Version history

The version history contains all saved revisions of a wiki page. Revisions can be compared, restored, or reverted. The version history is also known as the revision history or edit history. To open the version history, select the Past revisions of this page icon () in the page toolbar.

Version history information

The version history is displayed in a column layout. The following information is available:

• Revision: Timestamp of the saved revision.
• Changed by: Username of the user who made the change, with a link to the user profile.
• Difference: Size difference between the revision and the previous revision. The size of embedded resources is not included.
• Summary: Edit summary entered when the page was saved. Automatic comments can also be displayed, for example for page creation or programmatic changes such as workflows, imports, or reverts.
• Version: Version information provided by the PageVersions feature when it is activated for the namespace. PageVersions can be activated by administrators.
  

If the approval function is activated, the approval state and the name of the approver are also displayed.
The version history provides actions for comparing, restoring, undoing, and, for administrators, hiding revisions.

Compare versions

To compare two revisions:

1. Select the checkboxes of the two revisions to compare.
2. Select Compare versions.

Version history with two selected revisions for comparison

Comparing two revisions

Wikitext

The Wikitext comparison displays changed paragraphs in two columns. The older revision is shown on the left and the newer revision on the right.
Deleted or replaced content is highlighted in red and marked with a minus sign. Content added in the newer revision is highlighted in green and marked with a plus sign.
The Wikitext comparison can reveal changes that are not visible in the visual comparison, including changes to categories and page settings such as behavior switches and display titles.

Comparison of changed sections of two revisions in Wikitext view

Wikitext comparison

Visual

Select Visual to compare revisions in a visual representation. This view provides an overview of text changes, but some changes may be displayed incompletely, for example changes to tables or other special content.
Removed content is highlighted in red and added content is highlighted in green.

Visual comparison of two revisions

Visual comparison

Revision slider

The interactive revision slider allows different revisions and revision comparisons to be selected quickly.

Revision slider for selecting different revisions

Revision slider

Restore a version

To restore a specific revision:

1. Select the revision's timestamp.
2. Open the page in edit mode.
3. Review or edit the content.
4. Save the page.
   

A notice indicates that an outdated revision is being edited. The revision can be saved without further changes or edited before saving.
Saving an older revision creates a new current revision. The newer revision remains in the version history and is moved down in the list.
Manually restoring an older revision by opening it and saving it does not automatically create an undo summary. To document which revision was restored, enter the revision ID in the Summary field when saving.

Track restored and reverted versions

Revision tags indicate how a revision was restored or reverted. The Tags column can be displayed in the version history column settings.
The tags can also be viewed on Special:Tags. Select a tag to view the corresponding tagged changes.

Meaning of revision tags

Tag	Appearance on change lists	Description
mw-reverted	Reverted	Identifies revisions that were later reverted using mw-manual-revert or mw-undo.
mw-manual-revert	Manual revert	Identifies an exact older revision that was opened from the version history and saved again. The tag is not assigned if manual changes are made during the restoration. If the restored revision cannot be identified automatically, enter its revision ID in the Summary field when saving.
mw-undo	Undo	Identifies an edit that undoes the changes of one specific previous revision using the Undo action. The tag is not assigned if manual changes are made during the undo action. The revision ID of the undone revision is included in the Summary.

Customize the version-history columns

The version-history column settings allow additional information to be displayed or columns to be hidden.
Select the gear icon at the end of the version history to open the column settings.
The available columns include:

• Revision
• Changed by
• Difference
• Size
• Summary
• Tags
• Is major edit
• Version
• Version comment
  

The Version column is provided by the PageVersions feature when it is activated for the namespace.

Changes to embedded resources

Changes to embedded resources, such as newer versions of images or templates, are not displayed in the page's version comparison. Embedded resources have their own version histories.

Pages with the approval feature

If the approval feature is activated for a namespace, an approved page can indicate that an embedded resource has a newer version. Whether this information is displayed depends on the configuration for changes to embedded resources.

Hide version information

Administrators can hide information from individual revisions. A trash can icon is available at the end of each revision row.
The following information can be hidden:

• Revision text: When the revision timestamp is opened, a message indicates that the revision text has been deleted.
• Edit summary: Hides the edit summary.
• Editor's username/IP address: Hides the username or IP address of the editor.
  

When hiding revision information, select a reason from the Reason dropdown. The available reasons include:

• Other reason
• Copyright violation
• Inappropriate comment
• Inappropriate username
• Potentially libelous information
  

Administrators can restore hidden revision information through the deletion log or the deleted versions link.

The wiki shows a list of all versions of a page that were created each time the page was saved. These versions are listed in the Version history and can be compared with each other. Another important feature is that users can easily restore any version if needed. The version history is also referred to as the page's "revision history" or "edit history."

Display of the version information

Starting with BlueSpice 4.4, the version history is shown in a user-friendly column layout.

