[GOAL] Page previews on mobileweb
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	phuedx
	Sep 3 2015, 10:32 AM

Description

Summary

A user clicking (long clicking?) on a link on the mobile web is shown a preview of the destination so that they can learn a quick definition and choose whether or not to continue on to the destination.

Page previews are an incredibly useful feature on desktop to maintain context and avoid opening many tabs or new browser windows. Since window management is even clumsier on mobile devices, page previews would prove exceptionally useful on phones and tablets too. The work required is more than just turning it on for MinervaNeue. The mobile UI will need an update and perhaps the precedent set by Android's link previews can be considered.

Rationale

Launching on Android has shown an increase in engagement and web survey data shows overwhelmingly positive feedback. Similarly, the feature is available on desktop for all wikis and has been received well.

Success Metrics

Overall clicks on blue links increase by 5%. The hypothesis is that there are two types of use cases for clicking a blue link:

I want to read the article
I want to know what this is (and a simple definition will do)

If we can lower the cost for group #2, without raising the cost too much for Group #1, users overall will see a higher reward/cost for clicking on links and will click on more links. There are secondary, descriptive metrics to ensure that Group #1 users aren't having a hard time, but this is the primary driver of whether or not this is adding user value.

External Dependencies

Community Liaisons are instrumental for this rollout

Unknowns

A risk is also that the community of editors or readers will not like this feature

Product Plan

Implementation

User Stories

As a user on the mobile site
I want to be able to view previews of links before clicking on them
So that I can get context quicker

User experience should match Android experience (though the additional menu items that we see in the Android version are not necessary to the MVP)

Acceptance criteria:

