User:ArkyBot/Oldtasks/One


 * The following page is an archived user page describing the original approved task of ArkyBot. This task has been indefinitely suspended and is no longer being implemented.

ArkyBot is a bot operated by Arkyan. It is written in PHP. ArkyBot will slowly work its way through articles for populated places as recognized by the US Census and update the article with the infobox city template and replace existing maps with a SVG vector map generated from Census data.

ArkyBot is now a fully automatic bot, and as such any errors may go unnoticed. If you spot a minor error, feel free to correct it, but please notify the bot operator of the error so future errors may be avoided. See below for a full description of the bot's functionality.

Arkybot is also undergoing test editing in an attempt to replace the lost functionality of DFBot, which summarized open Articles for Deletion discussions. Please see User:ArkyBot/AFD summary for a discussion of this functionality.

Major Revision
ArkyBot has been modified from a manually assisted bot to a fully automatic bot. This has been accomplished by removing the bot's infobox parsing functionality (which has been superceded by CapitalBot, much more suited to that task) and is now designed only to add maps to the articles.

This has the advantage of significantly accelerating the project. However, the disadvantage is there will no longer be any manual oversight of the bot and any errors in its edits will likely go unnoticed by its operator. In an attempt to minimize problems, the bot will now skip over any article that does not have an infobox, as well as skipping articles that have a SVG map already uploaded. These skipped articles will then be reviewed and, if appropriate, the maps will then be updated.

Again, if you spot errors the bot has caused, please notify the operator as soon as possible. The operator is always online while the bot is processing articles for maps, and will respond shortly. If the bot is making particularly egregious or repetitive errors and causing major problems, it may be prudent to request immediate assistance from another administrator to temporarily block the bot while the issue is resolved.

About the maps
The maps used by ArkyBot are script-generated based on boundary files from the 2000 US Census. Due to this, the maps will not reflect the most current information possible. Annexations and incorporations since the boundary files were created will not be reflected on these maps. If you spot map inaccuracies due to new annexations or incorporations, you may notify me but there won't be much I can do about it mid-project without updated boundary files.

The scope of this project is twofold. One is to replace the generic red-dot maps with more specific maps depicting the boundaries of the cities and towns. The second is to replace raster graphics (gif, jpg, png and the like) with vector graphics (svg). Vector graphics are superior for things like maps with few colors and lots of straight lines, and can be rescaled without any loss of information. Because of this, ArkyBot will replace any raster map with the generated SVG map.

This creates the possibility that a map based on newer information will be overwritten. If this is the case, don't take offense if I delete a map you contributed! Please leave a comment on the operator's talk page if you would like some help converting your raster map into a SVG map, or if you can do so yourself then feel free to overwrite the map with a newer SVG version.

Finally, the script used to create these maps, as well as the Census' boundary files, are not without their flaws. If you spot an error of omission - such as a city or town that existed as of early 2000 and still does not show up on the map, please notify me and I will try to fix the problem as soon as possible.

Technical notes

 * 01 August 2007 - Optimized code so that deletion of red-dot-maps did not also remove text on the same line as the map.


 * 02 August 2007 - Modified code to start using new Infobox Settlement parameters and stop using the deprecated values. Also modified the way existing infoboxes are handled to reduce need for manual fixing of map sizes and insert missing parameters for ease of future expansion.


 * 03 August 2007 - Discovered a discrepancy between the GNIS and US Census Bureau lists that was causing the bot to miss certain cities and omit them on the maps. This deficiency appears to be corrected as of San Mateo County, California.  This will require regenerating maps for other affected California counties and re-uploading them.  The affected counties are : Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Merced, Orange, Plumas, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Luis Obispo.  Additionally there are 11 cities in Alabama and Arkansas that will need to be remapped.  This work will be done when the rest of the California run is complete.


 * 07 August 2007 - Fixed issue where citation templates inside extant infoboxes were causing the bot to mangle the information.


 * 29 August 2007 - Fixed issue where Pagename was causing bot to truncate existing infoboxes


 * 21 September 2007 - Modified bot to now retain deprecated or unrecognized infobox tags and mark them as such. Also corrected error where bot was linking to Georgia, a disambiguation page, rather than Georgia (U.S. state).  This appears to be the only state for which the state is not the primary use of the name.


 * 25 September 2007 - Fixed issue where certain templates within existing infoboxes were causing the bot to truncate the infobox. This is related to the Pagename issue fixed last month.  This fix should address the more general issue of the use of any template rather than a set of specific templates.


 * 12 October 2007 - Major rewrite. Infobox parsing functionality has been abandoned in favor of full automation.  See main bot description.