From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Completed Requests 1 Completed Requests 2 Completed Requests 3 Completed Requests 4 Completed Requests 5

Please use this page to request new features in AWB.

Any discussion can follow as normal. Please place new feature request at the bottom of this page. This format allows the developers to keep track of feature requests. Once the feature requests have been added, after a short period, they will be moved to the /Archive.

[edit] General Fixes

[edit] External to Interwiki

Status	New
Description	I think AWB should have a feature that changes external links to sister projects into interwiki links, like changing Main Page to Main Page. --Wikihermit (Talk • HermesBot) 00:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

By MaxSem from Wikihermits talk page:

1. find \[http://en\.wikibooks\.org/wiki/(\S*) (.*)\], replace with [[b:$1|$2]]
2. find \[http://en\.wikibooks\.org/wiki/(\S*)], replace with [[b:$1]].

Reedy Boy 11:10, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Implementation...?

Reedy Boy 16:57, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Another common pattern is word [http://en.--whateversite--.org/wiki/word] which should be replaced by [[whatever:word]].

I would be wary of implementing the [http://en.--whateversite--.org/wiki/word] versions on their own. I have seen quite a few cases where that is used as footnotes. That may not be the correct usage, but converting it to an interwiki link would be worse as it would result in an unintelligible sentence.

Example: Alfred Tennyson's works[1] are should not become Alfred Tennyson's workss:Author:Alfred_Tennyson are.

-- JLaTondre 00:44, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

This code is for en.wiki only! We use AWB in other wiki!--OsamaK 15:28, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

We know. It hasnt been implemented as of yet (it may not ever be), so it doesnt really matter atm. Reedy Boy 19:32, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

I needed code for my tool since people didn't know which form to enter in. It has since become convenient to just paste the URL in and watch the magic happen. I hope the AWB devs implement this for the list maker parts of the interface.

function fixTitle(e) {
    // Convert from the escaped UTF-8 byte code into Unicode
    s = unescape(decodeURI(e.value))
    // Convert secure URLs into non-secure equivalents (note the secure system is considered a 'hack')
    s = s.replace(/\w+:\/\/secure\.wikimedia\.org\/(\w+)\/(\w+)\//, 'http://$2.$1.org/')
    // Convert http://lang.domain.org/wiki/ into interwiki format
    s = s.replace(/http:\/\/(\w+)\.(\w+)\.org\/wiki\/([^#{|}\[\]]*).*/i, '$2:$1:$3')
    // Scripts paths (/w/index.php?...) into interwiki format
    s = s.replace(/http:\/\/(\w+)\.(\w+)\.org\/.*?title=([^#&{|}\[\]]*).*/i, '$2:$1:$3')
    // Remove [[brackets]] from link
    s = s.replace(/[^\n]*?\[\[([^[\]{|}]+)[^\n]*/g, '$1')
    // '_' -> ' ' and hard coded home wiki
    s = s.replace(/_/g, ' ').replace(/^ *(w:|wikipedia:|)(en:|([a-z\-]+:)) */i, '$3')
    // Use short prefix form (wiktionary:en:Wiktionary:Main Page -> wikt:en:Wiktionary:Main Page)
    s = s.replace(/^ *(?:wikimedia:(m)eta|wikimedia:(commons)|(wikt)ionary|wiki(?:(n)ews|(b)ooks|(q)uote|(s)ource|(v)ersity))(:[a-z\-]+:)/i, '$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8$9')
    // Put back in
    e.value = s
}

A general implementation (suitable for general fixes) for foundation links from the code above:

1. Find \[http://(\w+)\.(\w+)\.org/wiki/([^{|}\[\]<>"\n]+) +([^]]+)\] replace with [[$2:$1:$3|$4]]
2. Find \[\[(?:wikimedia:(m)eta|wikimedia:(commons)|(wikt)ionary|wiki(?:(n)ews|(b)ooks|(q)uote|(s)ource|(v)ersity))(:[a-z\-]+:[^{}\[\]]+)\]\] replace with [[$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8$9]]

It avoid the flaws from above and works across all languages. — Dispenser 04:13, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Cool, thanks! —Reedy 12:57, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

I've been using my own regexes for this (though, not as good as the combo above) and would love to see this implemented. Rocket000 (talk) 00:17, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Would be good to implement this.. Not sure why the first one is needed in the ListMaker...? If you can elaborate/be a bit more specific Dispenser, i shall get this implemented. —Reedy 17:44, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Partially implemented. rev 3036 (code exists, but not in use. As per the discussion page, it doesnt seem to actually work as a general fix or in list maker.......) —Reedy 22:20, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

While the code I provided above is good what I had coded it for (a user page input routine) it wasn't good enough for a general fix (potential language issues). Thus I've coded the following which should be nearly problem free:

familiesIWlist = {
        'wikipedia':    'w',
        'wiktionary':   'wikt',
        'wikinews':     'n',
        'wikibooks':    'b',
        'wikiquote':    'q',
        'wikisource':   's',
        'wikiversity':  'v',
}
for m in re.finditer(ur'\[http://([a-z0-9\-]+)\.(\w+)\.org/wiki/([^{|}\[\]<>"\s?]+) +([^]\n]+)\]', text):
    if m.group(1) == 'commons':
        iwPrefix = 'commons'
    elif m.group(1) == 'meta':
        iwPrefix = 'm'
    elif m.group(1) in familiesIWlist:
        # don't allow http://sources.wikipedia.org
        continue
    elif m.group(2) in familiesIWlist:
        iwPrefix = '%s:%s' % (familiesIWlist[m.group(2)], m.group(1))
    else:
        # TODO: Prevent iw linking on [[Wikipedia]] where it's used as references
        continue
    text = text.replace(m.group(0), '[[%s:%s|%s]]' % (iwPrefix, m.group(3), m.group(4)))

— Dispenser 01:33, 13 October 2008 (UTC) Updated: 01:56, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

I've implemented the above code in my commonfixes.py library. Over time I've noticed a few problems:

1. Due to the haphazard way naming was done the above code will try to make download.wikipedia.org and sources.wikipedia.org into invalid interwikis. This can be solved using interwiki table, which would include more links than we can cover in regexes.
2. Edit on the "Wikipedia" article raises question wheather those links can be linked. And I think I read somewhere that they aren't suppose to be directly, but it still doesn't answer the question about interwiki.
3. [ { | } ] and more are not valid characters, as well as their escaped counter parts like %7B. However, this highly unlikely since people typically don't link to invalid pages anyway.

For those of you still interested in linking I've come up with a set of regex. The whatever.wikipedia.org glitch is avoid by only allowing languages with two to three letter character codes.

Regex:      \[http://([a-z0-9\-]{3})\.(?:(wikt)ionary|wiki(n)ews|wiki(b)ooks|wiki(q)uote|wiki(s)ource|wiki(v)ersity)\.(?:com|net|org)/wiki/([^][{|}\s"]*) +([^\n\]]+)\]
Replace:    [[$2$3$4$5$6$7:$1:$8|$9]]
Regex:      \[http://(?:(m)eta|(commons)|(incubator)|(quality))\.wikimedia\.(?:com|net|org)/wiki/([^][{|}\s"]*) +([^\n\]]+)\]
Replace:    [[$1$2$3$4:$5|$6]]
Regex:      \[http://([a-z0-9\-]+)\.wikia\.(?:com|net|org)/wiki/([^][{|}\s"]+) +([^\n\]]+)\]
Replace:    [[wikia:$1:$2|$3]]

However you should likely add (?<![*#:;]{2}) to the beginning to avoid changing lists and (?![^<>]*</ref>) to the end to avoid changing links in references. — Dispenser 01:56, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

According to WP:WAWI, AWB would have to detect the difference between a convenient link to material like wikisource page and a reference link like a wikisource policy page. Luckily that's why we created namespaces. — Dispenser 08:07, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Soo.. Are we alright to implement this or something? ;P —Reedy 13:52, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Placement of ^[1] within punctuation

We already have some stuff for this in the general fixes, but more couldn't hurt. —METS501 (talk) 16:52, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Would you clarify that? Snowman 18:26, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Actually, we don't. MaxSem disabled them in rev 994. Jogers (talk) 15:38, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

It would be great if someone who uses regular expressions to fix placement of <ref> tags shared their experience. Jogers (talk) 17:36, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

I have not worked on it, but is sounds easy I have been told by a programmer - try using the octal forms of brackets and backslashes in the reg ex. Probably need to first recognise if the format is correct or not, and then only put the wrong ones through a subroutine to save doing too many loops. Snowman 13:32, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

It should be fairly easy (just needs someone with the time to sit down and play with it) - Set of regex's to match the bad ones, then something to find the nearest/next full stop, and then just move the reference to there.. Reedy Boy 17:37, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

As I have suggested the refs in the middle of text and not adjacent to punctuation would be difficult to reposition because the punctuation might need sorting out, and it might not be satisfactory to move them to the next punctuation, where the refs might look like they are referring to the wrong facts. At the present time I was thinking that these would be left where they were in the middle of the sentence. It is where the spacing is wrong adjacent to punctuation that could be quite easily fixed with reg ex. Spaces could be swapped out/in and/or punctuation moved. The case of more than one ref at a punctuation also needs to be considered. It can be tested in the above block of text although all variations are not included. Snowman 18:15, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

True - I suppose some fixes would be better than none - Like moving ones before full stops to after them. Reedy Boy 18:20, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that would be helpful; but not just for full stops but for all punctuation, brackets, and quotation possibilities as well, and refs where the punctuation is included before the end of italics and bold text. Perhaps, start with punctuation marks and obvious ref positions points to get it launched with a success. I think that the diff screen needs to show changes in blank spaces more clearly to show what has been done - that is another suggestion. Have you seen the diff display in Winmerge software, also on sourceforge? Snowman 18:45, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

I have a set of regular expressions that do this job. I am happy to share my work with anybody who is interested. Gaius Cornelius 17:39, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

That would save us having to come up with ourselves for the AWB project. And would mean they could be added fairly easily to AWB for the next release. If you wouldnt mind, we'll certainly use them. And give you credit in the code ;) —Reedy Boy 20:27, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Here are my rules, they must be applied in the order given:

Rule:    Move reference to after punctuation (1)
Replace: (<ref>|<ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)([\.,;:"])
With:    $4$1$2$3

Rule:    Delete white-space before reference (1)
Replace: \s(<ref>|<ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)
With:    $1$2$3
Apply:   Twice

Rule:    Delete white-space between references (1)
Replace: (<ref>|<ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)\s(<ref>|</ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)
With:    $1$2$3$4$5$6

Rule:    Delete white-space before punctuation followed by reference (1)
Replace: \s([\.,;:"])(<ref>|<ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)
With:    $1$2$3$4

Rule:    Delete white-space before punctuation followed by reference (1)
Replace: \s([\.,;:"])(<ref>|<ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)
With:    $1$2$3$4

Rule:    Move reference to after punctuation (1)
Replace: (<ref>|<ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)([\.,;:"])
With:    $4<!--delspacex-->$1$2$3

Rule:    Delete white-space before reference (1)
Replace: \s(<ref>|<ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)
With:    $1$2$3
Apply:   Twice

Rule:    Delete white-space between references (1)
Replace: (<ref>|<ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)\s(<ref>|</ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)
With:    $1$2$3$4$5$6

Rule:    Delete white-space before punctuation followed by reference (1)
Replace: \s([\.,;:"])(<ref>|<ref )([^<]*)(</ref>|/>)
With:    $1$2$3$4

Rule:    Add space after reference followed by text.
Replace: (</ref>|[^b][^r]\s/>)([A-Za-z0-9])
With:    $1<!--insspace1--> $2

I find this set to be reasonably reliable and effective, would like to hear how others get on.

Gaius Cornelius 21:07, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

The white space diff is reported to be ready in the next version, which will help to show what the above (or similar) has done in the AWB diff sceen. Snowman (talk) 00:46, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Only the first rule seems to work for me. Also, it seems when only using the first rule, it would be useful to let it work repeatedly (when more references are present to move the punctuation just in front of the very first one in the whole row) - however when I set to repeat it, it did not seem to take effect. I also do not understand why you duplicate some rules and why you say "apply twice" on some - isnt it the same?--Kozuch (talk) 20:39, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Common issues of this set are:

• double punctuation not removed (example: .<ref>abc</ref>. like here)
• works within comments too - unwanted actually (there are also often hints how to use the ref tags in the References sections)--Kozuch (talk) 09:16, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

I implemented the above routines, but as Kozuch pointed out there problems with them and the mess around with the white space too much. So I've created them with focus on only moving things around when needing too and setting a fixed amount of whitespace after a reference.

for i in range(0,10):
    # Move punctuation left and if any space move right
    new_text = re.sub(r'(?<=[\w")>])( *)(<ref [^<>]*/> *|<ref[^</>]+>.*?</ref> *)([\.,;:"])', r'\3\2\1', new_text)
    # Move space to the right, 
    new_text = re.sub(r'(?<=[\.,;:>])( +| *\n)(<ref [^<>]*/>|<ref[^</>]+>.*?</ref>)(?= *\S)', r'\2\1', new_text)
# Add two space if none, reduce to two if more
new_text = re.sub(r'(</ref>|<ref [^<]*/>)( {3,}|)(\w)', r'\1  \3', new_text)

— Dispenser 23:10, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Looks interesting. Max and myself are planning on getting the next version out this weekend, so will look at this afterwards! =) —Reedy 23:36, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Just out of interest... Whats the loop for? Or is that just extra thats not needed? —Reedy 13:01, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Basically the loop are used to move the space and punctuation one by one to each side of multiple refs. I've updated the example to what's being used on the server. Now there's a bug, since it only moves spaces when there's text on the line to the right it will leave spaces before the last ref e.g. "end of text.^{[3][4] [5]}". So it probably a good idea run "Delete white-space between references " after doing this. There might be another bug if there's a ref starting on each line... — Dispenser 14:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

So, in CSharp

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
# Move punctuation left and if any space move right
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?<=[\w")>])( *)(<ref [^<>]*/> *|<ref[^</>]+>.*?</ref> *)([\.,;:"])", "$3$2$1");
# Move space to the right, 
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?<=[\.,;:>])( +| *\n)(<ref [^<>]*/>|<ref[^</>]+>.*?</ref>)(?= *\S)', "$2$1");
# Add two space if none, reduce to two if more
ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(</ref>|<ref [^<]*/>)( {3,}|)(\w)", "$$1  $3");
}

Yes? —Reedy 19:46, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that's correct. However I've been running it for some time and got the following corner cases. I'll try and remove the loop hack. Bellow are some issues I found while using the code. — Dispenser 03:24, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Done the following code should work well enough and test case for AWB's general fixes. I think the matching named groups is not implemented in C#. — Dispenser 18:35, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

# Only apply if punctuation in front is the dominate format
if len(re.findall(r'[.,;:][ ]*\s?<ref', text)) > len(re.findall(r'(?:</ref>|<ref [^>]+/>)[ ]*\s?[.,;:]', text)):
    # Move punctuation left and space right but before \n
    text = re.sub(r'(?s)(?<=[\w")\]])([ ]*)(\s?(?:<ref [^>]+?/>[ ]*\s??|<ref[^>]*?>[^>]*?</ref>[ ]*\s??)+)(\n?)([.,;:])(?![.,;:])(\s??)( *)', r'\4\2\1\6\5\3', text)
    # Move space to the right, if there's text to the right
    text = re.sub(r'(?s)(?<=[.,;:"])([ ]+)((?:<ref [^>]+?/>[ ]*\s??|<ref[^>]*?>[^>]*?</ref> *\s??)+)(?=[\w\(\[])', r'\2\1', text)
    # Remove duplicate punctuation
    text = re.sub(r'(?s)(?P<punc>[.,;:])(["]?(?:<ref [^>]+?/>[ ]*\s?|<ref[^>]*?>[^>]*?</ref>[ ]*\s?)+)(?P=punc)(?![.,;:])', r'\1\2', text)
    # Remove spaces between references
    text = re.sub(r'(</ref>|<ref [^>]+?/>)[ ]+(<ref)', r'\1\2', text)
    # Add two space if none, reduce to two if more
    # trim or add white space after <ref />
    text = re.sub(r'(</ref>|<ref [^>]+?/>)()((\'{2,5}|)[\w"(\[])', r'\1 \3', text)
    text = re.sub(r'(</ref>|<ref [^>]+?/>)([ ]{3,})([\w(\[])', r'\1  \3', text)

[edit] April 2009

rev 4209 Partial implementation:

• remove any spaces between consecutive references
• ensure a space between a reference and word character following (for references within a paragraph). Rjwilmsi 18:23, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Is this implemented? And if so how do I activate it? I've been trying to add them as Find/Replace rules, but have had little success thusfar (though tis my first day). - RoyBoy 21:07, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

I resorted to adding the individual regexp's in Find/Replace (normal), but there has to be a easier way to have the multiple expressions together in one Rule, instead of individual lines. I also added the regexp: ([\.,;:"])([\.,;:"])(<ref>|<ref ), replace with: $2$3, which removes repeated punctuation. - RoyBoy 21:45, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

Enable general fixes and it's implemented. Rjwilmsi 20:44, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Move orphan tags on the top

It doesnt move cleanup tags to the top.. But i suppose, that can be used for sections.. Are there any other tags that really should be moved to the top..? ie {{uncategorized}}. Seems like this will have to be a new "general fix". Does AWB move any tags to the top atm... I cant seem to think/find any. Just puts them at the top when it adds them... —Reedy Boy 23:28, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, I am using {{Articleissues}} to navigate through the different tags.

