is great!

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Today is the first time that the Revision Slider showed up when I was looking at a revision history on my home Wikipedia, en. It is great! It works perfectly. The instructions overlay was helpful although the tool is so well-designed that it is almost self-explanatory. The RevisionSlider is delightfully precise because of those nice end points in yellow and blue. The slider moves smoothly, and supports some of the accessibility features that I have enabled in my browser due to my minor vision issues.

This tool is actually better than those that I have seen for similar purposes offered on for-profit websites. The German Wikipedia developers and UI designers who created this tool did an EXCELLENT job! Thank you for taking care of us so well. I just noticed that you are taking care of ALL of, as this is a RTL accessible extension! FeralOink 18:11, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @FeralOink, thank you so much for your great and detailed comment! This is really encouraging feedback :-)

Have a nice day! Birgit Birgit Müller (WMDE) (talk) 12:27, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Today was the first time I noticed it. Usually new features just get in the way, or make me want to turn them off, but this is the best addition I've seen to any website in a very long time! Gets out of the way when I want it to, and very easy to use when it's open. my thanks to all involved for their hard work. GeoffCapp (talk) 00:55, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Hi @GeoffCapp, many thanks for your amazing feedback! This means a lot to us :-) Birgit Müller (WMDE) (talk) 10:39, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

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

Suggestion: Make it possible for the revisionslider to stick to the top of the page even when scrolling (sticky)

Issue

As a user, I want to navigate through revisions without always scrolling to the top of the page.

Background

Currently the only way to slide to another revision is to scroll to the top of the page and click one of the buttons / knobs. This is a particularly cumbersome when navigating a very long page with few changes in the same area (e.g. middle of a page). Also, with the new VisualEditor/Diffs it is possible to see most of the context without scrolling back up.

Possible solutions

• Make the revision slider toolbar sticky as the user scrolls; or
• Make a simpler smaller toolbar that follows the user while scrolling, and contains back and forth buttons (maybe at the bottom of the page).

Using keyboard shortcuts to navigate revisions(using a userscripts) made it clear that this is useful. 197.218.91.158 (talk) 08:50, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Hey hey,

thanks again for the feedback. I created a ticket for your proposal an Phabricator https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T169865 so we can keep track of it and consider it for future developments.

Since you mentioned it: Would adding keyboard navigation be a sufficient solution for your usecase? Or would you still want to see/access the bars and tooltip-summaries while on the middle of the page?

Best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 11:22, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Hi,

> Since you mentioned it: Would adding keyboard navigation be a sufficient solution for your usecase? 

>Or would you still want to see/access the bars and tooltip-summaries while on the middle of the page?

The bars are not necessary, only the tooltip summaries related to the current and the prior revisions. With the Visual history diff, this is would be simple, since they could just add that to the sidebar that shows up alongside most revisions (see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Handball_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics&diff=473592443&oldid=472329262&visualdiff)

As long as there are keyboard shortcuts and a short summary of the current and prior revision there should be no problem. It worked that way for years after all. The difference is that revision slider reloads sections of page on the fly, while the default diff page reloads the whole page, and forces the user to start from the top again. 197.218.88.200 (talk) 13:30, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Vertical scale

I think the vertical scale needs tweaking. When reviewing a page history, someone is unlikely to care whether a diff was +1 or +2 characters but the difference on the bar height is quite noticeable, while the difference between a +200 and +800 diff is barely discernible unless they are next to each other. I would suggest that +1 through +10 be identical at a pixel past zero, smoothly transitioning to logarithmic (which I assume it is now) somewhere around +100? VQuakr (talk) 04:27, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

Hey @VQuakr!

Thanks for your feedback. You are right, at the moment it's a logarithmic algorithm taking into account what the overall maximum change size in the visible changes is. I agree, that this could be improved to better fit reviewers needs. I created a ticket for your request in Phabricator, so we can consider it for further improvements:

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T170526

Best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 09:06, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

Similar further thought on maximizing the usefulness of the vertical scale - I won't much care if someone blanked 25% or 100% of a page; either way it's the diff I am looking for if I wonder where a chunk of content went. So the maximum end of the scale maybe should be the greater of either the largest edit in the visible range or some value less than 100% of the page size (I suggest 25%) with anything larger being off scale high/low ie, the largest magnitude.

