Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests/Archive 5

=Implemented=

Appending reference section

 * I also have and implementation of this, in C#, but I have found it difficult to be able to automatically determine the correct placement of the references header with 100% accuracy, which means that sometimes my script has to give up on attempting to add to the references section. Still, I have some code which can correctly add a references section to the majority of articles that are missing it. Rjwilmsi  08:49, 23 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Added logic within general fixes to add reflist where it's missing (most situations caught). Logic restricted to en wiki only. Rjwilmsi  20:00, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I suspect the Metadatasorter might be a better way to put it in order... —  Ree dy  20:18, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Broken hyperlinks

 * If anyone wants a regex its  —Dispenser 18:44, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
 * The stickycarpet.com domain has been nominated for blacklisting due to spam problems so I have disabled the link above to www.stickycarpet.com/dam/dam194X.htm so as not to trigger the Mediawiki spam filter. Reference: meta:Talk:Spam blacklist (permanent link) . -- A. B. (talk) 01:38, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Reedy, if you want a failsafe version it would be  to be replaced with   —Dispenser 22:15, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks. MaxSem is fiddling with general fixes atm. I'll point him here and ask him to add it :) Reedy Boy 22:20, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Rule:   Add space to external links separated by a HTML entity and double-quote Replace: \[(\w://[^][<>" ]*)([<>"][^][]*)\] With:   [$1 $2]

Rule:   Add space to external links separated by wikimarkup converted into HTML entities Replace: \[(\w://[^][<>" ]*?)([^][]*)\] With:   [$1 $2] Tests: As you can see not at full proof as I'd like, however, I'd say that the " and double  don't have flaws. —Dispenser (talk) 07:15, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 1) span tag
 * 2) sign
 * 3) sign
 * 4)
 * 5) italics''
 * 6) bold '''
 * 7) bold & italics'
 * 8)

Some code from my tools. — Dispenser 04:43, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I've used the (http:?/+)+ fix in AWB: based on the March database dump there were 976 articles matching the pattern  (replacing with  ). Of these, about still 454 contained errors yesterday, which I've now fixed. I think this can be included as a new general fix. I'll have a look at the second one this evening.  Rjwilmsi  07:03, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I've had a look at the second one: in itself it's not a terribly useful fix as  is displayed and linked the same way as  . Still, it perhaps makes things neater (like Category: instead of category:) so can be a new general fix too. However, a related fix is   to   and this fixes   which links with the bar at the end of the URL (i.e. incorrectly), to   . So I certainly I propose this as a general fix. Thanks  Rjwilmsi  20:15, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

The two fixes I proposed worked without error, please now add them as general fixes. Thanks Rjwilmsi  22:27, 3 July 2008 (UTC)


 * So which 2 do we want to implement?

and

to

? —  Ree dy  09:05, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes please, those being the two I've tested. Thanks Rjwilmsi  12:45, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Will look at getting those implemented tonight. —  Ree dy  12:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)


 * . Anything else from this request to be implemented? Or is that it for this? —  Ree dy  19:43, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * adds another test. —  Ree dy  20:23, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Available in 4.5.0.0 release. Rjwilmsi 19:28, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Using AWB on 3rd-party site that uses .php5 extension

 * Cant do atm, but could put a check box in to say use ".php5" i suspect... —  Ree dy  20:57, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the quick reply. I figured that was the answer. A checkbox in a future update would be greatly appreciated! -- B.Rossow talk contr 21:05, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

For my info, just entry points - index.php, api.php —  Ree dy  17:04, 17 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Done —  Ree  dy  20:20, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Ref ordering
If we ask nicely, i suppose, we can probably use the regex's/whatever and add via a similar method... Reedy Boy 22:00, 8 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes please! Would that mean something like the "Find and replace" feature? James086 Talk &#124;  Email 00:14, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes and no. You could probably do it manually via that method, but to include it automatically in the general fixes, i presume, it would be a set of regular expressions looking for certain matches, and then replacing the space in it with a non-break space Reedy Boy 09:38, 9 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Please do not add this feature. Breaking spaces are a good thing. Non-breaking spaces make Wikipedia difficult to read on small screens. Lightmouse (talk) 17:35, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Not really in this case. A linebreak between a measurement and the unit is more difficult to read than the same without the linebreak, and measurement + unit is often so short it does not matter when it comes to small screens. Denying this feature because of screen real estate would be kind of similar to restricting usage of long words. Plrk (talk) 21:56, 4 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Agree with Plrk – the MOS is clear that a non-breaking space should be used for units. The objective now is to provide >99.9% reliable regexes to apply this, so that they can start to be added into AWB. Rjwilmsi  22:02, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Just incase anyone's unclear on this, Manual of Style (dates and numbers) states that nbsp's are only needed for abbreviations and symbols, so spelled-out unit won't need them. Epbr123 (talk) 23:10, 4 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Epbr123 for pointing out the guidance. The issue of nbsp is much discussed on Wikipedia but hardly anywhere else. Perhaps it is regarded as less important and I suspect the 'do not care much' view is common. For example, BBC news is not too worried about them, it allows line breaks in the middle of units. I know that dissenting on this topic is rare but I happen to be a dissenter. The best that I can hope for is that you do not exceed the guidance. Lightmouse (talk) 23:54, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Clearly we won't exceed the MOS guidance, and yes I think we had all understood that this applies to abbreviated units only. To kick things off, here's a suggestion for handling SI base units. We would of course need to avoid changing things in templates, URLs and links etc. and there would be false positives on million for metre and 1980s for seconds:

