Last modified: 2011-02-16 01:07:35 UTC
On Special:Gadgets, you see an "edit" link for each gadget description. As the name sounds, we should use this link when we want to edit the description text. However, clicking on it does not send us to the edit page; instead, we see the MediaWiki:Gadget-blah page and have to click on the "edit" link again. This extra step should be removed.
Fixed in r36867.
Also something for the edit link: I think the edit link should be hidden when you don't have the "editinterface" right, so when you can't edit the MediaWiki pages. Otherwise if you click on the link, you see an error page saying you can't edit...
Perhaps 'view source' would be appropriate? Though honestly it's unclear that the link is to edit the description, rather than the code, to begin with.
What if the messages were split (Gadgets-specific). Edit-description and Edit-gadget could say different messages and link to different pages. Although, hiding the links entirely might be more beneficial to non-sysops.
In fact, I went back and looked at it. The EDIT links all over the Special:Gadgets page is a mess. Adding more of them (for the JS files) would make the page even more cluttered. A UI cleanup may be in order.
I agree, but I don't have a good idea. Suggestions?
*** Bug 16393 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #5) > In fact, I went back and looked at it. The EDIT links all over the > Special:Gadgets page is a mess. Adding more of them (for the JS files) would > make the page even more cluttered. A UI cleanup may be in order. > Probably linking to the pages (not the edit form) in all cases will be fine. Then you'll get the edit/view source tab as appropriate. It's confusing as-is: some links go to the page, some go to edit form.
Removed the edit links entirely in r48479
Reverted r48479 in r48498. Removing the description edit links means you have to poke around and try to manually figure out the right message page name to update the gadget descriptions. IMHO this is pretty terrible and a big step back in administrative usability.
Most probably, all gadgets presented in the Preferences should have at least one link, not there for "editing" it but going to a more complete description page (from which you'll find a full description, example snapshots, usage help, versioning info, bugs and discussions for corrections, suggestions for improvements, and a link to its current implementation, which may consist in more than just a single Javascript source, but could also contain images, translable/localizable items...) My feeling is that each one should show a "details" (or just "help"?) link (which itself is localizable), immediately after the summary line, for reaching this Gadget's description page. The current summary line shown in the Gadgets tab after their respective checkbox is clearly not enough (and even the links that may be present sometimes in some summary lines, do not necessary reach this page but can just link to the description of an associated concept, such as a Wikipedia article). inserting the link within the summary line is not the best place for that as it is really confusive. Ideally, there should also be absolutely NO link WITHIN the summary line itself (this is not necessary if we always have a "details/help" link displayed with each gadget), which should be a basic text. The target page or URL for this "help/details" description page can be anywhere (including on another wiki): it should be up to each gadget to specify the location of their Gadget's help page, and each wiki importing the gadget should also have the possibility to customize this default page (for example to provide local help and local discussion pages, even if the local page contains another link to the default Gadget's detail page, which it really should). The same is true for all other localizable summary lines found in the preferences. This is easy to understand, look at most standalone applications for desktops (Windows, Mac, Linux...) that include such a "help" functionality in their GUI (forms and dialogs) for all user selectable items, and sometimes even for some display-only status. The per-item "help" is needed simply for usability and is much better than just a global help page for a full input form.
(In reply to comment #11) > Most probably, all gadgets presented in the Preferences should have at least > one link, not there for "editing" it but going to a more complete description > page (from which you'll find a full description, example snapshots, usage help, > versioning info, bugs and discussions for corrections, suggestions for > improvements, and a link to its current implementation, which may consist in > more than just a single Javascript source, but could also contain images, > translable/localizable items...) That can and should be implemented by the users writing these scripts.
In simple words: separate clearly the short gadget description string that appears in the Preferences tab, from the full pagename describing it. Make them into two separate ressources, also localizable separately (and still customizable on local wikis that will want to provide their own help page). And drop all links from the short localizable description strings as they are irrelevant.
The Edit links seem to work fine in MaxSems rewrite of the extension (or at least, the current version, if it wasn't max that fixed it) What else needs doing for this now?
