Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 8

Archive 5

Archive 6

Archive 7

Archive 8

Archive 9

Archive 10

→

Archive 15

Feature Suggestions

I've been running a bot to subst user talk templates. I've been running into difficulty with 2 things:

• AWB replacing templates found in commented or nowikied sections
  • I've been having some trouble with my bot accidentally replacing the names of templates found in commented sections at the bottom of the templates. Is it possible to incorporate a way to skip replacements in nowiki'ed and commented sections?

2) Listing transcluded pages

• • I have a list of templates that need to be subst'ed. In order to use AWB, though, I need to input each of the templates into the template line and click "make list". Over 40-50 templates, this can get somewhat irritating. Is it possible to incorporate a way to search for a list of templates?

Thanks. By the way, AWB is great. Alphachimp ^talk 01:00, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Even BETTER suggestions :)

1. In bot mode, stop after a certain number of edits have been done, have a little box like you do for the delay time
2. IMPORTANT: Disregard changes to image names. Seriously, I'll pay you in warez. I need this soooooooo bad =(
3. IMPORTANT: Disregard changes to http links. Seriously, I'll pay you in warez. I need this soooooooo bad =( --mboverload@ 02:19, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

It looks like Bluemoose beat you to the punch buddy. Check this edit out (http links) [1]. Alphachimp ^talk 05:05, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Oh shit, awesome! --mboverload@ 05:06, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Thats I was saying un #External links ^^ Liquid_2003 - Talk 08:17, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Bot status

Maybe a *stupid* question :

In the summary, AWB add a link to english WP. I've heard/read (?) that this link disappears when the user obtain bot status. Sh*t, I couldn't find where I saw it ...

My question is : How to make this link disappear ? On the french WP, even if my bot has get the bot status, the link is still here ...

Liquid_2003 - Talk 08:47, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

More Options > Suppress "using AWB" --mboverload@ 08:55, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

But I've to switch my bot to auto-mode x_x ! Liquid_2003 - Talk 09:13, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

This option is not enabled on other wikis, due to a little complication, but it will be in the next version, which will be released later today. thanks Martin 08:58, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot =^.^=

Liquid_2003 - Talk 09:00, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

I thank you too ^^ Kyle_the_hacker aka 86.204.31.152 09:23, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/CurrentVersion

Would it be possible to have a page called something like that, and that the current version is displayed on this page.

That way, if watched, people know when a new version has been released?

Cheers

Reedy Boy 11:04, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

The top one on Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser#Versions is always the newest one. Martin 11:07, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, i know that, but sometimes its hard to notice the changes in my watch list. Hmm, must be an easier way... Reedy Boy 11:11, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Would the check function still work if the version was on a subpage, but transcluded here? נxaosflux ^Talk 02:53, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

No, it extracts the text from the edit box --mboverload@ 02:58, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Quick: Does excluding "external links" exclude interwiki links as well?

See title. --mboverload@ 05:54, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

No, I'll look into doing that, but it is a bit more complicated. Martin 08:52, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Really, how so? Also, I look at the diffs of all your versions using Subversion, you do more work than I realized =D --mboverload@ 09:20, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

THANKS MARTIN! I just saw you updated the code =D. Thanks man! --mboverload@ 21:36, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

New SourceForge.net project to serve AWB

RegExTypoFix is a project to make a list of words that can be automatically corrected with no user input. Goal is for 100% accuracy; main use is to typofix Wikipedia using AutoWikiBrowser but can be easily adapted to any applications with regular expression support. It comes in ready-to-use XML packages.

I am currently "done" with words A-D with hundreds of ultra-commonly misspelled words. I add about 500 lines a week or more. Each line can have many different variations of the same base word so that's not an accurate count of new words.

It works with anyone's AWB and is easy to merge with your current settings. It's a great addition to whatever task you're doing at the moment - make your edits count!

Sign up for the weekly spamlist delivered right to your talk page each and every Sunday with the latest news and details about the latest additions.

Example of the shit I have to write all week

<datagridFAR find="\b(D|d)istictio(n|ns)\b" replacewith="$1istinctio$2" />
<datagridFAR find="\b(D|d)istingis(h|hed|hes|hing)\b" replacewith="$1istinguis$2" />
<datagridFAR find="\b(D|d)istingquis(h|hed|hes|hing)\b" replacewith="$1istinguis$2" />

--mboverload@ 09:36, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Thats a good idea, can I recommend that you zip the file package, else it oopens up in firefox rather than offering to download to your harddisk. Martin 09:56, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, good point. Can you get on IRC? I'd like to talk about Sourceforge and getting around it --mboverload@ 10:16, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Edit: Ok, it's now in a zip. =D --mboverload@ 10:28, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Gotta watch out with things running without human intervention... one of the articles I watch with AWB has a source whose name is 'Teh'... ;) — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib Reverts} 12:38, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Yep, I have removed all fixes to slang terms and make it skip article if the word l33t, leet, or [sic] appear in them =D. I actually made this mistake in the beginning, your point is extremely valid.

