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Frequently asked questions

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When I start it up I get error "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application."
This error means your computer does not have the .NET framework version 2 installed properly. Download

Will it ever work on linux?
Probably not, at least not until mono (software) get .NET 2.0 fully supported.
Does AWB work on other projects/languages?
Many WikiMedia projects and languages are supported, see the "Select language and project" option in the file menu. Other languages will be added on request, though at the moment the interface is always in English. You are also able to use other 3rd party wiki's, by entering the URL where index.php of this wiki resides. The wiki must support Query API and Bot API required by AWB. This means that it should have latest HEAD version of MediaWiki or something close to that.

What interwiki link order does AWB use?
It uses the orders specified at m:Interwiki sorting order, as all other bots do.

I don't like or use Internet Explorer, please use FireFox instead.
AWB does not use Internet Explorer, it does however happen to use the same web browser control that Internet Explorer does, 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" in the "(2) Set options" 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 doesnt just affect them, but the whole of wikipedia. As any bugs that remain will be trivial, hopefully releases won't be so frequent anyway.

Discussion

This talk page is automatically archived by Werdnabot. Any sections older than 7 days are automatically archived to Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 14. Sections without timestamps are not archived.

Problem with settings

First. Could you please increase the space between funstion Save settings and Save as default? Sometimes I confuse with them and press Save as default instead of Save settings. :-(

Second. I'd made the suit of rules for find and replace section:

1. Name: Check <!--. Type: entyre text. If contain: <!--

1.1. Name: Check <nowiki>. Type: entyre text. If contain: <!nowiki>

1.1.1. Name: Rule1. Type: inside template. Find: ^p|. Replace: |. If contain: Описание изображения.

1.1.2. Name: Rule2. Type: inside template. Find: |-. Replace: |. If contain: Описание изображения.

1.1.3. Name: Rule3. Type: entyre text. Find: Описание изображения. Replace: subst:TTC.

I'd saved this suit (as замена.xml) for next day, but today I've loaded it and seen only first rule. :-( Where is my other rules? ;-( I've checked this "make suit/save/load" more then 5 times with same results. What is the problem?

I'm working at ru-Wiki and using IE6.0 and AWB 3.0.5.2 and 3.0.6.1. --Alex Spade 16:58, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Update of second remark

Again. I've created the new suit of rules, saved them, loaded and... :-( I see only first rule. I think there is the problem with saving of subrules -- If there aren't subrules in suit, it's all working.--Alex Spade 21:10, 15 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This is a known bug with saving subrules. Should be fixed in r562. You need to update to 3.1.0.0 to get the fix. --Ligulem 22:53, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There still seems to be a problem with 3.1.0.0: it gets confused by sub-subrules. Gaius Cornelius 21:52, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

proxy

I can not use AWB thru proxy that require auth. --OlegMarchuk 10:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC) Symptoms:[reply]

open IE, enter proxy login and password, set auto save password
open uk.wikipedia.org, login into wiki
open AWB
click 'file => login in'
alert('Problem, You are not logged in...'), click 'ok'
I see my wiki username into right-bottom corner on green background
- select 'My Watchlist' in step 1, click 'make list', waiting some time :)
- I see my watchlist in list of loaded pages
- select 'from Category' in step 1, click 'make list'
- type 'Головна' (whatever)
- I see alert('Unexpected error. Remote server return an error: 407 Proxy Authentication Required')
close AWB
close IE

So, why AWB can loggin into wikipedia, check my status (It show me as logged in and 'admin' in status bar, but I don't remenber what I can do to see it), can load my watchlist, but can not load articles in category? --OlegMarchuk 08:46, 24 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Categories indexing

I've noticed User:Stemonitis has been adding {{DEFAULTSORT:}} to articles and removing the name from each category from articles such as Mick O'Dwyer, see this edit [1] would it be possible for AWB to automate this process ?(Gnevin 20:07, 17 January 2007 (UTC))[reply]

