Add "last modified" footer to every wiki page

[Sebastian Krysmanski <sebastian@…>]

It would be nice if the last modified date was displayed on every wiki page. I've attached a patch that does this.

[Sebastian Krysmanski <sebastian@…>]

Patch against Trac 0.11.4

[Remy Blank]

I wasn't too convinced at first, but on second thought this is actually quite an important information, as it allows determining how "stale" the content of a page is. I'll apply the patch to trunk.

[Remy Blank]

Updated patch applied in [8621] (in particular, the info is not displayed when viewing a specific page version, as it is redundant with the page header). Thanks!

[Christian Boos]

I'd like to experiment with seeing this link in the upper right corner, below the page navigation links.

That way:

• one immediately sees this important information even for long pages
• as we don't have the explicit Last change link anymore, we can still get the same effect with the Last modification link

[Remy Blank]

Replying to cboos:

I'd like to experiment with seeing this link in the upper right corner, below the page navigation links.

I wouldn't like that too much. Wikipedia and MoinMoin both have this information at the bottom, and for good reason: it is only rarely used. I'd prefer only having often-used information at the top. I'd certainly prefer having the "Edit" button at the top rather than the "Last edited by…" information.

[Christian Boos]

Replying to rblank:

Replying to cboos:

I'd like to experiment with seeing this link in the upper right corner, below the page navigation links.

I wouldn't like that too much. Wikipedia and MoinMoin both have this information at the bottom, and for good reason: it is only rarely used.

Well, since I removed the Last Change link in r9093, I miss it quite a lot. Having to scroll down to the equivalent link offered by Last modified by… has not proved to be as convenient as I thought.

I'd argue that when you maintain wiki pages, or simply when you follow the changes done on wiki pages as opposed to reading them for the first time, most of the time you want to look at what has changed since last time. That's why #2635 was important and also why #1245 is an important feature to keep in mind for future releases.

So please try out the Last-modified-by-at-top-r9333.patch​, and tell me what you think. I've reduced the amount of information shown so that it doesn't take too much horizontal space.

I'd prefer only having often-used information at the top. I'd certainly prefer having the "Edit" button at the top rather than the "Last edited by…" information.

This was also requested in the past, and why not, indeed. We could perhaps find a way to do that while working on #1024, for example by considering an edit of a first level heading to be equivalent to editing the whole page.

[Christian Boos]

move the Last modified by … link below the contextual navigation links

[Remy Blank]

Replying to cboos:

So please try out the Last-modified-by-at-top-r9333.patch​, and tell me what you think. I've reduced the amount of information shown so that it doesn't take too much horizontal space.

I still don't like it. With a short username, it displays ok (except that it shifts the whole wiki page content down by a line, which is a bit of a waste). With a complete username with e-mail address, it takes over a third of my page width, which I find too intrusive.

If you apply the patch, please provide a reasonable way to move the line to the bottom, e.g. through site.html.

[osimons]

I'd argue to leave it at the bottom too. It takes up too much valuable space. If you want the basic information to also be available at the top, then why not provide it as a tooltip for the 'History' link?

[Christian Boos]

Replying to rblank:

… (except that it shifts the whole wiki page content down by a line, which is a bit of a waste).

No, it doesn't, as to compensate the patch also removed a <br style="clear: both" /> line, so there were not much a difference. With the new patch Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch​ and a vertical margin of .3em instead of .5em, there's even no changes at all.

With a complete username with e-mail address, it takes over a third of my page width, which I find too intrusive.

Agreed, so I propose to move the author info into the tooltip. We would then see: Last modified 1 day ago with a tooltip of Version 5 by cboos: … (also in Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch).

The other alternative I see is to restore the Last change link in the page navigation, eventually with some improved tooltip, but not on History, as the point of my reopening was really about getting back a link to go directly to the last change, in or near the contextual navigation links.

See t2635-r3951.patch​.

To summarize, we have:

• current situation:
• with Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch:
• with t2635-r3951.patch:

[Christian Boos]

How the contextual navigation links and the top of a wiki page content look like in r9351

[Christian Boos]

How it looks like with the shortenent Last modified link on top

[Christian Boos]

How it looks like with the Last change link (#2635) restored

[Christian Boos]

Last modified link moved at the top, with author information in the tooltip

[Christian Boos]

Alternative, restored the Last Change link of #2635

[Remy Blank]

Replying to cboos:

No, it doesn't, as to compensate the patch also removed a <br style="clear: both" /> line, so there were not much a difference. With the new patch Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch​ and a vertical margin of .3em instead of .5em, there's even no changes at all.

