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Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
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Discussion
Two questions
1) How do I append the template {{Use New Zealand English|date={{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}}}? (in a place that satisfies MOS:ORDER) I've seen several people doing this with {{Use mdy dates}} before so I know it's possible.
2) I've seen people debating whether these templates are cosmetic or not. I use the engvar templates to find and replace American spellings with New Zealand/British/Australian ones, so it may indirectly be considered not cosmetic. Am I right in thinking this way? Because I have to manually review the English variation in each article I am not considering a bot request. —Panamitsu (talk) 09:37, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
- @Panamitsu:
- 1) Here's what I suggest:
- On the More... tab (see Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/User manual#More... for a screen shot):
- Check the Enable box
- Select the Prepend radio button (prepend adds to the beginning, whereas append adds to the end)
- Add {{Use New Zealand English|date={{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}}} in the text box
- Set the box to Use 1 newlines
- Check the Sort meta data after box
- On the Options tab:
- Check Auto tag, Apply general fixes, Unicodify whole page, and Regex typo fixing (The more AWB can do, the less likely someone will consider this a cosmetic edit.)
- Add find and replace rules to change American English to New Zealand English, and check the box to Add replacements to edit summary
- Under Options > Default Edit Summaries...
- Create an edit summary such as "Added Template:Use New Zealand English and general fixes"
- On the Start tab:
- Select the Default Summary you added
- Check the Minor edit box
- See my edit to 1936 in New Zealand as an example (except I forgot to check the Minor edit box)
- 2) I can see why some people think that adding the template would be cosmetic because it doesn't change the visual rendering of the page. However WP:COSMETICEDIT reminds us that the maintenance of hidden categories is a substantive edit.
- Happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 16:03, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
- @GoingBatty: Except, shouldn't you have used subst: in the CURRENT... templates on line 1? I'll let you fix if necessary in case I misunderstood. @Panamitsu: hold off on that template addition, but I think I'm right. David Brooks (talk) 22:08, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks! I'll try this.
- Yup, it should be {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}, my bad. As GoingBatty's edit didn't substitute the template it just inserted the template instead of the current month/year. I've checked the visual editor and it uses subst: for dated templates. —Panamitsu (talk) 22:18, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
- @DavidBrooks: You are correct. I just copied the template from the question without reviewing it for accuracy.
- @Panamitsu: Thank you for fixing the 1936 in New Zealand article I edited. Hopefully the rest of my recommendation meets your needs. GoingBatty (talk) 22:30, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
- @GoingBatty: Except, shouldn't you have used subst: in the CURRENT... templates on line 1? I'll let you fix if necessary in case I misunderstood. @Panamitsu: hold off on that template addition, but I think I'm right. David Brooks (talk) 22:08, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
adding connected contributor template
Hello, I'm learning how to use AWB to add a connected contributor template to a bunch of pages I've edited. The how-to in "two questions" was really helpful! Talk:Lloyd_Alexander shows my first test edit. Is it okay to have the connected contributor template prepended, or is there a way to add it after the talk page banners and before general talk page discussion (this is how I normally see it added)? Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 15:58, 1 April 2024 (UTC)
- Yes; on the
More...
tab, make sure theSort meta data after
option is checked. You will then prepend the template, and AWB will place it in the correct place. Primefac (talk) 12:14, 2 April 2024 (UTC)- Thank you Primefac. I have "sort meta data after" checked. Can I assume that before the talkpage banners is the correct place? Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 16:14, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
- If you have it sorting after you place the banner, it *should* put them after the {{talk header}} and {{WPBS}} (pretty sure it's the last thing before discussions). Primefac (talk) 16:19, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
- Well, that's not what it's doing when "sort meta data after" is checked. I wish I knew more about how AWB works so I could troubleshoot. I tried Appending, and that just put the banner at the bottom of the talk page. I could just leave it at the top, or manually insert the edit at the desired point on the talk page below the wikiproject banners. Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 18:36, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
- Weird. Just checked on a few pages; if the template is already on the page, AWB will move it to the right place. If it's not already on the page, with or without the "sort after" checked it just leaves it prepended...
