Prevent the username suggestion list from opening if @ is preceded by a non-whitespace character
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	ppelberg
	Mar 19 2021, 12:08 AM

Description

This task is about preventing the username suggestion list (T232601) from opening if the @ is preceded by a non-whitespace character.

This way, people can type things like email addresses and article names (e.g. 3D@Home) without having to interact with the username suggestion list.

This issue was reported by @Thryduulf at en.wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Talk_pages_project#Feedback_request:_pinging_and_other_tools_in_source_mode.

Behavior

Open the Reply or New Discussion Tool's Visual mode
Type: hello@

Current behavior

Notice that upon typing @, the username suggestion list appears

Desired behavior

✅ Notice that upon typing @, the username suggestion list does NOT appear

Note: the behavior above should also apply to the two tools' Source modes once T257391 is implemented.

Done

The 'Desired behavior" is implemented
@Thryduulf is notified

Details

	Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
	Avoid triggering username autocompletion when typing email addresses and article titles	mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools	master	+18 -2

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Mentioned In: T276614: Consult with volunteers about the prototype
T232601: Provide a mechanism for in-surface autocomplete
Mentioned Here: T255153: @-mention sequence doesn't work on space-less language
T260443: Mentioning an email address in DiscussionTools makes the system think I'm going to mention someone
T232601: Provide a mechanism for in-surface autocomplete
T257391: Add tools to DiscussionTools' source mode

Event Timeline

ppelberg created this task.Mar 19 2021, 12:08 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptMar 19 2021, 12:08 AM

ppelberg updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 19 2021, 12:09 AM

ppelberg mentioned this in T232601: Provide a mechanism for in-surface autocomplete.

ppelberg added a parent task: T276607: Converge on a single DiscussionTools source mode.Mar 19 2021, 12:12 AM

ppelberg mentioned this in T276614: Consult with volunteers about the prototype.Mar 19 2021, 12:32 AM

Change 673521 had a related patch set uploaded (by Bartosz Dziewoński; owner: Bartosz Dziewoński):
[mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools@master] Avoid triggering username autocompletion when typing email addresses and article titles

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/673521

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 19 2021, 3:56 PM

matmarex claimed this task.Mar 19 2021, 4:43 PM

matmarex moved this task from Backlog to Triaged on the DiscussionTools board.

matmarex added a project: Editing-team (Kanban Board).

matmarex moved this task from Incoming to Code Review on the Editing-team (Kanban Board) board.

We previously did not do this because checking for "non-whitespace characters" doesn't really work in languages that don't use spaces to separate words, like Chinese or Japanese (T255153, T260443). But since this request keeps coming back, I investigated it more, and the proposed patch instead checks Unicode character properties and prevents opening if @ is preceded by characters classified as letters, combining marks, or numbers (https://unicode.org/reports/tr18/#General_Category_Property).

I am not completely sure that this will work fine in all possible languages, but it means that you'll get suggestions after any spaces or punctuation, e.g. "。" (Chinese full stop / ideographic full stop). Also, the mention button on the toolbar will open the username suggestions regardless of preceding characters, to allow inserting mentions even if that logic turns out to be wrong for some language.

Test wiki created on Patch Demo by ESanders (WMF) using patch(es) linked to this task:

https://patchdemo.wmflabs.org/wikis/4959dbaa9e/w/

prevents opening if @ is preceded by characters classified as letters

This means you can't @-mention in the middle of a sentence in Japanese, Chinese or Thai:

I think the comments in T255153 are still valid.

It seems like the operation should be set by script rather than by letter/non-letter

ppelberg edited projects, added Editing-team (Tracking); removed Editing-team (Kanban Board).Mar 23 2021, 4:55 PM

ppelberg moved this task from Backlog to FY2020-21 on the Editing-team (Tracking) board.

(I had a go at this task because I was working on some other bugs related to mentions, and I thought this approach could work and we didn't consider it before, but it looks now like it might need more research after all.)

Change 673521 abandoned by Bartosz Dziewoński:
[mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools@master] Avoid triggering username autocompletion when typing email addresses and article titles

Reason:
Doesn't work as well as I hoped in languages using other scripts

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/673521

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 23 2021, 5:10 PM

Perhaps a way forward would be a per-user option with a per-wiki default. That should work on all wikis that use only one script, or multiple scripts of the same type (e.g. Latin and Cyrillic would both have a whitespace requirement as default, Chinese traditional and simplified would both not have that). Truly multilingual wikis would just have to pick one (I guess whichever suits whatever the majority of comments are written in) and advertise the config option.

matmarex removed matmarex as the assignee of this task.Mar 31 2021, 4:35 PM

matmarex subscribed.

Test wiki on Patch Demo by ESanders (WMF) using patch(es) linked to this task was deleted:

~~https://patchdemo.wmflabs.org/wikis/4959dbaa9e/w/~~

Esanders removed a parent task: T276607: Converge on a single DiscussionTools source mode.Mar 25 2022, 11:31 AM

	F34175179: image.png
	Mar 20 2021, 5:06 PM

Prevent the username suggestion list from opening if @ is preceded by a non-whitespace characterOpen, Needs TriagePublicActions