EDIT: Hm! Looks like I didn't remove "teh" from being fixed, I swear I remember actually doing it. I think I had to go back to a previous verson at a point, that's probably what did it. I'm removing it now and updating the file at sourceforge. Thanks for commenting about this, I wouldn't have caught it otherwise. --mboverload@ 12:44, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I guess I'll get it later. I cannot even find a SF mirror that has 0.0.4.5 yet. — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib Reverts} 12:57, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

The idea of the sourceforge SVN server is to store sources. So uploading a binary zip of a textfile here into the source tree makes not that much sense (viewing diffs is impossible this way). Please upload your xml file there, using one single filename (no need to have any release number in the filename). If you wish to provide zip files, you can do so in the packages section of your sourceforge project page. --Ligulem 15:04, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

lol, done. --mboverload@ 21:34, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

AWB keeps restarting

I was added to the approved list, but have not been able to use it. AWB keeps restarting with a problem dialog box stating "You are not logged in. The log in screen will now load...". I will log in and it will restart with a countdown timer of about 15sec and the process repeats. Am I doing something wrong? I've tried loggin in with IE first.--GAThrawn22 16:33, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Cookies issue, maybe? Check if your IE is configured to accept cookies from WP properly. -- Grafikm ^(AutoGRAF) 19:45, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Does your IE stay logged in ok normally? if so if you re-start AWB what happens if you are already logged in? Martin 19:47, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I can browse wikipedia fine with IE. It also remembers that I've been logged in, if I close and restart it. Cookies are enabled. If I'm already logged in the same thing happens. --GAThrawn22 20:32, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Latest Version

The latest version doesn't appear to work properly. I've had no problems with earlier versions, but when I try to start this one, it says "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click OK to terminate the application." Any ideas?--Firsfron of Ronchester 19:34, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Off the start: Did you update your .NET framework? I think I saw (and installed) an update via Windows Update recently... -- Grafikm ^(AutoGRAF) 19:46, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

That error normally means the .NET framework 2 is not installed. Martin 19:47, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, guys. I do have the .net framework 2, but I guess something happened to it. I reinstalled the framework, and the problem went away. Happy editing! :)--Firsfron of Ronchester 20:07, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Other wikis

So much talk page, and I really don't wanna have to fish through it all. Is it possible to point this script to another wiki - or a site running on Media wiki. Thanks. --Sagaciousuk 20:29, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

It can run on a number of other MediaWiki wikis, and on request I will add support for new ones, but I like to test to make sure it all work properly, which is why they aren't all enabled. (p.s. it is not a script!) Martin 21:27, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I wanted to see if it worked with YPPedia, as it would make some things we do easier. I was going to edit my use of the word script but didn't in the end :-P --Sagaciousuk 21:30, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Try MWB. Enter yppedia.puzzlepirates.com into the wiki field. --Ligulem 22:46, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

How about the [:da:Forside|Danish Wikipedia]? Does AWB work there? --Lhademmor 19:30, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Not now, i'll add it for next release. Martin 19:51, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Copying or linking to web browser

It would be able have a link for using a web browser to view the current page, or to be able to copy text from AWB, so that the page name could be copied to a web browser and for other purposes. ؛[User:Centrx|Centrx]]?talk • 22:22, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Seconded :) -- Grafikm ^(AutoGRAF) 22:43, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm not 100% sure what you mean, there is an option to open the current page in your normal webbrowser (in the textbox context menu) maybe that helps? Martin 08:48, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Pre- or postpending to an non-existing talk page?

Hi,

Is it possible to configure AWB to append data to a non-existing talk-page. Meaning, if I create a list of talk pages from a list of pages via the "convert to talk pages" option, it does nothing if there is no talk page. Is it possible to change this behavior? Thanks in advance, -- Grafikm ^(AutoGRAF) 22:45, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Turn off the option "ignore non existing pages" in the "general" menu. Martin 08:48, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

/me Writes "idiot" on his own forehead and hides in a closet for a week. <_<

Thanks! -- Grafikm ^(AutoGRAF) 14:08, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Error

Okay, I downloaded AWB, and .NET framework, and clicked onto the icon of AWB. But, it wont work. I tells me to send an error report and i need help. -AMK152 00:21, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

What is the error? It sounds like the framework probably isnt installed properly. Martin 08:48, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Okay, that was the problem. Thanks. -AMK152 13:52, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Talk pages

Is there any way to add a message only to the talk pages of certain articles? I.e. to create a list, ignore articles that contain certain phrases, and add a message to the talk pages of articles without those phrases? If that makes any sense. --W.marsh 15:07, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, use the "skip if does/doesn't contain" options, then it will skip them as necessary. Martin 15:12, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

White Space Moves

On whitespace edits such as this, would it be possible for you to reduce the double extra white space to one spare line?