Actions in the version history (from BlueSpice 4.4)

The following information is included:

• Version: Timestamp of the saved version
• Changed by: Username with a link to the profile page
• Difference: Size difference from the previous version. The size of embedded resources is not taken into account here.
• Summary: The summary provided by the editor when the page was saved. Automatic comments are also displayed during page creation and when programmatic changes are made (e.g., via workflows, import actions or reverts).

There are some interactive functions in the version history that allow to compare (1), restore (2), revert or hide (3) versions.

If the approval function is activated, the approval state and the name of the approver are also displayed. Further information is available via this link.

Comparing versions

To compare the differences between two versions, activate the associated checkboxes in the first column. Then click the Compare versions button.

Comparing two versions

Wikitext

Every paragraph that was changed is shown in Wikitext mode. The older version is in the left column and the newer version is in the right column. If something has been deleted or replaced since the older version, it is highlighted in yellow and marked with a minus sign. If content was added in the newer version, it is shown in blue in the right column and marked with a plus sign.

The wikitext view is useful when comparing versions, because some changes are only visible in source view. Changes that cannot be marked in the visual comparison mode are added categories or page settings (behavior switches, display titles, etc.). The older version can be restored by clicking on its date stamp.

Version comparison in wikitext

Visual

Switching to the visual comparison mode by clicking the Visual button can also provide a good overview of text changes, but is sometimes difficult to interpret. The canges are often displayed incompletely, e.g. in the case of changes to tables or other special content. Content that has been removed is highlighted in red and content that has been added since the comparison version is highlighted in turquoise.

Visual version comparison

Interactive

There is also an interactive “revision slider” that allows you to quickly switch between different version comparisons. The functionality is documented on MediaWiki.

view of the open revision slider

revision slider

Restoring a version

To restore a specific version of the page, click that version's date stamp.

Restoring a version

Open the page in edit mode.

Editing an old version

You will see a notice that you are editing an outdated page. You can now continue working on this version or save the page without further editing. The version has now been restored and the most recent version has been "pushed down". Please note that manually restoring a version by simply resaving it this way will not produce an "undo revison" summary in the version history. If you want to track what version was restored, you will have to enter that information manually in the Summary field of the save-dialog.

The version indicates in the summary column which page ID has been restored.

Restore comment

Reverting a version (undo)

It is possible to undo a single edit (= single version) from the history of a page without simultaneously undoing all the constructive changes made since then.

To do this, click on the Undo icon at the end of the line of the version that contains the wanted content.

"Undo"

If the affected change can be reverted without affecting other changes made in the meantime, this will be indicated accordingly at the beginning of the page (1). The affected sections are compared in two columns (diff view) (2). On the left is the current version whose edit is to be removed and on the right is the older version whose edit is to be restored. Additionally, further changes can be made via an editing window at the bottom of the page (3).

Reverting only the changes of a specific version (undo)

This feature eliminates the need to manually redo useful changes made after the undone edit.

However, this will fail if undoing the edit would conflict with subsequent edits. For example, if Edit 1000 adds a paragraph and Edit 1005 changes that paragraph, it is not possible to automatically undo Edit 1000. In this case, you will need to determine how to fix the problem manually.

Tracking restored and reverted versions

The Tags column (see Showing or hiding columns) shows how a reversion was carried out. Different combinations are possible here.

Marking of different reversions

The individual tags are listed on the page Special:Tags. Click on any of the tags to load the page. Here, the respective changes for the last 90 days can be accessed via the “Tagged changes” column.

Meaning of the revision tags

Tag	Appearance on change lists	Description
mw-reverted	Reverted	Tag for all versions that were later reverted by mw-manual-revert or mw-undo.
mw-manual-revert	Manual revert	An exact older version is opened and saved again (e.g., by opening it from its timestamp in the version history). The tag is not assigned if manual changes need to be made during the revert action. The wiki will sometimes indicate in the summary which version was restored. However, since this is often not possible, a comment with the restored version ID should be provided as a summary when saving.
mw-undo	Undo	Edits that undo the changes of one specific previous version via the undo icon. The tag is not assigned if manual changes need to be made during the undo action. The version ID whose changes were undone is indicated in the summary.

Hiding a version

Users with admin rights also see a trash can symbol at the end of each line.

Hiding version info

You can use this to hide the following properties of a version (also called “delete”) (1):

• Text of the version: When you click on the date stamp of the version, a message appears stating that the version has been deleted.
• Edit summary: The edit summary is hidden.
• Username/IP address of the editor: The username is hidden.

Admins can restore this hidden information at any time via the deletion log (2) or via the "deleted versions" link (3).

Showing or hiding columns

In some cases, you may want to customize the column view, for example to show the "Tags" column. Click on the gear icon at the end of the version history. In addition to the standard columns, the "Size" (page size) and "Tags" columns can also be displayed.

Hide columns

Changes to embedded resources

Changes to embedded resources (e.g., newer versions of images or templates) cannot be displayed via the page's version comparison because resources have their own versioning page.

Special considerations for pages with approval feature

If the approval feature is activated in a namespace, it is possible to indicate at the beginning of an approved page if an embedded resource has a newer version. This depends on the configuration for changes to embedded resources.

Related info

• https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Reverts