Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser

Before you post

Do you want to ...	Please use
Report a bug in AWB?	Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs
Report an incorrectly fixed typo?	Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Typos
Request a feature for a future version of AWB?	Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
Request approval to use AWB?	Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage
Ask a question about AWB or ask for help?	This page

Frequently asked questions

• When I start it up I get one of the following errors:

  "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application.", or

  "To run this application, you must first install one of the following versions of the .NET Framework..."

  This error means your computer does not have the .NET framework version 2 installed properly. You can choose from various versions for download here, or you can run Microsoft Update and select version 2 of the .Net framework from the "Optional Updates" section, if you want the choice made for you.

• Does AWB run on Linux or Mac?

  AWB runs reasonably under Wine. See details here

  AWB might also run under Mono. See here for a status report of AWB vs Mono v2.6.

A native version, PyAutoWikiBrowser (screenshots here), based on Python, is being developed separately for Unix-like systems.

• Does AWB work on other projects/languages?

  Many Wikimedia projects and languages are supported, see the "User and project preferences" option in the general menu. Other languages will be added on request, though at the moment the interface is always in English. You are also able to use AWB with third-party wikis: Options > Preferences > Site, you can change the wiki there. The wiki must support the Bot API required by AWB. This means that it should have latest HEAD version of MediaWiki or something close to that. The wmf-deployment branch is also recommended, as this is what is currently live on WMF sites.

• What interwiki link order does AWB use?

  The software reads the interwiki sort order from Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/IW, which is generally mirrored to reflect the order at m:Interwiki sorting order.

• AWB puts stubs after categories, though categories are always rendered the last by MediaWiki?

  According to WP:STUB#Categorizing stubs, By convention they are placed at the end of the article, after the External links section, any navigation templates, and the category tags, so that the stub category will appear last. If your wiki uses another order, please let us know here.

• I don't like or use Internet Explorer; please use Firefox instead.

  AWB does not use Internet Explorer per se. It does, however, use the same web browser control (MSHTML) as Internet Explorer; the equivalent Firefox component does not provide the needed functionality.

• How do I open the page in another browser if I can't use the one in AWB?

  Right click on the edit box in the bottom right side of your screen. Select "Open page in browser".

• How do I edit a page that doesn't exist?

  Uncheck "Ignore non existing pages" in the "Skip articles" box.

• How do I skip certain articles?

  Use the "Skip if contains" and "Skip if doesn't contain" on the "Skip" tab

• Can't you leave up a "stable" version, so I don't have to download new versions?

  It is important to keep people up to date with the latest versions, because their use of the software doesn't just affect them, but the whole of Wikipedia. As any bugs that remain will be trivial; hopefully releases won't be too frequent.

• How can I stop AWB clicking when it changes pages?

  This is a Windows sound theme setting. This page explains how to turn off the clicking sound.

  Alternatively, delete the following key from the Windows registry:

  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\Explorer\Navigating\.Current

• AWB randomly crashes upon page load on my system, and I always use a browser other than Internet Explorer when using Wikipedia.'

  You may have installed custom scripts incompatible with IE. Wrap the contents of your monobook.js into conditional:

               //Detect IE5.5+
               if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE")==-1)
               {
                   // Previous contents go here
                   ....
               }

• I get Just In Time Debugger Messages when loading AWB/loading pages.

  In Internet Explorer, go to Tools --> Options --> Advanced. Make sure 'Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer)' and 'Disable Script Debugging (Other)' Are both checked. Press apply and close.

• Why does AWB run very, very slowly if I try to make changes in the edit window on larger pages, especially pages with long lists or tables?

  If running on Windows, exit the Speech Recognition software that is built into some versions of Windows; don't just turn it 'Off', you must 'Exit' the software if you have started up Speech Recognition.

• When I do a clean install of AutoWikiBrowser the application seems to find old setting data somewhere. I'd like to do a really clean install. Any ideas?

  Clean up your registry and remove the folder "C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Application Data\AutoWikiBrowser" (Windows XP) or "C:\Users\user name\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser\" (Windows 7). Note that the application data folder may be hidden.

• AWB prompts that there is a newer version but won't update

  Check your AWBUpdater version. The current version is 2.0.0.8. If you have an older version, you have to download the latest AWB version and make a clean install.

• Which .NET Framework version do I have?

  You can find your .NET Framework version in Help --> About box.

Discussion

This talk page is automatically archived by MiszaBot I. Any sections older than 7 days are automatically archived to Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 24. Sections without timestamps are not archived.

