AuthenticationRequest don't show help fields on forms
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	Reedy
	Jan 8 2024, 5:08 PM

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Referenced Files

	F41659158: Screenshot 2024-01-08 at 17.48.14.png
	Jan 8 2024, 5:54 PM

	F41659104: Screenshot 2024-01-08 at 16.45.41.png
	Jan 8 2024, 5:11 PM

	F41659124: Screenshot 2024-01-08 at 17.09.36.png
	Jan 8 2024, 5:10 PM

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Aklapper

Reedy

Tgr

Description

		$ret = [
			'username' => [
				'type' => 'string',
				'label' => wfMessage( 'userlogin-yourname' ),
				'help' => wfMessage( 'authmanager-username-help' ),
			],
			'password' => [
				'type' => 'password',
				'label' => wfMessage( $passwordLabel ),
				'help' => wfMessage( 'authmanager-password-help' ),
				'sensitive' => true,
			],
		];

Where are these help messages displayed/used?

Screenshot 2024-01-08 at 17.09.36.png (441×403 px, 24 KB)

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

Subject	Author	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
authmanager: Improve AuthenticationRequest docs	Reedy	mediawiki/core	REL1_41	+10 -3
authmanager: Improve AuthenticationRequest docs	Reedy	mediawiki/core	REL1_40	+10 -3
authmanager: Improve AuthenticationRequest docs	Reedy	mediawiki/core	REL1_39	+10 -3
authmanager: Improve AuthenticationRequest docs	Gergő Tisza	mediawiki/core	master	+10 -3

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects
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		Status	Subtype	Assigned	Task
		Resolved		Reedy	T354539 Help field from TOTPAuthenticationRequest isn't actually shown...
		Resolved		Tgr	T354541 AuthenticationRequest don't show help fields on forms

Event Timeline

Reedy created this task.Jan 8 2024, 5:08 PM

Restricted Application added a project: MediaWiki-Core-Platform-Team. · View Herald TranscriptJan 8 2024, 5:08 PM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald Transcript

Reedy triaged this task as High priority.Jan 8 2024, 5:08 PM

Reedy added a parent task: T354539: Help field from TOTPAuthenticationRequest isn't actually shown....

Reedy updated the task description. (Show Details)

In comparison to other HTMLForm stuff... Where the help text shows in light grey:

Screenshot 2024-01-08 at 16.45.41.png (849×344 px, 44 KB)

The fields seem to disappear in AuthManagerSpecialPage::fieldInfoToFormDescriptor()

And AuthManagerSpecialPage::mapSingleFieldInfo() and AuthManagerSpecialPage::mapFieldInfoTypeToFormDescriptorType() don't reference 'help'....

Looks a lot like it's been this way since implementation in rMW3617c982c9db: Use AuthManager on special pages

And then I see

			$descriptor += array_filter( [
				// help-message is omitted as it is usually not really useful for a web interface
				'label-message' => self::getField( $singleFieldInfo, 'label' ),
			] );

help-message isn't used in this tree (but is in HTMLForm)... And in some of the specialpage implementations for auth-y related stuff...

Does this mean help is incorrect? Why are we defining messages we basically ignore/don't display?

Then looking at HTMLForm itself...

*    'help'                -- message text for a message to use as a help text.
*    'help-message'        -- message key or object for a message to use as a help text.
*                             can be an array of msg key and then parameters to
*                             the message.
*                             Overwrites 'help-messages' and 'help'.
*    'help-messages'       -- array of message keys/objects. As above, each item can
*                             be an array of msg key and then parameters.
*                             Overwrites 'help'.
*    'help-inline'         -- Whether help text (defined using options above) will be shown
*                             inline after the input field, rather than in a popup.
*                             Defaults to true. Only used by OOUI form fields.

A little patch...

diff --git a/includes/specialpage/AuthManagerSpecialPage.php b/includes/specialpage/AuthManagerSpecialPage.php
index ba3db6e3618..a412ce109de 100644
--- a/includes/specialpage/AuthManagerSpecialPage.php
+++ b/includes/specialpage/AuthManagerSpecialPage.php
@@ -730,6 +730,10 @@ abstract class AuthManagerSpecialPage extends SpecialPage {
                                'label-message' => self::getField( $singleFieldInfo, 'label' ),
                        ] );
 
+                       if ( isset( $singleFieldInfo['help'] ) ) {
+                               $descriptor['help'] = $singleFieldInfo['help'];
+                       }
+
                        if ( isset( $singleFieldInfo['options'] ) ) {
                                $descriptor['options'] = array_flip( array_map( static function ( $message ) {
                                        /** @var Message $message */

gives

Screenshot 2024-01-08 at 17.48.14.png (379×302 px, 20 KB)

Which is missing a bit of styling CSS:

.oo-ui-labelWidget.oo-ui-inline-help {
  display: block;
  color: #54595d;
  font-size: 0.92857143em;
}

I will note that some those help messages aren't the most useful... But some of the others are...

It's still odd why we're defining them, then mostly ignoring them...

Reedy updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 8 2024, 5:56 PM

The help field in AuthentionReuqest field info is the API documentation. Sorry, this should have been documented. Using the same message for API docs and form help almost never works, and most form fields don't really need help text (or need something more specialized like placeholder text) so the idea is that form help would be added via the AuthChangeFormFields hook.