Files are removed from the timeline when deleted

[Kristina Hoeppner]

When a file is placed on a page, e.g. via the "Files to download" block and the state saved to the timeline, it does not appear on the timeline once the file has been deleted from the Files area though it should still appear on the Timeline.

1. User A has a page with the "Image" block and the "Files to download" block. The download block contains both the image and also another file.
2. User A saves that state to the timeline.
3. User A deletes the image that is used in the "Image" block and the "Files to download" block from their file repository.
Expected result: The image is still displayed in the timeline.
Actual result: The image is not displayed in the timeline neither in the "Image" block nor the "Files to download" block thus not rendering it a true respresentation of the state of that page at that time.

[Robert Lyon (robertl-9)]

A problem with this is if a user needs to delete content to free up space then no space will be made available as the content will continue to exist for versioning

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Yes, that is a concern that we'll need to discuss and find a solution for. One possibility would be that a user is alerted that their file that they are deleting would be deleted from one or more versions of their portfolio and ask if they want to proceed or not. If they do, then a placeholder would need to be put onto the version to state that the file was deleted. Removing it silently is not good when it is assumed that the version does contain the portfolio as it was seen at the specific time in the past.

Another option could be that files that only appear in versions do not count against the user quota.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Removed previously assigned milestones (for the time being) as this may be a bigger change than we can do in a minor point release.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

What does Mediawiki do when files are deleted from a newer version?

[Gold (gold.catalyst)]

I checked this on the work wiki. The file is left in place and when viewing the page from the history the image is still present.

When the file is manually deleted the file renders as a frame with:
"""
File: filename.jpg
delete
"""