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This is the discussion page for the AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) project. It is also the place to discuss using the AWB program (for help, questions, or general inquiries about AWB). Specific guidelines on where to make particular reports or requests are provided in the § Before you post section below. Before asking a question, please refer to the read the § Frequently asked questions below.

Archives

Index 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
31, 32, 33, 34

This page has archives. Sections older than 30 days may be automatically archived by .

Before you post

Do you want to ...

Please use

Report a bug or request a feature in AWB?

Check reported bugs on Phabricator before filing a new bug report. You do not need to create another account there; just log in with your global Wikimedia account. See this MediaWiki wiki page on how to report bugs and request features on Phabricator.

Report a bug

Try to report bugs in the current version of the software. Update to the most recent version and check to make sure your bug has not already been reported on Phabricator. See How to Report Bugs Effectively for advice on how to write bug reports.

Before posting anything related to non-Wikimedia Foundation wikis, verify that the site is running a recent version of MediaWiki with enabled Bot API. Older versions of MediaWiki or without the Bot API are not supported. Be sure to mention the exact URL of your wiki.

Request a feature details
Please use the feature request button to submit new feature requests. This format helps the developers track and manage requests efficiently. Before submitting, take a moment to search the archives—both on-wiki and on Phabricator—to see if a similar request has already been discussed.

Report an incorrectly fixed typo?

Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Typos

Request approval to use AWB?

Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/AutoWikiBrowser

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 Windows 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.
- AWB (Windows) with Unix scripts can be done with Cygwin or Virtualbox
- On the Mac, AWB is not natively available, but an option is to use virtualisation with Parallels Desktop for Mac (subject to meeting supported operating systems requirements) and then run Microsoft Windows virtually with AWB as the Windows instructions above. Note this option is not free, as a license is required for both Parallels Desktop for Mac and Microsoft Windows. An alternative visualization method is to use the free VirtualBox, see also Comparison of platform virtual machines.
- You can use the JavaScript Wiki Browser instead.
Does AWB work on other projects and 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.
Under Windows Vista (and newer), AWB is using wrong font size, which results in clipped text and lost buttons and options, (see example here). How to fix it?
Tracked in Phabricator
Task T103506
- Solution #1: Go to "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display" and switch resizing of the fonts to 100%.
- Solution #2: Right click on AutoWikiBrowser.exe --> Properties -> Compatibility (tab) --> enable the "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" option or for Windows 10, if available, select System (Enhanced).
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 the version number of your AWBUpdater.exe. The current version is 2.4.0.0. 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.
Where are the default settings stored?
- Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\AutoWikiBrowser
- Windows Vista onwards: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser\Default.xml
I cannot copy text from the diff window using the Control+C keyboard shortcut.
You must have Microsoft.mshtml.dll available for AWB to use for this functionality to work. You can try downloading the file (there are a number of third-party websites offering DLL file downloads) and putting it in the same folder as AutoWikiBrowser.exe. This is reported not to work for all users, presumably due to .NET Framework problems.
Is there any way to set AWB to not use https? (GFW blocks 443 port)
In preferences, set project to "custom". Set the left box to http. In the webpage box, type en.wikipedia.org/w/ (English Wikipedia) or zh.wikipedia.org/w/ (Chinese Wikipedia). Note that leaving off the /w/ will result in a "root element missing" error.
How do I login to AWB with accounts enabled with two-factor authentication?
You should use a bot password. Despite the name, they aren't just for bots. See Wikipedia:Using AWB with 2FA.

