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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 62.140.253.8 (talk) at 14:55, 30 May 2009 (→‎Using AWB on Custom Web-sites: fix your site). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

AutoWikiBrowser 6.3.1.1

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 the next 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.
  • When I try to update to the new version 4.0, the updater freezes halfway through.
    There is a bug in the version 3.9 updater. If you encounter this problem, uninstall AWB, and then re-install the latest version from Sourceforge.
  • Does AWB run on Linux or Mac?
    AWB installs and starts in Wine with native Microsoft .NET 2.0 installed (Wine 1.1.12 or later). It doesn't work very well yet, probably due to missing functions used by .NET - please file specific application bugs in Wine!
    See here for a status report of AWB vs Mono v2
    • Please note that problems with AWB on Wine/Mono or Wine/.NET are not reportable AWB bugs.
    A native version, PyAutoWikiBrowser (screenshots here), based on Python, is being developed 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, if you go to the General menu and select "User and project preferences", 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.
  • AWB puts stubs after categories, though categories are always rendered the last by MediaWiki?
    According to WP:STUB#Categorizing stubs, By convention this is 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 other 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.

Problems with other software

  • Modified versions of monobook.js (e.g. to utilise popups, godmode-light etc.): AWB works, but page loading can be slow. Workaround is to disable Active Scripting in Internet Explorer - see AWB Tips and tricks for more information and workaround.
    • Bugs in monobook.js can cause AWB to crash or be unable to load pages. Use the same workaround, or refer to the answer in the FAQ above. If you've updated monobook.js and are experiencing problems, please verify the bug still occurs with a blank monobook.js before reporting it as an AWB bug.
  • Wikipedia Skins other than monobook: AWB might not work with other skins due to the skins having bugs.
  • NoScript (Firefox extension) or other XSS-related extensions: some features such as "Open text in browser" may not work correctly. Workaround for NoScript: Disable the "Sanitize cross-site suspicious requests" option.

Discussion

This talk page is automatically archived by MiszaBot I. Any sections older than 7 days are automatically archived to Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 19. Sections without timestamps are not archived.

Null-edit

What is the easiest way to null-edit multiple pages with AWB? Can such function be build in? (I often need to null-edit multiple pages when some admin has made an uncarefull edit to a template and a group of articles got listed in a certain error category and is cluttering up that category.)

Bots and nobots

I just need some clarification: Does checking Ignore {{bots}} and {{nobots}} cause AWB to skip articles with them on it, or does checking it disable automatic skipping of pages with them? Thanks. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:03, 13 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you tell it to ignore that (ie check the checkbox), it wouldn't just skip the page like it would've normally if it had nobots on it disabling access etc —Reedy 22:55, 13 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, thanks. That button just seems kind of confusingly worded. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 23:09, 13 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Suggest an improvement? ;) —Reedy 23:13, 13 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe just a tooltip or something saying "Checking this box will cause you to edit pages with the {{bots}} and {{nobots}} tags on them. By default these pages are skipped." –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 23:17, 13 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
"Disregard" rather than "Ignore" might be better verbiage, since "ignore" has a specific meaning for AWB. –xeno talk 13:55, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
That would probably be good. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 14:23, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

rev 4325 Tooltip added. Rjwilmsi 20:43, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Great; thanks. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:47, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Did you change it to "disregard" as well? Because it doesn't ignore it, it clearly recognizes it, but disregards it =) –xeno talk 21:03, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Wording is "Checking this box will cause you to edit pages with the {{bots}} and {{nobots}} tags on them. By default these pages are skipped." Rjwilmsi 15:03, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

IS this an error?

An imagemap in 90482 Orcus contains a self-link. AWB removed it. Arguably the entire part of the imagemap that self links isn't needed - an editor says the self-link is needed for the mouse-over. I might question th evalue of the mouse-over anyway. But... Rich Farmbrough, 21:28 21 May 2009 (UTC).

There was a bug report/fix for imagemaps recently. Besides that, personally, I think the self-link is highly confusing. -- User:Docu
According to mw:Extension:ImageMap, it doesn't look like it's possible to specify names w/o links. -- User:Docu
It appears not. I wonde rehterht to go back to this user. Rich Farmbrough, 19:42 23 May 2009 (UTC).

Stats

What happened to these? They seemed OK recently yet they now look broken. Rich Farmbrough, 19:42 23 May 2009 (UTC).

