[EPIC] Core should provide inline diffs as well as side by side (Move InlineDifferenceEngine into core / remove MobileDiff)
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	Jdlrobson
	Oct 30 2015, 7:45 PM

Referenced Files

	F38450324: Screenshot_20231016_143926_Firefox.jpg
	Oct 16 2023, 6:48 PM

	F37161102: Screenshot 2023-08-02 at 5.23.17 PM.png
	Aug 3 2023, 1:34 AM

	F31518826: Screenshot_20200121-090309.png
	Jan 21 2020, 3:43 AM

	F31518822: Screenshot_20200121-090348.png
	Jan 21 2020, 3:43 AM

	F29716062: image.png
	Jul 9 2019, 12:03 AM

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Description

Background

MobileFrontend provides an InlineDifferenceEngine which rather than displaying the diff in a 2 column layout displays it in a single column (e.g. unified). This seems like it would be useful for core as most websites these days offer unified as well as 2 column layout diffs and the former is extremely useful on mobile.

The Mobilefrontend diff has been a nuisance point in recent changes to revisions (e.g. Multi content revisions) and it would be helpful to make unified diffs a first class citizen in some form. This inconsistency causes confusion due to the completely different implementations: (see T123413)

Note there is an increasing amount of UI problems with this page. For example, the bytes added icon is misaligned with text (T340262#9065036)

Screenshot 2023-08-02 at 5.23.17 PM.png (1×988 px, 103 KB)

Proposal

Put the MobileDiff code in core with any necessary modifications (The code for includes/diff/DifferenceEngine.php is pretty messy and is likely to need heavy refactoring to achieve this).
Update core diff page to allow switching to the inline diff and surface this in the desktop UI. (T240608)
Remove the code in MobileFrontend that has been upstreamed to core. (T240622)
It should be possible that https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=San_Francisco&type=revision&diff=687927333&oldid=687926997&diffonly=1&useskin=minerva&diff-type=inline&diffmode=source renders a single column diff and replicates the functionality of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/687926997 (T240624)

Next steps

T358293: Update MobileFrontend to use this link and retire Special:MobileDiff page (https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/MobileFrontend/+/547263/)
T358294: Consider hiding or surfacing side by side diffs in mobile

Questions

What other solutions provide inline diffs? Is MobileFrontend implementation the best one?
What refactors are necessary in core / to mobile code to support such a change if the mobile implementation is favoured.

Details

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
DifferenceEngine: Comments on diff page should be themeable	mediawiki/core	master	+6 -2
DifferenceEngine: Make timestamps data readable	mediawiki/core	master	+3 -1
DifferenceEngine: Distinguish between table and inline diffs	mediawiki/core	master	+4 -0
Style the desktop diff page of Minerva to look like Special:MobileDiff	mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue	master	+344 -0
Separate header generation from diff generation	mediawiki/core	master	+54 -35
Inline diffs upstreamed from MobileFrontend to core.	mediawiki/core	master	+111 -8
Namespace InlineDifferenceEngine	mediawiki/extensions/MobileFrontend	master	+19 -3
Permissioning refactor of DifferenceEngine	mediawiki/core	master	+84 -30
Mobile diffs should use OneColumnDifferenceEngine in core	mediawiki/extensions/MobileFrontend	master	+1 -182

