MusicBrainz Server update, 2023-02-28

After about three years of development and almost six months of beta testing, here is the new implementation in React of all the relationship editors, including the release relationship editor. During the beta period, a hundred more smaller changes have accumulated; mostly bugfixes, but also some URL handling improvements and a fair number of other pages converted to React.

This is a major step forward in development as it makes the project more open to JavaScript contributors and allows for implementing more refinements.

From an editor point of view, the relationship editing dialog slightly changed visually, but overall the page offers the same features, fixes a large amount of bugs, and has some additional improvements:

• Better handling of very big releases by not loading all tracks at once
• Added ability to edit batch-created works before they’re submitted
• “+” icons to quickly add additional relationships of the same type are now also available on the release relationship editor
• Now remembering which entity type was selected last in the relationship dialog
• New type-to-search functionality for the relationship type selector
• Better internationalization as the layout ordering of fields is based on their dependencies rather than on the English grammar of link phrases.
• Better seeding of data: easier to script, more reliable, and more available fields
• Recording-work relationships can now be reordered straight from the release relationship editor
• Reordering relationships can now also be done by entering the order number rather than using up and down arrows
• A preview of the relationship (and any changes) is now shown in the add/edit relationship popup

During the beta period, another hundred tickets or so relating to the new editors were reported and addressed. There still are a few tickets reported during the beta that have not yet been resolved, but their drawbacks are outweighed by the benefits of this server update. They are still tracked and will be addressed later on.

A new release of MusicBrainz Docker is also available that matches this update of MusicBrainz Server. See the release notes for update instructions.

Thanks to jesus2099, julian45, and Maxr1998 for having contributed some code. Thanks to kellnerd for working with us to make sure his data seeding scripts worked in the new editors and through that helping us improve script and seeding support. Special thanks to chaban for his thorough dedication at identifying/reporting/detailing issues during these months. Thanks to Admiy, CatQuest, cherryblossom000, chiark, Cyberskull, drsaunde, Eincrou, Griomo, HibiscusKazeneko, johnnyjd, mcboing, mfmeulenbelt, Midness, MXS, otringal, outsidecontext, sound.and.vision, timmart.in, UltimateRiff, vzell, withered.silence, yindesu and zos18 for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to 3Johnny, Blu777, dongrimaldo42, homersimpsons, perea and salo.rock for updating the translations. And thanks to all the many others who tested the beta version!

Edit: The changes for MBS-10614 accidentally allowed editors without a confirmed email to vote for a while – this has now been hotfixed.

The git tag is v-2023-03-03-hotfixes.

React Conversion Task

• [MBS-11847] – Port the relationship editors to React

…and some React conversion tasks unrelated to the relationship editors:

• [MBS-12134] – Convert the cancel edit page to React
• [MBS-12135] – Convert the notes received page to React
• [MBS-12572] – Convert cdtoc/info to React
• [MBS-12574] – Convert cdtoc/set_durations to React
• [MBS-12575] – Convert cdtoc/attach_confirm to React
• [MBS-12577] – Convert cdtoc/remove to React
• [MBS-12580] – Convert cdstub/cdstub to React
• [MBS-12581] – Convert cdstub/layout and /header to React
• [MBS-12582] – Convert cdstub/index to React
• [MBS-12587] – Convert cdstub/error to React
• [MBS-12590] – Convert cdstub/logged_in to React
• [MBS-12592] – Convert cdstub/import to React

New Feature

…unrelated to the relationship editors:

• [MBS-12672] – Add “Genre” as an option for edit search like other entities
• [MBS-12713] – Add KBR (The Royal Library of Belgium) to the other databases whitelist
• [MBS-12722] – Add IdRef to the other databases whitelist
• [MBS-12899] – Add TMDB to the other databases whitelist for artists

Improvement

…related to the relationship editors:

• [MBS-7918] – Make Add related work focus the work name field
• [MBS-7919] – Lazily load mediums in the relationship editor for big releases
• [MBS-7971] – Show artist dates on inline search
• [MBS-7981] – Unify relationship editor and mini relationship editor interfaces
• [MBS-9217] – Default to artist when adding a relationship to a work in the relationship editor
• [MBS-9465] – Allow ordering rels in the release relationship editor
• [MBS-10505] – Display event date in relationship editor
• [MBS-10672] – Remember relationship used when using the Release Relationships editor page
• [MBS-10919] – Show artist credits (e.g. for release groups) in mini-relationship editor
• [MBS-11555] – Speed up relationship editor editing
• [MBS-12608] – Add mini-relationship editor to genre
• [MBS-12830] – Use less (space for) “Add another” in relationship editor
• [MBS-12849] – Allow seeding the relationship target entity credited-as field
• [MBS-12858] – Store area containment for recent area/place autocomplete results
• [MBS-12888] – Check the Ended checkbox when copying an end date with the copy button
• [MBS-12891] – Show artist and label (at least) types on autocomplete results
• [MBS-12941] – Show warn sign (instead of highlight) when relationship has pending edits on relationship editor