- At the end of the day, I don't think it really matters as long as it's on the page, so just keep prepending (especially if you have a lot of them) at the top of the page and let someone who cares about banner order sort out the rest (unless someone who hasn't noticed this conversation in the last 28 hours actually comments on the "proper" way to sort this out). Primefac (talk) 18:41, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
- Per Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/User_manual#More... user manual use the option to "sort metadata after", then you should get the outcome needed. Rjwilmsi 09:35, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
- Rjwilmsi, I tested this with my own account and it doesn't work. Steps to reproduce:
- Open a Talk page in AWB
- Prepend {{connected contributor}} or {{connected contributor (paid)}} with 1 new line, sorting metadata after. For realism I copied the basic example from the /doc.
- Template is placed above other banners
- On the other hand, loading up Talk:Lloyd Alexander into AWB with genfixes moves Rachel's disclosure to the proper place (but leaves mine in the "wrong" place). Primefac (talk) 11:25, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
- OK, I see. That "sort meta data" must be the mainpage one then, not for talk pages. In which case the simple option is to load the edit then use the right click option in the edit box to reparse. Rjwilmsi 13:18, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
- Rjwilmsi, I tested this with my own account and it doesn't work. Steps to reproduce:
- Per Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/User_manual#More... user manual use the option to "sort metadata after", then you should get the outcome needed. Rjwilmsi 09:35, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
- Well, that's not what it's doing when "sort meta data after" is checked. I wish I knew more about how AWB works so I could troubleshoot. I tried Appending, and that just put the banner at the bottom of the talk page. I could just leave it at the top, or manually insert the edit at the desired point on the talk page below the wikiproject banners. Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 18:36, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
- If you have it sorting after you place the banner, it *should* put them after the {{talk header}} and {{WPBS}} (pretty sure it's the last thing before discussions). Primefac (talk) 16:19, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you Primefac. I have "sort meta data after" checked. Can I assume that before the talkpage banners is the correct place? Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 16:14, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
Removing whitespace from wikilinks causes problems
The general fixes (FixLinkWhitespace to be exact) seems to remove necessary whitespace from wikilinks. Can anyone confirm that this happens? I don't have access to AWB on en-wiki.
2001:14BA:9C94:9A00:11CF:7E9F:8A27:4B39 (talk) 02:43, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
- Leading/trailing spaces shouldn't be inside the links in the first place. Also, for the first case, you would want to avoid a WP:SEAOFBLUE.
- In the first case, since India is less useful for linking, I'd do: [[Indian epic poetry|Indian epic]].
- In the second case, I'd do: presented by [[Ally Financial|Ally]]
- What AWB did is actually correct as far as how it's supposed to work (it assumes text and/or links next to each other stay that way, and leading/trailing spaces within links don't belong). But since we're also supposed to review any changes before saving, this is where manual edits come into play. Remember - this is a semi-automated helper, rather than a fully automated doer. Stefen Towers among the rest! Gab • Gruntwerk 03:10, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
- Hi there!
- For Panch Kedar, AWB's general fixes want to change
[[India|Indian ]][[Indian epic poetry|epic]]
to[[India]]n[[Indian epic poetry|epic]]
, which is still displayed as Indianepic. - For Maya Higa, AWB's general fixes don't change
''Nerve Center presented by[[Ally Financial| Ally]]''
because of the italics. However, without the italics, AWB's general fixes would make the change as you described above.
- For Panch Kedar, AWB's general fixes want to change
- @StefenTower: AWB is used both by humans as a semi-automated helper and by bots as a fully automated doer, sometimes with general fixes checked. GoingBatty (talk) 03:23, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
- Hi there!
