HTML diffs of edits for everything
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	cscott
	Jul 8 2015, 3:52 PM

Description

Eventually we would like to move away from the use of wikitext to preview diffs in Visual Editor. Instead, diffs could be displayed in a WYSIWYG style. Perhaps with color highlighting, perhaps with strikeouts and boldface, perhaps with inserted annotations that look like marks a human editor would use.

Parsoid generates HTML diffs internally. So it would be nice to prototype a HTML diff UI based on Parsoid DOM (HTML5) diffs in Parsoid. If this is successful, it could also be used by Visual Editor (perhaps visual editor would request the diff from Parsoid).

See also: T21859: Remove HTMLDiff

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Status	Assigned	Task
Open	None	T105173 HTML diffs of edits for everything
Resolved	Tchanders	T143350 Let users choose a visual or wikitext diff in the review-your-changes tab
Resolved	Tchanders	T149524 Add option to DiffElement to show limited context
Resolved	Tchanders	T149570 In VE core, provide a tree differ library
Resolved	Tchanders	T149571 In VE core, provide a node differ library
Resolved	Tchanders	T149585 Let users of VE core see a visual diff in the stand-alone demo
Resolved	Esanders	T151403 Have the visual diff system work with MW-core-specific node types like images and templates
Resolved	Tchanders	T151404 Have the visual diff system display node attribute changes
Resolved	Esanders	T151405 Have the visual diff system display tree node moves more clearly
Resolved	Tchanders	T149537 Visual diffing: indenting a list item produces an incorrect diff
Resolved	Jdforrester-WMF	T149702 Consider using semantic elements in addition to colours for visual diffs
Resolved	Tchanders	T149821 Visual Diff does not show changes related with "Comment"
Resolved	Jdforrester-WMF	T160589 VisualDiffs: Add custom messages for reference changes
Resolved	Tchanders	T158895 Fix whitespace errors in visual diffs
Resolved	Tchanders	T156189 Have the visual diff system display content attribute changes
Resolved	Jdforrester-WMF	T152001 Design a way to present content changes in a rich text context
Resolved	Esanders	T160740 Visual diffing: Merge changes across whitespace
Resolved	Esanders	T158769 Visual diffing: Deleting a table row doesn't append the removed cells in the right place
Resolved	Tchanders	T158518 Removing and inserting table cells breaks diff
Resolved	Jdforrester-WMF	T160632 undocumented parameters in visualeditor-changedesc-align, visualeditor-changedesc-image-size, visualeditor-changedesc-link-href.
Resolved	Esanders	T156599 Visual diffing: Implement a fallback for when tree diffing takes too long
Resolved	Esanders	T160729 Visual diffing a change to a syntaxHighlight node causes JS error
Resolved	Tchanders	T158294 Cell change missing in table diff
Resolved	Esanders	T160730 References in visual diffs are highlighted without taking superscript into account
Resolved	Tchanders	T160795 "Foo" -> "Foo!" doesn't come out as a minimised diff when it starts the paragraph
Resolved	Esanders	T160939 VisualDiffs: Make links (from <refs> to somewhere on the page, from [[File:…]] to MediaViewer, …) not try to open in this tab
Resolved	None	T167508 Visual diff: Make VE visual diffs available for historical diffs via MediaWiki's DiffView page
Resolved	Esanders	T185708 Make historical VisualDiffs a BetaFeature
Resolved	Esanders	T190706 Historical visual differences beta feature information page needs updating to mention historical diffs as well as diffs in the editors
Resolved	ppelberg	T170235 Visual diff (on history page) shows changes to reference numbers caused by inserting more references
Resolved	Tchanders	T170269 Reference diffs not working correctly on historical diffs
Resolved	matmarex	T171937 Historical visual diff broken for revision deletions
Open	None	T283037 Allow visual diffs on Special:Undelete

Event Timeline

cscott created this task.Jul 8 2015, 3:52 PM

cscott raised the priority of this task from to Medium.

cscott updated the task description. (Show Details)

cscott added projects: Parsoid, Wikimania-Hackathon-2015.

cscott subscribed.

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptJul 8 2015, 3:52 PM

cscott moved this task from Backlog to Confirmed Hacking Projects on the Wikimania-Hackathon-2015 board.Jul 8 2015, 4:33 PM

• ssastry renamed this task from Visual Diffs for Parsoid (and Visual Editor) to HTML diffs of edits for Parsoid (and Visual Editor).Jul 8 2015, 6:20 PM

• ssastry updated the task description. (Show Details)

• ssastry set Security to None.

