Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests/Archive 2

Today we enter the exciting world of Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests/Archive 2. Throughout history, Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests/Archive 2 has been the object of study, admiration and controversy. Since its inception, it has aroused the curiosity of the most restless minds, who have sought to unravel its mysteries and understand its impact on society. Through this article, we propose to explore the different aspects related to Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests/Archive 2, from its origin to its relevance today. We will delve into its roots, analyze its various facets and reflect on its influence on human development. Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests/Archive 2 is a fascinating topic that deserves to be explored from multiple perspectives, and it is our desire to offer an exhaustive analysis that contributes to the enrichment of knowledge on this issue.

Archive 1 Archive 2 Archive 3 Archive 4 Archive 5

Release

The best new feature for version 4 would be releasing it. Therefore I implore testers to give the alpha version a good going over this week, and as long as there's no serious bugs in article editing we should release v4.0 beta to the general user base asap. Trivial and cosmetic bugs, if any, can wait, as can feature requests. My tests with v4 (mostly with my plugin) have been pretty positive so I hope we can get this out soon! --kingboyk 23:25, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Featured implemented 27 July 2007. --kingboyk 22:49, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Expand all for category trees

Status Feature added in next release
Description Is it possible to get a full list of articles in a category and its subcategories all the way down to the bottom of a category tree? ie. expand fully with one click, rather than expanding level by level? Carcharoth 15:52, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I think it would be good if AWB could make a list of articles in a given category and recursively add the articles of the subcategories of the given category. --ZeroOne (talk / @) 10:41, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Added in revision
Im sure this had been added before, but it may have been removed (I havent seen it recently myself). I'll poke Mets about it for you Reedy Boy 15:54, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
I don't know if it's already there or not; if it is I haven't seen it. Either way, I would strongly caution against an "all the way down to the bottom" approach. The category system isn't really a tree, there are loops and all sorts of peculiarities. A feature which did "select all categories in the list, get their contents, and remove the categories" in one click would be useful though. --kingboyk 15:59, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
OK. A set distance downwards, then. That will at least improve matters. It is the need to expand the tree that is the killer. A recent example involved a definite tree structure (and many parts of the category system are trees), and involved 935 articles distributed over 661 categories, 9 of which were empty. It really shouldn't be necessary to click the "expand" toggle 661 time to get a list of 935 articles. Carcharoth 16:52, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
You can just highlight them all, then right click, make list from category. Click the first item you want, then scroll down, press shift, and then click on the last category for multiple selections - There are workarounds!! Reedy Boy 17:10, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

This feature was added a while back, but it's just too buggy with infinite loops and stuff. Use the workaround that Reedy Boy mentioned above instead. —METS501 (talk) 18:03, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

OK, I'll use the workaround. But some limited functionality should be possible by cutting off loops and infinitely long expansions. Maybe something to come back to later? Carcharoth 22:24, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
Sure, we can keep it on this page. —METS501 (talk) 23:13, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
So thats Reedy, don't archive me? =D Reedy Boy 08:23, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

A semi-automated solution is what's needed here. The user must select which subcategories are trawled, but the software does the trawling, sorting, duplicates removal, etc. We definitely need to cut down on the number of mouse/key presses needed and make this process easier. (I had this planned but had pc problems, see User:Kingboyk/AWB) --kingboyk 22:44, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

This feature is already implemented (including proper handling of circular references and duplicates), but after discussing possible strain on servers with Simetrical on WP:VPT it was restricted to debug builds only. I'm not ready to enable it unless we have constent from MW developers. MaxSem 03:45, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't see what difference it makes to the servers if it's done by the user manually, or by AWB programatically? --kingboyk 11:15, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

This is what I had on my AWB to-do list. Would this be OK? Is there, then, code I can call or recycle to do this?

  • Make a semi-automated listbuilder feature, either in AWB or in my plugin. (Probably the former, as I think this could be widely useful; but if the latter, could inherit from the current listbuilder and then trick AWB into displaying ours).
    • Build list as normal
    • Display option to filter out non-main mainspaces
    • Display subcategories in a checklist, and prompt user
    • Trawl selected subcats, move others to a collection (so we can check we don't prompt about the same categories twice)
    • For plugin, convert to talk
    • Sort A-Z
Basically what I'm having to do manually, with a lot less keypresses and hassle.

--kingboyk 16:27, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

I've commited a potential fix to stop it visiting categories it already has visited (ie, if the category is already in the list of categories visited, it wont load from that category... - rev 1398/rev 1399. Not sure which... Ideally needs testing... Wasnt sure of a category at the time to try it on... Reedy Boy 16:42, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

de.wikipedia - persondata placement

Status Feature added in next release
Description On de.wikipedia (unlike en), the persondata is located behind the categories (and before the interwiki links). Is it possible to make AWB regarding this for de when sorting the metadata? Thanks, --Oxymoron83 00:55, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Added in rev 1517. —METS501 (talk) 23:58, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Complete the easy ones now wont you mets ;) Reedy Boy 08:59, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
Thanks anyway for the quick modification :) --Oxymoron83 21:52, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Append from text file

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Append/prepend from text file. ~ Wikihermit 02:22, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Hi, could you possible expand a bit more to as it is what you want. As "Append/prepend from text file." could mean anything, and therefore would be difficult for us to act upon it. Thanks, Reedy Boy 11:28, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
Crossed out. ~ Wikihermit 05:03, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Remove double interwiki

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description In general fixes, please add "Remove double interwiki" like:
]
]

--OsamaK 07:45, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Added in revision
Having it do it if there is 2 exactly the same is fine. Its if theres 2 for the same language under different names. I suppose this couldnt be done automatically... Reedy Boy 13:58, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
This actually already exists where the Interwiki links are exactly the same... Removing them if they are the same language, but different pages is a no no. AWB cant tell which is right. See Reedy Boy 19:31, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Don't show a message about {{inuse}} pages for pages which AWB is skipping anyway

Status Feature added in next release
Description Currently, if you're editing a list of pages, and set it to skip pages which do/don't have specific text (I had it skip any page which doesn't have the text ,"displayName":"Od"}}-->
Added in revision
rev 1533 - Moved the code that gives the message box to AFTER the skip if contains/skip if doesnt contain. Good idea! Reedy Boy 19:16, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

"Save this list.." in "Find & Replace" table

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description Add "Save this list to text file.." in Find & Replace table.please see --OsamaK 13:37, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
What sort of format do you want this saving in...? Is it for re-loading the settings or something? Reedy Boy 14:45, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
Yes, Both of their. "Find", "Replace with" and settings --OsamaK 15:04, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
You do realise that these settings are (or at least are supposed to be) saved with the normal settings file..? Reedy Boy 17:05, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
I mean save that the table in the text file, whether the "Find", "Replace with" and "Settings" (Multiline, Enabled ,....) --OsamaK 08:17, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

i think osamak means he want to save the list of find and replace in a text file, so he dont reload the setting in each time --Mmustafa 07:16, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

It already saved in the settings xml. Reedy Boy 22:30, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Dating trivia tags

Status Feature added in next release
Description {{trivia}} (and its redirects) has been modified and should be auto-tagged with the date {{trivia|date=Month Year}} -- pb30<talk> 22:23, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Added - rev 1544 Reedy Boy 22:25, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

special handling for Personendaten template

Status Feature added in next release
Description on de.wikipedia, the Personendaten template (the same as Template:Persondata on en) by convention is placed below the categories. I would like AWB to leave it there when fixing an article. Also links in the template should not count as duplicate links. --08-15 08:06, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

De.wikipedia sorting order fixed for the next release. If by template you mean the infoboxes, then I think that they should count for duplicates, but that's just my opinion. If you mean something else by "templates", let us know :-) —METS501 (talk) 21:43, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Have i missed a commit Mets? Reedy Boy 21:37, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

List links to disambig pages.

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Would it be possible to create up a list of all links on a page which go to disambig pages (something like the list of multiple links)? bd2412 T 21:37, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Yes, but it would be way too taxing on the servers to do it for each page. —METS501 (talk) 21:41, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I feared as much. Thanks anyway! bd2412 T 00:12, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
No problem :-) —METS501 (talk) 01:50, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Deadend in Auto Tags

Status Feature added in next release
Description Make the "Auto Tag" feature of the General section automatically add the Deadend template if the article contains no links (in other words, the count of the text ,"displayName":"(Bot)"}}-->
Added in revision
Would be quite easy to add. Only requires a simple regex to look for and cases of ], so something like \\], do a regex.match, and if there is no success, add the tag... It may make it into v4, being simple, but the feature list is more a less stuck atm... Reedy Boy 08:28, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
rev 1543. Havent been able to test it as of yet... Will try and do so. Reedy Boy 22:07, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Collapse all option

Status Feature added in next release
Description A collapse all and uncollapse all option somewhere in the advanced Find'n'replace tree. —Dispenser 21:10, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
rev 1606 - Added Reedy Boy 21:22, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

A way to filter regexp by namespace

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description It would be nice to have a way to filter regular expressions by namespace, have certain regular expressions only match in certain namespaces. I figured out a way to do this but it is pretty ugly.