• {{uncategorized}} should be at the bottom.
• {{orphan}}, {{deadend}}, {{cleanup}}, {{notability}} should be in the beginning.
• {{Wikify}} and all the others can be used for sections as well. So: no move.

I don't know if this complicates things but all these tags should go under prod, prod2, Afw, Rfd warnings. I don't know if this necessary.

Atm I don't think that AWB does it. I may have seen "uncategorized" moving to the correct position but maybe this was because interwiki and stub tags moved to the correct position. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:55, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Per WP:LAYOUT, cleanup tags should be placed below dablinks. mattbr 10:43, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

After looking at the available documentation and list of available templates, I have come to conclusion that there are a number of templates that can be used both for articles and for sections, therefore it will not be straightforward to introduce logic that can identify which templates should be moved. If there are still users in favour of adding this functionality then I need much more assistance in what templates can and cannot be moved. Rjwilmsi 19:42, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

As I wrote above: orphan, deadend, notability are never applied in a section. Cleanup for sections is called {{cleanup-section}} but some editors may still use the cleanup (I can make a small research). Anyway, at least the three first can be moved at the top under the dablinks (for, seelaso, otheruses, etc.). --- Magioladitis (talk) 19:54, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

The various {{cleanup}}, {{notability}}, {{unreferenced}}, etc... tags found in section are more often than not misuse of the tags (seen plenty of it), rather than misplacements (never seen it). AWB should replace them by {{cleanup-section}} and equivalents. {{uncategorized}}, and {{orphan}} however, can be moved to top and bottom without any impact. Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 17:56, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree. I think this can be partially implemented at least. -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:51, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Handling <li> and <ul> html tags

Status	New
Description	Replace <li> with *. Delete <ul>, </ul>, </li>. Example -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:47, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

<li>(.*?)(</li>)? --> * $1

Then just remove all other </li>, <ul>, </ul>..

</?(li|ul)> --> ""

—Reedy Boy 13:34, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

So that should be easy. Can you implement it? -- Magioladitis (talk) 02:08, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

<ol>
<li>test</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>test</li>
</ol>

<li>test</li>

If we implement it, we should really cater for all that —Reedy 19:49, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Implementation of {{sic}}

{{sic}} requires the incorrect text to be in the template, but not a whole sentence. Do you have some examples of how the logic should work? Thanks Rjwilmsi 11:09, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Configuratin of general fixes

Status	New
Description	Please, add ability to configure general fixes. For example, tab with checkboxes or text file with settings. Some of general fixes create negative reaction in community ruwiki. Will be great if user have ability to disable some of fixes --butko (talk) 17:19, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

See also #Better general fix customization. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 17:32, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] More non-breaking spaces

parser.FixNonBreakingSpaces needs to add more non-breaking spaces, eg the following spaces should be non-breaking:

1. 10 kW
2. 10 mW
3. pp. 1-4 (this is discussed in #Pagination)

The list is much bigger than this, this is just a start - there will be other common units that need the same treatment.

rev 4603 Implements the first two. Rjwilmsi 19:03, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

I'd like

4. 10 mi (for miles)

--ospalh (talk) 11:20, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Do not change in-line Harvard citation usage

Status

New

Description

Do not change in-line Harvard citation usage when the Citation template is used to fully cite a reference in the references section. Correctly using in-line Harvard citations and the Citation template in the references – these interact desirably ... click on the in-line citation and one goes to the correct place in the citations section; click on the link in the citations section and one goes to the full reference in the references section ... all within the same page, and the browser's 'back' button behaves correctly. Effect of changing in-line Harvard citations – when there are multiple identical in-line citations (using one of the Harvard citations) in an article, these are all changed to a <ref name="groupname etc."/>, resulting in a single item in the 'citations' section showing multiple instances via 'a', 'b', etc. Problem – this ruins the interactions among in-line citations, the citations section, and the references section. Clicking on the in-line citation correctly goes to the citations section, but now clicking on that citation causes a page reload and one is taken to the top of the page. This is undesirable. If you are not familiar with Harvard citations and their interaction with the Citation template, you can see the effect by comparing these two versions of an article, and follow the steps described above: works correctly and does not work correctly. This article diff shows the difference. Regards, Notuncurious (talk) 17:36, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

In the current version of the article after your edit, the links to Bateman do not work (the citation uses "editor-last" not "last") whereas the links to Ross do. After the AWB edit (that version copied to Sandbox) the links to Ross continue to work. I don't think AWB has broken anything; this was functionality that I specifically checked when implementing the AWB reference combination logic. Rjwilmsi 18:06, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I'm afraid that AWB has broken things. There is no current version of the article after my edit – my last edit is the current version. In the example given above, does not work correctly, clicking on "Ross 1899:8" causes a page reload and you are sent to the top of the page (perhaps you clicked on the wrong citation of Ross). Clicking on "Bateman 1918:518" has a similar effect. They had this same effect on the "current article" when AWB changes were applied, as the user who applied AWB has verified (and who then asked my to report this here). You can follow our discussion here. Regards, Notuncurious (talk) 18:48, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

The page reload is due to the fact that the link is to the article John Riley Tanner rather than to the old version. Even in the current version, clicking "Bateman 1918" doesn't work while clicking "Ross 1899" does. It doesn't appear that AWB broke anything by combining identical references; they were already broken. --NE2 19:02, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

*sigh* They all work as designed in the current version. Please read on. There several "Ross 1899" references; please check the one that was changed by AWB, "Ross 1899:8"; there are several ones (the page number matters here), and one that is used twice in the text. This is the one that AWB broke. Clicking on "Ross 1899" is not possible because there is no such reference in the article. The Bateman reference does not go to the reference because the interaction between Harvard citation and the Citation template relies on the "last" parameter, not the "editor-last" parameter. This is not relevant to the point at hand. However, please note that in such cases, nothing happens when it is clicked now, while when it is clicked after an AWB modification the page is reloaded, which is an error. Regards, Notuncurious (talk) 20:10, 6 July 2009 (UTC) My typo correct. Notuncurious (talk) 20:15, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Please read what I'm saying; the only reason you're getting the reloading is that you're on an old version of the article, and the citation template uses FULLPAGENAME. As for the "Ross 1899:8" citations, appearing after the third and fourth quotations, they work fine for me on both versions. On [2], click the [5] and it takes you down to citation number 5, "Ross 1899:8". --NE2 20:54, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

You're absolutely correct, NE2. Thank you for the correction, and my apologies for having attempted to besmirch the fine name of AWB. Regards, Notuncurious (talk) 21:08, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Skipping

[edit] Find and replace improvements

[edit] Apply the four generic settings individually

Status	New
Description	The ability to apply the four generic settings (ignore links, ignore templates, add to summary and apply after general fixes) individually to the different rules. mattbr 17:15, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

is that so hard to implement? i mean't split "ignore templates, refs, link targets, and heading" into separate options, and improve "ignore images" to ignore "images target" not the whole image section --84.234.42.68 (talk) 17:34, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Sounds very useful to me. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 12:32, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Individual edit summary

Status	New
Description	If the 'add to edit summary' feature is enabled, have a box for the user to define a summary addition other than the default 'foo → bar' for each rule. This would be particularly useful for long or ugly replacements. mattbr 17:15, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

That would be very useful. Many AWB users are reduced to using only very brief desciptors such as "Clean Up". I can see some problems, but the best implementation might be to apply this only to the advanced settings and have the option of adding a user-specific description of an edit to a rule that will be used if one or more of its sub-rules are applied. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 12:32, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

This feature is available when using a custom module – user can set edit summary to whatever they want. Rjwilmsi 09:38, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] HTML substitution

Status	New
Description	In the Advanced "Find and replace" rule list, allow the easier replacement or removal of HTML attributes on tables. Currently, I'm running all code through a rule to quote all the unquoted attributes and then doing the processing that I want, but every so often a flaw comes up as it quote non-html text. —Dispenser 03:44, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Addition for "Replace Special"

Status	New
Description	For some find and replace tasks it's useful to ignore certain parts of an article, like <math>...</math> or [[Image:...| (so the name of the image can't get changed). A new tab in Replace Special, in addition to "Replace" and "If", would be nice, so that it's possible to define parts of the articles in which these rule doesn't work. – 84.179.33.65 23:21, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

This almost seems like selective hide text.. —Reedy 18:54, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Subset regex

Status	New
Description	Add in the subrule a new type, like "Entire text" and "Inside template call {{..}}", but it only does the regex on the match from the parent rule. It call it something like "Matched from parent in $1". Implementing this would likely knock out some other feature requests, like my HTML substitution —Dispenser 02:26, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Maybe I can example it better with an example:

I'll use HTML

<html>
<title>String1</title>
<head>
</head>
 
<body>
String1
</body>
</html>

We want to change String1 to RE1

What I'd like to be able to

Rule: Find the body
RE find: (<body>.*?</body>)
  Sub-rule: Use what was captured in parent
  RE find: String1
  RE replace: RE1

While the example is a little simplistic, it allow greater flexibly. The String1 in the title tags will never be parsed and there can be many String1 in the body without turning the recursion as with (<body>.*?)String1(.*?</body>). Hopefully that simplifies things. —Dispenser (talk) 04:16, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Support for typo-fixing like projects

Status	New
Description	AWB currently has a built in Typo Fixing. Could we have the ability to have separate pages each for a different project rule set? Using an interface populated with category of regex fixes for AWB. Example include HTML formatting , CSS formatting, ISBN fixing, unit fixing, wiki syntax. —Dispenser (talk) 05:21, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

As a though, a plugin interface could be done for this... Or just using IAWBPlugin.. —Reedy 15:33, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Im thinking, this is pretty much redundant to a plugin that could be written... —Reedy 22:12, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Fronds‎ does something like this..... —Reedy 01:00, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Variables generated from article name

Status

New

Description

For some processing jobs, such as adding templates to articles, it would be very useful to be able to use variables generated from the filename. E.g match /^List of fooers in foo, ([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])$/ or /^List of ([a-z]+) boxing champions, [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$/ and then use %%FN1%%, %%FN2%%, etc. Currently, it seems that the only way of doing jobs which could benefit this is to insert the values manually, which has a higher error rate than would be generated by a carefully set-up regex. For safety, it might be helpful to include some display of such generated variables, but I don't think that's essential (AWB users are accustomed to having to test their regexes very carefully). --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 00:30, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

You can use the %%title%% variable. Rich Farmbrough, 13:23 19 January 2009 (UTC).

[edit] Threading, Background and Automation

[edit] Threading

Status

New

Description

Run "sort A-Z" and "remove duplicates" on seperate threads to prevent the user interface locking up Check that the listmaker buttons and menu items (which remain enabled when a background thread is running) don't cause an error if they fire when a thread is active; if they do, disable them, or implement a queuing system. --kingboyk 15:40, 9 April 2007 (UTC) The parser will have to be multi threaded as well as the IE component thing. The program will have two threads. One thread displays the result of the computation and the other thread will be working on the next item in the list. This will waste less of the user's time wasting for the page to load. Throttling will need to built in so that the program will slow down if it loads to many pages in a minute. —Dispenser 18:55, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

The "keep sorted" should only run when new items are added to the list. Rich Farmbrough, 04:24, 7 July 2009 (UTC).

[edit] Load pages in background

Status

New

Description

I have not tried AWB and I don't really want to set myself up on it since I am on semi-wikibreak.  :-) But based on what I have read about it, I have an idea. It seems AWB makes users wait while it loads articles. Why not preload several dozen articles in the background? The server impact would be minimal. (Please feel free to close this or my other requests if they turn out to be based on invalid assumptions.) Cheers, ----unforgettableid

Migrate to API? will allow us to complete this much more easily (as below). This is very much a duplicate request.. Cant find the others, but it has been requested before. Very similar to/a simpler version of: #Background_scan_to_prune_unchanged_articles_ahead_of_time The only problem we get is if pages are updated between pre-load and save... Which, could be, of course, checked for... —Reedy Boy 20:53, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Save pages in background

Status	New
Description	I presume AWB makes users wait while it saves articles. Why not save them in the background? This would make AWB more pleasant to use. ----unforgettableid

Migrate to API? will allow us to complete this much more easily. With the current way, we'd have to be faffing about with multiple browsers (which we already do do...) —Reedy Boy 20:51, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

What shall we do if the save is aborted for some reason and user input is needed? All UI will already be diplaying the next page... MaxSem^{(Han shot first!)} 20:57, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

How about a visualization like the pre-parse mode? Pages that are saved without problems are just removed from the list and pages with errors, conflicts and so on are just marked with orange or red background and kept in the list. This way errors are handled gracefully and the fast workflow without delays is still preserved. Penguin (talk) 16:41, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

*bump* :) -- 16:26, 20 June 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Penguin (talk • contribs)

It will happen, just i've been busy for the last few months. Its on my summer todo list, most of the stuff IS implemented, its just making AWB fully use the API for editing.. —Reedy 16:28, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Automatic List Making?

Status	New
Description	Another idea. Allow the "make page" button to some how automatically reload. For example, if you use Special:Recentchanges to make a list, have an optional timer that you could use to automatically reload the list. ~ Wikihermit 01:19, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

And like this idea. Sometime we need make a list from many source. Like "Links on page" from 70 page or/and "from text file" from 10 texts files in one folder. That's hard by hand. --OsamaKBOT 16:35, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

As a point for any that are just allowing you to type things into the text box, you can type "Page1|Page2|Page3.....Page55|Page56"

[edit] Automatically have AWB do multiple things for bots

Status

New

Description

I'm guessing this is way too hard and the reason people write their own scripts, but here goes anyway: To start my bot, I must make a list from one place, filter it, make from transclusions and filter. Though it doesn't take long, I'm requesting a way to automate this and put it on a timer. For my other bot, it does take a little longer What I mean is a timer that automatically runs a bot every x minutes, and then performs the things you set it to do (ie. filter, then do this, then filter, then start with appending y). Basically, just tell AWB exactly what you normally do by hand, and have it do everything at the same time with just one click or automatically.. Like I said, probably pretty hard, but mines well request it. --(Review Me) R ParlateContribs@(Let's Go Yankees!) 02:04, 15 June 2007 (UTC) The ability to set up multiple tasks (for example, several template replacement runs), do a test edit with each task to make sure they do what you're expecting. Then hit "run tasks in sequence" and have AWB go through each task in turn. – Mike.lifeguard | talk 18:47, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, in theory there isnt... If we could build some form of an instruction set that awb can follow... and all the functions are software call-able, its viable... Reedy Boy 08:54, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like you're talking about a sort of basic scripting language. If it is an itch someone wants to scratch make sure there are commands/points where you can prompt for user input. --Brianmc 12:12, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Agree, this is very convenient to run two scripts subsequently each with its own settings file and its own input data file. A command line parameter will be fine for script name definition. Mashiah 23:29, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Things like this can in theory already be done with plugins or modules. However, I think that AWB does need this as a standard feature. I'd like it to be able to automatically check certain categories periodically and run a bot job (with seperate settings for each category) too. I was thinking more of keeping it all in the UI and using XML to define tasks myself. Anyway, if at some point I'm looking for something to do I might investigate this further. --kingboyk (talk) 23:22, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Support new Mediawiki maxlag parameter

Status	New
Description	See Wikipedia:Bot_owners'_noticeboard#Maxlag_parameter and mw:Maxlag_parameter. --kingboyk 14:48, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I suppose that it could be accomplished using the nudge timer? Does it work ok currently? MaxSem 18:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I think it's probably a bit broken in terms of implementation. The basic idea certainly works, as it one's of several features which ran in my plugin without incident for some time, and which got moved over to AWB. The nudge timer would probably have to be modified somewhat anyway, so that it knows it's waiting on a maxlag retry (good) rather than possible network/server problems (bad). We also presumably have the page save timer for auto-save, that would be able to be removed. --kingboyk 16:30, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

The api stuff is being implementing caring for maxlag... —Reedy 22:15, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Possible plugins

