Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 24

Incorrectly adding persondata
AWB incorrectly added persondata here. Not sure if this is an AWB bug or an error on the page, so I'm asking here first. This happened with the 5.3.1.0 release, but I just tried it again with 5.3.1.1 SVN 7794 and it would have done the same thing.&mdash; Chowbok  ☠  06:46, 22 December 2011 (UTC)
 * On a hunch I tried La Strada International Association, another article in Category:Missing people organizations. I think the category name is triggering the persondata. I've added this to the "bugs" page. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:49, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Question regarding database scanner
I don't know if this is possible but I thought I would ask. I would like to use the database scanner in AWB to generate a list of articles that contain parmeters in a given list. For example if the parameter does not equal (class|importance|etc|etc1|etc2). Does anyone know if that is possible and maybe how to do that? Basically I want to see what parameters are being used for articles in WikiProject United States so that I can fix any that aren't valid. --Kumioko (talk) 17:49, 22 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, but you have to write your own C#. Rjwilmsi  18:19, 22 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Ok thanks, you wouldn't happen to have an example would you? Is it done the same way as the make module format> Also, do I have to download the datadump locally to search through or does it search the live database? --Kumioko (talk) 18:27, 22 December 2011 (UTC)
 * The database scanner needs a downloaded copy. (I can't help you with modules) -- John of Reading (talk) 21:30, 22 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Its ok I think I can draft up something. That helps a lot thanks. --Kumioko (talk) 21:54, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Is it possible to...
Hello, I was wondering whether it is possible with AWB to search for for certain texts in all pages of one category and then export the results in a list. For example. I would like to have a list of all Philippine municipalities and their coordinates as listed on the Italian Wikipedia. These coordinates can be found in the template at the beginning of each article, for example for San Jose (Romblon):


 * latitudineGradi =12
 * latitudinePrimi =3
 * latitudineSecondi =45
 * latitudineNS =N
 * longitudineGradi =121
 * longitudinePrimi =57
 * longitudineSecondi =33
 * longitudineEW =E

would be exported in the list as: San Jose (romblon), 12, 3, 45, N, 121, 57, 33, E

Hope this makes sense? Magalhães (talk) 20:05, 22 December 2011 (UTC)


 * You will have to write a custom module. See examples here. — Ganeshk  ( talk ) 21:03, 22 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the examples. I will try. Magalhães (talk) 21:17, 22 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Succes! Thanks again. Magalhães (talk) 16:36, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Crash
I've been using this for a few months now, but recently started to experience crashes. I use this as a bot to correct special characters and fix typos at Assassin's Creed Wiki (wikia), however it freezes after skipping 2000 or so pages leaving a few more pages unscanned. Does anyone know why this happens? Thank you.. --117.192.111.60 (talk) 18:35, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Mc vs. Mac sort keys
A few weeks back, there was a discussion of the idea that names that begin with "Mc" should be alphabetized as they are spelled, not as if they began with "Mac" (example: "John McCain" should not be alphabetized as "Maccain, John"). See Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 23. There seemed to be a consensus that they should be alphabetized as they are spelled. Is there a bot that can change all the existing DEFAULTSORTs to fix this situation? --Metropolitan90 (talk) 04:55, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Better address to WP:BOTREQ. -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:29, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I have now requested it there. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 20:25, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

Several sections under Feature requests that could be archived
I noticed that the Feature request page was getting quite lengthy and though I would review my own submissions to see if there were some that could be archived now. Below are a list of Feature request sections that I think can be archived. All of the below appear to be completed, were denied, were withdrawn or have been overcome by events (such as the Template redirect/Parameter rename pages). My first impulse was just to archive them myself but since I am not one of the developers I didn't think it was my place to do so without adding a comment here first. If everyone concurs and knowone beats me to it I can do it in the next couple days.
 * 1) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 2) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 3) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 4) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 5) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 6) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 7) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 8) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 9) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 10) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 11) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 12) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 13) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 14) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 15) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 16) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 17) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 18) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 19) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 20) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 21) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 22) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 23) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 24) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 25) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 26) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 27) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests
 * 28) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests --Kumioko (talk) 19:51, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Since this has been open for a couple days without comments or opposes later today I will start archiving these sections. This will help us clear out some of the old, completed or denied requests. --Kumioko (talk) 16:19, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Download link
I can't download from SourceForge due to sanctions against my country, and also can't follow the alternative link. :( Can anyone upload the software somewhere else? Thanks in advance. --Z 06:20, 28 December 2011 (UTC)
 * If you send me an email and post here to say you've done it, I could send you the ZIP file. Or would the sanctions prevent that as well? -- John of Reading (talk) 08:09, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Sent --Z 09:25, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Sent -- John of Reading (talk) 10:15, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much John! It works. --Z 10:38, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

List of keywords?
Hi. I couldn't find the whole list of keywords (like %%key%%). I only need a keyword that gives the number of pages that link to the current page. I guess it exists, as AWB sets sometimes the template... I found 2 lists (here in 4.4.1.0 and there), but are they complete and up-to-date? The keyword I expect (%%nblinks%% ??) is not there... Zetud (talk) 19:14, 2 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The list of currently supported keywords is at AutoWikiBrowser/Find_and_replace. Rjwilmsi  14:36, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

AWB Bugs that may have been resolved
I looked through the list of AWB Bugs and I think that these may have been resolved. I left some comments as to why I think this. --Kumioko (talk) 17:02, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
 * 1) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - Probably OBE. The Kingboyk plugin was completely rewritten
 * 2) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - Probably OBE. The Kingboyk plugin was completely rewritten
 * 3) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - Might be fixed or do to input error. Might not be a bug
 * 4) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - I think this was fixed in a later SVN update
 * 5) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - I think this was fixed in a later SVN
 * 6) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - Probably OBE. The Kingboyk plugin was completely rewritten
 * 7) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - Probably OBE. The Kingboyk plugin was completely rewritten
 * 8) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - Probably OBE. Most of all of the Multiple issues fields are now included - Not resolved
 * 9) Doesn't remove date= from Multiple issues when expert= is also a date - Probably OBE. Most of all of the Multiple issues fields are now included - Not resolved
 * 10) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - I think this was mostly fixed over a series of the last couple years - Not resolved
 * 11) Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs - This was written up multiple times and multiple changes done over the last couple years.
 * 8 is not resolved (although maybe this should be a feature request instead of a bug) - try Identity and change.
 * 9 is also not resolved - try Ghosts in Vietnamese culture. GoingBatty (talk) 21:09, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks I struck those 2 from the list. --Kumioko (talk) 23:14, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I've struck #10. It still only works until you click somewhere such as the diff area, then it basically doesn't work again until you restart AWB. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  00:56, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I archived 5 and 11. I'll check the KingbotK related ones. The plugin hasn't be completelly rewritten yet. It has only be simplified. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:45, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Mass rename/move of pages?
Revived from archive as there were no answers.

I am trying to use AWB for a private wiki running on mediawiki. We have a large number of pages (200-300 at least) that we want to move to different name spaces. This is easily achieved by simply Moving the page and putting "Namespace:" in front of the existing page name. Is there any way to accomplish this task with AWB? If not, does anyone know of any other extensions or bots that could do this based on a list of pages? --202.49.72.36 (talk) 21:02, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Custom preview styling?
When I view edits in preview, they have no styling. I assume this is because I'm editing on a different wiki (although the wiki is using the Vector theme, I would've expected that to at least work). Is there a way to give the preview window some styling? (Or at the very least, have a default style associated if none can be loaded) – ultradude25 ( T &#124; C ) at 19:00, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * This problem appeared a couple of months ago, see here. It's a big pain.  Mr Stephen (talk) 19:27, 4 January 2012 (UTC)


 * So I guess there's no way to fix it yet? Shame, it makes viewing custom styled things really difficult... – ultradude25 ( T &#124; C ) at 18:07, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Can't save edits in SVN 7906
Ever since I upgraded to SVN 7906, for every edit I try to save, I get the "Restarting in xx" message. Anyone else having a similar issue? GoingBatty (talk) 01:29, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * About 9 or 10 hours ago there seemed to be an API issue causing AWB to not save properly. It seems fine now. Rjwilmsi  08:49, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Still having the same issue. GoingBatty (talk) 15:02, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Download 7610 and try again. -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:06, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Downloaded SVN 7910 and can save again. Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 16:06, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

SVN 7910 - greatest fix of all time
Thanks to whoever, however, fixed the nasty pitfall that gave me grief any number of times when editing large articles (more than about 3,000 or 5,000 words). AWB would go off and spin for 30 seconds to 30 minutes or more when I would do anything to bring its attention to the edit window, such as clicking in the difference window, typing in the edit window or clicking on the "Find" button. I once waited over a half an hour for it to recover so I could save the F&R rules—I had been testing a large bunch of newly developed (but not yet saved) F&R rules when I clicked in the edit window without looking to see how large the article was. SVN 7910 seems to have fixed this nagging (and sometimes show-stopping) problem. I never saw anyone report this behavior, and I didn't report it, as I once discussed it with GoingBatty, who claimed it didn't affect him. I felt that I was the only one, or one of a very few, who encountered this problem. Happy New Year, and maybe Happy Valentine's Day, to whoever cleaned it up. Chris the speller  yack  19:39, 8 January 2012 (UTC)
 * -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:36, 8 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Is there a comprehensive list of each change? When a new SVN comes out, I review the bugs, feature requests, and this talk page, but can't seem to find all the changes.  Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 20:42, 8 January 2012 (UTC)
 * You could follow the changes in . We only keep record of changed between versions. Snapshots are not official releases. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:45, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Sadly, I have to reverse my report. I was deliriously happy for about a day, then AWB suddenly went back to its old sluggish ways, right in the middle of a run. I still wish New Year greetings for the crew who maintains AWB, but the 2-pound box of fudge won't be coming, at least for now. If anyone has ideas about how to avoid the Big Spin, I will be happy to try anything. Chris the speller  yack  20:38, 9 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I am having the same problem, AWB works very slowly and seems to be hanging up on large pages and is generating a lot of errors (I posted one on the bugs page a little while ago). I'm not sure if its AWB though. I think it might be something with the API or the database. Ever since the September "Upgrade" of Wikipedia my experience on the site has been very very poor and I often have to keep 5 or more instances of Firefix (or Chrome or Internet Explorer) running so that I can continue working while it takes 30 seconds to 5 minutes to save the page. --Kumioko (talk) 20:44, 9 January 2012 (UTC)
 * But the problem I describe above has nothing to do with how slowly the WP site responds; it is purely on the client side, with AWB using as much processor time as it can get, for many seconds or many minutes, and only when AWB needs to work with the edit window, as in finding or updating text, whether it is via clicking or typing in the edit window. Applying the F&R rules and showing the difference windows goes very quickly, even on larger articles. A page that has large tables is the worst kind of quicksand. I have been using AWB since March 2011, and it has always misbehaved this way for me, until yesterday. Chris the speller   yack  02:09, 10 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Ahh sorry if I confused the issue. I misread. --Kumioko (talk) 04:16, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Well, it looks like 2012 will be a good year after all. It turns out that the problem that has plagued me for 10 months is a conflict between AWB and the Speech Recognition program that comes built into Windows Vista Home Premium. Yesterday I apparently had some burp that caused Speech Recognition to crash, and that is what allowed AWB to run at normal speed; it just happened to be at the same time that I switched to SVN 7910, so I gave the credit to the AWB developers. I use Speech Recognition from time to time, so it is always fired up at Windows start up, usually turned off, sitting in the background somewhere. That doesn't prevent the problem; I have to exit Speech Recognition, and then AWB runs fine. Again, Happy New Year to the AWB developers, but I get to keep the fudge. Chris the speller  yack  03:46, 10 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I added a Q&A to the FAQ section. If it can save even one editor from spinning his/her wheels, it's worth it. Chris the speller   yack  19:40, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

Pipes in skip text and ignoring spaces
1st question: According to the user manual, the feature that skips pages that do or don't contain a given string of text can look for either of two strings using. Is there a way to make this work with two strings that contain a pipe symbol within them, like if I wanted to skip pages that contained either of ?

2nd question: I see that I can already make the find/replace feature not case-sensitve, but can I also make it not space-sensitive, so it will treat  the same way?

Thanks for your help, —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 03:40, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * If I understand the question correctly, you can do both using Regex. To answer both in one statement if you only have a couple WikiProjects you can say something like using the example given above:
 * Find:
 * Replace:
 * There are quite a few exceptions to the above statement. For example: it would not recognize any of the redirects to the WikiProject template, it would only recognize list class so if you wanted to see others you can just add something like (FA|FL|B|C|List|etc) in place of list in the find script and $2 in place of list in the replace. The other problem is that it wouldn't find it unless it was exactly like the example you gave. If it had an importance parameter for instance or something before the list parameter it wouldn't work. Something more like this might work a little better and catch more, depending on what you wanted:
 * Find:
 * Replace:
 * The (.*?) is one way of saying everything. So putting it between etc) and class tells the code everything between etc) and class wether it be letters, numbers, spaces etc. I hope this helps but if you explain what your trying to do I can probably make it a little clearer. --Kumioko (talk) 04:49, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I think your second find statement is what I'm looking for. If I understand you right, the line  will look for any WikiProject Toronto banners that already have an importance rating. So I understand it better, in your line, what is the difference between \s and [ ]*, aren't they both looking for white spaces? What is the question mark adding to (.*?) that is not accomplished by (.*) alone? —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 19:55, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I'll try to answer, and Kumioko can set me right if necessary. First, \s will match not only spaces but also other characters that ought to be treated as spaces, such as newlines. And the difference between .* and .*? is that .* will try to match as much as possible, while .*? will try to match as little as possible. Consider a case where the WikiProject template happens to be followed immediately by some other template:
 * A "Find and Replace" using .* could end up eating the following template. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:54, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks John, that's how I understand it too. --Kumioko (talk) 21:14, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks John, that's how I understand it too. --Kumioko (talk) 21:14, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Removing subst
Why does AWB replace {{subst: → {{ ({{diff|WP:Article Rescue Squadron|471407347|471146473|example}})? In the example and on the {{tl|Afdrescue}} documentation, the subst is within nowiki tags so that a user can copy and paste. This particular template should be subst'd and not transcluded. Flatscan (talk) 05:21, 15 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I restored the "subst:" and can't duplicate the issue with AWB. I suggest you contact the person who made the edit.  Good luck! GoingBatty (talk) 23:12, 15 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for taking a look. I left the user a note. Flatscan (talk) 05:09, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Automatic change from Cite web to Cite book for Google books
Does AWB automatically change from the Cite web template to the Cite book template if the domain name is books.google.com, as in this edit? If so, it shouldn't because not all content from that domain name is a book. Jc3s5h (talk) 15:11, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, I've not known of it having any problems until this example. Perhaps we should restrict to those domains with a book ID or a search query? Rjwilmsi  16:21, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The AWB general fixes page states that AWB "Changes cite web references to Google books to use cite book." Maybe we could exclude URLs that begin with "http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?"  Are there other URLs that should be excluded?  Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 17:52, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Help (New User)
I want to use AWB to help correct exit lists on road pages, but I don't even understand how to use the program. The User Manual is like Greek to me. Can someone help? Allen (talk) 11:11, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Some questions to begin with: Roughly how many articles do you need to fix? Is the same kind of fix needed on each article? How complicated is the edit you need to make? I suggest you make one of the corrections "by hand" and post the article name or the diff here. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:17, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Persondata - Diacritics, special_characters
Feedback at Wikipedia talk:Persondata regarding AWB general fixes would be appreciated. GoingBatty (talk) 01:53, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Minor genfixes - skip or not?
Hi everyone, just had a quick question: Is it generally advised to skip an article if only minor genfixes are made? Thanks,  - down  load  ׀  talk  20:00, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * It depends on you. I would kip if only whitespace is changed and if the saved page has no visual change with the previous version. -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:11, 19 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I think that edits like this and this are too minor to be worth saving. I recommend ticking more of the "skip" options. Check the fourth rule of use. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:45, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I agree - would ticking the "only whitespace changed" and "only minor genfixes" boxes be sufficient? Thanks,  -  down  load  ׀  talk  19:06, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I would say "Yes". -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:25, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Just a note that these were made from the Template redirects page so I would suggest that edits made from that be considered minor. --Kumioko (talk) 20:33, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Clarification on Rename template parameters page
Could I get some clarification on what will trigger the Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Rename template parameters page logic. Does this logic work for non article pages such as talk pages, categories and the like or just main articles space. There are things on here that apply only to non article space that don't seem to be working. --Kumioko (talk) 20:36, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
 * It runs when genfixes run, i.e. mainspace and category. Rjwilmsi  14:39, 21 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks, so just wondering but can it be expanded to others as well or should I remove them from the list? Currently there are some that apply only to talk pages as well as other namespaces (File). Also, I assume its the same for the parameter rename logic? --Kumioko (talk) 16:24, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Page copy
I want to use AWB on another wiki. I need to make copies of a whole bunch of different pages, with slight differences. For example, I have a bunch of pages named "XXX (Foo)", and I want to make a copy of each of them at "XXX (Bar)", at the same time replacing all instances of "Foo" actually on the page with "Bar" - in a sense, a find/replace that also includes the page title. I can figure out the find/replace for the page body - that's easy - what I can't work out is how to mass-copy all the pages. I don't want to move them (that's easy too =P) because I still need to retain the originals.