Workaround:

The is to workaround multiline bug

Rule: Namespace

  • Replace: ()
  • With: <!--NAMESPACE: %%namespace%%-->$1
    • Subrule: Namespace Rules
      • Contains: (<!--NAMESPACE: Template-->|etc...|etc..)
      • Not contains: (<!--NAMESPACE: Template talk-->|etc...|etc..)
        • Subrules to apply if namespace matches
    • Subrule: Cleanup
      • Replace: <!--NAMESPACE: .*?-->
      • With:

-- Gudeldar 15:26, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Added in revision

How about this for a workaround: Let's say you want to replace the word vehicle with automobile only in the Wikipedia namespace. Set this as your rule:

Find Replace
car {{subst:#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Wikipedia|vehicle|car}}

What do you think? That should be OK, right? —METS501 (talk) 21:49, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Text editor shortcut

Status Feature added in next release
Description In the "Edit box" give the user either a toolbar or keyboard shortcuts (like ctrl-B) to Bold, Italic, superscript/subscript, line-break, etc... —Dispenser 05:06, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

rev 1607 - Added by Mets Reedy Boy 22:59, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Edit Box's Toolbar

Status Feature added in next release
Description Please add like this toolbar to Edit box. Thanks. --OsamaK 16:52, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Its doable, just wont be simple. Would anyone else like this? Reedy Boy 18:24, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
Easy enough, but what for? AWB is a tool for performing semi-automatic edits, not article-writing. MaxSem 19:06, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
Yes, But sometime we need some edit by hand. You can add this as option!--OsamaK 21:11, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
One thing which AWB is good for is filtering out pages which do/don't have certain text or wiki-code, and then edit the remaining pages as one would directly using Wikipedia. I don't need this tool bar for anything, but for such things, this tool bar may be useful for some people. Od Mishehu 07:39, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
rev 1607 - Added by Mets. Not everything, but somethings are there now! Reedy Boy 22:59, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Search in summary

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Is it possible to add an option of searching (including RegExp) in summary text? That would be helpful, e.g. for lists created from Recentchages page --213.170.94.120 15:24, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

I see no use for it. AWB is not designed for things like vandalfighting and so. MaxSem 15:31, 26 August 2007 (UTC)


Regex inside ref-tags

Status Feature added in next release
Description It would be great if RegexTypoFix doesn't search inside the ref tag, to avoid trivial correction of tags as <ref name="hindu"> -> <ref name="Hindu"> .
Added in revision

Already fixed. And it was a bug, actually. MaxSem 22:52, 25 August 2007 (UTC)


Edit toolbar is always enabled

Status Feature added in next release
Description Edit toolbar should be disabled when the edit box is disable.--OsamaK 14:45, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Yup, agreed. Reedy Boy 14:50, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
Done - rev 1621. Dont really look disabled, but clicking does nothing Reedy Boy 20:07, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
That's fine! thanks reedy ;)--OsamaK 10:27, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Option to skip page if edit blocked by spam filter

Status Feature added in next release
Description It would be useful to have a yes/no option somewhere to automatically skip a page if the edit made is blocked by the spam filters. Thanks Rjwilmsi 17:15, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Do you mean the level 1 page protection (ie blocked from anon and new users)? Reedy Boy 17:20, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
I think he means an option to skip if the edit contains a keyword blocked by the mediawiki spam filter. --R ParlateContribs@ (Let's Go Yankees!) 02:04, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
Yes, I mean the spam filter, not page protection. The spam filter parses the whole page, not just the changes made, so blocks edits. Rjwilmsi 17:37, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
Doesn't 'skip article when first nudge doesn't help' accomplish effectively the same (at least in bot mode)? --Seed 2.0 18:58, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
Maybe, but I'd like this option for regular (not bot) users like me. Rjwilmsi 08:59, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
Just noticed this request again. I put some changes to the logging depending on the spam filter
  730             else if (!BotMode && webBrowserEdit.Document.Body.InnerHtml.Contains("<A class=extiw title=m:spam_blacklist href=\"http://meta.wikimedia.orghttps://wikious.com/en/spam_blacklist\">"))
  731             {//check edit wasn't blocked due to spam filter
  732                 if (MessageBox.Show("Edit has been blocked by spam blacklist. Try and edit again?", "Spam blacklist", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Warning) == DialogResult.Yes)
  733                     Start();
  734                 else
  735                     SkipPage("Edit blocked by spam protection filter");
  736 
  737                 return;
  738             }

It wouldnt be difficult to add on the else if, " && chkSkipIfBlockedBySpamFilter.Checked" - Causing it to automatically just skip it - not bugging the user with the message box...? Reedy Boy 14:09, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

rev 1618 - Added Reedy Boy 12:57, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Editing toolbar

Status Feature added in next release
Description The editing toolbar should have a checkbox option in the general menu or similar menu. —Dispenser 05:23, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
To display it or not do you mean? Reedy Boy 09:15, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
Yes, forgot to write that part. —Dispenser 13:40, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
Added - rev 1626 Reedy Boy 18:51, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Turn off clicks

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description When running a hidden version in particular, or listening to music or games it would be nice to turn off the clicks. Rich Farmbrough, 09:18 1 September 2007 (GMT).
Added in revision
Thats quite difficult, as its a windows profile thing that has to be changed to turn it off... Reedy Boy 10:11, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
As far as I know, this cannot be done from within AWB. Do you know how to do it yourself? If not, I'll let you know. —METS501 (talk) 16:45, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

A find dialog

Status Feature added in next release
Description With long string it is difficult to view it in the quick find area on the (3) Start tab, so a better Dialog is needed. Some suggestion are:
  1. A Find and replace toolbar link in firefox, appearing the bottom of the screen or just at the bottom of the edit area.
  2. Model find dialog, possibly something similar to the one in Notepad++; but that could just be my preference with multi-monitors.
  3. Have an option to "pop" it out?
  4. Make the standard crtl-F shortcut work

Dispenser 21:20, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Added in revision
A very simple way to do this, would have a tooltip displaying the box content when the mouse is hovering over it? Reedy Boy 13:00, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
Done it that way - rev 1636 Reedy Boy 20:51, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Indicating diffs

Status Feature added in next release
Description I find the new method of displaying diffs much harder to read than the old way. The old red bracket highlighting really made the changes stand out. Could the colour scheme & font of the diffs box be made a customisable option? Colonies Chris 13:36, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
public static string DiffHead()
        {
            return @"<style type='text/css'>
td{
    border: 1px solid white;
}

table.diff, td.diff-otitle, td.diff-ntitle {
	background-color: white;
    border: 1px solid gray;
}
td.diff-addedline {
	background: #cfc;
	font-size: smaller;
}
td.diff-deletedline {
	background: #ffa;
	font-size: smaller;
}
td.diff-context {
	background: #eee;
	font-size: smaller;
}
.diffchange {
	color: red;
	font-weight: bold;
	text-decoration: none;
}

td.diff-deletedline span.diffchange {
    background-color: #FFD754; color:black;
}

td.diff-addedline span.diffchange {
    background-color: #73E5A1; color:black;
}

.d{
    overflow: auto;
}
</style>";
        }

Looks to be done from a CSS type style sheet... Reedy Boy 22:20, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I was going to suggest that it could be altered by using the custom style sheets feature in Internet Explorer; however, it doesn't seem to be working for me. Maybe this file should be externalize? —Dispenser 21:39, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
Not sure if it should be... But it could be ;) Reedy Boy 21:41, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
Added - rev 1635 - Must be called style.css, and in the same format as above - With style tags and such. Reedy Boy 20:42, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Just change

td{
    border: 1px solid white;
}

table.diff, td.diff-otitle, td.diff-ntitle {
	background-color: white;
    border: 1px solid gray;
}
td.diff-addedline {
	background: #cfc;
	font-size: smaller;
}
td.diff-deletedline {
	background: #ffa;
	font-size: smaller;
}
td.diff-context {
	background: #eee;
	font-size: smaller;
}
.diffchange {
	color: red;
	font-weight: bold;
	text-decoration: none;
}

td.diff-deletedline span.diffchange {
    background-color: #FFD754; color:black;
}

td.diff-addedline span.diffchange {
    background-color: #73E5A1; color:black;
}

.d{
    overflow: auto;
}

To what you want it to be, and save as style.css Reedy Boy 21:20, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Passing output to CLI program

Status Feature added in next release
Description Add some sort of method to allow an external command line program (like perl or python) to process the wikitext. —Dispenser 02:18, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

That seems unlikely for now. Are C#/VB modules not sufficient? —METS501 (talk) 19:55, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

You could probably get them to pass it to an external process... And that to say write to text file or something...
                Dim psi As New ProcessStartInfo()
                With psi
                    .WorkingDirectory = Dir
                    .FileName = "file.ext"
                    .Arguments = ""
                End With
                Dim p As Process = Process.Start(psi)
                p.WaitForExit()

Reedy Boy 20:55, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Just how many programing languages am I suppose to learn? I got the idea after read a few bot request where people were combining frameworks in other languages to simple upload stuff to mediawiki. All it really needs to do is write to a file, call the program, when the program finishes, read the file back into the editor window. And it should probably be a plugin module for AWB. —Dispenser 18:40, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
That was the idea of that code... Used as a plugin/module... Granted its VB, but AWB can and does compile VB mondules. Changed to C#, add a text reader, return to AWB and your done.... Reedy Boy 18:51, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
Would you like me to write an AWB plugin to do this for you? Would need some input as to what would need to be processed from the text file... Reedy Boy 22:18, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
Yes, No, Maybe, I dont know. Can you repeat the question...? Reedy Boy 21:45, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
        public string ProcessArticle(string ArticleText, string ArticleTitle, int wikiNamespace, out string Summary, out bool Skip)
        {
            string OrigText = ArticleText;
            Skip = false;
            Summary = "";
            
            try
            {
                System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo psi = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
                psi.WorkingDirectory = "C:\\Path";
                psi.FileName = "script.ext";
                psi.Arguments = "";

                System.Diagnostics.Process p = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(psi);
                p.WaitForExit();

                if (System.IO.File.Exists(psi.WorkingDirectory + "\\output.txt"))
                {
                    System.IO.StreamReader reader = System.IO.File.OpenText(psi.WorkingDirectory + "\\output.txt");

                    ArticleText = reader.ReadToEnd();
                    if (ArticleText == OrigText)
                        Skip = true;

                    return ArticleText;
                }
                else
                {
                    Skip = true;
                    return OrigText;
                }
            }
            catch
            {
                Skip = true;
                return OrigText;
            }
        }
That is a C# Module that can be used as part of AWB.
                psi.WorkingDirectory = "C:\\Path";
                psi.FileName = "script.ext";
                psi.Arguments = "";

So, working directory, is where the file you want to run is. File name is obvious, arguments, is probably how you want to pass it the article text or similar. If you want me to change the module to write to a text file the article text (something like input.txt), i can do. Reedy Boy 11:12, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Inclusion of Reference section

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description When there are <ref></ref> in the article but no {{reference}} with appropriate section header, is it possible to add the ==References==and {{reference}} section?SkierRMH 20:38, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
  • How would you know consistently where to add it? It would need to at the bottom, but begore any categories or succession boxes. --After Midnight 0001 00:31, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

