Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/WxBot


 * The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA. The result of the discussion was Symbol keep vote.svg Approved

WxBot
Operator:

Time filed: 18:01, Thursday April 11, 2013 (UTC)

Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: Automatic

Programming language(s): AutoWikiBrowser

Source code available: AWB

Function overview: Link replacement, mainly for WP:Meteorology and WP:WikiProject Tropical cyclones. In the future, if we redo our templates again, this bot could be used to update those out as well.

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate):

Edit period(s): Individual runs as needed

Estimated number of pages affected: 6,470 (Total number of WP:Meteorology articles as of today, although not all will be edited by this bot; the number could grow as more articles are added)

Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): Yes

Already has a bot flag (Yes/No):

Function details: Replacing URLs in references as needed for the projects WP:Meteorology and WP:WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. Those projects use a lot of government websites, and sometimes agencies change names, and the URLs then change (i.e. www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov --> www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov). This bot would also be used to update templates if we ever consolidate/substitute templates. The Tropical Cyclones project did this a couple months ago, so if this were to be done again, it would likely not be for a while.

Discussion
 MBisanz  talk 03:13, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Inks.LWC (talk) 01:57, 14 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I noticed some problematic edits. It looks like the bot also makes the change in links archived at Wayback Machine, like: and . I don't think the bot should do this. Armbrust The Homunculus 12:18, 15 April 2013 (UTC)
 * A good point, and one that I did not notice when I looked through the edits (I looked through about 15 as the bot ran). The fix to that will be if the bot is approved, I'll change the find and replace from "hpc.ncep.noaa.gov" to "url=http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov".  And then it can find links in the external links by finding "[[User:Inks.LWC|Inks.LWC] (talk) 16:28, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Let's try another trial to test out the fix.  MBisanz  talk 18:53, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Looks like a good idea bot-worthy task. Also, if you haven't already (as I assume you have), it would be good to keep the bot listed on the project pages for future similar task requests. -68.107.137.178 (talk) 19:04, 15 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I do plan on listing it on the project pages; however, I wanted to wait until the trial was done before I did that.
 * Good idea. I think other projects may want to use the bot, also. -68.107.137.178 (talk) 19:32, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I checked through all of the edits as the bot ran, and the only problematic edit was this one, when AWB automatically added a bracket at the beginning of a table; upon inspection, the reason for that was that there were two rogue brackets in the table from when it was first written, so I fixed the table to remove the extra brackets. Inks.LWC (talk) 19:45, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

 MBisanz  talk 11:37, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA.