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Archive 1Archive 2

Adding custom edit summaries (again)

Hi @Galobtter, not sure if you saw the requests for custom edit summaries before the section got archived at Wikipedia talk:Shortdesc helper/Archive 1#Adding custom edit summaries. Most uses of Shortdesc helper must now be edits to existing SDs rather than the addition of new ones, and the need for custom summaries continues to increase. Any chance you could look at this, please? MichaelMaggs (talk) 22:10, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for reminding me, yes I'm aware and this is definitely a high priority. As I mentioned in that thread, it would be a little complicated, and so would take some time, but I do think I'll have the time to do it soonish. Galobtter (pingó mió) 03:06, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
Great, thanks. That will make a lot of us very happy! MichaelMaggs (talk) 10:49, 6 May 2022 (UTC)
It seems this is now implemented with a "Summary" button while using the edit field. (Looks like it's been there a month now?) I just tried it, and it works great! Thanks, @Galobtter! -2pou (talk) 19:15, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

"undefined" shows up in edit summary

Hi there, I think since the last update to this tool, it appears the word "undefined" shows up in edit summaries when pushed to Wikidata (see, e.g., https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Q24579396&diff=prev&oldid=1658995213). Does this also happen for others or could this potentially be something I've messed up on my end? Thanks, Simeon (talk) 14:27, 12 June 2022 (UTC)

@Simeon  Fixed. Galobtter (pingó mió) 23:12, 30 June 2022 (UTC)
Thanks for fixing it :) Simeon (talk) 23:15, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

Modify edit summary when setting short description to "none"

@Galobtter: Hi, often when setting a short description to none, I will want to link to the relevant guideline as my edits are often reverted (manually or otherwise) by editors who don't understand that "none" is a preferred description in many cases. To link there, I can't use the shortdesc helper. Could the edit summary text link to this guideline and simultaneously better explain what "none" means? For example:

Instead of:

Adding short description: none (Shortdesc helper)
Changing short description from "foo" to none (Shortdesc helper)

the description would say something like:

Adding short description that is intentionally blank (Shortdesc helper)
Changing short description from "foo" to one that is intentionally blank (Shortdesc helper)

Thanks. Thrakkx (talk) 02:53, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

Also suggested above in the section Wikipedia talk:Shortdesc helper/Archive 1#Feature request: Descriptive edit summary for "none". MichaelMaggs (talk) 18:05, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

@Galobtter: Thanks for making this change by the way. I overlooked another instance where this same concept would be helpful:

Instead of:

Adding local short description: "None", overriding Wikidata description "<Wikidata description>"

the description would say:

Adding intentionally blank local short description, overriding Wikidata description "<Wikidata description>"

Thanks! Thrakkx (talk) 22:47, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Edit request 29 July 2022

Please change the selector for the final rule from:

.skin-vector.ns-0 .mw-warning-with-logexcerpt.mw-content-ltr

to:

.skin-vector.ns-0 .mw-warning-with-logexcerpt
Why?
phab:T60685 and this MediaWiki commit changed the mw-warning-with-logexcerpt warning box to contain a mw-content-ltr div instead of having them on the same element. And making this selector LTR-only doesn't seem necessary anyway.
What happens if we don't?
Elements bunch together on deleted pages like this.

Thanks. — The Earwig (talk) 20:11, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

 Done — xaosflux Talk 20:53, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

Exposed functions for other tools

Hi @Galobtter! I’m writing a tool for generating short descriptions with the help of AI. I was wondering if some aspects of shortdesc helper could be exported into some library-type JS, e.g. a function for adding a shortdesc? Thanks! 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 05:02, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

@EpicPupper Hmm. I doubt I'll have time for something like this, and I also am afraid that it would complicate the code more. Feel free to grab whatever code is relevant and use it in your tool. If there's significant shared code it'll be easy to apply DRY and create a common library later. In the long run, if your tool does a decent job of generating descriptions, I think a more worthwhile task would be to integrate it with shortdesc helper.
Adding a short description is actually very easy btw - all the tool does is prepend the short description to the top of the page, which is a call to the edit API that sets prependText (see the makeEdit function).
Using AI to generate short descriptions does seem pretty cool. Not sure what you're doing, but I assume a modern language model could do a really good job judging by how good GPT etc are at summarization. Galobtter (pingó mió) 07:11, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
@Galobtter interesting. I’ve been using GPT-3, yes, and fine-tuning the model with FA shortdescs under 40 characters. I think I’ll reuse some of the code and create a proof-of-concept Toolforge tool, request a grant, monitor its success for a bit, and perhaps integrate it into the helper. Cheers! 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 19:15, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