Discussion

Adding WikiProject banners

Hi, is WP:Kingbotk still used for this? It doesn't seem the bot is active and I can't see a way to do edit WikiProject banner shells on vanilla AWB Kowal2701 (talk) 08:44, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm about to begin tagging articles for WP:WikiProject Anthropology/Oral tradition taskforce. I've gotten AWB to work however I'm stuck regarding KingbotK (TL;DR the KingbotK plugin fails to load). I've followed the instructions and have downloaded it and moved it into the same file as AutoWikiBrowser.exe.config. When I load AWB and click the 'Plugins' tab I get two options: 'Load...' and 'Manager...' Load takes me to the file and I click on 'Kingbotk AWB Plugin.dll'. Nothing changes, and when I click Manager it tells me it failed to load with no further information or options. Kowal2701 (talk) 11:25, 2 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Any help would be greatly appreciated Kowal2701 (talk) 15:33, 6 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Probably because of the "don't trust downloaded dlls" feature that's now pretty much default in Windows. Especially if you had to go through a "yes, really run this" procedure the first time you launched AWB. Anyway, find the DLL itself under the Plugins directory, right-click, Properties. If you see "This file came from another computer..." and an Unblock checkbox, click it and hit OK. I wish we didn't have to do this, but MS has decided to save you from yourself. David Brooks (talk) 17:09, 7 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@DavidBrooks thank you so much! Please have a great day Kowal2701 (talk) 17:48, 7 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@DavidBrooks sorry to bother you, but do you know how to go about tagging articles for a taskforce? It doesn't seem like the generic template on Kingbotk supports taskforces unless I'm mistaken Kowal2701 (talk) 17:36, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Kowal2701: Not my area of expertise, sorry. David Brooks (talk) 18:24, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

no worries, thank you for replying Kowal2701 (talk) 18:25, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Why is AWB PC only

Will there ever be mobile support? (such as a link in the sidebar or the three dots icon when visiting an article) Electrou (formerly Susbush) (talk) 13:52, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You're free to take the code and port it to mobile systems if you want. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 14:05, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Even I'm on mobile, but how will I get the code for it (I want to create a port to mobile) Electrou (formerly Susbush) (talk) 15:52, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's linked above. The codebase is in C#, so I don't know what toolchains there presently are for that. Remsense ‥ 论 16:21, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Where is the link? I don't see it. Electrou (formerly Susbush) (talk) 16:32, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Technical. Remsense ‥ 论 16:33, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's just for computer Electrou (formerly Susbush) (talk) 16:39, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Correct. It's the source code for a C# app written for Windows. Remsense ‥ 论 16:46, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The app is based on Windows Forms, which was very much designed around Windows itself (its successor, WPF, was/is more mobile and cross-platform friendly). It uses a lot of other Windows-specific API. Also, its UI has a lot of "chrome" (interacting elements) and would require a complete re-think to fit onto a small screen. You might get a clue from the Windows Portability Analyzer, but it's over 10 years old and won't even install on my system. If I were seriously tasked with doing this, I might start with the official Wikipedia mobile app and think through what AWB features I might like to wrap around it. No, not volunteering! David Brooks (talk) 18:50, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Electrou, you can always try JWB in the desktop mode on mobiles. It has less functionality then AWB, but can be good enough for your tasks. IKhitron (talk) 14:03, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tagging for taskforces

Does anyone know how to go about tagging pages for taskforces using WP:AWB? It doesn't seem like the generic template on Kingbotk supports taskforces unless I'm mistaken. Kowal2701 (talk) 18:30, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I assume you mean something like adding |eclipses=yes to {{astronomy}}? If so, I feel like just adding the taskforce to the template call directly would be easiest. I generally do a find/replace adding in the extra parameter. Primefac (talk) 13:36, 6 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's really clever, thank you! Kowal2701 (talk) 13:51, 6 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Primefac sorry to bother you again, but Kingbotk isn't putting the template in the banner shell, but at the top of the page. It still does this with all AWB features like Find and Replace turned off. Append/prepend text is turned off. This was working fine earlier. The generic template has alternate names, and I've added a "Skip regular expression". No worries if you're too busy Kowal2701 (talk) 12:58, 12 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've never used Kingbotk so I don't know how it should be tweaked to get your desired outcome. Primefac (talk) 17:37, 12 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Add TOCright template to pages

I am trying to add the TOCright template to various pages on a wiki, but I can't figure out to add a template to a page. I tried to prepend

{{TOCright}}

onto the pages, but it just added the plain text to the page. Sorry to ask something so basic, but I searched for the solution and just couldn't find it. Thx! Fluffbutter (talk) 18:50, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Are you saying that it's adding just the text to the code, or when you view the page after saving you only see the actual {{TOCright}}? Primefac (talk) 20:31, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It added the text

Template:TOCright

to the page.

