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This is the discussion page for the AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) project. It is also the place to discuss using the AWB program (for help, questions, or general inquiries about AWB). Specific guidelines on where to make particular reports or requests are provided in the § Before you post section below. Before asking a question, please refer to the read the § Frequently asked questions below.
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Before you post
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| Report a bug or request a feature in AWB? | Check reported bugs on Phabricator before filing a new bug report. You do not need to create another account there; just log in with your global Wikimedia account. See this MediaWiki wiki page on how to report bugs and request features on Phabricator.
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| Report an incorrectly fixed typo? | Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Typos | ||||
| Request approval to use AWB? | Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/AutoWikiBrowser | ||||
| Ask a question about AWB or ask for help? | This page |
Frequently asked questions
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Frequently asked questions
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Discussion
editBlack background on start?
editIs there a css way to make the diff window background black when starting AWB? Night/dark-mode works well for diffs, but on startup and when switching settings/projects, it defaults to white. ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 10:58, 17 November 2024 (UTC)
Is adding links cosmetic?
editI've been adding links to citations (for example {{cite news ... |work=RNZ ... }} to {{cite news ... |work=[[RNZ]] ... }} but someone has opposed this and suggested that it breaks number four of WP:AWBRULES, saying that it's a cosmetic edit. As adding links to citations modifies the HTML of the page, I belive that it is not cosmetic, but I'd like a third opinion please to clear this up. ―Panamitsu (talk) 03:58, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
- It's not cosmetic, but per rule 3 if someone is contesting it, it's on you to demonstrate consensus for it. Nikkimaria (talk) 04:15, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
- Not cosmetic, but I do agree if a single page is being edited multiple times that is a bit of an issue. Primefac (talk) 13:17, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
- For the record, if consensus is needed for this, I endorse and support it. BD2412 T 15:34, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
- I'm fine with this, my primary suggestion is to stack these together in one awb run so that RNZ and ... and ... and ... are all done at once.Naraht (talk) 19:20, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
- Based on my interpretation of the rules, this seems totally acceptable, but again, you could consider running multiple tasks simultaneously or only add links when typos are found. Have fun doing it. Dawnseeker2000 19:49, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
- Personally I think it adds consistency and I'm a huge fan of it. It's an absolute improvement from my point of view. However, I do agree that it shouldn't be one edit at a time per page, but to add instances within the references at once. Hey man im josh (talk) 18:49, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I have started adding links to multiple different newspapers at once. ―Panamitsu (talk) 08:14, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
AutoWikiBrowser and searching for pages with capture regex.
editI'm looking for pages that have strings like [[Alpha Phi Alpha|Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity]] So I'd like to search for these with something like \[\[[A-Z][a-z]* [A-Z][a-z]* [A-Z][a-z]*\|\1 and while AWB does capture, it looks like that is only for internal, not for looking for them in the first place, is that something that wikipedia or AWB can do, or is this something where I need Cirrus or something else more powerful? Naraht (talk) 22:50, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- Not sure what you are after. You have a specific string 'like' then use a generic form of string search entry. Just plain old search is reasonably powerful. If I search for (articles only) ~"Alpha Phi Alpha" I get 799 entries, for ~"Alpha Phi Alpha" insource:/\[\[Alpha Phi Alpha/ I get 683 entries and with this ~"Alpha Phi Alpha" insource:/\[\[Alpha Phi Alpha\|/ I find 15. Neils51 (talk) 23:57, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- You have to put round brackets into the search string to tell the regex code what
\1is intended to match. I began a database scan for\[\[([A-Z][a-z]* [A-Z][a-z]* [A-Z][a-z]*)\|\1but quickly aborted it; there are tens of thousands of matches. Typical examples are[[Global Positioning System|Global Positioning System (GPS)]]and[[Some Company Name|Some Company Name Ltd]]. I restricted the search to the names of Greek letters and dumped the results at User:John of Reading/X2 (permalink) -- John of Reading (talk) 08:10, 25 November 2024 (UTC)- Thank you both. While I expect the majority of occurances to be from a group of 9 Fraternites and Sororities, there are hundreds that are possibilities. John, that is exactly what I wanted, I expected to have to trim down some. What software is needed for that Database scan and is that something a non-admin user will have access to?Naraht (talk) 13:50, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
- @Naraht: I used AWB's "Database Scanner". AWB normally needs this permission but if you're only using it to create a list of articles, you can use it without logging in. BUT to use the database scanner, you'll need a copy of the text of Wikipedia on your hard drive - the file
enwiki-20241120-pages-articles.xml.bz2is a 20 Gigabyte download from partway down this page, and that has to be uncompressed to 102 Gigabytes before AWB can use it. - If you post search requests on this page, I or someone else with a recent database dump will probably respond. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:07, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
- Right now, only 10 GB free on my personal hard drive. Maybe when I buy my next one. :) again thank you.Naraht (talk) 18:06, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
- @Naraht: I used AWB's "Database Scanner". AWB normally needs this permission but if you're only using it to create a list of articles, you can use it without logging in. BUT to use the database scanner, you'll need a copy of the text of Wikipedia on your hard drive - the file
- Thank you both. While I expect the majority of occurances to be from a group of 9 Fraternites and Sororities, there are hundreds that are possibilities. John, that is exactly what I wanted, I expected to have to trim down some. What software is needed for that Database scan and is that something a non-admin user will have access to?Naraht (talk) 13:50, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
Redlinks
editHello.
