[Wikidata-l] Behavior on null edit - Wikidata

27 Nov 2012

Today a question appeared: what to do if an edit is request that actually
does not change the content (e.g. setting the sitelink of an item to X when
it is already X in the language).

Currently, the API reports an error because the save failed (there is
nothing to save, obviously). If you try the same on MediaWiki core, it
behaves as if everything went well, but doesn't do a save (i.e. the save
does not happen, but the state is the same and thus the software just lets
you proceed as if you have made the edit).

(Actually, the front end is currently too smart to let you do that, but a
similar situation appears when someone else has changed it to the value you
wanted to change it to while you have been viewing the page. Right now we
make a conflict. Is this the desired behavior?)

We should be consistent through all API modules, obviously.

Cheers,
Denny

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