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Related Objects
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Status	Subtype	Assigned	Task
Open	BUG REPORT	None	T12863 Links on commons upload summaries do not link to commons
Open		None	T5498 Image history is confusing
Stalled		None	T96384 Integrate file revisions with description page history
Open		None	T115858 Design improvements for mw.ForeignStructuredUpload.BookletLayout
Open		None	T115865 Insert image in content immediately after it's uploaded, skipping the "General settings" step
Duplicate		None	T115864 Figure out if the description of the image can be used as the caption on-wiki
Open	Feature	None	T53032 When inserting an image, set its caption by default to be the Commons image description
Open	Feature	None	T39534 Wikimedia Commons should support searching by color
Duplicate		None	T39535 Wikimedia Commons should support filtering by color
Resolved		None	T19503 Provide metadata support on Wikimedia Commons
Open		None	T122038 Moving/Deleting a video file does not move/delete subtitles files, nor does it inform the file mover of their existence
Open		None	T135221 Make TimedText content an integral part of the File page
Open	Feature	None	T2167 Use a dedicated interface for adding meta-data like interwiki links, rather than wikitext
Open		None	T132072 Integrate page meta-data as a new content model revision slot for consistency and atomicity
Resolved		None	T51662 VisualEditor: Use Multimedia/Wikidata's proposed rich structured meta-data in the image insertion dialog
Resolved		None	T68108 [Epic] Store media information for files on Wikimedia Commons as structured data
Open	Feature	None	T14963 allow per-page exceptions to spam blacklist
Open		None	T203157 Make the spam whitelist its own slot
Resolved		Halfak	T252280 Improve Wikilabels UI
Open		None	T105518 Make Wiki Labels mobile compatible
Open		None	T104072 Implement single column diff option (from mobile app)
Open	Feature	None	T56140 Move TemplateData to its own JSON-content namespace and associate with Template-namespace, or to its own TemplateData content model and revision slot
Stalled		None	T174043 Deploy Multi-Content Revisions
Open		None	T174022 Implement multi-content revisions
Open		None	T189220 Ensure that relevant extensions are MCR-aware
Open		None	T94370 Implement a mechanism that recognizes syntax errors of wikicode as a Huggle extension
Resolved		Petrb	T57793 Scoring should perhaps take into account added text rather than all text
Open		None	T100082 Provide useful diffs to high-volume consumers of recent changes
Open		None	T56328 Provide intraline diff format in API action=compare
Resolved		• tstarling	T339184 MW core diff review/reorg/refactor
Open		None	T202763 Update extensions which customize content diff rendering
Declined		None	T162210 [EPIC] Upstream MobileFrontend components to core and other extensions (tracking)
Resolved	BUG REPORT	Jdlrobson	T238507 MobileFrontend sometimes goes to diff page instead of pending changes review page
Resolved		None	T117279 [EPIC] Core should provide inline diffs as well as side by side (Move InlineDifferenceEngine into core / remove MobileDiff)
Resolved		ovasileva	T101796 MobileDiff appears strangely empty if previous revision is hidden
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T222562 Special:MobileDiff doesn't correctly handle diff=0 if the diff would cover multiple revisions
Resolved		Ammarpad	T224430 Improve appearance of Special:MobileDiff when looking for invalid revision (Maybe because it's deleted)
Open		None	T194830 Refactor DifferenceEngine
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T238331 Option for hiding changes should be added to AMC diff display
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T240608 Standardise a control for switching diff types from side by side to inline/visual
Resolved		phuedx	T240622 [Technical debt payoff] Remove InlineDiffFormatter and InlineDifferenceEngine from MobileFrontend
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T240624 Style desktop Minerva diff page to look like Special:MobileDiff
Resolved		ovasileva	T242310 Regression: issues with MobileDiff
Resolved		• marcella	T242351 HTML for VisualDiff mode button appears in mobile diff pages (disabled by hack)
Resolved		matmarex	T244673 VisualDiff feature on mobile has an inconsistent style/layout
Resolved	BUG REPORT	Esanders	T245172 VisualDiff toggle buttons appear in mobile when the relevant page doesn't have wikitext content model
Resolved		ovasileva	T243783 MobileDiff drops whitespaces from edits
Resolved		ovasileva	T243235 Regression: Desktop diff styles for moved paragraphs load alongside mobile
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T171726 MobileDiff with inconsistent linebreaks within words
Invalid		None	T199307 Determine treatment for empty lines in diffs
Resolved		• jkroll	T197729 wikidiff2 creating ins and del elements with single empty character element
Open	Feature	None	T298174 Diffs should show change tags at lower resolutions
Open		None	T218428 Mobile diff is not clear about move direction
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T191706 It's not possible to undo/rollback edits from diff on Mobile
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T347779 Show editor groups and edit count on diff pages
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T347780 Include previous and next links outside the diff columns
Declined		None	T348179 Show bytes added on diff pages
Resolved		None	T350181 Enable desktop diff page on mobile site
Resolved	BUG REPORT	SBisson	T353404 Wikistory showing on mobile diff page
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T353407 Diff footer is overlaying the text when visual diff is clicked
Resolved	BUG REPORT	Jdlrobson	T353478 Diff tables collapse incorrectly on tablet breakpoint
Resolved		JSengupta-WMF	T353479 Diff legend does not display in mobile HTML
Open	BUG REPORT	None	T361176 visualdiff legend colors are mismatched
Open	BUG REPORT	None	T353062 Core diff on mobile buggy codex thank button
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T357079 Wrong digit on bnwiki mobile diff

Event Timeline

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

ovasileva closed subtask T243235: Regression: Desktop diff styles for moved paragraphs load alongside mobile as Resolved.Feb 13 2020, 11:16 AM

