VisualEditor/FeatureUse data dictionary

This page explains the meaning of the different values in the VisualEditorFeatureUse data stream. It was comprehensive as of September 2019, but will go out of date relatively quickly since so many different features are involved. Please help keep it up to date!

For definitions of terms like dialog, context item, annotation, and panel, see VisualEditor/Developer glossary.

Features

feature name	meaning
alien	A node that VisualEditor can't edit directly, usually some rare HTML markup (e.g. <ruby>; until recently, blockquotes)
alienExtension	A node provided by a MediaWiki extension that doesn't have a custom editing tool inside VisualEditor (e.g. <templatedata>).
allAnnotations	The tool used to remove all text formatting (Style text → Remove). Only action is clear-all.
chem
chemDialog	The dialog used to edit chemical formulas.
chemInspector	The inspector used to edit chemical formulas.
cite	Adding or editing citations using citation templates.
cite-*	Adding or editing citations using specific citation templates (e.g. cite-book, cite-Internetsäit, cite-libro, cite-web, cite-any).
citoid	Citoid. Once a Citoid-generated reference is inserted, it becomes a normal reference and editing it would fall under cite.
citoidEducationPopup	"Doorhanger" notice encouraging the user to add citations. Only action is show.
clipboard	Cutting, copying, and pasting.
commandHelp	The dialog to display command keyboard shortcuts, desktop only (Help → Keyboard shortcuts)
comment	HTML-style comments in page text (not shown to the reader).
cxLink	Links in ContentTranslation
dtReply	Discussion-tool related events
editor-switch	Switching between the different editing interfaces. The action gives the interface after the switch.
findAndReplace	Finding and replacing text
flowMention	"@" mentions in Flow.
format	Text "types" (paragraph, headings, preformatted, blockquote)
gallery	Image galleries
graph	Rich graphs
helpPopup	The help tool (on the right side of the toolbar, desktop only). Only action is show.
hiero	Hieroglyphics
language	Language annotations, which mark text as being in a specific language
link	The inspector used to edit internal and external links. Also: context menu for external links only.
link/internal	Context menu for internal links (this is the same feature as link)
link/mwMagic	Context menu for magic links (this is the same feature as linkMagicNode)
link/mwNumberedExternal	Context menu for links with no text (this is the same feature as linkNode)
linkEducationPopup	"Doorhanger" notice encouraging the user to add links. Only action is show.
linkMagicNode	The inspector used to edit magic links (like this: RFC 1234, ISBN 1234567890).
linkNode	The inspector used to edit links with no text (like this: [1]).
math	Context menu for mathematical notation items (this is the same feature as mathDialog/mathInspector).
mathDialog	The dialog used to edit mathematical notation
mathInspector	The inspector used to edit mathematical notation
media
mergeCells	The context menu used to merge table cells. Only action is context-close.
meta	Page settings
mwcite	Adding or editing a specific citation template on wikis without Citoid.
mwGallery
mwLanguageVariant	Inspectors used to edit language variant markup on several wikis (e.g. sr:, zh:)
mwLanguageVariant-disabled
mwLanguageVariant-twoway
mwMaps	Interactive maps
mwMedia	Images, videos, and sound
mwPre	The dialog used to edit preformatted plain text (<pre> tags)
mwSignature	Signature insertion (used on talk pages)
mwUsernameCompletion	Tagging a user in a talk page comment - using @mention or clicking an icon
noticesPopup	The notices tool, which is only visible when a page has edit notices (on the right side of the toolbar, desktop only). Only action is show.
pages
publishSettings
reference	Adding or editing citations using the basic, empty-box reference dialog (the only option when citation templates and Citoid are not set up on the wiki)
referencesList	Citation lists (<references /> in wikitext)
score	Adding or editing musical notation
syntaxhighlightDialog
syntaxhighlightInspector
table	Tables
textStyle/big	Big text (<big> in HTML)
textStyle/bold	Bold text (<b> in HTML)
textStyle/code	Monospaced text (<code> in HTML)
textStyle/italic	Italic text (<i> in HTML)
textStyle/small	Small text (<small> in HTML)
textStyle/strikethrough	Struckthrough text (<s> in HTML)
textStyle/subscript	Subscript text (<sub> in HTML)
textStyle/superscript	Superscript text (<sup> in HTML)
textStyle/underline	Underlined text (<u> in HTML)
transclusion	Templates
undefined	This is the result of some bug :) The only actions are context-close, context-delete, and context-show.
wikitextLink	The inspector used to add wikitext links, in the new wikitext editor only.

Actions

action name	feature specific?	meaning
add-known-parameter	transclusion	A new parameter was added in the template dialog. This parameter was documented in TemplateData, so "known".
add-unknown-parameter	transclusion	A new parameter was added in the template dialog. This parameter was not documented in TemplateData, so "unknown".
automatic-generate	citoid	The "generate" button was clicked to generate a citation based on a URL (or DOI or ISBN)
automatic-insert	citoid	The "insert" button was clicked to insert a Citoid-generated citation into the page
advanced-show	dtReply	A contributor clicks "show" in the Comment Summary Field used to customize the edit summary that accompanies the comments people post with the Reply Tool.
advanced-hide	dtReply	A contributor clicks "hide" in the Comment Summary Field used to customize the edit summary that accompanies the comments people post with the Reply Tool.
cell-merge	table
cell-split	table
checkbox-wpWatchthis	dtReply	DiscussionTools related action for When a user opts to Watch Discussion or Watch this page
clear-all	allAnnotations
context-clear	any feature which uses context items	An annotation (e.g. a link) was cleared from its context item, mainly by using the trash or unlink button
context-close
context-delete		A node (e.g. an image) was deleted from its context item
context-label
context-show		Any context item was shown for any reason (several can be fired at once if multiple context items are shown because a range of text has multiple annotations)
copy	clipboard
create	table
cut	clipboard
delete	table	An entire table was deleted
delete-col	table	Columns were deleted from a table
delete-row	table	Rows were deleted from a table
dialog-abort	any feature which uses dialogs	A dialog was closed, discarding any changes made. On desktop, this includes both explicit aborts through clicking the close button and implicit aborts through clicking outside the dialog. On mobile, aborts can only be done explicitly
dialog-done		A dialog was closed through a path that applies changes (note that what was applied could be the same as what was there before)
dialog-insert		Like dialog-done, used when inserting a new element rather than modifying an existing one
dialog-remove		A dialog was closed through a path that removed the element being modified.
dialog-convert	Several different dialogs	link: convert to linkMagicNode linkNode: convert to link linkMagicNode: convert to link mwPre: convert to pre
dialog-manual-choose	citoid	Seemingly redundant to manual-choose
dialog-prevent-show	editor-switch	A contributor encounters a dialog indicating that they are prevented from switching to visual from source due to using a template, extension or table in source mode.
dragstart	clipboard
edit-parameter-value	transclusion	Event sent the first time a parameter's value is edited in the Template Dialog. At most one event is sent for each parameter edited. The state is reset when the dialog is closed.
external-link-input	link
input	reference	Text was added to a form field
insert-col	table
insert-row	table
manual-choose	citoid
manual-template-input	cite
move-col	table
move-row	table
mwHeading-1/ 2 / 3 / 4 / 5/ 6	format	An <h1> / <h2> / <h3>/ <h4>/ <h5> / <h6>annotation was opened or applied
mwPreformatted	format
panel-switch	citoid, link	The user switched between tabs or panes within a dialog
paragraph	format
paste	clipboard
reuse-choose	citoid	The user selected an existing citation to insert again
search-pages-choose	link, wikitextLink	A result was chosen from the list of internal link search results
search-pages-input	link	Input text in the box used to search for an internal link target in the link dialog
show	noticesPopup, linkEducationPopup, citoidEducationPopup, helpPopup	A help popup was shown to the user.
source-desktop	editor-switch	A desktop user switched to the 2010 wikitext editor.
source-mobile	editor-switch	A mobile user switched to the wikitext editor.
source-nwe-desktop	editor-switch	A desktop user switched to the 2017 wikitext editor.
style-data	table
style-header	table
template-doc-link-click	transclusion	A user clicked the template dialog help link, leading to the template page.
toggle-insertion	textStyle/*
toggle-selection	textStyle/*, cxLink
visual-desktop	editor-switch	A desktop user switched to the visual editor.
visual-mobile	editor-switch	A mobile user switched to the mobile visual editor.
window-open-from-command	Any feature which uses windows (which include dialogs)	A window was opened in case not covered by the other four window-open actions (e.g. the new citation dialog opening a template citation dialog)
window-open-from-context		A window was opened by clicking the edit button in a context item
window-open-from-sequence		A window was opened using a typed sequence (e.g. {{ to open the template editor)
window-open-from-tool		A window was opened by clicking a button in the toolbar
window-open-from-trigger		A window was opened using a keyboard shortcut