Wrong dates added for non-English locales

[VojtechDostal]

I uploaded a few pictures a few days ago using the latest version of the app. An automatic category to sort the pictures by date was added to each of them, which is cool, but the category does not exist:

See eg:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Krucifix_na_z%C3%A1pad_od_Zl%C3%AD%C4%8Dka.jpg

Also the app thinks I uploaded them on 10th August 2020 rather then 2019... could that be a problem with my phone, though?

[misaochan]

Hmm, I've just tested the alpha and found no issue with the date taken - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Gimignano_2.jpg . The hidden category https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_taken_on_2019-07-05 does exist for me - I suspect the reason it doesn't exist for you is because the date is in 2020. :)

Is anyone else able to reproduce this? Vojtech does your phone display the current date correctly to you (aside from this app)?

[nicolas-raoul]

Do we really need this date category?
Maybe the bug is that the date format varies with the locale?

[misaochan]

I don't think the category was made by us, it seems to be added to Upload Wizard uploads too, i.e. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kirkkokatu_27_Raahe_20190705.jpg

[nicolas-raoul]

Then the easiest is probably to create a Phabricator ticket and forget about it :-)

[misaochan]

I don't think the problem is with the category creation though... it seems to be a side effect of the wrong upload date. It makes sense for uploads made "in the future" to not have the category created yet.

[nicolas-raoul]

A few examples found:

• Photographs taken on 10. 08. 20 (Czech locale)
• Photographs taken on 27/08/2019 (Nepali locale)
• Photographs taken on 2019-07-05 (English locale) ← Only this one is valid

So, instead of writing the date using the user's locale, we should code it explicitly as year + "-" + month + "-" + day.

[misaochan]

@nicolas-raoul , is this the same issue as the one reported in our public forum? If so (and the dates are indeed wrong for all non-English locales), we should prioritize this fix since it's a big problem.

Wrong dates appear in the files description pages due to the application
Example of correction:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_Donkey_Tail_Plant.jpg&diff=prev&oldid=363578552&diffmode=source

[nicolas-raoul]

@misaochan Yes, I am pretty sure it is, and I share your view that it is a priority issue, because it forces Commons people to fix our mess, giving the app a bad reputation.

[misaochan]

@nicolas-raoul Agreed. Unfortunately I am away for 2 weeks starting this Saturday, and by the time I get back 2.12 should be close to ready, which means that a hotfix may not make sense. :/ Or alternatively, could you and @ashishkumar468 collaborate on this, where he sends a hotfix to our 2.11-release branch, and you do the 2.11.1 hotfix release when it is ready? You'd just need to release the 2.11-release branch with the addition of his PR, don't take anything from master.

[nicolas-raoul]

I am looking for a new apartment right now so I have to focus on that, unfortunately :'-/ But I can review a pull request :-)

[misaochan]

Ah, okay. I'll try to release 2.11.1 with the hotfix as soon as I get back, then.

[ashishkumar468]

I will look into the issue and raise a PR for the same :)

[ashishkumar468]

I am not able to reproduce this, I can see the actual date for both Hindi & English Locales. Is there a specific way to produce this ?

[nicolas-raoul]

@ashishkumar0207
Maybe Hindi & English locales use the same date format.
Would you mind trying Czech or Nepali locale?

[ashishkumar468]

@nicolas-raoul Sure, I will try that .

[VojtechDostal]

It seems this is a fairly general phenomenon... just found out the same bug appears in pictures from another Czech uploader: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plastika_Prost%C5%99en%C3%BD_st%C5%AFl_v_ulici_Na_Mlejnku.jpg

So it could really be due to language settings.

[PavelAplevich]

I can't reply this bug with my phone, with Czech, Nepali, English or Russian locale.

[nicolas-raoul]

@PavelAplevich Thanks for trying! Could you please post the URL to the images you uploaded in each locale? Thanks :-)

[PavelAplevich]

https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/File%3AMemori%C3%A1l.jpg
This image upload now. But on "Summary" i see "6 August 2019"

[PavelAplevich]

@nicolas-raoul Thank you, for pictures.
I think, the problem is:
Photos with correct date i download from my messenger. They date based on date of creating file.
Photos with wrong date i did it by myself, on my phone. They date based on EXIF.
As the result - EXIF work's wrong.
What do think about this?

