User talk:Citation bot/Archive 7

Change ISBNs to ISBN 13?
Since this is now a requirement, would it be possible to make this bot change ISBNs to ISBN 13 when expanding citations? FunkMonk (talk) 21:52, 29 September 2017 (UTC)
 * https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/205  Patch to add it.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 20:33, 3 October 2017 (UTC)
 * resolved merged into Dev branch AManWithNoPlan (talk) 18:30, 6 October 2017 (UTC)

Spaces missing
Unfortunately, this is not a bug. This is GIGO. You can see the source of this information at Crossref, where the spaces are simply missing. The solution is to get the information fixed at Crossref. – Jonesey95 (talk) 12:40, 9 October 2017 (UTC)
 * CrossRef loses italics almost all the time. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:18, 9 October 2017 (UTC)

Text replaced comment in doi= field
I believe that the comment-related bugs have mostly been squashed, but this one happened on October 8, so it looks like it's in the current code (I think that long ago, the bot used to put a version number in its edit summary, which helped determine if the bug was current). – Jonesey95 (talk) 12:55, 9 October 2017 (UTC)
 * this bug is fixed on the Dev branch. Dev branch should be moved to production after a little more testing.  This does point to a different bug which is that the Bot marks comments as dead DOIs. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:16, 9 October 2017 (UTC)
 * https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/226 AManWithNoPlan (talk) 14:40, 9 October 2017 (UTC)

resolved with this pull request AManWithNoPlan (talk) 02:31, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Bot work continues in September 2017
Kaldari, AManWithNoPlan, and Smith609 are working hard on github to get a new version out very soon.
 * Post a message after updating -dev source. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 17:32, 6 September 2017 (UTC)
 * The dev version of citation bot is now completely updated and functioning: . Please test it and let me know if there are any issues. Kaldari (talk) 18:30, 6 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Much better than current bot. The comments bug is fixed.  Several of the other bugs are fixed.

Fixed: comments, nowiki respected, other choices for page, losing jstor URL because of extraneous jstor=, Hearst Magazines is not an author, half dead doi - dx.doi.org works, but cross ref does not, Arxiv new style, Arxiv PDF links - do not add pdf to eprint value, Bibcodes that end with dot, plants.jstor.org is not jstor.org, Time Inc is not an author, the link that the done window gives you now works.

Not fixed: TitleCase for Journal names pulled from PubMed, ZooKeys special case, escaping wiki control characters within titles, unknown is not a journal title, changing dash to longer dash in URLs within pages.

AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:48, 6 September 2017 (UTC)


 * ZooKeys pull request made by my buddy. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:56, 6 September 2017 (UTC)
 * BinCode pull request made by my buddy. Still left: TitleCase for Journal names pulled from PubMed, escaping wiki control characters within titles, changing dash to longer dash in URLs within pages. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 00:52, 7 September 2017 (UTC)


 * maybe you could mark the threads as resolved / archive them? Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 01:08, 7 September 2017 (UTC)


 * Will do. Still some left.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 02:15, 7 September 2017 (UTC)


 * probably good time to toss new code to non-development side AManWithNoPlan (talk) 02:41, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I've updated the production code. Please test. Kaldari (talk) 16:58, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
 * can you also update the dev version and apply this patch to it. https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/124  It seems that this change did not work and we lost first1= AManWithNoPlan (talk) 17:51, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
 * and apply it to the non-dev version too. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 17:53, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Done. Kaldari (talk) 18:19, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I am not sure why, but the current bot version does not set first1 for pubmed stuff. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 18:52, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
 * OK, I've rolled back the production Citations bot to the last known working version (7c625ba... Merge pull request #108 from kaldari/master). Can you test against that and see if the bug is fixed? Kaldari (talk) 19:26, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

expands correctly with that version. I just removed the one pull request and added another. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 19:43, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Please update the dev version to the current code, but with this patch https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/125 applied. Please test on   and if that fixes it, then update production too please.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 19:45, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I've updated citations-dev (including pull request 125). Please test it out and let me know if you want me to update production as well. Kaldari (talk) 22:20, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
 * . It works and does not lose first1=.  Go for it!!   AManWithNoPlan (talk) 22:39, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Done! Kaldari (talk) 22:44, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