[edit] Allow easy way to add missing parameters to a template, and also a way to reorder parameters

Status

New

Description

I'm in the process of doing some massive infobox and other template conversion for standardization purposes. The feature to rename template parameters is extremely useful in this process, but it would another big advantage to have a way to add in missing parameters (and set a default value to them if they are missing). It would also be convenient to have a way to reorder all of the parameters so that similar ones can be grouped together, or so that every template instance can have the same ordering as every other one. I guess I'm envisioning a dialog with a grid with three columns: in the first column goes the parameter name, the second column gets the default value, and the third column a checkbox signalling whether to add the parameter (along with its default value) if it is missing. The parameters would then be automatically ordered according to their order in the grid, and added in if missing. Buttons would include "Move up", "Move down", "Delete", and possibly "Don't reorder" for cases when adding missing parameters but no need to reorder. The dialog would be perfect as a new type of rule in the Advanced Find and Replace dialog. Note: this would be used to add infoboxes to every city/town in the US, and add missing data to existing ones. Thanks, --CapitalR 12:07, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Display more info for images and coordinating image tags added to menu

Status

New

Description

When a page is in the Image namespace it should check to see what other pages are using that file and also include the uploader history for ease in contact (boxes similar to Alerts->Multiple wikilinks). Would help for determining if Fair-use images are being used outside the main namespace, if an image is orphaned, if image is being used in articles it is not intended for. Tags to be added under an Image menu would be {{redundant}}, {{no license}}, {{no source}}, {{notorphan}}, and {{or-fu}} (with date auto-inserted) -ΖαππερΝαππερ BabelAlexandria 05:36, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

bumping so someone might at least respond to this.... -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 18:40, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

There are currently 55 other AWB feature requests, 3 dev's inactive, and a v4 to sort. This would be a major new feature, requiring quite a lot of work, as the actual html of the page would probably be needed to be loaded to get the file links, as with images being here and on commons, it doesnt make life easy. Requests that questions are needed to be asked, or input gained, have had replies...Reedy Boy 20:22, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

sorry if i sounded antsy... i wasn't aware that four of you were currently inactive during the newest upgrade. I actually had posted this a while ago when there were relatively few features being asked for so I was hoping for some sort of a response. Letting me know that loading the file links by html rather than query.php (i think that's how you typically retrieve the data, right?) presents a large issue helps me put my request into perspective and I appreciate your response :) On the other hand, tacking on a couple more template options to the right-click menu is likely a relatively simple addition. If you guys need the help, i do know c++ and can wade through c# pretty well, but i can't do much that's complicated. I never offered to help before b/c it seemed you guys had things well covered and only recently ported the code into OOP format, right? I'm confident i could actually implement my changes myself (the menu additions) if i knew exactly how to go about it... never worked on a sourceforge project before. -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 00:07, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

It was sort of OOPs before, but the code wasnt the best. Kingboyk has done a lot of reworking of the code to add functionality, speed it up, and make it generally better. I have helped with this also, adding some major new features and so on.

If you wanted to add this yourself, i mean, if you want to do it, or at least make a start, and we can help out as and when, that would be fine. It may be worth looking and having a play with query.php and api.php to check and see if they do what you need to. We do use both the query.php, api.php and loading the actual edit pages to pull off the text, we tend not to really load the actual user view of pages too often for pulling off data. If you checkout a copy of the SVN version, have a play and see where you get.

As for the developer side, our "main/lead" developer, MaxSem, has been away from wikipedia for nearly a month now. Feature requests and bugs tend to really just get done by whoever knows how to do it, or wants to attempt to do it, ie personal preference, not really priority/importance of them.

v4 Beta (Alpha + a few changes) should be pushed out to most users this weekend... (Force upgrade... :D) so we'll see how that comes about. Reedy Boy 09:32, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bypass redirects

Status	New
Description	It is somewhat important for navboxes (template space) as self-link are bold but only to a page with that exact title (no redirects), see User:Dschwen/HighlightRedirects for an example of some code which utilized the api.php. — Dispenser 03:33, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't utilise the bot API, it simply changes page CSS on request to make links to redirects visible, which is not helpful for us. MaxSem^{(Han shot first!)} 10:33, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I was using api.php before the feature was integrated into the software, older version uses ajax to get the redirects. — Dispenser 05:55, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Interface

[edit] Ability to protect articles/review history for Wikinews archiving procedure

Status

New

Description

Wikinews is quite different from the reference wikis such as Wikibooks, Wikipedia, Wikiquote, etc. Part of our mission is to provide a historical record. As a consequence of this we have a policy of protecting articles when they are about 2 weeks old. Much of the final cleanup to articles is done with the aid of AWB, but there are two key parts of the process that the tool does not help with. Firstly, prior to typo and link correction the history of an article must be reviewed. Edits days after the published tag are added need undone if they impact the content. Second, when all the links, typos, cats and other changes to make a archiveable article are done the article needs protected. Full details of the archiving process we try to apply on Wikinews can be found at WN:ARCHIVE. --Brianmc 11:49, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

The history is implemented in the next version. —METS501 (talk) 20:09, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

As is the move functionality, but it's unfinished and untested as of now. It'll most likely be in the next version. —METS501 (talk) 16:03, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Without checking the code, does grabbing the history result in extra calls to the server? If it does, shouldn't it be turned off by default? --kingboyk 16:08, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

From just fiddling now, it only loads the history if the history tab is activated. Which is fine. Reedy Boy 13:55, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Just to add a reminder about the protect; this is full protection. Once we archive an article only administrators can edit, and should only do so with some consensus or review. --Brianmc 12:15, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

AWB has a history tab and protection button, so is this feature request completed? —Dispenser (talk) 04:57, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

History is there and working. I think work moves fine.. I dont think protect does.. Or doesnt completely... We really need to go through and update some of these requests! —Reedy Boy 11:59, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

No, doesnt actually do the protect! —Reedy Boy 16:21, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Skenmy has poked me about ressurecting this. Partial implementation has been added for the auto protect, but we've encountered an issue. So it is disabled for 4.2.0.0/4.2.0.1, pending a fix —Reedy Boy 19:31, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

What about adding the cascade option, that is not present in the latest version. --Charitwo ^talk 19:44, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

None of the protection is currently enabled.. But yeah, would be able to... I think we're still experiencing the same issues as before, but i havent actually looked at it! —Reedy 21:10, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Not enabled here, but on other projects it works. --Charitwo ^talk 12:00, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Was meaning the AWB protection feature. —Reedy 12:17, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Yup, works fine for me, I can make a list of pages and assign no changes, and I can choose to either ignore, protect/unprotect, or delete an article, just no option for cascading. --Charitwo ^talk 18:51, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Ignore me. I was getting confused as i was thinking of the watch option... But there is the above.. A job i will complete when i've some more free time.. But its gonna be hard to do as i dont have admin anywhere else than here.. Hmm —Reedy 21:47, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

22:38, 11 June 2008 Reedy (Talk | contribs | block) changed protection level for "Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Sandbox" ‎ ([edit=sysop:move=sysop] [cascading]) (Change)

Cascading Protection Added - rev 2915 (Just the auto protect... Not that i can remember about that)—Reedy 21:41, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sub-paragraph undo

Status

New

Description

When there is more than one word is highlighted in yellow on a line in AWB, and one of the highlighted is not a typo (i.e Cristian vs Christian both are correct but AWB recognizes it as a typo) when the non-typo is double clicked, it removes everything in that yellow box instead of the specified word, maybe have it where it only removes the highlight because more than one typo could exists on a line or paragraph dputig07 00:54, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

It would be helpful to those reviewing page edits if this fix could be implemented. Thanks Rjwilmsi 15:15, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unicode font support

Status	New
Description	Hi, I am using AWB in ml.wikipedia. The Find & Replace option is not displaying Unicode characters. Edit box is working fine. If Someone can add this functionality in next update will be appreciated. --Sadik-khalid (talk) 10:12, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

What characters arent working? As i can get it to display all the arabic and such characters i have tried... —Reedy Boy 17:21, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Message left on local page! —Reedy Boy 17:25, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

There are lots of them that don't display on different machines (especially running XP, I suppose). The problem is that there is no standard Unicode font that every user has. Arial Unicode MS comes only with M$ Office (and is too wide to be simply used w/o other changes). Other variants are even less standard. Also, many of them are not suitable to be used in interface, cf Code2000. MaxSem^{(Han shot first!)} 19:22, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

I believe AnjaliOldLipi is the most popular font in Malayalam. Here is the AWB screenshot from a win2k system. In XP, it works fine. If there is an option for adjusting font size will be appreciated. Some characters are difficult to read. --Sadik-khalid (talk) 09:19, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Note, this image was tagged for deletion by the bots. I extended it for a week, but someone may want to declare it as free if that is true, or make sure that they look at it before it is actually deleted by someone else. --After Midnight ⁰⁰⁰¹ 13:42, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Prod/AfD buttons

Status	New
Description	I've just started using NewPageWatcher and really like the auto-prod and notify and auto-afd and notify buttons. Could they be made an extra module in AWB when I scan categories like OR or essay it would be most useful. MBisanz talk 17:13, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea. It would be easy enough to do for Wikipedia EN. I guess it could be a feature which is invisible if the settings say we're on another wiki. --kingboyk (talk) 23:33, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation repair using numpad

Status	New
Description	I presume users must make multiple mouse clicks to operate the disambiguation repair dialog. Why not allow them to use just the numeric keypad on their keyboard to make their choices from 1 through to 9? Then you could mention this fact in the manual and perhaps onscreen. ----unforgettableid

Im not sure how you'd actually want the keys mapping... —Reedy Boy 20:53, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Just by numbering the first nine options 1 to 9... Typing 5 will use the fifth option. Now you can use home/end and the first letter, which can be annoying if multiple options have the same starting letter. My request on disambiguation: the [done] key has no hot-key likt alt-D. Now I am forced to use the mouse (the tab key will only activate this button after many many button presses). It would be cool to have alt-Done and alt-Cancel available, so you can operate AWB to solve disambigs without the mouse. Yeah, sorry, I hate that mouse and I want to keep RSI/CTS away by keeping on hating it. Edoderoo (talk) 10:58, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Options list

Status	New
Description	This is one the more ambitious ideas and is a repost from the discussion page. It effectively present the user with a modular view of AWB with its options presented in a matrix. — Dispenser 04:43, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

AWB's Find and Replace goes up here

---

Pre-programmed options

	General fixes
	Automatic Tagging
	Unicodify
	RegexTypoFix
	External processing
	PyWikipedia script
	Custom wiki-loaded regex fixes
	Add

Do you program in C#? Or are you capable at least of designing Windows Forms* in Visual Studio? If you are, perhaps you should join the team. Judging by our efforts up to now we don't have any UI artists aboard. *Or we could go with WPF, which would necessitate a move to .net 3.5, a jump I personally feel we will have to make at some stage... --kingboyk (talk) 12:17, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't know anything about C/C++/C#, yet. But I'd be willing to give the GUI thing as free time becomes available. I assume its part of the Visual Studio package I use to compile AWB. — Dispenser 22:28, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes it is. Windows Forms in Visual Studio is fairly simple if you're sticking to design, don't really need to be able to code much to do the visual part.

The .Net Framework 3.5 introduced design/code seperation I believe, a replacement for Windows Forms called Windows Presentation Foundation and a new markup language (XAML?). I've not tried any of these features yet and we're currently using .Net 2.0 with AWB so we're stuck with Windows Forms unless there's a compelling reason to "upgrade". Visual Studio can do both types of design anyway. --kingboyk (talk) 19:17, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

If you can do the graphical side.. It wouldnt be too hard to tie the backend code into it all... I suspect, looking at that, we're gonna need to make a custom control, probably inheriting from listview/similar... As a list view can do the different types of view like you see in Windows Explorer - Large Icon, Small Icon, Details... I may have a play later on —Reedy Boy 19:33, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Bit of googling/looking about. We are certainly going to need either a custom control, or to write our own. As list views by default do not accept images in the sub items (ie columns other than the first) —Reedy Boy 20:56, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Edit summary when I use find and replace on ar.wiki

Status	New
Description	In ar.wiki we prefer Arabic edit summary. Can you edit "edit summary" when I use find and replace on ar.wiki? English : Replaced: 1$ > 2$. In Arabic: استبدال : 1$ > 2$ --OsamaK 08:34, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

I think this would be worth doing for all the wiki's where we have the different namesapces. It would only require a few code changes, ie instead f Replaced, use Variables.Replace (or whatever), and then have the local word for each... Reedy Boy 08:46, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Not exactly. Replacing right arrow with left one can give you weird results if you've replaced one non-RTL word with another[3]. MaxSem^{(Han shot first!)} 20:04, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fixing ambiguous typos

Status

New

Description

There are quite a lot of typos that have had to be rejected for the RETF page because either the correction isn't unambiguous (e.g. 'distict' could be a typo for 'district' or 'distinct', or because it's valid in one context, but not in another e.g. 'Valparaiso' is correct when referring to Valparaiso, Florida, but should be corrected to Valparaíso when referring to the city in Chile. I'd like suggest an enhancement to AWB to help with situations like those. There would be a new 'Ambiguous Typos' list, much like the current 'Typos' list, with entries along the lines of <AmbigTypo find="\b([Dd])istict\b" replaceOptions="$1istrict,$1istinct"> AWB would read this list and, on finding the RegEx value in an article, would present a panel much like the current link disambiguation panel, for the AWB user to select from the listed replace options. Colonies Chris 08:22, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like an interesting idea. Jogers (talk) 09:10, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

This would be a useful feature, provided that users had an option to 'ignore ambiguous typos' i.e. AWB would not change a word matching an ambiguous typo and would not prompt the user for the correct correction. Otherwise I could envisage users being regularly pestered by message boxes ;) Rjwilmsi (talk) 11:15, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Option to not load image pages

Does that still occur? MaxSem^{(Han shot first!)} 15:14, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry but I don't understand the problem here, would somebody please provide a clear example of the current problem and what the correct behaviour should be. Thanks Rjwilmsi 19:09, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Bot Halt, or like feature

Status	New
Description	I'd like a feature while running a bot for it to halt on certain conditions to allow me to exam the page more closely. I would like an option to test a regex on the page after processing has completed. This could conceivably be worked in as a skip option, where I could re-run the page after the initial pass. — Dispenser 05:27, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

What my plugin does is open bad pages in the browser; they can be fed back into AWB later if need be*. That way the bot doesn't stop processing, a feature which would annoy more people than it would help I suspect. Would that be a better option? Either way we could certainly consider a "halt or open in browser on hitting regex x" feature I guess. --kingboyk (talk) 09:35, 5 March 2008 (UTC) *I use the skip log for feeding pages back in. --kingboyk (talk) 09:36, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm thinking how that a halt feature might introduce more complexities and clutter than its worth. The ideas of skipping when the output matches a regex is more flexible. — Dispenser 22:34, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

AWB already has the "skip if contains", and you can make them regex... —Reedy Boy 22:42, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

But those are processed before my regexes are applied. I'd like something where I can check to make sure the output is correct. — Dispenser 05:24, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Hmm.. I suppose, it wouldnt be difficult to have a "early and/or late" check, like there is with the normal FaR - ie they can be applied before or after the general fixes...? —Reedy Boy 08:32, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

What I am really asking for is a if is a set of Skip if contains and Skip if doesn't contains that are evaluated after the regexes have finished parsing. There's been a similar request here before to have this too. It's a good idea since bot ops can ensure the saved page is correct. — Dispenser 00:47, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

Suppose, it could have an option for early/late checking.. Like general fixes do..? —Reedy 22:20, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Block and Protection Log Access

Status

New

Description

The ability to view block logs and page logs without leaving AWB, for example, if I'm viewing a User_talk page, it would be useful to be able to see whether the user is blocked or the page protected. Even better if this could be done as part of a search parameter (e.g. "skip if indef blocked") but that would probably be pretty complicated. Right now, I have to open my regular browser to view the logs then return to AWB to complete my edit.--Doug.(talk • contribs) 19:19, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

[4] would be useful to help with this. —Reedy 16:04, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Make the Find and replace dialog not modal

Status

New

Description

It would be extremely helpful if I could just keep the find and replace dialog box open all the time, and have it stay on top of the main AWB window. Right now, however, if I want to scroll down in the edit box when the find and replace dialog is open, I have to close the dialog, scroll down, and then reopen the dialog to continue editing my regex statements. Thanks, --CapitalR (talk) 01:56, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