I've been doing this too, it's an excellent new feature. (As an aside, you'll notice that {{DEFAULTSORT:}} isn't actually a template, it's a magic word, so {{tl}} won't work on it…) This would be an interesting exercise, since you would need to detect what sort keys are being used and proffer the possible alternatives, then only remove the option that the user picked. It's not unusual for an article to use very different keys in different categories, and undoing that would cause more trouble than it solved. For example, in that diff to which you linked, the sort-key was changed, which might well cause some consternation. If it could be managed correctly, I think this could be very useful. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 21:37, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Of course on any page with a category with no sort key, the bot would need to either insert subst:PAGENAME into that cat or skip the page. Rich Farmbrough, 23:05 20 January 2007 (GMT).

If I have understood correctly, [[Category:Example|]] will do the job: something in the mechanism which performs the infamous "pipe-trick" takes care of it. In any case, you can always fix it after AWB has done the "automagic" bit. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 17:30, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, forget I ever said that: the above example actually comes out as [[Category:Example|Example]]

. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 13:49, 25 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Names like Mick O'Dwyer could be a problem as some users are removing the ' see [2](Gnevin 17:37, 21 January 2007 (UTC))[reply]

Replacements in the edit summary

Sometimes they are not added correctly like here. Jogers (talk) 14:28, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Weird. Did you do anything out of the ordinary with that page, like make edits to the text box before submitting, stopping the process and restarting it at that page, or anything similar? Was "With The Lights Out → With the Lights Out" in your find/replace queue at the time? —Mets501 (talk) 15:14, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"With The Lights Out → With the Lights Out" was present in my replacement settings at the time but in this case I manually changed it back to "With The Lights Out". Jogers (talk) 15:30, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That must be the problem then. It probably made the change, added it to the edit summary, but then you edited away the change before saving. As far as fixing it...I'd say it's a rare enough occurrence that it's not worth the trouble of fixing. —Mets501 (talk) 15:58, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Right. But didn't it use to list all the replacements anyway? Jogers (talk) 16:13, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I thought it still does. Was the other change it that edit manual or automatic? —Mets501 (talk) 16:32, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Automatic. Here it also listed only the last replacement. Jogers (talk) 16:39, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's an option. Rich Farmbrough, 23:06 20 January 2007 (GMT). 23:06, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Feature request

Honour {{Bots}} and {{Nobots}}. (Optionally.) Rich Farmbrough, 23:06 20 January 2007 (GMT).

You can do this manually with the "Skip if/unless" boxes, although I have to say I've usually got something in them already. Good idea though. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 13:52, 25 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

software glitch, won't load

whenever i try to open AWB, it says there's an exception error (i.e. "System.BadImageFormatException") and then doesn't load. I have the latest version - 3.1.0.0 ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 16:53, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Have you got V2 of the .NET framework installed? Reedy Boy 17:11, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

not sure anymore, had to swtich back and forth a couple times becuase some programs weren't liking one version as oppoed to the other. I think the answer is likely to be no. EZ way to check w/out just installing the 2.0 version? -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 18:30, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Goto C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework

Is there a folder that starts as v2? If that, or the framework folder doesnt exist, then it ISNT installed. Or try [3] Reedy Boy 18:56, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Or you can go to Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs and look for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. —Mets501 (talk) 00:43, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

ok, it doesn't seem i have it. I think i rm it because Visual Studio 2003 wasn't working with it, and i also currently only have the 1.1 SDK. Is there anything else I'll need to do (like reinstalling Visual Studio, or first uninstalling 1.1) to make the transition go smoothly? -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 15:54, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 on my pc with Visual Studio 2003 and Visual Studio 2005. If V1 is installed and patched up to date, just stick on V2, and it works along side it, i believe i had to reinstall both as my machine played up, but they do work fine with both installed on the same machine!! Reedy Boy 10:12, 23 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Why does AWB add so many blank lines above {stub}s causing a bunch of excess white space?