As it reduces server space and bandwith and such by having to transfer less data

Cheers

Reedy Boy 08:13, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Adding an extra line is really only equal to 3 characters of data (letters). That's like 3 bytes of data in ASCII. It's really nothing to be concerned about at all. Note that you should not be doing simple edits like that. That's the problem, not the whitespace. --mboverload@ 08:55, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

I presume you are meaning edits that have just that? Well, the ignore if no changes usually skips them Reedy Boy 11:31, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

It won't skip that, because it doesn't know the change has not been significant, just click ignore. Martin 11:33, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Like mboverload said you really should not make changes like that with AWB (single whitespace moves). I usually try to stop it by talking to the editor. Alphachimp ^talk 20:00, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Add this into guessing birth/death cats when you have spare time

Syntax I came across here:

• (b. March 6, 1970 from Lakewood, California USA)

No clue how used it is, but AWB guessed the guy was born in 2006, so yeah =D. Just throwing it in. --mboverload@ 11:16, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Special:Deletion log

I'm not sure I am doing this right, but I am trying to get a list of recently deleted pages, specifically #501-1000 (or approximate). I am trying "Make from - Special page" with a "special: - Log&limit=500&offset=500&type=delete". I was expecting to get a list of over 500 links - one for each page deleted, plus others that I would remove like the user pages of the admins. I get a different number each time, obviously, but it is always less than 300, last time I got 198 and the time before was about 290. Am I doing something wrong, or does something need to be fixed? --Brian G 14:13, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

When I enter "Log&limit=500&offset=500&type=delete" i get all the links on that page. Listing from special pages is always a bit dodgy though as there is no standard fromat between them, so when it doesnt recognise the format, it just uses every link on the page, which is not ideal. Martin 14:44, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Stable Version

It seems there are almsot daily builds of AWB at times, quickly rendering old versoins useless (removed from the check page)....can a semi-stable version be declared to be left up on the check page for longer periods (e.g. 30+ days)? נxaosflux ^Talk 01:11, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Why would you want an old crappy version? =P --mboverload@ 02:27, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

LOL, I always like the new versions! But as the user list grows greatly, forcing them to keep downloading could be a bit much, as long as bugs aren't existant in a version, stabilization could make it easier on them. נxaosflux ^Talk 02:39, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Presume you are meaning a version people can use for a while that is bug free? Well, little bugs keep being found.... Reedy Boy 07:23, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

It is important to keep people up to date with the latest versions, because their use of the software doesnt just affect them, but the whole of wikipedia. Having said that, I haven't made many critical bug fixes recently (though there have been enourmous changes), but then I do normally leave one or two old versions enabled, so each version noramlly lasts for a week or so at least. Of course as the software gets better, the versions can last for longer. Martin 09:01, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Edit summary suggestion, if possible and easy to code

12:42, July 21, 2006 (hist) (diff) m Squirtle (PokeFix, Replaced: Pokemon ۠Pokꮯn, using AWB)
And if it replaced more than one
12:42, July 21, 2006 (hist) (diff) m Squirtle (PokeFix, Replaced: Pokemon ۠Pokꮯn (4), using AWB)
--mboverload@ 20:45, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

ok, I'll see what I can do. thanks Martin 10:07, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Skip external links problem

Explains itself --mboverload@ 22:26, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Nothing to solve on AWB code. Skipping a single replace instance inside a page might be nice though (user confirmation with skip option for every occurence of a replace inside a page). Like search and replace in a document which is opened in a text editor. --Ligulem 22:39, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

I've started the implementation of a single step replace confirmation dialog. Maybe this leads to something useful... Watch my desparate funny hackery at the MWB labs at [2]. BTW I've created a stable branch at [3]. --Ligulem 17:46, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

He solved the in image and external wikilinks problem. I don't see how this is any different --mboverload@ 00:23, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

The problem here is that the text is not a url, and is not recognised as such by the mediawiki software either, I can't skip any piece of text that ends in ".com" for example, the only option would be to skip references, but though that would have solved this one instance, it would not necessarily always be helpful. Martin 10:07, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

AWB bots are breaking non-BMP articles

Two^WThree AWB bots (User:Bluebot, User:KonstableBot, etc.) have been observed trying to replace HTML entity refs with the corresponding Unicode characters, but failing and breaking the articles. They are taking entity refs for SMP codepoints (e.g. Cuneiform script and Phoenician alphabet) and downshifting them 66536 codepoints into the BMP.

