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Maniphest T409027

Improve watchlist navigation tabs
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Samwilson
Authored By
Samwilson
Nov 3 2025, 7:39 AM
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F71626210: 2026-01-29_12-01-30.mp4
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F71626206: 2026-01-29_09-42-20.png
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F71626201: 2026-01-29_09-41-53.png
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Aklapper
GMikesell-WMF
JSengupta-WMF
Krinkle
Nardog
Samwilson
Wargo

Description

In T406011 we're adding a new tab to the navigation bar on Special:Watchlist and Special:EditWatchlist, and with this new tab it might make sense to improve the messages that are used for the different tabs. The page titles are all fine as they are.

image.png (93×752 px, 12 KB)

Special pagePage titleExisting tabSuggested new tabNotes
Special:WatchlistWatchlistView relevant changesView watchlist
Special:EditWatchlistEdit watchlistView and edit watchlistEdit watchlist
Special:WatchlistLabelsWatchlist labelsn/aManage watchlist labelsNew page
Special:EditWatchlist/rawEdit raw watchlistEdit raw watchlistEdit raw watchlistNo change
Special:EditWatchlist/clearClear watchlistClear the watchlistClear watchlist

In addition, the tab links could have tooltips added (perhaps matching their page titles).

Derived Requirement

Ensure that navigation tabs on watchlist-related special pages use clear, user-friendly labels that accurately reflect their purpose, and that each tab provides a helpful tooltip matching the page title to improve discoverability and navigation clarity.

Test Steps

Test Case 1: Ensure updated navigation tab label on Special:Watchlist

  1. Navigate to Special:Watchlist.
  2. Observe the navigation tab corresponding to the current page.
  3. ✅❓❌⬜ AC1: The navigation tab label reads "View watchlist".

Test Case 2: Ensure updated navigation tab label on Special:EditWatchlist

  1. Navigate to Special:EditWatchlist.
  2. Observe the navigation tab corresponding to the current page.
  3. ✅❓❌⬜ AC2: The navigation tab label reads "Edit watchlist".

Test Case 3: Ensure new navigation tab exists for Special:WatchlistLabels

  1. Navigate to Special:Watchlist.
  2. Review the available navigation tabs.
  3. Click the tab labeled "Manage labels".
  4. ✅❓❌⬜ AC3: The "Manage labels" tab is present and navigates to Special:WatchlistLabels.

Test Case 4: Ensure navigation tab label on Special:EditWatchlist/raw remains unchanged

  1. Navigate to Special:EditWatchlist/raw.
  2. Observe the navigation tab corresponding to the current page.
  3. ✅❓❌⬜ AC4: The navigation tab label reads "Edit raw watchlist".

Test Case 5: Ensure updated navigation tab label on Special:EditWatchlist/clear

  1. Navigate to Special:EditWatchlist/clear.
  2. Observe the navigation tab corresponding to the current page.
  3. ✅❓❌⬜ AC5: The navigation tab label reads "Clear watchlist".

Test Case 6: Ensure navigation tabs display tooltips matching page titles

  1. Navigate to any watchlist-related special page.
  2. Hover over each navigation tab.
  3. ✅❓❌⬜ AC6: Each navigation tab displays a tooltip that matches the corresponding page title.

QA Results - Meta Beta

ACStatusDetails
1✅T409027#11589787
2✅T409027#11567893
3✅T409027#11589787
4✅T409027#11567893
5✅T409027#11567893
6⬜ T409027#11589787

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:
SubjectRepoBranchLines +/-
Update watchlist tab label messagesmediawiki/coremaster+6 -8
Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Event Timeline

Samwilson created this task.Nov 3 2025, 7:39 AM
Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptNov 3 2025, 7:39 AM
Samwilson added a comment.Nov 28 2025, 1:31 AM

Is everyone happy with the suggested new tab names above?

Restricted Application added a project: Community-Tech. · View Herald TranscriptNov 28 2025, 1:31 AM
Samwilson edited projects, added Community-Tech (Fox Squad); removed Community-Tech.Jan 15 2026, 6:50 AM
Samwilson added a subscriber: JSengupta-WMF.

@JSengupta-WMF Do these changes sound okay?

JSengupta-WMF added a comment.Jan 15 2026, 9:51 AM

Looks good to me. Only one I am not sure about is Edit raw watchlist. But if it's an existing term and the users understand it, I have no say.

Samwilson claimed this task.Tue, Jan 20, 4:10 AM
Samwilson moved this task from Ready for Dev to In Development on the Community-Tech (Fox Squad) board.
Samwilson added a comment.Tue, Jan 20, 4:55 AM

"Edit raw watchlist" is a bit of an odd one, I agree. It just means "edit your watching via a textbox rather than a table" and is much quicker for some types of removals and additions (i.e. where page titles follow some sort of pattern). But yeah, it's well-established and I think can stay as-is.