. Can you update the dev version with the github dev version. It has some patches that should be tested before we push it to master branch. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 03:18, 11 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Done. Kaldari (talk) 04:06, 11 September 2017 (UTC)
 * . Can you update the non-dev version with the wiki dev version. The dev version on wiki is working well. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 00:59, 13 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Production has now been updated to commit 606c9e42 (Merge pull request #140 from GlazerMann/patch-8). Kaldari (talk) 01:07, 14 September 2017 (UTC)
 * . Can you update the dev version with the github dev version. It has some patches that should be tested before we push it to master branch. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:50, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Done. BTW, maybe we should start doing this over email or IRC instead of talk page posts :) Kaldari (talk) 17:42, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Talk page has the advantage of people knowing what is going on. I should note that the dev version does not work. :-( There has been a lot of work done there and not all by me. Probably need to do a binary. Search to find the deadly pull. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 18:12, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Please update the Dev version on wiki with dev version on github. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 17:14, 20 September 2017 (UTC)
 * It's updated, but it doesn't work: PHP Fatal error: Arrays are not allowed as constants in /mnt/nfs/labstore-secondary-tools-project/citations-dev/public_html/constants.php on line 116. Kaldari (talk) 21:24, 20 September 2017 (UTC)
 * What version of PHP is the tool server running? Older version do not allow const arrays.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:46, 20 September 2017 (UTC)
 * 5.5.9. Kaldari (talk) 23:51, 20 September 2017 (UTC)
 * https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/170 AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:54, 20 September 2017 (UTC)
 * any hope of using a newer version--option at this maybe https://toolsadmin.wikimedia.org/tools/id/citations-dev/maintainers/    Martin wants it.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 00:09, 22 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I know you can run PHP 5.6 (instead of 5.5.9) by using Kubernetes, but I don't know of any way to run PHP 7 on Tool Forge. Kaldari (talk) 19:26, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
 * . Could you try that for dev? AManWithNoPlan (talk) 19:53, 26 September 2017 (UTC)

fixed Flagging for automatic archiving.

Documentation is wrong
—Anomalocaris (talk) 23:53, 30 October 2017 (UTC)
 * In "preferences" tab "Gadgets" under "Editing" I checked the second box, "Citation expander".
 * I edit articles with incomplete refs, e.g. . I've tried it with and without the   tags, with and without the brackets.
 * I click on the Citations button. It goes straight to the Show changes page without making any changes.
 * My skin was MonoBook, so I changed it to Vector, but that didn't make any difference.
 * this bot does nothing with cite news. You want reFill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Zhaofeng_Li/reFill  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:58, 30 October 2017 (UTC)
 * According to the documention at User:Citation bot/use, "Now you can type or paste in only the ISBN.... The only requirement is to use templates for citations: cite book...." So I tried, clicked the Citations button and it didn't expand the reference. —Anomalocaris (talk) 01:42, 31 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Check the documentation again. It no longer says that.  That was blocked years ago. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 02:18, 31 October 2017 (UTC)
 * AManWithNoPlan: Thank you for fixing User:Citation bot/use to remove the mention of ISBN. I edited it further to clarify what it can do, and I invite you to take a look and make sure my change is correct. Anomalocaris (talk) 02:31, 31 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I cleaned up some more. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 02:41, 31 October 2017 (UTC)
 * The ISBN feature got removed because the number of queries is limited. 500 queries per day limit.  And each book is a separate query.  If the bot adds this back, it would only be for cite book templates with nothing else present. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 02:51, 31 October 2017 (UTC)
 * AManWithNoPlan: Thank you for cleaning up User:Citation bot/use. Now, hopefully, naive users will understand correctly what it can and cannot do, and not expect it to enhance bare URL links, among other things. —Anomalocaris (talk) 02:54, 31 October 2017 (UTC)
 * ISBN support is coming soon. https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/265    AManWithNoPlan (talk) 19:46, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Bot work continues in October 2017
Any hope of updating Dev Version?? AManWithNoPlan (talk) 03:19, 2 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Updated to master (commit 42328d7c Merge pull request #202). Kaldari (talk) 17:27, 2 October 2017 (UTC)
 * one bug in Dev branch. Incorrectly looks for title italic AManWithNoPlan (talk) 02:36, 5 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Dev updated to 72b28c75 (Merge pull request #228 from GlazerMann/patch-21). Kaldari (talk) 07:11, 13 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Looks like it's outputting some debugging info: https://tools.wmflabs.org/citations-dev/doibot.php?edit=toolbar&slow=1&user=Kaldari&page=PP-90M1. Seems to be coming from Template.php. Also a stubbed credentials/mysql.login file needs to be added to the repo. See Travis failure at https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/229. Kaldari (talk) 07:59, 13 October 2017 (UTC)
 * and : We have bugs on the wiki version, but none that we know of in the github version. How about we try out the github development version on the wiki development tool.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 14:04, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
 * I updated the dev project to the latest release branch. It looks like it needs new credential files though. Can you email me what should be in the credential files? Kaldari (talk) 15:59, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
 * and ; I do not have those files or information 🤔. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 16:30, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
 * OK, I think the dev installation is working as expected now. Let me know if you want me to update the production version as well. Kaldari (talk) 05:30, 20 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Seems to work. Gadget API is broken.  https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/251 AManWithNoPlan (talk) 15:53, 20 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Flag this to archive. fixed