If this is an AWB issue (?) then it needs to be fixed, and fast. I don't use Windows, but I seem to recall that Windows doesn't support Unicode properly; IIRC it uses UCS-2 natively, and needs specific work to enable UTF-16 surrogates. EdC 03:35, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Can you give diffs? Neither of them edited the articles that you are mentioning. Alphachimp ^talk 04:00, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Diffs:

• [4] User:KonstableBot on Phoenician alphabet
• [5] User:Bluebot on Cuneiform script
• [6] User:WinBot on Blackboard bold EdC 04:38, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

The only problem I see is on Phoenician alphabet, but that is wierd. Thanks for bringing it up! --mboverload@ 05:04, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

I was about to report this as well. I haven't had time to run KonstableBot in a while due to real life time constraints, and I think I won't run this till there is some fix to this issue. So sorry for any damage that was caused.--Konstable 05:19, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for letting me know, it will be fixed in the next verison. thanks. Martin 08:25, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Also, are there any other examples of this? Martin 08:26, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

(Operator of WinBot) Thanks for bringing this up, I will suspend running WinBot to unicodify articles for the time being until the next version of AWB. --WinHunter ^(talk) 15:30, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

...which is available now! Martin 15:37, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

I haven't found any more cases of this happening; there aren't that many articles that use non-BMP characters. If I find any more I'll report them here. EdC 16:37, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and thanks for fixing it so quickly. Great work. EdC 16:54, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, Martin is fricken fast =O --mboverload@ 19:42, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Edit Summary Bug?

Please check the latest contribution by WinBot, I have no idea why it's edit summary have "Replaced: xxx -> xxx" when the only option I enabled was unicodifying.

I was doing template substituion before I start unicodifying (loaded another set of config) but that part of the edit summary still appears for no reason. --WinHunter ^(talk) 11:48, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the report. Martin 11:51, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Didn't there used to be a way to disable the "append all edits to the summary" option? It seems to be forcing them now, and this often makes for confusing summaries. For example, I was doing stub-sorting, occasionally changing {{Poland-geo-stub}} to {{Silesian-geo-stub}}, but eyeballing for cases where I needed to reverse AWB's changes. However, even if I reversed, it still showed up in the edit summary, when all I wanted to do was fix some other spelling [7][8]. I love AWB, but how can I disable this? --Elonka 20:05, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

It's in the Find and Replace window --mboverload@ 20:21, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Aha! I was looking all over the menus (like under "General") and the "Start" tab (where the summary box is). Thanks.  :) --Elonka 01:05, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

prod tag deletion? Oh noes. (development version)

User_talk:Mboverload#Prod_tags and this edit. I only use dev versions of AWB, as you know. Just a heads up.--mboverload@ 20:02, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok, but please email me about dev problems, it might get a little confusing otherwise. thanks Martin 20:15, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

That's a good point. I'll be on IRC if you want to give me your email address in private --mboverload@ 23:18, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Note This appears to be because of the database problem on the 21st, it happened on other articles. I highly doubt this is an AWB problem. --mboverload@ 23:18, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Irritating little bug

===>Trivial? It might be just plain stupid, but I hate it when AWB edits an article and then makes the interlanguage links out of alphabetical order (that is to say, out of Latin order, using the subdomains from ISO standards). It happens all the time with fi: and zh-min-nan: among others. Can anyone fix this? Thanks. -Justin (koavf), talk, mail 00:52, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually there is a protocol about this, they need to be in order of creation or something, Martin knows more about this. --mboverload@ 00:56, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

AWB does it the correct way, a every other bot does, as specified at m:Interwiki sorting order#By order of alphabet, based on local language. Martin 08:19, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

===>Thanks As you can see from that same page, there are different standards for alphabetization. Why was this standard chosen? Since the kind of alphabetical order about which I'm speaking is more intuitive, could you change it? It's much more useful to me if I'm looking for/looking through the multi-language interwiki links if they're in (my) alphabetical order by two-letter code. Being in this alphabetical order is not helpful to me when searching; I imagine this is the case for others too (who would logically search in this order?) Barring that, if you don't care to change it, could you at least take out this feature from AWB? It doesn't have any benefits of which I'm aware. Thanks again. -Justin (koavf), talk, mail 16:00, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

This is the order used by every bot and virtually every article, it isn't going to change, and if it was going to change, all bots would have to change at the same time, or it would be complete chaos, sorry. Also, the order does make sense, as it is easier to locate the correct language from the side panel as the languages are in alphabetical order, using the alphabetical order of the 2 letter code puts this is a quasi-random order, which is not helpful for readers. thanks. Martin 16:09, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

The order is certainly not standardized (maybe it is for bots, but certainly not articles). Although the vote is very close, more people surveyed prefer sorting by the two-letter code (see Wikipedia:Language order poll#By order of alphabet, based on two letter code). In any case, why should AWB be suggesting that as a fix in the first place? Ardric47 02:54, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Sorting interwiki links

YurikBot and AWB are at odds for sorting interwiki links. I asked Yurik about it here: User_talk:Yurik#Alphabetical_order Please work with him to come up with a standard. Otherwise its a pain because the programs switch the content back and forth. Thanks! -Ravedave 18:58, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

AWB uses the order at m:Interwiki sorting order#By order of alphabet, based on local language, and on Minnesota AWB uses the same order as Yurik. Martin 19:06, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Sorry to be a pain, but en: never agreed a sorting order. Rich Farmbrough 20:26 28 July 2006 (GMT).