Help, anyone? Is it even possible? --Belthazar451 (talk) 10:42, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * So, there's been three questions posted and responded to since I asked mine. Does that mean that noone knows, or that it's not possible? Or that I'm just impatient? =P I guess I can still use AWB for the find/replace, then copy and paste the text to the new location, but I was hoping for something a shade more automated. I've got a couple of hundred pages to do... --Belthazar451 (talk) 00:48, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

I am also interested in this, but simply for moving/renaming pages, rather than copying them. No one answered my question either. 202.49.72.36 (talk) 02:41, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Commons
Is there any reason why AWB (Ver 7916) does not save on Commons recently? Older version work. Snowman (talk) 22:59, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Works fine for me. Reedy (talk) 20:25, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

AWB preview no longer shows red links
The AWB "preview" button shows a fairly basic preview without much formatting, but as recently as 14th January it did manage to show red links in red. Today all the links are showing blue, whether or not the target page exists. Is anyone else seeing this behaviour? I'm using AWB 5.3.1.0 and Windows 7. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:48, 29 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm also seeing blue for links to nonexistent pages, but I very seldom use the "Preview" button, so I can't confirm that they used to be shown in red. But I trust you. I'm using AWB 5.3.1.1 SVN 7916 and Windows Vista Home Premium, IE 9.0.8112.16421. Good luck! Chris the speller   yack  20:15, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Change the summary list for delete reasons
When I about to delete an article, I have to choose from one of the WP:CSD reasons. But I use AWB for Wikia and the delete reasons are listed on MediaWiki:Deletereason-dropdown page.

Can I change the list of those reasons? I want to remove all the present items and add the new ones? Teyandee (talk) 07:00, 25 January 2012 (UTC)
 * updates the current list to include all the current reasons for speedy deletion. -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:37, 29 January 2012 (UTC)
 * When can I get it? Neither http://sourceforge.net/projects/autowikibrowser/files/ nor http://toolserver.org/~awb/snapshots/ currently has this version. Teyandee (talk) 09:22, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Need to remove some inactive users
There seems to be quite a long list of users on the AWB users page that have been inactive for a long time. As we all know, things change rapidly in Wikipedia and what was common practice only a few months or weeks ago could be against the rules today. I recommend, especially for the bot list if no others, that we trim the list of AWB users to eremove those that haven't edited in the last year. Some haven't edited in 3-5 years and I think if they come back, which seems rather unlikely at this point, they should probably get their bearings first before they start doing mass edits again. One example is User:Blood Oath Bot which hasn't edited since sometime in 2008. I would note that some of them may be used on other Wiki's besides Wikipedia and IMO, if this is the case, we should mark them appropriately. Perhaps in a separate section or page. --Kumioko (talk) 15:09, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Database scanner - include redirects
Sorry, this might be a dumb question but how can I include redirects into the results of the database scanner? I can't find such an option. —  Ark25  (talk) 09:11, 29 January 2012 (UTC)
 * On the right hand side of the Text tab untick "ignore redirects". Rjwilmsi  18:14, 29 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks ! —  Ark25  (talk) 05:39, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2012 January 30#Template:Persondata
The Persondata template has been listed for deletion or modification at Templates for discussion/Log/2012 January 30. As an application that would need to be modified if the template is deleted or modifed I am leaving this notice. --Kumioko (talk) 16:32, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Program For Editing
Is there an program I could use (I've heard people use AWB for editing Wikipedia (possibly other sister projects)) that could give me a list of articles which use the prefixes: ?
 * fam
 * great
 * well
 * know
 * best

(You'll see that on my user page I mention that these "prefixes" usually are used to indicate some sort of pov (usually, these words are added by inexperienced editors.).)

I've resorted to using CTRL+F to find these words on articles, but is there a program that can do this for me when I click on "Random article"?Curb Chain (talk) 03:11, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
 * You are asking two questions here. First, yes, AWB could create a list of articles that contain a word starting with one of these syllables. You'd have to download a copy of Wikipedia for AWB to scan it, or ask someone like me who has a downloaded copy. BUT the resulting lists of articles would be far too long to be useful. Using the standard "Search" function I can see that there are 600,000+ articles mentioning 'family', 800,000+ articles mentioning 'known' and so on.


 * Second, you are asking how to find these words within an article. AWB could help you with this. It has the "random article" function built-in, and a "Find" button that is configurable enough to highlight all of these words in the edit window. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:34, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Is there a way to exlude "family"? And is the find feature the same as CTRL+F?Curb Chain (talk) 06:14, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, it would be possible to exclude specific words, though I'd have to learn the proper syntax for doing it before I could help you.
 * No, it's not the same as CTRL+F; see the "example screenshot" at AutoWikiBrowser/User_manual for the controls that configure the "Find" function. Once set up correctly, you could create a list of random articles and look at them one by one; AWB would load the article and immediately apply yellow highlighting to all your target words. I could email you a suitable configuration file if that would help. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:03, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * This would be awesome. Thank you.  But could you help me set up AWB and if I need approval and all that, and file you are suggesting so I could use it to help me edit?  Thanks!Curb Chain (talk) 10:11, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * OK. You need to follow steps 1 and 2 at AutoWikiBrowser. If you send me an email I'll reply with a settings file as an attachment and will try to explain how the configuration works. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:27, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Is there any program which may be better to use instead of AWB, such as Huggle or Twinkle?Curb Chain (talk) 07:46, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I haven't used Huggle, but since it is a specialised anti-vandalism tool it is unlikely to have this multiple-highlighting function built in. There's nothing relevant in Twinkle. You could try asking at the Computing reference desk. I suggest you just ask "Is there a way to highlight all words on a web page that match a regular expression?", which I think gets to the core of your problem. The regular expression I developed yesterday is . Someone there may be able to find a browser add-on for you - you'll need to tell them which browser you use.
 * I've just received your email and will reply later. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:57, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for this idea. I was thinking yesterday if I used Firefox I probably would not need AWB approval and all this to find these prefixes.  All I would need is a macro and that could help.Curb Chain (talk) 08:48, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
 * In AWB, you could put John's query in the Find box on the Start tab and click the Regex box. When you make a list of articles and press Start, the appropriate words will be highlighted for you.  Good luck with whatever solution you decide to use!  GoingBatty (talk) 17:24, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
 * In AWB, you could put John's query in the Find box on the Start tab and click the Regex box. When you make a list of articles and press Start, the appropriate words will be highlighted for you.  Good luck with whatever solution you decide to use!  GoingBatty (talk) 17:24, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Blank pages
Greetings everyone. I made a list of some talk pages using AutoWikiBrowser, and i need to know how to exclude the non blank pages from the list, or extract the completely blank pages from the list. How can i do this please?--  M.Gedawy  Talk  01:19, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * On the Skip tab, how about adding Doesn't contain:\w and selecting the Regex box? If that doesn't work, could you please give an example of a blank page to be skipped?  Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 01:27, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * It doesn't work. I want to skip blank pages like this one, we have thousands of pages like that in Arabic wiki and i want to delete all of them.--  M.Gedawy  Talk  01:48, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry - I misread your request and told you how to skip the blank pages. To skip the non-blank pages, add Contains:\w and select the Regex box.  GoingBatty (talk) 02:22, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * It works now. Many thanks GoingBatty. :)--  M.Gedawy  Talk  14:32, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Memory usage
I've noticed the memory usage of AWB has doubled since December. I've got two AWBs running all the time. The one that deals with talk pages is running around 120M while the one that deals with articles is running around 260M. It also coincided with me getting a new laptop and going from Vista to 7. So, I don't know if it is me hallucinating, AWB or the windows update. (If it is hallucinations, why can't I also stop hallucinating that I'm married?) Has anybody else seen this or is it an OS issue? Bgwhite (talk) 07:11, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Localized edit comments
Is it possible to set the edit comment when used in a non-English wiki? An AWB user in huwiki states he cannot do it because summaries are wired in code. Bináris (talk) 08:13, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The free-format portion of the edit summary can be set to whatever the user chooses, in any language. Please post a sample diff of the edit summaries in question and I can advise further. Rjwilmsi  23:05, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Here you find some: http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speci%C3%A1lis:Szerkeszt%C5%91_k%C3%B6zrem%C5%B1k%C3%B6d%C3%A9sei/B.Zsoltbot Bináris (talk) 14:42, 10 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The "clean up" portion is definitely user-configurable. The start tab in the middle of AWB allows it the edit summary be changed by unticking the lock tickbox beside it. Rjwilmsi  21:59, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, and "replaced"? Bináris (talk) 09:54, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Kumioko is an out of control AWB user
For reference please see: Bot_owners%27_noticeboard. I'm crossing this over to here because 's AWB abuse is also done without bot privileges. I recently posted this on the bot owners noticeboard: I won't even bother pointing out how many edits are made that don't match the edit summary. Oftentimes it's nothing more than white space or template positioning. Brad (talk) 19:53, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Kumioko is doing it again except this time not under his registered spam bot. In the diff please notice that is in place to prevent his bot vandalism. Since he has no authorization to vandalize remove collapse parameters with his bot, he's just doing it without the bot. This is the second or third time this has happened after Kumioko said he would stop. This isn't the fault of AWB, this is a planned removal by the AWB operator. Brad (talk) 19:38, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Just FYI, this user is forumshopping dropping the same message in multiple venues. I'm not going to argue theh point in multiple locations so please take a moment and read the details on the link he provided to the Bot owners noticeboard. I also offer that perhaps if Brad didn't blindly revert every edit made to the article someof these problems wouldn't be occurring. --Kumioko (talk) 20:18, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The two notices (not multiple) I've made are entirely appropriate. Bot notice board for your AWB vandal bot and over here because of your AWB vandalism without the bot. I have reverted one of your edits; not every one you've made or even blindly. You still fail to acknowledge that you have no consensus for mass removal of collapse parameters. USS Constitution had in place to prevent your vandal bot from changing the page. To get around that you decided to edit with your usual vandal account. We wouldn't be here at all if you ceased removing legitimate parameters from articles despite the two or three times you've claimed to have removed whatever code you designed. Brad (talk) 01:19, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Kumioko made three consecutive edits in under an hour to this talk page, so let's look at the total effect, not just one edit. Could you please specify what legitimate parameter was removed?  Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 01:32, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Reply to Brad. Frankly if all I did was manual edits to the same 20 or 30 pieces of content, B-Class checklists and a piss and moan about how other editors were meddling with my articles I could get by with zero defects. As it is I am trying to cleanup/fix dozens of different problems, helping to establish Wiki-wide standards in multiple areas; helping other editors with questions, comments and conerns in multiple venues; trying to build up and strengthen how the various US related projects work together and collaborate and on and on causing me to make hundreds of thousands of edits to tens of thousands of articles using advanced programming techniques, automated tools and a whole load of impressive sounding stuff. For years on here I took every comment to heart thinking that every one had merit. You know what I've learned over the years. Not all do so I don't worry anymore if I ruffle the feathers of one fussy editor among thousands. In the end though, we are both working towards the same goal in different ways. So what do you say we stop this horseshit and get back to editing. I don't know about you Brad but personally I have a whole lotta work to get done and I don't have time for all this nonsense. --Kumioko (talk) 02:11, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Nothing to see here. From the Bot owners' noticeboard thread, Kumioko made a manual edit with AWB.  Of the six or so things Kumioko changed, he made a mistake on the collapsed parameter in the FAQ template and later fixed it.  Brad sees Kumioko make an edit, starts assuming and reverts everything.  Brad only showed the original edit and not the subsequent fix.  Kumioko has been updating talk pages to reflect the merger of various U.S. State WikiProjects with the U.S. WikiProject.  The 50,000 or so talk pages he has to update and he makes the same mistake twice.  What are the odds?  Bgwhite (talk) 09:21, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

AWB Google search
Is it just me, or has AWB's "Google search" stopped working? -- John of Reading (talk) 20:37, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I've never used it before, but I just tried, and it doesn't work for me, either. Chris the speller   yack  22:28, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I've always used it - when I first started using AWB, the "Wiki text search" wasn't working. At least there's a choice... -- John of Reading (talk) 23:04, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * "Wiki text search" not only works, but has had features added to it. Now you can search "oil fired" -"oil-fired" to find missing hyphens, for example. On rare occasions, if the server is very busy, no results are returned, but trying again a few seconds or minutes later might work. Sometimes you have to go take a nap. I also have lists stockpiled, so it's just an annoyance, not a show-stopper. Good luck! Chris the speller   yack  03:10, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Google search doesn't work for me either, but the plugin for Bing Search seems to work. The plugin for the Yahoo Search gives a "Network access error: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found."  GoingBatty (talk) 05:07, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the suggestion. One of my pet AWB tasks is to fix articles with syntax errors in the infobox, where readers can see the words "File" "alt" and "frameless". Example found by Bing search. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:07, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Reedy: Killing Yahoo plugin, service was apparently shut down in April 2011. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:55, 15 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Just a note but I noticed recently there are other bits of code that refer to the Yahoo plugin that it doesn't appear that Reedy removed or reworked. --Kumioko (talk) 17:55, 18 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Where is this? -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:06, 18 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I think its under either Wikifunctions.cs or Tools.cs but I can't remember exactly. If I recall references the call for the Yahoo plugin rather than Yahoo itself. I just tried to find it again and can't seem to find it again. Frankly if it woudln't have been you that mentioned it I likely wouldn't have responded at all. --Kumioko (talk) 18:11, 18 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I must have been dreaming or something. I just looked all over and I can't see anything. I'm not sure what I was looking at at this point so just forget I said anything. I'll look around more later and if I find it I'll drop you a note. --Kumioko (talk) 18:47, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Revocation of AWB access for Kumioko
Please revoke AWB access for Kumioko and Kumi-Taskbot. All tasks related to the bot have been revoked, which negates need for AWB and I no longer feel inclinded to use the software or perform any but the most sporadic and trivial of tasks. If an when I need access to the software again I will rerequest access. I have already deleted all code, both completed and uncompleted (such as the roughly 3200 line module I wrote to auto add Infoboxes (only person, military person and Politician though). These tasks are not needed or desired by the community and at a roughly 1 in 250 article error rate (which I was working on reducing before using) the chance of making a mistake is too high for community approval or interest. --Kumioko (talk) 17:53, 18 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Just wanted to leave a note that it was done. Thanks for the quick response. --Kumioko (talk) 21:33, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

AWB rights and username change
I was using this username User:Ramajois but I usurped to User:Shriram and I cannot login with my current username. Can the right be transferred or something to what I'm using now or should I have to place a new request? Shriram (talk) 21:11, 19 February 2012 (UTC)
 * In an ideal world your AWB permission would have been transferred when your account was renamed. This needs an admin to remove "Ramajois" and add "Shriram" in the user list. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:24, 19 February 2012 (UTC)
 * ✅ — Ganeshk  ( talk ) 21:38, 19 February 2012 (UTC)
 * User:AWBCPBot does this. However, it only runs weekly, on Wednesdays. I may set it up to run more often. - Kingpin13 (talk) 22:49, 19 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanku you all. Shriram (talk) 05:05, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Null-Intersect or non-intersect
I'm trying to determine which articles do not have a Category:Musical groups by year of establishment. I've copied the 143 children of this category to User:Argolin/sandboxAWB1. The musical group articles list is at User:Argolin/sandboxAWB. When I use the List comparer, it places all "categories on page" in list 1 into results. "Links on page" in list 2 the same. What am I doing wrong? I'm using ver 5.3.1.1. and am brand new to AWB. Thanks Argolin (talk) 10:57, 21 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I am using version 5.3.1.1. SVN 7961. I couldn't get "Categories on page" to produce anything at all. I then tried "Category (recurse 1 level)" and put "Musical groups by year of establishment" into the category box. That produced 14,909 pages, and then clicking the compare button produced results lists of 14,196 pages, 713 pages, and 652 pages. The third list appears to be what you wanted. I have saved it in User:Chris the speller/Sandbox2. Chris the speller   yack  16:00, 21 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Perfect! I've copied the list to my sandbox.  There are other music articles that can benefit from this type of analysis.  Record labels by year of establishment, music venues, etc... I'll have to play around with AWB some more. Thanks Chris the speller.  Argolin (talk) 18:46, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

How to get: "Outgoing links to redirect pages"
How to create a list that has outgoing links, say from a template, to Redirect pages? (The alternate is available: skip redirects). -DePiep (talk) 10:36, 1 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Have you tried bypass redirects? -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:10, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
 * No I have not, cannot even find that control. But doesn't it sound like: "don't mind redirects", instead of "list the outgoing links to redirect page"? -DePiep (talk) 14:17, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Bypass redirects replaces all redirects in a given page with links to the direct link. -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:34, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Again: I do not want to skip the redirects, I want to have them. And also: where is that "Bypass redirects" control option in AWB? (radio button? checkbox? popup form?). Please reread my question. -DePiep (talk) 23:49, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The "Bypass redirects", aka "Page is redirect", is under the skip tab. The skip tap is the lower middle window.  By default, this is not checked.
 * Under "Options" at the top, there is an option called "Follow redirects". This is turned on by default.
 * You can create a list from categories. Say Category:Wikipedia redirects.  When you make a list, the source will be "Category". Bgwhite (talk) 00:00, 3 March 2012 (UTC)
 * This is starting to get a little confusing. I don't think Magioladitis meant the "(skip when) Page is redirect" button on the "skip" tab when he said "bypass redirects"; I think he meant the "Bypass all redirects" item on the context menu that appears when you right-click in the edit box (this is enabled only for admins, though). Chris the speller   yack  04:05, 3 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Not an admin bit with me. Doesn't look like I can get that list. I'll leave it. -DePiep (talk) 11:53, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I think you could do it by selecting one of the (many!) "What links here options" in the "Get list" dropdown (the bottom left pane). Then in the middle pane under the "skip" tab, you could "skip if doesn't contain" "#redirect"; remembering of course to uncheck "case sensitive", which is right below it.
 * That won't get you the exact list, but will get you the redirects that you appear to want to edit (is that what you want to do?). --Izno (talk) 03:53, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

