Notification counter not shown on mobile (Minerva) when the user has no unseen alerts
Closed, ResolvedPublic3 Estimated Story PointsBUG REPORT
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Assigned To

Authored By

	Jdlrobson
	Aug 10 2023, 11:39 PM

Description

Found by @GMikesell-WMF during QA of T342907#9085628

Steps to replicate the issue (include links if applicable):

Make sure you have no unseen alert notifications. Mark as read if needed.
Receive a thanks notification from a friend
On desktop note the notification is shown in blue
Visit mobile site

What happens?:

A bell icon shows with no indication you have messages. Clicking the icon will show the thanks notification

What should have happened instead?:

Some visual indicator should let me know I have a notification.

Software version (skip for WMF-hosted wikis like Wikipedia):

Other information (browser name/version, screenshots, etc.):

QA steps

On beta cluster create two accounts
Login as account 2 and make sure you have 0 notifications (alerts or notices) on desktop.
With account 1 thank one of account 2's edits
Go back to account 2 and verify on desktop that you see the number 1 next to the tray (notices) icon
On mobile confirm that you see a red circle with the number 1 in it

Tech/News

Ideally, the below will be published in the edition of Tech/News that will go out the week of 24 March

Announcement draft
"Minerva combines Notices and Alerts within the 🔔 icon. A bug persisted where an indication was only shown if you had unseen "Alerts." This bug is now fixed. Going forward, you will notice a counter atop the 🔔 icon when you have ≥1 unseen notice and/or alert."

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
Re-apply: "Fix logic for when to show the notification circle"	mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue	master	+15 -13
Revert "Fix logic for when to show the notification circle"	mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue	master	+13 -15
Fix logic for when to show the notification circle	mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue	master	+15 -13
Fix logic for when to show the notification circle	mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue	REL1_43	+15 -13
Fix logic for when to show the notification circle	mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue	REL1_42	+15 -13

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Related Objects
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		Status	Subtype	Assigned	Task
		Open		None	T278838 Mobile user communication issues ([[Wikipedia:Mobile communication bugs]])
		Resolved	BUG REPORT	Esanders	T344029 Notification counter not shown on mobile (Minerva) when the user has no unseen alerts

Event Timeline

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

Restricted Application added a project: Growth-Team. · View Herald TranscriptAug 10 2023, 11:39 PM

Restricted Application added subscribers: Masumrezarock100, Aklapper. · View Herald Transcript

Presumably this is by design and something related to T142981.

Etonkovidova moved this task from Inbox to Triaged on the Growth-Team board.Sep 28 2023, 9:32 PM

I_Am_Andume subscribed.Apr 9 2024, 5:13 PM

Tagging MinervaNeue for task discoverability (as I instinctively looked through that project earlier to see whether this issue had been reported)

A_smart_kitten mentioned this in T386906: Mobile Web - Implement subscription alert.Feb 20 2025, 1:31 PM

Tacsipacsi merged a task: T386906: Mobile Web - Implement subscription alert.Feb 20 2025, 7:16 PM

Tacsipacsi added subscribers: AllyD, Tacsipacsi.

matmarex subscribed.Feb 20 2025, 8:36 PM

~~Given that the dropdown on mobile/minerva collates both notices and alerts, it seems logical that the counter should include unread notifications in both groups.~~

Having looked at the code it does appear to not be functioning as intended.

Change #1123441 had a related patch set uploaded (by Esanders; author: Esanders):

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Fix logic for when to show the notification circle

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1123441

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Feb 27 2025, 7:02 PM

The code comment describes the behaviour requested, so this is just an implementation error:

// The circle should only appear if there are unseen notifications.

