Template talk:Authority control/Archive 9

SELIBR
The link to SELIBR seems not to work. See for instance Leonardo da Vinci. In Wikidata the link goes to this page, which is correct. In Wikipedia to this page, which seems not to exist. --Dick Bos (talk) 13:10, 2 April 2019 (UTC)


 * the SELIBR link from Leonardo da Vinci is now working. No module changes necessary. There are 2 s for . The first is a link to the subject-specific page, which AC has used and is using. The second is a search page for works referring to the subject. For some reason (possibly due to a format constraint issue with the former?), Wikidata prefers the latter, but the former is more appropriate for AC.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:25, 13 April 2019 (UTC)


 * . Ok. Fine. Thanks a lot. --Dick Bos (talk) 10:06, 14 April 2019 (UTC)
 * LIBRIS has not been stable I have requested to get some kind of better designed "landing page" 10 Jun 2018 and now I feel they have at least something human readable but in Swedish. As stated below LIBRIS is since 2012 running a project called LIBRIS XL and it has been a minor chaos and very difficult to understand what they will deliver or to track bugs and change requests as they have no issue numbers or public backlogs. My feeling is that we at least got a redirect from the old System to the new last week but then the Json support broke. We have in the Swedish Wikipedia been spoken about taking away the links to LIBRIS until we feel they deliver something stable (release 1.0 was 2018-jun-11 current release is 1.7 and focus seems to be MARC format issues). My guess is that its a project with trouble and lack of test resources and I feel the vision they had in 2012 when they spoke in Washington about "Linked Data at the National Library of Sweden" has not been delivered. Today 7 years later I feel we just see a format conversion from MARC to RDF and nearly no linked data "things not strings". I guess linked data needs another skill matrix than a traditional administration of a library catalogue or the future is maybe not traditional library catalogues... - Salgo60 (talk) 22:26, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

LIBRIS-URI
The Swedish National Library is changing system and in the new system (LIBRIS-XL "KB becomes the first national library to fully transition to linked data") the ID will be. My understanding is
 * 1)  exist on 64 870 WD objects but most of the objects in WD also have  that exist on 60 780 records
 * 2) Old Authority id will still exist i.e.  and they have informed us that since 15 April they will redirect old links https://libris.kb.se/auth/$1 to the new page with the new ID
 * 3) New authority records will only get  and will have the formatter URL https://libris.kb.se/katalogisering/$1
 * 4) In VIAF they just display the old LIBRIS ID. I have contacted VIAF 6 dec. 2018(Hayley Moreno) about when they will support LIBRIS-URI but they couldnt give us a date...  one problem is that tools like User:Magnus_Manske/authority_control.js use viaf.org for populating properties like  ==> as long as VIAF dont support  I guess Wikidata will faster populate  than  - Salgo60 (talk) 16:23, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

They still have some bugs reported in the discussion group link but my understanding is that this is the direction. I will inform them about this page see link ...

If you have questions ping me or even better ask direct at kundo.se/org/librisxl I guess english is no problem - Salgo60 (talk) 15:12, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

LIBRIS-XL english menus support
FYI: I asked about support of english menus T200436 10 Jun 2018 but got a negative answer. As the project doesnt have a public backlog we have no more information of the status but it feels odd supporting linked data and not english menus - Salgo60 (talk) 15:26, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

BNF data links generate 301 redirect to HTTPS URL
One of the links that Module:Authority control can generate is a BNF data link. For example, the article for The Beach Boys contains the BNF data link http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13901878h in the Authority control section. From testing a number of BNF data links, it appears that a BNF data link generates an HTTP 301 redirect to an HTTPS version of the URL which then generates an HTTP 303 redirect to another more detailed HTTPS URL. For example, http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13901878h generates a 301 redirect to https://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13901878h which generates a 303 redirect to https://data.bnf.fr/fr/13901878/the_beach_boys/.

From what has been said elsewhere, an HTTP 301 redirect indicates that a resource has been permanently moved to a new URL. If this redirect pattern applies to all BNF data URLs, it would seem useful to have Module:Authority control generate a BNF data link of the form  instead of the current form , which would reduce the number of redirects and would also provide increased privacy and security for users. As of this writing, I have edited the sandbox for Module:Authority control to implement this change, which may be of interest for purposes of testing. Thoughts? --Elegie (talk) 08:18, 12 April 2019 (UTC)


 * I saw this, and will piggyback it on the next significant module change (on account of refreshing ~a million transclusions), or after a few weeks if no other changes present themselves. Another TE can update it now if they feel so inclined.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:35, 13 April 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the response. I currently have TE privileges, but my thought was to seek input from others instead of immediately going ahead and making the change. --Elegie (talk) 05:33, 14 April 2019 (UTC)
 * On french WP, they used the https form (example : https://data.bnf.fr/fr/11893950/andre_breton/ ), and it is ok. --Pa2chant. (talk) 09:07, 15 May 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅ concurrent with the change immediately below.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  11:56, 15 May 2019 (UTC)

MGP : site link obsolete
Hi ! In the code, MGP redirect to http://www.genealogy.ams.org/id.php?id= It should be https://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php? For a test, please consider https://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=107024 and Vicky Kalogera results, using the old website adress. Thanks. --Pa2chant. (talk) 08:45, 15 May 2019 (UTC) (. --Pa2chant. (talk) 08:58, 15 May 2019 (UTC))
 * Um, why have I been pinged? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 09:06, 15 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Because I don't know who is in charge of the changes, and it seems you are allowed to do it, as you are the last one who made a change on the code. I cannot. Sorry if you do no wish to do it ! --Pa2chant. (talk) 09:11, 15 May 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  11:54, 15 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you. --Pa2chant. (talk) 15:03, 15 May 2019 (UTC)

making the IAAF ID a string to fix problems with IDs that start with 0
hi, in light of Template_talk:IAAF_name i think we need to change the IAAF ID from a number type to a string type and change the regex from matching  to , because the leading zeros are signficiant in some athlete IDs. also, we need to change the formatter URL from  to   to work with these leading-zero athletes and to match wikidata, which already has the updated format url. i already made the documentation change, and i made the rest of the proposed changes in the sandbox here: so here's the edit request:

let me know if there are any issues and i'd be happy to fix them, thanks! --Habst (talk) 06:59, 25 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Will take a look at this (ex: Natta Nachan).  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:33, 25 May 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅ - now cleared.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:00, 25 May 2019 (UTC)