How to edit talk page in edit box while show main page?
I want to explore main page but editing it's talk page at the same? How can I do?--221.11.26.238 (talk) 11:02, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I have two AWBs going at the same time. One for the talk page and the other for the main article.  You can copy a list from one AWB to the other then use convert to/from talk page (at the top under "list").  Bgwhite (talk) 02:35, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Auto Save Edit Box not working
In my AWB app, Auto Save Edit Box (Which is an option in preferences>>Editing and Saving>>) is not working. I've set 30 seconds and a filename, so that it should save changes to the file (on local host). But it is not creating the file at first place. And if I create the file manually even then it is not writing to the file the contents of edit-box. Please solve this problem of mine. -Hemant wikikosh (talk) 20:31, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Small-screen issue
I've just downloaded AWB (v5.3.1.0) for the first time. I'm using WinXP on a 10.5" netbook (Lenovo S10-2) at 1024x600, and I can't see the bottom of the interface in its window, either maximised, or by moving the window around so that the bottom of it is in the middle of my screen. I can't find a reference to this in these pages. Before I raise a bug, is this a known issue, perhaps with a work-around? I've put a screenshot at http://twitpic.com/8mfz6c - the edge of the window is blue, the desktop dark grey. Note how the "find" box is unviewable. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:43, 20 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry; didn't look hard enough; the bug is at Bugs#AWB netbook fail since July 2009. Any chance of a fix? Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:53, 20 February 2012 (UTC)
 * To fix this, open "regedit" (search for it in the start bar), and in the right column find Display1_DownScalingSupported . Open it and change the value data from 0 to 1 and restart your computer. You'll now have a wider range of screen resolutions to choose from. 108.162.185.84 (talk) 17:46, 16 March 2012 (UTC)

Renaming pages ?
I have a lot of pages that need to be moved into a namespace for organization purposes, how would i go about using AWB to rename so that it goes from the being called (ex. "pagename" to "player:pagename" ) I am renaming pages on a custom wiki I run for about 1,500 people. Thanks --Darkskynet (talk) 01:16, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
 * You just need to have admin permission, if I recall correctly, to use the move function in AWB. There should be a panel that ungreys out or simply shows up if you are an admin. --Izno (talk) 02:26, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks Its not a very automated way of doing it but it works, Thanks :D --Darkskynet (talk) 06:39, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Regex help
I'm trying to figure out how to use a bot to search through and replace the hundreds of links to a page on my personal wiki, let's call it Color and most of the links to it are piped with an alternate text such as Color +33 and I've gotten a ReGex search that finds it correctly as \[\[Color\|Color \+\b[0-9]{2}\b\]\] but I can't seem to figure out what to put in the replace with box to get a result of. any help would be appreciated. -- Technical 13 (talk) 03:44, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

Am I just over analyzing this (although I would like to understand how ReGex works better)? Can I just have it search Color %%key%% and replace it with ? -- Technical 13 (talk) 13:11, 15 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Try this:
 * Find
 * \[\[Color\|Color \+(\d{2})\]\]
 * Replace
 * Chris the speller  yack  15:45, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Chris the speller  yack  15:45, 15 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that worked as I wanted. Let's get a little more advanced.. Let's say I have Color +65% Blue and wanted to put it into a template that has a format like (Color %) ?
 * So, find would be:
 * \[\[Color\|Color \+?(\d{2})%? ?(.*)\]\]
 * I'm guessing the replace line would be:
 * $1


 * Except that I want to them to be entered (as the bold portions of) Red, Blue, Green, Violet, and so forth... So, is there anyway for me to have AWB detect if $2 is Red, Green, Blue, etc... and replace it with R, G, Bl, etc... on it's own, or would I have to create a different rule for each possible color? -- Technical 13 (talk) 20:56, 15 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Nevermind, I thought about other ways and came up with Find:  \[\[Color\|Color \+?(\d{2})%? ?(.*)\]\]  and Replace:   $1.

Auto-populate C: pages
I have a large group of C:pages similar to ('Charisma +1 items' on DDOwiki) that I would like AWB to read the C:Page, visit each one of the pages in that C:, pull the information from the templated section that starts with |enhancements=, and create a list on the C: page that looks like : . One that I manually populated is located at 'Wisdom -1 items'(There are three pages that don't belong in that C: I still need to figure out. Ignore them.). Can I do this with AWB? -- Technical 13 (talk) 18:49, 16 March 2012 (UTC)

Log tab
I've also noticed that AWB slows way down (from like 340 pages per minute to 25-30 pages per minute) the more items that are on the log tab, and clicking clear log almost instaneously speeds it back up. Is there any place to disable all logging functions or even just that log tab? -- Technical 13 (talk) 04:02, 15 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I have recently noticed the same thing when running in pre-parse mode. After a few hundred pages are skipped, its starts to slow down, and can be brought back to full speed by clearing the log of skipped pages. Of course, sticking around to clear the log every 30 seconds or so somewhat detracts from the purpose of pre-parse mode, which is the ability to go pick up lunch or get a beverage while it is running. I think it might be in order to make a feature request to add an option not to log skipped pages when in pre-parse mode. In that mode, the user probably expects a huge number of uninteresting pages to be skipped, and would often have no use for the log of skipped pages anyway. Chris the speller   yack  15:55, 15 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I thought the slowdown was just me, so thanks for bringing this up! When I went to Options > Preferences > General and unchecked the Enable Logging box, it stopped writing info to the Logs tab.  GoingBatty (talk) 02:25, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Hmmm - this didn't seem to speed things up. GoingBatty (talk) 03:00, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Also, the Pages/min doesn't seem to be an accurate representation of the current speed. GoingBatty (talk) 05:27, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * SVN 8032 has solved the slowdown problem for me. Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 11:00, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I am also using SVN 8032, and I no longer see AWB speeding up when I clear the log of skipped pages. But I don't think it's because 8032 fixed anything; it now seems slower when running in pre-parse mode whether the log is large or small. Maybe the overall slowness has to do with how fast WP is feeding articles for AWB to pre-parse. Chris the speller   yack  23:28, 25 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't use it on WP Chris.. I've not noticed an improvement with SVN 8032 either. -- Technical 13 (talk) 02:19, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Another ReGex Question...
Why does Does not bind(.*?) only find Does not bind and not Does not bind on Acquire with " on Acquire" stored in $1? -- Technical 13 (talk) 04:31, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Does not bind(.*)? or Does not bind(.*) may be what you're looking for. GoingBatty (talk) 05:25, 17 March 2012 (UTC)


 * 1) Why does \[\[(.*?)?\|?(.*?) ?Axeblock\]\] not break  Lesser Axeblock  into $1= Axeblock and $2 = Lesser?
 * 2) Piped Link versus Link + Text...
 * 3) \[\[(.*?)?\|?Striding\]?\]? ?\+?(\d{1,2})?%?\]?\]? works for  Striding +15%  as-well-as  Striding +15%  but does not work for  Striding +15% 
 * 4) \[\[(.*?)?\|?Striding ?\+?(\d{1,2})?%?\]?\]? works for  Striding +15%   as-well-as  Striding +15%  but does not work for   Striding +15% 

I may add some more to the list and just update the time if there is not yet a response. -- Technical 13 (talk) 05:30, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Seems you have too many question marks
 * Try \[\[(.*)\|(.*) Axeblock\]\]
 * Try \[\[(.*\|)?Striding\]?\]? \+(\d{1,2})%\]?\]?
 * Hope this helps! GoingBatty (talk) 06:06, 17 March 2012 (UTC)


 * "(.*)?Does not bind(.*)?" Worked
 * "\[\[(.*)\|(.*) Axeblock\]\]" worked for breaking  Lesser Axeblock  into $1= Axeblock and $2 = Lesser but fails to notice  Axeblock 
 * " " is my replace string, so I only need $2= Lesser and anything else defaults to no prefix on Axeblock.
 * "\[\[(.*\|)?Striding\]?\]? \+(\d{1,2})%\]?\]?" Worked

Technical 13 (talk) 06:23, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * OK, for #2 try "\[\[(.*)?\|?(.*)?\s?Axeblock\]\]" -GoingBatty (talk) 14:40, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * That works for " Axblock " but returns "Axeblock|Lesser " in $1 and $2is empty for " Lesser Axeblock " -- Technical 13 (talk) 16:43, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * You're right - try "\[\[(\w*)?\|?(\w*)?\s?Axeblock\]\]" instead. GoingBatty (talk) 21:02, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, \w made a difference.. I wasn't aware it worked like that. \w means any alphabetic character, right? -- Technical 13 (talk) 23:30, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes - see AutoWikiBrowser/Regular expression. GoingBatty (talk) 23:40, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
 * You may have most success with \[\[([^\|\]]*)\|?([^\|\]]*)\]\] or similar. This will have target in $1 and the display (if it's not the target) in $2. \[\[([^\|\]]*)\|([^\]]*)\]\] insists on a pipe, \[\[([^\|\]]+)\|([^\]]+)\]\] ensures that both sides are non-empty. Rich Farmbrough, 18:41, 24 March 2012 (UTC).

WP:/CheckPage Subpage
Could anyone remove the gap between the list and the title, as displayed below.

The following versions are enabled:

4.6.2.0 enabled 5.3.1.0 enabled 5.3.1.1 enabled (svn) ~ &#8658;TomTom  N00  @ 22:11, 24 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Sure..

4.6.2.0 enabled 5.3.1.0 enabled 5.3.1.1 enabled (svn)
 * The following versions are enabled:
 * Or

4.6.2.0 enabled 5.3.1.0 enabled 5.3.1.1 enabled (svn) -- Technical 13 (talk) 23:22, 24 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The following versions are enabled:


 * Why? Rich Farmbrough, 23:59, 24 March 2012 (UTC).


 * The first one. It just looked 'ugly' with a wide gap between the section title and the section content. ~ &#8658;TomTom  N00  @ 09:41, 25 March 2012 (UTC)
 * This is a page used by the software to allow running it. -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:21, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Auto mode
How do I set AWB to run in automatic mode (not having to click "save" for each edit)? —danhash (talk) 15:11, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Get a bot and get approval for it. -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:20, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Where is the setting in AWB, and does it appear after the bot flag is set on the logged-in account? —danhash (talk) 18:15, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
 * It appears after the bot flag. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:18, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Is there a policy specifically excluding those without bot accounts from running AWB in auto mode? —danhash (talk) 18:34, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Unless you have Bot access on the wiki that you want to automate edits on, you can not run an automated task. -- Technical 13 (talk) 19:44, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that's what I needed to know. I'll take it to BAG when I get a chance. —danhash (talk) 20:00, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
 * My bot was approved for a trial and was added to the check page. Does my trial approval not give me the option to run AWB in auto mode? I can and have used AWB in supervised mode to do the exact same thing, so being granted a trial run without access to auto mode is a rather pointless grant of permission. —danhash (talk) 22:50, 31 March 2012 (UTC)
 * You have to be given bot flag for the trial. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:58, 31 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Bureaucrats will give the bot flag once the task is approved by BAG. You should make those 50 edits manually and get the trial completed. — Ganeshk  ( talk ) 00:44, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
 * If my bot was written in any other programming language I could set it to make automatic edits during a trial period without a bot flag, couldn't I? I don't understand the extra hurdle that seems to exist only for AWB-based bots. —danhash (talk) 01:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
 * You should raise this issue on the BRFA talk page. This page isn't the right forum for that discussion. — Ganeshk  ( talk ) 01:30, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Log.txt and profiling.txt
Could someone please explain what the files Log.txt and profiling.txt are for? I see they are not part of the SVN snapshot. Although I have Options > Preferences set so that logging is not enabled, these two files are updated every time I use AWB. My Log.txt is over 2 MB, and my profiling.txt is over 100 MB. What would happen if I deleted these two files? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 01:00, 27 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, they are text files, right? Have a look at them with your favorite notepad type program and see what is in there.  If it simply looks like an auto-generated log of all the edits the bot has made, or of all the things that have been skipped, then I would delete them and see if there is any improvement on your next run. -- Technical 13 (talk) 04:34, 27 March 2012 (UTC)
 * True - I was hoping for a more technical (pardon the pun) explanation. If we can document why these files are being created, then users can decide how to set the AWB options appropriately.  GoingBatty (talk) 17:01, 28 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Snapshots helps check run times. Profiling.txt contains who fast (in miliseconds) each function is executed for each page. You can delete both files. The program will automatically recreate them. -- Magioladitis (talk) 17:09, 28 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the info. I'm presuming there's no preference or option I can set to stop writing to these files and speed up AWB.  GoingBatty (talk) 02:18, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

SVN 8047
What is advertised as 8047 actually displays 8046 in "Menu" → "Help" → "About" and in edit summaries. This does not appear to be serious. Chris the speller  yack  04:23, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Can AWB mass move pages?
I just had a custom namespace added to the wiki I'm a sysop of and there are 2K+ pages that need to get moved there. Does AWB have a function to move pages and prepend "NewNS:" to the current Page Name? -- Technical 13 (talk) 04:03, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Restarting after trying to save a page?
Hi everyone, since yesterday evening I've been experiencing a problem where every time I try to save a page AWB doesn't save the page and its status changes to "Restarting in x seconds." As such I have been unable to make any edits through AWB. I have tried restarting the application, logging off my account (Windows 7), and changing my AWB list. Any solutions? Thanks in advance,  - down  load  ׀  talk  18:57, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I just deleted and re-downloaded AWB and, using the same settings, this is still occuring.  - down  load  ׀  talk  19:30, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Hm, never mind - seems to be working again.  - down  load  ׀  talk  21:00, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Mediawiki magic words / wildcards
Is there a way to utilize either magic words (like ) or wildcards with AWB? I use it on a wikia wiki with lots of galleries on subpages, and most of the galleries are currently categorized according to the gallery name. For instance, ABC/Gallery is categorized under Category:ABC images, YXZ/Gallery under Category:YXZ images , and so on. Community consensus is that those categories need to go, and AWB should be the easiest way to do it. If I can get it to accept a magic word (to remove Category: images ), or a wildcard (so it will remove any category from a given subset of pages which has the word "images" in it), which I haven't figured out how to do. --Tulipclaymore (talk) 15:44, 12 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Perhaps a ReGex search of \[\[:Category:(\w) images\]\] or something of that nature is the solution you are looking for? -- Technical 13 (talk) 16:04, 12 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Something of that nature, probably. I pasted that line the Advanced find and replace module and it didn't do anything. AWB Regex Tester didn't find anything either, even though the category in question (Category:ABC images) definitely exists on the pages I tested it on and AWB removes it fine if I specify the exact category name without using search and replace. --Tulipclaymore (talk) 12:56, 13 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't really know what I did to make it work, but I played around with the syntax a little bit and finally got the desired results with \[\[Category:.* images\]\]. So, thanks for starting me down that path. --Tulipclaymore (talk) 23:25, 13 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that probably would work better... \w only finds letters.. .* would find the other punctuation as well.. -- Technical 13 (talk) 01:03, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

How to changed Suffix edit summary that auto generate by AWB.
Hello! I'm from Chinese Wikipedia, and my AWB auto generated edit summary like "clean up, assist by AutoWikiBrowser (8046)". (Original text is Chinese, I translated yet.) Now is there any way to let it generate "clean up (AWB)"? It seems more succinct. Thanks!--铁铁的火大了 (talk) 12:34, 9 April 2012 (UTC)