Code for this feature must live in the Popups extension

[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Popups

Related Objects
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Status	Assigned	Task
Declined	Jdlrobson	T111329 [GOAL] Page previews on mobileweb
Declined	Jdlrobson	T97370 Hovercards should appear in mobile on desktop
Resolved	ovasileva	T113094 [EPIC] The Page Summary API needs to provide useful content for the majority of articles
Resolved	phuedx	T113633 Spike: Alternative to TextExtracts for Popups, Gather, Read more
Resolved	phuedx	T109867 Infobox template parameters showing in Hovercard
Duplicate	None	T109869 Hovercards should not show <noinclude> content in the extract
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T74629 Reference lists appearing in extracts for some articles
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T73023 Invalid HTML markup standalone LI element when using references on main page
Duplicate	None	T112137 Hovercards loses manual superscript formatting by requesting plain text
Duplicate	ovasileva	T152414 Previews must display useful text for the majority of articles
Resolved	ovasileva	T159388 Text Extracts used in Page Previews shows strange characters from template
Duplicate	None	T162219 Parentheticals: Words incorrectly concatenated due to too simple removing of spaces
Declined	None	T159065 Fix formulas in HTML extracts
Duplicate	Jdlrobson	T163442 Math formulas are not rendering in preview page dialogs
Resolved	Mhurd	T155573 [Regression] exclude pronunciation guides from article extracts
Declined	• JMinor	T164100 Consider excluding pronunciation guides from TextExtracts
Resolved	phuedx	T112226 Text extracts unable to summarise content contains {{dts}} templates
Resolved	• Pchelolo	T165017 Setup RESTBase HTML extract endpoint
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T165619 Spike: Specify changes to page-summary endpoint
Declined	• Pchelolo	T166163 Create a summary content migration filter
Resolved	phuedx	T167852 "<translate>" and <tvar\|*> tag visible in Page Previews: HtmlFormatter only flattens spans
Declined	Jdlrobson	T168329 exsentences does not work correctly when HTML output used
Duplicate	None	T168625 Make the Page Summary API return an "intro" for a page
Resolved	• Fjalapeno	T167022 Inventory requirements for summary 2.0 endpoint across Reading teams
Resolved	phuedx	T168400 [EPIC] Add notion of emptiness to page summary API
Declined	pmiazga	T168328 Extracts for Wikimedia List articles display partial previews
Declined	None	T168391 Page previews should display generic preview for disambiguation pages
Resolved	phuedx	T114418 Disable TextExtracts on file pages
Declined	None	T168418 Page Previews should accept the service's notion of emptiness
Resolved	• Pchelolo	T164291 Make title-related properties consistent
Resolved	• bearND	T169761 Review Summary 2.0 Spec
Resolved	• Mholloway	T170692 Return common URLs in summary API so clients do not have to perform bug prone string manipulation
Resolved	MSantos	T177619 Return variant URLs and titles in the metadata response
Resolved	• Mholloway	T178446 Expose display titles for a page in all available language variants through the action API
Invalid	None	T69232 Hovercards: Redirect titles should be bolded in the extract
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T170617 Adjust expectations for API consumers when using the TextExtracts API
Invalid	None	T185472 API problems with double spaces in wiki sections
Duplicate	None	T171053 Complete entire page previews test plan for page summary api
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T171052 Add disambiguation page handling in Page Summary API
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T168848 Bootstrap an initial version of the Page Summary API in MCS
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T172021 It shouldn't be possible for coordinates to be the lead paragraph
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T174698 Parenthetical stripping is too aggressive
Resolved	phuedx	T171065 Expose disambiguation property (ppprop=disambiguation) in mobileview api
Resolved	• bearND	T175286 Do side by side comparison of old summary endpoint against new summary endpoint
Resolved	• Mholloway	T176974 Mime vulnerability blocking merges to MCS
Duplicate	None	T176063 Page preview shows only the first two words for a specific article
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T176517 Pages that are redirects give empty summary objects
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T176519 Old templates can lead to sup elements inside summary
Resolved	phuedx	T176521 data-mw attributes should be stripped from summary before scrubbing parentheticals
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T176522 Intro property incorrectly identified in formatted endpoint
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T176525 Parenthetical: New edge case with nested brackets
Resolved	• bearND	T177007 Should we flatten spans in summary output
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T178125 Metadata (coordinates) is sometimes surfaced as lead intro/summary
Resolved	• Mholloway	T178333 Move RESTBase page summary logic to MCS
Resolved	• Mholloway	T178420 What is a "content namespace" for purposes of the summary 2.0 endpoint?
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T183833 [Bug report] Removing parentheses breaks chemical formulas
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T185050 Run comparison of html extracts again
Resolved	• bearND	T185161 Stripping parentheticals can result in trailing punctuation
Invalid	None	T113242 It should be possible to turn off link previews on mobile
Resolved	• Nirzar	T113243 Implement link preview on mobile beta
Declined	Jdlrobson	T100679 Create a tutorial (similar to edit tutorial, or gather tutorial) about how to use the quickLookup feature
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T113248 Ensure related articles and link previews does not impact December Fundraising
Duplicate	None	T113634 Event log on link clicks in beta
Resolved	• JKatzWMF	T113244 Spike: How do we measure success of link previews on mobile?
Invalid	Jdlrobson	T118752 It should be possible to turn off link previews on desktop
Invalid	Jdlrobson	T118922 Begin deploy of link preview on mobile stable
Invalid	None	T131372 Avoid z-index conflict with mobile web link preview & Central Notice and friends
Invalid	None	T131373 Measure impact of mobile web link preview on Central Notice interaction
Declined	None	T132132 PageImages should support other aspect ratios
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T133942 Rewrite settings popup as a template
Resolved	phuedx	T133947 [EPIC] Reduce bloat of Page Previews RL module(s)
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T67103 [EPIC] Hovercards: Test Coverage
Resolved	None	T133017 Spike: What's tested and what needs testing in Hovercards
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T133018 Set up browser tests running on CI (jenkins) for Hovercards
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T133019 Create browser tests for hovering link and showing hovercard
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T133020 Unit test ext.popups.core.js
Resolved	None	T133022 Unit test src/renderer.js
Duplicate	None	T133162 Unit test ext.popups.renderer.article.js (part 2 HARD)
Invalid	None	T133023 Unit test ext.popups.disablenavpop.js
Resolved	• Jhernandez	T133024 Unit test ext.popups.logger.js
Invalid	None	T133055 Split ext.popups.settings.js in units
Resolved	phuedx	T133025 Unit test ext.popups.settings.js
Resolved	phuedx	T133054 Create browser test for add footer link in ext.popups.settings.js
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T133163 BetaFeatures test failure
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T136241 Replace usage of jquery.jStorage with the much smaller and more limited mediawiki.storage
Resolved	• Nirzar	T137775 Popups should not use moment.js for a single line
Resolved	phuedx	T133956 Use ResourceLoaderImageModule in the Popups extension for settings icon (not mwe-popups-settings)
Resolved	ovasileva	T139297 Hovercard images overlapping text/card edge in Internet Explorer
Resolved	Jdlrobson	T170169 Should be possible to disable page previews on certain special pages