No longer displaying in Vector-2022 due to #contentSub changes

This gadget is no longer displaying in Vector-2022 due to changes made with T311421 in which #contentSub are seemingly no longer rendered in the code with certain conditions are not met. While the issue isn't unique to this gadget, as it's currently tracked with T315639. Not sure if a similar hotfix used by Xtools can be applied here, as my js understanding is only super basic. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 09:25, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

I was just about to mention this, I don't know much about coding gadgets, but if someone could fix this that'd be awesome! Toadspike (talk) 01:40, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Edit request 21 August 2022

When using Vector 2022 the .skin-vector.ns-0 #contentSub2 selector applies the negative margin which causes the undelete link to be partially hidden behind the "Article" and "Talk" tabs.

Please change the selector:

.skin-vector.ns-0 #contentSub2

to:

.skin-vector.ns-0:not(.skin-vector-2022) #contentSub2

so that the rule only applies to 2010 Vector. Example of what this looks like currently on Vector 2022. Dreamy Jazz talk to me | my contributions 11:13, 21 August 2022 (UTC)

 Done Izno (talk) 18:12, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Delete option

Sometimes when the SD is very long or is generated by the infobox and I am writing a completely new one, the existing one needs to be erased as it contains nothing worth modifying. It would be handy to have a "x" button to erase it in one click. MB 17:15, 7 September 2022 (UTC)

There's always ctrl-A, ctrl-X. An "x" button is common in search fields but rarely found in other data entry fields. ~Kvng (talk) 15:03, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
ctrl-A, ctrl-X means (for me) awkwardly hitting both keys with two fingers on my left hand, or moving my right hand off the mouse all the way across the keyboard. It would just be a lot simpler to delete with one mouse click. An "x" button was just one suggestion. Maybe making the count clickable to delete, or any better way anyone can think of. I do realize this is pretty minor; this is just a "nice to have" suggestion that should be ignored if it's not relatively easy to implement. MB 15:43, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
When you already use a mouse (and no touch-device), you should be able to tripleclick the content of the box and just overwrite it. Windharp (talk) 09:51, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
I did not know about tripleclick. That works for me. Thanks. MB 15:35, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

Add option to prevent adding "none" to Wikidata

The description of "none" seems to be frowned upon on Wikidata. I think it would be nice to add an option (preferably default) to prevent adding the "none" description to a Wikidata entry automatically. ~ Eejit43 (talk) 23:36, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Vector-2022 problem is back (more #contentSub changes)

It seems like the Vector-2022 fix done in August needs to be reverted again: The #contentSub element is now back, but there's no .mw-body-subheader element anymore, so sdh is currently not being inserted anywhere in Vector-2022. --Tkarcher (talk) 09:42, 18 November 2022 (UTC)

Yes same issue here. Xtools also affected. Not sure whose genius idea to play around on production ... can't they test it out somewhere first before deciding on adding and/or removing it 🤦‍♂️. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 09:47, 18 November 2022 (UTC)

Interface-protected edit request on 19 November 2022

Requesting to restore back revision 1095876274 coding as .mw-body-subheader was removed from Vector-2022 due to recent update to that skin hence causing this tool to no longer work with Vector-2022 skin. This is the same changes that saw Xtools reverting back to the same coding published on March 25, 2022 yesterday with this diff, given that the if-else logic is no longer require as .mw-body-subheader no longer exists. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 07:13, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

 Not done @Paper9oll: Special:PermanentLink/1106538239 is already the current version. — xaosflux Talk 16:09, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
@Xaosflux Sorry my bad, just realise the mistake. Should be Special:PermanentLink/1095876274 instead. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 16:11, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
@Paper9oll:  Done — xaosflux Talk 19:41, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

Text is tiny

For some reason the shortdesc helper text has become tiny. This happened yesterday or today and has made it very difficult to read the SDs. It happened on both Safari and Chrome. Could someone please let me know if this change was intended? It seems like a mistake, but in case it wasn't, I am happy to learn why it was made. Toadspike (talk) 00:23, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

It began appearing like that after the revisions mentioned above. Pinging Xaosflux. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 07:37, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