 * 040 AWB illustrations for AWB manual.png
 * The suffix can be customized if you have a bot account. The Bots tab has an option to supress the "using AWB" message in the edit summary. I am not sure how this works on Chinese Wikipedia though. — Ganeshk  ( talk ) 00:08, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * There's a similar option when you go to the Options menu, choose Preferences, and go to the Site tab. However, when I log in to en.wikipedia.org with my user or bot account, this Suppress "Using AWB" option is grayed out.  When is this not grayed out?  GoingBatty (talk) 02:33, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * It is not greyed out for wikia and custom sites. Try selecting wikia from the project dropdown. — Ganeshk  ( talk ) 02:41, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks - I've updated the User manual with this info, but would appreciate if one of the developers could please make sure my entry is correct. GoingBatty (talk) 04:01, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Some notes: "assist by AWB" is part of the code and I can fix it if you want. I added the specific Chinese version with the help of a Chinese editor last year in Wikimania. The "(8046)" part is better not to be removed. IT exists in all snapshots so we can control the presence of bugs in each version. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:41, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I think the original text "由自动维基浏览器协助" (66 Bytes) is too long, and I know version number is important. So it's up to you :-) --铁铁的火大了 (talk) 13:18, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Notice: Slight change in AWB in-template handling
This shouldn't affect most of you, but AWB's search/replace logic for "in-template" check has been revised to address this issue in r8062. Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 19:45, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Underlying connection closed
On many edits, ones where it takes me a few seconds to look through the changes to check they're OK, when I click "Save" I get an error message at the bottom of the window saying "Underlying connection closed ..." and then it restarts in X seconds. How can I get this to stop? Thanks. DrKiernan (talk) 11:25, 6 April 2012 (UTC)
 * MediaWiki/API problem, nothing you can do about it. Rjwilmsi  16:43, 12 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Ah, well it's at least re-assuring that I can blame someone else! Thank you. DrKiernan (talk) 18:39, 12 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Can AWB be fixed so that the number of seconds doesn't increase each time the connection drops? 500 milliseconds is plenty of time before retrying the connection, but 22 seconds is ridiculous. -  ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ  τ ¢  17:13, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Questions about this tool
Can this tool be used to scan an article to see if a certain editor has ever edited it? And if he has would it show which edits were his? Is it possible to use this tool to enter a username or an IP, or a combination of both to see which articles they overlap on? Darkness Shines (talk) 16:19, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * You can already do this using WikiBlame and a variety of other tools. They are the links at the top of an article's Version History page. "External tools: Revision history statistics · Revision history search · Contributors · User edits" but I'm not sure about combinations of editors though. Jesse V. (talk) 16:23, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I was hoping to use this to check more than one editors contributions at a time as there is a prolific sockpuppeter in the topic area I work, such a tool would make life a little easier. Also to the user contributions, I would like to be able to see exactly what contributions an editor made to an article so I do not touch that editors work. Do any of the tools you mention above do that? Darkness Shines (talk) 16:29, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm not familiar with the tools to compare two editors, but I'm sure admins know of such tools. The "User Edits" links can help you identify user edits to a particular page. For example, displaying my edits to one article I'm working on: see this. Jesse V. (talk) 16:39, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * That user edits one is perfect, thank you. All I need now are my sock hunting tools Darkness Shines (talk) 16:48, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Your welcome. WP:SPI might be a good place to start for your hunting tools. Best of luck, Jesse V. (talk) 16:56, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * (e/c) Try the tool here, which lists pages that have been edited by two specified users or IP addresses. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:59, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * How does that one work John? I tried it but no results showed. Do I have to put in User:usernamehere here? Or brackets? Darkness Shines (talk) 17:27, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * This link shows the tool in use. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:54, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Strange I tried that, it shows nothing? I also do not recall ever editing American Staffordshire Terrier ) Darkness Shines (talk) 19:01, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * (outdent)
 * What a fussy tool! Your link shows you'd keyed an extra space after "Highstakes00". This revised link works, with the space removed. And this diff is your edit at American Staffordshire Terrier. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:23, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry i'm a fussy tool And thank you for the help. Darkness Shines (talk) 20:25, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Whitespace changes
Which part of AWB is making these changes? Describing them as fixes seems to be going a bit far. Kanguole 00:21, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * The edit summaries don't indicate that AWB was used. What did the editor who made the changes tell you?  GoingBatty (talk) 00:31, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * "The two revisions were made using AutoWikiBrowser". Kanguole 00:39, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * A couple of points here. The editor chooses their edit summary, so "fixes" is their word. Normally it is only possible to remove the "using AWB" portion of the edit summary if in bot mode, or on a custom wiki. As neither of these apply perhaps the editor copy-pasted the changes from AWB into their browser and made the edit that way, so the direct reference to AWB was lost. AWB includes options to skip edits where whitespace-only changes are made, it's up to editors to use their discretion when making such edits. Rjwilmsi  07:06, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I understand that editors are supposed to exercise judgement on the total edit, but is this whitespace normalization a standard action of AWB?  I don't see it listed under General fixes.  Kanguole 11:52, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * It's a standard feature, the user manual may be incomplete in that area. Rjwilmsi  16:08, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Isn't that controversial? I don't think there's general agreement about whether to space in many of those cases; in some the MOS explicitly says the spacing is optional.
 * There also seems to be a bug: when a list item ends with a template, a blank line is inserted before the next item, yielding a separate list in the HTML output (e.g. bottom of the first diff). Kanguole 16:48, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * In the edits shown I see changes in the spacing within headers which is not an AWB behaviour. It's also interesting to remark that these changes are in contrary to AutoEd's whitespace fixing. -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:24, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I'd not looked at the second diff. Much of those changes are not AWB default behaviour. It is correct, for example, that heading whitespace is optional either way so AWB doesn't alter it. Rjwilmsi  17:02, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Can I use ReGex to search and replace an entire page with a simple template?
I want to replace:

simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post simple post The first-line is a template I used in a first pass to place them all in a "Marked as spam" category. The format of this template is. If "AWB" exists, it is set to (0|m|man|manual) for using AWB in manual-mode or (1|a|auto|automatic|b|bot) for using AWB in bot-mode. The template can be seen here and an example of the output on a page can be seen here.

With:

This page has been blanked to remove useless content and potentially dangerous links to protect YOU! :D What's missing from my ReGex search: \n\n(.*)?


 * If you want to replace the entire page, why not search for "(.*\n*)*" and replace "", then just append the new page? Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 15:02, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * As you can from what I want to put back in, that I want to leave the original template in place as is, and only replace everything below the template. -- Technical 13 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 17:38, 17 April 2012 (UTC).
 * Ok, so I was playing with different ReGex possibilities, and I came up with: [^\t]*
 * Which seems to find the whole page but when I hit replace in the tester function I get:

This page has been blanked to remove useless content and potentially dangerous links to protect YOU! :D

This page has been blanked to remove useless content and potentially dangerous links to protect YOU! :D


 * Is the ReGex tester not working correctly or am I doing something wrong? BTW, I gave up on trying to preserve the original tag. -- Technical 13 (talk) 23:15, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

expand is deprecated
The template expand is deprecated, however is still cited in the manual text. It is actually being considered for deletion at TfD. Should the manual be changed to accommodate this?--Michaelzeng7 (talk - contribs) 00:17, 18 April 2012 (UTC)
 * IMO, the manual text should document what the software actually does. If the template is deleted, you may want to submit a request to have this code removed from AWB (to speed it up slightly).  If the code is removed from AWB, then the manual should be updated accordingly.   GoingBatty (talk) 01:38, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Problem with Alerts and Pre-parse mode?
I'm trying to scan Category:Molecular Biology (recurse 1 level) to find See Also sections that are out of place. I already applied general fixes to all pages in that giant list, (which included auto-correction of several out-of-place See Also sections) but I'm rescanning to fix the ones that only show up as Alerts. I'd like to exclude any pages that don't display any Alerts. Under the Skip tag, I've selected "Page in Use", "Edit Blocked by Spam Filter", and of course "No alerts". I then selected Pre-parsed Mode and hit Start. Instead of removing a good portion of the pages, it kept leaving a bunch of pages in green for me to manually go through. Yet when I stopped and then went through those green pages myself without being in Pre-parsed Mode, it skipped almost all of them. I'd like to make it automatically remove pages from the list that don't generate alerts, but it only seems to work correctly when I'm not in Pre-Parsed Mode. I have restarted AWB and reloaded my settings and re-generated the list, to no avail. What am I doing wrong? Jesse V. (talk) 17:30, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Anyone have any ideas? Jesse V. (talk) 20:40, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't think that when in pre-parse mode the alerts are generated, so therefore the alerts skip check is not applied. I'll see if this could be changed, since clearly it would be a useful feature for you. Rjwilmsi  07:07, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks. That would be fantastic if you found something. I mean I'll go through a category and apply general fixes, then go back and rescan for alerts since overall it takes less of my time. I'll even take care of other alerts like unbalanced brackets or something, but I was specifically on the hunt for the improperly placed See Also sections. Jesse V. (talk) 07:23, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Well in general, is there any way to hunt down articles that have out-out-place See Also sections? I'm rather new to AWB but I've been trying to find tasks to do, but I'm still trying to figure out how things work. Jesse V. (talk) 01:05, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Bot owners' noticeboard#IRC bot operators - heads up
Just a heads up but it looks like the change talked about in this thread will affect AWB too if I understand the bug report. Here is a link Bot owners' noticeboard. Kumioko (talk) 18:41, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

Non breaking space
Why does AWB have to add the messy " & nbsp ; " before page numbers and measurement units? It makes wading though the wikitext that little bit harder for us humans. Can we tell AWB to stop doing it?? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 04:45, 21 April 2012 (UTC)
 * The software tries to implement MOS:NBSP, so you would have to get consensus to change the manual of style first. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:41, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Getting rid of a redir
Portalbox is a redir to undefined. It is used on about 8000 pages. I feel that is is worthwhile removing the redir and use undefined since it is protected. Can we add it to the list of minor fixes that AWB does? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 05:12, 21 April 2012 (UTC)
 * ✅ in this edit. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:38, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Comment: It seems that the community agrees that some redirects should be bypassed. This is nice to remark. -- Magioladitis (talk) 17:39, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Last stable non-debug build
How can I separate the debug build from non-debug builds? Right now I need a non-debug one to save blank pages. Teyandee (talk) 17:36, 13 April 2012 (UTC)
 * May I ask what pages you are trying to save blank? Bgwhite (talk) 21:25, 13 April 2012 (UTC)
 * If you want to save a blank page (not sure why), then just put an empty comment on the page (&lt;!>). Wiki parses those comments out when generating the page which leaves you with a content free page. -- Technical 13 (talk) 00:58, 14 April 2012 (UTC)
 * The purpose was to remove the incorrect categories which lead to empty file page. But the question was how do I separate debug builds form non-debug? SVN 7906 was not able to do some task and I decided to get a newer version. But all the version I tried (8047, 8032, 8026) are happened to be a debug ones and did not allow me to save an empty page. Teyandee (talk) 16:53, 16 April 2012 (UTC)
 * All snapshots are debug builds. You can use the last release build for saving blank pages, or compile your own release build from SVN. Rjwilmsi  16:09, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for explanation. Teyandee (talk) 03:44, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Orphan pages
Hello. I've downloaded Arabic Wikipedia database and i want to know how to exclude orphan pages using database scanner?--  M.Gedawy  Talk  17:08, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

English upper case problem
Hello! I am using AWB with CSV Loader for uploading new words through a bot namely, TamilBOT(toolserverinfo) I am one of the sysop in ta.wiktionary.we are having few rules for the English headers. One of the rule is, the first letter of a new header word should not be in upper case.But when i am trying to upload, AWB converts all the uploading English new headers's first letter into upper case automatically. How can, i upload new words with out this automatic upper case conversion problem?--தகவலுழவன் (talk) 18:53, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Input/Output file
AWB writes the input/output file, and after the external process is complete and AWB has read the file back in, it deletes it.

Is there any way to make AWB not delete the file?

If so, what is it? The Transhumanist 17:05, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

Passing commands, pipes, appends, etc.
(Windows7)

Is there any way to pass commands through the external processing feature?

Such as using the & or &&, | or > or >> operators after the argument?

I look forward to your reply. The Transhumanist 17:10, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

Can not install AWB
OS. Ubuntu 11.04 Trying to install with Wine but can not since Wine is not recognizing AWB as .exe file (have not faced such problem for any other Windows file eg. IE, MS Paint etc). Please add a in my talk page if anyone replies! --Tito Dutta (Send me a message) 04:48, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Anyone? --Tito Dutta (Send me a message) 06:20, 14 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Have you followed the instructions at AutoWikiBrowser/Mono and Wine? — Ganeshk  ( talk ) 11:23, 14 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, (now in Ubuntu 11.10)! It is not working! --Tito Dutta (Message) 21:15, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Anyone please help! I got AWb permission 3-4 months ago.. still could not install it! Anyone here with first hand experience to use AWB in Ubuntu? --Tito Dutta Message 00:18, 25 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Are you running 32 or 64 bit? -- ShoeMaker  ( Contributions &bull; Message )   19:27, 25 April 2012 (UTC)
 * OS Type: 32-bit (Ubuntu 11.10) --Tito Dutta Message 23:19, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I have asked the same question in Ubuntu Forum. Actually I have asked in some more places too, but this threads has some good details and screenshots--Tito Dutta Message 23:23, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

AWB and REGEX
On the start panel (where I log in to AWB), I am using the find box. I want to use REGEX to find instances of Hmains (talk) 16:46, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * You have to escape the [ with a backslash (i.e. use \[\[ ). Mr Stephen (talk) 17:02, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I tried \[\[1|\[\[2   It did not error this time, but it only found instances of Hmains (talk) 17:34, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I was also going to ask if you are literally trying to find Kumioko (talk) 17:03, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, in this case, I am literally trying to find [[2 is what fails. [[User:Hmains|Hmains (talk) 17:28, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Escape the brackets you want, use square brackets around the 1 & 2 (i.e. \[\Mr Stephen (talk) 17:44, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Exactly perfectly works. Thanks  Hmains (talk) 17:58, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

Wiki Database Scanner
How could I find pages that contain some words, for example "one" and "two" using Wiki Database Scanner? What should I type to "Text" > "Contains"? Separating words with commas doesn't work. 21:06, 28 April 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.27.226.177 (talk)
 * Please sign in. Those with a Wikipedia account can apply and be granted the privilege of using AWB. By signing in, we know who we are addressing. I've never used the database scanner, since I've found the Wiki Text Search fairly sufficient so far. Jesse V. (talk) 21:29, 28 April 2012 (UTC)


 * If you tick the "regular expression" box, you can use a regular expression such as  to search for articles containing the word "one" and/or the word "two". -- John of Reading (talk) 21:48, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Jesse V.: What is Wiki Text Search?
 * John of Reading: It doesn't work. It finds pages that contain "one" OR "two", but I want to find pages that contain "one" AND "two", not in one string or boundry. Is it possible? 83.27.229.11 (talk) 22:29, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Well it's actually called "Wiki search (text)". Description is in this section. Jesse V. (talk) 22:36, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * You could try Tools > List Comparer, do a "Wiki search (text)" for "one" and a "Wiki search (text)" for "two", then compare and use the list of common articles. Good luck!  GoingBatty (talk) 02:19, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Fixing invalid ISBN's
Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs contains about 2,400 articles. I had a try at manually fixing invalid ISBN numbers. It is reeeal painful!! Can a script be written that does the following:
 * pulls the book author, title, and year out of the ref template
 * gets ISBN data from, say WorldCat or Google Books
 * replaces the invalid ISBN
 * displays the difference between the existing and new ISBN numbers

The AWB operator can then see if it is a simple typo or a completely different ISBN. If the ISBN search gives robust results it could be saved without the need to double check. Is this feasible? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 02:13, 30 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Yes, I think that would be possible. But first you need to find a catalogue that you are allowed to quiz thousands of times on Wikipedia's behalf.  Mr Stephen (talk) 09:39, 1 May 2012 (UTC)


 * WorldCat allows 1000 per day with other alternatives. See -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 23:33, 3 May 2012 (UTC)
 * So it would take one editor three days to take care of this, assuming they could find an efficient way of fixing the ISBNs. We might just have to copy-paste the title manually. Jesse V. (talk) 23:37, 3 May 2012 (UTC)


 * With two monitors that would be easy. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 23:41, 3 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Ah true. Those that don't but are running Windows 7 could just snap each window to each half the screen. But two monitors would be easier I suppose. Jesse V. (talk) 00:02, 4 May 2012 (UTC)


 * So lets get the back room boffins to write us some code. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 01:33, 4 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Last time around I consolidated the list into a report, as we found some incorrect numbers were widely spread. I will try to generate a similar report, and also look at assisted fixing.  I am also looking at doing some of the database work locally, unfortunately there are people who think my time is better spent on their drama.   Rich Farmbrough, 04:01, 4 May 2012 (UTC).


 * So that could split the job into a task for automated bots and one for AWB? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 06:09, 4 May 2012 (UTC)

UPDATE: it is now 5,240 article! heeelp.... -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 05:08, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Converting bare reference with an ISBN into a cite template
And here is another ISBN related task. Often a book is added between bare tags rather than using cite book. There are many advantages in using citation templates and I want to convert the bare refs into cite book refs. Can this be done:
 * find tags in an article that contain an ISBN
 * pull out the ISBN
 * use an online database to get the bibliographical info
 * add all the biblio data to a cite book template
 * bung it in the article using a ref name for possible future use
 * use the ref name for subsequent refs to that title (this step might be easier to do at the end using CiteBot)
 * carry on to the next bare ref.

One tricky aspect is page numbers. They are often all over the shop. Some manual input may be needed for them.

Is this task feasible at least in part? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 07:30, 4 May 2012 (UTC)
 * This seems to me that it would bump into problems with the citation style related guidelines, whether as a semi- or fully automated task. It might be an addition that could be made to CitationBot. --Izno (talk) 07:59, 4 May 2012 (UTC)
 * The citation bot is already able to add ISBNs to existing templated book citations, I haven't tried whether it will expand a templated citation that already has an ISBN. Clearly citation style guidance would need to be considered if this task were run. Rjwilmsi  10:06, 4 May 2012 (UTC)


 * CitationBot isn't keen on doing the jobbie. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 05:17, 6 May 2012 (UTC)


 * The family of templates has emerged as a de facto standard. If an article is going to have a mish-mash of styles with bare tags (ie don't use  ) then surely there should be no complaints? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 05:17, 6 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Alan, please don't convert well-formatted citations to citation templates, especially not using any automated process. See WP:CITECONSENSUS: "an article should not be switched between templated and non-templated citations without good reason and consensus". SlimVirgin (talk) 03:48, 7 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Looks like that policy is out of step with the de facto standard. It will need updating. Also it is bullshit that there is no standardisation of referencing. WP could be soooo much better if it was standardised (within reason). One reason why I am keen on using the {cite} templates is so that CoiNS data is made available to biblio database programmes. There are other reasons as well. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 22:27, 7 May 2012 (UTC)


 * There is a usecase for semi-automated changing of references, which is to convert references on a page where there is no citation style already in place, per WP:CITEVAR. But that probably shouldn't be automated through AWB (and in such cases CitationBot can probably handle it).
 * And while I agree that there should be a house style (and effectively is, regardless of different style usage), this isn't the place to have that argument. Cheers. --Izno (talk) 23:15, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

KJ-52 is not kilojules
This tool has been used several times on the Christian hip hop article. There is an artist named KJ-52. The tool correctly leaves the linked name alone but changes the one that is not linked to read "kJ-52". Is there any way to exclude that article or to warn editors who use the tool? --Walter Görlitz (talk) 18:22, 4 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I have added the "Not a typo" template to that article, which should protect it from most tools. I was the editor running AWB that erroneously changed the article. I must have had a dip in blood sugar when I saw the change; I thought it *fixed* KJ-52 from kJ-52, so I OKed it. Don't blame the tool, blame the operator. Chris the speller   yack  19:31, 4 May 2012 (UTC)

Get started
In the "get started" section you forgot to write that users need to extract it from the zip file, else it is likely not to work.-- Deathlaser : Chat  13:37, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
 * The "Download" section already mentions that it comes in a ZIP file. I think that's the right place to mention it, as the other steps in the "Get started" section all assume that you've got the program running. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:42, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

Rules for using AWB
Can someone please advise here? Alan Liefting has started making large-scale changes to animal rights pages and categories, using HotCat and AWB. I have asked him to stop to discuss and explain, but he has continued and will not explain what he is doing. See discussion here.