NARA ID validation
At Margaret Sanger, we have a valid NARA ID, coming from Wikidata, but the template displays a warning stating it is invalid. I think it's possible this template was designed back when NARA only had 8-digit NAIDs, and that is why it is causing this error. Can someone look into it? ( CCing you here) Dominic·t 13:14, 18 June 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:33, 18 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you both. ^_^

NLI ID (P949)
Seeing as how there's a significant amount of National Library of Israel identifiers (P949), I thought it might be beneficial to add the following.

Take care! Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 20:46, 21 July 2019 (UTC)


 * I'll take care of this in about a week if no objections.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  20:57, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
 * please add all useful  to the sandbox so they can all be added to the live module in 1 edit.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:59, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Tom.Reding: that's what I'm doing already. But good to know! Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 16:03, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  02:48, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

NLP ID (P1695)
Hey, me again. Basically the same can be said about the National Library of Poland, which has a sizeable number of identifiers (P1695). Please let me know if this is becoming bothersome, as I plan on putting in more of these requests if you'll allow me.

Thank you. Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 15:53, 23 July 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  02:48, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

National Library of Poland errors?
Greetings and felicitations. I've run across a couple of errors tonight for the National Library of Poland (NLP) field, and per this template's documentation, 1,116 (all?) of links are broken. I'm just curious as to why. —DocWatson42 (talk) 08:55, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I've given an explanation on my talk page at Wikidata. Take care! Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 22:54, 31 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Thank you. ^_^ So the problem will require hard work to fix, but will (presumably) be corrected eventually? —DocWatson42 (talk) 23:47, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Yep! I'm hoping the errors will motivate users to help correct them. Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 08:58, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

HTML class (continued)
per the original request @ Template talk:Authority control/Archive 8 and a solution by @ Template talk:Navbox#Set class for navbox wrapper div, we now have Authority control/sandbox producing. Please make sure everything is to your liking and the live version can be updated in the near future. ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 03:54, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Looks good to me, with the sandbox version emitting a class of . Thanks a lot for following up on this. Opencooper (talk) 04:07, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  20:01, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

5 new Australian authority control IDs
Per a request on my talk page by for adding 5 Australian IDs, I'm listing them here for review: I'll bundle the HTML class update immediately above into this one in about a week. ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 13:54, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
 * 1)  &mdash; a person-only version of the currently used NLA, so it should use a parameter like NLA-person, similar to the once-used NARA-person
 * 2)  &mdash; DAAO
 * 3)  &mdash; NGV
 * 4)  &mdash; ADB
 * 5)  &mdash; AAG
 * (Thanks Tom). Could we add to that list:


 * 1)  (duplicate)
 * 2)  &mdash; AGSA
 * 3)  &mdash; AWR
 * 4)  &mdash; TePapa
 * MargaretRDonald (talk) 20:31, 20 August 2019 (UTC)


 * I struck since it's already in the original list, and added proposed parameter names next to each ID.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  22:18, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much, . MargaretRDonald (talk) 22:26, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅. FYI, Australian Women's Register is the only of the above properties that does not exist.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  20:00, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Brilliant. Thanks, . MargaretRDonald (talk) 21:12, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I have created an appalling stub for AWR Australian Women's Register. Hopefully someone will improve it... MargaretRDonald (talk) 11:54, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Reducing the 'number of identifiers' categories
When was created in April 2014, there were ~34 available IDs (counting the 2 WorldCat variants), now it has ~5000. Now that there are ~70 available IDs, the 14 threshold is much easier to cross. There are 15,700+ pages with 14+, or 1.6+% of all transclusions. If we exclude, say, counts 14–17, there are only ~3300 pages with 18+, or ~0.3% of all transclusions. Does anyone else think some of the lower # ones should be retired? See Module:Authority control to see the distribution. ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 14:56, 28 August 2019 (UTC)
 * It's getting out of control but as a lazy person I would wait until several loud complaints occur. Ideally each entry would have a precedence and when there are more entries than some threshold, entries with a low precedence would be omitted. However, I am unlikely to implement that. Johnuniq (talk) 01:56, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Is there a need for any of those categories at all? -- WOSlinker (talk) 11:29, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I was thinking the same thing. Even further, what's the raison d'être for Category:Pages with authority control information and all its subcategories? -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 12:05, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes. Knowing the extent of the upper limit of the #IDs distribution is useful. I've used them in discussions, and run tests on their contents (particularly whichever page is at the top, usually Albrecht Dürer). The top 10 cats I'd say are the most useful, so 23-32 currently, or ~0.03% of all transclusions.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:00, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Do the 80/20 rule. Pick a number over which you combine all the categories. --Izno (talk) 20:22, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Surely we could have a tool of some sort if we just want the numbers - whether that's a bot updated page, or a tool-forge page or a simple abuse of Jarry1250's transclusion counter - something like what I have put in the module sandbox, though this displays the templates instead of transcluding them. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 16:25, 31 August 2019 (UTC).


 * Updated counts. 20+ seems like a reasonable selection/cutoff (~0.14%).  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  22:02, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

Oddity
Batavia links to this broken page via its WorldCat link. Any ideas? All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 17:02, 31 August 2019 (UTC).


