A Python script to fetch the RSS/ATOM feed for you watchlist using the new MediaWiki API. The API is still in alpha, and so is this program, hence there are no guarantees.
The program takes two compulsory parameters--your username and password--and an optional third parameter specifying the feed format which must either be "rss" or "atom".
#!/usr/bin/python
"""Get Wikipedia watchlist as an RSS/ATOM feed
(c) Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya, 2007
Licence GNU-GPL
Usage: wikiwatch <username> <password> [format]
[format] is either 'rss' or 'atom'
"""
import sys
import xml.sax,xml.sax.handler
import urllib,urllib2,cookielib,httplib
#Constants
version="0.1alpha"
user_agent="wikiwatch.py (jmoy.matecon@gmail.com)/"+version
usage="Usage: wikiwatch <Username> <Password> [rss/atom]"
apiURL="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php"
class LoginFailedException(Exception):
"""Login to Wikipedia failed
"""
def __init__(self,status):
self.message=status
class RunTimeError(Exception):
"""Run-time error
"""
def __init__(self,what):
self.message=what
class BadCmdException(Exception):
"""Bad command-line arguments to program
"""
def __init__(self):
self.message="Bad command-line argument"
def callapi(data,cookie_jar):
"""Make an API call
data: list of tuples containing data to be sent in the PUT request
cookie_jar: cookielib.CookieJar used for the request
Returns a file-like object containing the response
"""
opener=urllib2.build_opener(urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor(cookie_jar))
req=urllib2.Request(apiURL,urllib.urlencode(data))
req.add_header("User-Agent",user_agent)
return opener.open(req)
def wikiauth(uname,passwd,cookie_jar):
"""Authenticate to Wikipedia and return authentication tokens as cookies
uname: Wikipedia username
passwd: Wikipedia password
cookie_jar: cookielib.CookieJar to store authentication cookies
Returns nothing
Raises LoginFailedException in case of failure
"""
class LoginResp(xml.sax.ContentHandler):
def __init__(self):
self.result=""
def startElement(self,name,attrs):
if name=="login":
self.result=attrs["result"]
try:
#Create SAX parser
parser=xml.sax.make_parser()
parser.setFeature(xml.sax.handler.feature_namespaces,0)
lr=LoginResp()
parser.setContentHandler(lr)
#Get login response
r=callapi([("action","login"),
("format","xml"),
("lgname",uname),
("lgpassword",passwd)],
cookie_jar)
#Parse login response to get tokens and see if login succeeded
parser.parse(r)
if lr.result!="Success":
raise LoginFailedException("Authentication denied: "+lr.result)
pass
except xml.sax.SAXException,inst:
raise LoginFailedException("Parse error in login response: "
+inst.getMessage())
def getfeed(uname,passwd,feedformat):
"""Get Wikipedia watchlist feed
uname: Wikipedia username
passwd: Wikipedia password
feedformat: format of the feed, must be 'rss' or 'atom'
Returns a file-like object containing the feed
"""
jar=cookielib.CookieJar()
wikiauth(uname,passwd,jar)
return callapi([("action","feedwatchlist"),
("feedformat",feedformat)],
jar)
def do_fetch(argv):
"""Parse command-line arguments and fetch feed
argv: list of command-line arguments
Returns feed as a string
Raises BadCmdException if arguments are not proper
"""
format="atom"
if len(argv)==3:
pass
elif len(argv)==4:
if (argv[3]=="rss" or argv[3]=="atom"):
format=argv[3]
else:
raise BadCmdException()
else:
raise BadCmdException()
try:
r=getfeed(argv[1],argv[2],format)
return r.read()
except httplib.HTTPException,inst:
raise RunTimeError("httplib Exception: "+str(inst))
except urllib2.URLError, inst:
raise RunTimeError("urllib Exception: "+str(inst.reason))
#Main program
if __name__=="__main__":
try:
print do_fetch(sys.argv)
except BadCmdException:
sys.stderr.write("%s\n"%usage)
sys.exit(1)
except LoginFailedException,inst:
sys.stderr.write("Login failed: %s\n"%inst.message)
sys.exit(2)
except RunTimeError, inst:
sys.stderr.write("Runtime error: %s\n"%inst.message)
sys.exit(2)