Event Timeline

There are a very large number of changes, so older changes are hidden. Show Older Changes

Jdlrobson moved this task from Goals to Sprint 60: 8 on the Reading-Web-Planning board.Sep 30 2015, 8:30 PM

• JKatzWMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 1 2015, 11:42 PM

@KLans_WMF to close the loop on testing/rollout, I think the new description should cover this. Let me know if not.

dr0ptp4kt added a project: Reading-Admin.Oct 21 2015, 7:20 PM

dr0ptp4kt moved this task from Backlog to Current Quarter on the Reading-Admin board.

Jdlrobson claimed this task.Nov 3 2015, 6:41 PM

• KLans_WMF moved this task from Sprint 60: 8 to sprint 70 on the Reading-Web-Planning board.Nov 16 2015, 5:18 PM

• KLans_WMF added a project: Reading Web Sprint 61 - Cold Hard Cache.Nov 16 2015, 5:35 PM

• Jhernandez moved this task from Needs Analysis to Goals on the Reading Web Sprint 61 - Cold Hard Cache board.Nov 16 2015, 5:36 PM

• JKatzWMF closed subtask T113244: Spike: How do we measure success of link previews on mobile? as Resolved.Nov 18 2015, 1:08 AM

• Tbayer subscribed.Nov 22 2015, 4:31 AM

Jdlrobson closed subtask T113248: Ensure related articles and link previews does not impact December Fundraising as Resolved.Dec 2 2015, 11:59 PM

Jdlrobson removed projects: Reading Web Sprint 61 - Cold Hard Cache, MobileFrontend.Dec 3 2015, 12:05 AM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T113242: It should be possible to turn off link previews on mobile from Open to Stalled.Dec 9 2015, 10:19 PM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T118922: Begin deploy of link preview on mobile stable from Open to Stalled.Dec 16 2015, 8:50 PM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T113243: Implement link preview on mobile beta from Open to Stalled.Dec 22 2015, 12:08 AM

Florian changed the status of subtask T113243: Implement link preview on mobile beta from Stalled to Open.Dec 22 2015, 2:54 PM

bd808 moved this task from sprint 70 to To classify on the Reading-Web-Planning board.Dec 28 2015, 4:24 PM

phuedx moved this task from To classify to 2015-16 Q3 Goals on the Reading-Web-Planning board.Jan 12 2016, 5:30 PM

phuedx moved this task from 2015-16 Q3 Goals to To classify on the Reading-Web-Planning board.

phuedx renamed this task from [EPIC] Hovercards/Popups/Link preview on mobileweb to [GOAL] Hovercards/Popups/Link preview on mobileweb.Jan 12 2016, 5:42 PM

phuedx moved this task from To classify to 2015-16 Q3 Goals on the Reading-Web-Planning board.

This should be merged with T70860.

In T111329#1928258, @phuedx wrote:

This should be merged with T70860.

I thought T70860 was specifically for desktop (as the BetaFeature only has code for desktop). If that is truly the case I think we should keep them as separate tasks.

@Prtksxna: You're right; this goal and T70860 are distinct.

phuedx moved this task from 2015-16 Q3 Goals to To classify on the Reading-Web-Planning board.Jan 13 2016, 5:52 PM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T113243: Implement link preview on mobile beta from Open to Stalled.Jan 28 2016, 11:44 PM

Florian changed the status of subtask T113243: Implement link preview on mobile beta from Stalled to Open.Jan 29 2016, 5:09 PM

• Moushira moved this task from ToDo to Doing on the Readers-Community-Engagement board.Feb 24 2016, 8:42 AM

Jdlrobson closed subtask T113243: Implement link preview on mobile beta as Resolved.Mar 12 2016, 12:46 AM

dr0ptp4kt moved this task from Current Quarter to Next Quarter Candidates on the Reading-Admin board.Mar 14 2016, 7:49 PM

dr0ptp4kt moved this task from Next Quarter Candidates to Feature on the Reading-Admin board.

dr0ptp4kt added subtasks: T131372: Avoid z-index conflict with mobile web link preview & Central Notice and friends, T131373: Measure impact of mobile web link preview on Central Notice interaction.Mar 31 2016, 4:40 PM

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T132132: PageImages should support other aspect ratios.Apr 12 2016, 5:18 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T132132: PageImages should support other aspect ratios.

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T132132: PageImages should support other aspect ratios from Open to Stalled.Apr 20 2016, 8:35 PM

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T133942: Rewrite settings popup as a template.May 9 2016, 5:13 PM

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T133947: [EPIC] Reduce bloat of Page Previews RL module(s).May 10 2016, 5:09 PM

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T133956: Use ResourceLoaderImageModule in the Popups extension for settings icon (not mwe-popups-settings).May 10 2016, 5:17 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from To classify to Backlog on the Reading-Web-Planning board.May 17 2016, 6:15 PM

• JKatzWMF changed the task status from Open to Stalled.May 18 2016, 12:55 AM

• JKatzWMF updated the task description. (Show Details)

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T139297: Hovercard images overlapping text/card edge in Internet Explorer.Jul 4 2016, 5:12 PM

Jdlrobson closed subtask T133942: Rewrite settings popup as a template as Resolved.Jul 20 2016, 8:42 PM

Jdlrobson closed subtask T131373: Measure impact of mobile web link preview on Central Notice interaction as Invalid.Jul 28 2016, 8:24 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T131372: Avoid z-index conflict with mobile web link preview & Central Notice and friends.

Jdlrobson closed subtask T131372: Avoid z-index conflict with mobile web link preview & Central Notice and friends as Invalid.

• Phabricator_maintenance added a project: Goal.Aug 13 2016, 8:39 PM

• jhobs closed subtask T132132: PageImages should support other aspect ratios as Declined.Sep 29 2016, 8:25 PM

ovasileva closed subtask T118752: It should be possible to turn off link previews on desktop as Invalid.Nov 14 2016, 6:23 PM

ovasileva closed subtask T118922: Begin deploy of link preview on mobile stable as Invalid.

ovasileva closed subtask T113242: It should be possible to turn off link previews on mobile as Invalid.Dec 5 2016, 4:14 PM

ovasileva closed subtask T139297: Hovercard images overlapping text/card edge in Internet Explorer as Resolved.Dec 8 2016, 1:15 PM

ovasileva moved this task from Backlog to Hovercards Pt2 on the Page-Previews board.Dec 20 2016, 12:34 AM

phuedx closed subtask T133947: [EPIC] Reduce bloat of Page Previews RL module(s) as Resolved.Feb 24 2017, 9:58 AM

ovasileva reopened subtask T139297: Hovercard images overlapping text/card edge in Internet Explorer as Open.Mar 6 2017, 5:33 PM

• Prtksxna unsubscribed.Mar 7 2017, 2:05 AM

ovasileva closed subtask T139297: Hovercard images overlapping text/card edge in Internet Explorer as Resolved.Mar 14 2017, 4:18 PM

phuedx reopened subtask T139297: Hovercard images overlapping text/card edge in Internet Explorer as Open.Mar 17 2017, 11:03 AM

ovasileva closed subtask T139297: Hovercard images overlapping text/card edge in Internet Explorer as Resolved.Mar 22 2017, 4:41 PM

phuedx closed subtask T133956: Use ResourceLoaderImageModule in the Popups extension for settings icon (not mwe-popups-settings) as Resolved.Apr 26 2017, 9:56 AM