…and some improvements unrelated to the relationship editors:

• [MBS-10614] – Remove edit note/vote restrictions for beginner editors
• [MBS-10918] – Show disambiguation comments for artists in ACs in URL pages
• [MBS-12335] – Link to relationship attribute docs from relationship type docs
• [MBS-12445] – Add auto-select, URL cleanup and sidebar for Audiomack URLs
• [MBS-12563] – Block smart links: strm.to
• [MBS-12584] – Block smart links: onerpm.link
• [MBS-12585] – Block smart links: withkoji.com
• [MBS-12586] – Adapt Brahms/IRCAM cleanup to new link style
• [MBS-12623] – Make editor icon the same size as entity icon
• [MBS-12645] – Add guess case to genre edit form
• [MBS-12666] – Better edit display for stream for free external links
• [MBS-12667] – Add Bugs and Melon links to sidebar
• [MBS-12668] – Add cleanup for Bugs and Melon links and automatically mark with correct types
• [MBS-12673] – Adding genre tag UI could be improved
• [MBS-12681] – Support new YouTube Handle
• [MBS-12687] – Block smart links: allmylinks.com
• [MBS-12721] – Normalize 45cat.com/45worlds.com links to HTTPS
• [MBS-12735] – Add autoselect and sidebar display for Boomplay URLs
• [MBS-12806] – Do not show “Play on LB” button for releases with no recordings
• [MBS-12816] – Highlight linked section of documentation
• [MBS-12837] – Add autoselect and sidebar for Tsutaya URLs
• [MBS-12853] – Disallow IPI that is all zeros
• [MBS-12896] – Show account admins whether a user is banned from their user page
• [MBS-12901] – Show user website and bio on the admin user views

Fixed Bug

…related to the relationship editors:

• [MBS-5451] – Relationship editor: Missing edit note in Batch-create new works
• [MBS-6424] – Relationship editor: Always display AR in the same order
• [MBS-7582] – Add relationship: Ask for entity type *before* asking for AR (sub)type
• [MBS-7622] – “Done” button in relationship editor does not close the dialog
• [MBS-8316] – Relationship editor counts works twice if they’re in different mediums
• [MBS-8638] – UI does not update if you change the work of an existing “recording of” rel.
• [MBS-8754] – Release Group-Series relationship drop-down menu begins with a blank space
• [MBS-8917] – “ended” recording-work relationships not visible in (release) relationship editor
• [MBS-9339] – Can’t add more than one language with “Batch-create new works”
• [MBS-9417] – Using credited as multiple times on the same instrument doesn’t save text field
• [MBS-9787] – Batch create new works can make duplicate works if a recording is reused on a release
• [MBS-10071] – Can no longer set instrument in artist relationship editor
• [MBS-10498] – The cached recent entities shown in the autocomplete can contain merged or removed entities that break edit submissions
• [MBS-10920] – Disambiguation comments are not always shown for relationship edits
• [MBS-11770] – Recent items in dropdown shows less data than inline search
• [MBS-11844] – The “Add another relationship” button doesn’t include attributes when used under two or more relationships
• [MBS-11886] – Series > Series ‘subseries’ relationship bug/strange behaviour
• [MBS-11993] – Pressing enter/return multiple times on “batch create new works” creates duplicate works.
• [MBS-12346] – TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading ‘names’)
• [MBS-12547] – No history pop-up for recording and release inline search entity lookup
• [MBS-12850] – Seeding a backward relationship does not work

…and some fixed bugs unrelated to the relationship editors:

• [MBS-11529] – “Guess feat. artists” removes primary artist and appends feat artist on each retry
• [MBS-12550] – Multiple release and release group merges are stuck
• [MBS-12562] – Work row ID URL is not redirected to GID (MBID) URL
• [MBS-12566] – Incorrectly warn about bundled/shortened URLs in release editor
• [MBS-12567] – ISE when trying to call ws/js/entity on track MBIDs
• [MBS-12576] – ISE if passing non-existent medium ID to cdtoc/attach
• [MBS-12578] – ISEs when passing invalid IDs to cdtoc/remove
• [MBS-12588] – ISE in CDTOC->add_dash when passing “discid” with parens
• [MBS-12589] – Error: ‘Can’t call method “current_page” on an undefined value’ when direct search query times out
• [MBS-12591] – Can add CD stub while logged in
• [MBS-12639] – countries.pot translation file not being updated
• [MBS-12647] – RG artist sort in collections causes ISE
• [MBS-12648] – RG collection artist column missing sort arrows
• [MBS-12661] – URL page erroneously shows last updated date as unknown
• [MBS-12665] – Some valid d-nb.info links are rejected
• [MBS-12685] – ISE when trying to enter the same rating twice very quickly
• [MBS-12703] – Genre relationship tables not being exported as part of data dumps
• [MBS-12716] – json-ld output has incorrect @context value
• [MBS-12778] – Area remove edit cannot pass
• [MBS-12780] – Add relationship edit for deleted entity says the edit will create the entity
• [MBS-12784] – Error messages in track parser do not use error CSS class
• [MBS-12828] – Spam account removal script crashes on collection collaborator
• [MBS-12912] – https://staticbrainz.org/MB/undefined linked on some pages