 * Batavia is a dab - which target has the faulty link? FYI there's a useful tool in Special:Preferences#Gadgets called 'Display links to disambiguation pages in orange' so they pop right out at you.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:40, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Sorry I mean Batavia (ship). All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 14:43, 1 September 2019 (UTC).


 * I see that the VIAF ID on has changed several times recently, from
 * 147887544, to
 * 72149066352165600574, to
 * 170454055,
 * with some redirection by VIAF going on in the background. None of the resulting WorldCat links work though:
 * 147887544,
 * 72149066352165600574,
 * 170454055.
 * Does anyone know why?  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  21:55, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Does this really surprise anyone? I encounter broken Worldcat id links all the time. It's because the template creates its Worldcat id links via the VIAF id, of which a subject sometimes has more than one, and which are frequently not properly linked.
 * This is the correct link. However, since it's already an external link, I've suppressed . Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 22:16, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks! All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 11:09, 2 September 2019 (UTC).

Making the Authority control template like the taxonbar template
The taxonbar template has a "from" (and a "from2") parameter which specifies the wikidata item even when wikidata and enwiki items are not linked. This is extremely useful when one is building an article which has not yet been published (and linked), since it allows the editor to see all the authority control (taxonbar) ids, many of which have extremely useful information for the article builder. I was hoping that this facility might be made available in the template just like , since some of the authority control IDs provide short informative bios) MargaretRDonald (talk) 22:56, 31 August 2019 (UTC)
 * this would be the equivalent of an 'authority control see also', with no limit to the # of 'associated works/people/things/etc.' that could be appended. Setting any hard limit, say 5, would invite endless discussions on which are the 5 most relevant associated things, which order they should be in, etc., nevermind how visually obtrusive 6 stacks of AC nav boxes would be.
 * from is useful in taxonomy b/c there are much more discrete associations with taxa than there are with AC pages. It serves an additional purpose of tracking Wikidata's association with certain Wikipedia taxa, which tend to jump around a lot, and it is useful to have an 'in-house' history of that association. AC pages don't have the same problem.
 * Many authority control websites usually have their own 'see also' section which can be used for this purpose.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:22, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Since the requested functionality is for draftspace, blacklist the mainspace (or alt. whitelist the draftspace) for use of the parameter. --Izno (talk) 16:56, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, for the explanation as to why this would not be a good idea. And thanks  for the suggestion. MargaretRDonald (talk) 20:29, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
 * I missed that - rehashing to myself all the detailed discussions regarding from1, etc., to what should have been a straightforward implementation turned out to be nuanced & caveated, put my blinders on.
 * as long as this isn't advocated for in mainspace, it's a good idea and easily doable. Will take care of it soon.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  20:42, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
 * you can now use the QID parameter anywhere but mainspace.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  21:45, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks everyone (, {{ping}Izno}} MargaretRDonald (talk) 05:16, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Please can it be qid not QID and not from? convert uses qid for this procedure and I believe some others do as well although I would need some time to find them. Consistency between templates would be very desirable and very few parameters use uppercase. Johnuniq (talk) 05:22, 2 September 2019 (UTC)
 * - qid is now the preferred parameter, but I kept QID for backwards compatibility. QID was used originally b/c all other Authority control params have their acronym capitalized, so it would be very self-inconsistent to use qid. However, external consistency is also important, and since QID was never formally documented, I don't have an issue with qid being used exclusively in the documentation, and QID silently allowed.
 * Changing Taxonbar's from convention to qid can/will be a bigger deal, but I can see the merits.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:19, 2 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Johnuniq (talk) 23:17, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

"The NLR id XXXXXXXXX is not valid"
I'm seeing this large notice in red on all kinds of Authority Control templates now. Also "The BNC id XXXXXXXXXX is not valid". Sample:. Could someone please fix this? Softlavender (talk) 08:36, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Alice Walker is showing "The NLP id A16316113 is not valid" at the bottom. This search shows many BNC errors, for example "The BNC id 10000000000000000087755 is not valid" at the bottom of Gustav Schwab. Johnuniq (talk) 09:54, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Hmm, Module:Authority control requires a BNC id to be exactly 9 digits, while an NLP id must be "9810" followed by one or more digits. I don't know what should be done. Clicking the BNC id for Gustav Schwab at gives "El registro solicitado no existe en la base actual" which Google tells me means what it appears to say, namely that 10000000000000000087755 is not a valid BNC id. Johnuniq (talk) 10:06, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

Not sure why y'all are talking about "NLP". I'm talking about NLR, and there are currently nearly 700 Authority Controal templates with NLR not valid message. -- Softlavender (talk) 10:11, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, I mentioned NLP because the OP gave Alice Walker as the sample, and that is showing an NLP error. Polygnotus is showing "The NLR id RUNLRAUTH770139004 is not valid" from your search. Clicking the NLR link at shows that the NLR id does not work (Google says the message at the top specifies that the system number should be a numeric value). It appears that the sampled errors are actual errors due to mistakes at Wikidata. Fixing them would be a challenge. Perhaps the issue could be raised at Wikidata where they might know why "RUNLRAUTH770139004" starts with "RUNLRAUTH". Hmm, maybe Jasper Deng can help? Johnuniq (talk) 10:31, 3 August 2019 (UTC)


 * A more centralized discussion is now at WP:VPT. -- Softlavender (talk) 10:35, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

I edited Module:Authority control to comment out some of the recently added IDs: BNC (86 errors) + NLP (2574 errors) + NLR (730 errors) + RERO (246 errors). The tracking categories are BNC + NLP + NLR + RERO and they should gradually empty over the next couple of weeks as articles are purged. As mentioned, I checked a couple of the links showing an error and they really were errors. That is, the ID at Wikidata is wrong. It would take a very large effort to correct all those problems and until that's done I don't think the IDs should be activated. Johnuniq (talk) 02:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, . -- Softlavender (talk) 02:35, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