Minor edit checkbox

Could we please have the minor edit checkbox part of the visible interface, rather than tucked away in the hidden menu? Most edits for most users are likely to be non-minor, but it’s not uncommon that a word needs changing or a dash needs correcting in what amounts to a minor edit, and I’ve found that changing between the two modes is something I frequently forget to do. — HTGS (talk) 22:36, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Printing with the gadget turned on

The message created by the gadget to allow editing the short description appears when printing the page on all supported skins. While the short description itself arguably could be kept within the print version of the page, the parts of the user interface related to editing it shouldn't be visible due to being self-references to Wikipedia. I'd suggest setting as unprintable either the entire shortdesc helper (if the short description itself is to be hidden) or just the sdh-clickies and sdh-no-description classes, which are always-visible self-references. Randi Moth (talk) 12:45, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

@Randi Moth,  Done. Just hid the whole shortdesc helper. Galobtter (pingó mió) 02:29, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

Text is now too big

For the last day or so, the shortdesc helper text has now become significantly larger than the text used in the body of the article. I see the same in Mac Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Changing the font size in the browser with CMND+ also changes the helper text, and it always remains oversized. I'm using the Vector (2022) skin. MichaelMaggs (talk) 22:03, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

Looks normal sized to me. Does anyone else see this issue? Galobtter (pingó mió) 02:23, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
Same as Galobtter, the size is the same for me at computed size of 11.76px for the element of #sdh on all browsers on Windows 11 at 1080p. You can check your computed sizing by right-clicking the short description > inspect it > look for <div id="shd"> > click Computed on sidebar of developer tools > scroll down till you see font-size. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 03:31, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
Interesting. Doing that (with slight variations as I'm on a Mac) gives me "15.876px; #sdh > 135%". MichaelMaggs (talk) 15:52, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
Is nobody else using a Mac? MichaelMaggs (talk) 09:43, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
I'm using a Mac, and Vector 2022 in Firefox gives me 12.25 for the body text and 10.29 (84%) for the short description helper text. Brave gives me 13.125 and 11.02 (also 84%). – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:40, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
I use a Mac. Do you see the same issue in other skins? Do you have any particular settings for your Vector 2022? Galobtter (pingó mió) 02:11, 3 January 2023 (UTC)
Just checked on my work PC which is MacBook Pro (Early 2015 13-inch model to be exact), I get the same computed font-size as on my personal Windows PC despite my MBP having higher screen resolution hence doubt is screen resolution causing it. I don't have any hardcoded CSS to force the font size, so not sure why the font size varies from user to user. Not sure if it's related to the media queries changes introduced at around that period, maybe someone more well verse with the Vector-2022 skin would have some insight. — 🎄🎆 Paper9oll 🎆🎄 (🔔 • 📝) 03:24, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

Feature request

Hi @Galobtter:. Can you make an option allowing a custom edit summary that retains between pages? Basically, something that appends or goes before the normal "changed short description from ... to ..." that I can customize in the settings, without having to write it in every time? Let me know what you think, thanks. — PerfectSoundWhatever (t; c) 23:02, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

Could you give an example of a use for that? Galobtter (pingó mió) 00:34, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
I want to add a little message to the edit summary saying "Please message or ping me if you revert this edit". The problem is, when you add a bunch of edit summaries at once, you usually don't check the article history and just add it. Unless you have revert notifications on (which I don't, there's a case for leaving it off), you don't know if another editor is repeatedly reverting the summaries. This editor could be unaware of an SD guideline, for example WP:SDNONE (this happened to me once), so asking them to tell me they reverted my edit is very useful.
You can see this poor communication happening 3 times at Melodifestivalen 2023. That article appears in a backlog listing so multiple editors tried to add an SD to it. The reverter does not understand the difference between Wikidata SDs and Wikipedia SDs but the editors' summaries did not adequately communicate.
Another use case could be to link to a backlog a user is clearing. For example, while I was going through Category:Articles with long short description, it would be useful to let editors know my rationale for shortening the SD. This way, if they disagree with my new SD, they can make sure that their revised one is also short. — PerfectSoundWhatever (t; c) 01:21, 7 March 2023 (UTC)

Interface-protected edit request on 6 May 2023

Placeholder request for the changes suggested in my PR on github. The changes make sure that the shortdesc-helper is not shown when the visual editor is loaded by leveraging some of the APIs/Hooks defined at VisualEditor/API. (Ping Galobtter since I'm unsure how active they are on Github) Sohom Datta (talk) 14:20, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