It isn't modal, see Feature Request Modeless Dialog "Text regex" (Couldn't spell). But I have the main window on my first screen and AFAR on the second. Perhaps, you want an always on top feature or a taskbar button? — Dispenser 03:23, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Show rather than show dialog? IIRC? —Reedy 14:52, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I changed it to modal some time ago because when it was non-modal, closing it sometimes resulted in the main being hidden. MaxSem^{(Han shot first!)} 15:16, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I've had this tonight.. —Reedy 21:54, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Allow split-screen mode to see preview and diff at the same time

Status

New

Description

It would be very useful to be able to see both the preview and the diff at the same time using a split screen setup. This is actually so useful that I recently hacked AWB to allow it (using one of those splitContainer controls), but I think it would be a great option to have available to everyone. Even better than that would be to allow seeing the original page, the new preview, and the diff (or any combination of the two) all at the same time (which would probably only be possible on wide screen monitors, but it would be quite useful). --CapitalR (talk) 02:00, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Support non-standard Windows font PPI

Sel-explanatory

MaxSem^{(Han shot first!)} 19:33, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Scrollable Window

Status	New
Description	Do you think you could make it so that you can scroll through the entire window? I use a laptop with a 1024 * 600 resolution, so some of the window gets cut off. I really like AWB and I just want to be able to use all the features. Oracle Techie 16:40, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

To be honest, im not sure about making the whole window scrollable.. Should be doable, would need to try having a play... That a 9/10" screen by any chance? —Reedy 22:37, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

I think its a 10" diagonally. Yea, its 10.2" diagonally. OT 22:23, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I'll have to try it on my 9" eee —Reedy 22:37, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Alright, just post what happens when you do that, I guess. Thanks! OT 02:45, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Suppose i should've posted before, it definately doesn't want to play nice on the smaller screens :( —Reedy 19:19, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Built in AWB functions

[edit] Remove some WP-specific things, at least for other wikis

Status	New
Description	There are many WP-specific things which are highly annoying when using AWB on other wikis. They should probably be removed for other wikis, though it'll be a big task to find them all. If you decide to do this, I'll be happy to help you in that regard.  —Mike.lifeguard|@en.wb 14:35, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

It can be done fairly easily... If theres stuff you definately want disabling for non-WP, we can do that. —Reedy 20:52, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Anything in particular, etc? —Reedy 10:20, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Any more for any more? Or i will close this request at somepoint soon. —Reedy 21:06, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I have just one - on Wikiquote, we use spacing, indentation, and line breaks that AWB is always wanting to get rid of. It should ignore those. bd2412 T 13:51, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Unsorted

[edit] Interwiki the AWB link in edit summary

Status	New
Description	As well, a minor request. When AWB appears in the edit summary, could it be an interwiki link so there aren't massive numbers of redlinks when AWB is used on other projects. Either that, or have it not linked unless its on WP.

– Mike.lifeguard | ^talk 02:40, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Hmm. theres 2 things to take care of, the project differences, and the language differences. I think having it linked wherever, would be the best... Just what if there is the local page... Hmm Reedy Boy 16:02, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Juts create a local page. It can soft redirect to WP:en. Rich Farmbrough, 15:22 11 October 2007 (GMT).

Thats probably a better idea. Thanks Rich! Reedy Boy 15:50, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

I did notice that we can in the variables set a link to the AWB page... But that is by language.. Reedy Boy 13:29, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

The use of "suppress using AWB in edit summary" minimises the problem. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:29, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Category and stub handling enhancements

Can we also include change so that {{Lifetime}} is included after the categories? As per the Usage guidelines for Lifetime template, it needs to come last, but I believe AWB moves the Lifetime template before the categories. VasuVR (talk, contribs) 15:36, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

rev 4023 Lifetime moved after categories on en wiki. Rjwilmsi 20:35, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. That was quick... VasuVR (talk, contribs) 05:25, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Hm... I am not sure that the "usage guidelines" are correct! Since Lifetime includes defaulsort it should be in the same place defaultsort exists. The only reason to put it at the bottom is to override any usage of defaultsort! -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:58, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

I do not agree. Default sort does not affect the content or display of the page, I guess. It only affects the listing within a category - hence DEFAULTSORT can be anywhere. So, Lifetime's position need not be affected by the fact that it includes DEFAULTSORT. Also, the Categories for Living people, year of birth, year of death, are not more important than other categories. Hence they should come at the end among list of categories. VasuVR (talk, contribs) 05:25, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

rev 4460 AWB will now automatically add 'XXXX births/deaths', 'living people' category etc. where the date is available in the article (either following name in bold at top, or within {{birth date}} template or similar). There's a skip option and database scanner option for this logic. Rjwilmsi 16:58, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] On exit, check for changes to settings and query whether user wants to save the changes

Status

New

Description

On exit, check for changes to settings and query whether user wants to save the changes. When I exit most applications, they check if changes have been made. If no changes have been made, they exit immediately. If changes have been made, they ask if I want to save the changes. Look at how MS Word behaves. AWB does not do this. I know that AWB cannot test for everything but I would like it to be able to save my javascript changes as a first priority and my skip options etc as a second priority. Lightmouse (talk) 22:05, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

This is a very useful proposal, however checking for changes the right way (e.g. by serialising settings and comparing against saved ones) is a heavy operation. Needs more thinking. MaxSem^{(Han shot first!)} 08:23, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Perhaps we could divide the request into several pieces. For example, changes to the 'Make module' could be one problem piece to solve and changes to checkbox options in the tabs could be another problem piece. I would regard it as a useful advance if you could solve either of those problem pieces. Lightmouse (talk) 08:39, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Filters before running the list maker

Status

New

Description

The filter button currently applies the selected filters on the artice list. Can it be setup so that the user can select filters ahead of time and then click "make list". For example, I would like to load "only categories" from when I click "Make list" using "Category" make from option. Right now, I having to load a bulk of articles first and then select the filters (this takes a lot of time). Try pulling the categories under Category:Unassessed-Class India articles. Thanks, Ganeshk (talk) 22:26, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. Something like List --> Filter out non mainspace and Filter duplicates (they run when new stuff has been added).. —Reedy 22:35, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Tried that...when I selected "filter non-mainspace", it returned nothing. I wanted the categories alone to pull up (select category check on the List - filter option). Regards, Ganeshk (talk) 22:47, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, what im meaning, is something "like" that needs adding. —Reedy 23:08, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps it might be worth considering have a separate list maker dialog. This would be equivalent to the 'Open' file dialog in other applications. Then you could have more room for options such as this request for pre-filtration. I would suggest merging it with the similar functionality of the 'List comparer'. I am always looking for improvements that will firstly make the terminology and interaction similar to other applications and secondly give more space for the working areas. Lightmouse (talk) 11:01, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

It would be easy enough to add on the special filter a checkbox to say, apply this filter whenever new articles are added to the List Maker... That saves other real-estate, and puts it in a relevant place? —Reedy 22:57, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Search within 'Make module'.

Code already exists to do this (just not on the custom module).. Any suggestions how to do it designer wise? Do we need a Find form creating..? —Reedy 19:28, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Interesting predecessors include

• the method that AWB already has below the 'Save' button. Perhaps you could just copy that or update it with ideas from the other predecessors below.
• MS Word is interesting in that 'Find' and 'Replace' are just tabs combined into one dialog. So it is easy to start with Find and then decide to use Replace.
• MS Notepad is very simple but can be irritating - it does not search the whole thing like MS Word does. You have to search forward from where you are, or then backward from where you are.
• Firefox is instant search and has a very small field tucked away

You could add some menus to the 'Make module' page and then have the 'Find' menu item in one of them. I instinctively use 'Ctrl-F' to get 'Find' or 'Ctrl-H' to get 'Replace'. Lightmouse (talk) 20:09, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Precisely. —Reedy 20:14, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

I think a dialog like the MS Word dialog would be good. You could enable it on Ctrl-F even without menus for now. You could use the same dialog in both places. This would allow you to remove the field from below the Save button. Lightmouse (talk) 20:48, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Dialogs are so passé. Firefox's find toolbar is what we should be aiming at, but safari has such cool effect (it dims all non highlighted words). Visual Studio has some cool options, but isn't as powerful as notepad++. I believe I had add Ctrl-F and a few other shortcuts in one of my uncommitted patches. — Dispenser 04:44, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You are right, Firefox is better, although MSWord integrates 'Find' and 'Replace' very well. It would be good if the AWB solution could do that. Lightmouse (talk) 12:50, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

What i dont get, is why the .NET framework doesnt have a standard FaR contorl that can be reused. I suppose, its probably worth trying to make up a decent one we can reuse throughout AWB... Hmmm —Reedy 12:55, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

AWB is not an IDE for development of plug-ins or custom modules, therefore I don't think that this feature should be a high priority. Anybody who wishes to improve their custom module can use their own text editor or IDE to work on it. Rjwilmsi 19:33, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Multiple page moves

Status

New

Description

It would be very great if AWB will allow us to move many pages the same way (e.g.: moving Goldfinger article to Goldfinger (film)), there is yet 2 pywikipedia scripts (movepages.py and pagerename.py), but movepages.py does not append words to the title and pagerename.py does not convert to UNICODE, especially when using special characters (as French é, è, à... and also Arabic letters). So, please, such a feature on AWB is highly recommanded, thank you. --DrFO.Jr.Tn (talk) 20:05, 15 June 2008 (UTC) The needed actions are : Prepend (to titles), i.e.: prepending a word to titles (in a list of articles), e.g.: USS Michigan (for the USS ships). (this is just an example) Append (to titles), i.e.: appending a word to titles (in a list of articles), e.g.: St. Louis, Michigan. (this is just an example) Find and replace (in titles), i.e.: finding a word in the titles (in a list of articles) and replacing it by another, e.g.: Goldfinger (cinema) to Goldinger (film). (this is just an example) Delete (from titles), i.e.: deleting words from the titles (in a list of articles), e.g.: State of North Carolina to North Carolina. (this is just an example)--DrFO.Jr.Tn (talk) 20:18, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Possibly best implemented as a MassMove plugin... (could be a default ship plugin with AWB though) —Reedy 22:25, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Using AWB on a private wiki protected by WinAuth

Steve, I added credential from IE in rev 3083, could you check this out? Also, you could try CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials. MaxSem^{(Han shot first!)} 07:35, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Need an update on whether this is still a problem. Rjwilmsi 13:54, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Define space in lines/paragraphs between Multiply links

Status

New

Description

Allow the user or hardcode an agreed distance where by Multiple links are shown If we had: Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser is a semi-automated Mediawiki editor for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista designed to make tedious repetitive tasks quicker and easier. It is essentially a browser that automatically opens up a new page when the last is saved. When set to do so, it suggests some changes (typically formatting) that are generally meant to be incidental to the main change. At present, Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser can create a list of pages from single or multiple categories, "what links here", the wiki links on a page, a text file, a Google search, a user's watchlist, or a user's contributions. Distance =2 lines . This would return false Distance =10 lies . Would return true Distance =1 paragraph would return true Gnevin (talk) 14:14, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

What? Plrk (talk) 15:10, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

i believe gnevin is asking that users have a way to say how close multiple wikilinks have to be to eachother before AWB complains about them. -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 16:52, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

As Zapper says , sorry for not being clearer Gnevin (talk) 21:58, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Live view tab

Status

New

Description

Over on the right set of tabs, after History I could really benefit from an "actual" view of the current page. While the current Preview method works fine for articles, it's completely useless for categorizing images - which don't display in any diff/preview page view. I'm not sure how hard this would be (I'm aware that AWB briefly performs an "actual" load immediately after saving), but if possible it would save me from having to manually "Open in browser" every single image i look at (plus it would be a nice workaround for the lack of "Articles using this image" list). To reduce server strain it should operate like the History tab, only loading when the tab is active. -ΖαππερΝαππερ BabelAlexandria 20:22, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

There was a request for something like this using something that could potentially done internally.. —Reedy 11:39, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

hmm...? -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 12:17, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature_requests#Fast_previewing —Reedy 12:20, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

actually what i'm asking for is very different than Instaview. I want to, specifically, be able to see the image located at Image:Foo without having to open an external window. -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 18:35, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] HTML scrapper for listmaker

Suppose this would be a good ListMaker Plugin —Reedy 22:04, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm happy enough to create this for you, just you will need to work with me on making it. —Reedy 18:19, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Im thinking this would be a worthwhile thing for me to get done over the Easter.. Be able to parse XML lists/HTML pages.. —Reedy 17:50, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

WP:CHECKWIKI now generates lists of articles by error type (HTML) at http://toolserver.org/~sk/checkwiki/enwiki/

Currently I paste these into a text file and then use "Text file" to import them. A lazy solution would be if one could read directly the toolserver page. Anyways, it already works well in the present way. -- User:Docu

I've posted a patch that will add an option to work with CheckWiki URLs in a new item at the bottom of this page. Should be OK. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 13:04, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4474 adds a basic implementation.. About all it gives is between the body tags splitting on the newlines. Needs to be expanded further to accept regexes for matching etc. —Reedy 14:40, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Remember "Find & Replace" (and other) window details

Status	New
Description	I'd appreciate AWB remembering the size/position of windows such as "Find & Replace" between sessions (and also, if possible, the widths of columns within). I guess it could be something saved along with the other settings..? Hope it's straightforward to implement and sorry if it's already on the to-do list. Sardanaphalus (talk) 01:26, 14 October 2008 (UTC) PS Thanks for the recent upgrade.

[edit] Regex checker

Status

New

Description

It checks the syntax of the regex to ensure that it is valid. For example, an invalid expression containing to many unbalanced parentheses or brackets will change the background of the box to a light red. Additionally, it could warn over common errors such as having pipes outside of capturing groups. Or warn when matching an empty string or just whitespace. — Dispenser 17:43, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Using regex to check regex? :P —Reedy 21:58, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Maybe just use http://regexpal.com/ ? It highligths syntax and errors. Matma Rex pl.wiki talk 10:47, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I think the request is to have something internal to AWB... —Reedy 10:52, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I know, and I suggested to use external service, I think that AWB is a wiki editor, not a regex checker. Matma Rex pl.wiki talk 11:07, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Delinking dates according to the new format

The problem is that articles should now be using a consistent date format (i.e. all the same in the article wherever possible) and the format matching the locale of the article (e.g. American dates for American articles) which requires a user decision. So I'm not sure how AWB could do this as a general fix. However, a plugin/option that prompted the user to decide the right date format for the article, then automatically apply it, would be great. Rjwilmsi 11:08, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

As you probably know, the monobook script is coded by me. It permits you to choose 'dmy' or 'mdy' during the edit of each article. If you want to know how to get it working, just ask me.

As you suggest, AWB is used for lists of articles without per article options. I do have AWB code that delinks without changing the format and anyone is welcome to use it. It is at User:Lightmouse/javascript conversion/delink full years. Just go to the AWB 'Tools' menu, select 'Make module' and paste the code in there (delete what is currently there). If you need more help, let me know. I happen to think that delinking even without reformatting is definitely worthwhile.

Furthermore, you can create a list of articles that are likely to be in one format (e.g. all articles about British, Irish, or Australian places are likely to need 'dmy' format), and you can use a 'reformat to dmy' script instead. This is at User:Lightmouse/javascript conversion/dmy and I can make a 'reformat to mdy' version on request. It would be great if we could find a generic AWB solution. So I am keen to read what others say. Lightmouse (talk) 11:31, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

I have revived this feature request in accordance with the statement from Martinp23 as follows:

• "for the time being I have revoked your access to AWB. The reason for this move is that a number of extremely minor, inconsequential edits have originated from your account through the tool. This sort of change, which isn't really important in the grander scheme of the article, is best added to the "general fixes" part of AWB so that the "problem" can be fixed when more effectual bot tasks are run. Please file a bug against AWB to have the fix added to the general fixes".