There are loads of pointless templates that invoke <references/>, and people keep adding more. We must either have a 1000% reliable way to detect all such templates, or not fix this problem automatically at all, because too many fully-atomated bots run with general fixes nowadays, we cannot afford giving them a chance to screw articles. Besides, lack of <references/> is not that common mistake. MaxSem 10:30, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

I've been trying to think of a "logical" manner to place the citation, and several test runs that gave some most unusual results, realize that although the section/heading is missing, there's simply no automated way to include the section. Guess I'll formally withdraw this and move to a simple 'locate and evaluate' mode! SkierRMH 06:07, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Click to add to list

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description It would be useful to have a button that allows you to populate a list based on clicks: For example, if I wanted to deliver a newsletter, and had a list on-wiki of all user's talk pages, I could just click each of the links and it would add them to the list. GrooveDog (talk) (Review) 20:19, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Make list from "Links on page"? Reedy Boy 21:53, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Template general fixes

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Pages in template space do not receive general fixes. While it is understandable that pages with variables cause complication, the other page (such as documentation or navboxes) do not receive these general fixes. AWB should apply general fixes if the page do not contain {{{, to further exclude more pages possibly parser functions. —Dispenser 05:23, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

It's because all general fixes are intended solely for mainspace, other pages either don't need such conversions, or these conversions would be harmful. General fixed would definitely break too many templates, that's why we use them only for articles. WONTFIX. MaxSem 05:58, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

That's why I gave a trigger that would ensuring that templates wouldn't break. We have a lot of /doc subpages that could truly benefit from some general fixes. One of the general fixes that I've reimplemented is the underscore removal and capitalization of the namespace in wikilinks. Couldn't we enable fixes do not change the structure? —Dispenser 13:22, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
Added general fixes to be allowed on /doc pages. rev 1647 Reedy Boy 22:07, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Option to skip if article tagged as 'in use'.

Status Feature added in next release
Description Now that AWB 4.1.0.0 has the useful option to skip an edit if it's blocked by the spam filter, could we also have the option to skip articles tagged as 'in use'? Thanks Rjwilmsi 17:45, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Added - rev 1667 Reedy Boy 18:57, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Auto tag date paramter use new syntax

Status Feature added in next release
Description The auto tag adds uncatogrized and wikify, would be good if the date parameter was preferred "date=" syntax rather than default parameter. Rich Farmbrough, 09:29 16 April 2007 (GMT).
Added in revision

Done in rev 1680. Jogers (talk) 16:08, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Make all text box from right to left

Status Feature added in next release
Description Please, add "Make all text box from right to left in "User and project preferences". ar.wiki, he.wiki, fa.wiki and ur.wiki all this language write from right to left. Thanks--OsamaK 10:51, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
This is feasible, well to an extent - Presumably for any and all text boxes everywhere...? As some would be a buggar to do, but ensuring that like the edit text box and such were done - ie the ones you would be typing in a lot. Reedy Boy 11:48, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Done in rev 1632 and rev 1634. MaxSem 19:54, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

prepend text tunning

Status Feature added in next release
Description Make the behavior of text prerpending feature customizable in terms of the amount of lines between the text prepended and other text. In some cases (usually when I insert hidden templates) users ask me to reduce the amount of newline characters down to one instead of two set by AWB by default. Mashiah 21:45, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Added in rev 1689. Jogers (talk) 20:13, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

Silence

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Option to turn off clicks. Rich Farmbrough, 09:55 16 September 2007 (GMT).
Added in revision
Can be done via registry... Can't users just turn it off according to the FAQ if they wish to? Reedy Boy 18:57, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
and from the control panel... Sigh, sorry I don't use IE, so thought the click was an AWB feature. Rich Farmbrough, 09:55 16 September 2007 (GMT).
I'm marking this as "not going to be implemented" then. Jogers (talk) 10:01, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Ignore template calls

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description An option to ignore template calls inside the find and replace menu would be useful to me when fixing capitalization errors. Right now I spend some time manually undoing replacements when a filename inside a template call is incorrectly capitalized. Jogers (talk) 13:13, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Or perhaps there is some way to distinguish whether a template parameter value is a filename or not? Jogers (talk) 12:18, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
An option to ignore category names would be nice, too. Jogers (talk) 11:00, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Underscores and "mod_"

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description underscores should not be removed from article titles beggining with "mod_" e.g. mod_perl. -- Kl4m Talk Contrib 04:00, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Its done from transclusions of {{Lowercase and underscore}} and {{Underscore}}. So it doesnt have to be hard coded, and means, to add them to teh list of not being changed, you just need to transclude the templates, which also fixes the article header. Already exists! Reedy Boy 08:21, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Save edit toolbar show/hide preference

Status Feature added in next release
Description When saving settings, please add the preference of the user for the edit toolbar to be shown or not. Thanks, mattbr 20:03, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Added - rev 1740 Reedy Boy 20:23, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
Thanks! mattbr 20:17, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

A new rule that only executes on a specified parameter(s)

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description A good feature would be to add an "In parameter" SubRule. There is currently an "In template" SubRule which is convenient, but an "In parameter" would make life easier for trying to format specific parameters without effecting any others by mistake. Options could allow running a find and replace on the parameter, the equal sign, and the parameter value, or just the parameter value. Note: this would be used to add infoboxes to every city/town in the US, and add missing data to existing ones. Thanks, --CapitalR 02:24, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Doesnt this exist under Template Parameter Rule? Reedy Boy 22:15, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
Yes, we already have this. One can change the parameter name and perform find and replace on the parameter value. Jogers (talk) 12:51, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

appended item in summary

Status Feature added in next release
Description Only slightly annoying is that even if this isn't being used on a WM project wiki, it still appends "using ]" to the end. Is there a way to disable this if the project being worked on isn't a WM wiki? --Izno 05:52, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Added - rev 1761. Option enabled for use IF project is wikia or custom. Reedy Boy 13:12, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

More than one image or category

Status Feature added in next release
Description Sometime I need to (remove or replace) more than one image or categorie At the same time. Now, AWB can't do this. Do you have any solution?--OsamaK 07:00, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

The current work around, i suppose, is to do multiple runs through... Not the most efficient, i know. Other than that, we could change the image and category thing to like the FAR, so you can create multiple rules... (Sounds like the way to do it IMHO) Reedy Boy 12:06, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

CFD plugin can remove or rename multiple categories in a single pass. MaxSem 15:04, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
Suppose if it can remove/rename... We can change it to add aswell? Marking as exists Reedy Boy 15:08, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
Do we have a tool for image? I don't think!--OsamaK 15:18, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
Wont be hard to expand CFD out thought... Reedy Boy 15:24, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
rev 1775 - Done, "IFD Plugin" Reedy Boy 18:36, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Adding tags automatically

Status Feature added in next release
Description If no artiles link to the articles tag it as orphan. -- Magioladitis 12:05, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
I'm on it. Jogers (talk) 16:59, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in rev 1773. Jogers (talk) 17:41, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Delete empty line under External links

Status Feature added in next release
Description Sometimes there is an empty line under External links header and before the links. Here is an example. It would be nice if it was deleted. Moroever, I noticed that when this empty line exists AWB doesn't check if links above have "*". Obviously, because of an end condition.

Magioladitis 18:35, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Added in revision
- Added in rev 1778 Reedy Boy 19:20, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Why there should be no empty line under external links header? Jogers (talk) 09:08, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

References

Status Feature added in next release
Description Replace <div class="small"><references /></div> with {{reflist}} Magioladitis 18:46, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
And i suppose, <references /> to {{reflist}}... Which i thought AWB did already.... but i cant find it Reedy Boy 19:03, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
I am fixing many articles in the Category:1994 births (and other years) and I noticed that AWB doesn't correct <references />. Here, try to correct this one -- Magioladitis 19:10, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

And this: <div class="references-small"><references /></div> Magioladitis 19:19, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

- Added rev 1780 Reedy Boy 19:43, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

To fix redirects semi-automatically

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description When AWB checks links on a page, it seems to me that there is a chance to fix the redirected links. Perhaps all the links for redirect fixing could be displayed in a summary at the end of the page in a typical diff screen, ready for the selected ones to be changed. Perhaps also for the links checked to a certain point part way though a page by pressing a button. Snowman 23:32, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
This feature is not going to be implemented. See the request below. Jogers (talk) 14:48, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Can a number of redirect links and the fix be stored on the local machines ready for diff screens to be made? Snowman 17:46, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Why change links to redirects that are not broken anyway? Jogers (talk) 13:37, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Showing where disambiguation needed

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Would it be possible to automatically identify links on a page that point to disambiguation pages - perhaps by showing them in a different colour? Colonies Chris 11:58, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
I think AWB has to open the link first, hence my suggestion immediately above. Snowman 12:44, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
It is possible but would require loading all links on a page which means huge server load and excessive loading times. Jogers (talk) 14:47, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Biographies of living people

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description If Category:Living People exists and Talk page doesn't create it with {{WPBiography|living=yes|class=Start|priority=}} User:Magioladitis
Added in revision
But surely if we start this... We then do Dead people... I dont see the point of vanilla AWB doing it. Bot runs of tagging of pages based on the categories, usually clears up these missing talk pages.. I've started going through the deceased people again with my bot. See Special:Contributions/Reedy_Bot... Reedy Boy 22:15, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
I think the feature is usufull for many new pages created. The vast majority of the users creates a page about a person but doesn't add a tag in the talk page. We can do that for dead people as well. I had the same idea for locations like if there is a geo-stub and no coord template exists and the talk page is black we can add LocateMe. :) -- Magioladitis 22:35, 20 October 2007 (UTC) ok, you are right. :) Magioladitis 22:49, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
=) Reedy Boy 10:01, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Adding References list

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description If there is a reference tag in the article (i.e. a </ref> somewhere) and there is not {{reflist}} then add ==References== and {{reflist}}. -- Magioladitis 10:31, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

It already was discusseb before (somewhere in WT:AWB archives), and we concluded that this may cause more problems than it can fix. MaxSem 11:18, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