Saw this, will verify changes and merge next week. Galobtter (talk) 17:29, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
 Done Galobtter (talk) 06:53, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Short descriptions lost their styling

Tracked in github.com
Issue #7
Tracked in github.com
Issue #8

Short description gadget on enwiki just lost its styling. It looks like regular text instead of the small gray text it is normally. Affecting all articles for me on Vector 2010. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopichand_Hinduja?useskin=vector. Perhaps related to WP:ITSTHURSDAY? –Novem Linguae (talk) 08:43, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

For me, it isn't displaying at all. I'm on Vector 2022. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 09:58, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
I see it on vector-2022, but the WMF is in the middle of a vector-2022 A/B test, so maybe you're in a different test group than I am. –Novem Linguae (talk) 10:04, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
Maybe, I'm on the zebra skin currently which is rather half-baked. Disabling it via ?VectorZebraDesign=0 brings back the short description in the correct styling. As for on Vector 2010, similarly to you, it is displaying as normal-sized text. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 10:13, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
Same here, I'm on Vector 2010 too. Vacant0 (talk) 10:14, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
+1 ♥ Vector 2010 forever ♥. --Muhandes (talk) 12:28, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
I'm seeing large intrusive text (without the usual box) above the lead sentence of articles with a white space gap above, if it is a test hopefully it will be put back to normal soon. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by) 14:08, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
I think the test (zebra version of V22) is likely to be deployed to everyone. And the V10 issue in shortdesc helper appears to affect everyone. Will likely need 2 patches (1 patch per skin, slightly different issues I'm assuming) on the gadget side. –Novem Linguae (talk) 15:47, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
the styling of #contentSub has been moved to #mw-content-subtitle, the script has to be adjusted to use this element, or, probably better, use mw.util.addSubtitle(). hgzh 17:21, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
Big +1 here to using the mw.util.addSubtitle API! Jdlrobson (talk) 18:51, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
I created a ticket to explore the idea of switching to mw.util.addSubtitle. –Novem Linguae (talk) 04:51, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
Yup, I'm in Vector '10 as well and have the issue. - UtherSRG (talk) 17:20, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
@Galobtter appears to be the maintainer. If she doesn't swing by in the next few days, ping me and I can probably write a hotfix. –Novem Linguae (talk) 17:56, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
@Novem Linguae Currently traveling for a couple of weeks and it’s going to be hard to fix from my ipad - if you or anyone could write a fix I’d appreciate it. Galobtter (talk) 18:24, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
+1. I'm on Vector 2010. Looking forward to getting this fixed. --TadejM my talk 01:49, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
+1, I use Vector 2010 and the text is gigantic now. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 03:46, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Hotfix for vector and monobook size bug

Please see above talk page section for background.

Please note this edit request is for MediaWiki:Gadget-Shortdesc-helper.css, not Wikipedia:Shortdesc helper or MediaWiki:Gadget-Shortdesc-helper.js.

Please add this code to the end of the file: 

/* Copy pasted from #contentSub > #mw-content-subtitle */
/* Needed for vector and monobook to look right. */
.skin-vector-legacy #sdh,
.skin-monobook #sdh {
    font-size: 84%;
    line-height: 1.2em;
    margin: 0 0 1.4em 1em;
    color: #54595d;
    width: auto;
}

Thank you. –Novem Linguae (talk) 04:38, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

 Done Izno (talk) 04:58, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Top margin

Tracked in github.com
Issue #13

@Novem Linguae and Izno: Thanks! One suggestion: put a space after the short desc, instead of before it? - UtherSRG (talk) 17:13, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Can you elaborate a bit? Is this before or after clicking the edit button? Wouldn't a space after something just be invisible? –Novem Linguae (talk) 17:32, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
From my view, there's a blank line between "class article from Wikipedia" and the short description, while there is no blank line between the short description and the lede. This should be revered: there should be no blank line between the class statement and the short desc, and there should be one between the short desc and the lede. - UtherSRG (talk) 17:48, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
To make matters more interesting... there's no blank line between the short desc and any hatnote, but there is one after the hatnote. Just removing the blank line before the short desc should be sufficient. - UtherSRG (talk) 17:52, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
I'm glad someone else noticed this. I was starting to wonder if it had always been that way... -- asilvering (talk) 17:53, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
Got it. I created a ticket. Thanks for reporting. –Novem Linguae (talk) 17:55, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Still issues?