Can he be required to stop using AWB without discussing his changes in advance (once challenged)? Cleaning up, if it's required, will be a lot of work because of the speed at which he is making the edits. SlimVirgin (talk) 01:41, 7 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I see that you took this to ANI after posting here. Personally, yes, if I was asked about any of my edits, AWB or not, I would stop and discuss before making any similar edits. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:36, 7 May 2012 (UTC)


 * And if you look at my edit history you will see that I did, except for this one which I had open to do a range of tweaks. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 00:23, 8 May 2012 (UTC)


 * SlimVirgin, I don't see this as relating to AWB at all. The edits you seem to be concerned about what re-categorisation using HotCat. I am sorry to harp on but it does look like a case of WP:OWNERSHIP. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 00:23, 8 May 2012 (UTC)


 * When someone has spent years working on a series of articles and categories, it's common courtesy to discuss with them before making mass changes that involve a lot of work to undo. The politeness aspect apart, they may know more about the subject than you do. That has nothing to do with OWN.


 * But at the very least, when they post on your talk page and ask that you stop, you need to do that, and you didn't (you didn't use AWB after that, but HotCat, though that is splitting hairs). The point is that these tools are (I believe) entrusted to people who will not use them to cause disruption or bad feeling. SlimVirgin (talk) 04:38, 8 May 2012 (UTC)


 * What I found in your little fiefdom was a lot of stuff that went against convention and usability. Your bluster is a smokescreen to get me to back off. Sorry if I am wrong but you are pushing me into making these accusations. I have yet to form an opinion of your knowledge about the topic of animal rights (which BTW is an ethic fully support - does that placate you?) but you certainly don't know anything about the house styles of WP, or the concept of usability. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 11:02, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

When do feature requests get reviewed and decided on
I recently made a feature request and realized there are still requests from early April. As the title of this section says, when do they get looked at? Ryan Vesey Review me!  21:05, 14 May 2012 (UTC)
 * There are open feature requests from 2011 and 2010 too. GoingBatty (talk) 00:57, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Also some are done or as done as they are going to get and just need to be archived, some have also been denied or are not possible and need to be archived. There are also a couple duplicates in there as well. Kumioko (talk) 01:05, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Several items that I think could be archived
There are several items in both the Bugs and Feature requests pages that I think could be archived. There are several tasks that have been completed, were denied, etc. and these pages are getting rather large and untimely to load. Would anyone have a problem with me moving some of these things into the archive pages? Kumioko (talk) 16:11, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

making a sound when 'ready to save'
Is there any way to get AWB to make a sound when 'ready to save' appears on the screen? As things are, with processing typically so slow, I would like to turn my eyes and attention to something else when waiting for the 'ready to save' message to appear, but I also want to be alerted so I can get right back to working in AWB when the message does appear. Windows XP. Thanks Hmains (talk) 16:38, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi Hmains! I don't know how to make a sound, but you may want to try the latest SVN snapshot to improve your AWB performance.  Good luck!  GoingBatty (talk) 16:57, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Good news and bad news: Good news first -- In the "Options" menu, select "Preferences ...", then hit "Editing and saving" tab, click the box "When ready to save" -- "Flash" or "Beep". The bad news -- I have tried these, and they have never worked for me. Maybe another user will comment on this. Chris the speller   yack  01:42, 14 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Right. The 'flash' does not flash; the 'beep' makes no sound. Oh well. Hmains (talk) 04:14, 14 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Flash works for me, AWB will flash in the taskbar when it's ready and is not the currently focused application. I've never tried the beep feature. Rjwilmsi  09:14, 14 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Ok, I see a sub-second flash but the AWB on the task bar mostly just turns to the color blue. And the beep does not work at all. Oh, well. Hmains (talk) 23:04, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

Custom site XML error
I'm trying to use AWB on a custom site (UOGuide) running MediaWiki 1.16.0 and I keep getting an error. An error occured while connecting to the server or loading project information from it. Please make sure that your internet connection works and such combination of project/language exist. Enter the URL in the format "en.wikipedia.org/w/" (including path where index.php and api.php reside). Error description: Unexpected XML declaration. The XML declaration must be the first node in the document, and no white space characters are allowed to appear before it. Line 2, position 3. The API is present, but I can't seem to locate the issue. --Alianin (talk) 12:28, 16 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Try putting in just uoguide.com/ I've had this issue many times on every "custom" wiki I use and you just have to play with it until you get the syntax right... -- ShoeMaker  ( Contributions &bull; Message )   14:50, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

general fixes
I want to use General Fixes as a service to editors, but only if there are also custom changes that I making. On the skip panel, I mark the skip if 'only genfixes' box, but I am still presented with changes such as removing the blank space in 'xxx ]]'. Same problem when I also or only check the skip if 'only cosmetic changes are made' box. Since making AWB edits with only general fixes or with only cosmetic changes seems to outrage a certain group of WP editors and leads to sactions against the offending editors, it seems to me that this feature of AWB must be absolutely correct in its operation. Is there some other box I need to check or something else I need to do? Is this a known AWB flaw? Hmains (talk) 23:17, 18 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm using version 5.3.1.0 SVN 7792, and the checkboxes "Only genfixes" and "Only minor genfixes" are working for me. I've just tried China Relief Expedition Medal and Maradi Region, if you want to check your version with the same articles. I don't have the new "only cosmetic changes" checkbox. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:03, 19 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I just tried with that version too and it works but not with the new version with the "only cosmetic changes" checkbox. It think something with that change messed up the logic. Kumioko (talk) 15:29, 19 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I am using v 5.3.1.1 SVN 8062. Who can report this problem to whom?  Hmains (talk) 16:27, 19 May 2012 (UTC)
 * 8062 is the version I am using. Just file it as a bug on the bugs page. Kumioko (talk) 19:40, 19 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Further testing: to get the results I want with 8062, it seems I have to have four skip options checked: only whitespace is changed; only casing is changed; only genfixes; only cosmetic changes are made. I wonder if there are instructions on all this to confirm my tests. Hmains (talk) 00:50, 20 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Never mind; found the instructions Hmains (talk) 03:52, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

AWB not loading
I am working with another Mediawiki project(v1.17.0), I have downloaded the release version AWB from here and changed the site preference to our MediaWiki address. The problem that even though I have entered my account information and AWB says I am logged in and I am able to make list but everything else seem "disabled", particularly the edit box, am I missing some step or there is some kind of problem, thanks.--79.183.192.85 (talk) 02:14, 20 May 2012 (UTC) Sorry, solved. --79.183.192.85 (talk) 02:34, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Help with regualr expressions
How do I switch two paramerts in template, for example:

I want to change to:

My intution was to Search for:

Replacing it with:

The problem that it doesnt work, anythoughts on how I can achive that and sorry if it seems like a silly question to you, I just started to learn the roopes.--79.183.192.85 (talk) 06:53, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Additional problem, I have setup this rule: If not contains: Find: (\[\[..:.*\]\]) Replace: $1 My intention is to place the comment once before the language interwiki links, however, even though I have set it up to run only when the comment doesnt doesnt exsit in the text and the Apply number of times = 1, AWB adds this before every language interwiki link, any idea why? --79.183.192.85 (talk) 08:15, 20 May 2012 (UTC)


 * (1) try removing the question marks.
 * (2) I think it scans for changes first, then applies them all at once. I would just add a 2nd code line that deletes one comment if it appears after another. But I'm not very good at this. — kwami (talk) 08:30, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Assuming those are the only 2 parameters you could try something like this: Find: {{\s*(Template)[ ]*\|(.*?)\|[ ]*param2(.*?)\s*([\|}{<\n]) Replace: {{$1|param2$3|$2$4 Kumioko (talk) 15:11, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Thanks guys, it seems that the AWB REGEX behaviour is little different then the one in the online site posted here. Removing the ? works as well, even though it breaks on the site. But what solved the problems was placing everything in single line(rookie mistake?), this works: {{Temlpate name\n\|\s*param1\s*=\s*(.*)\n\|\s*param2\s*=\s*(.*)\n}} While this doesn't: {{Temlpate name\n \|\s*param1\s*=\s*(.*)\n \|\s*param2\s*=\s*(.*)\n }} Is there away to make the second, more readable version to work?

@kwami, that solution seem rater weird, isnt there a simple way to replace only the first occarance of some expression in the text?

I have figured how todo both, using the custom modules, thank for your quick help here. Btw, does anyone know a good repository of custome modules or even better is the AutoWikiBrowser/General fixes module available somewhere to learn from? --79.183.192.85 (talk) 19:34, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Another problem I stumbled upon. How do I capture everything bettwen '=' and '|', not nessary on the same line? for example: ( I want all the text of ParamA)
 * ParamA = text1
 * paramB =

or:

text2 textN — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.177.243.188 (talk • contribs)
 * ParamA = text1
 * paramB =
 * If you're able to write a custom module you'll get results more easily using the Tools.GetTemplateParmaterValue and SetTemplateParameterValue functions. User:Magioladitis/Sandbox is a related example. Rjwilmsi  10:42, 21 May 2012 (UTC)
 * This is amazing, I just rewrote most of my module with the Tools.NestedTemplateRegex etc, its much cleaner and thus has less chance for something to go wrong. Do we have a documentation of all the available tools, instead of me trying to reinvent the wheel? --79.183.219.105 (talk) 01:58, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
 * No detailed on-wiki documentation for the tools functions, have not got round to it, there are function summaries in the code though. Rjwilmsi  07:25, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
 * You mean this I'll going to have a good look at it but I think I can work with it. Last question, is there a function that creates interwiki links for the first occurrence of articles in the text? What I want to do is take list of characters on our mediawiki and add link to them wherever people forgot todo it. --Mor2 (talk) 11:28, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

Random number
hello,

I want to remove "19XX", whereby "x" is a random number. How to do that with AWB? Thanks.-- GoP T C N 10:55, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

If I understand correctly, you want to remove any 4-digit number that begins with "19".
 * Find "\b19\d\d\b"
 * Replace ""
 * Click the "Regex" box on.
 * Chris the speller  yack  14:35, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Question about general fixes logic
One of the general fixes is "Changes No footnotes to More footnotes if article has at least 1 inline citation." Per the question at my bot request, how does AWB tell the difference between explanatory footnotes and genuine citations? Does it look for references with citation templates, or all references? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 01:13, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * It just counts  tags. I think   isn't counted but would need to check.  Rjwilmsi  14:06, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

How?
What is AWB for exactly, first I thought it was a text editor but now it doesn't look like it.-- Deathlaser : Chat  16:36, 24 May 2012 (UTC)
 * It's a tool which makes it easier to make certain repetitious changes easier. I think the lead of AutoWikiBrowser explains it pretty well, but you've most likely seen that page already. It loads a set of pages, opens the wikitext of each of them, applies some automatic changes that you've preset ahead of time via some button and menus, asks your approval of the change, saves the page with the changes, and repeats. I guess it's kind of like a bot, only it asks for your approval before it saves. Jesse V. (talk) 16:49, 24 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Nah, I still don't get it.-- Deathlaser : Chat  17:12, 24 May 2012 (UTC)
 * WP:AWB/Tasks. Mr Stephen (talk) 17:46, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

requests for registration
How do I register on none wikipidea Mediawiki project? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.176.215.30 (talk) 09:38, 25 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Wat? Jesse V. (talk) 16:32, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * I *think* you either need to be an administrator on your wiki, or you need to be listed on your wiki's equivalent to Project:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage. I haven't downloaded the source code to check this properly, though. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:30, 25 May 2012 (UTC)
 * If your project has a Project:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage, your username must be listed there (for non-admins). If your project does not have a Project:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage page, you can use AWB without worrying about your username being on any checkpage. Avic ennasis @ 00:17, 5 Sivan 5772 / 00:17, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

In the bottom status bar, it says "Admin = Status and Bot = Status", so I assume that you need to have one of those permissions. I am not sure about the Project:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage page, we dont have such page on our mediawiki 1.17, does AWB just auto check for the page and thus simply creating it will be enough or additional steps are required to set it up. Can we get a clarification on this from the Dev's? Also without any of the above trying to save a page returns a "Edit token is needed to edit pages" WikiFunctions.API.ApiException. --79.176.215.30 (talk) 09:02, 27 May 2012 (UTC)


 * If Project:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage doesn't exist, all editors' can use AWB by default, at least on WMF wikis. For example, Wikibooks:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage doesn't exist, yet I can log in to AWB on EnWikibooks and edit just fine. There are certain features which are only available to Admins and Bots, which is why you see the status check at the bottom - but you do not need these rights to edit by default. I'm not sure what's causing your error with Edit tokens, though. Avic ennasis @ 08:04, 8 Sivan 5772 / 08:04, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Make AWB forget old wikis
When I try to use AWB on another wiki, I have to scroll through a list of wikis that I used to manage under Optionts→Preferences→Site, so I want the wiki I manage today to be the only one on the list. I couldn't find an option to tell AWB to forget old wikis, so I decided to just delete AWB and re-download it. However after re-extracting it, AWB still remembers the old websites (and also my login information). Where is this information being stored by AWB, and how do I remove it before re-downloading? —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 23:38, 28 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Try deleting C:\Users\your username\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser\Default.xml -GoingBatty (talk) 00:02, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Question about tagging empty sections
One of the general fixes on the en-wiki is to tag empty level-2 sections with Empty section. Just curious - why wouldn't it be appropriate to tag all empty sections on the en-wiki? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 00:25, 29 May 2012 (UTC)
 * If there's an empty "See also" or "External links" section, then a better fix would be to remove the section heading. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:40, 29 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Agreed, but those are level-2 sections. My question is about level-3, level-4, and level-5 sections.  GoingBatty (talk) 13:28, 29 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I would get rid of emptry Further reading sections as well. Kumioko (talk) 14:18, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Keyboard shortcuts
It would be good to get some effort put into sorting out the bug that randomly stops the keyboard shortcuts from working. Interestingly. Shift-Alt-S works when all methods of saving via the keyboard don't work. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 21:50, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

BLPO showing as a bad parameter of WikiProjectBannerShell
I noticed recently that BLPO is showing as an invalid parameter of WikiProjectBannerShell. Has that template been deprecated or is this a bug I need to writeup for AWB? Kumioko (talk) 14:09, 31 May 2012 (UTC)
 * fixes. Rjwilmsi  18:43, 31 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Kumioko (talk) 03:13, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

The default edit summary
In English, it is quite short(using AWB (8046)). However, the edit summary in Chinese so long that it often can't be fully included(due to the length restriction). The problem appears only in new versions. Do you know who can change it?-- Makecat  Talk  03:09, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The short answer is anyone can change it but only the developers can set the "Default". Do you have a suggestion of what it should be. There has been some debate in the past about what it could or should say based on the change. Kumioko (talk) 03:21, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Maybe "使用AWB (8046)" or "通过AWB (8046)", because we also call it AWB for short on the zhwiki. I will invite some more users to discuss about it. -- Makecat  Talk  07:55, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Please also consider the difference in zh-hant and zh-hans.Justincheng12345 (talk) (urgent news here) 05:36, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

log in info
I look at the login info, and it shows the number of characters in the password for the account I set up to use for AWB.

Is there some way (some file?) to get the password? (I've forgotten it and am grasping at straws : ) - jc37 00:21, 8 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Its the same as your Wikipedia account password whatever that is. Kumioko (talk) 03:05, 8 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Doesn't help much if they forgot that password. Avic ennasis @ 03:33, 18 Sivan 5772 / 03:33, 8 June 2012 (UTC)
 * lol nod. I can see the number of characters, but not the password (there doesn't seem to be a "show characters" option on this screen). - jc37 18:47, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
 * There is a tool somewhere on the net to uncover starred password (though this may not always work). « Saper // @talk »  20:48, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

The saved password is stored in an encrypted form in the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AutoWikiBrowser\Profiles). You might be able to recover the password by downloading the source code, creating a debug build, and running the program under a debugger. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:06, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Though I'm a sometime programmer, I think that's a bit beyond me at this time : ( - jc37 18:47, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
 * May be you could ask to send you a version that didn't mask the password? -- John of Reading (talk) 04:59, 15 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Problem solved, thanks to User:John of Reading : ) - jc37 15:27, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

Incidentally, I think that a feature that should be added is one I have seen in other software: When editing the login screen, there could be a checkbox to "show hidden text" to show the hidden password.

How might this be suggested to the developers of AWB? - jc37 15:27, 18 June 2012 (UTC)
 * You can post at AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests. Good luck!