References instead of Referenses

Status Feature added in next release
Description ==Referenses== is a common mistake in Wikipedia. See here. In the past I cleaned lots of them using search. AWB can correct that. -- Magioladitis 10:34, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Added in rev 1795. Jogers (talk) 10:47, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Database Scanner shows progress

Status Feature added in next release
Description Using the Database Scanner to search the database is a (necessarily) very time consuming operation. It would be wonderful if the scanner could give some kind of feedback on it's progress. For example a percentage of the database search that is finished or an ETA. ʍαμ$ʏ5043 12:43, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
I do agree with you. With it being many GB it does indeed take ages... Im not sure how we'd implement it, but im sure its possible. Reedy Boy 17:00, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
I'm working on it. Jogers (talk) 13:03, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Added in rev 1693. It currently only updates the progress bar when an article is found. It would be better to run it in a separate thread and update the progress regularly instead. Jogers (talk) 15:00, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Threading is maybe a little OTT. Maybe just a timer with a fairly low tick rate... Refreshing the Progress? Reedy Boy 20:47, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Yes, sure. Something about few times a second would be enough. Jogers (talk) 09:02, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
Done - rev 1785 Reedy Boy 12:22, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
Great. I've increased the frequency in rev 1787. It shouldn't hurt to do few calculations twice a second. Jogers (talk) 13:33, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Alert if a Category doens't exist

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Alert if a category doesn't exist, so it can be either corrected or deleted. -- Magioladitis 14:37, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
You mean a category on a page..? Would require extra server load as it would have to do some form of query to check its presense... Reedy Boy 18:16, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
I mean to check if a ] linked on a page exists of not. If not to display a warning.Well, I think, you are right. This requires extra server load. :( Magioladitis 18:33, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
One can work on wanted categories instead. I've marked it as "not going to be implemented". Jogers (talk) 12:22, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Extended "filter out namespace" facility on list menu

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description It is very useful to able to filter out non-mainspace pages from a list, but it would be great to have a full-scoped ability to filter the different namespaces. I envisage a popup box with a checkbox beside each of (main), talk, user, user talk, category, category talk, etc; just check the ones you want to keep and press go.
There have been several recent occasions when I needed to filter a list in this way, but at the moment the only way to do it is to save the list to a text file, run a regex through it, and reload the list. It would be great not to have to do that. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 23:37, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
There is the special filter where you can filter Main space, user, category, template, mediawiki and talk for each... Does this not satisfy? Click filter at the bottom of the list maker... If so, this already exists... Reedy Boy 14:10, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
Yes, that's exactly' what I was after. I feel silly never having seen it before, but it's great. Thanks for pointing it out to me! --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 18:28, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
No problem :) Reedy Boy 18:29, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Regex list filter

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description Ability to filter a list by whether or not the article name matches a particular regex. Particularly with long lists, I often find myself doing some filtering of this sort, but as with the filter out namespace facility suggested above, this is currently possible only by saving the list and importing it again once processed. The two facilities could perhaps be combined into one popup box. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 23:56, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
The special filter (filter button at bottom of the list maker) has the ability to filter by some cases... I cant remember if it does regex, but if not, this should be add-able. Reedy Boy 14:12, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
Yes, that's exactly what I was after. I feel silly never having seen it before, but it's great. Thanks for pointing it out to me! --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 18:29, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
=) Reedy Boy 18:30, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

List translation

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description A feature which allows a user to create a list in Wikipedia of one language,and translate the list into an other language using the Interwiki (removing any page without an interwiki link into the requested langauge). Od Mishehu 07:30, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Marking this as a no.. As its quite a lot of work on the servers - loading either the edit text, then parsing the IW links, or doing it via the actual display page... And i cant see it being that useful Reedy Boy 11:44, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Smart superscripts

Status Feature added in next release
Description Don't unicodify 123 => ¹²³ if there are other superscripts nearby (in the same article, probably). Reason, we can't achieve the same effect for (45)67890 (depending on font), let alone other superscripts. Rich Farmbrough, 16:05 16 September 2007 (GMT).
Added in revision

It seems to me that AWB changes superscript to a smaller font, which is a bit too small too see. The wiki editing tool boxes have quite recently included superscripts and subscripts, which have become standard on the wiki. Could superscripts and subscripts be replaced with text of the same size font or just left unchanged? Why are they unicodified? Snowman 17:08, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes the Sup/sub is above the edit window and the unicode is below it. Rich Farmbrough, 11:18 11 October 2007 (GMT).
Should this be reported as a bug? Snowman 19:32, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
Not really. We have had extensive discussions about unicodifying, in the past and I think the agreement was to smhow avoid math pages(?). But AWB is doing what it says in the tin here, we want to change the tin. Rich Farmbrough, 10:47 15 October 2007 (GMT).
I had a user leave a message on my talk page asking that I stopped changing it to the smaller size, and I have to agree with them that it is much harder to read. Should this just be totally disabled in the next release? Tiddly-Tom 18:43, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
I think so, that's not a better than <sup></sup>..--OsamaK 18:56, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Again for the references

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description The next version will already replace the old style references with the new. One step forward is to replace <div class="references-2column"><references/></div> with {{reflist|2}}. -- Magioladitis 00:47, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Already added in SVN, wait for next release. MaxSem 08:35, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Extra conditions in Category handling

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Add a new option under Categories (in More...) called Skip action if article contains ((box to add you text)). This will help in situations like the one described above. For example we can replace Year of birth missing with Year of birth missing (living people) only if Category:Living people exists. -- Magioladitis 03:05, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Use general skip options. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 12:48, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Easy undo

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Some easy way of undoing the last x edits. Literally just going over those and reversing whatever was changed. Easy to do for top edits - just use what's given by the undo button. But if other people have edited since then, you'd have to search for the last diff made by the account and reverse that edit if possible. If an exact reversion isn't possible for whatever reason, output a list of pages for manual review. Mike.lifeguard | @en.wb 15:54, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

This isn't the type of thing that AWB is designed to do. Other tools (mostly vandal-fighting ones) allow you to revert edits in bulk. —METS501 (talk) 19:01, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Edit redirects

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description It would be very helpful, if one could edit redirects. For instance, changing a bunch of redirects to soft redirects, or, unmoving pages (cleanup after a pagemove vandal, for instance), etc. SQLQuery me! 13:28, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
You can. Just uncheck "bypass redirects" in "general" menu. Jogers (talk) 14:01, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
How embarassing :/ Seems the problem was a minor issue with the regex I was using :( You're right, it does work... SQLQuery me! 14:17, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Convert .28 and .29 to parentheses

Discussion moved from: Wikipedia:Bot_requests#Request_bot_to_convert_.28_and_.29_to_parentheses.
Begin moved discussion
Please can a bot convert .28 and .29 into parentheses? In Bayern class battleship there is the text:

  • 55967 ]

This should be

  • 55967 ]

Regards Lightmouse 13:49, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

I brought this up with Lightmouse earlier. It would be nice if a bot could replace .28 and .29 inside links, left of the pipe, with the proper parens. Other symbols could be replaced as well. This would make editing articles more user-friendly and would be less confusing for number formatting scripts. TomTheHand 14:04, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
So you want to convert html to the wikiformat, or something like that?PxMa 15:09, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
I do not know how to explain it in terms of format names. I think the problem arises because people go to an article section and just copy the URL Horsepower#Shaft_horsepower_.28shp.29. It is perfectly understandable and have done this myself.
However, I would like it to be in the form Horsepower#Shaft horsepower (shp). This has the same effect, is much easier to read and is better when searching. Lightmouse 19:08, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Okay. Do you have a list of articles that need converted? PxMa 20:41, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
This may already be done by AWB's general fixes routine, which means that most AWB bots that hit an article for one reason or another will also fix this problem. — madman bum and angel 06:14, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
I don't have a list of articles. It would be fine if 'AWB general fixes' does it. Can we confirm this? Lightmouse 16:14, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
AWB's general fixes do not appear to address this. TomTheHand 21:32, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
So we are back to asking for a bot here, or to ask if AWB can be updated. Lightmouse 15:00, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

End moved discussion Lightmouse 13:28, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Answer, bot could be written to do it fairly/very easily - Its just a Far of .28 and .29 to ( and ). AWB could also be expanded/its general fixes be expanded to cater for this... Reedy Boy 13:33, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for the response. It would be useful if it could. Lightmouse 14:00, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Will do as part of the general fixes - rev 1813. Probably not the best place to do it.. But it can be moved if needed. One good thing, is SmackBot does general fixes!! Will be there for next release. But i'll probably start going through getting it to change the .28 to .29 Reedy Boy 14:16, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
- Theres the diff on the article in question. Just need to work out a way to get a list of all pages with .28/.29 on Reedy Boy 14:19, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Even if you do not get a list of pages to do one hit, it might come across it just by chance. As long as it the code is there for general fixes, we are better off. Lightmouse 09:49, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Implemented in rev 1837. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 20:32, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Year of birth missing (living people)

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description If categories Living people and Year of birth missing exist then replace the latter with Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Magioladitis 02:22, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Too narrow for general fixes, can be easily (and flexibly) done using the CFD plugin. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 10:44, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Text find facility in Find/Replace list

Status Feature added in next release
Description I have a lot of entries in my Find/Replace list and it would be very useful to be able to find a specific one so I can switch it off in particular cases. Colonies Chris 16:39, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Implemented in rev 1851. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 16:55, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Ooh good! That will be very useful. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 18:32, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Make special pages from logs use Page parameter

Status Feature added in next release
Description Currently, making a list from a special page such as Special:Log/delete makes it from the User parameter. This is not very useful, so I suggest either adding a second list making type "From log", with an option for the User or Page feilds. Thanks! Matt/TheFearow (Talk) (Contribs) (Bot) 08:58, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

From User talk:Reedy Boy - Reedy Boy 21:36, 13 August 2007 (UTC) I meant that in the delete log Special:Log/delete, it gets the names of the users who deleted the page, and not the page that was deleted. In the generate from log, there should be two options, one to get the users that performed the action, and one to get the page it was performed on. Matt/TheFearow (Talk) (Contribs) (Bot) 23:19, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I would recommend keeping the special pages thing the same, but adding Log (user) and Log (page). The only issue is on the user rights log, the user is either the account being created or the user creating a new account, on that log it would have to put the value of user into page if page isnt there. Changing the current special page method would cause problems, as it's only the log pages that contain both fields. Matt/TheFearow (Talk) (Contribs) (Bot) 21:04, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Implemented in rev 1862. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 20:52, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Break Fixer

