Extension:Paragraph-based Edit Conflict Interface

MediaWiki extensions manual

TwoColConflict Release status: stable
Implementation	User interface
Description	Provides an alternative two-column view for the edit conflict resolution page
Author(s)	Wikimedia Germany (WMDE)
Latest version	continuous updates
Compatibility policy	Snapshots releases along with MediaWiki. Master is not backward compatible.
MediaWiki	>= 1.43
License	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review
Help	Help:Paragraph-based Edit Conflict Interface
Parameters $wgTwoColConflictBetaFeature $wgTwoColConflictTrackingOversample $wgTwoColConflictSuggestResolution
Hooks used AlternateEdit EditPage::importFormData EditPage::showEditForm:fields EditPage::showEditForm:initial EditPageBeforeConflictDiff EditPageBeforeEditButtons GetBetaFeaturePreferences GetPreferences LoadUserOptions
Quarterly downloads	19 (Ranked 120th)
Public wikis using	944 (Ranked 268th)
Translate the Paragraph-based Edit Conflict Interface extension
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

The Paragraph-based Edit Conflict Interface (codename: TwoColConflict) extension is an alternative interface for the edit conflict resolution form. It displays colliding text passages in pairs next to each other, making it easier to merge your text with the one that’s currently online.

Usage

Enabling the new view: To enable the new view for edit-conflict resolution, you have to be logged in and tick the checkbox for the Paragraph-based Edit Conflict Interface feature on the beta-features preferences page in your wiki. If you had already activated the first beta feature, you will automatically get the new view.

1. Get oriented. In order to help you solve the edit conflict, the interface breaks down the differences between the two revisions like this:

• Text passages that differ are displayed in pairs next to each other: The current version of the page is shown in yellow and your version in blue. Inside, text that was changed is highlighted.
• Text passages that are identical in both versions are displayed as a grey bar, spanning the whole width.

A tutorial guides you through the interface the first time you encounter an edit conflict. You can open it again by clicking on the help icon (?).

• If you want to copy your version (the entire article text with your edits) of the article page, click on the 'copy full text' link next to the blue marked 'Your revision' headline on the top of the interface.

Selected text box, with a black pencil to start the editing mode

Text box in editing mode, with checkmark and "X"

2. Build a new version by merging your text with the one that’s currently online.

• Select the passages you want to keep by clicking on the radio buttons next to them. By default, all texts from the other person are selected, so if you publish immediately, none of your text changes are saved.
• Edit passages, if needed.

• Click on the black pencil to open the editing mode for a text passage. If the pencil is grey, it means you need to select the text passage first. Otherwise, this version won’t be saved when you click publish.

• You can also edit text passages that are identical in both versions.

• The highlights that indicate the differences between the versions disappear when you edit a text passage.
• You can integrate parts from other text passages by copy and paste, either with the copy and paste function on your keyboard or with a right click.

• Click on the check mark to apply changes to a text box and to close its editing mode.

• If you want to discard your changes and reset the contents of the text box to what it was when the edit conflict occurred, click on the "X". This also restores the highlighting.

3. Publish a new page version. When you’re done selecting and editing all of the passages, click “Publish changes”. This composes all of the text passages you selected and the grey boxes into a new page revision. As on all wiki pages, you can preview the changes first via the Preview button. On clicking Cancel, you return to the current version of the page.

Non-JavaScript version

If you are not using JavaScript, the look or behavior of the feature will be as follows:

• All text passages are shown in editor boxes.
• There are no buttons within the editor boxes.
• Text passages that are identical in both versions are always expanded.

Installation

• Download and move the extracted TwoColConflict folder to your extensions/ directory.
  Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:cd extensions/
git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/TwoColConflict
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'TwoColConflict' );
  

• Configure as required.
•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration

• $wgTwoColConflictBetaFeature - (boolean, true by default) Activate this extension as a Beta Feature when Extension:BetaFeatures is activated.
• $wgTwoColConflictSuggestResolution - (boolean, true by default) Suggest an easy resolution for edit conflicts on talk pages when two users replied at the same time.

Links

• Help page and central feedback page on mw.org
• Main project page on Meta