Just managed to implement the proper fix from my iPad (using mw.addToSubtitle); it looks ok on my iPad on vector and vector 2022 but let me know if there are still any issues (including any minor spacing issues etc). Everything in theory should be 100% the way it was before, since I fixed MediaWiki:Gadget-Shortdesc-helper-pagestyles-vector.css for the content jump also. Galobtter (talk) 10:37, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Looks good here. Much thanks! - UtherSRG (talk) 11:27, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Warning threshhold

Hi @Galobtter! The current warning thresholds are red for >40 characters and bold red for >100 characters. I think the bold red threshold should be lowered. 100 characters (250% of max rec. length) is a rough benchmark for "SDs should never ever be this long", which is why it's the threshold for the maintenance category. But having a bold red number doesn't prevent anyone from saving, so I think a more appropriate benchmark for that to trigger would be "you should think seriously about trying to shorten before using an SD this long". I think the threshold for that benchmark is more around 60–70 characters (150%–175% of max rec. length). Would you be willing to adjust the .js? {{u|Sdkb}} talk 22:32, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

I agree. MichaelMaggs (talk) 02:36, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
Done, reduced to 60. I think this has been discussed before with some mixed opinions but right now the 100 character warning is basically useless. According to WP:SDSHORT about 3% of descriptions are >60 characters long; which seems a reasonable proportion to highlight. Galobtter (talk) 03:08, 2 August 2023 (UTC)

Feature request

I think the wording of this sentence when changing the short description from an intentionally blank one to one that is not. For example, change the summary,

"Changing short description from "" to "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet"

to

"Changing intentionally blank description to "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet"

Also, can you change the WP:SDNONE links to link directly to the subpage so that it avoids the redirect? foobarbaz 07:21, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

"Shortdesc helper" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Shortdesc helper has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2023 August 20 § Shortdesc helper until a consensus is reached. A smart kitten (talk) 09:28, 20 August 2023 (UTC)

Locomotive class hyphens turned into endashes

I recently added a short description of "Classes of British 4-4-2T steam locomotives" to GCR Class 9K. The date replacement function in sdhelper triggered and turned the sequence into "4–4-2-T" (first converted into endash) with no way to bypass it. Pointing out this as an issue because Redrose64 brought it up, leading to a talk page conversation. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 21:04, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

This has happened three times that I have noticed:
There may be others that I haven't found yet. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:51, 30 September 2023 (UTC)
I have submitted an edit request below that may prevent this problem from happening in the future. Comments on the validity of my request are welcome. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:19, 1 October 2023 (UTC)
It looks like there are about 135 locomotive short descriptions to fix. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:25, 1 October 2023 (UTC)
Thank you --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 07:03, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

Interface-protected edit request on 1 October 2023

Change: 

var DATEPATTERN = /(\d+)-(\d+)/;

To: 

var DATEPATTERN = /(\d\d+)-(\d\d+)/;

This change is intended to prevent incorrect edits like these. Date ranges should all have at least two digits on either end. Any that don't probably need to be fixed manually anyway. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:18, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

Tracked in github.com
Issue #15
This problem is still happening (note imported hyphen improperly converted to dash). Feel free to ping me with questions. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:41, 5 October 2023 (UTC)
 Done –Novem Linguae (talk) 09:06, 5 October 2023 (UTC)
Thanks. I just imported a similar one, and it looks like it worked properly. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:39, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Auto-capitalization sometimes not happening

I've noticed that when adding a short description using shortdesc helper to an article that didn't have one, the first letter is automatically capitalized even if it wasn't in the input box. However, when using shortdesc helper to change an existing short description, the first letter won't be automatically capitalized. Is this a bug, or was it deliberately designed to be so? Liu1126 (talk) 14:12, 17 September 2023 (UTC)

I wouldn't want auto-capitalization for modifying existing descriptions. An SD like "iOS game" should not be modified. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:06, 17 September 2023 (UTC)
Yes, this is deliberate for the reason Jonesey mentions. Galobtter (talk) 19:06, 22 October 2023 (UTC)

Should throw error if page is draftified/deleted during editing

Steps to reproduce: 1) log in to an account with page mover right, 2) install shortdesc helper gadget, 3) install User:MPGuy2824/MoveToDraft.js, 4) open a tab with an article, 5) open another tab with same article, 6) in tab 2, draftify the article (will not leave redirect since you are a page mover), 7) in first tab, click edit and add a shortdesc.

