Wikimedia Apps/Wikipedia/Feedback/Archive1

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V1.0[edit]

Issues[edit]

--Bnewstead 02:02, 14 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]


  • Some feedback from me, in addition to the problems noted above by Steven and Barry -- Motorola Droid 3, running Android 2.3.4. I'm super excited to have the app -- thanks for all your hard work on it! Ldavis (WMF) 19:39, 15 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • There's no menu on the nearby functionality; the only way to get back to articles is to hit the back button a few times. Maybe keep the search bar, or add a menu back in.
    • If I search for something, then click on a few wikilinks within that article, I can't seem to get the search box to register that I want to type into it. It will clear my original search if I hit the X button, but it won't let me click on it to start entering text in it. The phone will give me the virtual keyboard, but anything I type into it doesn't show up in the box. Sometimes it will even highlight the box in orange and have a blinking cursor, but anything I type doesn't appear there (it even gives me typo fixing suggestions, so I know the keyboard is registering that I am typing something, it just doesn't show up on the box). I have to hit the back button on my phone a few times to get it to work again.
    • When it loads an article I click on from a wikilink, it starts loading the page from where the link was in the orignal article. So, for example, if I click a wikilink in the middle of an article, while the new article loads, it will show me the middle of that article and not the top of the page. Once it's loaded, it will scroll up to the top.
  • From Akapoor (WMF) 20:31, 20 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • When I switch languages, but then click on the W, I am always taken back to the english home page, rather than whatever language wiki I was on - bug added (this comment will move to archive soon) --Philinje 01:24, 21 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
      • Sorry, current thinking is to leave this as is - home page is based on language setting of app, not language of current article.
    • Seems like I can search in every language at once, regardless of what wiki I am on. For example, if I am in Turkish wikipedia, and search for "metallica", I am taken to english article of metallica. - bug added (this comment will move to archive soon) --Philinje 01:24, 21 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • Also, +1 to the need for a cursor when you first select the search bar
  • The app always starts up in English, although my phone is set to German. Changing the language in the preferences has no effect at all. The only way to get to German is by looking up an English article and then selecting "read this article in..." and choose German from the list. The phone is a HTC Desire Z. --Johannes Rohr 21:19, 11 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]


  • After using the nearby-function the gps-location service stays alive after leaving the map-view and even after changing to homescreen or to another app. This drains battery unless I shut down the app manuall by task manager. I use Android 4.0.3 on Nexus S. --217.92.179.126 10:41, 20 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Languages[edit]

Home Page[edit]

First time I loaded the homepage, it matched what today's en.wikipedia.org looked like (same Featured Article and "In the News"), but after switching languages, switching back to English, loading another page, and now going back to the homepage, it is taken me to what appears to be the FA and News from 12/13 - 7 days ago! Not sure why?? Jwild 16:40, 20 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

General Feedback[edit]

(WMF) • talk 00:23, 13 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

    • In Nearby, it would be nice if "Redo search in this area" only appeared after I moved the map.
    • I completely forgot about the menu items for a while. I'd suggest we include a screenshot of these/explanation in the Android Market and in any other materials, since these features are great. The whole hidden menu items thing is a general Android UX problem, but with some user education we can show off the cool parts of the app I think.
  • I don't have a phone myself, so i'm passing some feedback from my friends. It's a bit hard to report it like this, but each of the following issues was reported by more than one person, so it is probably significant. All of the reporters are Hebrew speakers, but none of the issues is related to RTL text. ;) Hope it helps:
    • Many people are complaining that it's very confusing that the interface is in Hebrew, but the content in English and the search box searches the English Wikipedia.
      • a) does this happen by default? If you get the Hebrew interface, it *should* also be defaulting to Hebrew wiki... if not that's a bug I gotta track down! (Looks like this is indeed happening with all languages; locale is picked up for localization but not for the wiki language selection. Reopened bug 32005) b) Out of curiosity how do they react to other apps like the web browser? Do they also show in Hebrew UI? My browser is English no matter what language I'm browsing, just as my mail app is English regardless of the language I'm reading and writing in. --brion 21:16, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • Again, i didn't try it myself, but several people complained that it's impossible to type in Hebrew in the search box, even though it's possible to type it in other apps on the same phone. Somebody said that it's possible to switch to Hebrew after typing something in English.
    • Surprisingly, several people asked for a big fat QR code for the direct app download link. They apparently don't like clicking text links even if they don't have to type them manually - "my fingers are too fat for text links". --Amir E. Aharoni 12:54, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Feature requests[edit]

QRpedia[edit]