Thanks! VQuakr (talk) 04:19, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

Typo in the Hebrew walkthrough

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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Missing "ג" in the explanation of the blue and yellow buttons:

"ברסה" instead of "בגרסה", in:

הכפתור הכחול שולט ברסה החדשה, והכפתור הצהוב ממפה לגרסה הישנה. Rickjpelleg (talk) 18:23, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

תודה, תוקן. IKhitron (talk) 18:34, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

👍 Rickjpelleg (talk) 17:22, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

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

Idea: Contribution slider

Use case

As a user, I'd like slide (navigate) to go through users (or my) contributions so that I can evaluate the nature and usefulness of the edits.

Background

Revision slider currently caters for many use-cases but fails to allow a user to seamlessly go through a the edits of a user. This has many more use-cases such a future possibility to compare the edits of two individuals within a time frame, e.g. to evaluate conflicts between them.

Proposed idea

• Make it possible to navigate through revisions on Special:Contributions
• For comparing differences - it would use the old revision of a page, and the immediate previous edits (e.g. https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Apps/Android_design_guidelines&diff=prev&oldid=2533637)
• For new pages - it would just show the first revision, because there is no prior revision

Note: This may possibly be scope creep and perhaps this extension was specifically not designed to do that. So this is deliberately worded more as a brainstorming idea rather than a feature request. 197.218.90.71 (talk) 16:35, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

Seemingly related: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T29707 197.218.91.193 (talk) 22:00, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

I need relocate to history point by click on history list

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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Sorry for bad english.

Russian: Мне нужно перемещаться по истории, кликая по этим столбикам Higimo (talk) 12:04, 11 August 2017 (UTC)

Так в чем проблема? IKhitron (talk) 12:05, 11 August 2017 (UTC)

Видимо, теперь ни в чём. Наверное, у меня как-то не так подгрузился скрипт или была какая-то ошибка, но желтые кружочки, как сейчас, не перемещались и вообще отсутствовали. Higimo (talk) 12:09, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

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

About the two different versions of my discussion.

I wrote two discussions ( lightly different) to the reqest of cancellation of my file 'On the numbers', because I was deceived by the shift of two hours of the time of pubblication. Giustino Carinci (talk) 00:16, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

Issue: Console errors when hovering over revision line

Steps to reproduce:

1. Go to https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?diff=2285787&oldid=2285785&title=MediaWiki&diffmode=source
2. Move the mouse pointer to the yellow line (or bar) right before the yellow knob
3. Move the mouse pointer to the yellow knob
4. Move the mouse pointer to the blue knob
5. Move it to the blue line
6. Move it to the empty area between the blue line and the slider button
7. (Optional) Move the mouse pointer back to revision bars area.

Expected:

No console errors

Actual:

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'top' of undefined$.extend.showTooltipsOnMouseMoveHandler @ VM156:formatted:5849(anonymous function) @ VM156:formatted:5803jQuery.event.dispatch @ load.php?debug=false&lang=en&modules=jquery%2Cmediawiki|mediawiki.legacy.wikibits&only=scripts&skin…:65elemData.handle @ load.php?debug=false&lang=en&modules=jquery%2Cmediawiki|mediawiki.legacy.wikibits&only=scripts&skin…:60

This doesn't seem to cause have any immediate problem. It was simply something noticed while testing out the interface. 197.218.82.231 (talk) 10:41, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

Simpler reproduction: repeatedly hover over the blue knob, the blue line, and the white space right in front of it. 197.218.82.231 (talk) 12:06, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

Feature request length diff

I like this tool. Gut gedacht, WMDE! I'd like it even more if it could tell me what net effect the revisions between the knobs had on length. I'm doing a series of edits and I want to know if inching up the size, thus making the article to long. Thanks to everyone who worked on this. HLHJ (talk) 17:10, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

Hi @HLHJ, thank you for the nice feedback :-).

If I got you right, this is nothing that necessarily must be part of the RevisionSlider, but would be generally useful on the diffpage when comparing versions with several revisions in between, right? I created a ticket on Phabricator to track your request https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T174010

Best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 10:28, 24 August 2017 (UTC)

Issue: Doesn’t support Flow history

Steps to reproduce:

1. Go to https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Topic:Tx9pravihalnuu44&action=compare-post-revisions&topic_newRevision=tx9ybspnga76c31d
2. Click newer edit

Expected

Being able to navigate using revision slider.

