Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Chris G Bot (task 3)

Chris G Bot
Operator:  Chris   G

Automatic or Manually Assisted:

Programming Language(s):PHP for simple web requests, Perl (using Perlwikipedia) for more complex requests

Function Summary:Removing/Replacing and Substing templates that will be deleted

Edit period(s) (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run):Run by users and me(for complex requests) when needed, a few runs a day?

Edit rate requested: X edits per TIME Not sure at the moment, PHP script has a 5 sec dealy between server requests(can set it higher if you want)

Already has a bot flag (Y/N):Y

Function Details:Basically the script gets all the what links here pages and goes through each page and subst/removes/replaces the template as necessary, I will write up a perl script for more complex requests(e.g. where template params have to be changed(for more info see here)

Discussion
Is there a particular reason why you feel AWB isn't up to the task? — Coren (talk) 14:30, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * That, and you can do it out of the box. Saves you having to code them... Reedy Boy 18:32, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't like using Windows when I'm fine with Linux and I have more controll with perl and PHP. --  Chris   G  08:39, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Fair 'nuf (and I empathize). Find-and replace of templates can be funky when parameters are involved.  Would you mind showing us the regexes you will use?  — Coren (talk) 00:10, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

You will be giving the final go-ahead on each subtask, yes? This has not been clarified. — madman bum and angel 19:22, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
 * "Run by users?" Who else will be operating this bot? —  xaosflux  Talk 14:05, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I take it there would be an activate button of some sort on the userpage. — H 2O —  07:48, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
 * If it does use a button to activate, it may put some load on the server if abused by anons and other users to start it. — E  talkBAG 06:28, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I worded that badly, basically there will be a php script on the toolserver which users can use to make simple requests which I will check before running on the perl script. -- Chris  09:56, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

This is my current understanding of your bot request: Is this correct? — Coren (talk) 23:20, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Users would be able to use a PHP script to submit request for template replacements;
 * Those requests would be used to generate regexes (automatically? by yourself?) to perform the replacement;
 * You would vet the request;
 * An unattended task would apply the regexes to the list of pages scraped from the appropriate "what links here".

D Yes that is correct, I will do the regexes myself to avoid any stuff up. -- Chris  08:54, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
 * How will you handle nested templates? Max S em(Han shot first!) 18:56, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
 * having troubling finding the time to work on code and such, not really feeling that motivated by this bot. -- Chris  10:46, 24 November 2007 (UTC)