[Aschroet]

There is one line where the template is filled:

apps-android-commons/app/src/main/java/fr/free/nrw/commons/contributions/Contribution.java

Line 205 in bb570a5

return String.format(Locale.ENGLISH, TEMPLATE_DATE_ACC_TO_EXIF, DateUtil.getDateStringWithSkeletonPattern(dateCreated, "yyyy-MM-dd")) + "\n";

Either dateCreated is not in the correct format or the formatter getDateStringWithSkeletonPattern does not work properly.

[misaochan]

@PavelAplevich Using EXIF data is fine as far as I'm aware. The problem here is with the date templates being sent, which are in the wrong format. I think #3126 (comment) explains what needs to be done. :)

[misaochan]

@PavelAplevich would you happen to have an update on this? Sorry for the rush, but this is a bit of a high-priority issue. :)

[PavelAplevich]

@misaochan
This is Czech locale image
https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/File%3AKran.jpg

This is Russian locale image
https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/File%3A%D0%A3%D1%80%D1%83%D1%87%D1%8C%D0%B5.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/File%3A%D0%93%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4.jpg

This is UK locale image
https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/File%3ACity.jpg

Could you please tell me, which variant is correct?

[misaochan]

@PavelAplevich none of them are correct. We need the format "2019-07-05", which has the year first.

Take a look at the template for the images you linked - to view the format of the template, you can go to Summary > edit. The first file you linked, for instance, says:

== {{int:filedesc}} ==
{{Information
|description={{cs|1=test}}
|source={{own}}
|author=[[User:Roc|Roc]]
|date={{According to EXIF data|13. 03. 2019}}
}}

A possible solution is to code it explicitly as year + "-" + month + "-" + day.

[ashishkumar468]

Thanks for the PR @PavelAplevich , the same is merged with master, works for me. Can someone else also verify the same ?

[misaochan]

Thanks so much @PavelAplevich ! :) @ashishkumar468 I am trying to review the results, but it seems like the Commons Beta DB is down at the moment? I'll try again later.

[misaochan]

Issue is fixed for me. Thanks @PavelAplevich !

[misaochan]

With further testing, I've found that uploaded pictures without EXIF data don't display the date at all in the summary: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Byron_lighthouse_2.jpg

This is quite strange since https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?title=File:NoEXIF.jpg displays the date perfectly fine. And their date templates are exactly the same. I don't remember this happening in the previous versions.

Is there a difference between how Commons Beta and the real Commons handles display of date templates?

[PavelAplevich]

@misaochan
I see the correct information both there and there

[misaochan]

Do you see the date in the summary? I don't mean Summary > Edit, but in the user-facing summary. Personally for https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Byron_lighthouse_2.jpg this is what I see:

Description | English: Lighthouse at Cape Byron
Date |  
Source | Own work
Author | misaochan2

[PavelAplevich]

Yes, i see.. Any ideas, what the problem is?

[misaochan]

I'm not sure. :( Trying to figure it out myself too. @nicolas-raoul @Aschroet any idea?

[misaochan]

@Achim55 Hope you don't mind a quick Q - do you know why the date field in the user-facing summary of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Byron_lighthouse_2.jpg is blank, even though the template is filled with |date={{date|2019-09-09}}?

[Yued1]

@misaochan I tried in various locales, and the user-facing summary is displaying the proper dates. Perhaps you should try reloading your browser (or try reloading after clearing your cache).

[PavelAplevich]

@misaochan I see this date too.

[Achim55]

I fixed it and left a note on your talk page. The behavior of {{date}} may differ on different projects.

In general the date field of file pages on Commons should not use the {{date}} template but be either
|date=yyyy-mm-dd
|date=yyyy-mm
|date=yyyy
or
|date={{According to EXIF data|yyyy-mm-dd}}
or for special cases like centuries
|date={{Other date|...some special data...}}

Best, Achim

[misaochan]

Thanks @Achim55 , I'll modify the template that we send accordingly. :)