Well, all the bots use it and that's the informal standard, so yay. --mboverload@ 20:46, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Grin. Perhaps what would be most useful is a feature where the WP software displays the IW links in the particular pedia's preferred order, unless over-ridden by user prefs. Then the source could be in the most convenient order. <Toddles of to look for the Mediawiki source again...> Rich Farmbrough 20:57 28 July 2006 (GMT).

I think we are talkign abotu 2 differnt thigns at once though. Display vs whats in the source, I could care less about what is displayed, I just want them ordered in an easy way for editing. -Ravedave 21:08, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

They are listed in alphabetical order for the displayed page (which is a little different to alphabetical 2 letter code), for ease of use for the reader, AWB and all other bots use this order. Martin 21:11, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Using the program on de.wikt

I'd really like to run this program on German Wiktionary but as I've read on the talk pages here it seems to be only configured for English projects. My question: Is there a general problem to make it available for other projects or what is required? I mean, for me e.g. the language isn't important, so nothing has to be translated. Thanks in advance and greetings Pill- (see here) 19:51, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

You could try MWB [9] which is more or less a stripped down variant of AWB. MWB has generic wiki support. Just enter the domain name into the wiki input field. --Ligulem 22:04, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Oh, this is enough for me. Thanks a lot :) Greetings Pill- 23:17, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

I'll enable it for other languages on other projects in the next release anyway. Martin 14:09, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Still having problems appending to talk pages

see Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive_7#Talk_page_newsletter_delivery_problems.3F, I downloaded the latest and I'm stil having this problem, tried all the same things, all the same symptoms. Any ideas? ++Lar: t/c 02:43, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

{{inuse}}

Hi, AWB reccommends skipping pages with the inuse tag on it.

Is it possible for it not to show the message box if the tag has the nowiki round it? As i've been asked to do a users talk pages for spelling and such, and AWB was reccommending skipping it as it was a inuse tag, but in nowiki brackets

Reedy Boy 07:36, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Surely this is only a very rare thing to happen, and you can just click the button to continue? Martin 08:38, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Well yeah, it was only an idea! Reedy Boy 09:44, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Periods/Fullstops - '.'

Hi, Any way to make AWB add fullstops if they are missing from the end of a sentence/Paragraph?

I know its going to be impossible to do it with every one, but, some would be relatively easy i would've thought?

Is it possible?

Cheers

Reedy Boy 08:31, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

It would be possible to make a educated guess about where a fullstop was needed, but the false positives would out weigh the real ones by a lot, so it would probably be more trouble than its worth. Martin 08:38, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Righto, thought it would be something like this Reedy Boy 09:45, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

As RegExTypoFix gets bigger

At the current time when AWB is processing the article through the find and replaces it "locks up" Could you have it show in the same progress bar when it's at 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent done with the article?

There are at least 6 users of RegExTypoFix at this time, so it's not that many people, but I just wanted to bring it up with you. Thanks =D --mboverload@ 08:55, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Agreed! It would be useful :D Reedy Boy 09:44, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

What would be nicer, for a number of reasons, would be if the find+replaces were implemented directly inside AWB, this would make them faster and more customisable. The only reason I haven't suggested it before is that there seemed to be quite a few errors popping up with various typos that needed to be updated very quickly, but if they are mostly fixed I think integrating it would be better all round. It would of course still be easy to update and add new typos if this were to be implemented. Martin 10:39, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

It seems with the newer version, there are only a few small bugs, its mainly new stuff being added. It would also mean, easier to use for users (maybe a checkbox for enable mboverloads RETF), and would mean more articles get spell checked! Reedy Boy 10:48, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Filter Talk Pages from List of Pages

Would it be possible for you to implement a function/an option that will not list talk pages in the list of pages to be checked?

Or be able to easily remove them from it (ie without having select and remove)

Cheers

Reedy Boy 12:34, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

If you click the filter button next to the list, you can "uncheck" all the namespaces on the right to remove the talk pages. --Brian G 13:22, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Or you can go one better and remove all the Wikipedia: links, etc with the menu command List->Filter out non main space. That's the one I always use... — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib} 14:42, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Thankyou! Reedy Boy 19:57, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Weird formatting crashing AWB?

