Topic on VisualEditor/Feedback

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T275457

When a user modify a voy:it:Template:Listing with VE, it change the wikicode indentation during the saving phase.

This is quite annoying because all the listing by default have this structure:

*{{see
| nome= | alt= | sito= | email=
| indirizzo= | lat= | long= | indicazioni=
| tel= | numero verde= | fax=
| orari= | prezzo=
| descrizione=
}}

So even if VE find the following indentation:

*{{see
| nome=Chiesa della Misericordia | alt= Igreja da Misericórdia | sito= | email=
| indirizzo=Praça da República 62 | lat=41.69394 | long=-8.82816 | indicazioni=
| tel=+351 258 827 930 | numero verde= | fax=
| orari= | prezzo=
| descrizione=Chiesa del XVI secolo, eretta dalla confraternita della Misericordia. Chiamata originariamente ''Casa das Varandas'' a cause delle loggie che presenta sui vari piani, è un esempio singolare di architettura di ispirazione rinascimentale e manierista con influenze italiane e fiamminghe.
:All'interno, la chiesa presenta pale d'altare dorate e pareti rivestite da azulejos. Gli affreschi del soffitto sono di Manuel Gomes.
}}

it will save it in this way:

*{{see
| nome = Chiesa della Misericordia
| alt = Igreja da Misericórdia
| sito = 
| email = 
| indirizzo = Praça da República 62
| lat = 41.69394
| long = -8.82816
| indicazioni = 
| tel = +351 258 827 930
| numero verde = 
| fax = 
| orari = 
| prezzo = 
| descrizione = Chiesa del XVI secolo, eretta dalla confraternita della Misericordia. Chiamata originariamente ''Casa das Varandas'' a causa delle logge che presenta sui vari piani, è un esempio singolare di architettura di ispirazione rinascimentale e manierista con influenze italiane e fiamminghe.
:All'interno, la chiesa presenta pale d'altare dorate e pareti rivestite da azulejos. Gli affreschi del soffitto sono di Manuel Gomes.
}}

There's a way to preserve the original indentation without affecting it?

@Whatamidoing (WMF) do you someone that can support or at least discusse the above requested change?

Unfortunately, I don't think that the current system can support this complex (to a computer) level of formatting. Formatting can be defined (each template separately) in several 'custom' styles, as described in Help:TemplateData#Custom formats. However, I don't think that any of the custom formats are complex enough to put, e.g., name and alt-name, or lat and long, on the same line of wikitext. It is rather annoying, because Wikivoyage has an elegant arrangement.

@Whatamidoing (WMF), gosh, technically it would be enough to keep unchanged the asset of the parameters as they are found (i.e. not add and not remove any "\n").

Although I agree that "custom formats" force a new indentation, since VE is able to recognize each paramer with its value, is enough that only the value will be changed without affecting the "new line" symbols (i.e. \n). A simple idea could be to allow "format": "none" or something similar, that specify that no output formatting shall be applied. Are you sure that no one can take a look at it?

PS I think that the indentation is not only for Italian Wikivoyage, but for all the language version.

The problem is that the visual editor doesn't edit "parameters". It edits "nodes", i.e., the entire template. So if you change a single character, it removes the entire template and inserts a new copy of the entire template, just to change the single character. If the visual mode could support this complex format, then that would be good, because it would "correct" the formatting to the standard. But so far, that's not an option.

Ok, I understand what @you say. The Wikivoyage listing editor works in the way you describe. I use it to correct the format with just one click all the time Visual Editor messing it up.

The algorithm to do it is there, but clearly it should be adapted to VE. The important is to find someone interested to work on it...