When editing and previewing a page (with non-live, live, or realtime preview) a list of hidden categories is displayed below the editing form (with a heading such as "This page is a member of a hidden category:"):
There are a couple of issues with this feature, and this task aims to describe these and propose a few different solutions. The issues are:
- Unlike the template list and profiling data, the hidden category list is not updated during preview, and only ever shows the list of categories that the page (as currently saved) already belongs to.
- Hidden categories can also be shown in the main category list at the bottom of the page, if the "Show hidden categories" (showhiddencats) preference is enabled. The bottom category list is updated during preview (including the hidden categories). This means that the two lists can show different hidden categories.
Related tasks:
- T15102: Categories using HIDDENCAT should be listed on the edit page
- T51333: Hidden categories displayed two times when "showhiddencats" is selected
- T198979: Is it intended to show hidden categories in source editing preview for users who did not opt for showing them?
- T334518: Hidden Categories below the templates in edit isn't greyed out while loading
Possible fixes:
- Fix the hidden category list to dynamically update on preview.
- Remove the hidden category list entirely, and rely on the main category list (i.e. people would enable the preference if they want to see hidden categories). One problem with this is that the main category list is not shown without previewing.
- Perhaps also force the display of hidden categories while editing (i.e. not while viewing, unless showhiddencats is enabled).
- Remove the main category list, and expand the below-form list to show all categories. This would make things more consistent with e.g. the template listing, but it's also less consistent with other page elements such as display-title and indicators (which are only shown on preview).
One issue with relying on the preference is that people may not know about it, and there's no indication while editing that not all categories are shown.