[QA] browser tests for gadgets

Chris McMahon cmcmahon at wikimedia.org
Tue Jul 16 23:01:52 UTC 2013


You might not know it, but you can write your own javascript and CSS to
customize your own view of Wikimedia wikis any way you like (under
Preferences, look under Appearance/Skin).  See
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Gadget_kitchen/Training

Historically, Wikipedia users share these custom bits of code.  Some of
them become wildly popular and get added to the default wiki options as
"gadgets", available to logged-in users under Preferences/Gadgets.

However, the code for the various gadgets is not managed under source
control nor are gadgets managed by WMF.

As a result, from time to time we make changes to the wiki that break the
behavior of various gadgets.  Users who rely on their favorite gadgets tend
to be unhappy about this.

Furthermore, there is no distinct "gadget community".  The authors of the
various gadgets have their own concerns and their own agendas where
software development is not always a high priority.

So because gadgets are pure javascript/CSS, and because users are unhappy
when they stop working correctly, it makes sense to create some browser
tests for gadgets.  If we could also attract a community of gadget authors
and maintainers around these tests, that would be a super bonus.

So I wrote a basic test for a popular gadget called "Hotcat", you can see
the .feature file here
https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/74075/4/features/hotcat.feature and the
whole test here:  https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/74075/

Suggestions for improvements and further tests are very welcome.
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