Martinp23 has also revoked AWB access for Closedmouth on the same basis. I now understand that Martinp23 actually meant 'feature request' rather than 'bug'. I would be delighted if Martinp23's suggestion for AWB inclusion were possible. I offer the regex in User:Lightmouse/javascript conversion/dmy as a start. Lightmouse (talk) 15:30, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

There is not currently clear consensus in favour of mass/automated delinking of all dates. This feature request should be set pending until such consensus is reached. Rjwilmsi 11:32, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

I am confused. Martinp23 said it was 'extremely minor, inconsequential' and is best added to general fixes. Was Martinp23 mistaken? Lightmouse (talk) 11:52, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

I agree with you that Martinp23's comments were inconsistent. Still, I don't think there's (yet) clear consensus for this. If and when there is clear consensus it could certainly become part of AWB's general fixes. Rjwilmsi 15:28, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. I see that he has removed my AWB permission again just now. Lightmouse (talk) 16:08, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

I just wanted to say first that I have disareed with the delinking of dates from the beginning, but it did meet consensus as a change and was posted appropriately to WP:MOS. If anyone wants to vote to change that I would be delighted to join in but until it does get changed then it should be followed and any dates that fall into that policy should be delinked. Furthermore it is my opinion that Martinp23 has exceeded his authority by revoking AWB access. I recommend that the access be restored immediately and Martin be asked to follow proper procedures for revoking access in the future.--Kumioko (talk) 03:44, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

We are not in a position to implement this feature request until there is clear agreement in the community about how date linking is to be handled and all the outstanding discussion about it has been cleared up. Thanks Rjwilmsi 19:14, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Snippets from DB search

Status	New
Description	From: Wikipedia:Bot requests/Archive 23#Repeat edit. In the DB scanner show the surrounding text of the match when selecting a diff. Possibly similar to Notepad++ shows matching when searching through files. — Dispenser 15:33, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Bypass specific redirects

Status	New
Description	From: Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2008 November 22#Template:BD → Template:Lifetime Create a page or category based system to automatically bypass redirects. This is needed as some templates have names that obscure the actual function of the template. If implementing using a category system the sortkey could be used for related values. — Dispenser 00:12, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Internationalisation and localisation

Status	New
Description	50% of the WMF traffic is not English. If this software is useful for other languages, it should be possible to use the software in this other language.

You can use it on any language (as of the svn version), just the interface isnt localised. —Reedy 11:06, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

As an aside. We have thought about it, and it would be a good idea. It just would require a lot of reworking of the code, and the interface changing to cater for the larger text aswell... Getting translators would be easy enough, i suspect... —Reedy 11:13, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

I haven't found an easy to #Support non-standard Windows font PPI since the window resizing modes doesn't seem to have an "em" mode. The best I've been able to come up with is using dymaic layout boxes, but that tends to slows redrawing. — Dispenser 16:48, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Article page in disambiguation popup

Status

New

Description

Currently, the disambiguation dialog box only has a short excerpt of the text. This is often not enough to determine context for the correct replacement, and you have to open the page in an external browser. It would be nice if you could drop a webbrowser control in the blank space in the bottom of the dialog so we can read the article without opening other windows. Thanks for a great tool Phil153 (talk) 05:48, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Reduce use of group boxes

Status

New

Description

Some group boxes exist without anything outside the group. In such circumstances, a group box consumes space, makes the interface noiser, and gives you an additional task of naming the group. These can usually be eliminated. Group boxes in a vertical stack can be replaced with vertical separator lines that use less space. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511459.aspx. In the main AWB interface, the 'Make list' group box is an example that could be eliminated at no cost. Lightmouse (talk) 13:04, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Possibility to set order of automatic operation (Find&Replace, External Proc. etc)

Status	New
Description	Right now, it is only possible to force Find&Replace to be before/after General Fixes. But it's not possible to set when the External Processing will be executed, Add/Replace/Remove Category, Template Substing etc. I guess it'll be hard to implement, but I believe in your skills. (rest below, {{AWB feature}} breaks pipes in preformatted box)

How I imagine it to look like: it would be a little window like F&R one, with rows like there, and easier possibility to move row up or down (=make it be executed earlier or later), delete or temp disable operation. Also, a button "Add operation...", which will allow to add custom bunches of replaces or, if they were deleted form list earlier, General Fixes, External Proc. and others from another list.

It might look like this:

Operation        | Description          | Minor |        |           |             |          | Enabled
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
General Fixes    | AWW-specific fixes   | ☑     |        | [move up] | [move down] | [delete] | ☑
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Find and Repl... | "cat" -> "dog"       | ☐     | [edit] | [move up] | [move down] | [delete] | ☑
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
External Proc... | friendlyIbox.rb      | ☐     | [edit] | [move up] | [move down] | [delete] | ☐

Explanation:

Operation

non-editable hard-coded name.

Description

editable, just like regexes in Find and Replace; short user-written desc

Minor

if checked and only fixes are these from minor operations, AWB would skip article.

[edit]

if possible to modify this operation, they will show dialog boxes same as these that appear now when clicking for example Tools -> External Processing

[move up]/[move down]/[delete]

self-explanatory.

Enabled

would work exactly like the ones in Find&Replace dialog.

The dialog may be shown by clicking Tools -> Manage order... or by button placed near Find and Replaces ones.

I hope you like my idea and understand my poor English ;), Matma Rex pl.wiki talk 10:36, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

#Options_list, its a good idea.. but there are some that are supposed to be run before others (but this could be catered for).. All that would technically be necessary would be to turn most of the stuff into individual modules that could be added to a list for processing or similar... —Reedy 10:54, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Aw, I was looking for request like mine, but I couldnt find it (I suggest to archive requests more often ;)). What is supposed to run before others? I have no idead what it can be. And, well, I said it'll be tought, but - I repeat it - I believe in you, developers. Matma Rex pl.wiki talk 11:11, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Haha. People get annoyed if we archive non finished ones ;). I'll combine them later. However, i think this is more a v5+ request.. Hopefully where we'll have *maybe* changed to .NET v3... and can look at improving the gui with the new toys it gives us! —Reedy 11:27, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Move 'Make list' to new dialog

Status

New

Description

Move 'Make list' to new dialog. The model that I have is that an AWB list is like a file in many applications. I can create a new list, open an existing list, work with it, and/or save it. In Microsoft Word, I can create a new file, open an existing file, work with it, and/or save it. In Microsoft Word, I use items from the 'File' menu: 'New', 'Open', 'Save'. I suggest that AWB has similar items in the 'File' menu, although they might have to be appended with 'list' e.g. 'New list'. Description: 'New list'. Produces a dialog. All the items in the current 'Make list' group would be moved into this dialog. The list itself would be duplicated so that it is in the 'New list' dialog and the main AWB interface as it is now. An advantage is that the main AWB interface could have a longer list due to the removal of six elements (the two fields for source and the two buttons). Description: 'Open list' or simply 'Open'. Produces the usual dialog for opening a text file. Description: 'Save list' or simply 'Save'. Produces the usual dialog for saving a text file . Lightmouse (talk) 14:51, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Sounds alright to me... Whats the wider community consensus? —Reedy 13:01, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Some further thoughts:

• I defined 'New list' but not 'Edit list'. An 'Edit list' function needs an 'Edit list' button beneath the list where the 'Filter' button is now.
• 'New list' and 'Edit list' should produce the same dialog. A working name for the dialog should be 'List'.
• The 'List' dialog is the main place for editing lists but removal of articles should be possible in the main AWB interface.
• The right-mouse menus throughout AWB could do with a review. The right-mouse menu in the current list has 'Filter', 'Save list', and 'Sort alphabetically'. If this design idea goes further, I suggest eliminating those three options.

Lightmouse (talk) 15:25, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Double redirect fix functionality

Status	New
Description	Add a function or plugin that fixes double redirects similar to how pybot does. Nobody likes to do these manually, and some people prefer AWB over pybot. --Charitwo (talk) 21:24, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

This bug is partially dependent on bugzilla:14869 —Reedy 15:29, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Mark as patrolled

Status	New
Description	Now that we can mark pages as patrolled even if we don't get to them from special:newpages, is there a way to allow this to be done in AWB?--Fabrictramp

[edit] Dekimasu's disambig finding tool.

Dekimasu has come up with a neat tool to find all disambiguation pages linked by an article (in short, you put in an article like Lyndon B. Johnson and it lists all the disambiguation links on that page). Can this be parsed through AWB to generate a list like the list of entries with multiple links? It would be neat and functional. Better still if the individual links could then be picked and disambiguated from the list on that disambig page. Cheers! bd2412 T 18:03, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it could, but some form of API output would be better (possibly worth requesting). Just a list of pages in an xml list style like the MW Api gives. Im not getting into having to parse HTML un-necesserily —Reedy 18:07, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

tools:~jason/AWB_article_dabs.php?title=Ohio - We've got a XML style output now =). What specifically are you wanting to use it for? —Reedy 23:43, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I "specifically" want to be able to select articles which I know are likely to have many disambig links, and use the tool to pick out all of those links and fix them to point to the proper pages. bd2412 T 23:03, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

I know this doesn't have to do with the request. But do this new tool provide anything different from tools:~dispenser/cgi-bin/dabfinder.py?page=Ohio? I'm looking to find something not tagged as "likely to go away". Sorry for derailing. §hep • ^Talk 23:53, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I need to rewrite that tool to use the more efficient SQL queries (It was my first SQL tool). It provides multiple page output using API query and has simple html scrapers for use certain pages structures. And it also reports other link oddities like self redirects. The "likely go away" is in reference to the rewrite which will significantly change how things works. So if the devs could describe what they'd like in the format option (JSON, XML, YAML) I'd be willing to add it to the new tool. — Dispenser 11:41, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Add "Clear list" in List menu

Status	New
Description	Add "Clear list" in List menu to remove all entries from list. -- Magioladitis (talk) 13:29, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

There is Remove --> All ? —Reedy 14:21, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Why can't I see it? :S I see "Remove duplicates" and "Remove non main space" and I have v4.5.1.1 (svn 3911) -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:55, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Right click, remove, 2nd option down is All. Should also have Selected in that menu. Ctrl + A then Del would do the same also —Reedy 15:24, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

This option is not in the pull-down menu, where I was searching for it. Ctrl+A and tehn Del is not a good idea when working with 25,000 articles. It's slow. Can you add the Remove all on the pull-down menu? -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:57, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

There for me? —Reedy 16:03, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

I mean here, in the upmenu. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:40, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Seems a little pointless/redundant to me.. As those are used to affect stuff being added to the list (ie remove dupes on adding, etc etc) Although, no reason why it cant go on —Reedy 14:49, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Maybe it's just me but I am used in working with this menu instead of right-clicking. I ve been using Ctrl+A and Del and this was really slow. I am ok if you implement it or not. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:57, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

It isn't just you. Items in a contextual menu (i.e. right-click) should not be the only method of accessing a feature. Some expert users like contextual menus. Developers (in all applications, not just AWB) are experts and that is why they focus on contextual menus and sometimes overlook the need to ensure access via basic menus. As your report suggests, it is not just a problem for novices, some experts have problems too. That is partly why I suggested a review of contextual menus throughout AWB. This issue is known and mentioned explicitly or implicitly in usability guidelines. In fact, Microsoft guidelines actually use the term 'redundant' as a good thing. I hope that helps. Lightmouse (talk) 10:16, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Generic template removal

(Request template removed; fix below works fine) I'm hoping this can be added because I'd like to be able to go through a list of pages and remove a certain template, regardless of its parameters. The closest option currently is just to use Find and Replace to get rid of the template, but this really only works if the template is the exact same each time. With the template I'm trying to remove, {{AFC submission}}, the parameters change with each use of the template, since it has a timestamp parameter and a creator parameter. If there's some way to do this using RegEx then I apoloize for my ignorance and would appreciate being told how to do this. Thanks much, Robert Skyhawk ^{So sue me!} (You'll lose) 23:22, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

I think the following works: \{\{foo\|([^\}]*)\}\} I'm sure there's a much more elegant way to do it, but essentially this finds the opening brackets with the template name, then a string of any length that doesn't contain a closing bracket, then the closing brackets. --NE2 01:27, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

That actually works great, thanks. Robert Skyhawk ^{So sue me!} (You'll lose) 04:05, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Strongly suggest you use \{\{foo\|([^\}\{]*)\}\} as templates can be nested. Rich Farmbrough, 16:12 28 February 2009 (UTC).

[edit] Follow redirects on the list comparer

Status

New

Description

I'd like to be able to follow redirects using the list comparer. I have a specific problem which may translate to other situations. I have a list of names of federal judges from the Federal Judicial Center, and I am trying to find out which names are missing from Wikipedia. Comparing my list to the names in Wikipedia's categories covering these people is unhelpful because in many cases the Wikipedia article is at a different variation of the name, with the FJC version redirecting to it. If the list comparer could follow the redirects from the names in the FJC list to the names in the federal judge categories, I could get a much more accurate list of which names on the FJC list are missing from Wikipedia. bd2412 T 23:16, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

If this is done, it should be optional, since there are other cases where redirects will be categorized. --NE2 01:28, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

No problem with that. I just want to be able to figure out which articles we have and which ones we need. bd2412 T 07:16, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Try this - it's a bit complicated but it should work. Turn off all general fixes, and set it to skip if it has the text Category:Foo, and to skip if no changes are made. Load the list and set it to follow redirects. Then run through, and after it's done (there won't be anything to save) look at the "skipped" box in the logs tab. Filter to exclude the skip reason "no change" and you have your list. --NE2 08:15, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

The new pre-parsing mode could be used here to achieve this more prettily. Rjwilmsi 12:08, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I followed NE2's advice and it worked like a charm. Cheers! bd2412 T

[edit] Database scanner: ongoing count articles of scanned

Time remaining is probably impossible. IIRC when MaxSem made it multi threaded, the bar became a proper indication of % of the way through... Might be wrong though —Reedy 17:10, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

I find the progress bar to be accurate in terms of linearity of progress. What we could do is show the actual percentage and elapsed time on top of the coloured bar so that the user could do a rough calculation (10% took 2 minutes, so ~18 minutes left...). Rjwilmsi 18:05, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Time elapsed and textual % would be alright... Possibly as a mouse over tooltip? Or something else? —Reedy 11:00, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

We can look at predecessor systems. For example, downloading items from the web gives an interface that has a progress bar with text underneath. The text says 'xx minutes remaining - yy of zz MB (qq kB/s)' or something like that. We all know that the time remaining is just an estimate and resolution only needs to be to the nearest minute. Instead of counting MB, I would like it to count articles. Could we have 'xx minutes remaining - yy of zz articles'? Lightmouse (talk) 12:01, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Pages cant really be done. The Dump doesn't give us a number of pages in the total thing, so would mean going through and counting them all before running. Which is a waste of time and resources. Currently, the progress bar value is setup using "return (double)stream.Position / stream.Length;".... Which we could use to display a textual % complete. A start time can be recorded, and the % in the time of execution, can give an expected time to completion... (execution time is already recorded) —Reedy 20:29, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Actually pages would be lees useful. The dump is front loaded - early articles tend to be larger. Rich Farmbrough, 14:51 28 February 2009 (UTC).

That sounds like it would be an improvement. Lightmouse (talk) 17:41, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Partially there - rev 4017, thats the textual display done, plus some tweaks and such —Reedy 23:17, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Should probably finish this... —Reedy 20:23, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] https support for custom sites

Status	New
Description	Support for configuring custom sites that use only https and are not reachable via http. -- Hawaiian717 (talk) 00:43, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Only replace when something else is happening

Status	New
Description	Just a simple option to make replaces only happen when something else is being changed in the article. This could either be for all the replaces or a tickbox next to each find and replace (thats my preference). ·Add§hore· Talk To Me! 20:03, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] History analysis

Status	New
Description	Features to work with history (last edit undo, undo of specific user edits, statistics)

This appears to be similar to Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive_19#Filtering_based_on_history. Lightmouse (talk) 10:41, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

This feature would be very useful for bots to filter out articles that it has already edited so it can avoid editing an article for a second time. For example, in some scenarios the bot makes a false positive edit, then a user reverts the bot, then the bot makes the same edit again. I would like to be able to see if the history contains the bot user name but it would be useful to test for any string in the history. I imagine the interface as similar to the 'article contains', 'article does not contain' code. Is it possible? Lightmouse (talk) 07:38, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

It probably depends on whether the mediawiki API has a feature whereby it will tell us how many times a given user (or bot user) has edited a page. If that's available then we could certainly have an option "skip if I've already edited this page". Searching a history for a string doesn't sound feasible: the history of some pages is 50 edits per day, so AWB could easily spend several minutes working through the last two months of a page history. Rjwilmsi 22:27, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Also, you'd probably want some time constraint on it. You may have not touched it for 2 years, so missing out on those edits would therefore be bad... It may be possible to query the API (ie have to ask Roan nicely to do it), to be able to specify a date, and a username and return whether the user account has touched that page since that date... *May*. As per prior mentions, i'm NOT html scraping. I'll stick a bugzilla request on and see (or ask Roan on IRC).. —Reedy 11:25, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

prop=revision&rvstart=timestamp&rvend=timestamp2&rvuser=username&rvlimit=1

omitting rvstart (prop=revision&rvend=timestamp&rvuser=username&rvlimit=1), will give all (if any) edits by that user to the page since the date. It's possible —Reedy 11:28, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Unicode control characters

Status	New
Description	Would it be possible to include the removal of such characters in the list of general fixes of AWB? Parser functions in templates generally don't work well with them (whitespace is stripped, but not control characters). Recently we cleaned up up a series of characters found in {{coord}} templates (see Template_talk:Coord/Archive_9#Parser_function_errors_(Antelope_Valley_College). -- User:Docu

No reason the AWB Unicode converter list cant be updated to do these too —Reedy 16:31, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Cool. Thanks. -- User:Docu