AWB Google search

Is it just me, or has AWB's "Google search" stopped working? -- John of Reading (talk) 20:37, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

I've never used it before, but I just tried, and it doesn't work for me, either. Chris the speller ^yack 22:28, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

I've always used it - when I first started using AWB, the "Wiki text search" wasn't working. At least there's a choice... -- John of Reading (talk) 23:04, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

"Wiki text search" not only works, but has had features added to it. Now you can search "oil fired" -"oil-fired" to find missing hyphens, for example. On rare occasions, if the server is very busy, no results are returned, but trying again a few seconds or minutes later might work. Sometimes you have to go take a nap. I also have lists stockpiled, so it's just an annoyance, not a show-stopper. Good luck! Chris the speller ^yack 03:10, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Google search doesn't work for me either, but the plugin for Bing Search seems to work. The plugin for the Yahoo Search gives a "Network access error: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found." GoingBatty (talk) 05:07, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestion. One of my pet AWB tasks is to fix articles with syntax errors in the infobox, where readers can see the words "File" "alt" and "frameless". Example found by Bing search. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:07, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

rev 7962 Reedy: Killing Yahoo plugin, service was apparently shut down in April 2011. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:55, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Just a note but I noticed recently there are other bits of code that refer to the Yahoo plugin that it doesn't appear that Reedy removed or reworked. --Kumioko (talk) 17:55, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Where is this? -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:06, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

I think its under either Wikifunctions.cs or Tools.cs but I can't remember exactly. If I recall references the call for the Yahoo plugin rather than Yahoo itself. I just tried to find it again and can't seem to find it again. Frankly if it woudln't have been you that mentioned it I likely wouldn't have responded at all. --Kumioko (talk) 18:11, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

I must have been dreaming or something. I just looked all over and I can't see anything. I'm not sure what I was looking at at this point so just forget I said anything. I'll look around more later and if I find it I'll drop you a note. --Kumioko (talk) 18:47, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Revocation of AWB access for Kumioko

Please revoke AWB access for Kumioko and Kumi-Taskbot. All tasks related to the bot have been revoked, which negates need for AWB and I no longer feel inclinded to use the software or perform any but the most sporadic and trivial of tasks. If an when I need access to the software again I will rerequest access. I have already deleted all code, both completed and uncompleted (such as the roughly 3200 line module I wrote to auto add Infoboxes (only person, military person and Politician though). These tasks are not needed or desired by the community and at a roughly 1 in 250 article error rate (which I was working on reducing before using) the chance of making a mistake is too high for community approval or interest. --Kumioko (talk) 17:53, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Just wanted to leave a note that it was done. Thanks for the quick response. --Kumioko (talk) 21:33, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

AWB rights and username change

I was using this username User:Ramajois but I usurped to User:Shriram and I cannot login with my current username. Can the right be transferred or something to what I'm using now or should I have to place a new request? Shriram (talk) 21:11, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

In an ideal world your AWB permission would have been transferred when your account was renamed. This needs an admin to remove "Ramajois" and add "Shriram" in the user list. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:24, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Y Done — Ganeshk (talk) 21:38, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

User:AWBCPBot does this. However, it only runs weekly, on Wednesdays. I may set it up to run more often. - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 22:49, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanku you all. Shriram (talk) 05:05, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Small-screen issue

I've just downloaded AWB (v5.3.1.0) for the first time. I'm using WinXP on a 10.5" netbook (Lenovo S10-2) at 1024x600, and I can't see the bottom of the interface in its window, either maximised, or by moving the window around so that the bottom of it is in the middle of my screen. I can't find a reference to this in these pages. Before I raise a bug, is this a known issue, perhaps with a work-around? I've put a screenshot at http://twitpic.com/8mfz6c - the edge of the window is blue, the desktop dark grey. Note how the "find" box is unviewable. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:43, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Sorry; didn't look hard enough; the bug is at Bugs#AWB netbook fail since July 2009. Any chance of a fix? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:53, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Null-Intersect or non-intersect

I'm trying to determine which articles do not have a Category:Musical groups by year of establishment. I've copied the 143 children of this category to User:Argolin/sandboxAWB1. The musical group articles list is at User:Argolin/sandboxAWB. When I use the List comparer, it places all "categories on page" in list 1 into results. "Links on page" in list 2 the same. What am I doing wrong? I'm using ver 5.3.1.1. and am brand new to AWB. Thanks Argolin (talk) 10:57, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

I am using version 5.3.1.1. SVN 7961. I couldn't get "Categories on page" to produce anything at all. I then tried "Category (recurse 1 level)" and put "Musical groups by year of establishment" into the category box. That produced 14,909 pages, and then clicking the compare button produced results lists of 14,196 pages, 713 pages, and 652 pages. The third list appears to be what you wanted. I have saved it in User:Chris the speller/Sandbox2. Chris the speller ^yack 16:00, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Perfect! I've copied the list to my sandbox. There are other music articles that can benefit from this type of analysis. Record labels by year of establishment, music venues, etc... I'll have to play around with AWB some more. Thanks Chris the speller. Argolin (talk) 18:46, 21 February 2012 (UTC)