Well, it does here :-( It may be due to my font settings again (minimum font size 15 on Firefox). I can post a screenshot later tonight, if you want.

Agreed, so I propose to move the author info into the tooltip. We would then see: Last modified 1 day ago with a tooltip of Version 5 by cboos: … (also in Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch).

That would be better, yes. If you can also avoid the "down-shift", I'd be ok.

[Christian Boos]

Replying to rblank:

Replying to cboos:

No, it doesn't, as to compensate the patch also removed a <br style="clear: both" /> line, so there were not much a difference. With the new patch Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch​ and a vertical margin of .3em instead of .5em, there's even no changes at all.

Well, it does here :-( It may be due to my font settings again (minimum font size 15 on Firefox). I can post a screenshot later tonight, if you want.

Ah yes, with custom font sizes, it can be different. Though still not that different, not a full line:

With the bigger font size, I think the increased space between the wiki path and the title is even welcomed…

Agreed, so I propose to move the author info into the tooltip. We would then see: Last modified 1 day ago with a tooltip of Version 5 by cboos: … (also in Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch).

That would be better, yes. If you can also avoid the "down-shift", I'd be ok.

Tweaking the margins a bit more (div.trac-modifiedby { margin: .3em .5em .1em; ...), I can reduce the differences to virtually nothing… but we need at least the 0.1em on the bottom in case there are right floats inside the wiki page and the top 0.3em is also a minimum I think…

[Christian Boos]

Firefox with minimum font size set to 15pt, shows current distance between wiki path and page content

[Christian Boos]

Firefox with minimum font size set to 15pt, shows distance between wiki path and page content, Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch​ applied

[Christian Boos]

Firefox with minimum font size set to 15pt, shows distance between wiki path and page content, Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch​ applied + margin: .3em .5em .1em

[Thijs Triemstra <lists@…>]

Interesting, the ticket notification email was in french:

#8488: Add "last modified" footer to every wiki page
------------------------------------------------------------+---------------
Rapporteur:  Sebastian Krysmanski <sebastian@…>              |   Propriétaire:  rblank  
    Type:  enhancement                                     |       Status:  reopened
Priorité:  normal                                          |        Jalon:  0.12    
Composant:  wiki system                                     |      Version:  0.11.4  
Sévérité:  normal                                          |   Résolution:          
Mots-clés:                                                  |  
------------------------------------------------------------+---------------

Comment (by cboos):
.....

[osimons]

Try adding something like [[PageOutline]] macro to the top of the page too - a very common use scenario. A large number of pages "in the wild" use some sort of floating TOC in pages. It all just gets really cluttered.

I don't see that tooltip usages requires restoring 'Last Change' either - can't the tooltip be provided for the 'History' context menu item?

[Remy Blank]

Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch​ indeed adds very little vertical spacing even in my browser, so I'm ok with that.

Replying to osimons:

I don't see that tooltip usages requires restoring 'Last Change' either - can't the tooltip be provided for the 'History' context menu item?

I think Christian was missing the link to the last change, not only the last change information. Currently, that link is on the "Last changed" words at the bottom of the page. Displaying the last change info at the top moves the link up again.

[Christian Boos]

Replying to rblank:

Last-modified-by-at-top-r9351.patch​ indeed adds very little vertical spacing even in my browser, so I'm ok with that.

Fine, I'll go with that patch then, as it has a .3em bottom margin which better separates that link from embedded right floats (the PageOutline concern raised by osimons).

Replying to osimons:

I don't see that tooltip usages requires restoring 'Last Change' either - can't the tooltip be provided for the 'History' context menu item?

I think Christian was missing the link to the last change, not only the last change information. Currently, that link is on the "Last changed" words at the bottom of the page. Displaying the last change info at the top moves the link up again.

Precisely, and I was addressing Simon's proposal for the History link in comment:10.

[Christian Boos]

Latest patch applied in r9370.