(where a notification is either an alert or a notice)

I think is a regression from https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue/+/943647

Change #1123441 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Fix logic for when to show the notification circle

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1123441

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 8 2025, 11:30 PM

Change #1125611 had a related patch set uploaded (by Reedy; author: Esanders):

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@REL1_43] Fix logic for when to show the notification circle

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1125611

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 8 2025, 11:40 PM

Change #1125614 had a related patch set uploaded (by Reedy; author: Esanders):

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@REL1_42] Fix logic for when to show the notification circle

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1125614

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.44-notes (1.44.0-wmf.20; 2025-03-11).Mar 9 2025, 12:00 AM

A_smart_kitten added a parent task: T278838: Mobile user communication issues ([[Wikipedia:Mobile communication bugs]]).Mar 9 2025, 10:02 AM

Adding User-notice, as I think this might be worth an entry in Tech/News: given the duration that mobile web hasn’t given editors a visual indication that they have new 'notices' for, it might be surprising for the red ‘you have unread notifications’ icon to suddenly also appear when an editor has a new 'notice'. There’s also a general community interest in the current status of notifications on mobile - e.g., Wikipedia:Mobile communications bugs on enwiki.

~~The patch that should fix this issue has been merged and (IIUC) will be deployed with the train this week, so this can be announced in the next edition.~~ The patch has been reverted, so this isn’t yet ready to announce. I’ll leave this in the ‘to triage’ column of User-notice, though, so a Tech/News person can decide whether they agree with my assessment above :D

I think it has been broken for about 18 months.

Change #1125614 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@REL1_42] Fix logic for when to show the notification circle

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1125614

Change #1125611 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@REL1_43] Fix logic for when to show the notification circle

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1125611

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 9 2025, 10:30 PM

Change #1126186 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jdlrobson; author: Jdrewniak):

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Revert "Fix logic for when to show the notification circle"

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1126186

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 11 2025, 12:14 AM

Change #1126186 merged by Jdlrobson:

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Revert "Fix logic for when to show the notification circle"

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1126186

ReleaseTaggerBot edited projects, added MW-1.44-notes (1.44.0-wmf.21; 2025-03-18); removed MW-1.44-notes (1.44.0-wmf.20; 2025-03-11).Mar 11 2025, 2:00 AM

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 11 2025, 2:30 AM

The patch was reverted. ☹

Change #1126547 had a related patch set uploaded (by Esanders; author: Esanders):

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Re-apply: "Fix logic for when to show the notification circle"

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1126547

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 11 2025, 1:01 PM

Michael subscribed.Mar 11 2025, 5:18 PM

Jdlrobson-WMF changed the task status from Open to In Progress.Mar 12 2025, 8:45 PM

Jdlrobson-WMF added a project: Web-Team.

@RHo I know you have been involved in Echo design in the past. From your perspective should the counter on mobile reflect both notices and alerts?

Adding in @Pginer-WMF as the original designer who likely can speak directly on this. IMO ideally we want one icon for alerts and notices per T142981: Provide a single entry point for notification that anticipates the urgency of the notifications received for desktop as well, but until such time that happens if we are collapsing both alerts and notices under the single bell icon on Minerva, it would make sense for the count to be for the combined unread number.

In T344029#10630921, @Jdlrobson-WMF wrote:

From your perspective should the counter on mobile reflect both notices and alerts?

! In T344029#10631502, @RHo wrote:

it would make sense for the count to be for the combined unread number.

Just for clairty: it has always been the case that when the counter shows on mobile it shows alerts + notices. This has been the case since the first implementation and has never changed. The only issue here is that the counter stopped showing at all if there were not unseens alerts, and this is what the patch fixes.

Jdlrobson renamed this task from Update Echo in Minerva to display a count of both notices and alerts to Update Echo in Minerva to display a count of both notices and alerts when alerts is 0.Mar 13 2025, 3:01 PM

JScherer-WMF triaged this task as Medium priority.Mar 13 2025, 5:56 PM

JScherer-WMF moved this task from Incoming to Q3 on the Web-Team board.

ppelberg subscribed.Mar 13 2025, 9:25 PM

DLynch subscribed.Mar 13 2025, 9:51 PM

Jdlrobson-WMF set the point value for this task to 3.Mar 13 2025, 10:20 PM

Jdlrobson-WMF moved this task from Q3 to Sprint Backlog on the Web-Team board.Mar 14 2025, 4:45 PM

