Tagging Platform Engineering as a feature request for review

Deletion should be rewritten to convert it from a action page to a special page.

Why?

For a broader discussion of action vs special page, see T201967: RFC: Consolidate WikiPage action and special page systems. Seems we abandoned the idea.

If there's an advantage architecturally, maybe @tstarling or @daniel could comment and advise

I don't see any, really. Actions seem the correct concept for modifications that apply to a page.

The Action class is terrible and in need of a rewrite, but that doesn't mean we have to mess with the public interface.

@daniel thanks for the quick reply. Last question: if a volunteer were to submit an otherwise good patch for this, would we accept it? If not, I think we should mark this issue as "declined".

In T233987#5537771, @eprodromou wrote:

@daniel thanks for the quick reply. Last question: if a volunteer were to submit an otherwise good patch for this, would we accept it? If not, I think we should mark this issue as "declined".

It's a braking change since the old URLs would stop working. If the patch came with suitable backwards compatibility measures, it's not out of the question to merge it, if there is good rationale for the change.

I'd like to hear the reasoning before declining, at least.

Ah, there is some discussion on the parent task T233987. I'll tag that for PM review.

As a wiki editor and sysop (not on WMF wiki tho) I want to point up that page actions in MediaWiki seems really incconsistent and confusing. Just to say that renaming a page is available through special page, but deleting is done via action parameter. Same thing applies to changing content model and protecting.

For me you should try to make these operations as consistent as possible or at least make appropriate redirects to allow renaming pages with $1?action=move redirecting to Special:MovePage/$1 or something like that.

In T233987#5537806, @daniel wrote:

In T233987#5537771, @eprodromou wrote:

@daniel thanks for the quick reply. Last question: if a volunteer were to submit an otherwise good patch for this, would we accept it? If not, I think we should mark this issue as "declined".

It's a braking change since the old URLs would stop working. If the patch came with suitable backwards compatibility measures, it's not out of the question to merge it, if there is good rationale for the change.

I'd like to hear the reasoning before declining, at least.

Backwards compatibility measure: don't drop support for action=delete for a while

1. Introduce Special:Delete with a required page parameter[1]
2. Update coded links to action=delete to use the new special page
3. Wait a while
4. Officially deprecate action=delete
5. Wait a while
6. Remove action=delete support (or redirect to the new special page)

Special pages are more widely used for non view/edit functions, and are better documented, making them (at least to volunteers) easier to use, extend, or otherwise contribute to.

[1] This would mirror Special:Movepage - https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/g/mediawiki/core/+/7d8e1a2b6ced8258e6ad95e68c59cff137fe54d3/includes/specials/SpecialMovepage.php#89

In T233987#5537806, @daniel wrote:

In T233987#5537771, @eprodromou wrote:

@daniel thanks for the quick reply. Last question: if a volunteer were to submit an otherwise good patch for this, would we accept it? If not, I think we should mark this issue as "declined".

It's a braking change since the old URLs would stop working. If the patch came with suitable backwards compatibility measures, it's not out of the question to merge it, if there is good rationale for the change.

I'd like to hear the reasoning before declining, at least.

{{ping}} please see explanation above - would this be accepted?

Note: T295611 may make this request no longer necessary.