Community Wishlist Survey 2021/Reading/Enable sticky table headers

Random proposal ►◄ Reading  The survey has concluded. Here are the results!

Enable sticky table headers

• Problem: In tables with many lines, the header scrolls out of the reader's view and is no further visible for him. That could cause confusion of column contents (for example for tables with numeric data).
• Who would benefit: everyone reading articles with large tables
• Proposed solution: implement the position:sticky attribute for table headers natively in MediaWiki through a class, e.g. mw-stickyhead.
• More comments: This can be realized through templatestyles (example) but interferes the native wikitable styling which requires extra workarounds.
• Phabricator tickets: phab:T42763
• Proposer: hgzh 13:52, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Discussion

• I use mediawiki software for documentation outside of the wikimedia environment. We have a lot of tables and this would be very useful Tenbergen (talk) 01:32, 19 November 2020 (UTC)
• Yes yes yes, this would be fantastic to have. And it's a good example of a wishlist item that puts the reader first, benefiting the multitudes of non-editing readers, rather than just prioritizing ourselves. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 03:07, 19 November 2020 (UTC)
• Per the phab ticket, there is a live gadget for this under Preferences > Gadgets > Testing and development, if useful (not watching, please {{ping}}) czar 01:34, 22 November 2020 (UTC)
• Yes please! I often find a faulty item on row 1234 of a huge table and have to scroll up for miles to find out what the column should contain. I just installed the gadget, which is just what I needed but hard to discover. Certes (talk) 01:36, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
• To see examples: There are 3 scrolling tables with sticky headers in the statistics section of w:COVID-19 pandemic by country and territory. Some of that CSS, etc. can be used. --Timeshifter (talk) 20:42, 27 November 2020 (UTC)
• See: w:Help talk:Table/Archive 8#Sticky table headers?. There is a collapsed example table added today that is very good. Scroll down in the discussion to see it. The table is sticky both vertically and horizontally. Narrow your browser window to see. --Timeshifter (talk) 21:07, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Voting

•  Support Seems convenient. MarioSuperstar77 (talk) 20:30, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support The gadget suffices for me but this change will help those who have not discovered it. Certes (talk) 21:18, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support —The Editor's Apprentice (talk) 23:15, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Martinkunev (talk) 23:42, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Silver hr (talk) 23:50, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support – Ammarpad (talk) 04:29, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support --Ita140188 (talk) 04:53, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Åntøinæ (talk) 08:56, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Matěj Suchánek (talk) 09:08, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 10:15, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Thomas Kinz (talk) 11:39, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Ulanwp (talk) 12:41, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support MilkyDefer (talk) 12:53, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support --Satirdan kahraman (talk) 18:26, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support JAn Dudík (talk) 20:15, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Supernonodunet (talk) 07:45, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support --Timeshifter (talk) 07:46, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support - yona B. (D) 08:11, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 10:38, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Can I keep hitting support all day? That might get close to how much I think this would be useful & reader-friendly. Cabayi (talk) 12:59, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support. Meiræ 15:27, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Tim bates (talk) 15:49, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Libcub (talk) 20:19, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Srđan (talk) 22:35, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Titore (talk) 23:53, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Jc86035 (talk) 12:01, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support MichaelSchoenitzer (talk) 14:15, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support czar 16:22, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support James Martindale (talk) 17:24, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Goultard59 (talk) 17:30, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Akela NDE (talk) 17:53, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support --Mathieugp (talk) 18:07, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support same concept could be use for Wikivoayge banner menu --Andyrom75 (talk) 19:34, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support J. N. Squire (talk) 21:07, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Vince789 (talk) 22:20, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support  —Michael Z. 2020-12-11 23:04 z 23:04, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Tom Ja (talk) 10:12, 12 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support TheLatentOne (talk) 19:48, 12 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Trizek ^{from FR} 20:57, 12 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Rdyornot (talk) 22:35, 12 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Emperork 🐋🐰 23:50, 12 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support —TongcyDai  ฅ • ω • ฅ 03:48, 13 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support -- the wub "?!" 18:35, 13 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Pinage404 (talk) 22:37, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support in theory, but this will require significant accessibility research.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ >^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ<  07:59, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support — Draceane ^talk_contrib. 13:36, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Thanks, EDG 543 (message me) 15:48, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Lasse Ramson (talk) 20:42, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support – Teratix ₵ 06:42, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Crissov (talk) 09:07, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Femkemilene (talk) 12:01, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Vikrantkorde (talk) 12:07, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Wolfmartyn (talk) 14:00, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support IronSprings (talk) 02:01, 17 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Lt2818 (talk) 03:20, 17 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Jdpipe (talk) 05:43, 17 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Shenme (talk) 06:40, 17 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Yes!!!!! Risk Engineer (talk) 15:48, 17 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Shinkolobwe (talk) 16:53, 17 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support LM150 (talk) 22:35, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Kaartic ^[talk] 17:36, 20 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Uanfala (talk) 00:03, 21 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support and don't forget to enable fixed columns as well, not only rows. Both for mobile view too. Wotheina (talk) 09:37, 21 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support as proposer -- hgzh 10:57, 21 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support —2d37 (talk) 11:00, 21 December 2020 (UTC)
•  Support S8321414 (talk) 14:36, 21 December 2020 (UTC)