A better way to handle this is to find who added the majority of each of these 4 IDs to Wikidata and ask them about/to check for any inconsistencies: ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 18:25, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * 1)  added most of the
 * 2)  added most of the
 * 3)  added most of the  &rarr; these are all correct per VIAF and NLP. Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 20:29, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * 4)  added most of the
 * I added BNC IDs as they appeared on VIAF. Since these are apparently incorrect, I've removed all of the ones I added. As far as I'm concerned, the others can be removed as well. Nick Number (talk) 18:57, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * VIAF is displaying the wrong BNC ID—or BNCHL—system control number. Click on the link and grab the last nine digits of its bottom system control number (035). Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 20:26, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * VIAF has now updated all NLP IDs as well: A12345678 &rarr; 9810123456789012 . These "new" IDs are clearly visible in NLP authority records, whereas "old" IDs aren't. However, there's still a ton of inconsistent NLP IDs on Wikidata. Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 20:17, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅ due to the above corrections. Others pending correction.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  20:04, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅ ~1500 accidentally added to ; now corrected.
 * ✅ ~475 incorrect,,  removed.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  02:20, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅ ~475 incorrect,,  removed.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  02:20, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Add WORLDCATID to known parameters
Can we get "WORLDCATID" added to the known parameters as it is parameter check is only there to warn people and ask them to move them to Wikidata and WORLDCATID can never be moved to Wikidata (unless a property for that us added).

Please change: to: Thank you, 50.53.21.2 (talk) 01:40, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
 * That is correct - from my understanding, we don't have a WorldCat Identities property at Wikidata due to the self-referential/cyclical nature of it. However, this only applies to 1 page in (a cat that has been empty until very recently), and only while in edit preview mode. I've updated the sandbox, and whenever there's a more substantial change to the template, or another minor change, or the cat population blows up, this can be piggybacked.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  02:35, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
 * That is fine. As long as it happens eventually and is not forgotten. I am concerned it might get forgotten though as most changes happen in the module and not the template. Thanks, 50.53.21.2 (talk) 13:34, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:57, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Lua bug/revert
E.g., George Allman (natural historian) was reporting "Lua error in Module:Authority_control at line 129: attempt to index field 'uid' (a nil value)." The error seems to be introduced by this edit, as reverting it has removed the error. Please could you test it some more in the sandbox before adding it back? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 19:58, 23 September 2019 (UTC)


 * thank you.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  22:20, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi
Please add in template link to "TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi". It is islamic encyclopedy created by turkish religion authority Diyanet. ( on wikidata) Kamolan (talk) 14:56, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
 * would TDV or TDVIA be a better parameter name?  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  16:07, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
 * TDVİA, I think. Kamolan (talk) 08:31, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
 * This will be similar to Léonore then, with anglicized alias Leonore/TDVIA.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:20, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
 * What about DİA? Kamolan (talk) 12:56, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
 * If not, I'm OK with TDV. Kamolan (talk) 13:01, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
 * TDV & TDVİA/TDVIA are the most intuitive options, which should be the aim, and the fewer aliases the better, so there's a slight preference for the former but there's precedence for the latter too. Having all 3 is not preferred.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:44, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
 * I dont know. Choose yourself. Kamolan (talk) 16:14, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
 * . So what you decided? Kamolan (talk) 12:58, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
 * normally we wait about a week for other input before adding it, and I think TDVİA/TDVIA is the most appropriate option.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:16, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:59, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
 * , thank you. Can you improve it some more? In TDVIA there are articles about authors, they begin with word "muellif". There is some problem with those articles. Example of this can be seen in Yusuf Halaçoğlu. Kamolan (talk) 19:33, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅ 's regex per above; good find.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  22:32, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

NLA-person &rarr; Trove
Using "NLA-person" seems awkward, since it is also used to identify corporate entities. See the authority control template on Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands), for example. Thus I want to suggest changing it to simply Trove, which is in any case a lot more accurate.

Changes in code may be copied from the sandbox. Jay D. Easy&#8202;(t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 14:43, 3 October 2019 (UTC)


 * NLA-person is somewhat misleadingly short for people and organisations (whether organisations was added post-inception idk), so it could stand a rename. NLA-Trove might be better.
 * Pinging &  from Template talk:Authority control/Archive 4 for input.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:25, 3 October 2019 (UTC)


 * I'm happy for any reasonable change to be made. Trove seems fine to me. Stuartyeates (talk) 20:45, 11 October 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  17:45, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

CANTIC
Requesting the addition of, which currently has 43,721 uses. Code can be copied from sandbox. Jay D. Easy (t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 22:51, 20 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Jay D. Easy: normally we would expect to see a consensus among editors that this addition is appropriate. Are there any guidelines or criteria for adding links to this module? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:00, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
 * because of the customary (and appropriate) ~1 week wait/discussion time, after which a WP:SILENT consensus is sufficient, I think a regular new discussion is more appropriate than a formal edit template-protected.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:35, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Absolutely! I got into the habit of using edit requests, having previously experienced a lack of traction on other protected templates' talk pages more than a few times – though that's never the case here. I have commented out the request. Jay D. Easy (t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 13:49, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:47, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

BPN marked invalid incorrectly
Hey, apologies for using edit request again, but I feel it's actually due in this case. 's regex requires a correction, as it currently marks ids for two subjects as incorrect: Jacob Dircksz de Graeff (Q1621309) and Gerard Arnout Hasselaer (Q5549913). The ids do actually link to valid catalog records.

undefined Jay D. Easy (t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 18:16, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
 * The Wikidata values were incorrect, so the error messages were correct. I have fixed them with leading zeros. Please encourage the people at Wikidata to add validation, however that works. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:45, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Hey, you're right! Apparently if you leave out the leading zeros it still works. I hadn't noticed. Still, it's bound to happen again at some point, so it may be a good idea to edit the module regardless? Jay D. Easy (t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 05:23, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
 * It seems regex was only half updated. There are actually 2 places where the regex constraint shows up - one of which is the old , and the other  . There's also a  there using a 6 digit ID. While I'd rather hold editors to the proper/higher standard than to adjust regex for user input errors, it's relatively easy to lose leading zeros, and the website does allow it, but   is the simplest, but not necessarily the best, fix. This situation is slightly different from a   constraint where leading zeros aren't allowed, so I'll make it a stricter fix.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:39, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:48, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

Update SNAC-ID URL
The current SNAC-ID urls are generated using SNAC's old domain name (socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu) instead of the correct domain (snaccooperative.org). Can we update the p.snacLink function to use "https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/" instead of "https://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/"?

