Extension talk:VisualEditor/2017/01

Please note that the Wikimedia Foundation does not provide support for installing VisualEditor on third-party wikis. However, if you have a question we may try to help.

"Http" message from VisualEditor

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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Everytime I try to edit a Page it says:

Message from Website: "Http"

Logs dont tellin me the Problem, so maybe someone knows how to fix it. Knixmaster (talk) 09:51, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

Same for me 143.161.248.25 (talk) 11:51, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

In general that means that the connection to Parsoid/Restbase failed. We've been working this week on a number of patches to give a useful human-readable explanation, sorry. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 19:12, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

http://181.64.3.16:8080 Rtatours (talk) 19:57, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

I am facing the same situation. 37.201.227.160 (talk) 16:03, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

Something new ? Knixmaster (talk) 14:31, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

me too :( (linking parsoid or not : same result) 78.193.229.52 (talk) 01:08, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

it's fix for me.

"http" message correspond to : http 500

"Usually for new installs, this is due to "curl", "php5-curl", or "php7.0-curl" not being installed on your server"

for me (debian):

sudo apt-get install php5-curl

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart 78.193.229.52 (talk) 02:20, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. It works for me.

sudo apt-get install php7.0-curl

sudo service apache2 restart 85.21.55.118 (talk) 19:21, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

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

VE http error 500

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 have a wiki with mediawiki 1.58, I've installed (and configured) visual editor and parsoid service, but when i try to open VE it gives me an HTTP 500 error.

The LocalSetting.php configuration is:

###VisualEditor###

wfLoadExtension( 'VisualEditor' );

// Enable by default for everybody

$wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-enable'] = 1;

// Optional: Set VisualEditor as the default for anonymous users

// otherwise they will have to switch to VE

// $wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-editor'] = "visualeditor";

// Don't allow users to disable it

$wgHiddenPrefs[] = 'visualeditor-enable';

// OPTIONAL: Enable VisualEditor's experimental code features

#$wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-enable-experimental'] = 1;

$wgVirtualRestConfig['modules']['parsoid'] = array(

// URL to the Parsoid instance

// Use port 8142 if you use the Debian package

'url' => 'http://localhost:8142',

// Parsoid "domain", see below (optional)

'domain' => 'wikigram.it',

// Parsoid "prefix", see below (optional)

'prefix' => 'localhost'

);

And the config.yaml is:

[...]

# Configure Parsoid to point to your MediaWiki instances.

mwApis:

- # This is the only required parameter,

# the URL of you MediaWiki API endpoint.

uri: 'https://wikigram.it/api.php'

# The "domain" is used for communication with Visual Editor

# and RESTBase.  It defaults to the hostname portion of

# the uri property below, but you can manually set it
 
# to an arbitrary string.

domain: 'wikigram.it'  # optional

[...]

# Require SSL certificates to be valid (default true)

# Set to false when using self-signed SSL certificates

strictSSL: false

[...] Lorenzo Fiocco (talk) 21:22, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Problem solved, i have changed hostname of the machine, previously the same as the site name, and /etc/hosts file. Lorenzo Fiocco (talk) 21:18, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

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

AccessControl and VisualEditor

While AccessControl is enabled, I am unable to use visual editor on a protected page, regardless of the access. Is there a way to only allow VisualEditor to work for sysop and named accounts?

MediaWiki 1.27.1 PHP 5.5.9-1ubuntu4.19 (apache2handler) AccessControl 2.6 (f6c7826) 16:17, 12 December 2016 VisualEditor 0.1.0 (a733545) 21:54, 3 March 2016 DanielJamieson (talk) 12:36, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

I don't think this is possible. There was a previous request for this (a year or two ago) at the English Wiktionary, and I believe that it was declined.

Why do you want to do that? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:54, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

Not working, stopped halfway and reports an error that can not connect to the server.