Persondata
I have noticed that AWB is very helpful in filling out persondata parameters; however, it oftentimes includes the brackets around the places. Is this appropriate or should it be modified to exclude the brackets? Ryan Vesey Review me!  22:42, 10 June 2012 (UTC)
 * There has been some heated debate about whether or not to include brackets for things like this. So far the only thing that has been agreed upon is that we shouldn't be embedding templates like Birthdate into the persondata template. IMO I agree with you that we probably don't need brackets but thats just me. Kumioko (talk) 23:11, 10 June 2012 (UTC)
 * This is filling filling out persondata fields with WP links, having copied the WP links from other places in the article. This just adds to the excess links in the article which someone is then expected to later remove. Why not always remove the link before placing the text in persondata? Hmains (talk) 04:36, 15 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Originally, persondata came from German Wikipedia. The preference there is to use a wikilink. When it started on the English side, the German rules were probably used, so AWB does wikilinks.   There are two thoughts.  One is a human will read persondata manually and would want to click on the wikilink.  The other thought is a computer will be reading it and it doesn't matter if there is a wikilink or not.  The one thing that has caused problems is "|", ie NYC.  I always leave "|" and everything after out because of past problems.  As there is no strong reason to change AWB's behavior, it should stay as is.  Adding a wikilink doesn't cause harm and it is not adding to the excess links as people don't see it.  If you choose to add or not add wikilinks is your preference at the moment.  I'm with Kumiokko and personally don't add them.  I can't find the link at the moment, but persondata has a strong chance of dying in the next year.  The powers that be are working on a database type system to store information like birth date and birth place.  So all the interwiki articles, say all the different interwiki articles of Albert Einstein, uses one spot to get information.  Thought is if someone dies, you only have to change one spot and all the interwiki articles are upto date. If I remember right, testing of this would start at the end of the year.  The database has to be populated and that info will come from persondata and infoboxes.  Bgwhite (talk) 05:09, 15 June 2012 (UTC)


 * It wouldn't exactly add excess links since the persondata isn't visible to readers; however, I would agree with removing the brackets before the text is placed in persondata. Still, we could get 1,000 editors to decide that the change is desirable and the folks here at AWB wouldn't do anything.  They don't respond to feature requests, let alone actually implement them.   must really be going batty about all of the unresponded feature requests he has in, I'm annoyed and I only have one in. Ryan Vesey  Review me!  05:15, 15 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Careful. There are no full or part time developers.  I consider it amazing that important bug fixes are done.  I personally think the foundation should start paying somebody to work on AWB as it is a very important tool.  Of course they would screw it up by having us do an article feedback or something else as dumb. Bgwhite (talk) 05:30, 15 June 2012 (UTC)
 * What? The V5 Article Feedback page looks pretty neat to me. Should be incredibly useful; I'm looking forward to seeing its full-scale deployment. Is this what you are bashing? What's wrong with it? Jesse V. (talk) 07:07, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Changing the entire edit summary text
I'm using TypoScan and sometimes TypoScan gets it wrong, so I change it manually to the right change. However the edit summary shows the wrong thing. Is there any way I can manually change the entire edit summary (i.e. the stuff added to the end of it by AWB)? ··gracefool&#9786; 17:33, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * You may refer to the discussion above. He said only developers are able to change it. -- Makecat  Talk  23:55, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Everyone needs to be able to change it. Currently it can be changed to your liking if you're using a custom module, but not otherwise. I've filed this as a bug. ··gracefool&#9786; 17:51, 22 June 2012 (UTC)

AWB users keep removing "small" tags
As per this edit. This is the third time I had to replace them. Is there some way to get AWB to stop doing this? Thanks. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 04:51, 20 June 2012 (UTC)
 * It appears that one of the AWB general fixes "Removes tags inside, , tags and image captions (per MOS:CAPTIONS)", which states: "The text of captions should not be specially formatted (with italics, for example), except in ways that would apply if it occurred in the main text."  Do you think your issue is a bug or a feature request?  GoingBatty (talk) 01:09, 22 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't like this one, and turn the general fixes off whenever it crops up. It's too subtle to be done with software. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:06, 22 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The rationale for MOS:CAPTIONS is correct, it is not fair site usability to have caption sentences in small text. However, the use of tags in this example is not really in the caption itself, so I will add an exception to this logic to not change text within legend. Rjwilmsi  06:55, 22 June 2012 (UTC)
 * does that. Rjwilmsi  10:29, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

profiling.txt being used by another process
I've reimaged my hard drive, reinstalled the latest AVN, copies my profiles back, and started up AWB with my bot account. After it skips a bunch of pages, I get an error stating: "The process cannot access the file 'C:\xxxx\profiling.txt' because it is being used by another process." I'm only running one instance of AWB, so I don't know what else could be using it. I've tried deleting profiling.txt and rebooting, and I get the same error. I don't seem to get the error using my regular account. Any ideas? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 20:56, 24 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I see this sometimes. If you've only one instance of AWB, it could be antivirus scanning the file, or Windows search index. Are you able to add an exclusion for these? You could build yourself a release version of AWB to avoid the profiling completely. Rjwilmsi  09:45, 26 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for getting me to think along these lines. I think it was an automated backup program, which was running as a hidden icon.  Disabling it seems to have fixed the issue.  Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 03:45, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

ref name
hello,

if I want to replace



with



,whereby "x" means anything, how do you do that? I wrote


 * ""

but it does not work. Regards.-- GoP T C <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">N 16:10, 26 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Add a "+" after the dot, to match any number of characters (your example would only catch a one-letter ref name): "<ref name=".+">"   Chris the speller   yack  18:16, 26 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Will try.-- GoP <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">T <sup style="color:#8EE5EE;">C <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">N 19:33, 26 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Did not work.-- GoP <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">T <sup style="color:#8EE5EE;">C <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">N 19:37, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Match

Mr Stephen (talk) 20:28, 26 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Nope, did not go.-- GoP <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">T <sup style="color:#8EE5EE;">C <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">N 09:51, 27 June 2012 (UTC)
 * 'Course it did. There must be some misunderstanding somewhere, I think you need to give us some more information.  Mr Stephen (talk) 17:38, 27 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Try  I would not search for quotes, since they are not always required. Ensure regex is checked. ---—  Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 13:44, 27 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't believe that the chevrons need to be escaped. I have code searching for it without the backslashes and they all work fine. --Smalleditor (talk) 04:25, 28 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Why would you want to do that? seems like a rather dangerous thing to remove the name tags inside refs. It could lead to a lot of confusion and 'orphans'. --Smalleditor (talk) 04:21, 28 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Because I want to reduce the size?-- GoP <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">T <sup style="color:#8EE5EE;">C <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">N 08:04, 28 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Nevermind, Svetlana Kuznetsova passed. No suggestions worked except Gadget's, but this was the result... Had to change that manually. Thanks anyway.-- GoP <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">T <sup style="color:#8EE5EE;">C <sub style="color:#8EE5EE;">N 08:04, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

checking whether category exists
After I finish AWB work on an article/category, I sometimes later find that there is a bad category in the article/category text. Either a category did not exist before I worked on article/text or I made a mistake that resulted in use of a category that does not exist. In either case, I don't see where AWB is telling me about this problem. I would expect to see this info in the Alerts box. Am I missing something? Thanks Hmains (talk) 16:21, 1 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Sounds like a good feature request. GoingBatty (talk) 18:18, 1 July 2012 (UTC)

Alerts?
When going through pages, it comes up with an alert, for example "Dead Links Found". Are you supposed to do anything with these alerts?--Mjs1991 (talk) 23:26, 8 July 2012 (UTC) And also, is something to be done with topics that come up in the "Multiple Wiki-Links" section?--Mjs1991 (talk) 23:40, 8 July 2012 (UTC)
 * In regards to the first question the alerts "Alert" the editor to certain problems, many of which it cannot fix automatically for various reasons. In the case of dead links its saying that a link to a website in the article doesn't work. On the second question if an article has the same article linked multiple times in it its often helpful to remove some. Again, its hard for the software to know when it should and shouldn't leaving it to the editor to decide. I hope this helps. Kumioko (talk) 23:58, 8 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Speaking of AWB alerts, any idea why in the List of alerts the first alert ("Long article with a stub tag") doesn't display the bullet like all the others? GoingBatty (talk) 02:55, 9 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Its not coded too, probably need to submit a bug request. On that note, I would also suggest a feature request to change the Alert list to function like the typo list. Even if its an edit protected page it would be nice to see the list and be easier to add new ones if needed. Kumioko (talk) 03:26, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Featured question
Is there a way to do a "if this text is on the page, append/prepend this."? I can append/prepend to a list of set pages but all the pages may not have it on.  Rcsprinter  (rap)  @ 19:29, 9 July 2012 (UTC)


 * The skip tab allows you to miss out pages that do or don't have specified text on them. Mr Stephen (talk) 20:03, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

AWB changing emphasis to italics?
I've got an article that uses the EM markup command to emphasize a word. That approach (vs using italics) is recommended by Manual of Style/Text formatting. The AWB tool, apparently, changes the to '' italics. I've had to undo that change twice. I appreciate AWB, and think it is a fine tool, but on this issue: either the MOS should be changed to state that "em" markup is not recommended; or the AWB should just leave the "em"s alone. --Noleander (talk) 18:36, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, AWB's genfixes include changes to tags as these tags have rarely been used correctly in the past. How about you use the em template so that it's clear you're using emphasis for genuine reasons? Rjwilmsi  19:48, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Sure, I can do that. --Noleander (talk) 19:58, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

Persondata being added to animals
There is a question on AWB adding persondata to animals over at Wikipedia_talk:Persondata. Could a developer answer it? Bgwhite (talk)
 * Rjw answered but again I find question the obsolete as soon as nobody explains me where there Persondata is used right now. -- Magioladitis (talk) 03:37, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Possible bug with Cite web invalid parameter logic
I have noticed quite a few false positives in regards to AWB stating a field is an invalid parameter but the template has the field. In this case I looked at Cite web. As far as I can tell the following fields are all valid in the Cite web template but are not in the logic of valid fields in AWB. Does anyone have any comments about adding them before I write this up as a bug request? Here is the list: arxiv, bibcode, doibroken, isbn, jfm, lccn, mr, oclc, ol, osti, page, pmc, pmid, rfc, ssrn, zbl Thanks again for the help. Kumioko (talk) 13:36, 12 July 2012 (UTC)
 * The problem is thvt these should not be valid parameters for cite web but for cite book. Who changed the cite web code? -- Magioladitis (talk) 03:36, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Page Logs tab
I see information about the Logs tab at AutoWikiBrowser/User_manual, but I don't see information on the Page Logs tab. The screen shots show it labelled "Article Logs" instead. Can anyone provide info on this tab, so we can update the manual? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 20:15, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Skip if "Only cosmetic changes are made"
Could someone please define what changes are excluded when the "Only cosmetic changes are made" box is checked? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 01:25, 17 July 2012 (UTC)
 * The initial page and the page after the changes are checked if they have the same HTML output. If they do, they page is skipped. -- Magioladitis (talk) 03:34, 17 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks - I've updated the User Manual. GoingBatty (talk) 03:40, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Custom modules
My installation of AWB indicates that the compiler is C#2.0  Where does this limitation come from? Is it AWB or some peculiarity of my PC?

Modern constructs like initialising a dictionary don't work. I am intending to update a hundred-odd articles, and a dictionary is the easy way to go. I can Add all the key-value pairs, but it's a bit of a pain. Mr Stephen (talk) 22:29, 17 July 2012 (UTC)
 * For the most part AWB is limited to either C# or VB. What sort of update are you trying to make to said articles? Kumioko (talk) 23:29, 17 July 2012 (UTC)
 * C# isn't a problem, it's the version (2.0) that's holding me back (well, a bit). The update's background is here.  Basically, some UK census data (population etc) has been put in a template.  You pass a four digit code to the template, and the template returns the data.  The powers that be have changed the four digit code to a nine digit code.  Now is as good a time as any to get with it; so to avoid disruption, we have to fix the templates to be bilingual, then (this is AWB now) swap the old codes in the template calls in articles to modern codes, then tell the templates to forget the old codes.  Mr Stephen (talk) 23:52, 17 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Just wondering but is there a standard like 1234 to 000001234 or is it just a completely random number that you have to scrape from the website? Kumioko (talk) 00:09, 18 July 2012 (UTC)
 * The latter. Mr Stephen (talk) 06:51, 18 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh ok. I'm sure its still possible but thats a bit outside my skill level sorry. Kumioko (talk) 18:20, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

General Fixes wrongly inserting colon: from to
I just reported this as an AWB bug and turned off my use of General Fixes, But I want to use General Fixes, so is there some option of General Fixes on the AWB panels that I can turn off to avoid the above change and still get the rest of the General Fixes changes? Thanks Hmains (talk) 17:48, 20 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately not. You could try adding a Find & Replace rule to change   back to  .  Since Rjwilmsi has fixed so many bugs over the last few days, I hope Reedy will publish a new SVN soon. GoingBatty (talk) 23:09, 20 July 2012 (UTC)
 * We provide a custom module that selected general fixes can be run. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:24, 20 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Aha - see AutoWikiBrowser/Custom_Modules Good luck!  GoingBatty (talk) 23:54, 20 July 2012 (UTC)
 * The bug is fixed and an SVN will be available soon. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:13, 27 July 2012 (UTC)
 * I can't wait theres a ton of other good changes in there too. Kumioko (talk) 00:44, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Wasted space in diff view
I've just upgraded to 5.3.1.1 SVN 8097. At the top of the diff panel, there's the text "Double click on a..." and then "Current text / Your text". Between them, they waste one quarter of the height of the diff panel on my laptop. Any ideas for removing/shrinking either of them? -- John of Reading (talk) 07:10, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

(More) It seems they both disappear after you've made 10 edits, and then re-appear when you restart the program. I'm sure I'll get used to it... -- John of Reading (talk) 07:53, 25 July 2012 (UTC)


 * The behavior of earlier versions of AWB also had that verbiage for the first 10 edits, but it was not as noticeable or intrusive. I have gotten used to it on both the new and older versions. Happy editing! Chris the speller   yack  14:46, 25 July 2012 (UTC)
 * While the message appears with earlier version of AWB the wasted space does not, nor on the new version does the wasted space correct itself after 10 edits. I've reverted to 5.3.1.0, somebody let me know when this is fixed. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 23:54, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

AWB sometimes changes Chinese brackets to English brackets.
Hello! I'm a Chinese wikipedia user and I find that sometimes AWB changed Chinese language brackets "（...）" ASCII=65288 and 65289 to English's "(...)" ASCII=40 and 41, just like [ this edit]. In MoS of zhwp, we usually do not use English brackets except dab lks. So is there any way to stopping AWB do that? Thanks!--铁铁的火大了 (talk) 08:18, 26 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Restrict conversion of Chinese brackets to en-wiki only. Rjwilmsi  16:55, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

making a sound when 'ready to save'
A discussion about this took place in May 2012 (now in Archive 24). Some users, including myself, could not get the "flash" or "beep" to work. I ma happy to announce that it now works for me. Maybe SVN 8097 or another recent release fixed it. Chris the speller  yack  23:48, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Auto-tagging
I've started a discussion at the Village Pump about the auto-tagging of stubs with "wikify", and a couple of semi-related issues. Your input would be appreciated. DoctorKubla (talk) 07:37, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

tagging op. cit. with ibid. tag
I just got a complaint on my user page for tagging an "op. cit." through AWB with Template:Ibid. Looking at WP:IBID, the user has a point; WP:IBID is only a guideline to begin with, and much more wishy-washy on op. cit. than it is on "ibid." Just thought I'd pass the concern along. Cheers, Khazar2 (talk) 03:08, 1 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Actually, it's pretty well only that user. See MOS diff and the discussion.  Mr Stephen (talk) 04:18, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Ah ha. Thanks, Khazar2 (talk) 04:22, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

About the new diffs
This is about the new diffs as seen in the most recent snapshot, SVN 8097 (although I think the change was actually made about two months ago).


 * First, thanks for fixing the very long-standing problem of long strings stretching the diff area! The issue with this now is that long strings appear truncated in the diff. If this can't be easily fixed, I think the benefit of unstretched diffs outweighs the occasional truncation inconvenience. (Is this related to IE? I never use it; my version is 8.)


 * The background on changed text which has wrapped in the diff partially obscures text on the previous line in the paragraph.


 * When MediaWiki changed its diffs, I commented that the color scheme used by AWB was much better, and now, ironically, AWB's gone and made its diffs like MW's. I find that the light background color makes it very difficult to discern things such as a single space added or removed within a large paragraph. I guess the colors were selected for accessibility, but it would be nice to have other colors available for those without color vision issues. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  01:26, 27 July 2012 (UTC)
 * AWB already supports custom stylesheets for diff display, see AutoWikiBrowser/style.css. You can use this to go back to the old diff colours and can also a style sheet to have or not have diff truncation. Rjwilmsi  11:45, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I was unaware of that. Note that that page has an old version; if anyone wants to see the changes which were made in switching to the new style, see . M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  21:05, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Using SVN 8207, edit summary detail persists even after manual edits
Up to SVN 8097, if "add replacements to edit summary" was checked, details of the replacements would be added to the edit summary, but would then be removed from the edit summary if any manual changes were made in the edit box. With SVN 8207, the replacement details stay in the edit summary even after making manual edits. This results in misleading and confusing edit summaries. I feel this so serious that I am compelled to reinstall the earlier SVN 8097 until this is ironed out. Chris the speller  yack  02:05, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
 * This is actually a great improvement! It's a change from the way things have worked until now, so it'll take some getting used to. As you noted, the edit summary is no longer automatically wiped out after manual edits. This is obviously good when the original summary is still correct after those edits. But now, the summary can be edited from the Edit Summary tab. I requested this feature two and a half years ago. Thanks to the developers for the continuing improvements! M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  04:41, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
 * In a former job handling customers' software complaints, we often jocularly referred to some bugs as "undocumented features", so now the tables have been turned on me. I, too, appreciate the great work that the developers do on AWB. In this case, a little warning would have been nice. If there is some place I should have looked before taking SVN 8207 out for a spin, please let me know. I thought about requesting such a feature several times, and didn't know that it was in the works. You're right, it's taking quite a bit of getting used to, but it's a big step forward. Thanks for the explanation, and kudos to the developers. Chris the speller   yack  14:35, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Deleting pages with admin rights
Hello,

I am using my bot to edit on my two wikias, it has admin rights on both those sites. But the button on the toolbar to delete a page is unclickable.

How do I delete pages as a bot, I want to delete pages that have the template to delete on them.