Glassjoseph (talk) 21:50, 4 November 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅. Socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu is a 3rd party formatter URL, which is normally acceptable, and sometimes necessary, to use. However, in both Chrome & Firefox, I receive a soft security warning asking me if I'm really really sure I want to continue to the socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu site, b/c it might not be secure, despite both using https. Since this is an unnecessary hindrance to users, both as an extra navigational step, and b/c the 'continue to site' button is purposefully hidden within these warnings, I've updated the URL to snaccooperative.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:00, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

Find NZ Artists ID to add?
Could I request the addition of to the module please?

Back in May we proposed a new ID for artists listed in the catalogue Find NZ Artists, and have since run a couple of Mix'n'Matches, with 1500+ matches so far. It'd be nice to get it showing in Authority Control.


 * : suggested parameter FNZA

Hope this isn't too much trouble. —Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 05:01, 2 November 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  03:12, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

HDS links and validity updated
See Village_pump_(technical). I have updated the HDS validity code to match that used at Wikidata, and I updated the https link to fix some links that were not working. Please correct the code if I have broken anything. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:24, 23 November 2019 (UTC)


 * et al., 's value has been recently changed to a more simplified , and presumably all QIDs using an . I'll update the module to this regex so that outliers can be found and updated.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  22:22, 26 November 2019 (UTC)
 * This page claims to identify HDS ids in Wikidata that do not conform to the new spec (which I was unable to find a discussion about on en.WP or WD). It says there are at least 18,000 nonconforming ids. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:39, 26 November 2019 (UTC)
 * thank you, that's a very useful tool. There are 2 small discussions @ d:Property talk:P902 about an ID migration that happened in May 2019, and that all non-0-padded IDs are being redirected to their correct, 0-padded URL. Those 18k IDs should still be made 0-padded, though, which I'll do before making my change live, to avoid needlessly flooding error categories.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  01:17, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I clicked through a few short ids on that report page and they all redirected (from that Wikidata report) to a valid page, so I believe that the (Wikidata URL target's) redirect is working. I think that means I broke the (en.WP) link for short ids with my edit above, however, so if you are not going to get to that padding soon, let me know and I will try to make the old ids go to the old .php link that correctly redirects. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:25, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
 * It looks like many of the QIDs on that list have already been corrected as well. The report was run on Nov 19th, and many of the corrections were made on the 23rd, so I'll wait until there's an updated report, or I find a way of approximating the # of unpadded IDs, until making any AC changes.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  01:31, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Using, I only found 433 QIDs with s < 6 digits long, which is pretty good. I'll 0-pad soon & update AC when done.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  02:16, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
 * All 433 ID have been 0-padded to 6 digits now. Unfortunately, there is no automatic redirection happening from 1-5 digit URLs to 6 digit URLs - they're met with a 404, so this 0-padding was mandatory. Will update the module shortly.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:44, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

NLK ID (P5034)
Requesting to add. This property is used by 43,792 items (mostly person).

Thank you. -- ChongDae (talk) 02:25, 12 November 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  16:02, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

National Library of Greece (P3348)
Requesting the addition of the :

Take care! Jay D. Easy (t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 19:46, 28 November 2019 (UTC)

National Library of Israel must be updated
The National Library of Israel (NLI) website has been updated and links to it in this template are incorrect now (See Earth article, for example). The correct address now is http://uli.nli.org.il/F/?func=direct&doc_number=$1&local_base=nlx10 where "$1" is the ID number. --Triggerhippie4 (talk) 17:17, 29 November 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  01:29, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

Pencil not leading to Identifiers section on Wikidata page
Please make pencil lead to Identifiers section on Wikidata page because those data are authority control and not beginning of the Wikidata item page. I think it is not needed to reach consensus for this because proposal is not controversial nor major (only willing "tehcnician" with proper user rights is required). --Obsuser (talk) 03:08, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

GND error
I noticed this template, when transcluded at Juice Wrld, emits the error message The GND id 1201263891 is not valid. (moved from original misplaced post: Help talk:Authority control) —[ Alan M 1 (talk) ]— 04:03, 13 December 2019 (UTC)
 * The pencil link beside the "Authority Control" at the left side of the box correctly goes to the Wikidata item (d:Q52151598), which shows the correct GND ID 1201263891.
 * The dewiki article de:Juice Wrld does not exhibit the error, and the link there to shows a valid GND entry (I recognize that it's a different template, not that I imagine either template is actually going out and verifying each of the links, is it?).
 * Other enwiki articles, like Donny Hathaway, Natalie Cole, and Mariah Carey, do not exhibit the error.
 * I waited a day to ensure it was not a temporary problem.
 * I tried purging the page and browser caches.
 * . The ID validity check was slightly different at Wikidata, and the number in question appears to be valid, so I copied the validity check from Wikidata to en.WP. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:32, 13 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks! That cleared out Category:Wikipedia articles with faulty GND identifiers except for one, which was legitimately wrong (I fixed it). —[ Alan M 1 (talk) ]— 05:08, 13 December 2019 (UTC)

