Requests for comment/Reimplement info action

This is a request for comment regarding reimplementing the info action.

Request for comment (RFC)

Reimplement info action
Component	General
Creation date	17 May 2011
Author(s)	MZMcBride
Document status	implemented

Background

The info action (?action=info) has existed in MediaWiki since rev:4242. Since rev:4247, the action has been disabled by default behind the $wgAllowPageInfo global variable due to performance issues.

Currently, to obtain the information that this proposed action would provide, a user needs to manually query the wiki database, query the MediaWiki API, or hunt down the appropriate MediaWiki Special page (e.g., Special:WhatLinksHere). Many of the proposed additions to the info action are currently completely unexposed in the MediaWiki interface, but these additions provide demonstrable value to readers, editors, and power editors.

Due to the info action being disabled by default in MediaWiki core, it has received very little attention since its introduction in 2004. The current output is below, using the English Wikipedia's w:Talk:Barack Obama page as an example.

Current design
Information for "Talk:Barack Obama" Page Talk page Edits Number of edits 22,248 39,405 Number of distinct authors 5,921 5,368 Watchlist Number of watchers 2,233

Reimplementation

The "info" action should provide human-readable metadata about a particular page title (e.g., "Main Page" or "Barack Obama"). Some of this data is a view into the page_props table; other data is simply interesting to editors and readers.

The data contained in this info dashboard will likely need to be split between expensive and inexpensive queries. For larger wikis, $wgMiserMode can be relied upon to block the expensive queries.

Inexpensive properties

• DEFAULTSORT value
  • bugzilla:38532
• DISPLAYTITLE value
  • bugzilla:38533
• (NO)INDEX status
  • bugzilla:38531
• LiquidThreads status
  • bugzilla:38534
  • bugzilla:38559
• page protection status
  • bugzilla:38536
• first edit timestamp
  • bugzilla:38526
• page creator
  • bugzilla:38526
• last edit timestamp
  • bugzilla:38527
• most recent editor
  • bugzilla:38527
• templates transcluded on this page
  • bugzilla:38528
• hidden categories on this page
  • bugzilla:38529
• magic word usage
  • bugzilla:38530
• broken (red) links?
  • file links
  • category links
  • page links
  • etc.
• number of recent edits/authors
  • bugzilla:38558
• page length (in bytes)
  • bugzilla:38560
• page ID
  • bugzilla:38561
• number of subpages (with link to Special:PrefixIndex)
  • bugzilla:38563
• number of redirects to the title (with link to filtered Special:WhatLinksHere)
  • bugzilla:38564
• number of watchers
  • already implemented!

Expensive properties

• number of total edits
• number of unique contributors (anonymous and logged in)
• number of views (link to outside service?)

Action interface exposure

Currently the "info" action is not exposed in the user interface, regardless of the value of $wgAllowPageInfo (bugzilla:16362). A tab or a link in the sidebar in the "Toolbox" section should provide easy access to the "info" action.

Redesign

Action interface

• external tools or external links section
  • bugzilla:38537
• header and footer messages
  • bugzilla:38556
• remove talk page info
  • bugzilla:38562