Just specifically you're regex? —Reedy 20:07, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

These are four I had found back then. As they are never used in wikitext, I suppose we could always remove them. If there are any others, I suppose we could add these too. -- User:Docu

Per User talk:D6#Unexplained and probably harmful bot edit, can you ensure that no-width spaces (U+200B, it seems) are not automatically removed? They do have a purpose (as workarounds to various problems).--Kotniski (talk) 09:48, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

That should have been fixed under rev 4235 some six weeks ago, but versions in the 4.5.2 series are still enabled and have this bug. Perhaps the user should update their AWB version. Rjwilmsi 10:51, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm a bit confused now - this is marked as a new feature request, not yet enacted, so how can there be any effect from a bug in it? The problem I reported was with a bot running under the Check Wikipedia project, which as far as I know isn't the same as AWB (or is it? I don't really know what's going on here.)--Kotniski (talk) 11:29, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

This feature request has not been actioned, but there was a separate bug report over zero width spaces which was fixed under rev 4235 some six weeks ago such that AWB (the tool used to make the edit in question) now won't change zero width spaces. It could be that D6 was using their own logic, so the bug fix isn't actually relevant. Rjwilmsi 12:34, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

D6 is not using AWB. There is an AWB user that inserts them (possibly through some custom search and replace). I asked him for full details on this. -- User:Docu

[edit] IW link sorting for custom projects

Status	New
Description	Interwiki link sorting for customs projects. --Cizagna (talk) 12:50, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Provide some examples please. Rjwilmsi 14:27, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

uh?? AWB has an option to "Sort Interwiki links" that is apply with general fixes, based on this list. That i have been unable to trigger on a custom project. I ask and got answer that it only applies for certain projects/languages. still need examples? --Cizagna (talk) 19:38, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Updating my link as it has being archive --Cizagna (talk) 18:45, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] More special pages

We're waiting on [5]. As said before, i am not HTML scraping (not worth the hassle). So this will be resolve when the bug gets sorted on the MW side —Reedy 12:23, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Okay; thanks. –Drilnoth (T • C) 12:34, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Localhost

Status	New
Description	The ability to use it on a localhost wiki would be really nice. I would use it quite often. I know that it's designed for Wikipedia, but... Thanks, Genius101Guestbook 12:18, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm presuming it whinges about the domain name/similar? (Tbh, never tried a localhost server... Have you tried 127.0.0.1 also?) —Reedy 19:01, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

I've tried both localhost and 127.0.0.1, and the error message it gives is: "An error occured while connecting to the server or loading project information from it. Please make sure your Internet connection works and that combination of project/language exist. Enter the URL in the format en.wikipedia.org/w (including the directory where index.php and api.pho reside)." Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 20:25, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Place "External links" section after "References"

rev 4227 and rev 4228: implemented but to a limited extent: only operates when there is another section following the references section, as if references is last section, AWB can't readily tell if there are navigation footers etc. that the external links still need to be above, and just moving ==References== <references/> wouldn't work when additional citations were in the references section. Rjwilmsi 21:16, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I think it's a good start if the other section has the same level.

Less complex cases might be where there is nothing after ==References== <references/>, or only categories, interwikis, {{lifetime}}, etc. -- User:Docu

rev 4239 Implemented the logic to go up to a category. Rjwilmsi 20:06, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

rev 4240 Up to a defaultsort too. Rjwilmsi 20:09, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Would it be possible to set this so if there is a template of any kind before categories and after references it would make the change. If not there are a few others that I commonly see besides defaultsort. Especially the lifetime template and the Persondata termplate.--Kumioko (talk) 14:17, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

"Any kind" is likely to be too large, as ==References== can include templates. If there is a way to name the class "stub templates" and a few specific ones, e.g. {{coord}} or {{coord missing}}, {{persondata}}, this might work. For {{lifetime}}, one might just use subst .. -- User:Docu

I understand, and this is certainly a very good start, my only concern is that there are a lot of templates that are placed between the references and the categories including defaultsort, lifetime, persondata ones you have identified. Some examples are the navigation boxes that are used for politicians and compaign boxes that are frequently placed such as gettysburg. Please don't let my comment keep this from going through I just wanted to mention it as potential future additions.--Kumioko (talk) 17:33, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Lifetime has to be under the categories. AWB already does that. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:39, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Is this one supposed to re-order? Probably as I recently worked on longer articles, I haven't seen any section re-ordering yet. This one works fine. -- User:Docu

It won't, because AWB's logic is limited to reordering when references is not the last section. Rjwilmsi 21:42, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Mention reference consolidation in edit summary

It is my understanding (though only recently reached) that AWB will only do this with existing named references (i.e. it never makes up the names for refs, only propagates them. But yeah, it would be nice to see. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 17:44, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately the reason for some of the AWB general fixes may not be self-evident, but the edit summary is very short, so I don't think it's appropriate to start adding such things to the edit summary. If we added this there would be many others, and we'd soon run out of space, and also, what about the summary on non-English wikis.

Jarry1250's understanding is correct. I will update the information on the general fixes in the user guide when the named reference tidying is in the official release. Rjwilmsi 17:56, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

I understand. BTW I thought I had references seen being named, but I might be mistaken. -- User:Docu

I have a custom module that gives references names (sometimes). Part of it might get into a future release of AWB, but not yet. Rjwilmsi 18:20, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Add 'use list' buttons to the list comparer

Status	Feature added in next release
Description	Add a button in the list comparer under each results column to add the contents to the 'working' list. This would remove the need to save the list you want to use and then loading into the working list. mattbr 11:05, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, i suspect, a button to move the lists back to the first listmaker would do it... —Reedy 22:44, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Matt, would that suffice? —Reedy 23:21, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

rev 4034... Leaves them in the original box, just adds them to the first listmaker too. —Reedy

I've just used this in 4.5.2.0 and the button adds the list to the first list in the list comparer rather than the 'Make list' list that's used to work through articles (the 'list box' as shown on File:025 AWB illustrations for AWB manual.png) which is what I meant. Sorry for any confusion, please can this be updated? mattbr 09:29, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

I did try to get it to do that, but it was being a pain. It should be doable (in the same way that you can "copy" the list maker to the DBScanner.. —Reedy 13:31, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Exception list

Status

New

Description

Currently there is no exception list in AWB. This means that it essentially applies every edit criteria every time for every article. I have frequently run across articles that meet the criteria for the change but should not be changed. An example of this is when I refine the rank links to be more specific (Captain (United States) vice Captain for certain military personnel in the United States. Some personnel where also military personnel in other countries such as Egypt, England, Mexico and others and it would be greatly benficial if there where an exception list that I could add this type of false positive.--Kumioko (talk) 18:01, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

There is a false positive button that can be enabled. Though, i can't tell you what/how it does or even if it works... —Reedy 11:47, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Add quotes to named refs

As of rev 3873 AWB already has logic to add quotes where the reference name contains spaces or non-ASCII characters. What more do you need? Rjwilmsi 23:13, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, the quote marks are otherwise unnecessary - but I like them. In fact, we weren't even using them in our examples until I changed it a couple of weeks back (given our editor base). - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 11:55, 9 May 2009 (UTC)r

They're not really nessecary, but consensus seems to be that they should be used, as can be seen in both the guideline and in practice (long standing pages use quote marks, but new pages are sometimes created without). More standardization would just be a good idea, IMO. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 13:24, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

When I did this myself a while ago some users objected. See my talk page archive. Rjwilmsi 14:14, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

I think AWB should work according to Manual of Style for general fixes. The subject has to be discussed there and the addition or not of this feature should depend on that. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:28, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

It's already in a style guideline (WP:Footnotes), but when I have more time I'll bring it up for more discussion at a MOS page or similar. Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 14:56, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

WP:REFNAME reads "The ref name need not be placed within quotes unless it contains a space or some non-ASCII characters" -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:36, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Ah, okay. It doesn't prohibit using quote tags, either, so more discussion is indeed needed before implementing it as a standard change. Thanks for pointing out that line. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 16:10, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

No for the moment - AWB already adds quotes to named refs where they are indeed neeeded. Rjwilmsi 14:38, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Manually expand pipe trick where broken

Status	New
Description	The pipe trick doesn't work properly in places like references and galleries: bugzilla:2700. An example can be seen at User:NE2/testing. Could one of the general fixes automatically expand any piping? --NE2 04:25, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Seems better just to get the mediawiki bug fixed. Rjwilmsi 09:59, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

I agree, but it's been over three years. --NE2 17:32, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Bold text in headers

Do you have some examples (old diffs will do) to act as test cases? Rjwilmsi 17:13, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Sure; I'll make some example fixes using the CHECKWIKI list. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:27, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

[7], [8], [9], and [10] are some samples. If headings are level 3 or below there seems to be no visual change; level 2 headings do show up as bold with the syntax present, but this is virtually always unnecessary. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:37, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

rev 4348 Part implementation: remove bold from level 3 headers and below, as it makes no visible difference. Rjwilmsi 20:58, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Awesome! That's great. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:06, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Skip if... isn't changed

Status

New

Description

To ensure that bots using the CHECKWIKI list (such as the hopefully soon-to-be approved DrilBot) are sure to fix only articles with the error chosen at the time, having a RegExp "If ... is not changed" box would be useful. E.g., if \{\{|\}\} isn't added to or removed from a page, skip the page; this would help with the "Template not correct begin" and "Template not correct end" errors, where some of them can be fixed by bot and others can't, so that the bot doesn't make edits which aren't actually fixing what it is supposed to. I'm not sure if this is possible or not, but it would be nice. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 15:33, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Better to provide your own regexes for inclusion in AWB's general fixes, and then use the core 'skip if only minor general fixes'. If you have good regexes and test cases/examples of fixes I'm amenable to getting them in AWB. That way we can all benefit from your efforts. I've been doing similar work myself. Rjwilmsi 17:08, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

I fixed my post; it got messed up. Anyway I don't really have that much experience with RegExp (and absolutely nothing with C), but I'll keep your suggesstion in mind as I learn more. Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:26, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Pagination

1. Add a non-breaking space where there is no space between p. or pp. and the page number(s)?
2. Replace a space that follows p. or pp. with a non-breaking space?
3. Where a list of numbers is separated by commas without spaces, insert spaces? For example:
   • Change 22,27,143 to 22, 27, 143
4. Conform page or number ranges to the rule that drops repeating numerals prior to the 2 final numerals? For example:
   • Change 296–299 to 296–99
   • Change 1296–1302 to 1296–302

Requested of SmackBot by Finell,copied here by Rich Farmbrough, 11:39 11 May 2009 (UTC).

1&2 seem simple, 3 would need to distinguish between thousands separators, 4 - same problem with false positives - may be standard citation speak but does it help Wikipdedia's readership? Rich Farmbrough, 11:39 11 May 2009 (UTC).

Just my 2 cents but I think implementing #4 would make things very confusing when dealing with date ranges.--Kumioko (talk) 13:22, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Setting the non breaking space seems feasible, the others not. Rjwilmsi 22:11, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Also #4 is a style issue best left to editors. AWB shouldn't choose or impose a style.Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 22:13, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Y Done rev 4616 Implement requests 1 and 2. Rjwilmsi 13:43, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Take advantage of the maximum edit summary length

Status	New
Description	AWB should take advantage of the entire available length of edit summaries, like the Gadget available in preferences. –xeno talk 14:09, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

AWB uses the 255 chars (or worked out in bytes)... Are we allowed more or something? I know there is the "Allow up to 50 more characters in each of your edit summaries. Works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera."... —Reedy 17:03, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Well, with Python I was able to use the following edit summary [11]: [[User:Xenobot/6|Bot]] Removing statement "Based on...French Wikipedia" (somewhat inaccurate) & IGN ref, refining INSEE ref, all per [[WP:FRCOM]] request ([[User talk:Xeno|report errors?]], however with AWB, it was truncated at "request (", leaving off the next 34 characters. –xeno ^talk 17:12, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Formatting for defaultsort and lifetime templates

Status

New

Description

Per Defaultsort there is some formatting cleanup that could be added to AWB. Below are a few that do not appear to currently be captured as edits in AWB. the name should not contain epithets such as "Saint" Punctuation, such as apostrophes and colons should be removed For a surname which begins with Mc or Mac, the category sort key should always be typed as Mac with the remainder of the name in lowercase — for example, Macdonald, Maccluskey or Macmorris — regardless of how the surname is actually spelled. The first letter of each word should be in upper case, and all subsequent letters should be in lower case, regardless of the correct spelling of the name. This means names such as McDonald would be displayed as Macdonald.--Kumioko (talk) 13:34, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

I don't understand why this should be in general fixes. -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:30, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

If Defaultsort states that the above rules be applied then should we not include them in the AWB generals fixes? I don't understand whats not to understand?--Kumioko (talk) 16:18, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

I am not sure if these changes apply for a big percentage of articles and if it s worth to add them as general fixes or create a bot to do the job. -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:34, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

One of the genfixes removes accents from defaultsort, so there is precedent. --NE2 16:38, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Yup, we currently remove any non english (a-z) etc characters and replace them with the plain text version. This is only due to a problem with MySQL and the way it sorts on letters, meaning defaultsort wouldnt sort like expected. —Reedy 17:02, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Thousands of articles have special characters and defaultsort is needed. I supported this addition from the very first moment. But how many articles have "Saint" in bot their title and in defaulsort? Anyway, if it can be implemented, I 've no problem. -- Magioladitis (talk) 17:06, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Saint is not always an epithet. In the Saint October case, no defaulsort should be added. In general this request sounds to me more like a Bot request that will work with false positives. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:51, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Fair enough, taking Saint out of the equation I think that some of these could be added as edits to AWB. Doing as part of a bot is also a good idea. I can create some regex code to do some of this (convert Mc to Mac and make 2 to nth charachter lower case) if you want me too.--Kumioko (talk) 15:53, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

rev 4336 and rev 4341 apply the case rules for defaultsort (point 4).

I think 1 and 3 could be applied if AWB first checked that the article was about a person: look for persondata or XXXX births category etc. Rjwilmsi 11:27, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Out-think session timeouts

Status	New
Description	When using AWB manually (or rarely automatically) a session time-out can occur. AWB will continue as if the page had been sucessfully saved. WIBLI it auto-resaved unless the page had been edited, in which case it re-offered the diff? Rich Farmbrough, 11:01 12 May 2009 (UTC).

In regards to session timeouts I am still having a lot of problems with AWB starting the 60 second clock on every edit and on every couple pages when I use the pre-parse mode. Do you think the 2 issues might be related?--Kumioko (talk) 20:09, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Replace/Append check page with user right

Status	New
Description	With the introduction of custom user rights in MediaWiki, I think that a "AWBuser" right would be easier to manage than a long page of names. I find that checking a box takes a lot less time than trying to add a name in an alphabetical list and the rights log allows for notes to be added when removing/adding a right. Nakon 14:31, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

We'd need to deal with both in the meantime... We'd also need AWBbot in theory... Hmm —Reedy 17:41, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Couldn't we just look for the intersection of AWBUser and Bot flags? (with perhaps a check page for bots running w/o a flag...) –xeno ^talk 17:47, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Possibly... —Reedy 17:54, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Better general fix customization

Status

New

Description

I know about the "custom module" method of customizing general fixes, but it really isn't all that flexible. I'm sure that it's been mentioned before, although I don't see it on this page, but would it be possible to have a page (in options or preferences) that allows you more complete customization of what gen fixes are applied? This would be very useful for bots... DrilBot, for example, needs the MetaDataSort general fix because that repairs a number of errors at the CHECKWIKI lists, but that same fix sorts interwikis. DrilBot should not be making edits solely to sort interwikis, but this happens because there isn't any way to deactivate that without deactivating the wanted fixes, too. This would be much appreciated and I think that it would be useful for many users and bot owners. Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 21:59, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

I don't think we need customisation of what runs per se as bots should generally apply all general fixes to improve articles as much as possible. What you need is better skip options and control, so if you explain what you need further we can make better use of the 'significant' vs 'minor' general fixes logic. Rjwilmsi 13:04, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Ah, okay. In this case having the following available as significant fixes should work, and the rest as minor: Interwiki and category moving (but not just interwiki sorting), reference sorting, identical reference combining, "see also" and "external links"-type section renaming, self-referential de-linking, bullet points in X-links, DEFAULTSORT improvements, adds missing {{reflist}}, removing duplicate interwikis and cats, and wikifying HTML.

A better idea might be to actually have a "checkwiki" skip setting, which would skip articles if no CHECKWIKI fix is made.