What happens? A blank page is created and a short description is added.

What should happen instead? Error is thrown, nothing is written to the now non-existent page –Novem Linguae (talk) 09:43, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

This can be fixed by passing starttimestamp parameter in the API request. Currently looks like shortdesc-helper doesn't pass baserevid as well, which means intervening edits between load and save would be overwritten. – SD0001 (talk) 09:09, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

Regarding abbreviation

Noticed that someone used this tool to abbreviate United States. With the encyclopedia being international, that does not seem to be helpful. Ensuring that country names are spelled out, which is also good description, would be important to reconsider. 143.59.142.64 (talk) 20:17, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

snd template changed to hyphen and garbage created

The Grey Owl article was changed by Shortdesc helper today, whereby an occurrence of the snd template delimiting the year range was changed to hyphen (diff). This change left the end year stranded, which I had to fix by hand (diff). I had just gone to the trouble of changing all hyphens in ranges to snds after having been lectured that the MOS requires this.

  • Why was this change made?
  • Who authorized this change?

Dsiedler (talk) 20:37, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

That was a copy/paste error by me, I believe, not a problem with the SD helper. It should not happen again. I am 98% certain that it was not the gadget's fault. Please see WP:SDFORMAT, however: wikimarkup is not valid in short descriptions. The regular en dash character should be used in this case, as you have done. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:40, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
Thanks for the explanation! Can you then confirm that the Short Description information page takes precedence over the MOS? Dsiedler (talk) 21:36, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
WP:SDFORMAT is clear: Each short description should: be written in plain text – without HTML tags, wiki markup, .... The {{snd}} tag is wiki markup; the – character is not. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:03, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
I don't see a conflict with the MOS. Normal year ranges are written with unspaced en dashes, per MOS:YEARRANGE. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:27, 14 January 2024 (UTC)
Go it! I was confusing an en dash with a hyphen. You changed the year range separator to a character that looks to me, as it is displayed in the source, just like a hyphen, but is evidently an en dash. I can't figure out how to type this on a Mac, so I will use the ndash template in the rest of the article. Rereading the MOS, I see that the snd template is intended for a different use case. Dsiedler (talk) 09:38, 14 January 2024 (UTC)
@Dsiedler: See Wikipedia:How to make dashes, but please note that inside a shortdesc, the methods shown in the "Templates or HTML codes" section must not be used. Personally I use the methods under "The CharInsert toolbar". --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 11:19, 14 January 2024 (UTC)
Understood, thanks! I think I'll stick with the ndash template, since I have trouble visually distinguishing between a hyphen and an en dash on my monitor.
I know this is not the right place for a rant, but <rant>I think that the MOS has made a mistake in bothering with these typographic nuances. Their purpose is to make printed books look nice and keep typesetters in a job. For a wikipedia contributor, they just create an obstacle.</rant> Dsiedler (talk) 12:29, 14 January 2024 (UTC)
@Dsiedler: If you are talking about short descriptions, then please do not stick with the ndash template, or indeed use templates of any kind. They are not permitted in short descriptions, as has been pointed out above. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 23:43, 14 January 2024 (UTC)
It seems like templates are in fact valid to use in short descriptions (though obviously links and stuff don't work). They seem to display fine as short descriptions for me. So we might to need to adjust the guidance to allow Unicode character templates. Galobtter (talk) 01:15, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

Mystery short description not originally in article

In 2020 Singaporean general election, I added in my own short description (YY) through Shortdesc helper, but my edit summary says I changed the short description from XX to YY, even though XX was never present in the article in the first place (originally it was set to "none"). Where does the XX short description come from? Wikidata? JaventheAldericky (talk) 19:31, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Yes. If we don't have a shortdesc but there is one at Wikidata, the Wikidata short desc is used, so if you set up a local one that overrides the Wikidata one. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:33, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Comma in comment

I couldn't find anything on the topic, so I figured I'd ask: Is there a reason for the comma in the comment? Currently shortdesc helper creates a comment like this (sorry for the german language example, but you should get the idea):

‎Beschreibung für [de] hinzugefügt: Gebäude in St. Gallen, (Shortdesc helper)

With a comma right after the new description. Which to me seems more confusing (Did I accidently place a comma?) then helpfull. And - at least in German, I assume English is the same - in front of brackets it's even wrong. Is there a case I miss when they are needed? Windharp (talk) 08:45, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

