See also: T321351

Specific: What do we want to achieve

In February 2021, Jon (that's me!) explored using Vue.js and the new wvui search inside the mobile site. The change would throw away 782 lines of code while adding only 96 .

The exercise was helpful in:

• identifying some mobile challenges with our existing Vector design: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T275252
• discovering the new Vue search does not work with Wikidata, which blocks us rolling out the new Vector there. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T275251

Given our upcoming work on desktop improvements making search work at lower resolutions this is a good opportunity to tackle search from another angle.

Jump forward to 2024 and we are now in a good place to do this.

Measurable: How will we know when we've reached our goal?

This goal can be closed when there are no open subtasks and the mobile site uses the same component as desktop. Subtasks can be removed if deemed too complicated given the timeframe.

TEST FOR DONE:

• A feature flag allows us to switch between the Vue.js and the existing MobileFrontend code.
• When feature flag enabled, Codex and the search widget are loaded in the search overlay.

Achievable: What support will we need to achieve our goal?

Might be blocked on the new API for wikidata (unless we are willing to disable search on wikidata.org, see subtasks).

Would require Alex and DST design input as there are some subtle changes

Relevant: Is this goal worthwhile?

Yes. Having one search widget to maintain across the mobile and desktop skin will be much easier for the team to manage, particularly given this would be as part of a shared component library shared with other teams.

This would also be helpful for the analytics team as it would add instrumentation for mobile search results. Currently mobile search autocomplete traffic is not instrumented.

Time-bound: What is the time frame? Can we achieve this goal in the timeframe we've set?
Q2.

QA

• The overlay only shows when the person starts typing
• When tapping into search in Minerva there should never be the illusion the page has disappeared (see T216743 for more context on what we'd like to avoid)
• Control+clicking should work (T206347)
• Watchstar will no longer display in search results (T267534)