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Change "<br>" and "<br/>" to "<br />" (with space and slash at end). It can just be another checkbox, or something like that, sort of like the RegexTypo Fix section bit. DREAMAFTER <TALK> 00:15, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Absolutely useless, as MediaWiki automatically does this. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 18:32, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Ah, alright. <DREAMAFTER> <TALK> 21:02, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

White space diff

Status Feature added in next release
Description The diff screen does not display changes in white space very well, so can white space changes be made more visible, perhaps emphasised in a different colour. Snowman 20:30, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Implemented in rev 1858. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 19:09, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

Automatic URL to pagename convertion in Make list view

Status Feature added in next release
Description AWB should automatically convert URLs pasted into the pagename box in the "(1) Make list" portion of the software. It is unnecessary to keep the URL intact as all options are sufficiently implemented in MediaWiki. —Dispenser 18:33, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
rev 1853 - Bit of an assumptiont hat the URL is of the local wiki. If it is, remove the prefix - Only currently works on http://en.wikipedia.orghttps://wikious.com/en/Page type links... Reedy Boy 19:11, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Changing the row order of the "Normal" "Find & Replace"

refactored from WT:AWB

Status Feature added in next release
Description Under the "Set options -->Find and replace -->Normal" tab, it would be very helpful to be able to change the row order of what is found first. Sometimes one doesn't realize that another row is needed before another that is already in place. If there is a way of doing this like in the "Advanced" tab, I am unaware of it. Also, it would be helpful to be able to insert a row. At present, you can only delete a row. —MJCdetroit 17:41, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Row Insert/Add - rev 1870 Reedy Boy
Oh, and no, no current way of re-ordering. Should be fairly simple to do.. Just need to see if there is a better way than the way i just thought of. Reedy Boy 19:18, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
rev 1872 Gets the move up/down done using the menu.. Reedy Boy 22:57, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, —MJCdetroit 01:10, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Commas in internal links

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description I am currently working in Wikipedia:WikiProject Red Link Recovery/Punctuation. This is a common mistake, done by many users. They put the punctuation in the link. Maybe are cases that the dot at the end is needed but nothing end with a comma. I would be glad it AWB could replace ",]]" with "]],". -- Magioladitis (talk) 01:03, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
I have scanned the most recent database dump, I found and fixed about 250 instances on links containing a terminating comma, colon or semicolon. Unfortunately, there are a handful of false positives - instances of a wiki article that does end in such punctuation. In the case of a full-stop, there are so many many false positives as to make scanning inpractical. Consequently, IMHO, I think it would not be appropriate to try and make this a standard AWB feature, but individual editors are welcome to write their own regex rules. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 11:10, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
Are these cases just redirects? I participate in this project in which we correct punctuation error. I 've seen many cases that some users instead of correcting the error they were just creating a redirect. I tried to correct many of these cases. Most of these cases need to be deleted and all the articles linking to them must be fixed. Until now I haven't found any valid case for that. For the "point-at-the-end" I as aware. They are many companies, logos, etc. using it.
The database dump is very big for me to download. If you give me the list of these links I'll try to fix them or check if they are any valid ones. -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:44, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
If there is any chance of false positives.. It cant be a standard feature. As Gaius said, someone could write their own FAR rules, or Regex's, and we'll happily code this into a custom module if needed/wanted... Reedy Boy 17:17, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Do NOT skip if...

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description I think features "Do NOT skip if contains <fill in the blank box>" and "Do NOT skip if does NOT contain <fill in the blank box>" are useful. wjmt (talk) 01:04, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
You can do the "Do NOT skip if contains" by using skip if doesnt contain. Its reverse logic. Therefore, if its not there, it will skip. Doing esentially the same as not skipping if its the same. And surely "Do NOT skip if does NOT contain" is just double negative? Reedy Boy 10:44, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
No, as above.. Reedy Boy 00:41, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Watchdog Timer

Status User has withdrawn this request
Description A Watchdog Timer is need, lost about two hours worth of work on expressions. Since I did, replace: ^& with a newline. —Dispenser 18:48, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Whats it supposed to be saving/doing? Reedy Boy 19:10, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
There are some regular expression that can cause the program to lock up in an infinite loop. —Dispenser 19:31, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
I haven't experienced this problem since paying closer attention to the recursion. —Dispenser (talk) 04:19, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Araibc edit summary

Status Feature added in next release
Description I request to change Arabic edit summary. In "\AWB\WikiFunctions\Variables.cs" line 312, change it to
                        strWPAWB = "باستخدام ]";

Thanks!--OsamaK (talk) 21:01, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Added in revision

Done in rev 1922. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 21:29, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Bot Like New Feature

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description I'd like a module that could run on images in the Category:All non-free media and place all images using the Template:Non-free use rationale that don't have the variable "Article=" and/or "Article =" in Category:All non-free media without Article variable. This could be an automated bot like module that I'd take to WP:BAG.

Then I'm wondering if there could be a semi-automated module that would take images in this category, extracts the File Links, copies them in as "Article=X" and presents them to the user for review ans saving in AWB. I'm an accounting grad student, so I really have no idea how to write code or even if this is possible using the AWB interface, but I'd be willing to take the responsibility (read: complaints, blame, flames) for running such a feature, if another user could author it Mbisanz (talk) 06:43, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Apparently, Category:Non-free images lacking article backlink already exists. So I'm just looking for a scripting extension that would copy the FUR to the # of times there is a file link, and insert an Article=x for each file link. I think this could be better done in AWB, as compared to a monobook script which lacks auto-page loads, scanning, etc. Mbisanz (talk) 17:38, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Fair use rationales should not we written this way. Also, this request is too narrow to be implemented in AWB. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 17:59, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Arabic Namespace 11

Status Feature added in next release
Description We have changed Namespace 11 in Arabic wikis. Please change Variables.cs Ln.335 to:
                        Namespaces = "نقاش القالب:";

I'm not sure if you should replace it in other places.--OsamaK (talk) 11:05, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Added in revision
rev 1937 Reedy Boy 13:16, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Smarter save

Status Feature added in next release
Description When saving "over" an existing file, rename old file, save new file, delete old file. Tehn wehne AWB crashes in mid save, you don't lose hundreds of regexes. Rich Farmbrough, 10:14 29 December 2007 (GMT).
Added in revision
Added - rev 1940. Will create a file called (name of settings file).xml.old. Deletes it only if it hasnt encountered an error during saving settings Reedy Boy 17:10, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Google List Searchability

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description If a user could create a text of excel list of words, that AWB could search through google and load a list of all pages with those words appearing, it would be useful. A user could then load a list from Wikipedia:Lists of common misspellings (I used excel and notepad to pull out the incorrect spellings in 5 mins) and search for all common misspellings faster than copying and pasting from IE to AWB Mbisanz (talk) 02:19, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
You can do like "Word1|Word2.....|Word14". Im not exactly sure what you are asking for... Reedy Boy 17:15, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
I'll give that a try. I wasnt to be able to take along list of misspellings and load it through AWB so taht it searches google for all articles that contain one or more of those words. Mbisanz (talk) 02:59, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

SSL support

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description I like AutoWikiBrowser and I wondered if there could be support for SSL (HTTPS), maybe using OpenSSL. As far as I see, there is only support für HTTP without SSL. (OK, I especially want this feature for my personal wiki... ;) but it could also be nice for paraniod folks on Wikipedia) --62.226.219.35 19:22, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Try to set up AWB to edit Wikipedia through the secure server. You will find that this is impossible because AWB assumes the URL starts with "http://" when in this case it starts with "https://". AWB should just ask the user to type out "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/" instead of "en.wikipedia.org/w/". Then, if the user types "en.wikipedia.org/w/" anyway it's safe to assume they meant HTTP. —Remember the dot (talk) 21:11, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Added in revision
Using OpenSSL shouldn't be necessary... It should be, in theory, fairly simple to have an option box to select http/https... Reedy Boy 09:48, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
Well, I would appreciate it, since as a bureaucrat I wouldn't want some crackers stealing my password... Thanks. --62.226.188.37 19:46, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
I missed out Open from the first bit. Should be do able though! Reedy Boy 20:23, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
Do you plan to be doing this in the near future? --Rschen7754 (T C) 22:11, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
Dont really know. Depends how much re-working is needed, or it can just be changing the link.. If your bothered about security of your main account so much, how about having a Sock for AWB use...? Reedy Boy 22:35, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
My PC has issues and can only access secure wikipedia... --Rschen7754 (T C) 00:38, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
Ah... Ok! Reedy Boy 00:40, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Per the discussion at wikitech-l, especially this, SSL support will not be implemented. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 14:54, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Same nick name in multi wikis

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description Hi! I try the new tool in AWB (profiles). it's very good tool! but usually users use same nickname in multi wikis and need different profile at each wiki. I think you can add optional textbox (like password) to this.--OsamaK 08:36, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Although not tested, it should just work from whatever the loaded project/language was... Reedy Boy 10:56, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Proxy support

Status Feature added in next release
Description A way to configure a proxy (url/hostname, username and password) in the preference panel would be helpful. -- AlNo (talk) 12:19, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision

Maybe an option to launch the Windows/IE Internet Properties from the Advanced menu? —Dispenser 02:00, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

I've just told it to follow IE settings via the code... - rev 1912... I'll try it later (works fine with no proxy settings, i just need to setup a proxy to try it on :)) Reedy Boy 23:01, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
Its working via Squid for me... Reedy Boy 23:51, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Squid Log

1199105341.064    166 192.168.0.25 TCP_MISS/200 983 GET http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? - DIRECT/91.198.174.2 text/css
1199105341.228    330 192.168.0.25 TCP_MISS/200 974 GET http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? - DIRECT/91.198.174.2 text/css
1199105341.247    344 192.168.0.25 TCP_MISS/200 971 GET http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? - DIRECT/91.198.174.2 text/css
1199105341.284    419 192.168.0.25 TCP_MISS/200 921 GET http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? - DIRECT/91.198.174.2 text/javascript
1199105344.027   1386 192.168.0.25 TCP_MISS/200 3780 GET http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? - DIRECT/91.198.174.2 text/x-wiki