This page: Dap Prampi Mesa Chokchey has caused my copy of AWB to choke every time I've tried to load it in AWB. Not sure if it's just me, but since the page seems to have pretty irregular characters I figured I'd post it here to see if anyone else wants to risk crashing their AWB to duplicate the error. (AWB ran fine after killing it from task mananger and restarting it, for me at least). --W.marsh 19:42, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Oh that's odd, will be fixed next release. thanks Martin 20:57, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Login button

I think having a login button on the toolbar would be very useful. IE is not my default browser and I don't want to start a separate instance of it just to log in into WP, so I normally just click "make list" without logging in, receive the "not logged in" warning, and then I log in via AWB. I'd like to have this ritual shortened by a small login button. I think it would be useful for all of us who have IE but don't really use it. Thanks, Zoz (t) 18:24, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

I'll add an option to the menu. Martin 18:36, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Great, thanks for the quick response! --Zoz (t) 19:11, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately if I click on "login" it still checks whether I'm logged in (obviously: no), and then I receive the warning message, and only then I'm taken to the login page. So currently clicking on "login" has the same effect as clicking on "make list" if I'm not logged in. Can you please modify the code so that it bypasses the login-check iff I click on the login button? Thanks. --Zoz (t) 17:19, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, i must have misunderstood what you wanted the login button for. What exactly do you want it for, to be able to use the listing features without logging in? Martin 18:35, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

No. To be able to get to the login screen directly. (Try this: log out from WP in your web browser and close AWB, then start AWB and click on "login". Now it will check if you're logged in before reaching the login screen - obviously you're not, otherwise you wouldn't have clicked "login".) --Zoz (t) 18:54, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

AWB stomping non-optional whitespace?

I've seen a few cases where AWB users have stomped some non-optional whitespace. Specifically, lots of source code examples are marked using a leading space instead of <pre> tags. If you have blank lines in the code block, you need a single space on that blank line to keep the code in a single block. It looks like AWB might be deleting these on the grounds that the spaces aren't doing anything. Examples: 1: the diff ,the broken up source code 2: the diff, the broken up source code. These were legit edits, I suspect that the submittor saw the diff, didn't see anything highlighted, shrugged, and checked it in, not realizing they damaged the formatting of the code. For that particular article I've just stuck it all in a <pre> block, but I suspect Inform isn't the only page getting occasionally hit with this. My suggestion is: if a line consists solely of whitespace, leave it there if the lines directly above and below have leading whitespace. Alan De Smet | Talk 23:06, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

I dunno. There have been a lot of other concerns about edits involving only the movement of whitespace (or very little else). I almost think AWB should totally drop whitespace moves. Sure, they're a great way for a new editor to rack up 20,000 edits in one day, but are they really doing much good? alphaChimp ^laudare 23:15, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Removing excess whitespace was by far the single most requested thing for my bot to do before I made AWB. If an editor is editing an article just to remove unimportant whitespace then they shouldn't be using it at all. Fixing this is fairly easy, but using pre tags is proably a good idea, otherwise the formatting is a bit delicate. Martin 08:42, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Are you planning on making the change to AWB to leave whitespace alone in blocks of of text with leading whitespace? While the "line of only whitespace" is fragile and <pre> superior, the whitespace solution is both legal and present in at least some pages. Alan De Smet | Talk 01:56, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it is changed already. Martin 09:29, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Moving stubs

It drives me crazy to see the AWB move the stub tags below the categories. As far as I know, there isn't any set standard for where stubs should go, besides somewhere at the bottom of an article. However, since the stub tags are part of the article text, I think they should be located above the categories and interwiki links.

Common usage on the Wikipedia seems to be for the stub tags to be below the external links section, but above any navigation templates, and I think that is where the AWB should put any stubs if it is going to move them at all. ^BlankVerse 04:28, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

What about after navigation templates but before interwiki links? Ardric47 05:14, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

There is no advantage to having a stub tag above the categories, putting them at the very end has a number of advantages; It means the stub category is listed last, it means the stub tag is less likely to become adjoined to the preceding text (as stubs need a double space before them), and it is a good idea to put maintenance tags either at the very beginning or very end of an article (i.e. out of the permanent text). Martin 08:42, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Why do stubs need a double space before them? I've never heard of this anywhere else (including from the stub-sorting project). I've been constantly deleting that extra space, but if there's some technical reason to leave it there, I guess I can ignore it. ~ Amalas rawr ^{=^_^=} 14:28, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Because if you don't they become appended to the preceeding text, which in practice ends up putting the stub tag in the "External links" section (or whatever section is last, e.g. look at Malayali. Martin 14:33, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

I understand that, and I'm wondering why that's bad. That way, you can click to edit just the external links section to edit the stub instead of having to edit the entire article. Just my personal editing preference, I guess. ~ Amalas rawr ^{=^_^=} 14:38, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

You can still just edit the last section, in that sense it makes no difference. Martin 14:41, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

This feels a bit like discussing whether or not you should put a blank space after a heading. It doesn't make much difference in the end. I may have to agree that the the extra blank space makes it look a little nicer since it doesn't crowd the previous text. Anyway, thanks for clarifying! ~ Amalas rawr ^{=^_^=} 14:44, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

AWB refusing to edit

I'm trying to edit using AWB in bot mode, but it refuses. After spending a few minutes crashing, and taking up over 200,000k memory, it brings up the error message: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown. After I click 'Ok', it appears to move on to the next page without saving, and repeats bringing up the error message etc. I've only had this on version 3.0.1.7. Is this a problem with AWB, or is this a problem with my computer (which I have never experienced before)? צnbsp;FireFox ^(talk) _{10:54, 01 August '06}