The website vojnaenciklopedija.com extension does not work as I have already stated in the title. Successfully installed, however, it stopped half load and reports that it can not connect to the server. Maybe I'm wrong and something I do not know. Here's the code to check:

//  VisualEditor  -   (19.01.2017)  -

wfLoadExtension( 'VisualEditor' );

require_once "$IP/extensions/VisualEditor/VisualEditor.php";

// Enable by default for everybody

$wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-enable'] = 1;

// Optional: Set VisualEditor as the default for anonymous users

// otherwise they will have to switch to VE

$wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-editor'] = "visualeditor";

// Don't allow users to disable it

$wgHiddenPrefs[] = 'visualeditor-enable';

// OPTIONAL: Enable VisualEditor's experimental code features

$wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-enable-experimental'] = 1;

$wgVirtualRestConfig['modules']['parsoid'] = array(

// URL to the Parsoid instance

// Use port 8142 if you use the Debian package

'url' => 'http://localhost:8142',

// Parsoid "domain", see below (optional)

'domain' => 'localhost',

// Parsoid "prefix", see below (optional)

'prefix' => 'localhost'

);

// This feature requires a non-locking session store. The default session store will not work and

// will cause deadlocks (connection timeouts from Parsoid) when trying to use this feature.

$wgSessionsInObjectCache = true;

// Forward users' Cookie: headers to Parsoid. Required for private wikis (login required to read).

// If the wiki is not private (i.e. $wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] is true) this configuration

// variable will be ignored.

//

// WARNING: ONLY enable this on private wikis and ONLY IF you understand the SECURITY IMPLICATIONS

// of sending Cookie headers to Parsoid over HTTP. For security reasons, it is strongly recommended

// that $wgVisualRestConfig['modules']['parsoid']['url'] be pointed to localhost if this setting is enabled.

$wgVirtualRestConfig['modules']['parsoid']['forwardCookies'] = true;

$wgNetworkAuthUsers[] = array(

'iprange'               => array('127.0.0.1/32'),

'user'                  => 'parsoid');

$wgVisualEditorParsoidForwardCookies = true; Kizule (talk) 21:18, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

And we temporarily remove the extension until you provide us an answer, because it blocks access to the user settings. Kizule (talk) 22:05, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Any? Kizule (talk) 17:48, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

It's really hard to try and figure out what's wrong without knowing what actually fails.

Can you post the error message that you're getting in the console and/or in the PHP/server logs? MSchottlender-WMF (talk) 05:27, 21 January 2017 (UTC)

I posted error message way up. Kizule (talk) 15:27, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Is Parsoid running? Had a similar Problem with it.. Knixmaster (talk) 14:43, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

No. Do I need to be adjusted according to this guide? Parsoid/Setup Kizule (talk) 15:30, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

No try this one Parsoid/Developer Setup.

Option 2 worked fine for me. Knixmaster (talk) 15:50, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. I will try using the instructions on this page. Kizule (talk) 16:05, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Did it work ? Knixmaster (talk) 14:41, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Parsoid is successfully configured, but the visual editor still does not work. Kizule (talk) 23:31, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

I'm working on the server about it. I'll tell you when I finish that was resolved. Kizule (talk) 18:05, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Parsoid is successfully configured, but the visual editor still does not work. Kizule (talk) 23:31, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

@Zoranzoki21 can you post the errors you're getting now? We can't help without knowing what fails. MSchottlender-WMF (talk) 23:40, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5s5frq73YCdT0JWQlUyQjluZ1E/view?usp=drivesdk Kizule (talk) 10:42, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Please do not post text as images, as search engines cannot index text which is "hidden" in images. Thanks! Malyacko (talk) 17:48, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

OK Kizule (talk) 17:55, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Do not create Phabricator tasks for support requests. Thanks for your understanding. AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 14:02, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

OK. Kizule (talk) 14:06, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

Since it is not for the phabricator, as a rule raised here, will someone answer? Kizule (talk) 11:41, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

As with any other place (mailing list, chat channel, a piece of paper on a tree in the park around your corner) that is run by volunteers, the answer to the question "Will someone answer?" was, is, and will always be:

Maybe. Malyacko (talk) 13:55, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Ok. Kizule (talk) 14:56, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

So you get a popup saying "(curl error: 7) Couldn't connect to server". What have you tried so far to fix this? :) Searching for that specific error message plus the term "VisualEditor", there are some threads with hints such as Extension talk:VisualEditor/2015#h-Couldn't_connect_to_server:_parsoidserver-http-error:_(curl_error:_7)-2015-12-07T00:47:00.000Z or Talk:Parsoid/2017#h-parsoidserver-http-error:_(curl_error:_7)_Couldn't_connect_to_server.-2017-01-28T20:13:00.000Z (which does not mean that their solutions also work for you). The first link shows where you could investigate. Malyacko (talk) 17:52, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply! I will act in accordance with the above, and I'll report the result, whether it succeeded or not. Kizule (talk) 20:09, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

I did above, but still managed to tip the one mistake that can not connect to the server. See screenshot: https://snag.gy/0bpScH.jpg Kizule (talk) 00:12, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Now I get a curl error: 6

See screenshot: https://snag.gy/IWwXRr.jpg Kizule (talk) 10:09, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

What exactly have you tried so far to solve "Curl error (6): Couldn't resolve host name"? Malyacko (talk) 18:00, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

I have done according to those guidelines only, and after that displays this error when I want to be the visual editor. Kizule (talk) 16:56, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

So you are saying that you have tried nothing so far to solve that error. (To clarify.) Okay. Malyacko (talk) 09:53, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

I was just trying on the basis of instructions in topics you gave me. Kizule (talk) 17:51, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Can you post server error logs? And are you getting any console errors? MSchottlender-WMF (talk) 22:58, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Tomorrow during the day I call the provider where my server that I drew log. Kizule (talk) 14:49, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

@Malyacko @MSchottlender-WMF Here is log file for Februar: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5s5frq73YCdbUNfNS0xbF9zOVpUdUV0ODUwcmNPd24wdzVz Kizule (talk) 15:13, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

However, I just entered the visual editor. I now like to edit, and store changes not. https://snag.gy/UBGvd7.jpg

Nothing I then adjusted the exception of those visual instructions of those topics. Kizule (talk) 23:11, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

@Zoranzoki21 Look, I really appreciate that you want to use VisualEditor, and that you're trying to install it, but this seems to be getting a little too difficult to help you properly.

VisualEditor is not being supported for 3rd party wikis, partly because it right now requires some access and knowledge into the connection between Parsoid and VE, configuration and log files that most users either don't have, or don't know how to use. It's not a judgment statement at all, but it does make the statement about the fact that issues can arise and that there is no promise that VisualEditor team and contributors will be able to help with those issues.

I don't have time to read a 10mb log file, and while the screenshots you provide are appreciated - they aren't really helpful for me (or anyone else) to properly help you, since they lack the context. We need to know the state of your system, the configuration you've used, whether Parsoid works, what log errors you've received, when the error happens and what you've tried and failed to do.

We can try and see if you can get the relevant data in an organized manner, or you might want to consider not using VisualEditor on your wiki until VE is supporting 3rd party installations. MSchottlender-WMF (talk) 23:24, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

OK. @MSchottlender-WMF Would you be able to like this? I send to you by e-mail access parameters for cpanel and VHM (which are reluctant to give, because if there is something screws up, fell down to the other domains that are on the server). I would not give this public access parameters, not someone came in and broke down. Kizule (talk) 13:32, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

In my opinion, private emails do not scale and do not help others. You are free to post information in public after removing/obfuscating crucial information like passwords. Malyacko (talk) 15:43, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Just tell me how to send a code number that is not public. Kizule (talk) 16:41, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

There should be no need to post private information or send me or others any passwords. We are not going to log into your wiki and do the debugging for you. MSchottlender-WMF (talk) 17:45, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Is not it easier for you to give you the password via private that you see where the error is possibly correct, but to write to each other like this for months. I'm not the only one who complains about something. There are other users. And that they should respond, not only to me. Kizule (talk) 19:00, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

And if need access to cPanel or complete server? Kizule (talk) 19:05, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Again: Noone will log into your wiki and debug for you. Time for everyone who tries to help others is limited, unfortunately, especially as you are not the only one who has questions. Thanks for your understanding. Malyacko (talk) 21:34, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

Changes discarded when switching between WikiEditor and VisualEditor

I have a new mw 1.28 install with VisualEditor and WikiEditor (and various other extensions) enabled. Both (all) work as expected.

When a page is changed (whether when creating or editing it) in VisualEditor and I switch to WikiEditor, I am given the option to 'Cancel' or 'Switch'. If 'Switch' is selected, the editor changes to WikiEditor as expected, with the changes made in VisualEditor shown in the editing pane.

However, if I try to switch back to VisuaEditor, I only get a choice between 'Cancel' and 'Discard my changes and switch'. I am unable to switch back from WikiEditor to VisualEditor without losing all changes. This also happens if I start editing in WikiEditor, make changes and try to switch to VisualEditor.

Further, if no changes are made, I can switch back and forth between the two editors.

The same behaviour is displayed with the standard mw editor as well.

Here are my LocalSettings.php setting for the two editors (Note: url and domain entries redacted):

wfLoadExtension( 'WikiEditor' );
$wgDefaultUserOptions['usebetatoolbar'] = 1;
$wgDefaultUserOptions['usebetatoolbar-cgd'] = 1;
$wgDefaultUserOptions['wikieditor-preview'] = 1;
$wgDefaultUserOptions['wikieditor-publish'] = 1;

wfLoadExtension( 'VisualEditor' );
$wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-enable'] = 1;
$wgHiddenPrefs[] = 'visualeditor-enable';

# Parsoid settings
$wgVirtualRestConfig['modules']['parsoid'] = array(
	'url' => 'http://xxxxx:8000',
	'domain' => 'xxxxx',
	);

Any ideas? JohnNew (talk) 02:28, 23 January 2017 (UTC)

Some followup.

I installed the Flow extension that runs these discussion threads on my site, and switching between Visual Editor and wikitext, when changes are made, works. So I seem at least to have the parsoid server set up properly. JohnNew (talk) 23:12, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Just to clarify: You are always starting this edit in VisualEditor's visual mode (and therefore editing the whole page, rather than a single section), right? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 03:15, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

When I first noticed this behaviour, I had the New Wikitext Editor enabled, but I have now disabled it and I am back to the enhanced editing toolbar. However, the switch from wikitext to VE visual mode still discards any changes, regardless if the change was made in VE or wikitext.

The behaviour is seen regardless of whether I edit the whole page or just a section (because I have [edit|edit source] links beside each section).

To be more clear (I hope):

1. Start editing in VE visual mode -> make changes -> switch to wikitext (with enhanced editing toolbar), changes are present (can be seen in all 3 tabs: Wikitext, Preview and Changes)-> switch back to VE visual mode -> changes are discarded
2. Start in VE visual mode -> make no changes -> switch to wikitext -> make changes -> switch to VE -> changes are discarded
3. Start in wikitext -> make changes -> switch to VE -> changes are discarded
4. Start in wikitext -> make no changes -> switch to VE -> make no changes -> switch to wikitext -> everything ok -> make changes in wikitext -> switch to VE -> changes are discarded JohnNew (talk) 15:54, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Also: Do you have the Single Edit Tab system (i.e., the ability for each account to choose either one 'Edit' tab or two tabs, 'Edit' and 'Edit source')? Occasionally, a bug only appears for certain configurations. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 03:17, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

I have the two tabs, 'Edit' and 'Edit source'. I don't have the option in my wiki to switch between single and double editing tabs, but I see it in my mediawiki.org Preferences.