Will do some more testing later :) Reedy Boy 00:21, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Just thought.. I dont think the actual web controls are following it... But im not sure.. I didnt tell them too, just the requests in code... Needs some more investigation tonight! Reedy Boy 11:55, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
Seems from googling it.. The web control just follows IE.. So fixing the code based webrequests to use the proxy.. So it should work fully... Reedy Boy 16:16, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
Oh, and with it following the IE settings.. I see no use for AWB to have a seperate way to change proxy settings too.. Reedy Boy 16:17, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
MaxSem has tweaked and improved this too Reedy Boy 13:07, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Option to redirect to check main article if Make list returns a talk page

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description I want to be able to add a set of articles that belong to a particular WikiProject, but since the main category is only placed in the talk page, I am not sure if I can have AWB redirect it back to the main article and check it that way. So far I've had to use the Categories for stubs to check for typoes. If this feature already exists...oops I'm sorry... please let me know how to proceed in selecting the correct settings. Thanks for your help again! - Jameson L. Tai talkcontribs 05:50, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision

Do the following: Make your List and then form the Menu pick up List -> Convert from Talk pages. Friendly, Magioladitis (talk) 09:07, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

You guys are great! Thanks a bunch! - Jameson L. Tai talkcontribs 06:44, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Advanced/Replace special

Status Feature added in next release
Description This is not so much a feature request but a change in wording in the Advanced/Replace special. The tab worded now as Replace should be renamed with the word Find. and the With should be replaced with the wording Replace or Replace with. This would keep the wording standardized and not be so confusing to novices. As i was going over the manual I came upon it as being very confusing. Especially when trying to explain why the replace you type in what you want to find. Also note that the regex tester is named this way. Jeanenawhitney (talk) 17:37, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision
Fixed - rev 2054 Reedy Boy 19:51, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Quickly add a new category

Status Feature added in next release
Description A context menu option (map to a key for quick usage) to quickly add a new category to the current article. --Gary King (talk) 20:15, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision
rev 2084/rev 2085 Reedy Boy 21:37, 6 February 2008 (UTC)


Ignore changes automatically if only change is addition or removal or whitespace

Status Feature added in next release
Description What happened to this function. I seem to recall it being part of the "Skip articles when no changes made" option for a while. Could we have an option for this on its own? Harryboyles 06:36, 3 July 2007 (UTC)
Added in revision
Would be good... Just don't know how we'd detect that it was only whitespace... Reedy Boy 13:29, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Strip out all white-space from before and after strings and compare. Rich Farmbrough, 10:20 29 December 2007 (GMT).
That would only be trailing and leading though.. Reedy Boy 21:25, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
I'd also like to see this feature: I try to manually skip white-space-only changes, even though I sometimes do further cleanup on the articles, and I'd just as soon be able to not worry about them.--uɐɔlnʌɟoʞǝɹɐs 15:29, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
if ignoreWhitespaceChanges and re.sub(r'\s+', r'', old_text, re.UNICODE) == re.sub(r'\s+', r'', new_text, re.UNICODE)
    ignoreChanges = True

Well, that's how I'd do it in python anyway. Not sure how the AWB devs would handle it in C#. — Dispenser 20:43, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks :) Hmm... I didnt think it'd be overly difficult.. re.sub = "Regex Replace" ? And therefore re.sub(find, replace, whattolookin, re.UNICODE). Whats the old text and new text? old text being the original article text (before AWB started changing it?) and new text being what it is after AWB's moidfications?
Whats the "r" outside the quotes mean? Reedy Boy 20:49, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
r (as in raw) outside the quotes tell the compiler how to read the string. This avoid escaping the \ with \\, C# uses @"" I believe. re.UNICODE flag is enabled as to capture the unicode set of spaces (&nbsp;, &emsp;, etc.). — Dispenser 21:03, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
Right. I call that "literal", so thats the same thing
if (ignoreWhitespaceChanges && (Regex.Replace(Article.OrigArticleText, @'\s+', @'') == Regex.Replace(Article.ArticleText@'\s+', @'')))
    ignoreChanges = true;

I think should do it. Lets try implemnting it. Reedy Boy 21:25, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

rev 2095 - I've enabled it by default. Thanks Dispenser! Its a simple check, only catering for the added/removed whitespace, but its certainly a start! Reedy Boy 21:45, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

refs and punctuation

Status Feature added in next release
Description disable that feature on .pl, our punctuation is different than yours and that kind of changes are incorrect --84.234.42.68 (talk) 18:12, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision
Hmm. Just need to find the actual code where this is and disable it for pl for you Reedy Boy 16:13, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
Already KIA everywhere. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 11:47, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Ability to flip reversed piping of wikilink as part of disambiguation functionality

Status Feature added in next release
Description Currently, 'unlink' and 'unpipe' are available as options to use when choosing how to disambig a link. Can a 'reverse piping' option be added for when the piping is backwards and simply needs to be reversed? Example: a link is set up as ] when what is intended is ] -Gwguffey (talk) 04:48, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision
Added - rev 2106 Reedy Boy 16:32, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
Thank you! Gwguffey (talk) 19:45, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

"External link" heading

Status Feature added in next release
Description Change "External Link" to "External links" (with or without caps). A common error. Snowman (talk) 15:50, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision
I thought it did..? Reedy Boy 20:33, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
It decapitalize the second word, but there are no rules for adding s. — Dispenser 21:16, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
readonly Regex regexHeadings1 = new Regex("(== ?)(external links:?|external sites:?|outside links|web ?links:?|exterior links:?)( ?==)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
readonly Regex regexHeadings2 = new Regex("(== ?)(external link:?|external site:?|web ?link:?|exterior link:?)( ?==)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
Hmm
        readonly Regex regexHeadings1 = new Regex("(== ?)(external links:?|external sites:?|outside links|web ?links:?|exterior links:?)( ?==)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
        readonly Regex regexHeadings2 = new Regex("(== ?)(external link:?|external site:?|web ?link:?|exterior link:?)( ?==)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
//snip
            ArticleText = regexHeadings1.Replace(ArticleText, "$1External links$3");
            ArticleText = regexHeadings2.Replace(ArticleText, "$1External link$3");
Regex headings 2 is redundant to regex headings 1... Well, other than the extra s in the 2nd. Presumably,
        readonly Regex regexHeadings1 = new Regex("(== ?)(external link?:?|external site?:?|outside link?|web ?link?:?|exterior link?:?)( ?==)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
//snip
            ArticleText = regexHeadings1.Replace(ArticleText, "$1External links$3");
A modified regexHeadings1, and removal of regexHeadings2 completely (as a regex and as a replace), should "fix"/sort this? Reedy Boy 21:51, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
rev 2103 - That should do it, i'll upload a SVN snapshot later Reedy Boy 23:35, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
Is this now done? Reedy Boy 16:33, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


Add/remove multiple categories

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description Option to add/remove/change multiple categories without creating your own regex. So on the 2nd tab (More...) there'd by instead a dialog box for categorization options where multiple add/remove/change rules can be entered.  Mike.lifeguard|@en.wb 14:33, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision

Use IFD plugin. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 11:48, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Allow rules under the advanced tab to be sortable

Status Feature already exists in AWB
Description I recommend a feature be added to allow the rules under the Advanced tab to be sortable.--Kumioko (talk) 20:51, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision
In the advanced FaR (if that is what you mean), the items can be dragged and dropped to change position, and also highlighted, and the up and down arrow move the rules up and down... So it exists... Reedy Boy 17:46, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Removing "Insert * here" generated by wiki toolbar

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Discussed in Wikipedia:Bot requests/Archive 15#Removal of edits to articlespace pages where text comes from the edit toolbar, was shot down since it would revert the page. However as general fixes this would be a perfect thing for AWB to do. I've compiled the list as follows:


'''Bold text'''list
''Italic text''list
]list
== Headline text ==list
<math>Insert formula here</math>list
<nowiki>Insert non-formatted text here</nowiki>list
#REDIRECT ]
<s>Strike-through text</s>list
<sup>Superscript text</sup>list
<sub>Subscript text</sub>list
<small>Small Text</small>list
<!-- Comment -->
<ref>Insert footnote text here</ref>list

Some of these are a bit more error-prone when the user does it recursively, like the headers will insert newlines. But I would expect the number of false positives to be the same as any of other General fixes.

Added in revision

Such situations require human supervision, because vandalism/editing tests could constitute something more than just clicking some buttons. All such edits must be inspected by a human and manually reverted, adding such general fix to AWB would just hide some vandalism. This was already discussed at Wikipedia:Bot requests/Archive 15#Removal of edits to articlespace pages where text comes from the edit toolbar. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 17:25, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Wait aren't editors responsible for changes made with AWB? I'm not proposing that AWB try to fix vandalism, I'm asking AWB to fix a common mistake where people try to click the edit field before the page loads an inadvertently click the toolbar which pops up and moves the page down. And since such text is almost always inappropriate for main article space I suggest we remove these instances. And if you wanted to limited it to just accidental clicking then only remove at the begging or end of section/articles.