How does it look? Thanks Rjwilmsi  01:28, 5 July 2008 (UTC)


 * You can replace [0-9] with \d
 * Lightmouse (talk) 06:48, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Okay Rjwilmsi  07:43, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Logic similar to the above added to cover the most common base units (but not plain 'm' and 's' due to '50m people' and '1980s' etc.). Rjwilmsi 19:59, 27 January 2009 (UTC)


 * This feature is now working (svn3888). I know this is a minority view but I really don't like it. It makes the edit mode text harder to read. Lightmouse (talk) 12:10, 31 January 2009 (UTC)


 * A possible refinment could be to use the now fixed val template (with numbers with 12 significant digits or less), or the use of nowrap instead of &amp;nspb;. I'm just suggesting things, since I really don't mind seing &amp;nbsp;s in the edit window.Headbomb {{{sup|ταλκ}}κοντριβς – WP Physics} 23:12, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Move dablinks at the very top of the article

 * I'm working on this. Rjwilmsi  13:31, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Done. Templates supported are  (?:For2?|[Dd]ablink|[Dd]istinguish2?|[Oo]therpeople[1-4]|[Oo]therpersons|[Oo]therplaces[23]?|[Oo]theruses-number|[Oo]theruses[1-4]?|[Rr]edirect-acronym|[Rr]edirect[2-4]?|[Dd]n|[Aa]mbiguous link|[Dd]isambig-acronym) . Rjwilmsi  21:19, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Replace nofootnotes with morefootnote if references exists

 * Adds the logic to replace nofootnotes with Morefootnotes as needed. Now need to do the warning bit... Rjwilmsi  19:02, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Warning if >4 references but one of the above templates. Rjwilmsi  19:22, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Removing ordinal indicators from dates

 * An additional consideration is the fact that text within quotes shouldn't be changed. However, the new version of AWB now includes logic to mask quotes, therefore this could be implemented. However, I would not intend to implement this until we are able to differentiate between trivial and visible general fixes (as in this fix would be a visible one). Thanks Rjwilmsi  19:11, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

New ('significant') general fixes to remove ordinals from American/International dates, and to remove 'of' between a month and a year per WP:MOS standards. Text in quotes, external links, templates etc. excluded. Rjwilmsi 00:37, 30 January 2009 (UTC) Don't catch "the Xth Month" or "the Month Xth" as changing such sentences makes them read badly. Rjwilmsi 15:15, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Split 'Auto tag' into 'Auto tag remove' and 'Auto tag add'
The 'Auto tag' feature says that it does two things: I would be delighted to be able to remove excessive tags but I do not want to add tags. Can this feature be split? Lightmouse (talk) 12:27, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * add tags
 * remove tags


 * I've done a bit of code refactoring for this, and it should be possible. Could split off function wise, but a few if's could sort it —  Ree dy  15:31, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

It will be nice if you can get it working. Lightmouse (talk) 09:12, 16 September 2008 (UTC)


 * First of all, if you don't want to add tags automatically, there must be a reason for it. If you've encountered instances where AWB added unneeded tags, tell us where. Improvements to existing fnctionality are highly welcome regardless of implementation ofthis request. Max S em(Han shot first!) 09:31, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I have seen pages with: I am sure there are more examples of tag use that I wouldn't like. Excessive tagging is probably due to misplaced enthusiasm by editors, rather than AWB. I have used 'merge' tags on a few occasions but in general I would like to see a net decrease in tags. Consequently, the remove tags part of the feature is something I welcome. Lightmouse (talk) 12:41, 17 September 2008 (UTC)
 * multiple tags
 * low added value tags like:
 * 'this page is in the middle of an edit' even though the editor that added the tag has not changed it in 3 weeks
 * 'this is a short page, please make it longer'


 * splits up the Tag Adding/Removing in the code, doesn't do anything gui wise though —  Ree dy  14:27, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. It currently has one checkbox with the label: 'Auto tag'. I imagine two checkboxes with labels 'Auto add tags' and 'Auto remove tags'. Or something like that. I look forward to seeing it on the gui when you have time. Lightmouse (talk) 14:39, 27 January 2009 (UTC)


