VisualEditor: Provide a way for users to edit auto-numbered external links
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	• GWicke
	Aug 28 2013, 10:29 PM

Description

The Parsoid team is considering a simplification of the different mw:ExtLink/* variants to just a single mw:ExtLink type.

For most types this should not make much of a difference to VE, but for auto-numbered external links ([http://example.com]) it might, so I am looking for your input. I did some testing on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:GWicke/TestNumberedLinks. Changes to the text lead to corruption as in this diff:

https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=User%3AGWicke%2FTestNumberedLinks&diff=772988&oldid=772987

There also does not seem to be any automatic re-numbering when a numbered link is changed into a plain external link.

What are you plans for the handling of numbered links?

Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement

Details

Reference: bz53505

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Status	Subtype	Assigned	Task
Open	Release	None	T84936 Release VisualEditor-MediaWiki as "1.0"
Open		None	T50429 [Epic] Support editing parts of a page in VisualEditor-MediaWiki
Open		None	T54365 Explore performance gains from progressive (JIT?) de-alienation in VisualEditor
Open		None	T174303 Copy-pasting linked ISBN numbers from view mode HTML into VisualEditor inserts wikitext links to Special:BookSources (it should turn them into magic links?)
Open	Feature	None	T54091 The read HTML should have hinting to allow full DOM copying (as opposed to just rich copying) from read mode into VE surfaces
Open		None	T55784 [EPIC] Use Parsoid HTML for all page views
Declined		None	T67243 Flow: Obey the Exlinks gadget (open external links in new tab/window)
Resolved		• Catrope	T96855 A15. Flow rendering doesn't render external links correctly
Resolved		• Sbailey	T58756 Parsoid doesn't give external links class="external free\|text"
Resolved		• GWicke	T55783 Use CSS-based citation numbering
Resolved		ssastry	T64511 Mass rendering tests / visual diff
Resolved		None	T62017 Flow: Reference numbers in Parsoid output aren't superscripted
Resolved		Arlolra	T53245 Link MediaWiki styles and create Parsoid-specific CSS styling to match MediaWiki's for differing DOM elements
Resolved		• Catrope	T55505 VisualEditor: Provide a way for users to edit auto-numbered external links
Resolved		• GWicke	T55432 Typeof cleanup and smart serialization of new language and interwiki links

Event Timeline

• bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Low.Nov 22 2014, 2:00 AM

• bzimport added projects: VE-deploy-2013-12-05, VisualEditor-EditingTools.

• bzimport set Reference to bz53505.

• GWicke created this task.Aug 28 2013, 10:29 PM

Maybe this could even be handled in CSS, somewhat like this example:

<html><head>
<style>
body {

color: red;
counter-reset: numberedlink;

}
a[typeof~="mw:ExtLink"]:empty:before {

content: "[" counter(numberedlink) "]";
counter-increment: numberedlink;

}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<a typeof="mw:ExtLink"></a>
<a typeof="mw:ExtLink"></a>
<a typeof="mw:ExtLink"></a>
<a typeof="mw:ExtLink"></a>
</body>
</html>

Problems in this simple experiment:

Links are not clickable, and (maybe related)
the content can only be generated :before and :after, but not inside the empty link.

See http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-content/ for the relevant spec.

With a href set this actually works as expected in FF and Chrome:

<html><head>
<style>
body {

counter-reset: numberedlink;

}
a[typeof~="mw:ExtLink"]:empty:after {

content: "[" counter(numberedlink) "]";
counter-increment: numberedlink;

}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<a href="test" typeof="mw:ExtLink"></a>
<a href="test" typeof="mw:ExtLink">not empty</a>
<a href="test" typeof="mw:ExtLink"></a>
<a href="test" typeof="mw:ExtLink"></a>
<a href="test" typeof="mw:ExtLink"></a>
</body>
</html>

So it seems that we can actually implement auto-numbered links in pure CSS.

(In reply to comment #3)

With a href set this actually works as expected in FF and Chrome:

[…]

So it seems that we can actually implement auto-numbered links in pure CSS.

That's great. :-)

We will still need a way of creating an auto-numbered external link (rather than just being able to copy and alter them), but that's our problem. :-)

Yeah, you need the UI for the creation of empty links. But there is no need to deal with renumbering etc in VE, which simplifies things a lot.

Please test this test with IE as well. I am hopeful that it works with IE >= 8.

(In reply to comment #5)

Please test this test with IE as well. I am hopeful that it works with IE >=

In IE9 you get "not empty" but none of the other four links.

In IE10 and IE11 you get all five links as expected.

Supports:
- http://caniuse.com/#feat=css-sel3 (CSS3 :empty)
- http://caniuse.com/#feat=css-counters (counter-increment)
- http://caniuse.com/#feat=css-gencontent (:before)

Test case: http://jsfiddle.net/wTNc4/
- Works fine in IE9: http://cl.ly/image/2r2L1F3U2X0r

I wonder why it didn't work for James?

I guess that means that we can go ahead and drop the explicit numbering in Parsoid in favor of pure CSS. We will also drop the /Numbered typeof suffix along with the other mw:ExtLink suffixes.

You will then get empty links with typeof="mw:ExtLink" as in this example.

Change 90432 had a related patch set uploaded by Catrope:
Add a node type for numbered external links

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/90432

Change 90432 merged by jenkins-bot:
Add a node type for numbered external links

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/90432

Though the code in gerrit 90432 is merged, that just adjusts how VisualEditor works with auto-numbered links to support Parsoid's changed behaviour - this bug remains undone. Resetting to ASSIGNED.

Bug 57419 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Change 98114 had a related patch set uploaded by Catrope:
Make autonumbered external links inspectable

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/98114

Change 98114 merged by jenkins-bot:
Make autonumbered external links inspectable

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/98114

Bug 57755 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Jdforrester-WMF added a project: VisualEditor.Dec 3 2014, 2:08 AM

VisualEditor: Provide a way for users to edit auto-numbered external linksClosed, ResolvedPublicActions

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VisualEditor: Provide a way for users to edit auto-numbered external links
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