Re: [Wikitech-l] Where should extension default preferences be specified?
On Fri, Mar 22, 2019 at 10:41 AM Thomas Eugene Bishop < thomasbis...@wenlin.com> wrote: > (3) If DefaultUserOptions and onGetPreferences both specify default > values, and they differ, onGetPreferences wins. I believe this scenario > should be avoided. Having an option whose default is “X” before you go to > the Preferences form, but changes to “Y” when you do go there, could give > the user the false impression that the value has been “Y” all along, and > lead to confusion and instability. > It probably also means that when you go to your preferences for some unrelated reason and press save, that setting will change, even if you never interacted with the field. Definitely not great. (Although this is being abused for beta feature automatic rollout (T64815) so it's a feature, sort of.) (4) If DefaultUserOptions and $wgDefaultUserOptions both specify default > values, and they differ, $wgDefaultUserOptions wins. > That is by design, DefaultUserOptions is just a mechanism to set $wgDefaultUserOptions. > A default is NOT required there. If there’s a default in onGetPreferences > but not in DefaultUserOptions, there’s a bug per (1) above. If a default in > onGetPreferences agrees with DefaultUserOptions, it’s redundant per (2) > above. If it disagrees, there’s a bug per (3) above. > Also having a 'default' key but not DefaultUserOptions can be actively harmful (or at least that used to be the case in the past), see T64946. ___ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Re: [Wikitech-l] Where should extension default preferences be specified?
Thanks to Gergo for the clarification! Here’s what I find from further testing: (1) Gergo is correct that a default value specified in onGetPreferences doesn’t take effect until the user goes to the Preferences form. (2) If DefaultUserOptions does specify a default value, and onGetPreferences does not, then the default from DefaultUserOptions is displayed correctly in the Preferences form. (3) If DefaultUserOptions and onGetPreferences both specify default values, and they differ, onGetPreferences wins. I believe this scenario should be avoided. Having an option whose default is “X” before you go to the Preferences form, but changes to “Y” when you do go there, could give the user the false impression that the value has been “Y” all along, and lead to confusion and instability. (4) If DefaultUserOptions and $wgDefaultUserOptions both specify default values, and they differ, $wgDefaultUserOptions wins. This might be useful for a wiki to change the behavior of an extension without modifying the extension itself. Maybe there should be a way to do this without using a global variable; I don’t know if there is such a way. (5) Preferences with 'type' => 'info' are exceptional. They involve nothing in DefaultUserOptions, and a crash may occur unless 'default' is specified in onGetPreferences. They seem to involve HTMLInfoField, which is “An information field (text blob), not a proper input” per https://doc.wikimedia.org/mediawiki-core/master/php/classHTMLInfoField.html . Question: When does it make sense to specify a default in onGetPreferences? Tentative answer: Never [except for 'type' => 'info' as in (5) above]. If it agrees with DefaultUserOptions, it’s redundant; if it disagrees, it’s a bug. Tentative conclusion: The documentation in https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/GetPreferences is wrong, specifically this line in the example: 'default' => 'choice1', // A 'default' key is required! A default is NOT required there. If there’s a default in onGetPreferences but not in DefaultUserOptions, there’s a bug per (1) above. If a default in onGetPreferences agrees with DefaultUserOptions, it’s redundant per (2) above. If it disagrees, there’s a bug per (3) above. The CodeEditor extension specifies the default for 'usecodeeditor' in both DefaultUserOptions and getPreferences. Should that redundancy be removed, to serve as a better example and to avoid bugs if it’s changed in one place but not the other? Can anyone provide further confirmation or clarification? I’ll update the documentation soon based on the above, unless it turns out I’m wrong again. Tom > On Mar 17, 2019, at 5:49 PM, Gergo Tisza wrote: > > GetPreferences does not set defaults; it provides form elements for the > preferences form. The 'default' field there will be the default value in > the form; it won't actually get added to user preferences until the user > goes there and saves the form. Until then (and for anonymous users) the > value from DefaultUserOptions will be used. > ___ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l Wenlin Institute, Inc. SPC (a Social Purpose Corporation) 文林研究所社会目的公司 Software for Learning Chinese E-mail: wen...@wenlin.com Web: http://www.wenlin.com Telephone: 1-877-4-WENLIN (1-877-493-6546) ☯ ___ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Re: [Wikitech-l] Where should extension default preferences be specified?
GetPreferences does not set defaults; it provides form elements for the preferences form. The 'default' field there will be the default value in the form; it won't actually get added to user preferences until the user goes there and saves the form. Until then (and for anonymous users) the value from DefaultUserOptions will be used. ___ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
[Wikitech-l] Where should extension default preferences be specified?
There are two places the default value for an extension-specific preference can
be specified:
(1) DefaultUserOptions in extension.json
(2) onGetPreferences (or whatever function hooks GetPreferences) in
MyExtension.hooks.php
Which is better?
If you do it in both places, and the defaults are in conflict, evidently
onGetPreferences wins. This can be seen as follows:
In extension.json add
"DefaultUserOptions": {
"BeSilly": false
}
In onGetPreferences add
$preferences['BeSilly'] = array(
'type' => 'toggle',
'label' => 'Be silly',
'section' => "$sillySection",
'default' => true
);
The result is that the checkbox is checked by default. If you omit the default
from extension.json and include it only in onGetPreferences, the result is the
same.
It seems that using onGetPreferences is preferable, since the default can be
combined there (encapsulated) with the other information about the preference,
while putting the default in DefaultUserOptions separates it from the related
information, a dependency to be avoided unless there’s some advantage I’m
missing. Putting it in both places is at best redundant.
However, the documentation in
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Hooks/GetPreferences appears to recommend
$wgDefaultUserOptions or DefaultUserOptions. While it shows one example of
specifying 'default' in onGetPreferences, it also shows an example in which
'default' is not specified in onGetPreferences. So what’s best? I don’t want to
use onGetPreferences for the default if a future version of MediaWiki is going
to turn that into a mistake. Also, does DefaultUserOptions serve any purpose,
if onGetPreferences accomplishes the same thing better?
Thanks in advance for any advice or clarification.
Tom
Wenlin Institute, Inc. SPC (a Social Purpose Corporation)
文林研究所社会目的公司
Software for Learning Chinese
E-mail: wen...@wenlin.com Web: http://www.wenlin.com
Telephone: 1-877-4-WENLIN (1-877-493-6546)
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