Thank you so much,Wilc0NL (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 06:26, 4 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Which version of AWB do you have? -- Magioladitis (talk) 10:11, 4 August 2012 (UTC)


 * 5.3.1.0, it is the last version according to the update button.Wilc0NL (talk)

Does delete work in admin non-bot status? I think we disable delte for bot status and we don't have a feature for admin bot to prevent mass deletion. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:39, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Question
How do I set AWB to search through and edit the wiki that I want it to? I edit Nukapedia, and I would like to use this bot to assist. If possible, could you respond to me via my linked talk page? If not, then this talk page will suffice. Thanks!

-Tocinoman — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.32.206.46 (talk) 09:58, 4 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Options -> Preferences, Site Tab, in Project select 'Custom', add Nukapedia site URL. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 12:58, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Disambiguate redirects to disambiguation page
Is it possible to get AWB to recognise that a link to a redirect to a disambiguation page needs disambiguation? For example Particulates is a disambiguation page and AWB deals fine with links to that. However, if you examine Special:WhatLinksHere/Particulates you can see that almost all the links to this page are via redirects. However, when using AWB to try and fix these, it does not recognise that they need to be disambiguated. I can't find any solution to this - is there one or am I back to manually dealing with these?--NHSavage (talk) 08:48, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
 * An alternative is to use WikiCleaner to disambiguate, which allows you to see all the pages that link to Particulates and its redirects at once. GoingBatty (talk) 22:12, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Active disccusions on tagging that may result to AWB's changes

 * Wikipedia_talk:Stub. It discusses whether or not to tag lists as stubs.
 * Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Wikify. It discusses the future of wikify. Should it only use wikilinks criteria and leave other tasks for other tags? What can be the role of the WikiProject to that? Discussion may change how we tag pages with wikify and deaend.-- Magioladitis (talk) 08:04, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Find and replace: Replace only once
There was a previous discussion Archive 22#Find and replace: Replace only once, which did not answer the question.

I want to surround some text patten in a page with double square brackets so that the text becomes a link to another article. But I do not want to do that for more than the first instance of the pattern in the page. Is it possible to do this with AWB and if so how?

--PBS (talk) 20:06, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
 * If I could ask for some clarification that may help the programmers that would be great. I assume you are not referring to infoboxes and the like but when you say first, do you include the Infobox or other templates, the lead or something else? Kumioko (talk) 20:34, 6 August 2012 (UTC)


 * OK to put in in context. I have been looking at some article in an area with which I am not too familiar. One citation was to "Europäische Stammtafeln..." which turned out not just to be "a" source, but is considered to be one of the authoritative sources for such information. So I wrote an article on it called Europäische Stammtafeln. I now want to run AWB over all the articles that include a mention of that book to link them to the new article. The trouble is that in articles like Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou there are half a dozen mentions and (as per standard linking criteria) I only want to link to the first mention in an article of Europäische Stammtafeln. This can not be a unique situation as anyone who wants to link a character string to an article will only want to do it once per article. Equally the opposite situation can occur were we can anticipate the use of a facility to remove all but the first link to another article. -- PBS (talk) 12:46, 7 August 2012 (UTC)


 * To add links to your newly created article, have you considered the Find link tool? GoingBatty (talk) 00:53, 8 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the information -- I had never heard of the tool, but I do not think it will do what I was hoping to do. Finding the text in articles is not difficult -- A simple text search "containing" will do that and as far as I can tell the Find link tool only finds links it does contain an edit function. I had a quick look at some of the other tools and scripts, but could not see one that would do this job (if someone knows of one then please let me know). What I wanted to use AWB (or similar) to do is to automate the edit. I can write a simple regular expression to make the change, the problem I am having is it seems to be all instances on the page which is unsatisfactory. Perhaps someone can point me to an example of an AWB script under advanced settings that will make one change and then use rules not to make another (if that is possible). -- PBS (talk) 11:55, 8 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Use String.IndexOf to find where the first occurrence is. Then use String.Insert twice to add the brackets.  Microsoft  Mr Stephen (talk) 19:16, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I've added a custom module example to AutoWikiBrowser/Custom_Modules. Rjwilmsi  20:15, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the advise, this problem is now second on my list, as I am using AWB to solve another, but as soon as I have finished it, I'll use the advise to solve my replacement problem. "Teach a man to fish ..." :-) -- PBS (talk) 11:17, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

Help for newcomers
I just downloaded AWB today, and I ran it a few times. However, when it stopped on a page that it showed needed an edit, I clicked "Save", but my watchlist (which has the page added to it) showed no changes. Is there some problem, or was there something else that I was supposed to do to have the edit actually performed? Also, I think that for the newcomers to AWB, there should be a basic English layout of how to actually use the program. I have looked at the user manual, but that did not make it clearer. Thank you for your help. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 23:57, 9 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi Allen! What page did you try to edit?  What changes did AWB or you make yo the page before clicking Save?  What happened after you clicked Save?  Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 00:16, 10 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I used the function to make a list from categories of Interstate and U.S. Highways. There are lots of pages in each category, so I don't remember which pages that AWB stopped on. I have no idea what edits were supposedly made. When I clicked "Save", the program just went on to the next page on the list. When I refreshed my watchlist, I saw no evidence that any edits were made! I hope this helps. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 01:56, 10 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Seems like there was no changes. If there was something needing editing/saving is shows in the top half of the screen. Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 02:08, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

AWB not processing page Rangers F.C.
i have tried running it on this one a few times now and it just says finished all pages but i know there is errors on this page so i dnt get why it is getting skipped as that what it says at the bottom of the screen.

I am using SVN 8207 but the same thing happens on the stable build to-- Andrewcrawford ( talk  -  contrib ) 19:05, 14 August 2012 (UTC)
 * 8252 seems to work. . -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:19, 14 August 2012 (UTC)
 * yeah i seen strange older versions dnt, guess ill need to compile it then-- Andrewcrawford ( talk  -  contrib ) 19:22, 14 August 2012 (UTC)
 * ok i have narrowed down teh bug, it one of the plugins when enabled as yet i aint sure which or if it combination. i had all the plugins active when trying first time and it skipped but i have successfully got it to load the page and i am slowly goign through teh errors but that only after i disabled all plugins. hopefully this can help to narrow it down, it also affects any article not just this one Andrewcrawford ( talk  -  contrib ) 21:14, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

stripping commas
I have seen edits like this recently where commas are stripped from mdy dates when using AWB. Can a check be added to avoid that? --Walter Görlitz (talk) 00:59, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi Walter - I can duplicate the issue with AWB. However, the documentation at Template:Fb cs footer states that the date field should contain the month name and year (not the day).  So should AWB leave the day and the comma, or remove both the day and the comma?
 * Are you seeing this issue in places beside this template? Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 04:30, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

user contributions
I have 434,000-some edits. I am trying to check on a mistake I made in some of them so I can fix it. I try to make a list with source User contributions. I specify no number; I get 22059 pages. I specify user defined number of 100,000; I get 22059 pages. Is there any way to obtain more of my edits? Thanks. Hmains (talk) 02:55, 22 August 2012 (UTC)
 * You have to install the NoLimits plugin. -- Magioladitis (talk) 06:40, 22 August 2012 (UTC)
 * And how to become a 'user with the "apihighlimits" right accounts? Hmains (talk) 05:12, 23 August 2012 (UTC)
 * You should ask a bureaucrat to grant you rights. -- Magioladitis (talk) 07:00, 23 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Or you could log in to AWB as User:Hmainsbot1, which should give you access to install the plugin. GoingBatty (talk) 02:19, 24 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I suppose that would be outside the approved purpose of the bot. Hmains (talk) 14:14, 24 August 2012 (UTC)
 * As long as you don't do any edits you should be fine. Kumioko (talk) 14:22, 24 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, you can load the list and switch accounts to work with it. Good idea. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:34, 24 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Ok, Thanks. I will try it. First time I have used a plug in of any kind, though. Hmains (talk) 15:53, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
 * That was easy to install and start. At least some things are easy in this complex world. Hmains (talk) 16:21, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
 * LOL. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:27, 25 August 2012 (UTC)

Changing the default browser
Just wondering if anyone knows how to change the default browser that AWB uses to open articles. My AWB has always defaulted to IE but I want to change it to Firefox and can't figure out how. Kumioko (talk) 02:48, 26 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Default browser refers to the browser that you have set as default externally. Set Firefox as your default browser. Check http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-make-web-links-open-firefox-default -- Magioladitis (talk) 07:21, 26 August 2012 (UTC)
 * It is set as the default currently. In fact when I removed internet explorer completely, it started using Microsoft word as the default. Kumioko (talk) 08:31, 26 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Nevermind I figured it out thanks. It was set as the default in my browser but for some reason it wasn't set as the default browser in the operating system. Kumioko (talk) 08:39, 26 August 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for edit summary improvements
Just trying out the edit summary improvements, and they look great so far. Thanks for your continual work to improve AWB! GoingBatty (talk) 04:50, 22 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Magioladitis (talk) 06:36, 22 August 2012 (UTC)


 * ✅ - just upgraded to 8277. This is excellent. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:44, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

AWB diff appearence
I downloaded the latest version of AWB, the snapshot thing, and I've noticed that the diff looks very different than usual. It's not as colorful, and doesn't have the same blue-red-green color scheme that Wikipedia uses. I've also used STiki and there the color scheme looks normal. What's up with AWB? I liked the old color scheme but I can't figure out how to put it back! &bull; Jesse V.(talk) 18:13, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I rarely use the new AWB for this very reason. You can add the colours with AutoWikiBrowser/style.css but it's still got excessive whitespace display and is only a shadow of it's former self. Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 19:14, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
 * You're welcome to try my customized version, which I use here on Wikipedia as well as for AWB. Just copy everything under the DIFFS section to a file called "style.css", put it in your AWB directory, and start AWB. You can, of course, change it to suit your personal tastes. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:11, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you to you both. I checked out the style.css page Sun Creator linked to, and used that. The issue has been resolved, though at the moment prefer to change "font-size:smaller" to "font-size:100%" since the diff is easier to read. I would encourage the AWB devs to put the old css back, and to stop adding AutoWikiBrowser Sandbox to my list every time I launch it! Other than those two things, I really like the latest snapshot. &bull; Jesse V.(talk) 20:23, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
 * The new diff colours match up with new diff scheme in the Wikimedia software. It is designed for better readability and colour blindness issues.  I can actually see small diffs now.  Going from being unable to see alot of diffs to now seeing them is a godsend.  As with anything new, there will always be people who like the old way better and people who like the new way better. Bgwhite (talk) 21:42, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I would encourage everyone to test various css schemes and tweak colors to find what works best for one's individual taste and vision, both on AWB and editing here. I have normal color vision, and the old MediaWiki scheme was fine, except a space change was not visible at all. With the new one (and the new default AWB), such changes are visible, but barely so. When a single character is changed in a long paragraph, I'd generally have to carefully peruse both sides of the diff for a long time to discover the change. (My monitor may – or may not – be a factor in this.) The old AWB scheme at WP:AutoWikiBrowser/style.css is okay for colors, but it has the annoying problem of stretching the diff area when there's a long string. My version has a very pleasing color scheme and does not stretch the diffs, but does truncate long strings in AWB (which is almost never a relevant issue). M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  23:30, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I completely agree. I'll check out your CSS. :) &bull; Jesse V.(talk) 23:48, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
 * For the most part, Mandarax's css version is better than the default AWB's version. It fixes the glaring problems.  However, there is a big problem... Green.  Dark green background with black text doesn't work for colour blindness.  The green needs to be replaced by AWB's/MediaWiki's blue.  Bgwhite (talk) 21:41, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I copied that dark green, as well as the dark yellow, from the old AWB color scheme, and selected the other colors myself. The light MediaWiki blue against white doesn't work for me at all. As I said, everyone should tweak the colors according to their individual taste and vision. (As one might guess from my signature, I kinda like a green/yellow combination.) M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  23:40, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

Replacing whole templates
I want to replace certain instances of and related templates with carefully-chosen sub-templates of  and. So I need to be able to seek templates based on the value of particular parameters, and then replace the whole template with something based on that value: luckily it's a one-to-one correspondence, and only for set values, so not as complicated as it could be. How do I go about doing this with AWB? I have looked at the Manual without finding much help there. Anybody got any bright ideas? TIA HAND —Phil | Talk 16:09, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I have a bright idea: show us an example or two of what exactly needs to be changed. Chris the speller   yack  17:44, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
 * No worries. I need to find things that look like this:
 * and replace them with this:
 * The thing is that there's no way of telling how many of the parameters of the will be present, or in what order: the vital one is usually   although   might step in when necessary. I suppose it might be possible to construct a sufficiently knarly regex but I'm somewhat out of my depth right now. There's quite a few which I have to do by hand anyway, but being able to get AWB to automate any or it would ease the strain. Thanks for the help. —Phil | Talk 20:22, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) that seems to be pretty much a violation of WP:CITEVAR, and 2) This will rely on User:Citation bot's ability to fill in all the references correctly in a timely manner. Seems like a very very bad idea to implement in a default version of AWB. Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 20:37, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
 * The thing is that there's no way of telling how many of the parameters of the will be present, or in what order: the vital one is usually   although   might step in when necessary. I suppose it might be possible to construct a sufficiently knarly regex but I'm somewhat out of my depth right now. There's quite a few which I have to do by hand anyway, but being able to get AWB to automate any or it would ease the strain. Thanks for the help. —Phil | Talk 20:22, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) that seems to be pretty much a violation of WP:CITEVAR, and 2) This will rely on User:Citation bot's ability to fill in all the references correctly in a timely manner. Seems like a very very bad idea to implement in a default version of AWB. Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 20:37, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

Use of nbsp before units
Following some discussion last December, there seemed to be consensus that AWB should not be adding non-breaking spaces before unabbreviated units. See: for the rationale and the fix applied. It seems that it is still and as Mogism, it remains one of the vanilla settings, according to the documentation. Did something change since December last, or did the fix not work? --RexxS (talk) 18:10, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 23
 * http://autowikibrowser.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/autowikibrowser?revision=7887&view=revision
 * The editor still uses the older version. I left them a message. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:13, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Many thanks. Would it be worth somebody looking at updating the documentation, AutoWikiBrowser/General fixes, to avoid others thinking that the behaviour was "as intended"? --RexxS (talk) 18:31, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Done. If you see anyone else using AWB with no release number in their edit summary it means they still use the old version. Advice them to upgrade as soon as possible. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:01, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * 5.3.1.0 still seems to be the most recent fully-supported version, even though it is a year old. That's the version listed at AutoWikiBrowser and is the version available for downloading at Sourceforge -- John of Reading (talk) 19:10, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

why not introduce a autodate so when a release build is made replacing the old one everyoner will be updated burt it doesnt update to svn solve this type of problem, Andrewcrawford ( talk  -  contrib ) 19:16, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * We should be releasing more often. We had some technical problems but I hope we can release again soon. SVN are fully supported from our side. Don't worry about that. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:31, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Just wondering but is it possible we can force them to upgrade somehow? There seems to be quite a few folks using old versions (I've noticed it myself and negligently said nothing) and there are some pretty significant improvements to the coding that they should be using IMO. Kumioko (talk) 19:37, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * We can force upgrade between snapshots if necessary but I hope next week we can provide a proper release. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:49, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh ok, glad to hear it. Kumioko (talk) 20:01, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Village pump discussion
Hello. There is currently a discussion at WP:VPP that involves AWB. David 1217  What I've done 18:23, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Case-insensitive sort keys
Thanks for making sort keys case-insensitive! Up til now, I've been using a set of 26 regex replacements to take care of the situations I'm dealing with, so this will really help to simplify my settings.

All of the improvements to AWB are greatly appreciated! M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:57, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Magioladitis (talk) 07:58, 2 September 2012 (UTC)

Birth control
Hi I'm on a Mac. Could someone please take AWB to Birth control and see what it comes up with? I'm hoping you can move refs to the end of sentences in particular (there are a lot of them in the middle of sentences, which I think looks terrible and is against the style guide.) Any other improvements are also most welcome, especially eliminating redirects that look like they would clarify the text, unicodification, typo fixes, and general fixes. Thanks! &mdash;Cupco 23:17, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Done. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:48, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I guess there's no option or regexp to move references to the end of sentences? &mdash;Cupco 00:22, 2 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Got them. &mdash;Cupco 02:51, 2 September 2012 (UTC)

Mid-sentence refs are not "against the style guide". As a matter of fact, it specifically says they may be used, although it's "usually sufficient to add the citation to the end of the sentence or paragraph, so long as it's clear which source supports which part of the text." The MOS even includes an example. M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:54, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

Adding a site to the site menu
How do I add a site to the site menu? I have tried to use custom but cannot get it to load properly when starting AWB. Tired saving settings and saving default settings. Still will not automatically load my site. Also Tried using the switches /s "settings.xml" /u "UserName" to no avail. Thx DHC DarkShadow (talk) 16:04, 3 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Got it. When entering www.techinfodepot.info/ in the GUI all it would add is www.techinfodepot.info. Manually editing the settings file with www.techinfodepot.info/ did the trick. DHC DarkShadow (talk) 17:12, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

The new update seems to be slower
Is it just me or does the new update to AWB seem to be a bit slower than the old one. I don't want to seem like I am criticizing, just wondering if anyone else is having the same problem. Kumioko (talk) 01:09, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I haven't noticed any slowdown. Bgwhite (talk) 01:24, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * It must just be me then. Kumioko (talk) 02:00, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Have you tried the new release version, 5.4.0.0 (SVN 8347)? I find that it's much faster than SVN 8323. I suspect that the development snapshots include debugging code which slows them down. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:15, 4 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I had the same thing between 5.3.1.0 and 5.3.1.1. Did you previously use the option in options->preferences->site tab to use secure server? Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 23:38, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

AWB problems (watch related errors)
I've been using AWB for a while now. I was then notified I was using an old version - my edit summaries wouldn't list the version, just "updated with AWB," which meant I was using an old version.

