Special:Changecontentmodel should explicitly tell a user they have created a new page if they have done that
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	Bugreporter2
	Aug 12 2025, 5:41 AM

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	Apr 13 2026, 9:09 PM

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	Apr 13 2026, 9:09 PM

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Description

Steps to replicate the issue:

Go to Special:ChangeContentModel, and go through the process of “changing” the content model of a non-existent page

What happens?:

The page is created as a blank page, but shows the message mw-changecontentmodel-success-text stored at MediaWiki:changecontentmodel-success-text:

The content type of [[:$1]] has been changed.

What should have happened instead?:

At the very least, the following message should've been displayed instead:

[[:$1]] has been created as a blank page with the new content model. Please add content to avoid leaving a blank page.

(Also note here that the message doesn't tell us which content model it has been changed to, but that's a different issue, probably a different ticket) Raised at T401656: Special:ChangeContentModel should tell the user the new content model in its system message. Cross-referencing the solution to that would suggest:

Created new $3 page

[[:$1]] has been created as a blank page with the content model $3.  Please add content to avoid leaving a blank page.

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

	Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
	ChangeContentModel: Handle creating a new page in UI	mediawiki/core	master	+68 -14

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Mentioned In: T248294: Separate permission for creating a page with a custom content model
Mentioned Here: T230968: Special:ChangeContentModel should check if a page exists
T401656: Special:ChangeContentModel should tell the user the new content model in its system message

Event Timeline

Bugreporter2 created this task.Aug 12 2025, 5:41 AM

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Bugreporter2 added a project: MediaWiki-ContentHandler.Aug 12 2025, 8:21 AM

Pppery removed a project: MediaWiki-Special-pages.Aug 12 2025, 2:29 PM

Bugreporter2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Aug 12 2025, 2:45 PM

It should also explicitly say that you will be publishing a new page/revision if this workflow is being used to author a new page.

See also T230968

Pppery claimed this task.Apr 13 2026, 5:33 PM

Johannnes89 subscribed.Apr 13 2026, 6:22 PM

Might also want to mention its capability to create new pages with a sentence in the interface of form 1:

Might also want to change the "Change" button to "Create" when the page doesn't exist for form 2:

I was thinking of coding this up real quick, but Pppery has claimed it, so will instead post some suggested acceptance criteria:

form 1: add a message key with text similar to "This form can also be used to create pages with a particular content model."
form 2: if the page doesn't exist, change the "Change" button to say "Create"
form 2 success message: in the case of new page creation, change message key to say [:$1]] has been created as a blank page with the content model $3. Please add content to avoid leaving a blank page.

Feel free to steal this from me if you want to; I have lots of other things to do.

In T401655#11817033, @Novem_Linguae wrote:

I was thinking of coding this up real quick, but Pppery has claimed it, so will instead post some suggested acceptance criteria:

form 1: add a message key with text similar to "This form can also be used to create pages with a particular content model."

form 2: if the page doesn't exist, change the "Change" button to say "Create"

form 2 success message: in the case of new page creation, change message key to say [:$1]] has been created as a blank page with the content model $3. Please add content to avoid leaving a blank page.

Yes, but also if these are being lumped together, then T401656: Special:ChangeContentModel should tell the user the new content model in its system message:

form 2 success message: in the case of changing the content model of an existing page, alter mw-changecontentmodel-success-text to mention the old and new content models: The content model of [[:$1]] has been changed from $2 to $3.
form 2 success message title: also in the case of changing the content model of an existing page, alter mw-changecontentmodel-success-title to content model changed.