Other Task

…unrelated to the relationship editors:

• [MBS-12814] – Remove animationsong.com from the lyrics whitelist

Beta Issue

…mostly related to the relationship editors:

• [MBS-12594] – Beta: New release relationship editor breaks shift-click multiselect
• [MBS-12595] – Beta: Preview when adding rel to multiple recordings suggests they don’t exist
• [MBS-12596] – Beta: Can’t add/remove URLs
• [MBS-12597] – Beta: Enforce a reasonable minimum size for relationship editor Works column
• [MBS-12598] – Beta: Relationship editor recording ACs not opening in new tab
• [MBS-12599] – Beta: Relationship editor no longer warns if closing tab with open changes
• [MBS-12600] – Beta: Cannot add Release – Label relationships
• [MBS-12601] – Beta: Relationship editor batch-creates new works even if recording already has one
• [MBS-12603] – Beta: Can’t remove a work rel from the works column of the relationship editor
• [MBS-12604] – Beta: Batch-adding works language search shows “No linguistic content”
• [MBS-12605] – Beta: Can’t tab to select and continue in Autocomplete2
• [MBS-12606] – Beta: Relationship editor crashes and disappears
• [MBS-12607] – Beta: Add genre page crashes
• [MBS-12610] – Beta: Don’t keep autoselected reltype name when changing entity type in relationship editor
• [MBS-12611] – Beta: Medium table headings are center aligned
• [MBS-12612] – Beta: Too many artist disambiguations
• [MBS-12615] – Beta: React artist editor silently fails to apply edits
• [MBS-12616] – Beta: Relationship editor dialog crashes when searching for release
• [MBS-12619] – Beta: Change direction rather than submit on pressing Enter on “Change direction” relationship button
• [MBS-12620] – Beta: “See more” missing from search results
• [MBS-12621] – Beta: URL not highlighted when all relationships are marked for removal
• [MBS-12624] – Beta: Instrument attribute search gives less results than prod one
• [MBS-12625] – Beta: Instrument attribute search doesn’t remember recent picks
• [MBS-12626] – Beta: Relationship editor submits seemingly forever
• [MBS-12628] – Beta: Don’t show phrases for unselectable rel types in inline search
• [MBS-12629] – Beta: Adding new instrument does not reset js_link_attribute_type_info cache
• [MBS-12630] – “Beta: Allow toggling off inline help (link phrases, descriptions) in relationship type selector”
• [MBS-12631] – Beta: Don’t show unselectable rel types in search results
• [MBS-12632] – Beta: Adding a rel from an “add new entity” popup shows the entity as [removed]
• [MBS-12634] – Beta: Related entities do not show disambiguation in relationship editor
• [MBS-12635] – Beta: Add Area: please remove unnecessary “credited as” from area edits
• [MBS-12640] – Beta: Edit relationship preview always on for instrument performance rels
• [MBS-12641] – Beta: Move focus to entity autoselect when clicking “Add new $entity_type”
• [MBS-12643] – Beta: Meaningless relationship ordering shown for automatic-ordering series
• [MBS-12644] – Beta: Shorten link phrases in Autocomplete2
• [MBS-12646] – Beta: Can’t change time on artist-event rel
• [MBS-12649] – Beta: Series editor fails to update existing attributes
• [MBS-12650] – Beta: “No translation key found” when trying to add rel to new unnamed instrument
• [MBS-12653] – Beta: [unknown] shown for rels in add entity popup
• [MBS-12674] – Beta: CD stub look-ups fail
• [MBS-12679] – Beta: Relationship editor fails to refresh the attributes when the entity type changes
• [MBS-12680] – Beta: When editing details of a relationship an extra relationship is created
• [MBS-12682] – Beta: Can’t enter edit: Relationship Types / Release-Series / Part of
• [MBS-12683] – “Beta: Add artist, work, other entities, seeded with garbled text”
• [MBS-12688] – Beta: Editing an existing “chorus master” relationship to “background vocals” creates a duplicate entry
• [MBS-12693] – Beta: Make fields more visually distinctive in (mini-)relationship editor
• [MBS-12694] – Beta: Visual appearance of relationship edit goes nowhere
• [MBS-12695] – Beta: Adding Entities with Special Characters End Up Corrupt
• [MBS-12709] – Beta: Do not pre-fill series number when clicking on “Add another [entity]”
• [MBS-12710] – “Beta: Works – arrangement – change direction, not working”
• [MBS-12724] – Beta: No longer possible to link Series-Series using subseries relationship