What options are you using, when does it crash, after the page has loaded? When you click start? ... thanks Martin 11:05, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm using the options I've always used in previous versions, which are: Enabled: Find and replace, skip articles when no replacement made, skip articles when no change made, ignore external/interwiki links... (in find and replace), auto save, quick save, suppress "using AWB", mark all as minor, bypass redirects, ignore non-existent pages. In 'find and replace', the "regex" and "enabled" columns are checked, the others aren't. Everything else is disabled. It crashes after the page has loaded, before it attempts to make any changes to it. Thanks, צnbsp;FireFox ^(talk) _{12:06, 01 August '06}

I can't reproduce any problem, if you change the settings does it still happen? Martin 14:55, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Strange, no it doesn't, it's fine. But using the above settings, it still refuses to edit. צnbsp;FireFox ^(talk) _{15:10, 01 August '06}

It's proably same bug Interiot reported below. Martin 15:29, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Pagename

I am confused about the behavior with the PAGENAME template. I found the discussion in Archive 6, but I still have questions. I was doing some DAB cleanup and got to the article for May 8. The "show changes" shows the template being replaced with May 8, but the preview mode and the editing window shows the template still there. I am afraid to click on "save", because I'm not sure which I should trust. Obviously, I can't edit it manually, because the template is still in the editing window. Should I ignore the "show changes" in this circumstance? --Brian G 14:18, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

The PAGENAME template is subst'd, and the mediwiki parser automatically shows the subst'd version (i.e. the name of the page) in the diff, so yes the saved version would not have the template in it anymore. But this is ok, the only reason there is a notice saying to use the pagename template is to stop "self links" being removed, as they are needed for date preferences, but self links are no longer removed from date pages, so it doesnt really matter either way. Martin 14:53, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Bug

If you hit "Save" and Wikipedia returns a "database locked for maintenance" message, AWB thinks the save has been successful and moves on, and your edits are lost. Snottygobble 02:28, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Two things

First, I use AWB to distribute the Wikipedia Signpost every week. I use auto-mode, with quick save. This week, six or seven users out of 176 didn't receive it. Is there any reason why this would be the case?

Secondly, just a comment: While I understand that security bugs and such need an immediate upgrade, but if you could make non-essential upgrades optional (even for a short time), it would make my life a lot easier. There's nothing more annoying for me than trying to start AWB and get on to other things than to have to download a new version every week or two. Perhaps it could warn users that a new version has been released? I understand you don't want people using version 2.0 when 3.0 is released, but I'm sure there are cases where the differences between 3.0.0 and 3.0.1 are trivial.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, however; I appreciate your work immensely. Ral315 (talk) 02:42, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

The differences are rarely trivial, I only force an upgrade when there is something important, for example now there are 3 versions enabled. But it is of course my aim to have a version that can be enabled for a long time. Martin 09:16, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

The reason for missing some people was almost certainly the problem pointed out right above, because the servers have been a little intermitant recently. Martin 09:18, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

RegexTypoFix Enabled Checkbox

The Messagebox that is shown when you enable RegexTypoFix has a small formatting error.

Where the AWB version is stitched on, there is spaces missing either side.

"This version of AWB is" & awbversion & "This will ensure.....

Should be

"This version of AWB is " & awbversion & " This will ensure.....

Or however it is in C#

Reedy Boy 12:32, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

You should see it in the next release. Good catch and understanding! --mboverload@ 12:58, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Heh, i've been spending too long doing VB .NET recently..... Reedy Boy 20:11, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Find & Replace checkbox

• http://images6.theimagehosting.com/FindReplace.png

The checkbox "Add replacements to edit summary" in Find & Replace in version 3.0.1.7 is diplayed for the half, so I cannot check this item. JePe 14:00, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

A bug and two feature suggestions

The bug

Image explains it all I had RETF and find+replace enabled at the same time, if that helps

I keep meaning to fix this regex error. Martin 14:31, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Gallery spellchecking

To prevent changing image names in a gallery

<gallery>
Image:Lol mispellingz.jpg|Here's the description
</gallery>

Skip checking anything before the "|" in any line with that format. I'm not sure how to do it, but I'm sure regex can solve it. You have to find a new line, find Image:, and then skip any text after that until the pipe ("|")

Skipping the gallery would be easy, skipping parts of it would be trouble. Martin 14:31, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

That's fine, I don't care about fixing the text =D --mboverload@ 22:10, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

RETF article skip

I used to have this in my RETF settings file, but since it's built in it would be cool to find a way to fit it in somewhere. Here's the regext of things to skip if they are in an article:

133t|-ology|\[sic\]|{{sic}}|spellfixno

Maybe have a little option window that only has a line for this kind of thing since you don't have space to include it in the regular interface