 * As far as I understand the change is only in the code for easier implementation in the short future. Do you think we need too checkboxes as well? Is there any reason someone would not remove an orphan tag? -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:45, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thinking it through: I would class removing tags as a 'general fix'. So it should probably be added to that. The existing 'Auto tag' checkbox would be reduced in scope to adding tags only, but the label would not need to change. Lightmouse (talk) 14:59, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Also makes more sense to me (or something nearer that). Dating tags and such too should be a GF —  Ree dy  15:39, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * . Still needs overhauling though (also removes more tags now) —  Ree dy  16:29, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I look forward to getting it. I don't propose any tests but will run some if you want. Lightmouse (talk) 17:49, 27 January 2009 (UTC)


 * It correctly removed a stub tag from a large article. Thanks. Lightmouse (talk) 18:33, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Differentiate between trivial and visible general fixes
General fixes are by definition trivial, although that doesn't stop us from including them as a test in the DB scanner. — Dispenser 01:25, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Disagree. Example: general fixes to correct misformatted external links like  http:/www.site.com  that would give a reader who clicked on it a 'page not found' error before correction. It's these sort of fixes that merit an edit even if there are no other changes. Thanks Rjwilmsi  11:38, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Initial implementation of the above. FixSyntax and AddMissingReflist are marked as 'significant' general fixes. Other fixes need to be reviewed to see if they are significant too. Rjwilmsi 18:59, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Custom Module to have similar 'Ignore...' settings as in 'Normal settings', 'Find & Replace' dialog

 * The idea is you do it all yourself. If you want to "hide" links, etc (quotes except blockquotes aren't hidden by AWB), use the HideText object. —  Ree dy  14:01, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I like the flexibility to do it all myself. I believe that I have the hide text object in User:Lightmouse/AWB/scripts/add metric units, somebody kindly helped me with that. I am really now focussing on hiding quotes using my AWB scripts and in my monobook script. I just thought the Find and Replace dialog was a good example but I would prefer to do it myself. Regards Lightmouse (talk) 14:06, 17 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Since the functionality is already available, what's the request here (the hide quotes feature request is already known)? Rjwilmsi  14:14, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

The request was to allow the same functionality for modules. You have persuaded me that module writers should code for themselves and it isn't necessary so I suppose the answer to the request is 'Won't do'. I would be grateful if you could tell me how to code for hiding quotes, I know this isn't a regex help page but I don't know where else to go. My ' ArticleText = ht.Hide(ArticleText); doesn't protect quotes. Lightmouse (talk) 14:28, 17 January 2009 (UTC)
 * ht.HideMore and ht.AddBackMore would do Blockquotes... —  Ree dy  14:34, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. I added ht.HideMore at the top and ht.AddBackMore at the bottom. I am half way there, it knew that the quote is different but it replaced it with something else: Any suggestions? Lightmouse (talk) 15:03, 17 January 2009 (UTC)
 * ⌊⌊⌊⌊M0⌋⌋⌋⌋
 * That's how HideMore works – it replaces things with tags like the above, then AddBackMore replaces them with what was there in the first place.
 * NB, I'm going to look at changing AWB to hide quotes from typo fixing (using a similar solution, which would be available to custom modules). Rjwilmsi  16:03, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

I had AddBackMore after AddBack. I put AddBackMore first and it works now. Thanks! Your other comment noted. Can you suggest a solution to protect quotes when using my monobook script? Lightmouse (talk) 16:44, 17 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I suspect converting HideText to javascript would be MORE than a ballache... —  Ree dy  17:02, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Somebody gave me some code that involves these lines: var linkmap=[]; txt.value=txt.value.replace(/Image:[^|]+/gi, function(img){ linkmap.push(img); return "\x02"+(linkmap.length-1)+"\x03"; }); txt.value=txt.value.replace(/\x02([0-9]+)\x03/g, function(x, n){ return linkmap[n]; I don't understand what it does but perhaps quote and cquote templates would need similar code. Lightmouse (talk) 17:09, 17 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I am marking this feature request as 'functionality already in existence' in AWB, as following the 4.5 release of AWB it is possible to hide quotes by calling the HideMore function. Any custom module writer who has problems using this functionality can contact one of the AWB developers for further help; the custom module user guide can then be updated with more examples. Rjwilmsi  19:40, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Lightmouse (talk) 10:20, 30 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I've added a brief example to the Custom Modules page here. Thanks Rjwilmsi  12:27, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Listbuilder: links on pages excluding red links

 * Wonder if theres a way to modify the API query to deal with this.. i suspect not.. —  Ree dy  21:56, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Cant really be done without scraping the page (ie the colour of the html links, or checking each wikilink). You could put in a MW bug/request for an option to select only bluelinks.. Dont know if would get implemented. —  Ree dy  10:20, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