Loss of Data
Your bot has caused me to lose edits over the last 30 minutes - please get it to check whether a page is actively being used before it launches into its own editing.....Paul venter (talk) 12:22, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
 * There’s no way to know if a page is being edited; so, what you suggest is impossible. Also, you could have saved your changes anyway. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 15:11, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
 * notabug

15 January
recetly an admin wikipedia removed content and vaild sources from Shilpa Anand. Please rollback those content and sources.

This is not relevant here. Discuss on that pages talk page. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 14:50, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

notabug

Untitled_new_bug
Hello. Cancel, the bot indicated a duplicate date but showed a citation error. Curiocurio talk) contribs) 17:19, 23 May 2018 (UTC)
 * not a bug. Not nearly enough information to troubleshoot this report. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:16, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

DUPLICATE_year
Not a bug. The purpose is to draw your attention to the two parameters of the same name. There are two year parameters in that citation – one must go. MediaWiki is telling you the same thing by emitting this error message when you preview the page:
 * Warning: User:Shrike/Arthur Menachem Hantke is calling Template:Cite book with more than one value for the "year" parameter. Only the last value provided will be used. (Help)

—Trappist the monk (talk) 09:50, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Bot Pages need cleaned up
These outdated pages need flagged for deletion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Citation_bot/bugs&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/bugs/Archive_1&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/1&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/1/&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/2&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/2/&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/3&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/3/&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/4&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/4/&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/5&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/5/&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/6&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/testcase/7&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/parameters&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Citation_bot/parameters&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Citation_bot/capitalisation_exclusions&redirect=no

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Citation_bot/Archive_index&redirect=no

can you delete all these. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:53, 28 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Some of the pages have incoming links. Is there any harm in letting those continue to exist as redirects? – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:21, 22 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I see NO problem in that. Good catch. All of the other ones have no real incoming links and should go away.  I have removed the bugs page from the list.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 17:04, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

DUPLICATE parameters
Not a bug. The purpose is to draw your attention to the two parameters of the same name. There are two first parameters in that citation – one must go. MediaWiki is telling you the same thing by emitting this error message when you preview the page:
 * Warning: Something's Changing is calling Template:Cite book with more than one value for the "first" parameter. Only the last value provided will be used. (Help)

—Trappist the monk (talk) 22:24, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Indeed, there are multiple discussions on the topic of these "DUPLICATE" parameters in the archives. Please review. --Izno (talk) 01:01, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

Duplicate publisher parameter
notabug I am totally confused by this edit. What is the purpose of adding Duplicate_publisher parameter? How can the error that it produces be resolved (without the bot coming back and adding it back)?

