Extension talk:StructuredDiscussions

Any questions about the StructuredDiscussions extension.

Some older comments can be found at Extension talk:Structured Discussions/Archive. See also Talk:Structured Discussions.

After upgrading from 1.38.4 to 1.39.0 VisualEditir does not work at Flow (Structered discussions) talk pages having following error:

[Y48AWn@IyD2bEpG6yTCgxAAAAgY] Exception caught: Conversion from 'html' to 'wikitext' was requested, but core's Parser only supports 'wikitext' to 'html' conversion

Previously I had such problem but the patch helped to resolve the problem, but now it doesn't help.

Any ideas how to resolve the problem?

Damn ! I'm definitely looking forward to a solution as well. Did you try asking the developers of the patch ?

Flow works properly on this wiki and it's 1.40.0. Is there a way to access the code base to see what fix they applied ?

I think you can see the configuration of Parsoid for this wiki here https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/g/operations/mediawiki-config/+/fa477a5521e8acc290a02e7cf8f9219ebd2d5cf5/wmf-config/CommonSettings.php#2653. Though, I am not sure whether this can help you.

I can confirm the same issue, the patch mentioned does not work anymore. Working with version 1.39.1 and not even the REL1_39 on GitHub is working.

@Tinss: Flow works properly on this wiki and it's 1.40.0. Is there a way to access the code base to see what fix they applied ?

It says this MediaWiki instance is running the version 1.40.0-wmf.20. So in theory, the version listed as such on the extension's GitHub is the one featured here. If you happen to find anything, please share here with us, because apparently we can't expect the developers to prioritize the users of MediaWiki as much as they prioritize Wikimedia's projects.

It's been more than 2 years of this issue, still unresolved for most of us, except, well, Wikimedia.

Is there a phabricator ticket for the issue ? Maybe we could try kindly asking the VE development team to look into it.

Flow is indeed very popular in enterprise MW.

I haven't made tickets for the issue at phabricator. I would appreciate if there will be one.

Since there's a demand for it, I created a ticket for this issue (still unresolved on my end)

Thank you! Hope there will be a solution of the issue soon.

We received a reply, more than a month later basically confirming my suspicions related to this extension developers' priorities:

apparently we can't expect the developers to prioritize the users of MediaWiki as much as they prioritize Wikimedia's projects.

This turned out to be true, as can be seen by the comment of this developer on the issue:

I'm afraid we don't offer much in the way of StructuredDiscussions maintenance/support, other than fixing issues that are highly disruptive on Wikimedia wikis. [...] Also, given that StructuredDiscussions does work on Wikimedia wikis, this seems an issue with the configuration, not the extension; the linked patch is about supporting a zero-config setup, but you probably wouldn't need a patch if it is correctly confiugred.

So what they are saying is – it's the fault of the users, not the developers for not documenting the configuration needed, or for focusing exclusively on Wikimedia projects.

So yeah, we can only rely on the users to fix that. If any of you ever find anything, let us know, I'll certainly do the same.

I was sort of expecting that kind of reply. Maybe the original author of the patch (@Lens0021) could lend us a hand ?

Unfortunately, I am not using zero-config VisualEditor anymore (or never). I am sorry I've forgotten what was the issue after that patch merged. Here are my current configuration and the comment I've written.

# Disable "zero configuration" VisualEditor
# zero-conf VisualEditor assumes that all the services are served as the same host. ('/' for
# MediaWiki, '/rest.php/<domain>/v3/' for Parsoid and '/restbase/<domain>/v1/' for RESTBase)
# It is not our use case, we are serving those services behind the orchestration tool, Docker or
# Nomad and a variety of addresses are used.
$wgVisualEditorParsoidAutoConfig = false;

$wgVirtualRestConfig = [
	'modules' => [
		'parsoid' => [
			'url' => 'http://' . ( getenv( 'NOMAD_UPSTREAM_ADDR_http' ) ?: 'http:8080' ) . '/rest.php',
		],
		'restbase' => [
			'url' => 'http://' . ( getenv( 'NOMAD_UPSTREAM_ADDR_restbase' ) ?: 'restbase:7231' ),
			# https://github.com/femiwiki/femiwiki/issues/266
			'domain' => 'femiwiki.com',
		],
	],
	'global' => [
		'domain' => 'femiwiki.com',
		'restbaseCompat' => true,
		'forwardCookies' => false,
	],
];

(original code:

https://github.com/femiwiki/docker-mediawiki/blob/408fbdf64fbcbc02c4ca96671f97b40fab7b5701/configs/LocalSettings.php#L357-L380)

Does anybody resolved the issue or not?

