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Maniphest T414454

[MEX] M5 - Make the browser "back" button function smoothly with the new UX
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Description

Pressing the browser "back" button or swiping backwards in the current MEX implementation does not function as expected for a good web browsing experience - the user agent is redirected to the previous URL (which might be a search page, another item, or a different website entirely).

Processes browser navigation events (presumably using the History API) to handle them in a meaningful way for the MEX UX.

Acceptance Criteria

  • pressing / swiping back from a MEX modal closes the modal
  • pressing / swiping back from the main item view navigates to the previous page in the browser
  • the behaviour is covered by tests as far as possible.

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:
SubjectAuthorRepoBranchLines +/-
Close MEX modal on browser backSadiya.mohammed13mediawiki/extensions/Wikibasemaster+75 -9
Customize query in gerrit

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Event Timeline

ArthurTaylor created this task.Jan 13 2026, 12:19 PM
Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptJan 13 2026, 12:19 PM
ArthurTaylor added a parent task: T394621: [MEX] Mobile Editing Experience of Items Project.Jan 13 2026, 12:19 PM
ShivaanshSingh subscribed.Jan 13 2026, 1:39 PM
Arian_Bozorg moved this task from Incoming to MEX Incoming column on the Wikidata-Omega board.Jan 23 2026, 12:55 AM
Arian_Bozorg subscribed.

Would adding deep-linking to edit modals help with this: T414456: [MEX2] Support deep-linking to edit modals inside MEX

Arian_Bozorg renamed this task from [MEX] Make the browser "back" button function smoothly with the new UX to [MEX] M5 - Make the browser "back" button function smoothly with the new UX.Jan 23 2026, 12:56 AM
Arian_Bozorg edited parent tasks, added: T415326: [MEX] M5 - additional functionality and clean up; removed: T394621: [MEX] Mobile Editing Experience of Items Project.
ArthurTaylor added a subscriber: Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE.Jan 23 2026, 8:44 AM

@Arian_Bozorg good question. I'm not really sure. @Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE expressed some skeptiscism about this and T414455, which I think is fair. It might make sense to think about all three tickets as a group and decide what experience we want to have before working on any of them individually.

Arian_Bozorg moved this task from MEX Incoming column to Ready for Task Time (Story Writing) on the Wikidata-Omega board.Mar 31 2026, 4:14 PM
Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE added a comment.Apr 7 2026, 9:24 AM
In T414454#11547893, @ArthurTaylor wrote:

@Arian_Bozorg good question. I'm not really sure. @Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE expressed some skeptiscism about this and T414455, which I think is fair. It might make sense to think about all three tickets as a group and decide what experience we want to have before working on any of them individually.

Story time note: we would like to try to implement just this task first, without T414455 or T414456. The implementation probably use the History API, but perhaps without actually changing the URL as you move through the modal.

Arian_Bozorg moved this task from Ready for Task Time (Story Writing) to The Backlog on the Wikidata-Omega board.Apr 13 2026, 1:00 PM
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE claimed this task.Apr 16 2026, 1:30 PM
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE moved this task from The Backlog to The Board on the Wikidata-Omega board.
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE edited projects, added: Wikidata-Omega (The Board); removed: Wikidata-Omega.
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE moved this task from new to the board to In Development on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.Apr 17 2026, 10:53 AM
gerritbot added a comment.Apr 20 2026, 11:05 AM

Change #1275375 had a related patch set uploaded (by Sadiya.mohammed13; author: Sadiya.mohammed13):

[mediawiki/extensions/Wikibase@master] Close MEX modal on browser back

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1275375

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Apr 20 2026, 11:05 AM
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE removed Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE as the assignee of this task.Apr 20 2026, 2:53 PM
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE moved this task from In Development to Ready for Peer Review on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE subscribed.
ArthurTaylor moved this task from Ready for Peer Review to In Peer Review on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.Apr 21 2026, 6:38 AM
ArthurTaylor claimed this task.Apr 21 2026, 7:48 AM
ArthurTaylor reassigned this task from ArthurTaylor to Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE.Apr 24 2026, 11:41 AM
ArthurTaylor moved this task from In Peer Review to In Development on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE removed Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE as the assignee of this task.Apr 29 2026, 8:20 AM
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE moved this task from In Development to Ready for Peer Review on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.
AudreyPenven_WMDE claimed this task.May 5 2026, 4:25 PM
AudreyPenven_WMDE moved this task from Ready for Peer Review to In Peer Review on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.
karapayneWMDE mentioned this in T414455: [MEX2] Persist user interface state over page refreshes.May 6 2026, 1:44 PM
karapayneWMDE mentioned this in T414456: [MEX2] Support deep-linking to edit modals inside MEX.
karapayneWMDE updated Other Assignee, added: Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE.May 7 2026, 10:14 AM
karapayneWMDE subscribed.
mahmoud.abdelsattar.wmde reassigned this task from AudreyPenven_WMDE to Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE.May 21 2026, 9:12 AM
mahmoud.abdelsattar.wmde moved this task from In Peer Review to Ready for Development on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.
mahmoud.abdelsattar.wmde added a subscriber: AudreyPenven_WMDE.
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE reassigned this task from Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE to AudreyPenven_WMDE.May 22 2026, 11:39 AM
Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE moved this task from Ready for Development to In Peer Review on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.
AudreyPenven_WMDE removed AudreyPenven_WMDE as the assignee of this task.May 26 2026, 2:28 PM
AudreyPenven_WMDE updated Other Assignee, removed: Sadiya.Mohammed_WMDE.
AudreyPenven_WMDE moved this task from In Peer Review to Ready for Tech Verification on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.
gerritbot added a comment.May 27 2026, 4:30 PM

Change #1275375 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/Wikibase@master] Close MEX modal on browser back

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1275375

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.May 27 2026, 4:30 PM
mahmoud.abdelsattar.wmde subscribed.Jun 1 2026, 11:09 AM

@Arian_Bozorg The current behavior is when the user clicks the browser button "Back", it will hide the modal(s).
Since the user decided to user the toolbar button "Back", they probably might need to use the "Forward" button as well to revert the modal closing.
From my perspective, I see it will need a follow-up task to handle the back/forward navigation.

mahmoud.abdelsattar.wmde moved this task from Ready for Tech Verification to Product Verification on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.Jun 1 2026, 11:09 AM
Arian_Bozorg closed this task as Resolved.Jun 4 2026, 8:56 AM
Arian_Bozorg claimed this task.
Arian_Bozorg moved this task from Product Verification to Done - Moving a task here will move it to the completed tasks workboard, resolve the ticket, and assign it to whomever made the move on the Wikidata-Omega (The Board) board.

Thanks Mahmoud, we can look at that in the next iteration

karapayneWMDE edited projects, added: Wikidata-Omega (Completed Tasks); removed: Wikidata-Omega (The Board).Jul 16 2026, 8:59 AM
karapayneWMDE moved this task from Newly completed tasks to 2026 Q2 on the Wikidata-Omega (Completed Tasks) board.
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