Is "Clear you watchlist" good, or should it be "Clear watchlist"?

Samwilson added a comment.Tue, Jan 20, 4:58 AM

Talking of clearing, the confirmation messages should perhaps be updated to match, if we change the language used in the tabs. Currently it's this:

Clear watchlist
All of the titles will be removed from your watchlist
Clear the watchlist (This is permanent!)

image.png (135×388 px, 11 KB)

It mixes "the watchlist" and "your watchlist". There's also some slightly non-standard punctuation in that button text.

gerritbot added a comment.Tue, Jan 20, 5:13 AM

Change #1228739 had a related patch set uploaded (by Samwilson; author: Samwilson):

[mediawiki/core@master] Update watchlist tab label messages

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1228739

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Tue, Jan 20, 5:13 AM
Samwilson moved this task from In Development to Feedback and Review on the Community-Tech (Fox Squad) board.Tue, Jan 20, 6:53 AM
Krinkle subscribed.EditedTue, Jan 20, 1:32 PM

@Samwilson It may be worth tracing with git-blame how that message came to be, but without context, I'd remove "This is permanent" from the button label, and instead append it as bolded sentence to the block above that button.

Samwilson added a comment.Wed, Jan 21, 3:21 AM

I did look a bit, but all I could find was this change from 2014 which sounds like it was re-adding the functionality. I guess the message might've been new at that point, and not from a manual revert of some previous code.

But regardless, I think you're right and the button text could be updated now to be just "Clear your watchlist". I'll do that.

Samwilson added a comment.Wed, Jan 21, 3:27 AM

Actually, I'm not really sure about "permanent" anyway: if you clear you're watchlist you can still go and add those pages back to it! Nor will it be permanently cleared.

How about "All pages will be removed from your watchlist. You will not be able to undo this action."?

Cparle moved this task from Feedback and Review to QA on the Community-Tech (Fox Squad) board.Thu, Jan 22, 10:59 AM
gerritbot added a comment.Thu, Jan 22, 11:23 AM

Change #1228739 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/core@master] Update watchlist tab label messages

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1228739

Samwilson updated the task description. (Show Details)Thu, Jan 22, 11:29 AM
Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Thu, Jan 22, 11:30 AM
Samwilson moved this task from Backlog to Label manager on the Watchlist-Labels board.Tue, Jan 27, 9:06 AM
GMikesell-WMF updated Other Assignee, added: GMikesell-WMF.Thu, Jan 29, 5:57 PM
GMikesell-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)
GMikesell-WMF subscribed.Thu, Jan 29, 8:57 PM

@Samwilson Please review AC1, AC3 and AC6 please, thanks!

Test Result - Beta

Status: ✅ PASS / ❌ FAIL
Environment: Beta
OS: macOS Tahoe 26.2
Browser: Chrome 143
Device: MBA
Emulated Device: NA

Test Artifact(s): Screenshots of navigation tabs and tooltips on watchlist-related special pages

Test Steps

Test Case 1: Ensure updated navigation tab label on Special:Watchlist

  1. Navigate to Special:Watchlist.
  2. Observe the navigation tab corresponding to the current page.
  3. ❌ AC1: The navigation tab label reads "View watchlist".

The tab label says "Display watched changes", not View watchlist"

2026-01-29_09-39-45.png (1×1 px, 252 KB)

Test Case 2: Ensure updated navigation tab label on Special:EditWatchlist

  1. Navigate to Special:EditWatchlist.
  2. Observe the navigation tab corresponding to the current page.
  3. ✅ AC2: The navigation tab label reads "Edit watchlist".

2026-01-29_09-40-21.png (752×1 px, 150 KB)

Test Case 3: Ensure new navigation tab exists for Special:WatchlistLabels

  1. Navigate to Special:Watchlist.
  2. Review the available navigation tabs.
  3. Click the tab labeled "Manage labels".
  4. ❌ AC3: The "Manage labels" tab is present and navigates to Special:WatchlistLabels.

Headers says "Manage watchlist labels", "Manage labels"

2026-01-29_09-40-55.png (878×1 px, 154 KB)

Test Case 4: Ensure navigation tab label on Special:EditWatchlist/raw remains unchanged

  1. Navigate to Special:EditWatchlist/raw.
  2. Observe the navigation tab corresponding to the current page.
  3. ✅ AC4: The navigation tab label reads "Edit raw watchlist".

