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Serious bug: The editor is destroying links anytime they are edited  XML
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Torguy



Joined: 23/02/2021 08:38:10
Messages: 2
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I am trying to correct broken links to Wikipedia. I have found that if an alternate name is edited without replacing it, for example to add the "link" code without changing the name value itself, the name value will be destroyed.

I have corrected the errors that occurred as I tried to make changes, but a fair amount of damage has already been done inadvertently by others, and is ongoing. At least 464 links have already been broken this way.

There appear to be 2 separate bugs here. The first is that the edit field is truncated when it is loaded, causing most links and other long text entries to be cut off if re-saved.

The second is that the value is URL-encoded upon save, instead of saving the value as entered by the user. As this encoding is repeated on every save, editing a link that had any special characters will always break it. Pasting in a link that is URL encoded to begin with will also save a broken link. Moreover, it seems undesirable to convert special characters in this case, as it makes the stored data much less readable. This encoding should never be performed, please store the link as entered unless there is a very, very good reason to alter it.

An example showing repeated damage by these bugs is the link in this entry: https://www.geonames.org/9222738/fazenda-esteio-reserva-1301.html

Some of this damage should be correctable by a script, and I hope old-version data is available to the maintainers so they can fix the truncation as well. Please fix this before more links are broken.
 
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