How do I enable that option in my wiki? JohnNew (talk) 15:56, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

I wish that I knew how to solve your main problem.  :-/

I'm not sure what the status of "SET" is/whether it's easy to install.

On the big wikis, we're getting conflicting reports from editors about the feature. People who are new seem satisfied (but do they know how to complain if they dislike it?), but experienced editors are often annoyed. They want both tabs either so they can pick the most suitable editor for the specific edit, or they want both tabs so they can specifically direct a new editor to use the system that the experienced person is most familiar with. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:40, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Well, thanks for looking at the problem. If I make progress with this I'll come back and update this thread. JohnNew (talk) 16:16, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

I finally solved this issue by asking the wikitech-l mailing list

It seems that to enable the edited-wikitext-to-VE conversion, you need a working RESTbase server installed along with the parsoid server. See https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2017-February/087637.html

In the near future, I think I will update the VisualEditor page to reflect this. JohnNew (talk) 20:33, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Suggestion: Add Graphical tools to filter using file metadata in the VE Media search tool

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T157086

Recently a lot of new functionality was added to the search engine, and this is unfortunately still hidden and hard to use. In fact, this will likely only be found accidentally:

For example, if someone wants to search for:

• audio of cats -> cat filemime:audio
• video of lions -> lion filemime:video
• pictures of humans of certain dimensions : woman filew:>800 fileh:>600
• random multimedia content of people : people filetype:multimedia

All of this currently works if one types it in the media search tool. But this would probably be trivial to expose using drop downs and other visual tools instead of remembering special keywords and the special values they require.

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:CirrusSearch#File_properties_search 197.218.90.185 (talk) 19:55, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

Seems similar, or potentially identical:

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T51662

Just implementing the simplest one for now would be a great start, dropdowns:

• Filemime
• Filetype

Textbox with dropdown for KB/ MB

• filesize

Filesize is probably a bit more complicated due to minimum and maximum sizes, so it might be a good idea to leave for a later iteration. But the top ones all apply to all files and don't need custom editing tools for each. 197.218.83.53 (talk) 01:07, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Windows

I think it would be nice if it was stated on top of the front page, where it is NOT possible to install VisualEditor. I have just spend a couple of hours trying to set it up on a windows computer and suddenly realizing, by reading a post in a completely other thread that it is not possible. Not very customer friendly. 87.49.146.12 (talk) 09:59, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

It is NOT true. I successfully setup VisualEditor to work in Windows 7. I have tried and getting errors for more than a week. You just tried for couple of hours. I understand your feeling. I also aware that none (almost) of the links bring a working solution. However I didn't give up and keep searching on google for solutions until I found it this morning. Check this link: https://robertlabrie.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/mediawiki-visualeditor-parsoid-on-windows-server-2012/ Aeric80 (talk) 08:55, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

I setup mediawiki in my laptop running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. I followed the instruction to setup Mediawiki, Parsoid and VisualEditor from their wiki sites. When the progress bar loaded 75%, it stopped and showed error 404 or curl timeout. I tried changing the settings for LocalSettings.php, localsettings.js and config.yaml with Notepad++, use virtual OSes, WAMP server, change installation path for node, npm and parsoid and many other steps that I couldn't recall. When I set the port for parsoid to 8142 the error 404 showed after the progress bar loaded halfway but if I set as 8000 the 404 error show instantly. It was really frustrated that I am not sure how to debug the error. One of the solutions (or things to take note) is to set Apache server port to 80 so it won't conflict with the port used by Parsoid server. I also disabled IIS server which use port 80. Aeric80 (talk) 09:07, 2 February 2017 (UTC)