Not on my end. As I do not have MW 1.39 deployed on my test setup, could you give a look at the Parsoid and Flow configs used by Wikimedia for this wiki to see if replicating them fixes the issue ?

It appears that Flow is not finding Parsoid so this points to a configuration issue indeed.

will this thread help? Topic:W9nbm08t1cg25lop

This is the patch that used to work but no longer does.

No idea how to implement that. For now I am stuck - wanted to update to 1.39.3, but faced with problem. But if I have success, then I want to implement DiscussionTools extension, which, as I understand will be developed. And if I am not mistake Structured discussions are no longer supported, right?

StructuredDiscussions is only getting security fixes. Other type of support has halted. I suspect support will be entirely dropped, but not until there is a migration tool because some wikis (this one at least) are still using StructuredDiscussions.

@Fokebox, did you get a chance to replicate these configs on your installation ? The bug here does seem to be related to the zero-config setup.

@Tinss, @Fokebox I don't know if you saw my complete thread, but there, in addition to the patch, is also a summary of the variable:

$wgVirtualRestConfig['modules']['parsoid']['url']

I tried this to connect parsoid php to visualeditor and from visualeditor to flow, it really worked for me, I don't know if you have tried this configuration

Well, I decided to drop off the extension as it is not maintained no longer and change it to DuscussionTools. I have not too many Flow pages to be changed, so I decided to resolve the issue this way.

In header page is warning, which @KHarlan (WMF) copy from old page (2022-03-07 13:59:35). And @Pppery removed string "for now" (3:59:3). But I see, that is develop (changes in git repository) continued. Really "deployments have been suspended", or not?

Deployments to new wikis are suspended. Bug fixes for critical issues continue to be merged and are deployed via the release train.

As far as I understand it, the Extension:StructuredDiscussions (Extension:Flow) turned out because is impractical and complexity. But the extensions which I mentioned should probably not be affected.

Ok. Thank's. What replace it, please? I use MediaWiki 1.35.5 for now, but my plan is upgrade to next LTS, but first I must solve alternatives for used extensions. I not use exactly Extension:StructuredDiscussions, only Extension:Echo and Extension:WhoIsWatching.

On Wikimedia wikis, it’s replaced by Extension:DiscussionTools.

It's not usable for me, because my wiki not use VisualEditor, but I'm sure that there be someone who could use it. Thank you.

How can I disable it?

The main page of your wiki ?

You need to revert the content model of the page to that it was. See Help:ChangeContentModel.

Does this help ?

Seach was experimental and has now been removed from the code base. Discussions are underway here to get it working again.

How do you search an archive of structured discussions?

Hello,

There is a configuration parameter named $wgFlowSearchEnabled which defaults to false because it's is still experimental.

Sadly, integration with Elastic has been removed in some recent commits.

If you give it a go tell me about it because we could petition the dev team to put it back in.

Thanks. I'll start a discussion.

Cool, please cc me or give me link here so I can subscribe.

wikidata:Wikidata:Report_a_technical_problem#Search_of_structured_discussions

In mobile mode, only the wikicode is available which is problematic as most users are not versed in wikicode edition. Below is a patch to enable the visual editor in mobile mode.

There is however one bug that I cannot solve: searching users to tag them does not work, the exact user name has to be entered.

In extension.json

Above "ext.flow.visualEditor":

"ext.flow.mobileVisualEditor": {
	"scripts": [
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/mw.flow.ve.Target.js",
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/mw.flow.ve.UserCache.js",
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/ui/inspectors/mw.flow.ve.ui.MentionInspector.js",
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/ui/tools/mw.flow.ve.ui.MentionInspectorTool.js",
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/ui/tools/mw.flow.ve.ui.MWEditModeTool.js",
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/ui/contextitem/mw.flow.ve.ui.MentionContextItem.js",
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/ui/widgets/mw.flow.ve.ui.MentionTargetInputWidget.js",
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/mw.flow.ve.CommandRegistry.js",
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/mw.flow.ve.SequenceRegistry.js"
	],
	"styles": [
		"editor/editors/visualeditor/mw.flow.ve.Target.less"
	],
	"dependencies": [
		"ext.visualEditor.core",
		"ext.visualEditor.core.mobile",
		"ext.visualEditor.mediawiki",
		"ext.visualEditor.mwwikitext",
		"ext.visualEditor.switching",
		"mediawiki.editfont.styles",
		"oojs-ui.styles.icons-editing-advanced",
		"ext.flow.visualEditor.icons",
		"mediawiki.api",
		"mediawiki.util"
	],
	"messages": [
		"flow-ve-mention-context-item-label",
		"flow-ve-mention-inspector-title",
		"flow-ve-mention-inspector-remove-label",
		"flow-ve-mention-inspector-invalid-user",
		"flow-ve-mention-placeholder",
		"flow-ve-mention-tool-title"
	],
	"targets": [
		"mobile"
	]
},