Actual

Normal revision navigation.

Notes: Generally, most flow discussions don't seem to be edited that often, so this may generally be a non-issue. 197.218.82.188 (talk) 17:01, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

Hi there!

I have created a ticket @ https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T175833 to track the issue! ·addshore· ^{talk to me!} 15:07, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Gone

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160739 Extension talk:RevisionSlider/2017#h-Suggestion:_Add_an_entry_point_to_revision_slider_from_the_history_page-2017-03-17T09:25:00.000Z

The slider is not showing up for quite a while now which I just realized when reading the latest Tech News. No, I did not tick "Don't show the RevisionSlider". I would like to use it. [[kgh]] (talk) 22:26, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

Hello @Kghbln,

thank you for your remark. To reproduce and fix the issue it would be great if you could give us some more information:

1) Do you mean, you don't see the RevisionSlider on this diff page?

https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?diff=16959900&oldid=16668377&title=Tech%2FNews&action=historysubmit&type=revision

2) What browser (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera) and operating system (e.g. Windows, Apple, Linux) did you use when the issue appeared? Did you use a computer or a mobile device like an iPad?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Johanna Johanna Strodt (WMDE) (talk) 13:19, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

Heiya Johanna, well, there I see it. To me it looks like that the behaviour must have changed severely. I expected to see the slider on the revision history from the start like it used to be in earlier versions. Thus I did not even get that far. Apart from that I was using Firefox on Linux on a computer, but it seems it is just my mere confusion that is the problem here. :( Thanks for you answer! Cheers [[kgh]] (talk) 14:29, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

See: https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Extension%20talk%3ARevisionSlider/2017#h-Suggestion%3A_Make_it_possible_for_the_revisionslider_to_stick_to_the_top_of_the_p-2017-07-05T08%3A50%3A00.000Z. Chances are you just forgot about its entry point. 197.218.83.97 (talk) 15:11, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

Oops, more like Extension talk:RevisionSlider/2017#h-Suggestion:_Add_an_entry_point_to_revision_slider_from_the_history_page-2017-03-17T09:25:00.000Z . 197.218.83.97 (talk) 15:14, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

Yes, this indeed covers it. I am sure that this was easier to find in earlier versions. [[kgh]] (talk) 20:42, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, 197.218.83.97! Johanna Strodt (WMDE) (talk) 08:07, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

Clicking on bars to change versions (top/bottom for newer/older version) 

Currently, a version is only selected if the lines (blue/yellow or top/bottom lines) is in focus/selected (when the mouse cursor is "on the line"). I suggest simply clicking top or bottom part of the column to select the version. This way it is more intuitive. Wpliao (talk) 18:51, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Hey @Wpliao,

thanks for your feedback. In the latest version currently deployed (e.g. on English Wikipedia ), clicking the bars to move the pointers should be possible. Clicking the top should move the newer pointer, clicking the bottom moves the older pointer.

Could you recheck or specify your problem more? :-)

Thanks and best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 16:24, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

Display overwrites Twinkle shortcuts, at times

While I don't want to sound overly negative, I do a lot of editing and I have yet to find a need for this revision slider. This would normally not cause me any great discomfort, as there are many tools that I don't use for one reason or another, but in this case this tool is creating a problem for me. I use the Twinkle commands that appear on the first line of the two revisions that are being compared extensively. Frequently, but not always, the slider display overwrites this line (usually after I have moved to another version) and once it does this I can't recover those commands (collapsing the display does not help) without leaving the page and returning again. This is so annoying that I would like to disable this slider, but it does not appear that I can do that (or at least I can not find anything in my preferences that would do that). The slowness of the initial display and the fact that the cursor frequently opens a bubble by accident that takes forever to disappear are also definite drawbacks. --~~~~ Wcherowi (talk) 03:50, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

As an addendum, a little more experimenting has given consistent results. The overwriting occurs after I use the previous edit or next edit arrows, even if the slider has been collapsed before I do so. --~ Wcherowi (talk) 20:47, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Hey @Wcherowi,

thanks for your feedback! The good news is, in fact you can deactivate the RevisionSlider completely in the user preferences Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering. Just scroll down to the section "Diffs" and check the box "Don't show the RevisionSlider" :-)!