Thanks!–CaroleHenson (talk) 01:44, 2 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Never mind, figured it out.–CaroleHenson (talk) 01:47, 2 July 2018 (UTC)

Hyphenated page numbers

 * This is not a bug bot. Citation templates automatically convert hyphens to dashes as well. If you don't want hyphens to display as dashes, use hyphen, as explained in Help:CS1. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 01:47, 3 July 2018 (UTC)
 * I say that's a bug in both respects; if I want a hyphen, I should be able to type "-", not " " .  Imzadi 1979  →   02:42, 3 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Except 99+% of the time, people type hyphens when endashes should be used. The automatic replacement fixes more errors than it breaks. Using hyphen is explicit those are to be hyphen, will make them display as hyphen rather than endashes, and every bot and AWB will leave them as hyphen. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 02:53, 3 July 2018 (UTC)
 * This limitation of citation templates is not exclusive to Citation Bot. If you look at citation 187 in the version of the article with hyphens, you can see that the citation template converted "S-2" to "S–2", etc. The documentation for the Cite Journal template explains two workarounds. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:38, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

Duplicate_title
Changing the parameter (|title= ) to (|DUPLICATE_title= ) is no help Stop this Bot Gene Wilson (talk) 02:51, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

This is a feature. When there are two identical parameters in a citation template, the bot renames one to DUPLICATE_xxx. It is pointing out the problem with the template. The solution is to choose one of the two parameters and remove the other one, or to convert it to an appropriate parameter. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:28, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

improperly adds |chapter= to cite journal

 * If you follow the doi you will see that the citation really is to a chapter in a book. The error is that citation bot leaves it as cite journal rather than switching to a template that allows chapter parameters. The correct citation would be
 * (Don't ask me why it says Volume 8 in one place and Volume 11 in the other, but I think maybe it means it's the 8th "Drug Design" volume and the 11th total volume in the series?) —David Eppstein (talk) 22:18, 13 May 2018 (UTC)
 * fixed on GitHub. Needs updated.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:17, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Fix confirmed, though I note that the  parameter is being replaced by  ... is this desired behaviour? Martin  (Smith609 – Talk)  07:20, 23 July 2018 (UTC)
 * fixed on GitHub. Needs updated.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:17, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Fix confirmed, though I note that the  parameter is being replaced by  ... is this desired behaviour? Martin  (Smith609 – Talk)  07:20, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Author failure bracket parse
It may true that something is amiss in the bot with regard to brackets. As an editorial aside, pre- and post-nominals, honorifics, and the like, do not belong in the cs1|2 name-list parameters. Where they exist in cs1|2 templates, they should be removed.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 14:42, 8 July 2018 (UTC)


 * https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/409 Really need to get this on the Wikipedia dev cite.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 03:50, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Yahoo! It worked! Marking as fixed. Martin  (Smith609 – Talk)  07:12, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

login failure
Hopefully fixed right now. If not, try citations-dev (and let me know!) Martin  (Smith609 – Talk)  07:10, 23 July 2018 (UTC)


 * It's fixed for the one-page-at-a-time form, but doing a category is maybe working? it doesn't throw an error, but it doesn't say it finishes either:


 * also, is  a deprecated parameter now?  --Nessie (talk) 14:48, 23 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Also not working from the edit dialog Citations button, although it works from the Expand Citations link. Lithopsian (talk) 14:57, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Bot still changing PLOS ONE to Plos One in Wikilinked names
That is because the journal name is PLOS ONE and not PLOS ONE. We will look into adding code to check for wikilinked journal titles. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 19:55, 25 October 2017 (UTC)
 * https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/259 AManWithNoPlan (talk) 20:40, 25 October 2017 (UTC)

fixed WikiLinked names are no longer fixed. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:37, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Adds year even if date
Same as this bug report which has been marked as resolved. Clearly not.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 10:48, 26 October 2017 (UTC)


 * It really would be good to get these bug fixes out onto Wikipedia.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:21, 26 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Current un-merged so-called bugs are at https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pulls Two are internal coding things that are simply making code cleaner.  One is for the fact that the gadget API is broken in Development version.  One is the above bug that journals with funky spelling lose it when wiki-linked.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:27, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

fixed

|display-authors= value same as number of authors listed in template
cs1|2 adds citations to when display-authors is a assigned a value that is greater than or equal to the number of authors listed by last and first or authorn because setting display-authors to such a value is meaningless. Granted, in this particular case, the original:  is just garbage. Still, the bot should not be using a numeric value when all listed authors are to be displayed. In this case, the correct thing for the bot to have done would have been to set etal.