Jdforrester-WMF renamed this task from HTML diffs of edits for Parsoid (and Visual Editor) to HTML diffs of edits for everything.Jul 18 2015, 6:47 PM

Jdforrester-WMF added projects: VisualEditor, Epic.

Stryn subscribed.Jul 18 2015, 9:28 PM

jeblad subscribed.Jul 18 2015, 10:54 PM

Jdforrester-WMF moved this task from To Triage to Freezer on the VisualEditor board.Jul 19 2015, 8:46 PM

What is the status of this task, now that Wikimania 2015 is over? Did this hacking project take place and was successfully finished? If yes: Please provide an update and potentially summarize findings / provide a link to anything relevant (and if the task is not completely finished yet, please move the project to the "Work continues after Mexico City" column on the #Wikimania-Hackathon-2015 workboard). If no: Please edit this task by removing the #Wikimania-Hackathon-2015 project from this task. Thanks for your help and keeping this task updated!

• Elitre subscribed.Jul 30 2015, 3:20 PM

Ricordisamoa subscribed.Aug 21 2015, 6:53 AM

A message to all open tasks related to the #Wikimania-Hackathon-2015. What do you need to complete this task? Do you need support from the Wikimedia Foundation to push it forward? Help promoting this project? Finding an intern to work on it? Organizing a developer sprint? Pitching it to WMF teams? Applying for a grant? If you need support, share your request at T107423: Evaluate which projects showcased at the Wikimania Hackathon 2015 should be supported further or contact me personally. Thank you!

Ragesoss subscribed.Sep 22 2015, 4:40 PM

@cscott Does Parsoid generate HTML string diffs or DOM diffs? We had briefly looked at https://github.com/fiduswriter/diffDOM.

We generate DOM diffs internally for selective serialization, if that is what you are asking about.

Nemo_bis updated the task description. (Show Details)Dec 30 2015, 7:54 AM

Nemo_bis mentioned this in T113004: Make it easy to fork, branch, and merge pages (or more).

Jay8g subscribed.Jan 2 2016, 3:35 AM

Quiddity subscribed.Feb 4 2016, 11:21 PM

Jdforrester-WMF added a project: Collaboration-Team-Triage.Feb 5 2016, 5:42 PM

Here's an example of what one editor is doing manually, to get a visual diff: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Anthonyhcole/sandbox&oldid=705385531

Esanders mentioned this in T140451: Redesign save/publish dialog to show changes/diff alongside the edit summary, to help prompt people to write better summaries.Jul 15 2016, 9:46 AM

The diffDOM algorithm is pretty simple and produces some messy diffs:

https://github.com/fiduswriter/diffDOM/issues/46
https://github.com/fiduswriter/diffDOM/issues/47

Interesting: https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/reconciliation.html, especially the part about stable keys.

https://github.com/nyxtom/reconcile.js is an implementation of this, ~~but doesn't include the stable keys feature~~ and supports stable keys via the 'id' property.

Jdforrester-WMF added a project: MediaWiki-Page-diffs.Jul 15 2016, 4:10 PM

Jdforrester-WMF added a parent task: T143341: When re-starting a local draft, show the user a diff so they know what they're getting into.Aug 18 2016, 5:54 PM

Jdforrester-WMF mentioned this in T57370: [Epic] VisualEditor: Implement some form of auto-save to help with browser crash recovery and accidental tab closing.

• RobLa-WMF subscribed.Aug 19 2016, 4:59 PM

Jdforrester-WMF added a parent task: T143350: Let users choose a visual or wikitext diff in the review-your-changes tab.Aug 19 2016, 9:51 PM

Jdforrester-WMF removed a parent task: T143341: When re-starting a local draft, show the user a diff so they know what they're getting into.

Jdforrester-WMF removed a parent task: T143350: Let users choose a visual or wikitext diff in the review-your-changes tab.

Jdforrester-WMF added a subtask: T143350: Let users choose a visual or wikitext diff in the review-your-changes tab.

cscott mentioned this in T149664: Next steps for edit review.Nov 1 2016, 5:29 AM

Arlolra subscribed.Nov 8 2016, 5:55 PM

SamanthaNguyen subscribed.Nov 22 2016, 5:05 AM

Jdforrester-WMF closed subtask T143350: Let users choose a visual or wikitext diff in the review-your-changes tab as Resolved.Mar 22 2017, 3:52 PM