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Wikidata claims editor is broken after December 2021 update on non-ES6 browsers
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Description

I am failed to edit any statements on any Wikidata item. "Edit" link is missed. Also I can not expand references section.

item_editing.png (649×1 px, 39 KB)

Messages from browser console:

console_messages.PNG (213×1 px, 16 KB)

Most probably this is related to browser version: Firefox ESR x32 v52.9.0 (it is the latest version available for WinXP. Answers to possible questions: I can not update to more modern version of Windows because have some hardware incompatible with never versions. I know about security issues in old software, the issues are closed using other ways than OS upgrade).

The issue appears between 2021-12-15 and 2021-12-17. Everything worked fine before December 16 or 17. Only Wikidata items editor is broken. Usual pages editor works fine both on Wikidata and Wikipedia.

What I try already without success:

  • clear browser cache, cookies and other information
  • private mode
  • logout
  • disabling all gadgets
  • commenting everything on custom CSS and custom JavaScript
  • different themes
  • add ?debug=1 to item URL
  • another browser (Opera v36.0.2130.80)

Event Timeline

Bugreporter subscribed.

Firefox 52 is not a Grade A browser, though we does not yet declare an explicit unsupport of it.

Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE renamed this task from Wikidata claims editor is broken after December 2021 update on Firefox v52 to Wikidata claims editor is broken after December 2021 update on non-ES6 browsers.Dec 20 2021, 11:57 AM

As Bugreporter said, Firefox 52 is not a supported browser, and neither MediaWiki nor Wikibase guarantee any JS availability. I’m afraid you really need to find a way to upgrade.

With that being said, the current reason for Firefox 52 support being broken also affects Internet Explorer 11, a browser we still support. See Wikidata:Report a technical problem (permalink):

Skipped ES6-only module wikibase.ui.entityViewInit

So we’ll fix IE11, and this will probably also make things work in Firefox 52 again, for the time being. (But to be absolutely clear, Firefox 52 is still not a supported browser, and support for it will break again at some future point.)

See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Compatibility/IE11

“For now, the site will continue to function normally for IE users, it is just that new JavaScript-based features will not appear for them.” – Wikibase editing is hardly a new feature.

and T178356: Raise Grade A JavaScript requirement from ES5 (2009) to ES6 (2015).

Which is not yet done.

We will probably drop IE11 support at some point, yes, but not yet. (And the fix for this issue should be relatively simple.)

Change 748719 had a related patch set uploaded (by Lucas Werkmeister (WMDE); author: Lucas Werkmeister (WMDE)):

[mediawiki/extensions/Wikibase@master] Load Tainted Refs dynamically (fix IE11)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/748719

Change 748719 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/Wikibase@master] Load Tainted Refs dynamically (fix IE11)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/748719

The fix will be deployed in early January 2022 (deployments are forbidden during the holiday period except in very important cases, which I don’t think this qualifies as).

IMG_2917.PNG (1×2 px, 317 KB)

Reproduced in the Safari of iOS10.3.3(iPad).

Similar symptoms confirmed on iOS 12, which as of recently was still receiving security updates from Apple.

Works on iOS 14 and 15, I don't have an iOS 13 device to test with. (13 is mentioned as affected by other users at the merged task. I am using desktop web, already aware that I can't add statements in mobile web.)

See https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Wikidata:Project_chat&oldid=1556453757#Broken_functionality_on_older_iOS

My concern is with the detection logic, and whether this kind of issue is going to re-occur in future. If Safari/iOS 12.2+ is supposedly 99% ES6 compliant, why is it being excluded?

I can use it now.Maybe I can mark this as Resolved.
Please reopen it freely if necessary.