Sort bulleted lists (alphabetically)

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Improper list sorting is a major problem on Wikipedia, on stand-alone lists, in see also sections, etc. Thousands of lists on Wikipedia have sorting errors in them. An option to sort bulleted lists would be very helpful. The sort feature would have to take into account sub-bullets, and keep them under the appropriate list entry. Columnization would also need to be taken into account, as well as link brackets. Concerning sorting, when an item begins with a link that has a pipe, the pipe part should be what that item is sorted by. To make the sorting truly great, the sorting feature should recognize persons' names and sort these by surname (followed by the first name for continued sort order). The Transhumanist    15:11, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision

Such things shouldn't be done automatically, there are too many instances when alphasort may be inappropriate. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 14:01, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

editing section, not whole article

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description I think that may be good idea to edit just one section if the other sections in the article are not touched, but I don't know whether it is possible--84.234.42.68 (talk) 15:02, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision

How are we supposed to get the number of the needed section? The only way is to retrieve whole page content. And if we have it all - why change only one particular section? This proposal makes no sense. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 21:16, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

I think this is a good idea. The media wiki has a capacity up upload sections only, so it is possible. How does mediawiki know what sections to upload? The software could count the number of headings and work out what sections need updating. Or it could work out the line numbers of the headings and work out the sections that need uploading with the line number of the edits made on AWB. Surely, this will made the AWB uploads quicker, and use up less media wiki capacity. Snowman (talk) 22:41, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
You're suggesting to replace "load page→modify it→save page" with "get page text→determine which section we should modify→open that section for editing→modify it→save it". That is, 1 full-size request and two potentially smaller ones instead of two full-sized. This is not going to improve performance. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 09:33, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
I thought editing one section may fill less database space --84.234.42.68 (talk) 12:18, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
It doesn't. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 12:30, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Copy regex from tester to settings

Status Feature added in next release
Description Add a button to copy the regex and the associated settings in the regex tester into the normal or advanced find and replace settings. mattbr 17:15, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision

You already can call regex tester from norman find & replace in 4.3.0.2, same feature has been added to advanced replacements in rev 2249. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 17:36, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

AI-assisted disambiguation

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description See below
Added in revision

There's a disambig repair backlog still to be done on Wikipedia. Imagine if AWB had a feature like this:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
AI-assisted Disambig Repair Dialog Box                     
-----------------------------------------------------------------

AWB found 3 links to race which should probably be modified  
to point to Race (classification of human beings).  Please 
select the links to modify.

 "...these flows -- such as race, gender, socioeconomic status..."
    from article Anatol Rapoport
 "...a cognizable racial group, and that the..."
    from article Batson v. Kentucky
 "...part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as..."
    from article Genocides in history

 

The artificial intelligence could look at one or many things:

  • the source and suggested target pages' places in the category tree,
  • nearby links (when someone writes "race or ethnic group" you know what they meant by "race"),
  • nearby words in the paragraph,
  • popularity of the target page (AWB should think twice before repointing a link to point to an obscure page with few inbound links like Colonel Race instead of to a popular page like Race (classification of human beings)
  • context of the link (is the link in italics at the top of a page? or in the middle of an article? or a See Also list? Italic links at the top of a page should probably not be changed.)
  • or other things (suggestions welcome; perhaps a computer science or linguistics professor could help us out more here).

Does this sound like a good idea for AWB? Any chance you could add it to a future version? ----unforgettableid | talk 20:02, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

It does sounds like a good idea, in principle, applying it wouldnt be so easy though. Implementing more than very basic AI isnt a simple process... AWB does have its basic disambiguation program... I dont know if this is just outside the scope for AWB. As the ruleset could/would have to be VERY large to be able to get it to do more than a few cases... Reedy Boy 20:48, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
Unfortunately, this task is extremely hard to accomplish, and even when we make it, there will always be mor... id... lazy as... people who will hit 'Save' w/o actually checking what machine suggests them to do. I'm inclined to WONTFIX this. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 20:53, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
This feature is not going to be implemented. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 16:12, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

irrational datelinks

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description does there exist a way to remove irrational "year-only datelinks" from an article? (e.g.: the flibberty gidget appeared in 1942-1943, and again in 1949, 1959, 1980, and 2003....) --emerson7 21:09, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision
I'd like to see a strong consensus that EACH AND EVERY such link are to be removed, no matter what the editors of a particular page may agree upon before implementing this feature. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 14:00, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
It is not just solitary years, there are lots of date fragments (e.g. months only, days of the week) that have unnecessary links. Code to delink date fragments is available at User:Lightmouse/javascript conversion. It would be easy to build an AWB option using the code. In the meantime, feel free to use the code yourself.
For example, here is a copy of the regex that unlinks solitary years:
//year: temporary change to protect accessyear. Undone below at #1
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)(accessyear ?= ?)\\]", "$1xx$2xx");
//Year: temporary change to protext preference dates - y?y?y?. Needed to handle 'year in' piped links
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)(\\],? ? ?)\\]y?y?y?",  "$1xx$2xx");
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)(\\],? ? ?)\\]y?y?y?",  "$1xx$2xx");
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)(\\],? ? ?)\\]y?y?y?",  "$1xx$2xx");
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)(\\],? ? ?)\\]y?y?y?",  "$1xx$2xx");
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)\\]y?y?y?(,? ?\-? ?\\])",  "xx$1xx$2");
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)\\]y?y?y?(,? ?\-? ?\\])",  "xx$1xx$2");
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)\\]y?y?y?(,? ?\-? ?\\])",  "xx$1xx$2");
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)\\]y?y?y?(,? ?\-? ?\\]y?y?y?)",  "xx$1xx$2");
//year: now remove unprotected linked years
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)\\]", "$1");
//year: #1. Undo temporary change to protect accessyear and date preference dates
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)xx(\d{1,4})xx", "$1");

Regards Lightmouse (talk) 18:51, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

thanks Lightmouse! that's what i call perfectness! (accent on the second syllable) --emerson7 20:35, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
You still did not answer my question about the consensus. We must be 1000% sure that nobody will object. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 18:56, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
i'm sorry, MaxSem i'm not sure i understand your objections. consensus for awb inclusion? or consensus in article changes? what are you arguing? --emerson7 20:35, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
Consensus that every such partial date link is to be delinked on sight. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 11:50, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
No response - closing. We must be sure that nobody will scream bloody murder after we introduce a new feature. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 16:07, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Regex Generator

Status This feature is not going to be implemented
Description Create a Regex generator for AWB/Wikifunctions. Requested by User:White Cat on IRC. Reedy Boy 00:05, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision

Somewhat implausible I think. --kingboyk (talk) 09:37, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Agreed, there's Regulazy and stuff like that, we can't combine everything in one package. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 09:57, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
Was just reporting what was asked... The Regex tester, is a good idea in AWB, but agreed, this is too specific... With other tools being out there! Reedy Boy 10:15, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
I've added a help feature to regex tester, which opens MSDN in browser. Don't think that anything else needs to be done. Except for tighter integration of tester with other parts, maybe. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 10:59, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
That would sound better. I believe there is a feature request, asking to be able to open the regex tester from a few various places, transferring certain text accross, allowing the user to edit it, and it be copied back automatically... Reedy Boy 14:36, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Now that tester is integrated with find & replace (see request above, I suppose we can close this request. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 17:38, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Leading and trailing spaces in wikilinks

Status Feature added in next release
Description Remove leading and trailing spaces in wikilinks.
Added in revision

Please can AWB remove leading and trailing spaces in wikilinks. I cannot see any circumstance when these are valid. They are hard for the human eye to detect but easy for a machine. Lightmouse 13:35, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

You mean like ]? Reedy Boy 14:57, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
Yes. I have seen at least three classes of error:
  • Leading space such as: ]
  • Trailing space such as: ]
  • Double space such as: ]
Lightmouse 18:22, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
There is a complication, trailing spaces inside a link need to be moved outside, for example:
Gaius Cornelius 09:41, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
There are two other common variations:
  • Multiple middle spaces such as: ]
  • Multiple spaces between day+month and year such as: ] ]
Lightmouse (talk) 14:58, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Suggested regex for spaces in wikilink problem (I am sure it can be more efficient:

 //remove undesirable space from beginning of wikilink and move it outside link (up to 30 characters in wikilink)
 ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"\]{1,30})\]\]", " ]");
 //remove undesirable space from end of wikilink and move it outside link (up to 30 characters in wikilink)
 ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"\]{1,30}) \]\]", "] ");
 //remove undesirable double space from middle of wikilink (up to 61 characters in wikilink)
 ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"\]{1,30})  (]{1,30})\]\]", "] ");

Suggested regex for double spaces in dates problem:

 //remove undesirable double space between links in date (day first)
 ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)(\\]),? ? ?(\\])",  "$1 $2");
 //remove undesirable double space between links in date (day second)
 ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)(\\]),? ? ?(\\])",  "$1 $2");

Comments? Lightmouse (talk) 22:08, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

This is the sort of input i like ;) Reedy Boy 22:21, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
You are welcome. I hope experts can review it for false positives and for performance. Lightmouse (talk) 09:35, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
I'll just smack it in the sandbox and do some tests. Thanks for the actual code comments too, means we can put them in with it. I'll try and work out where to put them! Reedy Boy 10:01, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
rev 2098 - Added it, in a very basic form, im doing it just quickly before i go out to Uni. I will change it later to use compiled regex's, and also look for matches, and only replace if there is matches - A bigger improvement to preformance than just by improving the regex alone (dont know if they actually can be improved. ;)). Also uploaded it to my SVN snapshots, so feel free to help out with testing. Thanks!! Reedy Boy 10:12, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
I have just spotted a small error. It adds an unwanted space after wikilink, not a big deal but worth correcting
 //remove undesirable double space from middle of wikilink (up to 61 characters in wikilink)
 //do not use this: unwanted space at end of replace text: ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"\]{1,30})  (]{1,30})\]\]", "] ");
 //use this: unwanted space removed: ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"\]{1,30})  (]{1,30})\]\]", "]");
Regards Lightmouse (talk) 10:20, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
Thanks! - rev 2099, Other than the code improvements i need to do (simple, wont take long), is this otherwise implemented? Reedy Boy 13:38, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
rev 2100 - Code improved Reedy Boy 23:10, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

More errors spotted. The date '2 October' has a double space F-105 Thunderchief, it correctly changes that to a single space but it delinks it incorrectly. I think you may have taken the regex from this page in view mode. There are square brackets in the regex that can only be seen in edit mode. Let me know if that is not clear. Lightmouse (talk) 16:33, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

rev 2102 - I had copied it in view mode, and hence no wikilink brackets in the replacement target. Will upload new svn snapshot Reedy Boy 17:07, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
OK. I am testing the removal of double space on User:Lightmouse/sandbox and F-105 Thunderchief, both of which have double spaces. It fails and I can't work out a fix. Lightmouse (talk) 18:24, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
Lol - Look what happens if you reparse a few times :D
  |first flight=] ]]]]]]]]]]]]]
  |introduced=] ]]]]]]]]]]]]]
  |retired=] ]]]]]]]]]]]]]
            //remove undesirable double space between links in date (day first)
            if (DateLinkWhitespace1.Match(ArticleText).Success)
                ArticleText = DateLinkWhitespace1.Replace(ArticleText, "$1 $2");