Regardless, it would also be nice if you could deactivate just some of the gen fixes while still applying most of them, without using a custom module. Specifically with bots, the "date ordinals" change shouldn't be applied because it is kind of a spell checking fix, which bots should not be doing. If you could have that as an option in the drop-down options menu with "sort interwiki links" and "replace reference tags" that would basically fix the problems that I'm having... not completely, which would need something more like the options above, but it would let me easily deactivate the two fixes that bots really shouldn't be doing... the date ordinals, and interwiki sorting (which is generally a good thing, but its pointless for bots to make edits just to sort interwikis).

THanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 13:19, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Another consideration is that you normally have the option to apply Find & Replace rules either before or after genfixes. When you customize genfixes in a module, you no longer have that option. Genfixes in a custom module would always be performed first, which is the opposite of the default for "regular" genfixes. Considering this and many other factors, a feature allowing selective application of genfixes would be extremely useful and greatly appreciated. Schmoolik (talk) 01:38, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

#Possibility_to_set_order_of_automatic_operation_.28Find.26Replace.2C_External_Proc._etc.29 && #Options_list.. This request is a subset of those imho.. —Reedy 11:18, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Better behaviour after an on-wiki message

Status	New
Description	After a message if you return to AWB it looks like it is still running - says ready to save. It should say "stopped" maybe have an even clearer reminde that it is in an unusual state. Rich Farmbrough, 16:14 18 May 2009 (UTC).

I still prefer the "ready to save" because in nonbot mode this means the editor was to press Save or ignore. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:17, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Working with Alerts

I'll add the list of alerts to the AWB manual. Rjwilmsi 19:28, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Existing alerts are now in the manual.

• What format of alert would you want users to be adding? List of regular expressions? Rjwilmsi 07:54, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

For this one I was thinking it would be nice if users could set an edit as an alert rather than have it stop on the article every time. Maybe in the Find and replace Normal setting and advance settings you could add a checkbox to allow users to "Set as Alert".--Kumioko (talk) 15:26, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

• Would a new skip option 'skip if no alerts' satisfy point 3 (potentially combined with use of pre-parse mode)? Rjwilmsi 07:54, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

I was actually thinking the other way around. As far as I know, right now if an Alert comes up for an article that does not have another edit made, it will skip that article. Sometimes I would like to look for an alert though, especially the missing introduction one, or the unbalanced brackets. The more I think about this one the more I think a check box stating something like "Stop on Alert" might do.--Kumioko (talk) 15:26, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, AWB works on a skip basis. I think pre-parse mode and 'skip if no alerts' would work quite well for you. Rjwilmsi 15:17, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

rev 4508 Option to skip pages if no alerts. Rjwilmsi 08:12, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Delete blue links

Status	New
Description	Could a plugin/feature be developed for removing the blue links (Already done) on WP:MEA lists like this one: (link) Acebulf (talk) 00:31, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

I would suggest that you request this job done by a bot. See Wikipedia:Bot requests. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:19, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

This couldn't be done by a bot. The page has to be checked before it is deleted to make sure the blue link isn't remove if the page is going to be deleted in 15 minutes. This is why semi-automatic would be great. Acebulf (talk) 19:39, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Merging duplicate references

Status

Feature added in next release

Description

Perhaps AWB already does this, but I would be nice if duplicate refs would be merged. Aka it would change Bob had a dog.[1] His name was Popo.[2] He pooped a lot.[3]. ^ Jim, Bob (2004). "Popo, the Dog that Pooped", p. 23. ^ Jim, Bob (2004). "Popo, the Dog that Pooped", p. 23. ^ Jim, Bob (2004). "Popo, the Dog that Pooped", p. 23. to Bob had a dog.[1] His name was Popo.[1] He pooped a lot.[1]. ^ a b c Jim, Bob (2004). "Popo, the Dog that Pooped", p. 23. Headbomb {ταλκκοντριβς – WP Physics} 22:30, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

I thought it did? Or at least, to some extent User:Reedy 22:32, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

I looked through the archives and didn't find anything. Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 23:01, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Think Rjwilmsi just added it (ie with no FR, i might be wrong though). [12] - It does clear them up if they are all named and the same... —Reedy 23:08, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

I added logic to tidy duplicate references that already have names. AWB does not yet do anything with unnamed duplicate references but I have logic to do this, and intend to add it soon-ish. Rjwilmsi 11:10, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Is "blah" really the name used by AWB??? Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 14:22, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Nope, its what came to my mind first ;) 14:41, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Could this be added using names like "autogenerated1", "autogenerated2", etc.? There is now a truly massive list at WP:CHECKWIKI (39638 times right now), and combining them with undescriptive names would make more sense to me than leaving them separated. That list is too big for any human to do without an über automated tool, so having AWBots able to do this would be very useful. The specific names could then be made more descriptive by a human editor at some later date (which is still easier than doing the whole merge, IMO). –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 21:09, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

tools:~dispenser/view/Reflinks - I'm sure that names the references automagically when it combines them... —Reedy 21:19, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

I could add the same logic to AWB but who will provide me indemnity against some other editor saying 'the reference names are meaningless and hard to understand...'? Rjwilmsi 22:36, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

I know that I'd certainly defend your position... having the refs combined with undescriptive names makes articles look much better for readers, and updating the names in edit mode is much easier than combining them entirely by hand. The name is a much smaller problem than having the duplicates in the first place. Alternatively, we could open an RFC about this. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:58, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree, but would prefer that a discussion take place to check that this is the general opinion rather than get flamed. Rjwilmsi 10:58, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

I really don't see what would be controversial about this. If possible, it should retrieve |last=Last and |year=Year to place them in <ref name="LastYear"> (and if there are duplicates, <ref name="LastYearA">, <ref name="LastYearB"> and so on). Failing that, it should use generic names like <ref name="ReferenceA">, <ref name="ReferenceB">, and so on. If that's hard to read, I don't know what isn't.Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 23:42, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

That's a good idea... trying to retrieve a name from citation templates. Then if there's no template it could use a more generic name. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 00:11, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4437 and rev 4442 Work in progress. Rjwilmsi 11:48, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Sounds good. Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 13:39, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4481 Approaching release quality. Rjwilmsi 15:34, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Awesome! I'll give it some good testing before I actually start my bot doing that (by the way, when its ready, will it need another line in the custom module? If not, which line would be needed? I'd assume FixReferenceTags, but I can understand if you've put this in a separate part of the code). Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 15:42, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4535 Promoted to live. New function DuplicateUnnamedReferences within Parsers. Test it carefully before running in bot mode. Rjwilmsi 18:55, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

That's the plan; thanks. I'll let you know if I see any bugs. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:34, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Could this be even further improved with some sort of highlighting in the edit box, and maybe an alert, to prompt the AWB editor to provide a better name? —ClickRick (talk) 09:01, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Summary editor Enter, scroll

Status

Feature added in next release

Description

Could the summary editor be fixed to allow newlines to be added with the Enter key? I think this used to work, but now, pressing Enter while in the text area instead "activates" the OK button. (As a workaround, use Ctrl-Enter.) Also, could a scroll bar be enabled? Most people probably don't have so many possible summaries, but it would be helpful for those of us who do. I'm using SVN 4369, but the situation was the same with 4340. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:14, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Presumably you only need/want vertical scroll bars? (As long text wraps around). Enabled a vertical scrollbar, and also allowed enter to be pressed in the control to make a newline, rather than pressing ok. rev 4383. The enter pressing ok might've been my fault when tweaking stuff... No harm done —Reedy 14:52, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I was only requsting a vertical scoll bar. Thanks! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 17:25, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Use rich text edit box (with fixed width font) for edit box

Should almost be a 1:1 swap to go to the RichText editor.. I'll probably have a play with this for you tonight. —Reedy 14:45, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Ok, so. AWB wasn't using a TextBox directly, it was using a wrapped textbox in the form of "ArticleTextBox". I updated that to be a RichTextBox, and updated the PluginInterface to use "TextBoxBase", which both TextBox and RichTextBox both derive from (hopefully reducing most breakages.. This might need/want changing for an ArticleTextBox in the future, though it probably wont matter too much, unless people are needing more specific things from it). Removed a couple of designer things that caused errors. Updated find to use TextBoxBase aswell. rev 4384 —Reedy 15:04, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I think this is causing the diff's to not play so nicely.. We get a font change when we go to non english characters.. I'll leave the rev commited for the moment (so Rjwilmsi can have a play), it might just require a few tweaks and properties setting —Reedy 15:08, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Rob, just a thought. If you want to revert this, can you let me know, and i'll do it? As the whole revision doesn't have to be reverted, and i'll make a patch to allow easy changing.. —Reedy 15:54, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I won't be doing much/any AWB work for a few days, so hopefully that will leave you time to resolve the problems. Rjwilmsi 11:34, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

rev 4391 - Rich Text Box uses \n.. Replacing \n with \r\n fixes up the diffs. —Reedy 19:51, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

rev 4575 Initial implementation of syntax highlighting in edit box (optional, off by default). Rjwilmsi 17:29, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4607 Performance improvement to syntax highlighting. Rjwilmsi 13:01, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Create your own general fixes

Status

New

Description

I think that it would be useful to have a function where you can save your "Find and replace" options as general fixes. That could be useful if you want to have a side task to whatever you are doing (e.g. if you want to replace Image --> File, without putting strain on the servers) and have the option to skip those general fixes (just like the ordinary automatic changes). This feature could be hard to fulfill, but I don't think it's impossible. /Poxnar (talk) 12:40, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

I suppose it wouldnt be hard to convert to a Custom Module, and you could easily add skip otions... —Reedy 12:45, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Great, it could really be useful. /Poxnar ^(talk) 12:51, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Standard level 2 headers

Status

Feature added in next release

Description

There are many cases where an article's only level 2 headers are for things like "references", "see also", or "external links", since many bots correct such sections to use the proper header level. When such headers (at level 2) are present, could AWB be made to ignore them when determining when to decrease the header level for other headers? E.g., an article has two headers at level three and then "references" at level two. AWB would change them all to be level 2. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 16:19, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Extend logic within Parsers.FixHeaders, sounds reasonable. Rjwilmsi 06:44, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4447 As requested. Rjwilmsi 10:44, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 18:51, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Bug: Unforeseen problem with feature request which has been discovered since code was implemented and which should be fixed, but which does not fit the definition of "bug" :)  : It shouldn't change any headers, regardless of level, that are underneath those common headers. This is an error, for example. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:49, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4539 only apply 'headings up one level fix' if all level 3 headings and lower are before the first of references/external links/see also. Hilarious that when the solution is implemented per your stated requirement, and it later fails to satisfy a requirement you failed to mention, you call it a bug. You could work for the client on my current project (real life job)... Rjwilmsi 21:51, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the update. I've also updated my request –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:05, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

No problems. The previous was written while sporting a cheeky grin. Your userpage doesn't specify if you're British: if not, my sense of humour may evade you. Rjwilmsi 22:22, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I thought that you were being humorous (wasn't positive... just thought)... and that's why I responded with a bit of humor myself. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:26, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Substituted templates

Status

Feature added in next release

Description

Upon detecting any of the below in an article, it would be nice if AWB would add the article to Category:Substituted templates and disable all other automatic changes (both user defined and general fixes). Automatic changes on articles with substituted templates just tend to make a bigger mess of things. Note the last item below is a regex. <noinclude> </noinclude> <includeonly> </includeonly> <onlyinclude> </onlyinclude> {{{[1-9]}}} --Pascal666 16:27, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Mainspace only for category? And the sorting general fix will still have to be applied to get the new category in the right place. Rjwilmsi 21:00, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4430 Partial implementation:

• on en-wiki mainspace add articles matching 'noinclude' etc. to 'substituted templates' category, if not already in that category
• in HideMore hide 'noinclude' etc. too (allows find&replace / custom modules to avoid such tags)

I don't think it's appropriate to unilaterally disable all general fixes just because some part of the article uses such tags, as this category says articles using these items are to be cleaned up not to use them. Rjwilmsi 21:49, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

The biggest problem is that AWB tends to pull stuff out of the subst'd template and place it where it "belongs" but where it won't get removed when the subst'd template is finally fixed. For example, AWB pulled several categories out of a #if here, the template was desubst'd here, but I had to remove the cats here. AWB pulled languages out of a noinclude here, the template was desubst'd in October 2007 here, and it wasn't until May 2009 I finally noticed what had happened and pulled out the language links here. When a template gets subst'd into an article AWB has no way of knowing what is article and what is template, and generally does a good job of shuffling the two together making it even harder to fix. --Pascal⁶⁶⁶ 23:01, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

You might have mentioned that before. rev 4436 Don't sort any cats/interwikis/dablinks etc. when mainspace article has 'noinclude' or programming element etc. Rjwilmsi 06:43, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, however please note that #if can be used in articles and its presence does not necessarily mean that the article has had a template substituted into it. The keywords I listed in the original request are the only ones that have no use in articles, only in templates. I apologize if my example of prior bad behavior by AWB confused the issue. --Pascal⁶⁶⁶ 07:03, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Best to discuss one issue at a time. rev 4438 drop checks for '#if'. Rjwilmsi 17:18, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Recently added text at Category:Substituted templates said "These keywords should never be found in the main namespace." I have removed that sentence because it is incorrect, contradicting pages such as Help:Template#Template-like constructions and WP:Transclusion#Partial transclusion. Pages containing these constructs are not necessarily the result of substituted templates and should not be added to the category just because they contain them. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:07, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I had not run into these before. So if one of the keywords listed above is found, AWB will have to check if the page is actually transcluded somewhere and only apply this general fix if not. --Pascal⁶⁶⁶ 08:58, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4443 Category addition commented out for the moment. New logic to avoid pulling categories out of noinclude etc. remains. Rjwilmsi 09:34, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] minuses

Status

Feature added in next release

Description

I'm listing this as a feature request rather than a typo just to make sure it gets proper exposure, and it's not as trivial a fix as taoster → toaster. Often, exponents are written as x-2 rather than x−2 [x<sup>-2</sup> vs. x<sup>−2</sup>]. I think there would be an incredibly low false positive rate if AWB recognized -(number) and changed it to −(number) [<sup>-(number)</sup> vs. <sup>−(number)</sup>]. Headbomb {ταλκκοντριβς – WP Physics} 22:33, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Extend Parsers.Mdashes, seems perfectly reasonable. Rjwilmsi 23:02, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4446 I take it from Wikipedia:MOSNUM#Common_mathematical_symbols that the correct symbol is a unicode minus, so hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes are converted. This will not be applied within <math> tags. Rjwilmsi 10:27, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Also the string ^- could be converted to ⁻. I have never seen, and cannot even imagine, one such use of a hyphen where a minus is not meant. Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 20:12, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Suppress JS errors on history tab

Status	Feature added in next release
Description	Because it's a real pain when you get four errors every time you click on it because of IE. This patch may well do it. (Alas, you can't copy and paste that directly because it's misinterpreted @@ as "please highlight this line.) - Jarry1250 (t, c) 17:51, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4440, we already had it enabled for the main web control :) —Reedy 18:57, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Show what links here for images

Status

Feature added in next release

Description

An idea that I think would be really cool is a tab that shows what links to an article currently being edited, what transcludes the current page, and/or (what I really want) what articles include the current image. The idea just hit me that I could use AWB to help with the image backlogs at CAT:CSD, Especially with the Category:Orphaned fairuse images, because you can see at a glance whether an image is orphaned or not. Harryboyles 11:09, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

yeah, i asked for something like this a while ago... don't know what happened to it... -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 20:39, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

I think having a What Links Here tab next to the History tab would useful (for me at least). It would simply mimic the result of "What links here" link on a page normally. In fact, I think I could do it myself and submit it as a patch, shouldn't be too hard. Maybe make it optional. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 17:18, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Nearly done (haven't made it optional yet though). "Any objections?", he asks, bringing it out of the archives. I'm thinking of a new tab to the right of "History", by the way, reading "What links here". It would definitely also work for images. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:56, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Okay, so this patch would create that tab (compulsory) and make it work:

(Lengthy code removed.)

- Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 19:34, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4476/rev 4477 —Reedy 15:12, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

yay! -- ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 16:39, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Basic CheckWiki list provider

Status	Feature added in next release
Description	Add a simple list provider to take a url like "http://toolserver.org/~sk/checkwiki/enwiki/enwiki_error_list_error_047.html" and add the contents to the list. - Jarry1250 (t, c) 12:36, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

I had a go at doing this myself; a basic implementation (which works at the very least) is:

(Lengthy code removed.)