In "ext.flow.visualEditor.icons":

"targets": [
	"desktop",
	"mobile"
]

In extensions/Flow/modules/flow/ui/widgets/editor/mw.flow.ui.EditorWidget.js

Comment out !OO.ui.isMobile() in

mw.flow.ui.EditorWidget.static.isVisualEditorSupported = function () {
	/* global VisualEditorSupportCheck:false */
	return !!(
		//!OO.ui.isMobile() &&
		mw.loader.getState( 'ext.visualEditor.core' ) &&
		mw.user.options.get( 'flow-visualeditor' ) &&
		window.VisualEditorSupportCheck && VisualEditorSupportCheck()
	);
};

Replace line modules = [ 'ext.flow.visualEditor' ].concat(

with modules = [ OO.ui.isMobile() ? 'ext.flow.mobileVisualEditor' : 'ext.flow.visualEditor' ].concat(

Is Flow being discontinued next year?

Development on Structured Discussions ("Flow") was cancelled in 2015.

Are there any discussions about how to migrate to comment streams?

I had not heard of Extension:CommentStreams before; I think you should ask on that talk page, but probably not.

How about migration to the new talk page system in use on the English Wikipedia?

MediaWiki version 1.37.2

I have installed all dependencies and checked special:version to ensure all of them have been installed successfully. But it seems that Flow isn't applied. And no warning no error, just like I haven't installed Flow. I cant figure it out and really upset.

Is there any configuration to pay attention to? Thanks for any help.

Did you add $wgNamespaceContentModels[NS_TALK] = 'flow-board'; $wgNamespaceContentModels[NS_USER_TALK] = 'flow-board'; to your LocalSettings.php?

This patch has resolved the problem. I hope that the solution will be deployed in future versions of extension

Hi team!

When I add text at Discussion pages with VisualEditor (not source editing) I have an error (see screenshot).

When I post messages with source editing then everything works perfect. How can fix the bug?

What version MW? What version StructuredDiscussions? Check your Special:Version page and share the version info of the pertinent software.

I have:

MediaWiki	1.35.3
PHP	7.4.21 (cgi-fcgi)
MySQL	5.7.34
ICU	57.1
Lua	5.1.5

Flow:

Flow	1.2.0 (28ad95e) 22:21, 22 July 2021

This patch helped as in the topic below.

Hi! I have updated my wiki to 1.38.0:

Продукт	Версия
MediaWiki	1.38.0
PHP	7.4.28 (cgi-fcgi)
MySQL	5.7.27-30
ICU	50.1.2
Lua	5.1.5

Flow:

Flow	1.2.0 (74ffd17) 08:41, 26 May 2022

And the problem is back again. When I have a message made in VisualEditor I have error again. The patch I used to have (linked above) doesn't work, i.e. now it makes discussion pages with error. How to resolve the problem?

This patch has resolved the problem. I hope that the solution will be deployed in future versions of extension

for the problem this use the next patch - The patch with MW 1.38.0 and Flow 1.2.0 (74ffd17) 08:41, 26 May 2022 does not work, or you can config the next variable: $wgVirtualRestConfig['modules']['parsoid']['url'] and point to the url access of the rest.php of the wiki.

when trying to publish a topic in flow in visual edition I get this

[c5691ad38140b1463dccece8] Caught exception of type Flow \ Exception \ WikitextException

I just did a fresh install of Mediawiki 1.35 with Flow-REL1_35.

When I click "Save" on any Flow comment with VisualEditor, I get this HTML to Wikitext conversion error.

What caused this error?

I did only the basic setup for VisualEditor and Flow with MW-1.35 — are any special Parsoid settings needed?

Any help would be appreciated.

Error message

Bump. Anyone able to help?

This extension does not work with a fresh install of 1.35.0. Is a RESTBase required or something?

Alternatively, if there's not a way to fix Visual Editing, can I disable it? Is it possible to only allow Source Editing?

Any help would be appreciated!

You can using $wgFlowEditorList.