- Put in bug for developers to comment as to whether its feasible (its doable), just whether its too DB friendly —  Ree dy  22:11, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Seems its doable. —  Ree dy  22:18, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

MaxSem: Any suggestions on the best way to implement this. Just needs to work through it and look for the attribute if its there... —  Ree dy  18:26, 16 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks a lot for looking into this, glad to see that it is not too far off now! Voorlandt (talk) 20:40, 16 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Well overdue - —  Ree  dy  23:12, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

&#123;{commons|Category:XXX}} > &#123;{commonscat|XXX}}
I think that could work. &#123;{commonscat}} will work if the commons cat is the same as the name as the wiki page. Snowman (talk) 00:50, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Am I right to assume that this should be restricted to the English Wikipedia only? And secondly, can somebody provide me with some examples of correct edits making such changes. Rjwilmsi  19:04, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Done. Rjwilmsi 18:39, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Hyphen to en dash replacement
I often find em-dashes used erroneously in these situations. Why not generalize the above to find and correct them (to en-dashes) too?--BillFlis (talk) 13:23, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
 * That's a good idea. The hyphen above could be replaced with (-|—|&amp;mdash;|&amp;#8212;).&mdash; Chowbok  ☠  14:14, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Of course you mean (?:-|—|&amp;mdash;|&amp;#8212;) so you don't have to change $3 to $4 everywhere, etc.--BillFlis (talk) 14:41, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Looks fine to me (and we know you know what you're doing regex wise ;))... MaxSem, you ok with it too? —  Ree dy  18:22, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's better. Thanks!&mdash; Chowbok  ☠  18:38, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
 * So far I don't see a definite consensus at WT:AWB/T. Max S em(Han shot first!) 18:28, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Nobody's objected to the idea of doing the substitution; the only disagreement is whether we should use "–" or "&amp;ndash;" for en dashes. I would argue that since en and em dashes are already excepted from the UTF-8 substitution routines, we should by the same logic use "&amp;ndash;"... but I'll leave this up to the discretion of the AWB developers.&mdash; Chowbok  ☠  18:38, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I've changed my mind. Let's go ahead and put this in with the 8-bit en dashes instead of the entities.&mdash; Chowbok  ☠  15:46, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
 * well since the originator has decided to go with 8-bit, the only point of contention on the issue, it seems a good idea to implement this. -ΖαππερΝαππερ BabelAlexandria 17:18, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Initial implementation of this. Still room for expansion, but let's see how we go first. Rjwilmsi 22:31, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

A small improvement to "find and replace" function

 * Agreed, is a good idea. Unfortunately its not as simple as i expected, due to it only showing "Replaced:" once, then groups, i'll have to do some rework of the way the summaries are built up. —  Ree dy  15:23, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Not that difficult. Rjwilmsi  21:06, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Section edit summaries
Hopefully not too complicated to implement, and I think it would be very helpful for people tracking certain parts of an article being able to disregard certain edits by AWB. BigBlueFish (talk) 10:55, 23 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Good idea. I second this one. Rjwilmsi (talk) 12:42, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

This was a complicated problem to work out, but I think I've got it. You have a regular expression that splits sections out like  which breaks the article up into a list of level two sections. You search each new section in the original text, if it exist/stays the same you remove it the from the list. If you are left with one you can use either the heading of the section or repeat the search with level 3 headings. If the list is empty you restart the search comparing the old text to the new, checking if sections were removed. — Dispenser 07:56, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll have a go at this one based on level two headings. Rjwilmsi  12:27, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Added for level 2 headings. Further recursion to level 3 etc. could be added, but let's see how this logic goes first. Rjwilmsi  17:52, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Fix accessdate tags

 * I've got quite keen on this one - User:Rjwilmsi/accessdate. There's an issue with the citation template which I think would need to be resolved before this could be an AWB general fix. Rjwilmsi (talk) 22:17, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
 * ,, . Rjwilmsi  07:08, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Placement of portal template

 * I'm working on this. Rjwilmsi  16:32, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * . Done for portal. Rjwilmsi  19:30, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * support moving multiple portal templates in an article. Rjwilmsi  21:52, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Remove uncategorized when a category exists

 * Think the tagger code needs overhauling TBH... —  Ree dy  00:03, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
 * splits up the Tag Adding/Removing in the code. Helps towards the ease of adding the above —  Ree dy  14:26, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * That should do it. Just need to add all the synonyms of uncategorised. Rjwilmsi  18:19, 3 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Adds all the redirects. Rjwilmsi  18:30, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Add template to list of sources
I would also like to suggest adding template to the drop down list of sources. Although this would also be for the source drop down on the main page this would allow users to compare against templates (Military infobox template with no DEFAULTSORT template for instance).--Kumioko (talk) 18:55, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
 * What transcludes page? (with Template:Target as the target page) —  Ree dy  19:54, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks, thats just proof that you (or I in this case)learn something new everyday.--Kumioko (talk) 22:32, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Increase limit on size of article list