- This is a GIGO issue; I would suggest AWB genfixes check to make sure
]][[
gets fixed, but on the flip side I can see valid uses in cat links etc so maybe a WP:WCW error could be created. Primefac (talk) 11:37, 4 April 2024 (UTC)- Is there any harm in moving the space outside of the wikilink? If two adjacent spaces are created, the renderer will shrink them to one. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:33, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
- We could even move the space outside if and only if there is no space there already. I suspect that this plan would produce the text the author intended more often than the current behaviour. However, it depends on context and either way the machine is guessing and a human eye is required:
[[India ]]n poetry
needs to be treated differently from[[India ]]is big
. Certes (talk) 20:07, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
- We could even move the space outside if and only if there is no space there already. I suspect that this plan would produce the text the author intended more often than the current behaviour. However, it depends on context and either way the machine is guessing and a human eye is required:
- Is there any harm in moving the space outside of the wikilink? If two adjacent spaces are created, the renderer will shrink them to one. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:33, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
- This doesn't seem to come from FixLinkWhitespace (FLW) but from SimplifyLinks (SL) because disabling FLW didn't stop the general fixes from removing whitespace from wikilinks but disabling SL did. I had to disable SL in another wiki where people use VisualEditor a lot, and the users of VisualEditor tend to leave behind tons of wikilinks with weird spacing. So, if someone else also uses the Customised "General Fixes" and wants to disable this behavior until it's fixed, they'll have to disable this:
a.AWBChangeArticleText("Simplify links", WikiFunctions.Parse.Parsers.SimplifyLinks(a.ArticleText), true);
- --JAAqqO (talk) 02:04, 28 April 2024 (UTC)
Removal of AWB Perms
This edit request to Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Please remove my name from the AWB check page. I haven't used it for a while and I don't see a need to use it for now. I'll make a request again at WP:RFPERM if I need it again. Thank you. Awesome Aasim 17:23, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
- Done * Pppery * it has begun... 17:47, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
Dab links
Hi, I am trying to fix these links at [[1]] using AWB. I read the manual on how to do this, but it is very confusing. For example, I want to change all Outline of New York links to Outline of New York (state). Can someone walk me through how I can fix this using AWB? Interstellarity (talk) 21:17, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
- @Interstellarity: As they're all different (some are to sections, etc.) and there are only a dozen templates, I would be tempted to change their links manually then work through the new dabs with DisamAssist to fix the links in articles. I can help with this if you wish. Certes (talk) 08:17, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- Many of these have been sorted out, and I've fixed of the remainder. I don't think AWB would have helped. Certes (talk) 18:51, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- @Certes: Thanks for helping out. Interstellarity (talk) 19:31, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- @Interstellarity: I found a few more, mainly in hatnotes. You may also want to move Political party strength in New York. Certes (talk) 22:40, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- Done Interstellarity (talk) 23:06, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
How to scrape from grep.toolforge.org results and compare.
I'm trying to use AWB to help answer the question of how many Greek Letter Organizations don't have the Infobox Fraternity template by using the filter. I want for all of the pages generated by https://grep.toolforge.org/index.php?lang=en&project=wikipedia&namespace=0&pattern=%5E%28%28Alpha%7CBeta%7CGamma%7CDelta%7CEpsilon%7CZeta%7CEta%7CTheta%7CIota%7CKappa%7CLambda%7CMu%7CNu%7CXi%7COmicron%7CPi%7CRho%7CSigma%7CTau%7CUpsilon%7CPhi%7CChi%7CPsi%7COmega%29+%7B0%2C1%7D%29%7B2%2C%7D%24 (there are 599 of them) don't have "template:infobox fraternity" (the list of those that do is an easy pull). Ideas? Naraht (talk) 00:37, 26 April 2024 (UTC)
- If you get an article list from that query, then use the template transclusions from infobox fraternity you can use the AWB list comparer to get a list of articles missing the template. Rjwilmsi 09:28, 26 April 2024 (UTC)
- Rjwilmsi How do I get the article list from that query into AWB? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Naraht (talk • contribs) 12:16, 26 April 2024 (UTC)
- I would just simply copy and paste them. It shouldn't take more than 30 seconds if you do it like this: 1) press Ctrl+↓ on that query, 2) place your cursor on the right side of the last entry, i.e. "599. Eta Upsilon Gamma", 3) press and hold the left mouse button, 4) press Ctrl+↑ while holding the left mouse button and move the cursor next to the first entry, i.e. "1. Phi Kappa Psi", and now the pages should be highlighted, 5) copy them to the clipboard, and 6) in AWB, right click the empty page list in the bottom left corner and choose "Paste". --JAAqqO (talk) 01:26, 28 April 2024 (UTC)
- Rjwilmsi How do I get the article list from that query into AWB? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Naraht (talk • contribs) 12:16, 26 April 2024 (UTC)
- Does this search work?