I'm experiencing the same issue, only that I just upgraded from 1.34 to 1.35. On regular pages, the visual editor is working fine.

For now I 'fixed' it by disabling visual editing on talk pages, by setting $wgFlowContentFormat = 'wikitext';

I reported the issue at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T267407

Me too, how can i do?

Hello!

I'm experiencing the same problem. Recently I've switched from MW 1.34 to 1.35. Visual Editor works fine everywhere except Flow. I'm using the autoconfigure mode, so $wgVirtualRestConfig is not set. At the moment I found three different error messages:

Somme errors occurred with mw:Extension:Flow REL1_35, 07.11.2020

(1) When I'm tring to edit an old existing comment:

An error occurred. The error message received was: internal_api_error_Flow\Exception\WikitextException

(2) When I'm tring to save a comment in visual mode:

[X6akA72QQzSDKWPFYEuVSAAAAAU] Exception caught: Conversion from 'html' to 'wikitext' was requested, but core's Parser only supports 'wikitext' to 'html' conversion

(3) When I'm trying to switch from visual to text mode (the other direction works):

Unable to transfer content: Error contacting the server for conversion between wikitext and HTML. Please check your Internet connection or try again later if the problem persists. If you still get this error please file a bug

Here is my current Setup:

wfLoadExtension( 'VisualEditor' );
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['writeapi'] = true;
$wgSessionsInObjectCache = true;
$wgVisualEditorAvailableNamespaces = array(
        NS_USER => true,
        NS_HELP => true,
        NS_PROJECT => true,
        NS_TEMPLATE => true,
        NS_LINK => true
);

wfLoadExtension( 'Flow' );
$wgFlowContentFormat = 'html';
$wgFlowEditorList = array( 'visualeditor', 'none' );
$wgFlowParsoidTimeout = 100;
$wgFlowParsoidForwardCookies = true;

My additional research:

1. I can switch between the visual and text mode only when I'm creating a new comment. Or sometimes when I save the post after 3rd message occurs, bot not every time.
2. 1st problem appear when I'm in a text mode. If I'm in visual mode I can open an existing comment for edit, but of course I can't save it because of the 2nd issue.
3. I can't say using $wgFlowContentFormat = 'wikitext'; solve any of the issues.
4. Using $wgFlowEditorList = array( 'wikitext' ); in order to force the usage only of the wikitext editor doesn't work.
5. $wgFlowContentFormat and $wgFlowEditorList doesn't change anything at all.

Does we need something like $wgGroupPermissions['flow']['writeapi'] = true;?

bump. I'm experiencing the same issue. Tried everything.

Anyone know if this will be patched in MW-1.35.1?

Per phab:T267407, phab:T260648#6645078 seems to be the patch but I can't tell if it will be included in 1.35.1 or if it will resolve this issue downstream.

Running into the same issue. Tried switching flow content formats as well, no luck. Has anybody figured this out?

After I switched to MW-1.35.1 the issue disappeared (and the patch https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T260648#6645078 is no longer required, at least for my installation)

Bump. Same issue using MW 1.35.1

I can't confirm the issue disappear with MW 1.35.1, but I can confirm the patch (phab:T260648#6645078) provided above works!

I just upgraded to MW 1.35.1 and encountered the same issue. I checked and the patch you mentioned (phab:T260648#6645078) was not included in 1.35.1. :(

But I was able to apply the patch, and it worked! Though I do hope WMF includes it in the next upgrade… I'm afraid it'll get overwritten when our staff upgrades our wiki next. They may not know how to fix this issue and ditch mediawiki altogether. It's somewhat frustrating that out-of-the-box fresh installs are this difficult to get working.

Anyhoo, thanks for mentioning the patch! I'm really glad it worked.

Hi

I have same top error when use following config:

wfLoadExtension( 'VisualEditor' );
wfLoadExtension( 'Flow' );
$wgFlowContentFormat = 'html';

But when change config by remove the wfLoadExtension( 'VisualEditor' );

wfLoadExtension( 'Flow' );
$wgFlowContentFormat = 'html';

Error solve in Flow, But Visual Editor is disable

How use Visual Editor + Flow without error in Mediawiki 1.35.1 LTS version

Please help me!

@Beginneruser you need to apply the patch in phab:T260648#6645078.

Hi @Tinss

Thank you

But

I want when will the official patch be released?

@Catrope and @MarkAHershberger do you know?

I'm not sure why I'm pinged here, but looking at the patch in gerrit, it looks like it has been forgotten about.