2026-01-29_09-41-53.png (790×1 px, 191 KB)

Test Case 5: Ensure updated navigation tab label on Edit raw watchlist

  1. Navigate to Special:EditWatchlist/clear.
  2. Observe the navigation tab corresponding to the current page.
  3. ✅ AC5: The navigation tab label reads "Clear watchlist".

2026-01-29_09-42-20.png (896×1 px, 137 KB)

Test Case 6: Ensure navigation tabs display tooltips matching page titles

  1. Navigate to any watchlist-related special page.
  2. Hover over each navigation tab.
  3. ❌ AC6: Each navigation tab displays a tooltip that matches the corresponding page title.

Tooltip does not display when hovering over the tabs

GMikesell-WMF changed the task status from Open to In Progress.Thu, Jan 29, 8:58 PM
GMikesell-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)
GMikesell-WMF moved this task from QA to In Development on the Community-Tech (Fox Squad) board.
Samwilson added a comment.Thu, Jan 29, 10:03 PM

❌ AC1: The navigation tab label reads "View watchlist".
The tab label says "Display watched changes", not View watchlist"

There was a local override for that message. I've deleted it and this tab has the correct message.

❌ AC3: The "Manage labels" tab is present and navigates to Special:WatchlistLabels.
Headers says "Manage watchlist labels", "Manage labels"

I think that is a clearer heading; I'll update the task description here.

❌ AC6: Each navigation tab displays a tooltip that matches the corresponding page title.
Tooltip does not display when hovering over the tabs

Oops, I totally forgot about that! It was only an idea, and actually I'm not really sure it helps that much given that the tab labels are pretty clear. @JSengupta-WMF do you think the tabs need tooltips?

Samwilson updated the task description. (Show Details)Thu, Jan 29, 10:04 PM
Samwilson changed the task status from In Progress to Stalled.Mon, Feb 2, 12:32 PM
Wargo subscribed.Tue, Feb 3, 1:10 AM

"View watchlist" suggests I would see items on my watchlist. This is what is done on Edit Watchlist.

Samwilson changed the task status from Stalled to Open.Thu, Feb 5, 12:55 AM
Samwilson moved this task from In Development to QA on the Community-Tech (Fox Squad) board.

"View watchlist" suggests I would see items on my watchlist. This is what is done on Edit Watchlist.

Maybe. But when people talk about opening their wachlist they mean Special:Watchlist, i.e. the "watchlist" is technically the list of watched pages, but people more commonly use the term to mean the list of recent changes to pages on their list of watched pages.

What label would you suggest instead?

Wargo added a comment.Thu, Feb 5, 12:59 PM
In T409027#11585704, @Samwilson wrote:

"View watchlist" suggests I would see items on my watchlist. This is what is done on Edit Watchlist.

Maybe. But when people talk about opening their wachlist they mean Special:Watchlist, i.e. the "watchlist" is technically the list of watched pages, but people more commonly use the term to mean the list of recent changes to pages on their list of watched pages.

What label would you suggest instead?

I agree. This is common meaning for long. I don't want to push anything.

Nardog subscribed.Thu, Feb 5, 2:23 PM

Related: T416594: Watchlist tabs don't have semantically specific IDs or classes

GMikesell-WMF added a comment.Thu, Feb 5, 10:12 PM

@Samwilson Ok I will mark this task as Resolved based on the description and screenshots. Don't forget T416594. Thanks for all your work!

In T409027#11568088, @Samwilson wrote:

❌ AC1: The navigation tab label reads "View watchlist".
The tab label says "Display watched changes", not View watchlist"

✅

2026-02-05_14-05-37.png (981×1 px, 262 KB)

There was a local override for that message. I've deleted it and this tab has the correct message.

❌ AC3: The "Manage labels" tab is present and navigates to Special:WatchlistLabels.
Headers says "Manage watchlist labels", "Manage labels"
I think that is a clearer heading; I'll update the task description here.

✅

2026-02-05_14-06-41.png (840×1 px, 150 KB)

❌ AC6: Each navigation tab displays a tooltip that matches the corresponding page title.
Tooltip does not display when hovering over the tabs

Oops, I totally forgot about that! It was only an idea, and actually I'm not really sure it helps that much given that the tab labels are pretty clear. @JSengupta-WMF do you think the tabs need tooltips?

⬜  Depending on Joy

GMikesell-WMF closed this task as Resolved.Thu, Feb 5, 10:12 PM
GMikesell-WMF updated Other Assignee, removed: GMikesell-WMF.
GMikesell-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)
JSengupta-WMF added a comment.EditedFri, Feb 6, 6:32 AM

They don't need tooltips at this point. But the "Manage watchlist labels" will be called "Manage labels" only.

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