How to deal with the "please move this to Wikidata" Warning?
When I edit the Kasturiswami_Sreenivasan page I keep seeing this Warning - "please move this to wikidata". How do I do that? It's not clear what I need to do. Looking for a doc or tutorial. Thanks! Pvf2019 (talk) 12:24, 19 January 2020 (UTC)
 * The warnings go away once you remove the identifiers from Wikipedia. You already added to Wikidata so you only had to remove VIAF to remove that warning. You could have done the same with LCCN and  and any other you might have gotten by adding the identifiers to the Wikipedia article as parameters to Authority control. I added a bunch of authority control identifiers to Wikidata  and removed the two (VIAF and LCCN) in English Wikipedia Kasturiswami Sreenivasan. 50.53.21.2 (talk) 03:17, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Feeding Wikidata identifier into Wikipedia
This is in reference to an earlier post: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template_talk:Authority_control&oldid=822380671

We would like to expose the Wikidata identifier National Library Board Singapore ID (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P3988) in English Wikipedia. How do we proceed from here?

E.g. National Library Board (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6974124) - The National Library Board Singapore ID l26-DGZwOIE only exists in Wikidata, but not found in the authority control of the English Wikipedia article National Library Board (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_Board). Is there a way to expose the Wikidata identifier in Wikipedia? Do we need to add the National Library Board Singapore ID in Module:Authority control (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module:Authority_control)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nlbkos (talk • contribs) 09:17, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

P7859 support
We should probably add support for now that it has been added to Wikidata. However, we probably still want to retain the current VIAF and LCCN fallbacks so that support needs to be added in a different way than other authority control properties from Wikidata. To that end and with as much simplicity as possible, please find my proposed solution at Special:Diff/930536663/937302044. I have not tested this but I believe this will allow the code at  to continue to function properly because   will get overridden by Wikidata at   without later impact from.

We will also probably want to revert Special:Diff/917353006/prev in Template:Authority control (currently the change at the top of its history). The change originated with Template talk:Authority control/Archive 9 and Special:Diff/915404056/prev.

Jay D. Easy also seems to have added support for to Module:Authority control/sandbox with Special:Diff/931861693/prev which I rebased with current changes in Special:Diff/937304256/prev if you want to just pull the current sandbox over entirely. See.

Thank you. —Uzume (talk) 04:51, 24 January 2020 (UTC)
 * you seem to be familiar with this module. Would you review this request please? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:38, 28 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I will defer to, since they seem to understand this particular ID's history. See also this page in the talk archive. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:48, 28 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Tom Reding is not active now. we don't really understand your request, but if you confirm when you have tested it, I will deploy for you &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 00:30, 1 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Okay, have since removed "WORLDCATID" parameter recognition from the template sandbox and tested these changes to the template and module by creating a Wikidata item that has both and . I choose  and have tested Authority control/sandbox on this. It allows it to show the new NLG  identifier link as well as changing the WorldCat Identities link to use the new WD property. As counter tests, I also tried it on Jimmie Crane (for LCCN fallback support) and Hubert Aaronson (VIAF fallback support) and they exhibited no changes with regard to  WorldCat Identities linkage (so I feel confident current fallbacks will not be broken; at least until someone adds  claims to their respective WD items). Please deploy changes to Module:Authority control/sandbox and Template:Authority control/sandbox. Thank you. —Uzume (talk) 20:26, 1 February 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅ Thank you, Martin. —Uzume (talk) 16:19, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

Dual author article
There is an article for a pair of authors (married), Alice and Claude Askew who co-authored about 90 books. There is no AC entry for "Alice and Claude Askew" but there are entries for Alice Askew and Claude Askew. Is there a way to direct AC to point to one or both of the authors? LiteratureCompanion (talk) 14:52, 27 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I assume you mean something like:


 * Unfortunately, the current support for QID is restricted from main article space. That restriction would either have to be lifted or the module would have to be altered to support chasing (or some other means of specifying sub-Wikidata items). —Uzume (talk) 07:59, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

Responsive layout
Please apply this change from the sandbox, which introduces TemplateStyles to achieve a more responsive layout (the blue-backgrounded “Authority control” text gets above the identifiers on narrow screens from its current position next to them; there’s no change on wider screens). Please protect the TemplateStyles subpage before applying the patch. (Note that the module is only template editor protected and not fully protected, but I used the fully protected edit request because of the need for page protection and thus for an admin.) Thanks in advance, —Tacsipacsi (talk) 16:39, 23 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Protection needs admin help. Cabayi (talk) 08:24, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

What about the other change in the sandbox, namely UKPARL? My knowledge of css is pathetic but isn't important a rather extreme approach? Could this be run past the people at WP:VPT for confirmation of its desirability? Do the tests at Template:Authority control/testcases show the result is ok? If all you want from an admin is template protection of Module:Authority control/styles.css please say so and I can do that although I'm going to sign off shortly. A final query, why does admin help center (or is it indent?) this comment? Johnuniq (talk) 09:20, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * UKPARL is by Pigsonthewing, I don’t know what his plans are with it. (He’s a template editor, so he could apply it to the master version himself.)  is a quite aggressive thing, but MobileFrontend is even more aggressive, so I thought it’s needed to display this thing on mobile. I was wrong, even this doesn’t help… The other one is overriding inline CSS applied by Module:Navbox;   is the only way to override inline CSS. Ideally Module:Navbox wouldn’t add it inline in the first place, but it would rather use TemplateStyles as well, so more specific selectors would be able to override it without  . However, that requires changing Module:Navbox, and I’m not confident I could do that without breaking half of the English Wikipedia, so I wanted to stay on the safe side. Yes, all I need specifically from an admin is (template) protecting the TemplateStyles page, although it may be better have it unprotected until someone actually completes the request, in case further modifications are needed. Final query: the template is not intended to be used in indented comment (I think the recent Tidy→RemexHtml parser switch broke it, but it has never been designed for a such use case). —Tacsipacsi (talk) 10:47, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid that is a bit confusing for me. I will deactivate the admin request because you finish by saying the css page should not be protected at the moment. Re the change to Module:Authority control, I understand the general idea of the "responsive" buzzword and if I could see a discussion among several knowledgable editors enthusiastically endorsing the proposal I would make the edit despite not knowing what it does. However, I don't see any discussion. Is this part of a series of similar adjustments with a general discussion somewhere? Can you link to a preferably short article where the problem can be seen. Thanks Izno for fixing the indent problem I mentioned above. Johnuniq (talk) 23:03, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Assuming there has been no discussion, it might be best to outline the problem and remedy at WP:VPT and ask for people to comment on whether this edit should be made. Someone who understands the issue might like to just do it without a lot discussion, but that's not me. Johnuniq (talk) 02:25, 25 February 2020 (UTC)
 * "UKPARL is by Pigsonthewing, I don’t know what his plans are with it. (He’s a template editor, so he could apply it to the master version himself.)" Please se my post in the section (currently next-but-one above this one).  Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:56, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

I have disabled the request as for now, as I'm not sure what is happening. Please reactivate if/when you have a specific edit request &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:50, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

I give up, hate such bureaucratism. The code is there; if anyone wants to act on it instead of just speaking about it, there you go. In the meantime I’ll try to avoid reading English Wikipedia articles on small screens to keep the ugly horizontal scrollbars away. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 13:08, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

Pencil not leading to Identifiers section on Wikidata page
Please make pencil lead to Identifiers section on Wikidata page because those data are authority control and not beginning of the Wikidata item page. I think it is not needed to reach consensus for this because proposal is not controversial nor major (only willing "tehcnician" with proper user rights is required). --Obsuser (talk) 22:14, 23 February 2020 (UTC)


 * This seems sensible, and would require the current link to, for example,
 * https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4911143
 * to be changed to link to:
 * https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4911143#identifiers
 * -- Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:31, 23 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Please sandbox the changes and we can deploy &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:49, 27 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I think there is a benefit to linking to the top of the Wikidata page. This makes it clearer to the reader that they have left Wikipedia.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  20:03, 1 March 2020 (UTC)
 * It could be said those who are editing the authority control knows that they are leaving Wikipedia for Wikidata, if you hover the mouse over the pencil icon it would say "Edit this at Wikidata". I find it bothersome to scroll to the Identifiers. --Cineria (talk) 09:43, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

AAG (Auckland Art Gallery) link redirects to HTTPS
From what it appears, the existing link that is generated for the AAG (Auckland Art Gallery) artist page generates an HTTP 301 redirect to an HTTPS version of the URL. (My understanding is that a 301 redirect is used to indicate that a resource has permanently moved to a new URL.) From what I remember, I noticed this behavior with the example URL in the Wikidata entry for the Auckland Art Gallery artist ID. To test the behavior, from what I remember, I probably did an external links search for the URL pattern http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artist/. From these search results, I used AAG links from the pages for Édouard Manet, Andy Warhol, Olivia Spencer Bower, and Gordon Crook as additional testcases. (The online tool at https://httpstatus.io is useful for determining if a URL generates any redirects.) I also adjusted the sandbox for Module:Authority control to contain the same contents as the actual module. Subsequently, I adjusted the module sandbox to use HTTPS for the AAG link. For the artist pages mentioned previously, what I would do was to edit the page and adjust the page to use the Authority control sandbox instead of the actual Authority control template, and then I would preview the page with the changes, but without actually saving the changes. By doing this, I was able to get an idea of what would happen if the page used Authority control logic that generated an HTTPS AAG URL.

At the current time, I have template editor privileges. Even so, in this case, I thought I would mention the proposed change here. Also, there was the thought as to whether the process that I mentioned for looking into whether a URL redirects to HTTPS might be of interest to others. --Elegie (talk) 09:41, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Given that there does not seem to be any concerns, I have made the previously-mentioned edit to have Module:Authority control use HTTPS when generating a link to the Auckland Art Gallery. --Elegie (talk) 06:57, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 12 February 2020
Please change to (new lod url). diff in sandbox. Thanks - Geraki (talk) 08:30, 12 February 2020 (UTC) Geraki (talk) 08:30, 12 February 2020 (UTC)
 * please can you include a test at Template:Authority control/testcases to show the current/proposed behaviour? Thanks &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 13:44, 12 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Template:Authority_control/testcases (at the bottom). Thanks. -Geraki (talk) 16:23, 12 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that looks good. Just checking - should that be http or https? Is your alternate account or some random editor who made that change in the sandbox? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:17, 13 February 2020 (UTC)
 * http redirects to https, but yes is can be https. is not random, he is involved in the lod upgrade of the NLG catalogue (we know each other). -Geraki (talk) 07:52, 16 February 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅, cheers &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 21:45, 16 February 2020 (UTC)
 * From what I could tell, given multiple cases, a URL for an NLG entry would generate an HTTP 301 redirect to an HTTPS version of the URL. As such, after doing testing to see how multiple articles would handle NLG entry URLs with HTTPS, I recently edited Module:Authority control to use HTTPS when generating an NLG entry link. This change should reduce the number of HTTP requests and should provide increased privacy and security for users. --Elegie (talk) 10:33, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Layout
You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Layout. —⁠andrybak (talk) 22:40, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Worldcat on localities
Hi. User:Ser Amantio di Nicolao is adding this template to thousands of articles on localities (villages and so on). In many cases it has no result, but where it does appear, it often shows Worldcat. The problem is that in most cases, this only leads to a "404: Document not found" page, e.g. from Croeserw or Coaltown of Balgonie or Abergynolwyn, but also in other countries: Arnèke, Boeschepe, Sainghin-en-Weppes (all France), or Hillsboro, Loudoun County, Virginia and Middleburg, Virginia (both US).