Please add a QR code reader, and use it to allow access to QRpedia. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 22:50, 19 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I would tend to recommend against this; many QR-code reader applications already exist and should be quite capable of loading URLs. This'll be a rare feature with limited applicability and I don't see much reason to support it directly. --brion 00:48, 20 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The reason this is important is related to GLAM and museums. However, the functionality does exist in other forms and the question is whether a majority of users would find it useful to be bundled in the app. Anyone? --Phil Chang, Mobile Product Manager 19:30, 20 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
QRpedia is a Wikimedia project, we shouldn't expect people to leave our app to make use of our project to view our web pages. They should appear seamless. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:20, 22 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It is? This is news to me. :) Would be curious to hear what sort of usage these get, and whether a Wikipedia app makes more sense than a museum app. --brion 21:14, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

When I use a QR-Reader the article is opened by webbrowser, not by the wiki-app. A Reader within the app could change that. --217.92.179.126 10:47, 20 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

OpenStreetMap[edit]

Low priority, I appreciate, but it would be good to have the option to see nearby articles mapped on OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:26, 22 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Bug already open https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33208


Issues[edit]

  • Comments from me after testing on my Droid Incredible. Back functionality, the Home button in the W logo, History, adding/removing bookmarks, and other basic navigation works as expected. Other stuff... Steven Walling (WMF) • talk 19:39, 12 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • 50% of time, I saw the logo and search bar from the mobile site on page load, in addition the app's built in version. It was there for roughly 2-5 seconds before it disappeared.
    • Full screen search works well, but when I selected an article from the list, the typed text remained after page load (e.g. I saw "she" in my search box after loading the "Sheriff" article). Is it intentional that entered search text isn't cleared on page load?
      • You may wish to continue searching related pages, in which case that might be kinda nice. Not sure whether we should clear or not clear, I've seen UIs do both ways. --brion 22:14, 14 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • In Settings there was a leftover default entry that said, "Checkbox Example: Lorem ipsum..." :-)
    • When trying to load points on the map, the Nearby feature was unresponsive to either the menu or back buttons for quite some time.


  • Same as Steven, the search box from the mobile site shows up for a few seconds and then disappears (actually the pages load in a strange way, you see the middle of the article come up and then you jump to the top)
  • Same as Steven, my search which is then autofilled stays in the search box after I go to a page


  • I tried the "Nearby" feature which looks cool and the "Redo search" feature worked, but it wouldn't take me to the full article once I clicked on the flag. It just took me back to the article I was on before.
  • I tried adding Bookmarks, but they didn't appear in the Bookmarks list
  • It is not self-evidence that clicking on the W takes you to the home page.
We have a button graphic now Tfinc 23:51, 19 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

--Bnewstead 02:02, 14 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]


  • Some feedback from me, in addition to the problems noted above by Steven and Barry -- Motorola Droid 3, running Android 2.3.4. I'm super excited to have the app -- thanks for all your hard work on it! Ldavis (WMF) 19:39, 15 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • I can't get the articles to load from the map; when I touch a point, it will pull up the name of the article and a short preview, but tapping on that doesn't take me to the article.
    • I tried typing the shortcut WP:USEDU into the search box; it gave me Wikipedia:USEDU as a suggestion, but it couldn't just hit the enter button (my phone has a physical keyboard, so I use that button constantly)--I had to use my finger to hit the Wikipedia:USEDU suggestion on the screen. I realize not a lot of us have physical keyboard phones, but there are a small subset of Android nuts like me who will only buy a phone with a physical keyboard. :)
Bug filed https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33263 Tfinc 23:55, 19 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

General Feedback[edit]


Languages[edit]

I changed the language to Gikûyû, then went back and tapped the homepage on W and nothing loaded as screen shot shows HERE Android version 2.3.4, phone type Huawei Ideos U8150 --Stephenwanjau 03:44, 13 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I saw the blank home screen after trying to reload it a couple times too. It seemed to go away if you refresh, but I didn't try another language version. Steven Walling (WMF) • talk 04:17, 13 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
That's because they don't have a configured home page. Same thing happens here : http://ki.m.wikipedia.org/

v1.1 Beta1 feedback[edit]

Map seems very flickery on my Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.0), though it's fine on my Nexus 1 (2.3). Hmm... more to test! :)

Some more map issues:

  • load 'San Francisco' article
  • click on geo coords to load map
  • go back
  • load 'Los Angeles' article
  • click on geo coords to load map

Testing on my Galaxy Nexus (flickery) and on my Kindle Fire (non-flicker), the map when loaded again seems messed up, like it's trying to show the tiles offscreen to the left.

Rotating the tablet to change orientation appears to reinitialize things and it shows ok.


  • I'm having various issues with the maps, both in English and in

Hebrew. I can share more details on IRC, but in general, is there some page that says what is supposed to work? -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com