This same applies to display-editors and the editor parameters.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 22:53, 26 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Fixed in development version already. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:53, 26 October 2017 (UTC)
 * congratulations to smith on totally fixing this bug before it was reported AManWithNoPlan (talk) 00:25, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

fixed

mml tags
Fixed in development version. Thanks to Smith for fixing this. I know I did not. This is an example of how the code coverage tool pointed out untested code. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 15:32, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

fixed

Wrecks patent citation
I would add that the bot should never duplicate url into a redundant identifier as it did in this same edit, adding 10.1007/. If the bot is going to do this, it should delete the value in url.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 20:29, 29 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Patent problem fixed in Development branch.  Looking into DOI AManWithNoPlan (talk) 22:15, 29 October 2017 (UTC)
 * DOI fix submitted https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/261 AManWithNoPlan (talk) 01:28, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

fixed

Incorrect author in Google Books citations
https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/280

https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/279

fixed

Bot adds pages= even when page= is present
"922" was converted to "920–6 922", which results in a  error. Here is a simplified example showing that the current bot code still has this error. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:32, 12 November 2017 (UTC)

fixed

Creates invalid cite date format
Fix submitted https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/319 AManWithNoPlan (talk) 16:49, 16 November 2017 (UTC)

fixed

Journal citations and run duration

 * , please provide a link to a sample edit that illustrates the problem. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:20, 22 November 2017 (UTC)
 * If you run citation bot on pmid 28120229, you'll see what I mean by non-capitalizing the journal name. In this case, it also produced a redundant chapter title (to the existing title), requiring a further edit. Both the non-capitalizing and redundant title creation are common occurrences, in my experience. On the other issue I mentioned - long run times - I can't provide a sample edit link, but it occurred again today. I don't know if this is a local issue for my wireless connection or an inherent problem others experience. Thanks for the repair(s), if possible. --Zefr (talk) 16:26, 25 November 2017 (UTC)
 * That is a really hard problem to fix. The PMID give information, and then the DOI gives better information recognizing it as a book, but that sets different template paramaters.  The newest development version on GitHub will yield this -- which is a little better:     AManWithNoPlan (talk) 16:35, 25 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks, although there are numerous other examples from the bot running on PMID that I can add with future editing; Cochrane references as another example where 1) it doesn't provide the correct title (Pharmacotherapies for sleep disturbances in Alzheimer's disease), and 2) it doesn't capitalize parts of the journal name. --Zefr (talk) 17:07, 25 November 2017 (UTC)
 * The version on GitHub now applies some capitalization rules to journal titles. Some style guides require lower case titles 🙄, including the PMID one.  I have added a pull request that attempts to deal with duplicate title=chapter.  https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/349. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 17:48, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

fixed

Bot changes "pages" parameter to improper values
Garbage data is hard to deal with. But eventually this code should be deployed. https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/366    AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:06, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

fixed

Minor copy edits for beginning of output on Welcome to Citation Bot page
Hello! Thanks for everyone's hard work. This isn't a functional problem, but I'd like to suggest the slightest amount of copy edits to the template for this type of page. I'm not suggesting changing the feel of the text (e.g., by putting subjects in the sentences—heh!), just a quick tidy.

Currently the text reads: ""

Please consider changing the bolded items below as discussed in the enumerated list (the bolding is just to make the problem areas stand out here and not to be added to the text template): ""


 * 1) The account's name is of course Citation_bot, but its second mention did not have the underscore.
 * 2) Remove the space between "list" and "..." to match the first ellipse's formatting.
 * 3) Capitalize the D in "done" since it's a short sentence.
 * 4) Add a space after "Done."
 * 5) Add a period after "Geekdiva"—of course, in practice that'd be whatever username is there.
 * (Hm. What do you call that area where the using user's name will be filled in: the text template's username parameter, placeholder, field, or something else? Is "text template" accurate when discussing bot output? TIA for helping me communicate this kind of thing better in the future!)