Can this somehow be prevented? Either a separate template for localities, or a check that it doesn't return a 404, or...? Or perhaps this needs to be taken up with VIAF, if the error is on their side? Fram (talk) 09:11, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * First things first - as this is proving to be more of an issue than I expected, I'll stop with adding the template until the issue is resolved.


 * Second things...er, second. I'm wondering if the simplest fix might be over at Wikidata? For one thing, the last time I did a massive batch of authority control edits - a year and a half ago - I don't recall this "VIAF=WorldCat" issue coming up in the first place. I could be wrong; I don't trust my memory for things like this. But that suggests to me that the one did not always cause the other to autopopulate, and if that's the case then maybe the two can be divorced over at Wikidata again. -- Ser Amantio di Nicolao Che dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 13:43, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * There is no such data in Wikidata (e.g. Croeserw), it’s made up by the module. The relevant code, as far as I see, was added almost exactly for years ago by MSGJ. If the assumption that every VIAF ID has corresponding data in WorldCat is false, the code should be simply removed from the module. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 22:44, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * and So...the thing is, I've spot-checked a handful of articles today, both geographical and non-...and the module seems to be fine as far as non-geographical articles goes. On the one hand, it's a shame to lose that kind of information. On the other hand, if the template is generating improper information it should probably be modified, as the VIAF can always be readded manually in Wikidata. Given that, my own feeling is that the module should be altered - what do others think? If there's no objection I'll make the tweak tomorrow night. -- Ser Amantio di Nicolao Che dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 00:39, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I haven't removed it - I tried, but can't figure out the code. Would you mind, terribly? Thanks very much. -- Ser Amantio di Nicolao Che dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 01:01, 25 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry to be a bother, but is there anyone that can fix this issue, please? I don't much like the idea of a template going out with inaccurate information. And as I said, I've tried to fix it myself without much success. -- Ser Amantio di Nicolao Che dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 00:23, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

All the best: Rich Farmbrough  (the apparently calm and reasonable) 21:11, 7 April 2020 (UTC).
 * I have checked the original version, where this was introduced in 2016, the form from then already causes this issue.
 * This may be a change at WorldCat, and it may have been fine then.
 * Testing with William Shakespeare the WorldCat via Viaf URL does work, but it redirects to the via lccn link.
 * I have changed the template in teh Sandbox to remove the WorldCat via Viaf link.
 * Feel free to test, comment, improve, put live in the normal wiki-way.
 * If not I may put it live some time tomorrow.✅


 * You are a prince among men. Many thanks. -- Ser Amantio di Nicolao Che dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 13:28, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

CatAutoTOC
Hi @Tom.Reding

Thanks for the pings, but I am disappointed to see that you reverted my switch to CatAutoTOC without discussion.

There are a number of reasons why I think it's much better to use CatAutoTOC: However, I think that non-left alignment of the TOC is an impediment to usability, and I intend to propose its removal from Category TOC. A key navigation element such as a TOC is most useful to the reader when placed at a consistent location, and randomly moving it to right or centre on about 2% of uses just removes consistency, while offering no benefit. When the links in a TOC are used to navigate around the category, it is most helpful to have the TOC adjacent to the part of the page to which to relates, i.e. the listing of the category's content. Ideally, TOCs would be built into the Wikimedia software and included below the header, but in the meantime the best we can do is to place them directly above the listing. Your edits undo that :(
 * 1) Code making the same decision is best centralised, so that any change to the threshholds can be implemented in one place
 * 2) Removing the TOC-choice from Module:Pages with authority control identifiers will simplify its code, easing maintenance
 * 3) Using CatAutoTOC means that the choice of TOC will be tracked in the same way as other automatic TOC choices (see Category TOC tracking categories)
 * 4) The centre-alignment is now supported by CatAutoTOC: see Template:CatAutoTOC/doc.  I had sandbox-tested this a month ago (see note), and implemented it today.
 * 1) The change to order of the category text which you noted in your edit summary was intentional and beneficial.

So please can we reinstate CatAutoTOC? -- Brown HairedGirl  (talk) • (contribs) 17:57, 14 April 2020 (UTC)


 * CatAutoTOC can be implemented, but that is more appropriately done within the module and not the template. I'll take care of it shortly.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  10:21, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Tom.Reding. Better to have it in the module than not at all.
 * But I'd have thought better not in the module unless it needs to be in the module. Keeping it in the template also ensures that the template is categorised in Category:Templates using CatAutoTOC. --  Brown HairedGirl  (talk) • (contribs) 10:27, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅, categorization functioning.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:44, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
 * @Tom.Reding, per my comments above, it would be better not in the module ... and why the non-standard center-alignment? A key navigation element such as a TOC is most useful to the reader when placed at a consistent location. -- Brown HairedGirl  (talk) • (contribs) 14:32, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

ResearchID
Requesting an update to the format regex because of identifiers such as AAC-1488-2020 for, among others.

function p.ridLink( id ) --P1053's format regex: [A-Z]{1,3}-\d{4}-(19|20)\d\d (e.g. A-1234-1934) if not id:match( '^[A-Z][A-Z][A-Z]%-%d%d%d%d%-19%d%d$' ) and not id:match( '^[A-Z][A-Z][A-Z]%-%d%d%d%d%-20%d%d$' ) then return false end return ..id....p.getCatForId( 'RID' ) end Jay D. Easy (t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 16:02, 23 April 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅.  P.I. Ellsworth   ed.  put'r there 08:07, 24 April 2020 (UTC)
 * my apologies, please roll it backwards. My suggestion ended up making things worse. Jay D. Easy (t&#8202;•&#8202;c) 18:17, 24 April 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅. Too bad, it seemed to work okay on the Mike Dickison page. Let me know when it's better.  P.I. Ellsworth   ed.  put'r there 02:15, 25 April 2020 (UTC)