Which stats? [1] ? —Reedy 19:46, 23 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Those ones can't be right. Only 100,000 saves in over a year? Rjwilmsi 15:04, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm. Looks like somethings happened to the database. I've poked Kingboyk... —Reedy 19:22, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
[2] - Those go upto somepoint on the 19 May.. The stats then start from the 20 May... We're investigating it. —Reedy 11:46, 25 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

change parameter value in a template

Is there a good syntax to change the value of, or remove, a template parameter? What I want to do is go through some articles using {{WPBiography}} and under certain conditions remove yes from the parameter needs-photo or remove the parameter totally. Problem is there are many permutations of number of spaces between the pipe and equal signs. I cannot figure out a successful syntax. Traveler100 (talk) 12:56, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A regular expression like find: ({{WPBiography *\|(?:[^{}]+?\|)? *needs-photo *= *)yes replace: $1 should work to remove the yes from the parameter with AWB's standard find & replace option, with regex checked. As I understand it you wouldn't need to remove the whole parameter, just the yes to deactivate the hidden category listing. Rjwilmsi 15:00, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
thanks I would never of worked that out. Does not appear to work on multi-line entries but it helped me to understand a little about the syntax and have now found a solution.Traveler100 (talk) 18:33, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Lifetime template placement

I have been approached about the placement of the lifetime template and I tend to agree with them that placing lifetime after the categories is not the best. Here is 1 discussion Template talk:Lifetime#Placement and on my talk page.--Kumioko (talk) 19:02, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Puzzled

RETF copy of the rule. 

<Typo word="Breakage" find="{{(Close paraphrase)(\|[^=}]*)*}}" replace="{{$1$2|date=May 2009}}" />

run on Disaster preparedness and Emergency Response Association gives this.

there are no problems AFAICS with other templates. It surely shouldn't match?

Rich Farmbrough, 01:16 28 May 2009 (UTC).

I think the "*)*" is the problem. Try removing the second star. Rjwilmsi 07:57, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yes the star is un-needed as it is written. However it shouldn't be a problem. It should simply match
with or without the star. Admittedly with the * it has several ways to match it, and more back-tracking to do than without. I will try instead: (\|[^=}\|]*)* which should al least be faster. Rich Farmbrough, 12:03, 28 May 2009 (UTC).[reply]

Of course the * also makes the element optional, which I need. Rich Farmbrough, 12:11, 28 May 2009 (UTC).[reply]

(\|[^={}]*)? Would give the same result faster I think. Rjwilmsi 12:44, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Spanning over languages

Hi there

I wanted to write a plugin for a very specific task, but after browsing through sources I'm not sure if it's even possible - maybe you guys could help me.

My idea was to create a module to help translating articles from wikis in other languages. This module would check interwiki and based on this findings would fix internal links. For example, I copy article from en.wiki to my sandbox on pl.wiki, then run module on this sandbox. AWB checks articles linked in sandbox, but on en.wiki, checks if it has interwiki to pl.wiki, and fixes this links in my sandbox. I've done this in pywikipediabot, but I wanted to have a similar functionality in AWB. But as far as I could see, in AWB I can work only on one chosen wiki. Is that right? --leafnode (talk) 09:39, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you're right, so AWB is not the tool for your plugin. Rjwilmsi 17:39, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It could be.. You can create your own instance of an ApiEdit object in a plugin or custom module (more tempted to use plugin), and have that fetch article text from remote wiki's... —Reedy 18:02, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Using AWB on Custom Web-sites

Is there a help section for using AWB on a Custom Web-site?

In Sept 08, I was using AWB to update our internal Wiki site but it then failed and MaxSem(Han shot first!) told me that there was a problem with our installation of MediaWiki see my discussion page. We are now using the latest version of MediaWiki but I still can not set the Preferences > Site to use our own installation of MediaWiki www.local.spadental.co.uk/wiki -- Cjchilling (talk) 16:58, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You're using a strange setup. You seem to have nearly done the "Pretty links", but not quite. "/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page" should really be working as "/wiki/Main_Page". Then your scripts directory should be at "/w/" with api.php and such in there... —Reedy 18:01, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
What are the "Pretty links"? As far as I know we took all the defaults when installing MediaWiki. We do not have a sub-directory called wiki/w/ the api.php has been installed in the root wiki/ folder. What do I need to do to make this installation "normal"? -- Cjchilling (talk) 21:15, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Its not a physical directory, its done with .htaccess and URL re-writes. For example, you'll see on wikipedia its http://site/wiki/Page, except when your editing or using the api, when its http://site/w/api.php etc. See mw:Manual:Short URL —Reedy 22:05, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This article refers to installations on Apache, can you use .htaccess on an IIS server and if so what would I put in the file to redirect for an installation which the MediaWiki root is phyiscally at e:\www_wiki\wiki ? --Cjchilling (talk) 22:47, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

According to [3], your wiki lacks numerous API actions that are needed for AWB to work. I don't know what's the cause, but AWB needs at least action=query just to begin working with your site. This action is present in default API setup and needs something intentional to be disabled. 62.140.253.8 (talk) 14:55, 30 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

FYI, Users who use the SVN Snapshots

As of the snapshot using rev 4394, I've made some changes (as per rjwilmsi's feature request), i've change the control that is used for the article textbox.

I've fixed problems introduced with the new control (diff's etc).. As far as we've seen its still working the same, though there may be a few little niggles and annoyances...

If you could just let us know if you find something wrong (specifically related to edit control/diff etc), and make sure the version is recorded...

All should be fine, but you never know. But hey, you're the ones living on the edge ;)

—Reedy 23:58, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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