• [MBS-12737] – Beta: Recording is shown instead of pre-NGS work in recording’s relationship editor
• [MBS-12787] – Beta: Adding instruments to band members causes duplication
• [MBS-12809] – Beta: ISE loading historic Remove Disc ID edits
• [MBS-12817] – Beta: Relationship dialog warnings are no longer marked as such
• [MBS-12820] – Beta: Attribute multiselect without a label displays brokenly
• [MBS-12822] – Beta: Server silently drops all arranger and instrument performer relationships added to a recording
• [MBS-12829] – Beta: Also use link phrases rather than type name once the type is selected in rel editor
• [MBS-12831] – Beta: Use disambiguation comments in relationship previews
• [MBS-12832] – Beta: Submit multiple (relationship) edits per request
• [MBS-12834] – Beta: Relationship type dropdown interferes with editing a relationship
• [MBS-12838] – Beta: Relationship editor let’s me create a duplicate rel
• [MBS-12857] – Beta: Recent entity types not show on autocomplete on reload
• [MBS-12859] – Beta: No longer possible to set credited-as name to the same as the artist’s default name
• [MBS-12860] – Beta: Unable to enter relationships: “Two relationships with the same key”
• [MBS-12861] – Beta: “Error: Two relationships with the same key” does not specify the problematic relations
• [MBS-12863] – Beta: Tooltips are too far to the left in the external links editor
• [MBS-12868] – Beta: Add expand/collapse all mediums option to relationship editor
• [MBS-12870] – “Beta: Don’t tab/shift-tab out of dialogs, but cycle inside them”
• [MBS-12872] – Beta: Tabbing through autocompletes automatically selects the first recent item
• [MBS-12873] – Beta: “Change credits for other relationships” skips medium not loaded yet
• [MBS-12874] – Beta: Crash when trying to edit dates into a new vocal or instrument relationship
• [MBS-12875] – Beta: Collapsed medium checkboxes seem pointless
• [MBS-12880] – Beta: Cover art type checkboxes left-aligned
• [MBS-12882] – “Beta: Adding, then removing relationship date does not lose highlight”
• [MBS-12885] – Beta: Adding a second instrument/vocal to new relationship replaces instead of splitting
• [MBS-12889] – Beta: Can’t see recordings with no relationships
• [MBS-12890] – Beta: Autocomplete2 label search does not show disambiguations
• [MBS-12903] – Beta: Guess feat. artist drops artist from title without adding it to artist field
• [MBS-12904] – Beta: Relationships input lost when submitting edits
• [MBS-12908] – Beta: Do not reuse “cancelled” and “time” for artist-event rels
• [MBS-12911] – Beta: Can’t link two new works together
• [MBS-12915] – Beta: Default target entity type in the add-relationship dialog depends on the current UI language
• [MBS-12917] – Beta: Link’s title shown on hover is broken for every credited entity
• [MBS-12918] – Beta: Previous credits wrongly show in relationship preview
• [MBS-12919] – Beta: Relationships with pending edits not highlighted
• [MBS-12921] – Beta: Can’t search for works in the “Add related work” dialog
• [MBS-12922] – Beta: Can’t trigger a search by adding a space in the relationship editor
• [MBS-12923] – Beta: Relationship editor stuck when “You haven’t made any changes!”
• [MBS-12924] – “Beta: relationship editor page freezes when trying to add any relationship; mobile”
• [MBS-12925] – Beta: Batch work creation dialog can’t be closed and applied with Enter key
• [MBS-12926] – Beta: the indents in the relationship type search make it seem like relationships are subtypes of the wrong relationship
• [MBS-12927] – Beta: clicking magnifier icon in mini-relationship editor doesn’t trigger search
• [MBS-12928] – Beta: Sort works alphabetically on right pane
• [MBS-12930] – “Beta: Seeded rel with no type set can be submit, ISEs”
• [MBS-12931] – Beta: Invariant Violation on adding rel with + from no-type rel
• [MBS-12932] – Beta: “Recent items” for work languages shows “No linguistic content”
• [MBS-12935] – Beta: Type’s documentation is no longer accessible from relationship editor
• [MBS-12936] – Beta: Autocomplete list with comments is scrolling in fits and starts
• [MBS-12937] – Beta: “Change credits for other Artist relationships on the page.” no longer works unless other changes are made to the relationship
• [MBS-12946] – Beta: Pending artist credits tooltip duplicated in entity header