I hope this is the right place to ask! BTW, I'm interested in making some tiny tweaks to User:Citation_bot/use and perhaps suggest some larger ones, but I haven't been bold enough in that direction yet. Heh! Plus, I got to keep in mind that my real-life limitations might not let me find my way back to doing that, so... Reality suuuuuuuuhcks. Thanks! —Geekdiva (talk) 01:58, 9 December 2017 (UTC)
 * All these suggestions are already implemented in the current development branch of the source code. It is on GitHub, but not deployed here yet.  I guess great minds think alike  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 03:45, 9 December 2017 (UTC)

I belatedly and completely agree with you! —Geekdiva (talk) 00:14, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

fixed

Misidentification of year as issue
MLA and other such unformatted formats are always going to be imperfect. Good catch. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 14:11, 13 December 2017 (UTC). Also known as Thing 2.

fixed

Failing to expand abbrevs if auth present
You already fixed this in development branch. https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/commit/16cf4183b16f4d35c2f190e624449abf644c74f9 AManWithNoPlan (talk) 15:18, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

fixed

Why only one run per edit?
On occasion on an edit page, I've wanted to run the bot again after discovering a previous edit error on a reference, yet - once run - Citation bot refuses to run a second time. There must be a "once-only" run limit. It would be nice to permit the bot as many runs per edit as the editor wishes. --Zefr (talk) 04:04, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * There is no limit.  You must be doing it wrong, or your skin is messed up. Please explain in detail exactly what you mean.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 14:49, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Let's say a ref is added using the bot template, ref-cite journal|pmid=xxx-end ref, the bot is launched and the source details are generated by pressing the 'Citations' button. Then the editor thinks of another ref to add using the same procedure, intending to add that second ref within the same edit session before pressing 'Publish changes'. My experience over months/years of using Citation bot is that it won't run again within the first edit once the first run is done. I have to complete the first edit by 'Publish changes', then enter edit mode and run Citation bot separately again for the second ref to be completed. I don't know what is meant by "your skin is messed up." --Zefr (talk) 15:04, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * something is wrong with your skin (the way that you have customized Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Skin) or your preferences that you have set. Literally no one else has reported this.   How did you enable this Bot?  Did you edit your common.js file or turn it on in your preferences?   AManWithNoPlan (talk) 17:24, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Under Gadgets/Editing in my Preferences, I enabled 'Citation expander' which includes Citation bot. Under Appearance/Skin, I clicked the default, Vector. Thanks for helping to solve this, and I remain open to trying something else to make Citation bot work nominally. --Zefr (talk) 17:32, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Strange. So, the bot makes changes.  It updates the text edit window.  You make more changes and then you go to activate the Bot and what goes wrong. (Or are you clicking citations before previous Bot Call is done)?  Button grey. Button does nothing, but does click.  Button works and browser is waiting forever and never returns.    AManWithNoPlan (talk) 01:26, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * on the first run, the bot fills out the journal reference details, I click the 'Citations' box, the clockwise graphic shows as in operation, and all is filled out when completed within the text edit window. If I then decide to add a second reference using the bot template, then click 'Citations', the box shows a click, goes grey, the 'Citations' box has a blue border, and nothing happens, with no clockwise graphic and no operation completed. Going through this again with an example here: first attempt using 'cite journal|pmc=4107599' ; second attempt with a different reference using the same 'cite journal|pmc=5073488' format: . --Zefr (talk) 16:57, 16 January 2018 (UTC)


 * that is very weird.  So, instead you just save what you have and then edit again and it works?  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 01:42, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

Right, two separate edits, and two bot runs instead of all in one. --Zefr (talk) 02:48, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