The spell fixer already incorporates this. Martin 14:31, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I saw the code, but it didn't seem to work. Try fixing User:Mboverload/sandbox. It has "spellfixno" at the top of the code, but AWB still tries to edit it. --mboverload@ 22:17, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Ambitious feature for RETF updates

I am totally just thinking out loud. I'm not expecting anything in this section AT ALL

• I am probably going to be releasing RETF updates of more typos between AWB releases. However, with the current tech I can't actually remove a line from being fixed by using a supplementary settings file. If there was some way to stick in a line, completely manually, to skip over fixing for RETF that would be cool. I really don't know how to do this or how hard it would to be
• Since every time you update AWB, RETF is going to be updated as well it might be cool to embed a code in the supplementary RETF updates that tells people that they no longer need this file since the version they just downloaded already has it built in. This is really, really just thinking out loud.
• Ok, this would be an easy way for people to check to see if RETF has been updated:
  • I insert a version number of RETF into RETF.cs and any supplementary settings file, whichever is newer. It takes that number, inserts it into a web address, and opens it in a browser
  • I create a page with the name (e.g. User:UpdateHolder/retf/23). When there is no update it will just say that. However if there IS an update it will give a download link and changelog.
  • This is vastly complicated

=D --mboverload@ 14:06, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm sure we can work something out. Martin 14:31, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Loading the page?

Why does AWB load the article page before loading the edit page? --mboverload@ 23:10, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

It doesn't, it loads the least amount it has too. Martin 15:27, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

bugs

• AWB doesn't reconise ilo:link like an interwiki link (the ilo Wikipedia exist !), I think you just have to update that !
• On the french wikipedia {{Link FA}} are writed {{Lien AdQ}}, could you update your software so that the template comes just before the interwikis links (like now)

I thank you 81.51.234.129 08:54, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Article list

Martin, could you possibly add a "Sort alphabetically and remove duplicates" feature to the right click menu of the article list please? I'm working round it by saving to file and running through the UNIX uniq command, but built-in would be much better! :) --kingboyk 16:04, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

There is already a sort alphabetically option, duplicates should generally not get through anyway when making a list (though it is possible), i'll add an option to the filter to get them. Martin 16:23, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. In that case, the following must be a bug then... --kingboyk 17:58, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Bug making lists from a category?

I've experienced this twice now, with different categories, so I imagine it's a bug. I make a list from a large category, sort it alphabetically, and discover I have masses of multiple entries, like this:

File:AWB article multiple times in one category problem.jpg

Quite a pain as I have to save to file and run through uniq, and also am anxious that the duplicate entries are replacing good entries. Any idea what's up here Martin? Cheers. --kingboyk 16:26, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, I can't reproduce it, can you? Martin 18:35, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure I want to try as it's a very large category :) Perhaps I'll do it overnight. One thing: I had more than one copy of AWB open and building lists at a time. I presume there's no variables or fixed name temp files shared between instances, no way they could have interfered with other? --kingboyk 19:10, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

It shouldn't, as they should run their own process tree's Reedy Boy 15:33, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Adding template to non-existent talk pages

I'm probably doing this wrong, but I turned off "Ignore non-existent pages", I filled up the list with some non-existent talk pages, and used this regexp setup (trying to add {{AutomobileWatch}} to the top of every talk page). It works for existing pages [10], but when it his a non-existent page, it gets stuck (all of the buttons are gray except "stop" is black). Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Has anybody successfully gotten talk-page tagging working under a recent version? --Interiot 15:03, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Ah how annoying, I see what was wrong, I've fixed it now, will be in next release. Martin 15:29, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

BUMP! I'm hitting the same snag. A fix would be truly appreciated asap, as I'm tagging a serious number of talk pages for Wikipedia 1.0 assessments. Thanks Martin. --kingboyk 16:01, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this is already fixed, and will be in next version. Martin 18:35, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Feature now works again. --kingboyk 11:56, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

AWB/RegExTypoFix Inccorrectly Reporting Changes

[11] [12]

Look at the summarys... And then the edits, it isn't editing what the summary is saying it is

(I know the edits are a bit bad...)

Reedy Boy 20:39, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

I've been getting that too, but for the word "between". Check out these edits: [13] [14] alphaChimp ^laudare 20:42, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Um. More importantly though, why are you making edits like that? Are you previewing? alphaChimp ^laudare 20:49, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, i've done a few bad ones recently.... Hell, if i did them all, they'd be hundreds! Just happens to be 2 consecutive that i just clicked ok on.... Reedy Boy 20:53, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Fixed in 3.0.1.9, though please always check the diff. Martin 21:00, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

AWB Hanging on Messagebox ("Edit conflict, restarting")

AWB has just displayed that message, and then i cannot click ok... o.0

Reedy Boy 20:48, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, just alt-tabbed, and it had created multiple of them... but not showing teh active at the top.. Reedy Boy 20:48, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Fixed in 3.0.1.9 Martin 21:00, 6 August 2006 (UTC)