Mock-up

Proposed redesign

Information for "Talk:Barack Obama" The following is an overview of the page "Talk:Barack Obama", as of 01:30, 22 July 2012 (UTC): Basic information Display title Talk:Barack Obama Default sort key Obama, Barack Page length (in bytes) 92991 Page ID 7777393 Search engine status marked as "noindex" Page protection (edit) anyone may edit this page Page protection (move) only administrators may move this page Number of page watchers 2,233 Redirects to this page 2 (list) Subpages of this page 93 (9 redirects, 84 non-redirects; list) Edit history Page creator Maximusveritas Date of page creation 21:01, November 4, 2006 Latest editor Wikidemon Date of latest edit 21:30, July 12, 2012 Total number of edits 39,405 Total number of distinct authors 5,368 Recent number of edits (within past 30 days) 194 Recent number of distinct authors 49 Page properties Magic words __NOINDEX__ Transcluded templates (154) Talk:Barack Obama/Comments (edit) Talk:Barack Obama/FAQ (edit) (semi-protected) User:HBC Archive Indexerbot/OptIn (view source) (protected) User:MiszaBot/config (view source) (protected) Wikipedia:WikiProject Columbia University/to do (edit) Wikipedia:WikiProject District of Columbia/to do (edit) Wikipedia:WikiProject Kansas/to do (edit) Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Presidents/to do (edit) Wikipedia:WikiProject US State Legislatures/to do (edit) Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Government/to do (edit) Wikipedia:WikiProject United States presidential elections/to do (edit) Template:! (view source) (protected) Template:= (view source) (protected) Template:Active politician (view source) (protected) Template:Anchor (view source) (protected) Template:Archive bottom (view source) (protected) Template:Archive box (view source) (protected) Template:Archive list (view source) (protected) Template:Archive list/check25 (view source) (protected) Template:Archive list/display25 (view source) (protected) Template:Archive top (view source) (protected) Template:Archivebottom (view source) (protected) Template:Archives (view source) (protected) Template:Archivetop (view source) (protected) Template:ArticleHistory (view source) (protected) Template:ArticleHistory/output (view source) (protected) Template:BLP (view source) (protected) Template:Border-radius (view source) (protected) Template:Bots (view source) (protected) Template:Category handler (view source) (protected) Template:Category handler/blacklist (view source) (protected) Template:Category handler/numbered (view source) (protected) Template:Check talk (view source) (protected) Template:Citation/core (view source) (protected) Template:Citation/make link (view source) (protected) Template:Cite news (view source) (protected) Template:Class (view source) (protected) Template:Class mask (view source) (protected) Template:Class/colour (view source) (protected) Template:Class/icon (view source) (protected) Template:Community article probation (edit) Template:Cross (view source) (protected) Template:Edit protected/answered (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Edit semi-protected (edit) (semi-protected) Template:FAQ (edit) (semi-protected) Template:FAQ group begin (edit) Template:FAQ group end (edit) Template:FAQ row (edit) Template:File title (view source) (protected) Template:Hab (view source) (protected) Template:Hat (view source) (protected) Template:Hidden (view source) (protected) Template:Hidden archive bottom (view source) (protected) Template:Hidden archive top (view source) (protected) Template:If pagename (view source) (protected) Template:Image (view source) (protected) Template:Importance (view source) (protected) Template:Importance mask (view source) (protected) Template:Importance/colour (view source) (protected) Template:Loop15 (view source) (protected) Template:Mbox (view source) (protected) Template:Namespace detect (view source) (protected) Template:Navbar (view source) (protected) Template:Not done (view source) (protected) Template:OD (edit) Template:Od (view source) (protected) Template:Outdent (view source) (protected) Template:Pagetype (view source) (protected) Template:Para (view source) (protected) Template:Portal (view source) (protected) Template:Portal/Images/Africa (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Portal/Images/Barack obama (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Portal/Images/Biography (view source) (protected) Template:Portal/Images/Chicago (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Portal/Images/Government of the united states (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Portal/Images/Hawaii (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Portal/Images/Illinois (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Portal/Images/Kansas (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Portal/Images/Politics (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Portal/Images/United states (view source) (protected) Template:Portal/Images/Washington, d.c. (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Portal/core (view source) (protected) Template:Pp-move-indef (view source) (protected) Template:Press (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Purge box (edit) Template:Purgebox (edit) Template:Quote box (view source) (protected) Template:Quote box2 (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Search box (edit) Template:Show button (view source) (protected) Template:Skip to talk (edit) (semi-protected) Template:Spaces (view source) (protected) Template:Stable version (edit) Template:Str find (view source) (protected) Template:Str find/logic (view source) (protected) Template:Str left (view source) (protected) Template:Str len (view source) (protected) Template:Str len/core (view source) (protected) Template:Talk header (view source) (protected) Template:Talk other (view source) (protected) Template:Tasks (view source) (protected) Template:Tl (view source) (protected) Template:Tlx (view source) (protected) Template:Tmbox (view source) (protected) Template:Tmbox/core (view source) (protected) Template:Transclude (view source) (protected) Template:Unassessed class (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/class (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/comments (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/core (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/aclass (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/cats (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/notecounter (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/notes (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/peerreview (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/qualimpintersect (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/qualimpintersect/core (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/taskforces (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/taskforces/core (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/taskforces/taskforce (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/tfnested (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/hooks/todolist (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/importance (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/importancescale (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/istemplate (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/note (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/qualityscale (view source) (protected) Template:WPBannerMeta/taskforce (view source) (protected) Template:WPCD (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject Africa (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject Africa/class (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject African diaspora (edit) (semi-protected) Template:WikiProject Barack Obama (edit) Template:WikiProject Barack Obama/class (edit) Template:WikiProject Biography (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject Biography/class (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject CD-People (edit) Template:WikiProject Chicago (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject Chicago/class (edit) (semi-protected) Template:WikiProject Hawaii (edit) (semi-protected) Template:WikiProject Hawaii/class (edit) (semi-protected) Template:WikiProject Illinois (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject Illinois/class (edit) (semi-protected) Template:WikiProject Politics (edit) (semi-protected) Template:WikiProject Politics/class (edit) (semi-protected) Template:WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject U.S. Congress (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject United States (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProject United States/class (view source) (protected) Template:WikiProjectBannerShell (view source) (protected) Template:Wikipedia CD selection (view source) (protected) Template:Xt (view source) (protected) Template:Yesno (view source) (protected) Hidden categories (4) Category:Hidden templates using styles Category:Noindexed pages Category:United States articles with listas parameter Category:Wikipedia move-protected talk pages External tools History search tool (WikiBlame) Contributor breakdown User edits breakdown Number of page watchers Page view data

Plan

• File tracking bug about reimplementing the info action
  • bugzilla:38450
• File bug about killing $wgAllowPageInfo and enabling the "info" action by default
  • bugzilla:38451
• File (many) bugs about adding specific data to the action, as detailed above

Change sets

Merged

• gerrit:16235
• gerrit:17634
• gerrit:20735
• gerrit:20739
• gerrit:20886
• gerrit:21598
• gerrit:22547
• gerrit:23381