• Fjalapeno added a project: Reading Epics (Page Previews).May 1 2017, 2:43 PM

phuedx changed the status of subtask T113094: [EPIC] The Page Summary API needs to provide useful content for the majority of articles from Open to Stalled.Jun 30 2017, 9:50 AM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T113094: [EPIC] The Page Summary API needs to provide useful content for the majority of articles from Stalled to Open.Jul 6 2017, 10:31 PM

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T170169: Should be possible to disable page previews on certain special pages.Jul 12 2017, 3:20 PM

• Zhuanru001 closed subtask T113094: [EPIC] The Page Summary API needs to provide useful content for the majority of articles as Resolved.Jul 30 2017, 10:33 AM

Jdlrobson reopened subtask T113094: [EPIC] The Page Summary API needs to provide useful content for the majority of articles as Open.Jul 31 2017, 11:08 PM

phuedx closed subtask T170169: Should be possible to disable page previews on certain special pages as Resolved.Aug 1 2017, 8:51 AM

Jdlrobson reopened subtask T170169: Should be possible to disable page previews on certain special pages as Open.Aug 21 2017, 7:32 PM

Jdlrobson closed subtask T170169: Should be possible to disable page previews on certain special pages as Resolved.Aug 22 2017, 2:46 PM

Jdlrobson reopened subtask T170169: Should be possible to disable page previews on certain special pages as Open.Aug 23 2017, 5:56 PM

Jdlrobson closed subtask T170169: Should be possible to disable page previews on certain special pages as Resolved.Aug 31 2017, 6:21 PM

CKoerner_WMF removed a project: Readers-Community-Engagement.Oct 2 2017, 4:51 PM

ovasileva closed subtask T113094: [EPIC] The Page Summary API needs to provide useful content for the majority of articles as Resolved.Mar 16 2018, 1:51 PM

Jdlrobson changed the task status from Stalled to Open.Jun 13 2018, 3:14 PM

Jdlrobson merged a task: T197123: Page previews should be shown on long press for mobile devices.

Jdlrobson edited projects, added Web-Team-Backlog; removed Reading-Admin, Reading-Web-Planning.

Jdlrobson moved this task from Incoming to Epics/Goals on the Web-Team-Backlog board.

Jdlrobson added a subscriber: • Niedzielski.

@Niedzielski much of description may be outdated so feel free to update as you see fit.

@Jdlrobson, this needs more work and discussion but I removed some of the cruft

In T111329#4279677, @Niedzielski wrote:

@Jdlrobson, this needs more work and discussion but I removed some of the cruft

We should definitely discuss the "Code for this feature must live in the Popups extension" AC.

Rationale
Launching on Android has shown an increase in engagement and web survey data shows overwhelmingly positive feedback.

We should add a link to these research results.

Similarly, the feature is available on desktop for all wikis and has been received well.

I don't think that is a good argument, because page previews on desktop don't really impact the existing user flow of clicking on a link, whereas the mobile solutions interrupt it (adding the preview as an extra step - unless we go with the "long clicking" option).

@ovasileva is this really high priority...?

In T111329#4420097, @Jdlrobson wrote:

@ovasileva is this really high priority...?

Not right now

@ovasileva I'm guessing we're not planning on doing this so can we just decline it? It doesn't seem helpful to have this epic sitting around - if we ever want to do this on mobile, I bet we end up creating a new task instead and we can always revive this.

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Masumrezarock100. · View Herald TranscriptOct 29 2019, 4:55 PM

In T111329#5616197, @Jdlrobson wrote:

@ovasileva I'm guessing we're not planning on doing this so can we just decline it? It doesn't seem helpful to have this epic sitting around - if we ever want to do this on mobile, I bet we end up creating a new task instead and we can always revive this.

Makes sense. Declining for now.

I like that we're tidying up the backlog but for this task in particular it seems a shame that it can't be reprioritized any time soon. Page previews have been very impactful on desktop and this task had over 80 subtasks, which all appear to be resolved now. Additionally, Popups now support references as an additional out of box functionality. I respect the priorities set by product but I wanted to mention that from my perspective as a developer and user, I think this feature could be worth doing sooner rather than later.

• Niedzielski awarded a token.Feb 4 2020, 5:39 PM

[GOAL] Page previews on mobilewebClosed, DeclinedPublicActions