Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/TWLBot

The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA. The result of the discussion was

Approved.

TWLBot

Operator: Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk · contribs · SUL · edit count · logs · page moves · block log · rights log · ANI search)

Time filed: 14:00, Wednesday, August 22, 2018 (UTC)

Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: Automatic

Programming language(s): Python

Source code available: https://github.com/Samwalton9/TWLBot

Function overview: Current functionality is to simply update each publisher at TWLJ with the latest status data (available or waitlisted) from the Library Card platform.

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate):

Edit period(s): I haven't set up regular runs yet, but I expect to set this up to run daily.

Estimated number of pages affected: One (TWLJ).

Namespace(s): Template

Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): No, unnecessary.

Function details: This bot uses pywikibot and doesn't do anything complicated or far-ranging. It looks through TWLJ line-by-line, and for each line that's a publisher it checks if that publisher is on the Library Card platform by looking it up in the associated json. It then does a simple read of the HTML of that publisher's signup page to check if it's waitlisted or not. It then edits that publisher's line if the status has changed (y to w or vice versa in Template:twlavail) and saves the page. If nothing has changed since the latest version of the page, no edit is made.

The motivation here is that we've been centralising all our signup processes in our signup tool, but a number of pages and templates have remained, and are in use, on the English Wikipedia. It's a duplication of our efforts - and often forgotten - to have to update each publisher's current signup status both on the platform and in Template:TWLJ. Going forward this bot might also automate statuses/descriptions on Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library/Databases and at Meta, but I wanted to check that this task could get approval first.

Discussion

@Samwalton9: , @Samwalton9 (WMF): - to clarify will this be operated in your capacity as a volunteer (bot page lists operator as your volunteer account), or as in your capacity as a WMF employee (this page lists your employee account as the operator). — xaosflux ^Talk 14:26, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Xaosflux: Ah, in my capacity as WMF staff. I've updated the user page. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 14:27, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Approved for trial (30 edits or 30 days). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete. OK to trial. Please post here with results of your trial. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:32, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Xaosflux! First edit made, flagged as minor which I've now fixed. Also got the Toolforge project up and running where the bot should run once per day at midnight. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 15:05, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Samwalton9 (WMF): as far as "minor" and/or "bot flag" assertions will be used, with the edits being primarily (exclusively?) to one page: [[Template:TWLJ] - do you think it is important for page watchers to see these changes in watchlists? — xaosflux ^Talk 15:28, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Good question. I think it could be useful - editors might want to use that template to track when certain resources become available, and edits are only made when something has changed. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:49, 23 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Approved. — As this is a single page editing bot, very low risk an longer trial isn't going to show anything new. xaosflux ^Talk 12:59, 11 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA.