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Confusing cursor key navigation in VE reference re-use dialog due to missing highlighting
Closed, ResolvedPublicBUG REPORT

Description

Steps to reproduce:

  • Go to an article with many references and edit it with VisualEditor, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brenna_Lovera&veaction=edit
  • Click "Cite" and "Re-use" to insert a new reference that reuses an existing one.
  • While the text cursor is in the search field, keep pressing the cursor up/down keys. Notice how the list below the input field starts scrolling at some point as if we are somehow navigating it. But there is no visual indication for what's actually going on.
  • We can even press enter to insert one of the reference. We just can't see which one is selected.

It's really only a line of CSS that's missing. I suspect this once worked but got lost with some OOUI update.

Event Timeline

Change 1010895 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] [WIP] Fix and update styling in reference re-use dialog

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1010895

Change #1043763 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Replace "shield" hack in MWReferenceResultWidget with CSS

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1043763

Change #1043763 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Replace "shield" hack in MWReferenceResultWidget with CSS

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1043763

Change #1055470 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Fix missing cursor focus visualization in reference search

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1055470

Suggestion for TechNews:

The "add a citation" dialog in VisualEditor allows to "re-use" existing citations. It was always possible to navigate the list of citations with the cursor keys. The currently selected list item was just not visible. This is now fixed.

Change #1055470 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Fix missing cursor focus visualization in reference search

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1055470

Quiddity subscribed.

Hi. Thanks for the suggested entry for Tech News, and the draft wording. I'm not going to include this particular piece, because as the description notes, "It's really only a line of CSS that's missing", and it wasn't preventing any kind of interaction for editors, hence it's not of major importance to widely translate and communicate. But the suggestion is greatly appreciated!

@Quiddity I'm fine either way. Still I think this is a misunderstanding. From the user's perspective keyboard navigation in this dialog was completely broken and impossible to use. That was absolutely "preventing any kind of interaction for editors".

Yup, I understand, just my summary of my understanding was imprecise (sorry about that). Thanks.