I was given a link to download the new one here. I deleted my old version (simply deleted the folder to the recycle bin), and installed the first file on that link (AutoWikiBrowser5312_rev8323.zip). I saved it, and unzipped the file. I then double clicked the file to open it, and double clicked AutoWikiBrowser to run it.

When I went to click "save" to make my first edit on it, "Restarting in..." appeared on the bottom with a countdown. Based on the page, the number would change - sometimes "Restarting in 10" or "Restarting in 20" etc. It'd then go to 19, 18, 17, etc. When it reached 0, the page would just load again. I'm unable to save any edits.

NOTE: When I first opened it, it already knew my username and password... Which is weird, since I deleted the other folder. I also use Windows 7.

Can you please help out?

Thanks. --<small style="border: 1px dashed;padding:1px 4px 1px 3px;white-space:nowrap"> Activism  1234  01:14, 4 September 2012 (UTC)


 * As I'm the evil one who got you in this mess to begin with.....
 * Developers just released version 5.4, so you will have to download another copy again. You can find it at SourceForge, here.  It's at a different spot than the other place.


 * AWB stores its default config file in a different spot than the program, which is why AWB knew your username and password. It is stored at C:\User\{Username}\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser   By default, Windows cannot see the AppData directory in the file manager.  If you need help changing the default, just ask for help here.


 * I've seen three causes to the "Restarting in..." problem.
 * 1) Wikipedia resets connections. A simple closing AWB and restarting fixes this.  This is the most common problem.
 * 2) AWB didn't actually close when you closed it. Bringing up Task Manager to view running programs will allow you to see if it is still running and to kill it... or restart your computer.
 * 3) Something in the config file got messed up. Deleting C:\User\{Username}\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser folder usually fixes this.
 * Bgwhite (talk) 04:52, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I downloaded the new version and deleted the old one (the link on Khazar2's page). I've opened and closed AWB a number of times - same problem.  The window, however, does look different, so I know it's a new version.  AWB isn't running in my task manager.  I also went to my Local folder using your steps, but I did not have such a folder called AutoWikiBrowser... Maybe this is the problem? I'm going to restart my computer now, see if it works... If the problem is my folder, then errr well you know what to do! Thanks. --<small style="border: 1px dashed;padding:1px 4px 1px 3px;white-space:nowrap"> Activism  1234  05:15, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * No luck :( Whenever I try to edit with AWB, it gives the "Restarting in..." message. Perhaps I should just totally wipe my computer of AWB and then redownload one version, the most recent?  Can you briefly explain how I would wipe it out of my computer completely (and which version I should download?  Just the link you gave me on this thread?)?  I'm going to sleep for the night, but I appreciate your help. --<small style="border: 1px dashed;padding:1px 4px 1px 3px;white-space:nowrap"> Activism  1234  05:30, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * For me, the folder is .  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  08:33, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

I've exact the same problem (also Windows 7 (64-bit). regards --Pitlane02 talk  14:25, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * After "Reset to default settings" everything is working well. --Pitlane02 talk  16:35, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Now, I'm able to switch on and off this error. When the option "Add all to watchlist" is activated, the message "Restarting in..." is shown again, and the never ending circle is started. After deactivation of this option, everything is running well again. So, at the moment it's not possible to add something to the watchlist. Regards --Pitlane02 talk  16:54, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you for that information, so there is a specific problem with the add to watchlist feature. Activism1234 have you got "add to watchlist" enabled on the options menu? Rjwilmsi  17:29, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Wow thanks for that info! I switched it to "leave watchlist unchanged" and it works now. Looks like that's a bug they'll have to work out. Thanks. --<small style="border: 1px dashed;padding:1px 4px 1px 3px;white-space:nowrap"> Activism  1234  17:39, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Reedy has fixed the watchlist problem under change . For the moment, please edit with the setting on "leave watchlist unchanged". Rjwilmsi  18:55, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

Problem with preparse and while sorted Reverse alphabetically
When I try and preparse with a list of articles that are sorted reverse alphabetically, AWB forces the list back into alphabetical order when it hits a redirect. When it does this is also removes any articles that have been preparsed from the list. Has anyone else had this problem? Kumioko (talk) 10:07, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I couldn't reproduce this problem with the scenario you described. Rjwilmsi  19:00, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Ok I don't know what it is lately. Kumioko (talk) 22:57, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete all old AWB versions. If this doesn't work format hard disc :D -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:05, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I like the first idea, the second not so much. :-) Kumioko (talk) 23:13, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

Cannot install new version of AWB
I was using AWB today, and was having issues logging into my account on AWB. So, I tried to do the recommended step on AWB, which was to download a new version of AWB. However, the AutoUpdater did not find any new versions. So, after searching around for a while, I find that version 5.4 was released, so thus I downloaded it. However, when I try to open the .zip file for the download, I get "access denied." Is anyone else having similar issues? Steel1943 (talk) 04:00, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
 * AutoUpdater didn't work for me either, but I had no problem downloading and opening the .zip file. GoingBatty (talk) 04:19, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Ditto, AutoUpdater failed to find anything, but unzipping the file and running the new exe worked without a hassle. - X201 (talk)
 * Double ditto; evidently some issue with the Updater, but i'm glad the zipfile works. Cheers, LindsayHello 03:25, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Enable logging
Options -> Preference -> General tab -> Enable logging. Any more info on this? I was wondering if this was profiling.txt and if so where the file maybe found because it's not in the normal AWB folders. Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 22:52, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm guessing it is. I was running AWB in pre-parsed mode for a while and the profiling.txt file got to ~140MB. It was located in the same folder as AutoWikiBrowser.exe. I delete the file, disable Enable Logging, and the file is not regenerated there. &bull; Jesse V.(talk) 04:39, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't believe logging and profiling.txt are related. Any debug builds (snapshots are, main releases aren't) will always automatically generate profiling.txt, that's my understanding anyway. I'll investigate the logging further at a later date once the priority problems from the new release are sorted out. This isn't something that's changed between 5.3 and 5.4 Rjwilmsi  10:18, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Loging is only related with the Log tab on the right. If loging is enabled pages are divided to saved and skipped. For the skipped pages a skip reason is provided too. If you hover the mouse over a page in the Log you can also see some details on the function calls. This is unrelated with the profiling.txt which is autogenerated for debug builds (i.e. versions downloaded at snapshots page). -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:40, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

avoiding disambiguation pages
Using AWB in certain cases, I wish to skip all disambiguation pages so as not to work on them. In the skip field, I tried to do this with | | | but that does not cover every disambiguation page. Noticing that every such page seems to have where foo could be anything including multiple words such as , I then tried to add |  , but that syntax is ignored by skip. Any idea what works? Thanks Hmains (talk) 20:28, 9 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Try | - Good luck!  GoingBatty (talk) 20:45, 9 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I set a rule to skip pages that contain "could refer to". &bull; Jesse V.(talk) 00:32, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Many pages use "may refer to" though. -- Cheers, <span title="Shoot!" style="font-family: Mono; font-weight: bold; cursor: crosshair;"> Riley Huntley talk  00:35, 10 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks all. I think |  will work for my purposes. Hmains (talk) 01:46, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
 * From a Regex I wrote long ago and maybe out of date. "dab|\{disamb|\{disambig|\{given name|given names\]|\{hndis|\{surname|surname-stub|\bmay refer to\b" Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 01:53, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Profile.txt problem
I'm getting the standard error stating: "The process cannot access the file 'C:\xxxx\profiling.txt' because it is being used by another process." I am running two AWBs at the same time. I used to get this every once in a great while. However, since updating to SVN8399 from SVN8348, I'm now getting it every five minutes. When it happens, it skips the next article in the queue. It is driving me crazy. Was the problem introduced in the recent update? Something else? Bgwhite (talk) 22:48, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I noticed this also, but thought it could be because I'm running a non standard setup of 5.3.1.0 and 5.4.0.1 together. I suggest you report it as a bug, but I think a work around is to copy the AWB and associated files into a second folder and run the second copy of the .exe from there when the second .exe can create a separate profile.txt and other files. Still that's a bit of a botch and so I highly recommend it's reported as a bug. Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 23:53, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm also getting the error with SVN 8399 so often that I can't run my bot and manual work at the same time, whereas I used to be able to do this with previous versions. GoingBatty (talk) 00:29, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Bug reported. Bgwhite (talk) 04:55, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The simplest way round this is to have 2 copies of the AWB files in different directories, as by default it uses the profiling.txt in its current directory (unless that fails, when it falls back to using user AppData Reedy (talk) 22:41, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Can you try 8413 and see how that works for you? Reedy (talk) 23:15, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Skipping pages without alerts if there's no genfix
Is there a way to skip a page without any alerts (other than Multiple wiki-links) only if there are also no genfixes? For example, is it possible to make AWB to stop on a page where there are typos where there are no alerts? Inks.LWC (talk) 07:08, 18 September 2012 (UTC)
 * You ask two questions, but they can both be addressed up to a point by the same type of boolean technique.
 * skip a page without any alerts only if there are also no genfixes
 * "skip if alerts" and "skip if no genfixes"
 * stop on a page where there are typos where there are no alerts
 * "skip if alerts" and "skip if no typos"
 * Rich Farmbrough, 20:02, 18 September 2012 (UTC).


 * It was my understanding that RegExTypoFix was a type of genfix. So how do you set up a boolean expression that would do this? Inks.LWC (talk) 01:52, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Rich is referring to the tick boxes in the Skip tab of AWB. You just choose what you want to skip(what you don't want). Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 01:55, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Right, but if I select the "No alerts" box, then it will skip over a page if there are no alerts, even if there are genfixes or RegEx typos to fix. I want "No alerts" only if there are no genfixes or RegEx typos to fix. Inks.LWC (talk) 02:16, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I understand better now. I don't think that AWB can be made to do that (A OR B OR C)/(NOT A AND NOT B AND NOT C) unless there are some special variables allowed in the contains/not contains selections. Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 02:41, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Well thanks anyway. I guess it's off to the feature requests section for me! Inks.LWC (talk) 03:37, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

Location of default settings
Where are the default settings saved? I would like to back up the file in case my computer explodes or something. Thanks, ~Bobogoobo (talk) 21:17, 14 September 2012 (UTC)
 * At least on Windows Vista, it's at  -- John of Reading (talk) 21:31, 14 September 2012 (UTC)
 * And for XP it's .  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:11, 14 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Under File, click on "Save settings as". This will save the settings, including any changes you made, anywhere on your computer.  You can load up these settings at the login screen on under File -> Open Settings.   I personally have multiple settings and they are saved on my Google drive and dropbox folders.  Bgwhite (talk) 22:22, 14 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Sounds great, thanks! ~Bobogoobo (talk) 23:49, 14 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Could someone please update our FAQ to include this information? -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:52, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * ✅ GoingBatty (talk) 23:55, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

Where to find versions that work under x64 Windows 7?
As it was discussed here current version of AWB does not work properly under 64-bit Windows 7. The problem is that under that operation system GUI is quite distorted, many key buttons and sliders are missing and many GUI text is truncated or unreadable. See and the image annotations for some examples. Does anybody know if there is a separate x64 Windows 7 version available somewhere? Or is there some way to correct the problem? --Jarekt (talk) 16:31, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm running the standard AWB 5.4.0.0 with 64-bit Windows 7 without seeing these problems. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:54, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Works fine for me too. I wonder if you need to update drivers, .NET, or something like that. &bull; Jesse V.(talk) 18:05, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Do you have Windows set to a non-standard font size, or have DPI scaling on? AWB doesn't seem to resize correctly in this scenario. There are no problems I'm aware of with 64-bit Windows, I've been running AWB on 64-bit Windows 7 since Windows 7 was released. Rjwilmsi  20:58, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for replies. I was assuming that this is OS issue, but it seems like an issue with my machine. I will investigate further: reinstall .NET and check fonts, etc. --Jarekt (talk) 13:12, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I found it. The problem was with "Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display" setting with to "make it easier to read what is on your screen" set all my fonts to 125%. That was the default setting my new Dell machine come with. --Jarekt (talk) 13:34, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Well done! Glad you worked that out. Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 14:19, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

Wikify
Can we please turn off the logic to tag articles with Wikify now that the template is deprecated? I know that we are waiting to get some refined criteria of what to tag these articles with but in the mean time its continuing to add these tags and either adding them against the current desire to deprecate its use or requiring it to be manually removed from the edit. Kumioko (talk) 16:32, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I strongly support this. Currently this is the most problematic part of editing with AWB, since it seems like half the time I am preventing AWB from Wikifying everything. &bull; Jesse V.(talk) 17:03, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Both wikify and dead end are not accurate for the English Wikipedia right now. I don't know the status for Simple Wikipedia. Arabic wiki still uses wikify with the criteria we have set. -- Magioladitis (talk) 17:15, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I recommend that you disactivate tagging till the discussion on the talk pages is over. Still I don't think we will disactivate current version which still adds wikify for some time. Discussion on dead end and wikify proceeds very slowly at the moment. -- Magioladitis (talk) 17:18, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * For the moment I can't because the main reason for my current run is to identify what articles are stubs in Category:Unassessed United States articles and from what I know the autotag feature is what does that. If there were an option where we could select or deselect the functions we wanted (I envision something similar to the Autchange skip options button) then that would solve the problem a lot of users have where they are forced to choose all or none. For now though I'll just keep manually removing it. Good idea though. Kumioko (talk) 17:58, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * You can disactivate the autotagger and add the parts of tagger you want in the custom module. I don't if it is easy :) -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:31, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * It appears discussion about Wikify being depreciated is over. It has also been removed from Twinkle.  I just looked at the Tag menu on Twinkle and I don't see it.  I agree with Kumioko and have Wikify removed from the SVN version. Bgwhite (talk) 18:36, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Your right Magio I could, its pretty easy to do but on the other hand a lot of users are making edits with AWB and some of us are more diligent than others about watching our edits. Aside from my personal inconvenience of having to manually remove the edits, I think its in AWB's best interest to not add those tags. Kumioko (talk) 21:12, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I still think Wikipedia needs some maintenance template to say an article has no wikilinks and/or needs more wikilinks. I can respect the AWB developers if they choose to wait until there's consensus on how to use dead end and any replacement for wikify before changing AWB.  GoingBatty (talk) 00:36, 16 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I think we need an immediate fix of AWB completely ignoring wikify don't add it, don't remove it, treat it as if it doesn't exist. Then AWB should add dead end using the current criteria AWB uses for Wikify.  The criteria were specifically related to dead end anyways.  Once we have that problem fixed, we can be more specific on what the criteria should be for dead end.  I've already made my statement on that at Template talk:Dead end. Ryan Vesey 02:16, 16 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Am I running the most recent version (8414)? Wikify is still being added to pages. Ryan Vesey 15:37, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

Seperate but related issue
AWB continues to show the Wikify was added in the description eventhough that edit was not performed. As you can see by this edit I manually removed the addition of the Wikify tag but AWB continued to show this in the edit summary giving the impression to the viewer that edit was performed when it actually wasn't. Kumioko (talk) 22:03, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Which is weird but I consider slightly a good thing. Anyone who is watchlisting that article may click on the Wikify link in the edit summary and thus be informed that the article needs cleanup, and this can be done without adding an obsolete template to the page. &bull; Jesse V.(talk) 22:10, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * When you make manual edits, you should also manually change the summary in the Edit Summary tab to reflect your changes. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:51, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Kumioko, we changed the edit summary behaviour in the last release and now things are exactly as Mandarax mentioned. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:02, 16 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I like this new behavior, but it did take some getting used to. Since even our experienced users aren't aware of this new functionality, how else can we educate users what's new in 5.4.0.0?  GoingBatty (talk) 00:33, 16 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I see now how to change that thanks. Didn't really need that till now. Kumioko (talk) 02:04, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Editing the edit summary
How do you edit the edit summary for portions that AWB adds to the Default summary. For instance, if you go to an article that AWB thinks needs a tag, but you do not put the tag on the page, how do you change the edit summary to not say "added wikify tag" after whatever you have selected as the default summary? Inks.LWC (talk) 20:56, 21 September 2012 (UTC)
 * At the bottom right are the big tabs "Edit box/History/What links here/Edit summary..." - the full edit summary is displayed on the "Edit summary" tab and can be edited there. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:05, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

NoLimits Plugin 'tax the system'?
Does anyone know who wrote the NoLimits plugin, or how it works? There is a concern that its use will 'tax the system' and cause Wikipedia performance issues. Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 00:47, 22 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The concerns are unnecessary but understandable. AWB uses the function of the API that regulates the program to not tax the server to much (I'm sorry I cannot remember the name of the function at the moment). If the servers are stressed, then the API tells AWB to slow down and not use as much resources until the servers pick back up. Plenty of folks use that plugin and I have never heard of anyone slowing the server down. Kumioko (talk) 00:50, 22 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Also for whats its worth its still not "unlimited" I think it has a limit of 1 million pages if I remember right. Kumioko (talk) 00:57, 22 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Apihighlimits. See AutoWikiBrowser/NoLimits plugin. &bull; Jesse V.(talk) 02:04, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

AutoWikiBrowser help
How do I use AWB to make new categories? For example, I just started the new category Category:Future-Class Wyoming road transport articles using the following code:

. How can I do this with AWB? Also, how do I add these new categories to my watchlist? Thank you. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 00:36, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Switching to using AWB on another wiki
I can't access preferences right now to switch the site I'm using it on. It's giving me an error message:

So, what should I do? --69.115.19.117 (talk) 02:59, 2 October 2012 (UTC)
 * My WikiFunctions.dll is version 5.4.0.0, matching the EXE, so I suggest you try upgrading the DLL. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:39, 2 October 2012 (UTC)