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T245172: VisualDiff toggle buttons appear in mobile when the relevant page doesn't have wikitext content model.Feb 15 2020, 12:28 AM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T240622: [Technical debt payoff] Remove InlineDiffFormatter and InlineDifferenceEngine from MobileFrontend from Open to Stalled.Jun 25 2020, 9:22 PM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T240622: [Technical debt payoff] Remove InlineDiffFormatter and InlineDifferenceEngine from MobileFrontend from Stalled to Open.Jul 14 2020, 7:56 PM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T238331: Option for hiding changes should be added to AMC diff display from Open to Stalled.Jul 27 2020, 10:35 PM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T222562: Special:MobileDiff doesn't correctly handle diff=0 if the diff would cover multiple revisions from Open to Stalled.Jul 27 2020, 10:39 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T222562: Special:MobileDiff doesn't correctly handle diff=0 if the diff would cover multiple revisions.

phuedx closed subtask T240622: [Technical debt payoff] Remove InlineDiffFormatter and InlineDifferenceEngine from MobileFrontend as Resolved.Sep 7 2020, 10:20 AM

matmarex closed subtask T245172: VisualDiff toggle buttons appear in mobile when the relevant page doesn't have wikitext content model as Resolved.Sep 17 2020, 6:18 PM

Change 547766 abandoned by Jdlrobson:
[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Style the desktop diff page of Minerva to look like Special:MobileDiff

Reason:
Not much bandwidth for this right now, but happy to provide code review for efforts pushing us in that direction.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/547766

Milimetric unsubscribed.Jan 12 2021, 7:05 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from Incoming to Nice to Have on the Desktop Improvements (Vector 2022) board.Mar 17 2021, 9:28 PM

Sorry moved this on accident, please disregard.

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T171726: MobileDiff with inconsistent linebreaks within words.Jun 22 2021, 8:16 PM

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T199307: Determine treatment for empty lines in diffs.Jun 22 2021, 8:20 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from Next up to OKR Backlog on the User-Jdlrobson board.Jul 16 2021, 8:45 PM

Jdlrobson edited projects, added Web-Team-Backlog (Needs Prioritization (Tech)); removed Desktop Improvements (Vector 2022), Web-Team-Backlog (Tracking).Aug 31 2021, 10:07 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from Backlog to Simplify MobileFrontend on the Web-Team-Backlog (Needs Prioritization (Tech)) board.Aug 31 2021, 10:09 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T290440: imported> on diff page should not link to contributions on Mobile view.Sep 7 2021, 3:53 PM

RhinosF1 subscribed.Sep 7 2021, 4:21 PM

Jdlrobson updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 14 2021, 5:28 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from Simplify MobileFrontend to Page previews maintenance on the Web-Team-Backlog (Needs Prioritization (Tech)) board.Dec 9 2021, 5:43 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from Page previews maintenance to Future Unplanned on the Web-Team-Backlog (Needs Prioritization (Tech)) board.

Jdlrobson moved this task from Future Unplanned to Remove mobile Watchlist special page on the Web-Team-Backlog (Needs Prioritization (Tech)) board.Dec 9 2021, 5:56 PM

ovasileva closed subtask T171726: MobileDiff with inconsistent linebreaks within words as Resolved.Dec 20 2021, 2:52 PM

MaxSem unsubscribed.Dec 25 2021, 9:37 AM

TheDJ reopened subtask T171726: MobileDiff with inconsistent linebreaks within words as Open.Jan 12 2022, 9:55 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T298645: On contributions page add hidden "No edit summary" element when an edit had no edit summary.Jan 18 2022, 5:42 PM

Jdlrobson closed subtask T171726: MobileDiff with inconsistent linebreaks within words as Resolved.Feb 8 2022, 6:05 PM

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T298174: Diffs should show change tags at lower resolutions.Feb 16 2022, 4:43 PM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T298174: Diffs should show change tags at lower resolutions from Open to Stalled.

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T298174: Diffs should show change tags at lower resolutions.

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T218428: Mobile diff is not clear about move direction.

Jdlrobson added a subtask: T191706: It's not possible to undo/rollback edits from diff on Mobile.Feb 16 2022, 4:45 PM

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T191706: It's not possible to undo/rollback edits from diff on Mobile from Open to Stalled.

LordProfo subscribed.Feb 17 2022, 12:51 AM

Samwalton9-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 21 2022, 2:16 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T210168: [EPIC] Get rid of MobileFrontend's special pages for changes list where equivalents exist in core.Mar 30 2022, 10:36 PM

Samwalton9-WMF added a project: Moderator-Tools-Team.May 11 2022, 12:53 PM

Samwalton9-WMF moved this task from Inbox to Diff/Undo on the Moderator-Tools-Team board.