This is now much better about using new data an continuing to run more checks. fixed AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:18, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Mangled patent citation
Since this is fixed on GitHub, it’s probably time to try a new version as development version AManWithNoPlan (talk) 03:39, 17 January 2018 (UTC) fixed

pages field only picks up first page of page range

 * Fix submitted. https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/pull/411 AManWithNoPlan (talk) 18:21, 24 February 2018 (UTC)

fixed

Cite Arxiv and DOI

 * But it's not a journal, so changing it to cite journal would also be an error. CERN Yellow Reports is a tech report series. I think the correct choice would be cite report. Does Citation bot even know about tech reports? —David Eppstein (talk) 08:43, 27 February 2018 (UTC)
 * I would argue that the cite arXiv templates is buggy if it does not allow a DOI AManWithNoPlan (talk) 01:46, 28 February 2018 (UTC)
 * The solution is to convert non-journal entries with dois to cite paper/cite journal/cite thesis/cite conference}/cite report/or whatever. The bot converts to cite journal because that's what it'll be in the vast majority of cases, if it's not, update it to the correct instead. Cite arxiv is for preprints specifically, and should not have DOIs or other identifiers in it.
 * Concerning CERN Yellow Reports specifically, using cite journal isn't wrong, in the sense that it doesn't produce an incorrectly formatted citation. Quibbles about them being monographic series vs journals is rather irrelevant. CERN describes the CERN Yellow Reports as being journals (see, "Journal content"). Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 02:30, 28 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Bot Dev branch on GitHub now changes arXiv to journal if a doi is present. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 15:36, 28 February 2018 (UTC)

fixed

"Pages = 1" instead of "Pages = 1-26"
Low priority, since it has the starting page correct.


 * fixed on GitHub.  Need tested on Wikipedia AManWithNoPlan (talk) 04:28, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

fixed

ASIN
ASINs that look like ISBNs have been identified as a problem item. The goal is reduce them.
 * Your replacing them with a URL with an ASIN in them is not helpful. You made the page worse.  You did not get rid of a ASIN (it is still there in the URL), and you replaced a unique identifier with a URL that is prone to breakage.  Lastly, those ASIN are not ones that look like ISBNs, they are ISBNs.  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 21:52, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The help text at Category:CS1 maint: ASIN uses ISBN tells editors how to deal with an ASIN that is identical to an ISBN. I have fixed the edits to this article. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:01, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
 * There are about 500 edits done by Gaarmyvet that have all made wikipedia worse because (s)he misunderstood. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 22:37, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Let's turn this into a good thing. It seems to me that if a citation has an ASIN that is an ISBN and it already has an ISBN, then the ASIN should be removed by bot.  Thoughs?  AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:29, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The instructions on the category page are pretty clear: A bot that could follow those instructions could run through the category periodically. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:59, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

notabug

WMFlabs tool 504d
fixed

hyphen endash
a cite (probably) anything converts a pages hyphen to a pages endash, there's no need to make a grand edit for correctness in the code if the output is okay."Hyphens are automatically converted to en dashes" Dave Rave (talk) 22:32, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

notabug The more closely the data matches the display the better. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 23:12, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Don't change urls
Fixed on GitHub. Needs updated. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:16, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
 * "Fixed"??? → see below the faulty code seems to continue to cause the same problems. --Francis Schonken (talk) 11:25, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

fixed

Bot breaks URL in pages field of citation template by changing hyphen to en dash in URL

 * I reported the same issue last month, see above, but doesn't seem fixed yet (despite someone wrote "Fixed" above). --Francis Schonken (talk) 11:28, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Same in this edit. (t) Josve05a  (c) 22:09, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Until the running bot is updated it really doesn’t matter if the bugs are fixed or not. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 00:37, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

fixed

bot keep adding value of chapter while no chapter is available for the source_new_bug
Do you have an example edit with the problem? --Izno (talk) 15:23, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Presumably . Also presumably, that citation should have been written to reflect what it is: conference proceedings:
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 15:33, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 15:33, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 15:33, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

The edit for the Line 87 of is the one I mentioned. The suggestion above works for me.Mdkbbsluanxieweiji (talk) 16:40, 2 July 2018 (UTC)

fixed seems to now work much better. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 00:00, 24 July 2018 (UTC)