A diff would be helpful for debugging. –Novem Linguae (talk) 14:39, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
Sorry, here you are. Windharp (talk) 15:23, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
Good info there. So this is just the edit summary, not the wikicode. And it is probably Wikidata only. –Novem Linguae (talk) 16:51, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

Extremely specific issue on auto-generated "none"s

Tracked in github.com
Issue #18

I opened an issue on github, but I am assuming that the github is not very active since there haven't been any new changes in six months, so here's a very minor technical issue that stumped me for a while. In policy w/ WP:SDNONE, many articles do not qualify to have proper short descriptions. However, adding { {short description|none} } to a template does not register on the editor, making it seem as if it has no short description instead of a "none" short description. Article that looks like it has no short description, [1] except it has an infobox that does, [2] and search results show it has a short description. [3] -1ctinus📝🗨 00:41, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

To be clear, it appears that everything is working properly from a Wikipedia standpoint, but the SD gadget is showing the Wikidata description instead of showing the correct "This page intentionally has no description." Is that the bug? – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:58, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
exactly. -1ctinus📝🗨 16:46, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
this was discussed before at Wikipedia_talk:Shortdesc_helper/Archive_1#Auto_short_descriptions_with_a_value_of_"none". Changing what the short description template outputs might be needed. Galobtter (talk) 16:55, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
Thanks. I'll keep the GitHub issue open, though.
However, it appears that the gadget has also changed since 2022. From the talk page giving a reason why it doesn't do that,

It would help if the SD helper could detect that the page would have the SD set (to none or otherwise) by a template, but that would involve an additional API call to check the evaluated output of the page as well as a check of the page source

...doesn't the gadget already do that already? -1ctinus📝🗨 17:16, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Shortdesc helper allowing insertion of invalid invisible space characters

Tracked in github.com
Issue #17

In this 2020 edit, the Shortdesc helper allowed the insertion of an invalid invisible non-breaking space character. I fixed it with this edit, replacing the character with a normal space.

If this bug is still present, it would be helpful for the gadget to replace invalid white-space characters with spaces when a short description is saved. Wikipedia:Database reports/Short descriptions containing invalid space characters is tracking these invalid characters in short descriptions. The report's population does not appear to be increasing, so maybe this problem has been fixed already. I'll look for a recent instance. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:54, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Here's an edit from 6 January 2024 showing that this problem is still present. A couple of thinsp characters were apparently copy/pasted from the article into the SD helper text field. Let's scrub those and replace them with spaces. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:01, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
I submitted this to github as an issue, along with a suggested fix. I am not a programmer, so submitting a pull request with modified code is probably beyond my skills. Maybe Novem Linguae would be able to make this addition? – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:22, 28 February 2024 (UTC)
should be easy to fix i'll try to do this soon Galobtter (talk) 07:10, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
Thanks. The report was completely cleared out a few days ago, and the problem appears to still be present. No rush, since it is pretty rare and easy to fix, but a code fix would be great. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:43, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
According to this diff, the problematic characters are ascii 160 (non-breaking space). These should be converted to ascii 32 (normal space). –Novem Linguae (talk) 23:04, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
Patch submitted for approval. –Novem Linguae (talk) 23:25, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

Jump after page load

With this gadget enabled, whenever I load a page, its content jumps downward a few seconds later. This is because the shortdesc is inserted into the page when the shortdesc itself has loaded, which requires making space for it. This is extremely annoying. Is anyone else having this issue? Does it seem like it would be easy to fix? jlwoodwa (talk) 02:31, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

This happens with all javascript elements, in my experience. I have a bunch of gadgets and scripts installed, and page elements jump around like baby kangaroos while the page is loading. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:47, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
This is fixable with thr "hidden css peer gadget" technique if someone wants to code it up. See MediaWiki:Gadget-Twinkle-pagestyles.css for an example. –Novem Linguae (talk) 08:43, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
Hmm, this gadget already uses the "hidden css peer gadget" technique mentioned above. It's possible the hidden css peer gadget is broken and needs fixing, or that you just have other gadgets and user scripts pushing things around in the same area. Is anyone else (who has very little installed except Shortdesc-helper) having this issue? –Novem Linguae (talk) 23:29, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
That doesn't seem to be available on Monobook. jlwoodwa (talk) 03:08, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
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