Samwalton9-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)May 11 2022, 1:17 PM

Jdlrobson updated the task description. (Show Details)May 25 2022, 5:52 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from Remove mobile Watchlist special page to Remove mobile diff and history page on the Web-Team-Backlog (Needs Prioritization (Tech)) board.Jun 22 2022, 8:39 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T327566: Mobile Page history HTML differ, making scripting hard.Jan 23 2023, 7:12 PM

Nardog subscribed.Jan 23 2023, 7:43 PM

jsn.sherman mentioned this in T328035: [SPIKE] - Investigate technical approaches for improving mobile diffs [32hrs].Jan 26 2023, 7:11 PM

Jdlrobson updated the task description. (Show Details)Aug 3 2023, 1:34 AM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T340262: Use Codex CSS Button components inside MobileFrontend.

Jdlrobson changed the status of subtask T240608: Standardise a control for switching diff types from side by side to inline/visual from Open to Stalled.Sep 28 2023, 9:27 PM

Change 962091 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jdlrobson; author: Jdlrobson):

[mediawiki/core@master] Distinguish between table and inline diffs

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/962091

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Sep 29 2023, 10:24 PM

Change 962095 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jdlrobson; author: Jdlrobson):

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Style the desktop diff page of Minerva to look like Special:MobileDiff

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/962095

Jdlrobson closed subtask T240608: Standardise a control for switching diff types from side by side to inline/visual as Resolved.Sep 29 2023, 11:10 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T240608: Standardise a control for switching diff types from side by side to inline/visual.

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T240624: Style desktop Minerva diff page to look like Special:MobileDiff .Sep 29 2023, 11:13 PM

Change 962091 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/core@master] DifferenceEngine: Distinguish between table and inline diffs

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/962091

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.41-notes (1.41.0-wmf.29; 2023-10-03).Sep 30 2023, 1:00 AM

Folly_Mox subscribed.Oct 2 2023, 2:15 PM

Change 963393 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jdlrobson; author: Jdlrobson):

[mediawiki/core@master] DifferenceEngine: Comments on diff page should be themeable

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/963393

Change 963395 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jdlrobson; author: Jdlrobson):

[mediawiki/core@master] DifferenceEngine: Make timestamps data readable

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/963395

Change 963395 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/core@master] DifferenceEngine: Make timestamps data readable

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/963395

Change 963393 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/core@master] DifferenceEngine: Comments on diff page should be themeable

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/963393

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.42-notes (1.42.0-wmf.1; 2023-10-17).Oct 10 2023, 7:00 PM

Consider hiding or surfacing side by side diffs in mobile

I would like to have side by side available as an option on mobile, since inline diffs are sometimes an illegible mess of alternating words, e.g. an extreme case in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1180439256:

Screenshot_20231016_143926_Firefox.jpg (2×1 px, 695 KB)

The process I used to use to switch from mobile diff to desktop diff used to be quite tedious, but I realized just a moment ago that clicking on "Desktop" works perfectly and takes just one click! So that's good enough for me.

In T117279#9255216, @Sollyucko wrote:

I would like to have side by side available as an option on mobile, since inline diffs are sometimes an illegible mess of alternating words, e.g. an extreme case in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1180439256: F38450324

The way this inline diff is presented, is really unhelpful. The algorithm may try to choose common words in both sides to group changes together. But the way it's choosing "spaces" to group them, splitting word by word instead of presenting the entire edit as a single deletion + insertion group, is very unreasonable. It seems like wikEdDiff works better for this, as the example provided in the description of T346460.

Sometimes the spaces can be the LCS, so they are highlighted as the context and all the words are shown as differences. See T326773: Wikidiff2 considers each space to be a separate word for my thoughts on this.

Sollyucko mentioned this in T326773: Wikidiff2 considers each space to be a separate word.Oct 17 2023, 1:03 AM

Jdlrobson closed subtask T347779: Show editor groups and edit count on diff pages as Resolved.Oct 17 2023, 10:36 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T348393: Mobile diff doesn't have review buttons.Oct 19 2023, 3:34 PM

Nux awarded a token.Oct 19 2023, 8:14 PM

Nux subscribed.

Jdlrobson closed subtask T240624: Style desktop Minerva diff page to look like Special:MobileDiff as Resolved.Oct 31 2023, 6:24 PM

Jdforrester-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 31 2023, 6:28 PM

Jdlrobson mentioned this in T353062: Core diff on mobile buggy codex thank button.Dec 8 2023, 8:25 PM

• FJoseph-WMF added a project: MediaWiki CodeJam Dec 2023.Dec 11 2023, 1:09 AM

• FJoseph-WMF moved this task from Incoming to UI Improvements on the MediaWiki CodeJam Dec 2023 board.Dec 11 2023, 3:36 AM

DAlangi_WMF subscribed.Dec 11 2023, 12:08 PM

Samwalton9-WMF closed subtask T348179: Show bytes added on diff pages as Declined.Dec 19 2023, 10:45 AM