 * This was the issue.., Most wouldnt need it, few would, and like you say, it easy and nicely doable. It was to be "nicer" to the WMF serves and prevent huge lists when users didnt need it. Its whether im happy about doing it in core, or just write a simple plugin (< 5 mins work) that would give you unlimited category traversal... —  Ree dy  10:00, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd be happy with a plugin. Didn't know this could be done with a plugin.  I'd say if you choose to do it in core, make it a configurable option with a default of 25,000 (or even less).  That should help prevent the WMF servers from being taxed quite as much by people who don't even bother to look at the option.  Matt (talk) 22:52, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * While a Plug-In sounds nice; wouldn't it also be reasonable to assume that all bots might need a large article list, so let that group and admins get unlimited and regular users 25,000? Or is that thinking not possible? Either way, a plug-in does sound nice. §hep  Talk  23:16, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Not all bots need large lists. I am pro a plugin but not everyone should be able to load it. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:31, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Simplest way... Plugin that does it unlimited (recursive and non recursive) category traversal.. With a Bot/Admin check? —  Ree dy  00:09, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Would be possible to limit the access to Admins and bot which really need it and have taken approval for that? (Am I becoming to bureaucratic?) -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:14, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I guess all the bots which needed will get the approval and the rest won't load it. I think a plugin with Bot/Admin check is ok. -- Magioladitis (talk) 08:03, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
 * That's what I was thinking. §hep  Talk  00:35, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

"Category (NL, Admin & Bot)" and "Category (NL, Admin & Bot, recursive)". NL being no Limits. ,, uploaded a snapshot —  Ree dy  20:15, 15 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks, §hep  Talk  20:42, 15 March 2009 (UTC)
 * It works! Granted, it's slow, but I suppose that's to be expected when you're queueing up 285,000 articles.  Thanks!  Matt (talk) 06:22, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Add defaultsort to pages with special letters and no defaultsort

 * Added, but if article has lifetime it won't add a defaultsort. Need some more thought on that (would have broken existing logic otherwise). Rjwilmsi  23:19, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Works with lifetime too. Done. Rjwilmsi  23:48, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Good. It seemed to me that it already worked (WP:WPCHECK). Sorry about that. -- User:Docu


 * It works fairly well with pages listed at check #37. One just has to keep in mind that pages like Sébastien Squillaci need a human name sortkey. -- User:Docu


 * For Vietnamese names, it could convert Cần Thơ to Can Tho. -- User:Docu
 * Done. Rjwilmsi  17:53, 15 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I wasn't aware this is a list. For Vietnamese, just three are missing:
 * ƠưƯ => OuU
 * -User:Docu
 * Those three added too. Rjwilmsi  17:49, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

More reflist changes

 * Done. Rjwilmsi  18:31, 6 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks. In new pages, this type of issue still occurs frequently.
 * I noticed that the exception can be more limited as frequently "==External links==", "==See also==", "==References==" are inserted with "==". However, even with all these fixes, there are still about 3000 articles listed in the above check that need to be fixed differently. -- User:Docu

Headlines end with colon (WikiProject Check Wikipedia #57)

 * Done. Rjwilmsi  17:40, 7 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Great thanks. Once this and the other changes go live, we could ask sk to add a notice to WP:CHECKWIKI's news section for all languages. -- User:Docu

Change -- (two dashes) to — (em dash)

 * Done as requested, logic applied to the same restricted view of the article that typo fixing sees i.e. images, templates, quotes etc. all hidden. Rjwilmsi  14:06, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Pre-parse list to purge it of negatives such as 'no change'

 * Errm.. If you preparse a list with any skip options you want on it, it'll remove those as it processes it.. Thats the whole point of it —  Ree dy  19:58, 15 March 2009 (UTC)


 * But it's really good that Lightmouse asked this question because I had totally missed that feature until now. Awesome!-- Fabrictramp |  talk to me  20:05, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Ooo. I use skip all the time but hadn't thought of using skip for preparsing. I will try it. I withdraw the request for now. Thanks. Lightmouse (talk) 20:27, 15 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I have tried this feature and I am very happy with it. Thanks. Feel free to remove the request. Lightmouse (talk) 07:29, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Remove text that says Double-click on a line to undo all changes on that line, or single click to focus the edit box to that line.
We must develop a mechanism that will display this message several times at first, and then will not do it. Max S em(Han shot first!) 05:18, 12 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Saving in a settings xml wouldnt be appropriate. However, saving in the "Properties.Settings.Default" which we use for window size, state, etc etc, may make sense? —  Ree dy  08:05, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

Further thoughts:
 * There are other elements that consume space that do not add value for the experienced user.
 * Column titles 'Current revision' and 'Your text'
 * The black box border around the column titles.
 * The black box border around the whole of the 'Show changes' text. This looks like it uses up space on all four sides of the frame.