This should save some time for all the people using AWB for CheckWiki fixes, probably a request about it up there ^ somewhere. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 12:36, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4474, i redid the code to simplify it and make it more reusable. Did a specific version of it inheriting from a base HTMLScraper Implementation. Cheers —Reedy 14:38, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] provide "Move image" functionality

Status	New
Description	AWB is probably the best tool already set up to handle this sorely needed ability. it already sits on a user's computer and can directly access the relevant pages and templates. the only problem i foresee is updating articles with the new name automatically would be unallowed for non-bot accounts (technically). -- ΖαππερΝαππερ BabelAlexandria 17:58, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Is move images enabled again? —Reedy 17:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] User contribs tab

Status	New
Description	Sometimes its useful to be able to tailor the messages you leave at user talk pages based on when that editor last edited. The tab would only need to display when working in the User: or User talk: namespace. I've drafted a possible patch that would do this. - Jarry1250 (t, c) 15:54, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't want to use a separate browser for this... Im wondering about combining the history and WLH here ones and having like radio buttons to select or something... —Reedy 17:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, having one browser would be simpler. You could then disable the user contributions option for non-user (talk) space. It's not urgent, I can use my local version to do the few I'm interested in at the moment. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 17:17, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Commons category

Status

Feature added in next release

Description

When AWB finds {{Commons|Category:Gander International Airport|Gander International Airport}} it gets replaced with {{commons cat|Gander International Airport|Gander International Airport}} but it should give {{commons cat|Gander International Airport}} provided the wording is the same on both sides of the pipe. Enter CambridgeBayWeather, waits for audience applause, not a sausage 07:56, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, per documentation at Template:Commons_cat. I'll do this in the next few days. Rjwilmsi 13:34, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4485 Done. Rjwilmsi 17:30, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Enter CambridgeBayWeather, waits for audience applause, not a sausage 17:51, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Prevent edit summary mistakes

Status

New

Description

Add an option which would help to prevent edit summary mistakes. In my preferred method, an option would be provided to set a default edit summary. Every time a new page loads, the default summary would be in place instead of whatever the previously used one was. A less desirable option would be for a dialog box to pop up, warning when the edit summary is not locked. More info below. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:22, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

My usual edit summary in the main window is just a blank, with various actual summaries supplied by a module. I often perform additional manual edits before saving, and I change the edit summary, which would just end up being blank otherwise. The problem is that occasionally I'll forget to restore my default edit summary, and then my next few edits have duplicate or, worse, conflicting summaries until I notice my oversight. When I'm not using a module, I also sometimes accidentally end up with an incorrect summary after similarly editing and changing summaries. This usually happens when saving is slow and I go off in another window while I'm waiting for the page to save, or I'll just get distracted by some shiny object, and when I return to AWB I absentmindedly neglect to restore the summary. I feel that an accurate edit summary is important, and this is just another way that AWB can help to prevent human errors. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:22, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

I know just what you mean, but sometimes it is useful to have the edit summary carry over. I think that it would help a lot, if the edit summary had a different colour background (a light shade behind the text), if the edit summary was anything else but the default "clean up". Snowman (talk) 13:08, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Replacing categoring and keeping pipes

Status	Feature added in next release
Description	Check this one. I would like to be able to keep the piping in the category. I would prefer if that was optional. -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:34, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't understand what you're asking for: if you remove a category its sortkey has to go with it. Rjwilmsi 18:13, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

I would like to be able to replace category A with category B without losing the sortkey. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:43, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4506 option to remove sortkey when replacing categories. Rjwilmsi 21:29, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

thanks. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:22, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] To list the links in a section of a page

Status	New
Description	To list the links in only one section of an article. This is because some pages have a list in a section, and it would be useful to check these pages with AWB, without a lot of other links on the whole page. Snowman (talk) 13:04, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Wasn't there a request for this before.. I seem to recall there was as i spoke to Roan about a way to do it.. —Reedy 13:36, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

I'd just copy the wanted section to a sandbox or something and then get all links on that page. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 18:55, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

I would like to use a quicker and more automated method than that. Snowman (talk) 00:17, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Order appendices

Related to Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature_requests#Place_.22External_links.22_section_after_.22References.22. This logic could be expanded. Rjwilmsi 08:03, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4619 Move the 'see also' section to be above the 'references' section, subject to the limitation that the 'see also' section can't be the last level-2 section. Rjwilmsi 17:33, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox cleanup (edit window only)

Status

New

Description

I remember that this issue was raised several months ago—though I'm not sure whether it was on this page—and there seemed to be support for the idea, but I can't seem to find the original discussion right now. Could AWB be used to clean up the appearance of infoboxes in the edit window. There are a number of things that could be done, from making parameter values readily identifiable by standardizing spacing so that all equal signs are in a straight vertical line (see Example 1) to clearly distinguishing between different parameters (see Example 2). Example 1 Change {{Infobox Person |name = Auto Wiki Browser |image = AWB Banner2.png |occupation = Semi-automated Wikipedia editor }} to {{Infobox Person |name = Auto Wiki Browser |image = AWB Banner2.png |occupation = Semi-automated Wikipedia editor }} Example 2 Change {{Infobox Person| name = Auto Wiki Browser| image = AWB Banner2.png|occupation = Semi-automated Wikipedia editor| }} to {{Infobox Person |name = Auto Wiki Browser |image = AWB Banner2.png |occupation = Semi-automated Wikipedia editor }} These types of changes will have no visible effect for readers, but I believe that they will make editing easier. –BLACK FALCON (TALK) 22:00, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

My personal opinion on this is that the second change is very good. Much needed. The first one seems a bit more controversial though... I prefer that the whitespace isn't present, and I think that opinions are pretty divided on that. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:27, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree with you that the whitespace is annoying, and that the latter change is good (but only in infoboxes, not in cite templates where it breaks the flow of paragraphs). --NE2 22:34, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I would like to see evidence of a discussion in favour of this non-visible change before any implementation of it. Also, it seems like a fair amount of work for a non-visible change. Rjwilmsi 08:01, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

AFAIK there is no consensus for adding whitespace. In fact I personally am removing it because it adds extra space to articles and makes no good. The only thing that I find really useful for editors is that every parameter starts in a new line with a vertical line. -- Magioladitis (talk) 08:07, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

I am also in favor of example 2 but I don't think we should do example 1 either.--Kumioko (talk) 11:13, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Based on the response so far, I withdraw my request for example 1. I agree that AWB should not be used for something that largely boils down to personal preference when editors have vastly different preferences. –BLACK FALCON ^(TALK) 17:17, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

I know I come to this a bit late, but I do have thoughts on it. Specifically, I like the two proposals as they stand, but I also appreciate that not all editors do. I would go further and say that I personally like indenting the pipes on each new line just by one space for visual ease, and also the same new-line/indented/aligned style when doing cite templates, as there are many possible parameters. However, I do see the point of view of those who prefer things to be in-line. What about having a formatted editor purely as a UI within AWB but writing it back to the servers in a "least-change" format? ClickRick (talk) 18:20, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Some additional edits

Status

New

Description

I have recently started working closer with featured content reviews and there are some things that have come up that I think would be good additions to AWB. Some pages have redundant pp. after page in citations (page= pp or page = pp.). Since page= creates the pp in the reference it renders like pp. pp. There seems to be quite a number of articles that have sentences that start with a number. Per the MOS on numbering Sentences that start with a number should have the number spelled out (should look like Twenty vice 20) Move inline citations after periods and commas. Per the MOS the inline citation should immediately follow a period or a comma, not before it. Would it also be possible to add something in for disambiguous pages, dead reference links, references without accessdate and/or publisher and images without captions? Even if its just an alert anything would help.--Kumioko (talk) 14:50, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Hmm. 1 can certainly be a general-fix frond if not a general fix </plug>; 3 : WP:REFPUNC does not advise the changing from one style to another. 2 and 4 seem slightly less obvious. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c, rfa)} 18:55, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Here is the reference I was talking about on the page you just gave "When a reference tag coincides with punctuation, the reference tag is normally placed immediately after the punctuation, except for dashes". I do see where it says that some prefer the other style and the page should go with whichever style is more dominant in the article however when articles are going up for Good or featured status or are being peer reviewed that is one of the things that is consistently brought up that must be changed. --Kumioko (talk) 19:19, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

I completely support #1 and #3, but I am wondering whether #2 is unambiguous enough to include as an AWB general fix. How could we account for articles about mathematics, for instance, where it may be valid to start a sentence with a number (as in an equation)? Also, could we account for bulleted lists within articles that specify quantities or percentages? –BLACK FALCON ^(TALK) 20:08, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Thats true and it could start with a date too, especially date related articles. (for example, 1999 was a year when...)--Kumioko (talk)

rev 4573 Adds request 1. Request 2: 'no way'. Request 3: no consensus to always do this even though it's the majority opinion. Rjwilmsi 14:25, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, is there anything you can do for #4?--Kumioko (talk) 18:17, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Warning if {{dead link}} found on page? Rjwilmsi 21:27, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4605 Warning if article has {{dead link}}. Rjwilmsi 19:38, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Sweet, thanks.--Kumioko (talk) 17:34, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Removing and replacing template transclusions

Status

New

Description

AWB currently has features to remove, replace, and comment out files and to add, remove, and replace categories, but it has no such built-in functionality for templates. The "add" function that is present for categories won't really work with templates because, unlike categories, the appropriate location of templates within an article is not fixed. Also, I can't think of any situation where it would make sense to comment out templates, so I have restricted my request to the tasks of removal and replacement. Could a feature be added to AWB to remove and replace transclusions of templates? This can currently be accomplished using the "Find and replace" feature, but a built-in feature would be more convenient. Also, could such a feature take into account transclusions which (unnecessarily) include the "Template:" prefix, such as: {{Template:Template Name}}? Thank you, –BLACK FALCON (TALK) 20:30, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Related request at #Generic template removal. Also, please note that, for the sake of simplicity, my request is only for templates transcluded without any specified parameters (such as most navigation templates). –BLACK FALCON ^(TALK) 20:33, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Although having a parameter-changing feature would be good too... –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:36, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

To clarify, the existing category functionality does not allow category removal by using a blank 'with Category' field. Rjwilmsi 21:25, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Title case for citations

Status

New

Description

Most people assume that you've got to keep the case that the source is using, but the MOS advises changing this to standard title case. So, may I suggest pushing a citation's title parameter through: public static string ProperCase(string TextToFormat) { if(TextToFormat.ToUpper() == TextToFormat){ return new CultureInfo("en").TextInfo.ToTitleCase(TextToFormat.ToLower()); } else { return TextToFormat; } } to fix the most in your face, block-caps titles. I don't think that would leave you with any false positives. Cheers, - Jarry1250 (t, c, rfa) 16:17, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Well, except for the non english wiki's ;) —Reedy 19:50, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Oh yeah :) I meant to change that "en" for some variable, but I couldn't be arsed to find out which was the right one. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c, rfa)}

Maybe also external link titles? Harder to grab though, I would think. - Jarry1250 ^{[ humourous – discuss ]} 09:16, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

When do you propose to convert the case of citation titles? Just when all in uppercase? Do you have some example articles? Rjwilmsi 10:27, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Well, in a perfect world, a citation title of "EXAMPLE: Lorem ipsum" would be converted as well, but the false positive/pointless edit rate would be too high I fear. So yes, just when all in uppercase for maximum efficiency. I would like to see this as a general fix if possible, though I haven't tested the FP rate myself yet. I shall set about finding you an example now. - Jarry1250 ^{[ humourous – discuss ]} 10:31, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Ten random pages gave me Gaynor Cawley ("BIOGRAPHY") and Mustafa Ahmed Hamlily which includes a partial one (ref #12). - Jarry1250 ^{[ humourous – discuss ]} 10:37, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

I've had some experience programming reflinks with this, you can get most of the cases right. Here some edges cases

• Newspaper Archive: MINOR STORY OF THE DAY; MAN BITES DOG
• 65_PDF.pdf
• SPACE PROBE 56T LAUNCHES
• A.I.D.S. EPIDEMIC STILL SPREADING
• FOREIGN AIDS STILL MISSING
• ATLAS USER EQUIPMENT INTRODUCTION
• FIRST ROBOTICS GIVES HOPE
• NAVSTAR GPS
• J P PENNY

Those are some example I can think off the top of my head. It also a good idea to apply it to the author/first/last/publisher fields as well. — Dispenser 12:13, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Hey, thanks Dispenser. As written, the code doesn't touch .pdf (lowercase), capitalises "Of", and turns GPS to "Gps". The rest it gets right; hopefully, a few tweaks and it should be read to roll. - Jarry1250 ^{[ humourous – discuss ]} 18:58, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Here's a much improved function for converting to useful title case, which is more palatable than block caps (I personally prefer sentence case, but that would be more controversial / less widely deployable. It works on all the examples above (and some more I invented), with the exception of acronyms that could be words UNICEF, etc. GPS has no vowels, and is therefore easy to capitalise.

public static string ProperCase(string TextToFormat)
        {
            List<String> smalls = new List<String> { "and", "of", "the", "but", "in", "to", "a", "an" };
 
            if (TextToFormat.ToUpper() == TextToFormat)
            {
                TextToFormat = new CultureInfo("en").TextInfo.ToTitleCase(TextToFormat.ToLower());
                //Ignore first words
                String FirstBit = "";
                if (TextToFormat.Contains(" "))
                {
                    int Index = TextToFormat.IndexOf(" ");
                    FirstBit = TextToFormat.Substring(0, Index);
                    TextToFormat = TextToFormat.Substring(Index);
                }
                foreach (String small in smalls)
                {
                    TextToFormat = Regex.Replace(TextToFormat, "([^a-zA-Z0-9])" + small + "([^a-zA-Z0-9])", "$1" + small + "$2", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
                }
                TextToFormat = FirstBit + TextToFormat;
                String[] Bits = TextToFormat.Split(" ".ToCharArray());
                for (int i = 0; i < Bits.Length; i++)
                {
                    //Capitalise consonant only words, plus a few obvious ones
                    if (Regex.IsMatch(Bits[i], "^([BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXZ]{2,}|UK|USA)$", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase))
                    {
                        Bits[i] = Bits[i].ToUpper();
                    }
                }
                return String.Join(" ", Bits);
            }
            else
            {
                return TextToFormat;
            }
        }

- Jarry1250 ^{[ humourous – discuss ]} 20:16, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Maybe you should use a dictionary from a spellchecker to ensure words like GNU, LIDAR, and CBDTPA stay uppercased? You might also be able to capitalize names Ted Stevens. — Dispenser 18:37, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Yeah... it's a question of how much in the way of resources one chooses to give over to such a minor (albeit intensely annoying to me) thing as capitalisation... hopefully the major acronyms can be hardcoded, and the rest left to the individual editors to catch. As the default Is This Sort Of Capitalisation, We Needn't Worry About Names Of People. - Jarry1250 ^{[ humourous – discuss ]} 18:41, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

And no matter how much effort we throw at the problem, there will always be "yet another exception", e.g. CAT scan

The answer has to be that this will be a computer-assisted process, not an entirely automated one. ClickRick (talk) 18:47, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

This could be implemented as a general fix that users would have to explicitly turn on via the options menu (off by default) and could be disabled for bots. Question then is just what fields is this required on beyond the 'title=' field of a citation template? Rjwilmsi 15:38, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Minor changes

1) "also sometimes" should be changed to "sometimes"
2) "surplus left over"should be changed to "surplus"
3) "tried and true" to "reliable"
4) "unresolved problem" to "problem"
5) "resulting effect" to "effect"
6) "repeat the same" to repeat
7) "month period" to "months"
8) "in a nutshell" to "in short"
9) "during the year" to "during" There are lots more but I will leave it there for now.

Number 5 should go to the RegexTypoFix page. As that is what that sorta thing is for (not just actual typos). I thought AWB did remove the Template: from Templates.... —Reedy 19:48, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

On number 5 do you want me to put the whole list of the ones I have? in regards to the template: thing maybe I have an old version and the new version will fix that when it comes out. --Kumioko (talk) 19:54, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

For number 5 make some requests on WP:AWB/T. Rjwilmsi 20:53, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4590 Add "accessedate" fix (request 2). Rjwilmsi 20:53, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks

rev 4592 Add "accessed" fix (request 3). Rjwilmsi 21:11, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, just to verify did you use "accessed" or "date accessed". I should have been more clear but you should be looking for "date accessed" and changing that not just "accessed"--Kumioko (talk) 17:02, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Okay, I'll fix that by the end of the weekend. Rjwilmsi 10:29, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

rev 4602 Amended. Rjwilmsi 18:45, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Number 5 could be more easily deployed to an (albeit at the moment small) collection of users through fronds. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c, rfa)} 16:52, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks I added them as well as several others.--Kumioko (talk) 16:56, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

For number 1 it appears that AWB has been doing this within FixSyntax for at least two years (SyntaxRegexTemplate regex). Do you have examples of where it didn't? Rjwilmsi 19:16, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

No because when I noticed it wasn't doing it I made a manual edit in my AWB. I will deactivate that and see if it comes up again and let yo