Switching from a WT section edit to VE only switches with the wikitext of the section, not the article
Closed, ResolvedPublic1 Estimated Story Points
Actions

Description

These actions caused the whole article content to be deleted except for one section:

"Edit Source" on a section
Click "Edit" at the top to switch to Visual Editor
Edit the section and Save
- The article is now shown as "Section", in a non-edit mode
When attempting to navigate away after saving, the "data will be lost" dialog is shown, which is confusing because the page has already been saved
The result was a complete erasing of the article, as seen here.

Details

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
Prevent switching from unedited section directly into VE	mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor	wmf/1.27.0-wmf.7	+4 -1
Prevent switching from unedited section directly into VE	mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor	master	+4 -1
Don't allow keeping changes when switching from wikitext section editing	mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor	wmf/1.27.0-wmf.5	+8 -1
Don't allow keeping changes when switching from wikitext section editing	mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor	master	+8 -1

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Mentioned In: T117716: Be able to switch to VisualEditor after starting to edit a section without losing edits
Mentioned Here: T117716: Be able to switch to VisualEditor after starting to edit a section without losing edits

Event Timeline

Yurik created this task.Nov 4 2015, 4:09 PM

Yurik raised the priority of this task from to Needs Triage.

Yurik updated the task description. (Show Details)

Yurik added a project: VisualEditor.

Yurik added subscribers: Yurik, Jdforrester-WMF.

Restricted Application added subscribers: StudiesWorld, Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptNov 4 2015, 4:09 PM

Jdforrester-WMF renamed this task from Loss of article content if editing a section to Switching from a WT section edit to VE only switches with the wikitext of the section, not the article.Nov 4 2015, 4:11 PM

Jdforrester-WMF assigned this task to Krenair.

Jdforrester-WMF triaged this task as High priority.

Jdforrester-WMF added a project: VisualEditor-MediaWiki.

Jdforrester-WMF set Security to None.

Jdforrester-WMF edited a custom field.

Change 250987 had a related patch set uploaded (by Alex Monk):
Don't allow keeping changes when switching from wikitext *section* editing

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/250987

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Nov 4 2015, 4:20 PM

Change 250987 merged by jenkins-bot:
Don't allow keeping changes when switching from wikitext *section* editing

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/250987

-> T117716: Be able to switch to VisualEditor after starting to edit a section without losing edits

Change 250992 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jforrester):
Don't allow keeping changes when switching from wikitext *section* editing

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/250992

Krenair removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Nov 4 2015, 4:38 PM

Jdforrester-WMF added projects: MW-1.27-release (WMF-deploy-2015-11-03_(1.27.0-wmf.5)), MW-1.27-release (WMF-deploy-2015-11-10_(1.27.0-wmf.6)).Nov 4 2015, 4:39 PM

Jdforrester-WMF edited a custom field.

Jdforrester-WMF moved this task from To Triage to TR0: Interrupt on the VisualEditor board.Nov 4 2015, 4:42 PM

Change 250992 merged by jenkins-bot:
Don't allow keeping changes when switching from wikitext *section* editing

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/250992

Krenair mentioned this in T117716: Be able to switch to VisualEditor after starting to edit a section without losing edits.Nov 10 2015, 12:24 AM

Jdforrester-WMF merged a task: T118233: editing a section in the source editor, moving to VE, and saving deletes all other sections.Nov 10 2015, 8:03 PM

Jdforrester-WMF added a subscriber: Amire80.

What if you'd din't make a change in your section yet ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback#Editing_a_section_with_wikitext_editor_then_switching_to_VE_deletes_rest_of_article

• Elitre subscribed.Nov 19 2015, 3:59 PM

Krenair reopened this task as Open.Nov 20 2015, 12:09 AM

Change 254337 had a related patch set uploaded (by Alex Monk):
Prevent switching from unedited section directly into VE

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/254337

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Nov 20 2015, 12:11 AM

Trizek-WMF subscribed.Nov 20 2015, 5:46 PM

SalixAlba subscribed.Nov 20 2015, 8:09 PM

Krenair merged a task: T119383: VE deletes entire page when switching from wikitext editor.Nov 23 2015, 4:30 PM

Krenair added a subscriber: Mannivu.

Change 254337 merged by jenkins-bot:
Prevent switching from unedited section directly into VE

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/254337

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.27-release (WMF-deploy-2015-12-08_(1.27.0-wmf.8)).Nov 23 2015, 5:00 PM

matmarex merged a task: T119436: page content is nuked when source-editing a section, switching to VE, and saving.Nov 23 2015, 8:55 PM

matmarex added a subscriber: Kipod.

matmarex subscribed.

As far as i could see, the existing patch is a stopgap rather than a solution.

It's good to have a stopgap, but it would be much better to have a real solution.

real solution will have the following:

allow real "section edit" in VE (i.e., when pressing "edit" on a section header, open *only* this section in VE. the current, buggy behavior demonstrates that it's perfectly doable: section editing using wikieditor and switching to VE demonstrates the desired behavior (with one obvious problem - saving nukes the page instead of merging the section changes into the existing page) )
re-allow free switching between wikieditor and VE, with "keep changes" for section edit
make sure that when using "section edit", VE disables the "page options" menu. there may be other items that should be disabled in section-edit mode.

peace.

T117716: Be able to switch to VisualEditor after starting to edit a section without losing edits is about being able to do that kind of section switching properly. Focus of this task is to prevent accidental removal of most of the page, which is much higher priority.

Change 255046 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jforrester):
Prevent switching from unedited section directly into VE

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/255046

Jdforrester-WMF closed this task as Resolved.Nov 23 2015, 11:34 PM

Jdforrester-WMF removed a project: Patch-For-Review.

Change 255046 merged by jenkins-bot:
Prevent switching from unedited section directly into VE