 * Some applications have a 'Tips' dialog appear each time the application starts. They often have a check box for 'Show tips'. Such a dialog may be a suitable place for the message telling a new user what to do. Just a thought. Lightmouse (talk) 18:18, 12 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Here's a good idea: we could insert an anchor halfway one the line with "Current revision/Your text" such the text is cut off halfway. This arrangement hints to new users to scroll up to see the cutoff text any everything before it, while allowing people like Lightmouse who don't know about the custom CSS option to have more text when loading.  — Dispenser 23:43, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Seems a better idea to me. Then its there if anyone needs/wants it, but if its focused on that by default... —  Ree dy  16:12, 22 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Someone fancy telling me what to do put the anchor in, etc... ;) (obv its ...) —  Ree dy  10:04, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

It would be very nice if we could have more 'diff' visible on the screen rather than help text. Any way of moving forward with this one? Lightmouse (talk) 16:24, 27 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Diff scroll patch - Couldn't use an anchor (didn't know howto set to the top of the page, so its a javascript solution. I've also replace some HTML with CSS and adding more classes from MW diff, so user CSS is compatible.  Lastly I'd recommend loading the style.css using a link element  in the header and moving the CSS to the file.  — Dispenser 03:16, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

After user has made 10 edits, stop showing the help text at the top of the diff. Rjwilmsi 16:14, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Additional characters for DEFAULTSORT

 * Done. Rjwilmsi  06:28, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Move nofootnotes to the references section

 * How would AWB know what section is the references section of an article when 'References', 'Notes', 'Footnotes' etc. can all be used as that section's heading? I need more info & examples before I can implement this. Thanks Rjwilmsi  13:33, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Since there is no general rule, the usual for me is to put in what occurs first from 'References', 'Notes', 'Footnotes'. If there is nothing of them I put it under the text before the nav templates. AWB can just leave it unchanged if none of the three exists. -- Magioladitis (talk) 02:31, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Personally I prefer to have this at the top of the article, as this touches the entire article. Is there a guideline for the placement of the banner? Headbomb {{{sup|ταλκ}}κοντριβς – WP Physics} 05:39, 24 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Read the documentation please. It reads "To add this template to an article, copy and paste into the references section of the article." The reason is that we want the banner appear where the footnotes are supposed to be. Try reading unreferenced and refimprove as well and make sure that you are using the correct template to warn users. -- Magioladitis (talk) 05:44, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

The template will be moved from the zeroth section to the top of the first of the 'References', 'Notes' or 'Footnotes' sections if found. Rjwilmsi 18:27, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Paste list



 * You *CAN* just paste from clipboard. —  Ree dy  20:35, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Eh, right. But it only pastes single article, even if I copied hundred lines. See - when I ctrl+v on AWB, I get only "1 Brygada Strzelców Karpackich". But, even weirder, when I right-click it and choose "Copy", I have the whole list again in clipboard. It seems like AWB does not correctly handle "\n" instead of "\r\n", and new Opera 10 (which I use) copies "\n"s. When I tried copying from Firefox, it worked. It seems like we accidentally found new bug :) Matma Rex pl.wiki talk 14:19, 4 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It works for me when I paste into the list box. Interesting discovery BTW. -- User:Docu
 * , that adds \n to the splitting list.. My internet is being crap, so haven't had chance to check it —  Ree dy  10:20, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Works for me now. —  Ree dy  20:38, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Add ability to sort summaries
I think that this is already possible by going to options (the drop down menu at the top of the screen, not the tab) and selected "edit summaries" or something similar (not positive that's where it is though; I'm not using AWB at the moment). –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 00:23, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * You can edit the list this way but the only way to sort is to copy it to excel or something and sort it that way and then copy and paste it back.--Kumioko (talk) 00:37, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

—  Ree dy  20:36, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Remove expand when a stub template exists

 * Done for en-wiki only, but note I have not allowed for people misusing expand tags by placing them in sections and meaning them as 'expand section' templates. Rjwilmsi  09:57, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Template misuse is a big problem. I am trying to think of ways to automatically fix some of it. -- Magioladitis (talk) 10:18, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Format references

 * If we do that they will just appear as numbered items, as they have no description. Is that really an improvement to the article? Rjwilmsi  07:02, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
 * True, perhaps that could be added as an alert then.--Kumioko (talk) 12:08, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
 * What wording would you like for the alert (keep it short)? Rjwilmsi  19:26, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
 * How about something like "Unformatted references found" or "Unbracketted references found". --Kumioko (talk) 19:48, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Okay, I'll get this done in the next few days. Rjwilmsi 17:29, 27 May 2009 (UTC) display alert "unformatted references found" if references section of article contains bare URLs. Rjwilmsi 18:18, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Replace BASEPAGENAME