I don't know if it's technically possible.
It's for the French wiki, but I think I have more help here.
Is it possible with this tool to remove all red links on a specific page, because red links are not admissible and never will be? For example here
If it's possible, can I have help with the process? Bordurie (talk) 13:01, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
- I'll have to dig through the code, but I don't think so... on the other hand, there's an "if template exists" function so there might be an "ifexists" in general. Primefac (talk) 21:00, 3 December 2024 (UTC)
- There is an API that lists the pages linked from a page, and another that will report whether pages in that list exist. AWB already has a mechanism for detecting and unlinking links (the de-duplication function). So all the main pieces are in place, although it would need a new option flag if you wanted to make it happen without interaction. Still, it would be a project, and couldn't be classed as maintenance. David Brooks (talk) 22:48, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thinking about what I wrote: it should be feasible to do the edits in a Module (or possibly a Plugin). Stand by... David Brooks (talk) 15:28, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you. Bordurie (talk) 09:46, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
- Daily stand-up: a module is working on some relatively short articles. Running into an undocumented limit in a MediaWiki API. Higher-priority commitments rn. David Brooks (talk) 19:33, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
- User:DavidBrooks/UndoRelinksModule; give it a spin. But it's getting late here so I may not respond right away. David Brooks (talk) 02:35, 7 December 2024 (UTC)
- If you've read it: yes, I know. I wrote it in a hurry so I'll probably be tweaking it for efficiency and robustness (and bugs :-O ). If you are interested in it, you may want to add the module to your watchlist. David Brooks (talk) 14:32, 7 December 2024 (UTC)
- Wow! You're a genius! It works! Bordurie (talk) 14:26, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you! And, of course, I just found a bug (a link with a ' character in it, and possibly other punctuations). Please copy and reload the module. David Brooks (talk) 21:07, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, I had noticed this bug. Thanks Bordurie (talk) 08:57, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you! And, of course, I just found a bug (a link with a ' character in it, and possibly other punctuations). Please copy and reload the module. David Brooks (talk) 21:07, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
- Wow! You're a genius! It works! Bordurie (talk) 14:26, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
- If you've read it: yes, I know. I wrote it in a hurry so I'll probably be tweaking it for efficiency and robustness (and bugs :-O ). If you are interested in it, you may want to add the module to your watchlist. David Brooks (talk) 14:32, 7 December 2024 (UTC)
- User:DavidBrooks/UndoRelinksModule; give it a spin. But it's getting late here so I may not respond right away. David Brooks (talk) 02:35, 7 December 2024 (UTC)
- Daily stand-up: a module is working on some relatively short articles. Running into an undocumented limit in a MediaWiki API. Higher-priority commitments rn. David Brooks (talk) 19:33, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you. Bordurie (talk) 09:46, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thinking about what I wrote: it should be feasible to do the edits in a Module (or possibly a Plugin). Stand by... David Brooks (talk) 15:28, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
- There is an API that lists the pages linked from a page, and another that will report whether pages in that list exist. AWB already has a mechanism for detecting and unlinking links (the de-duplication function). So all the main pieces are in place, although it would need a new option flag if you wanted to make it happen without interaction. Still, it would be a project, and couldn't be classed as maintenance. David Brooks (talk) 22:48, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
Stub spacing
editThe requirement for two blank lines before stubs has now been removed. See WP:STUBSPACING — GhostInTheMachine talk to me 08:54, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
- Does this mean there is or will be a new version of AWB? I'm currently using version 6.3.1.1. Kiwipete (talk) 22:26, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
- Due to (19 December 2024) changes to CSS on enwiki, output is now OK with two blank lines, one blank line or no blank line before a stub. AWB no longer needs to force two lines before a stub for enwiki. No idea about other wikis — GhostInTheMachine talk to me 23:50, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
Bot saving blank pages
editSince there's not much information on this that I'm aware of, I think it's important to keep track of the circumstances that this bug presents itself. Tom.Bot was running on Wikispecies nearly continuously for 2 weeks, from Dec 7 to Dec 21, after 492,026 successful saves in the same instance of AWB before it started intermittently saving blank pages, despite failing a "Skip if doesn't contain" check that I thought would help prevent this problem. Very shortly prior to that, I "Reset saved/skipped counts", which usually produces a large negative "Edits/min" value, which may or may not be related. Before restarting the AWB instance, I reran the bot on some of the blanked pages and they were not blanked again. Restarting the instance fixed the problem. ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 19:40, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- See also User talk:Primefac/Archive 21 § Blanking, slightly different setup for skip checks. Primefac (talk) 12:56, 23 December 2024 (UTC)