(included from User talk:Safemariner)

Like here? Can you please cite the page of the Manual of Style or related document that states extra blank lines are a good thing? I haven't come across it since I've been editing since early 2004. 71.231.107.188 00:49, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It makes sure that there is space between the top of the stub and the preceding text. In some cases, difficult to define (and even more difficult to recall), insufficient space causes unsightly collisions. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 14:52, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Most of the baseball bio stubs would be good examples. AWB adds the perfect number of blank lines for those. Kathy A. 14:56, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Creating red links

I'm currently going through and replacing all instances of "womens", "womens'" to "women's" and similarly for "men's" and "children's", and I'm encountering a lot of situations where making this correction will create a red link. I had been simply ignoring such changes when they're in internal links, but I was wondering what the general thought is on this situation. Should I go ahead and make the typo fix creating the red link or not make these changes at all? It's rather tedious to create the appropriate redirect or whatever, and I don't really feel inclined to do that. Thoughts? --Thiseye 02:20, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I managed to crash AWB!

How long have I being trying now? I was wondering whether I could misuse the new Disambiguation feature to fix up redirects. So I went to the appropriate tab, enabled the Disambig feature and entered the name of the redirect in question (Primaeval (TV series) FWIW). I then clicked "Load links" and was gifted with the following error:

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

Primaeval (TV series) either does not exist or has no links Make sure it is spelt correctly.

together with the following:

See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
WikiFunctions.Lists.PageDoesNotExistException: Primaeval (TV series) either does not exist or has no links. Make sure it is spelt correctly.
   at WikiFunctions.Lists.GetLists.FromLinksOnPage(Int32 Limit, String[] Articles)
   at WikiFunctions.Lists.GetLists.FromLinksOnPage(String[] Articles)
   at AutoWikiBrowser.MainForm.btnLoadLinks_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
AutoWikiBrowser
    Assembly Version: 3.1.0.0
    Win32 Version: 3.1.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/phil/Desktop/Phil's%20Local%20Files/AutoWikiBrowser.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
WikiFunctions
    Assembly Version: 3.1.0.0
    Win32 Version: 3.1.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/phil/Desktop/Phil's%20Local%20Files/WikiFunctions.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

I'm rather assuming that the second paragraph (about the page not having any links) was the message I was supposed to get, and the rest is some kind of bonus. Happily, clicking "Continue" does indeed deposit me gently back whence I came, giving me the opportunity to repent (as if ). HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 14:50, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

OMG fixed :D MaxSem 14:27, 23 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Kudos

Just wanted to say a big thanks to all the folks who have worked on making AWB what it is. Every time I use it, I find some nifty new thing it does. I know you hear all the complaints, so I just wanted to make sure you heard some thanks, too. Kathy A. 21:30, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Anything like it for Mac X?

DGG 03:42, 23 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think there was a user who made a port of it for Mac X to run his/her bot, but I can't remember who it was. —Mets501 (talk) 04:09, 23 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If someone finds one, please let me know. I'd love to be able to run AWB at home instead of at work (when I really should be working... *grin*).Kathy A. 14:46, 23 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I second that! —MJCdetroit 02:17, 25 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with Multiple wiki links alert function

There are two bugs in this function

When one has completed the last link which is duplicated, that name disappears from the list. Then when you click on the next link on the list, a message appears which reads "No more occurances". In the previous version this message appeared when clicking on the link which was last completed and which subsequently removed from the list. This is preferable because it confirms that no more duplicates exist. As it stands now, it seems that the program isn't finding any duplicates of the next name on the list, but if that is clicked again the first occurance of that link is highlighted.
1. To expand on this. The bug is the AWB will search too the last occurance of a word so if i have 3 multilinks in the list Apple , Car and Boat and I hit apple first it will find the first apple link but if I hit car or boat next it will jump to the next occurance of apple and will continue to do so until its shown me every apple link . I hope i've made that clear (Gnevin 01:28, 26 January 2007 (UTC))[reply]
After finishing the complete list an error message occurs which reads: "Unhandled exception has occurred in your appliation. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error ..." etc. This error was not noticed in the previous version.