 * Got a link to say it should always be substituted? Rjwilmsi  17:12, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Not specifically, but is there any reason that it shouldn't, at least in mainspace pages (which is what I meant, just didn't mention)? –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:24, 10 May 2009 (UTC)


 * At some point, wasn't there a fix that substituted PAGENAME ? If yes, I think it should be the same for BASEPAGENAME. -- User:Docu
 * PAGENAME/PAGENAMEE are still done. —  Ree dy  21:38, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Also, the mainspace doesn't use subpages so BASEPAGENAME is essentially the same as PAGENAME in ns:0. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 21:46, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

BASEPAGENAME treated the same as PAGENAME. Rjwilmsi 16:51, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Missing opening or closing brackets, table and template markup (WikiProject Check Wikipedia # 10, 28, 43, 46, 47)

 * Plugin to read the section shown on CheckWikipedia page and highlight it in AWB edit box using find? Reedy might be able to.
 * I also intend to look through those errors and add logic to AWB general fixes to correct common ones with known patterns. Rjwilmsi  11:12, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Provide logic to look for unbalanced square or curly brackets, provide warning to user, and optionally highlight them to user in edit box (first one found only). Activate new flag under Options menu, disable Highlight first unbalanced brackets if found.
 * Items remaining:
 * Some problem that means highlighted unbalanced bracket sometimes loses focus
 * Need to have logic to enforce the fact that auto focus end of edit box and Highlight first unbalanced brackets if found are mutually exclusive.
 * Include more logic to correct the most common bracket errors. Rjwilmsi  20:58, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Excellent, thanks for implementing this. At WT:CHECKWIKI, we are looking forward for a new build to test it. -- User:Docu
 * add some regexes that fix a number of common bracket errors around references and external links. Rjwilmsi  18:23, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * logic to enforce the fact that auto focus end of edit box and Highlight first unbalanced brackets if found are mutually exclusive. Rjwilmsi  21:17, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Focus on the unbalanced bracket is now how I want it. Rjwilmsi  23:05, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Remove selflinks
Why I think there is an active discussion about that and that there was no consensus for that action? Is there anything written in the Manual of Style about that? -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:20, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Where is the discussion? I guess that I missed it. Could you point me to it? Thanks. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 21:22, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * There is a discussion in Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Check_Wikipedia under the "Title in text". There is a WP:NOHARM argument and more. WP:BOLDTITLE doesn't say anything for this change. You can participate there. You have to know that I weak support this change but this is not the place for this discussion. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:08, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, right. That had slipped my mind; there doesn't seem to be consensus for or against the change there, so leave it as it is. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:10, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmm... it seems that this is already present in the recent SVN builds. I've been using it a little; if I notice many of these replacements that shouldn't have been changed I'll mention something here but so far it seems to be working perfectly. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 02:49, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Now it seems like it doesn't make the first instance of the article's name bold if it was previously bolded via a wikilink; it just removes the link. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 02:53, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

AWB always used to do this, what happened? Rich Farmbrough, 13:35 11 May 2009 (UTC).
 * I think it is doing this again, I have made several edits since the release of the update yesterday and it is removing the self links again.--Kumioko (talk) 14:07, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * In updating the logic for the bolding of the first use of the article title I've inadvertently removed the 'first self link to bold' logic, so I'll reinstate it. Rjwilmsi  08:17, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * That one fixed at Bugs#Bold_names. Rjwilmsi  14:51, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Remove duplicate parameters from templates
If the values of the parameters are different, only a warning can be given.-- Magioladitis (talk) 15:31, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Better than nothing. --Pascal666 20:37, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I can do remove if parameter and value are exactly the same, warn if parameters the same but different values. Rjwilmsi  22:13, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * That would be perfect. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:15, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

This may already be partially implemented. just automagically made this edit. Perhaps the problem with my example above is that AWB was adding a parameter without checking if it already existed (in which case this would be a bug not a feature request). --Pascal666 05:35, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Added for article issues and citation templates. Rjwilmsi 17:40, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Count header link removal as a MOS fix

 * Better to add exceptions. 'XXXX in poetry' and what else? Rjwilmsi  15:31, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd say that most any article with a year # or month name in its title could get false positives, as would many, many lists (so skip articles with "list of..." in their titles). –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 15:34, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

, Exceptions added: month name in title, year in title, title starts with 'List of'. Rjwilmsi 16:01, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Awesome! Thanks. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 16:04, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Add option to stop AWB from taking the section header name in the edit summary