- —Trappist the monk (talk) 12:52, 26 April 2024 (UTC)
- That
-hastemplate:"Infobox Fraternity"
needs to be changed to-hastemplate:"Infobox fraternity"
, because Template:Infobox Fraternity is a redirect page andhastemplate
doesn't ignore capitalization when the template's name is inside quotation marks. Here's a working search: 2 results. --JAAqqO (talk) 01:26, 28 April 2024 (UTC)
- That
- Yet another suggestion if the suggestions above don't work: Here's a PetScan search link that has 1) pages copied from your query to the "Manual list" field in the "Other sources" tab and 2) "Infobox fraternity" added to the "Has none of these templates" field in the "Templates&links" tab: 38 results. --JAAqqO (talk) 01:26, 28 April 2024 (UTC)
- Trappist the monk Yes, mostly, but a few use Infobox Sorority which is a redirect and there isn't enough room in the search box (which is something I haven't run into before! I'll look at the result from yours though.Naraht (talk) 15:12, 29 April 2024 (UTC)
- JAAqqO Can you add an exclusion for Disambiguation pages?Naraht (talk) 15:12, 29 April 2024 (UTC)
Replace maximum
Hi. Is there a maximum for lines "from-to" for the replace mechanism? Is there a way to enlarge it? Is there a way to save them for the next time? Is there a way to read them from a text file? Actually, I need about 1200 replaces on each page, none of them with regex, and work many days, is this possible? Thank you. IKhitron (talk) 21:43, 26 April 2024 (UTC)
- Hi, the most lines I've entered on any particular settings file is about 600. I am not sure that there is a physical limit on the number of lines allowed (aside from a hardware limitation), so just keep adding until there's an issue. And yes, you can save your settings files, which would include all of your replacements, so you can save your work and return to it another time. Sorry, there are no mechanisms for either importing or exporting entries; it all has to be done manually. Dawnseeker2000 04:57, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you. But if I can save it for another time, it means the AWB will save all of them _somewhere_. Can't I open this somewhere in Notepad++, guess the format, and add more? It will be unexpected, if the format used is binary. And I vaguely remember I could read it years ago, in XML or something. IKhitron (talk) 09:35, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
- Well, I've just tryed this by "save setting as..." and it works. IKhitron (talk) 11:40, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
- Ah, I've never considered that option. I'll have to try it. Thanks! Dawnseeker2000 16:48, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
- Well, I've just tryed this by "save setting as..." and it works. IKhitron (talk) 11:40, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you. But if I can save it for another time, it means the AWB will save all of them _somewhere_. Can't I open this somewhere in Notepad++, guess the format, and add more? It will be unexpected, if the format used is binary. And I vaguely remember I could read it years ago, in XML or something. IKhitron (talk) 09:35, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
- I've got one settings file with over 8,000 lines and it runs fine. The settings files are .xml formatted and can be edited in any text editor. To me, they are moderately complex, but they can be edited directly. It should be possible to create a spreadsheet or something which would change a list of "from" and "to" to the .xml code which could be pasted into the file, but I've not tried it. I suggest opening up the .xml file and looking at it. Good luck. SchreiberBike | ⌨ 19:27, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you too. About how to create concrete formats in Excel, I have a lot of experience with this. IKhitron (talk) 19:30, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
- If you get something which works well, I hope you will share. (smile) SchreiberBike | ⌨ 19:53, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you too. About how to create concrete formats in Excel, I have a lot of experience with this. IKhitron (talk) 19:30, 27 April 2024 (UTC)