Nevertheless I created a ticket for the issue so we might be able to fix that for maintainers that want to use the gadget and RevisionSlider: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T180430

Thanks again and best,

Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 09:01, 14 November 2017 (UTC)

Suggestion: Include tags in revision metadata popup

Issue:

It is not possible to see which tags apply to a revision.

Proposed solution

Include tags in popup when user hovers over a revision bar. 197.218.82.89 (talk) 11:03, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Hey,

thanks for the feedback and suggestion. I created a ticket on Phabricator so we can consider it for the future. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T180429

Best, Christoph Christoph Jauera (WMDE) (talk) 08:48, 14 November 2017 (UTC)

Usage tutorial

Well, this is great. Just one thing: how to move the yellow and blue knobs is not clearly elucidated in the "usage" section and the tutorial message that appears along the Slider. It took me a while to decipher that. So please can you write it in a better way? Thanks ~ Jazzy Prinker (talk) 18:33, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your feedback, @Jazzy Prinker! We'll look into that. It would be great if you could add what kind of information is lacking or which expressions make the text hard to understand. Thanks! -- ~ Johanna Strodt (WMDE) (talk) 15:55, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

@Jazzy Prinker Sorry it took a while, but now I changed the usage description on the Extension page: Extension:RevisionSlider#Usage

What do you think, is this better?

Best, Johanna Johanna Strodt (WMDE) (talk) 15:33, 13 July 2018 (UTC)

@Johanna Strodt (WMDE) Not him, but I can chime in here. I am commenting as more of a user than a commenter and editor, so apologies if I am missing something RE wikipedia feedback customs. First, I want to just say that wow, this feature is totally amazing and extremely helpful. Thank you so much to you and your team for making it, and to the german wikipedia-ers for requesting it. I do agree with @Jazzy Prinker though. In fact, I only realized the yellow and blue sliders did anything at all until I came here and saw that post. After seeing this post, I went back and found the tutorial, and saw that there was some info listed about it that I had skipped over. It seems like that one is on me, I should have just read the instructions more carefully, since that feature was in fact clearly explained. But, since both he and I ran into that issue, maybe something about the wording or the explanation could be changed to make it a bit more apparent how it all works. For example, instead of a small call-out box explaining how the revision history button works, you might instead point to the actual sliders on the page that the user is on, and point them to the actual ones that exist--something like: these sliders here, see these? they let you do such and such.

Additionally, regarding the tutorial: I wish there were more info about this thing on the tutorial itself. Even if that's just a link. Something like: To learn more about the revision slider, and how to use it, click here (then a link to some more in depth tutorial). I am glad I came to the feedback page. I learned much more about everything here. And, I did ultimately find all the info I needed, but only after arriving here. I imagine most users won't go through the hassle of all that and might just get lost or confused and give up.

Then, one final comment as long as I am posting this. This comment is in fact the reason why I came to the feedback page in the first place. It might not belong here in this section, feel free to move this around or edit it or whatever if it's better in a different or separate spot. The biggest issue to me is how to access the revision slider! It's kind of buried. This is the way I accessed it as a wikipedia user: I went to a wikipedia page on a political issue and that I expected would get edits all the time for political reasons in addition to the usual reasons. I read the main page, then wanted to check some of the revisions that got made earlier in time. I clicked on one of the older revisions sort of at random to see how things looked at some different time. Then, AFTER clicking that, that's when the "view revisions interactively" box and button showed up on the screen for the first time. So getting to it required me to click three separate times and the third click I very rarely do (i.e., the one where I actually click to see one of the earlier revisions). I think that is probably a pretty common way to use wikipedia, and I image there are many other users in the same boat.

From my own perspective, I would have loved using that slider from the very beginning--why bother jumping through all the hassle of looking at the contribution page (which is just a jumble and not easy to understand at all) when I can instead jump directly to the interactive revision page. Just for the purposes of providing a specific recommendation instead of just criticism, I think something that might be helpful to address this issue would be to include a link or to more clearly provide information about the interactive revision page on the wikipedia page I'm on, and how to access it.

Thanks again! This is one of the best additions to wikipedia in a very long time! I love it! 108.105.15.13 (talk) 14:31, 6 August 2018 (UTC)