            //remove undesirable double space between links in date (day second)
            if (DateLinkWhitespace2.Match(ArticleText).Success)
                ArticleText = DateLinkWhitespace2.Replace(ArticleText, "$1 $2");
Removing the wikilinks from the replacement on the 2 links, solves the problem of creating the duplicate wikilinks on those dates on F-105 Thunderchief Reedy Boy 16:44, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
Presumably, its due to the (]{1,30}) on the other links - They are not matching the closing brackets at the start.. Reedy Boy 16:46, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
Whatever it is, I can't get my head round it. Can anyone else help?
Incidentally, I think I saw an error in "LinkWhitespace1", you have "$1"); instead of " $1");
Test it on User:Lightmouse/sandbox to make sure. Lightmouse (talk) 17:19, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
On your date Regex's above, you dont have the date ones with wikilinks on the replace, but i did add it when i added the others above because i had forgotten them. Tidied up - rev 2107 -
Only problem i can see Space at end: ] blah. - We've got a double space. Probably due to the space already there? Reedy Boy 18:22, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
Yes. Moving the space outside the wikilink will create a double space in most cases. We can do better but it will take two lines for the space at beginning of the wikilink and two lines for the space at the end of the wikilink.
//remove undesirable space from beginning of wikilink (space before wikilink) - parse this line first
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @" \]{1,30})\]\]", " $1");
//remove undesirable space from beginning of wikilink and move it outside link - parse this line second
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"\]{1,30})\]\]", " $1");
//remove undesirable space from end of wikilink (space after wikilink) - parse this line first
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"\]{1,30}) \]\] ", "$1 ");
//remove undesirable space from end of wikilink and move it outside link - parse this line second
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"\]{1,30}) \]\]", "$1 ");
That should be better. Is there is a 'general fix' that eliminates double spaces anyway? Lightmouse (talk) 18:37, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
rev 2108 - , looks good. Double spaces should be eliminated, but it depends if the code is run before or after this block.. Could be moved position in general fixes to sort it Reedy Boy 19:11, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
Are we there yet? ;) Reedy Boy 15:47, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
If you want fewer lines of code, use just the 'parse this second' lines and eliminate the double spaces by other means. If you want stand-alone modules, use the four lines. I do not know whether performance is an issue. I have not spotted any more errors, perhaps we are there. Lightmouse (talk) 18:33, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
Its fine really.. Its checking for matches, then only replacing if there are matches.. Which is better than just trying to replace... =) Reedy Boy 20:07, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
Lightmouse, See: Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs#Moving_spaces_in_links Reedy Boy 23:48, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Current Code:

        readonly Regex LinkWhitespace1 = new Regex(@" \]{1,30})\]\]", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
        readonly Regex LinkWhitespace2 = new Regex(@"\]{1,30})\]\]", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
        readonly Regex LinkWhitespace3 = new Regex(@"\]{1,30})  (]{1,30})\]\]", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
        readonly Regex LinkWhitespace4 = new Regex(@"\]{1,30}) \]\] ", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
        readonly Regex LinkWhitespace5 = new Regex(@"\]{1,30}) \]\]", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);

        readonly Regex DateLinkWhitespace1 = new Regex(@"(?i)(\\]),? ? ?(\\])", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
        readonly Regex DateLinkWhitespace2 = new Regex(@"(?i)(\\]),? ? ?(\\])", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);

        /// <summary>
        /// Fix leading, trailing and middle spaces in Wikilinks
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="ArticleText">The wiki text of the article</param>
        /// <returns>The modified article text.</returns>
        public string FixLinkWhitespace(string ArticleText)
        {
            //remove undesirable space from beginning of wikilink (space before wikilink) - parse this line first
            if (LinkWhitespace1.Match(ArticleText).Success)
                ArticleText = LinkWhitespace1.Replace(ArticleText, " ]");

            //remove undesirable space from beginning of wikilink and move it outside link - parse this line second
            if (LinkWhitespace2.Match(ArticleText).Success)
                ArticleText = LinkWhitespace2.Replace(ArticleText, " ]");

            //remove undesirable double space from middle of wikilink (up to 61 characters in wikilink)
            if (LinkWhitespace3.Match(ArticleText).Success)
                ArticleText = LinkWhitespace3.Replace(ArticleText, "]");

            //remove undesirable space from end of wikilink (space after wikilink) - parse this line first
            if (LinkWhitespace4.Match(ArticleText).Success)
                ArticleText = LinkWhitespace4.Replace(ArticleText, "] ");

            //remove undesirable space from end of wikilink and move it outside link - parse this line second
            if (LinkWhitespace5.Match(ArticleText).Success)
                ArticleText = LinkWhitespace5.Replace(ArticleText, "] ");

            //remove undesirable double space between links in date (day first)
            if (DateLinkWhitespace1.Match(ArticleText).Success)
                ArticleText = DateLinkWhitespace1.Replace(ArticleText, "$1 $2");

            //remove undesirable double space between links in date (day second)
            if (DateLinkWhitespace2.Match(ArticleText).Success)
                ArticleText = DateLinkWhitespace2.Replace(ArticleText, "$1 $2");

            return ArticleText;
        }

Reedy Boy 23:49, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. I am not sure what the bug is. Moving the space outside the wikilink but inside the italics is inelegant but I cannot detect a fault. It is better than a space at the end of a wikilink. Have I misunderstood?
A fix will need a few goes to get right but testing for a few special characters may look something like:
 readonly Regex LinkWhitespace2 = new Regex(@"()\]{1,30})\]\]", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
 if (LinkWhitespace2.Match(ArticleText).Success)
  ArticleText = LinkWhitespace2.Replace(ArticleText, "$1$2");
Testing for non-word characters may look something like:
 readonly Regex LinkWhitespace2 = new Regex(@"(\W)\]{1,30})\]\]", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
 if (LinkWhitespace2.Match(ArticleText).Success)
  ArticleText = LinkWhitespace2.Replace(ArticleText, "$1$2");
I am also intrigued by the suggestion that such spaces may be desirable sometimes. I would like to know more.

Lightmouse (talk) 19:41, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Test and update a regex in the tester

Status Feature added in next release
Description Add a button to copy a regex and the associated settings in the find and replace settings into the regex tester, make some changes and 'save' them back into the settings. mattbr 17:15, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision

Implemented. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 15:49, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Jump to bottom

Status Feature added in next release
Description Jump to bottom, when working on nav templates and categories that need a lot of manual tweaking it would be handy if AWB would should the end of the page not the top for speedier manual changes (Gnevin (talk) 15:31, 28 January 2008 (UTC))
Added in revision
Presumably you mean of the edit box...? Could probably do this as a menu option fairly easily - If its checked, jump to bottom? Reedy Boy 16:34, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
Yeah jump to the bottom of the edit box , handdy for templates and categories as i said above Gnevin (talk) 08:29, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Thats fine, should be fairly easy. Just wanted to explitically clarify what you wanted =) Reedy Boy 13:17, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
rev 2273/rev 2274 - Added Reedy Boy 19:35, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

UI Fixes

Status Feature added in next release
Description 1: In the Make list section, change the dimensions of the Filter button so that the whole text fits on it

2: In the filter dialog box, switch the buttons for talk only and non-talk only namespaces so that they are more logically associated. Harryboyles 08:17, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Added in revision

For no 2 - Errm... The "Talk only" button is under talk... And "Non-talk only" under non talk pages...? And for no 1 - Thats all that is on the filter button... Is "filter" Reedy Boy 21:08, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Regarding #2. maxsem fixed it in rev 2264. As for #1, when I open ListMaker.cs in VS, the filter button is indeed showing "Filter". However in Main.cs, and when the program runs, it only shows "Filte", truncating the "r". Same thing for the Remove Duplicates button, truncating " duplicates" and leaving "Remove". I fiddled with the Width parameter of the listMaker1 control in Main.cs, increasing it by 4 from 197 to 201 and that fixed the problem. Harryboyles 10:46, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, fixed in rev 2271. MaxSem(Han shot first!) 10:57, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Option to prevent duplicate entries in article list

Status Feature added in next release
Description Option to prevent duplicate entries in article list: when I create a list of articles from various searches duplicate entries may occur, which I can then remove using the duplicate entry filter. However, I'd find it helpful if there were an option to prevent/automatically remove duplicate entires in the list. Thanks Rjwilmsi (talk) 20:45, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision
Like the "List--> Filter non main space" one? Reedy Boy 21:06, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
rev 2269 - Added Reedy Boy 21:13, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Reduce number of tabs between the "(2) Set options" and "(3) Start" tabs?

Status This feature request is a duplicate
Description Small request from new user, so sorry if already old news. I just find it a niggle to have to click on the arrow right/left buttons in order to move between the "(2) Set options" and "(3) Start" tabs -- could the number of tabs between them be reduced somehow (say by hiding the "Bots" tab by default?) or maybe make the widths of the three areas ("(1) Make list", tabs, Edit box) adjustable?
Otherwise looks like a nice piece of software so far. Sardanaphalus (talk) 19:13, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
Added in revision

Have now just seen #Hide "Bots" tab above, so I guess my request is related! Adjustable widths for the three areas as well might be nice. Sardanaphalus (talk) 19:15, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

The resizing of the 3 area's, i am going to say no for. When you start resizing stuff, it can cause problems, and we either get things overlapping, or cant get access to them, etc. Please try a svn snapshot - Select the one with the highest number, and let us know if that is acceptable. As for the "show/hide bot tab" - that is still feasible. :) Reedy Boy 20:42, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
Yes, understood about the three areas. Looks like an option to show/hide one or more of the tabs (not just or only the bot tab?) is neatest solution. Thanks for your reply. Sardanaphalus (talk) 14:49, 12 March 2008 (UTC)