While on the subject of this Multiple links function a couple of enhancement seem to me:

Allow a user to remove a link from the alerts list if one chooses to leave duplicates (like when a link appears in an info box and somewhere else in the article). It is inconvenient to have a number of links which have already been reviewed when working with a long list.
Have the program propose a replacement for the link (ie. the text highlighted, but without the link brackets.) Permit the user to accept this proposal, or modify it, but have it stick until the occurances of that link have been reviewed. --JAXHERE | ^Talk 17:01, 24 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Moving pages

Quick sanity check: if I move a page with AWB, does AWB then open the page in its new location for me to process further? Also, if I make some changes and then move the page, do those changes get applied to the page in its new location? (Because if not, then they should be…) HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 14:23, 25 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unlinking section headings

Could someone please disable the code which unlinks section headings. It's true that section headings should generally not be true - however, blindly unlinking them is not the way to fix it. I fear that many useful links which are giving context to the following text are being lost. At a very minimum, could it check to see whether the target of the link is linked to anywhere else in the article, and only unlink if there's at least one other link to it? Stevage 00:41, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm removed the function completely for now, because unless we can think of a really great way to do this, then the whole function just creates more problems than it solves. —Mets501 (talk) 02:21, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've been restoring the links into {{main | link | l1 = link-title }} (taking advantage of the auxiliary parameters to {{main}}) placed just below the heading. Maybe we could offer this as an option, with a dialog to allow the user to adjust what template gets used in case things change? Obviously this doesn't work if somebody has been silly enough to put a linked date in the heading, but you can't legislate for everything… HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 09:15, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unlinking links in headings has been discussed before. I suggested that a link in the heading should only be unlinked when it can be found in the following text or paragraph (either the bit before the pipe of after the pipe) and the AWB would move the link from the heading to the text semi-automatically. Snowman 19:22, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for making the change. I think unlinking always requires a bit of human judgment. Possibly you could insert a comment like [!-- Section headings shouldn't be linked - see WP:MOS. Consider using the {main|..} template or linking the phrase in the following text instead. --] after the offending linked section heading. Stevage 01:16, 27 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Bot access

How would I get bot access? I would like to run through many pages and auto-save them using the typo fixer. Is this allowed? If so how can I get bot access? Comperr 18:37, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This is not the kind of activity which we would consider wise to allow a bot to perform unsupervised: there are way too many cases where the typo-fixer takes a guess which is simply wrong, or inappropriate (like for example in a quotation where the spelling needs to be preserved). HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 09:17, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It wouldnt get Bot Approval for that full stop. Reedy Boy 16:41, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the answer. On a side note - what would be considered for bot access? Comperr 18:37, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you could find a specific use for AWB you could. Say if you were to undertake a large template substitution, and could show some edits that are fine, you could get bot status, to therefore enable auto mode in AWB meaning it would be done automatically... Reedy Boy 18:52, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Latest SVN Commit

Is unbuildable

Doesnt like the parameters passed for one of the items

Reedy Boy 20:05, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Date conversion

AWB currently converts dates like 17th April -> 17 April, but does not link them as per the manual of style. Is there a way to implement this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Robertvan1 (talk • contribs) 15:30, 27 January 2007 (UTC).[reply]

There isn't anything in AWB, but I do have a regplex that does this job (regplex meaning a sequence of regex replacements executed in a specific order). It is a bit involved, do you want me post them? Gaius Cornelius 18:57, 27 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Skip if no replacement" option inhibits Re-parse option

If you have "Skip article when no replacement made" ticked, the "Re-parse" option on the edit area's context menu stops working. This took me some while to figure out what was wrong, since the connection is not obvious. "What up with that?" as the man said… HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 19:31, 27 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]