Esanders renamed this task from Update Echo in Minerva to display a count of both notices and alerts when alerts is 0 to Notification counter not shown on mobile (Minerva) when the user has no unseen alerts.Mar 17 2025, 5:56 PM

Esanders updated the task description. (Show Details)

ppelberg added a project: Editing-team (Kanban Board).Mar 17 2025, 6:20 PM

Assigning this over to Ed to ensure the task description's "QA steps" reflect the behavior the fix implements.

More broadly, the Editing Team will assume responsibility for QA'ing this fix before it rides the train that will go out next week (week of 24 March). See offline discussion for how Editing + Web arrived at this path forward.

Oh, and @RHo, per what @Esanders shared in T344029#10632185, the fix will, as you put it, "...make sense for the count to be for the combined unread number."

Jdlrobson-WMF removed a project: Web-Team.Mar 17 2025, 6:26 PM

ppelberg updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 17 2025, 6:31 PM

Change #1126547 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Re-apply: "Fix logic for when to show the notification circle"

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1126547

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 18 2025, 12:30 PM

DLynch moved this task from Inbox to QA on the Editing-team (Kanban Board) board.Mar 18 2025, 12:41 PM

DLynch added a project: Editing QA.

Tested on en.beta

Screenshot 2025-03-18 at 11.10.39.png (222×772 px, 27 KB)

UserTestUserEsther - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 3.jpeg (2×1 px, 424 KB)

EAkinloose edited projects, added Verified; removed Editing QA.Mar 18 2025, 2:01 PM

EAkinloose moved this task from QA to Ready for Sign Off on the Editing-team (Kanban Board) board.

Thank you for drafting the Tech/News entry @ppelberg :D
Moving to the 'Announce in next Tech/News' column, now that the patch has been remerged.

ReleaseTaggerBot edited projects, added MW-1.44-notes (1.44.0-wmf.22; 2025-03-25); removed MW-1.44-notes (1.44.0-wmf.21; 2025-03-18).Mar 18 2025, 3:14 PM

In T344029#10646758, @A_smart_kitten wrote:

Thank you for drafting the Tech/News entry @ppelberg :D
Moving to the 'Announce in next Tech/News' column, now that the patch has been remerged.

You bet and thank you!

ppelberg updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 19 2025, 4:57 AM

Quiddity moved this task from Announce in next Tech/News to In current Tech/News draft on the User-notice board.Mar 21 2025, 8:09 PM

Quiddity moved this task from In current Tech/News draft to Already announced/Archive on the User-notice board.Mar 28 2025, 9:51 PM

matmarex merged a task: T389746: Notice notifications not showing up in minerva.Apr 1 2025, 12:01 AM

matmarex added a subscriber: Commander_Keane.

matmarex merged a task: T372360: Offer a visual indication when there is something new for me to see in a topic I'm subscribed to.Apr 3 2025, 12:28 AM

matmarex added subscribers: Pingnova, KStoller-WMF.

The fix has been live in Wikimedia production for a couple of weeks now - should the task remain open for any additional Editing-team sign-off, or can it be closed as resolved?

No objection; therefore resolving :)
Thanks @Esanders for the patch!

Maintenance_bot edited projects, added User-notice-archive; removed User-notice.May 4 2025, 7:30 PM

VPuffetMichel added a project: Essential-Work.Mon, Dec 8, 10:59 PM

	F58861486: UserTestUserEsther - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 3.jpeg
	Mar 18 2025, 2:00 PM

	F58860650: Screenshot 2025-03-18 at 11.10.39.png
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	F37394029: Screenshot 2023-08-10 at 4.38.16 PM.png
	Aug 10 2023, 11:39 PM

Notification counter not shown on mobile (Minerva) when the user has no unseen alertsClosed, ResolvedPublic3 Estimated Story PointsBUG REPORTActions