But I figured it out. I didn't have the capitalization correct for the name of the template on the wiki I am working on. With the correct capitalization, the prepend worked.

Thx for taking the time to respond! Fluffbutter (talk) 21:17, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wine instructions out-of-date?

The instructions on using AWB with Wine seem to be very out-of-date and a bit confusing. – Closed Limelike Curves (talk) 19:09, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Kingbotk

Hi, Kingbotk isn't putting the template in the banner shell, but at the top of the page. It still does this with all AWB features like Find and Replace turned off and when you click "Set AWB" in the Plugin tab. Append/prepend text is turned off. This was working fine earlier, there's probably just a small tweak needed. The generic template has alternate names, and I've added a "Skip regular expression". Any help would be greatly appreciated. Kowal2701 (talk) 17:49, 12 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I really know nothing about this plugin, but I do notice a comment on its PrependTemplate method:

"// Add the template on the top. General fixes will put in a shell if it exists"

which suggests something needs to be done at the main AWB level. But again I really don't know. David Brooks (talk) 16:34, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much. It works! The plugin has an option to "Set AWB" which turns general fixes off, but that must be for the templates it already supports, rather than the generic template where you make your own. Have a great day/rest of your day! Kowal2701 (talk) 18:09, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

One thought on that, which I now remember from a similar case a while back - append/prepend is done after genfixes, so if you're doing so and want genfixes to run, use the "F5"/refresh option after the changes have been made, which will re-run the genfixes and should hopefully move any banners into the shell if it's there. Primefac (talk) 11:42, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

DJ Dominnic

I’m not sure what happened with the article. I only intended to add tags and fix typos, but somehow it ended up creating an article. Can someone help me understand what went wrong? Comr Melody Idoghor (talk) 15:37, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You edited the article seconds after the page was deleted, so you saved an edit on a page with no history. Primefac (talk) 15:45, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, that makes much sense. Thanks for clarifying. Comr Melody Idoghor (talk) 15:52, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Delete feature

Hi! Although I am the admin on Ukrainian Wikipedia, AWB does not let me delete or protect pages. Can someone help with this? Renvoy (talk) 13:30, 19 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Following" #Rs from moves without an #R left behind

I frequently come across pages that have been moved without leaving a redirect, like Category talk:Piano pedagogues. The destination, Category talk:Piano educators, is right there on the (browser) page, and I'd like to capture it, but can't figure out how. The api doesn't return the destination, and using the normal URLs [1][2] both return null Tools.GetHTML(). Does anyone know how this can be done? ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 15:28, 19 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you use the API to query for move events in the logs for the page the info you need is shown: move log. Rjwilmsi 09:39, 20 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent, thank you! ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 09:44, 20 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Restarting in >> seconds (again)

I downloaded it three days ago on Windows 11, AWB Version 6.3.1.1 (SVN 12633). I want to work on the Slovenian Wikipedia, so I am logged in there. Other Slovenian users don’t have any issues. It works fine until I press the "Save" button, after which I get the message "Restarting in ...". Pinky sl (talk) 14:37, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of blp parameter by genfixes

In this diff, the |blp=no parameter was removed from {{WikiProject banner shell}}, which is incorrect. This parameter is needed to identify that the subject is not living. Otherwise the page ends up in Category:Biography articles without living parameter which is a maintenance category — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 22:09, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This came up earlier in the year (see /Archive 34#Request to change banner shell general fixes) and is tracked by T358963. If I recall correctly the OP had already fixed the cases they were concerned about. I just noticed it was also reported at /General fixes#BLP tagging. David Brooks (talk) 16:14, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

OK, rev 12643 / T358963 don't remove "blp=no" from WikiProject banner shell. Will be in next release of AWB. Rjwilmsi 17:33, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No longer handling WP:ORDER issues (specifically WP:STUBSPACING)

Resolved

I'm having to manually drop the stub templates two spaces down where previously AWB did a pretty good job at handling those. It seemed to work nicely, whether the stub templates were butted up right beneath the categories, or whether they were mixed in with some of the nav templates. Seems like that functionality is gone now. Dawnseeker2000 22:19, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I may be an idiot. Gen Fixes was off so continuing to edit and see if that does the trick. Dawnseeker2000 22:28, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]