 * Nothing has changed in the API. Rjwilmsi explicitally implemented it - —  Ree  dy  23:55, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Having this as an on/off option would be nice, so people who want it can use it and people who don't want it don't have to. I'm personally against its use, but I understand that others would like it. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 01:24, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * While I appreciate the effort put into implementing this complicated feature, I'd like to reiterate my desire to make section edit summaries optional. In addition to issues related to edits made in the "section after the last section" or adding a new section, it also takes up precious space from the very limited number of characters available. And, of course, it messes up Xeno's meticulously crafted edit summaries. MANdARAX  •  XAЯAbИAM  02:14, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Okay, I'll introduce an option to turn it off for those who write their own better edit summaries. Rjwilmsi  08:02, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks kindly =) –xeno talk 13:51, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Any new SVN with the fix ( feature ? ) --  Tinu  <em style="font-family:Kristen ITC;color:#ff0000">Cherian  - 14:15, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Patience. I haven't done it yet. When I mark this as fixed you'll see what SVN version includes it... Rjwilmsi  17:50, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Provide option to not use section edit summaries. Rjwilmsi 20:01, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks again! –<b style="font-family:verdana; color:black;">xeno</b> <sup style="color:black; font-family:verdana;">talk 14:16, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Correct case for %%key%%
Applies this logic to the defaultsort key within the MetaDataSorter (AWB automatic addition/correction of defaultsort). I'll look into whether insertion via right click calls the same logic. Rjwilmsi 07:50, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * This has been requested under Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature_requests too. Rjwilmsi  07:57, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I originally mentioned this as a reply to that request, but I moved it to a separate request because it's very different. I'm not suggesting that any changes be made as general fixes. I just want the value with correct capitalization to be available to users. Sort keys are tricky because there are so many complicated rules with many exceptions. My suggestion is to implement a simple rule with no exceptions. Rev 4336 does not fix %%key%% or right click insertion, as I tested it with SVN 4340. M<SMALL>AN</SMALL>d<SMALL>ARAX</SMALL>  •  <SMALL>XAЯA</SMALL>b<SMALL>ИA</SMALL>M  08:40, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Defaultsort added via context menu uses Proper Case for sortkey. Rjwilmsi  13:02, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The same logic is used for inserting the disambig. Marking as added. Rjwilmsi  16:59, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Detect multiple DEFAULTSORT
If would add to this: If both DEFAULTSORT and Lifetime exist then subst Lifetime to reveal categories and remove duplicated defaultsort. -- Magioladitis (talk) 07:54, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Part fix: if all the DEFAULTSORTs are the same then remove all but one. Rjwilmsi  10:06, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Out of curiosity, what's missing that makes this is a partial fix? Thanks! --Auntof6 (talk) 10:43, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * If there are two DEFAULTSORT with different sortkeys then AWB won't remove either, as it how would it know which to remove? However I think the occurrence of this is so infrequent that it's not worth the effort to write lots of logic to handle it. Rjwilmsi  10:48, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I thought I read somewhere that only the last one in an article is used. I'll see if I can find where I read that. If true, AWB could remove all but the last. --Auntof6 (talk) 11:14, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It is the last used, but maybe not be the correct one. I agree with the partial implementation. -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:22, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * True, it might not be the correct one. I was just thinking that it's at least the one that's actually in effect. In any case, in most of the cases I've seen, they were all the same, so this will help. --Auntof6 (talk) 11:39, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It would be extremely unlikely that you would find different sort keys. Such situations are quickly remedied, as the page would appear in Category:Pages with DEFAULTSORT conflicts, which I and several others monitor frequently. M<SMALL>AN</SMALL>d<SMALL>ARAX</SMALL>  •  <SMALL>XAЯA</SMALL>b<SMALL>ИA</SMALL>M  17:54, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe an alert could be added in the cases where there are multiple defaultsorts but it can't remove them because they are different.--Kumioko (talk) 18:16, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Alert per request, even though per Mandarax you'll likely not encounter it. Rjwilmsi  16:30, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Date ordinals

 * Disagree. The fix is designed to be 100% accurate and is not applied to quotations nor book titles etc. within the appropriate templates. False positives may arise because the article doesn't use the right templates, so it's the article, not AWB that needs correcting. SmackBot applies these fixes seemingly without problems e.g. . Rjwilmsi  11:22, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * So does that mean that Kenneth W. Royce is formatted wrong, and the book titles should be in some template? This edit change ordinals incorrectly there when it was properly part of a book name. There are tons of books, films, etc. which aren't in templates; is there some template that they should be in? Anyway, what would be the harm in adding this feature? User talk:Drilnoth also has some discussion about this after it had been mentioned up aways. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 15:50, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Any news on this? It would be much appreciated. Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 15:56, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Still believe all such fixes should be applied by bots to maximise the value of their edits, but you have your option "Do not apply WP:MOS fixes". Rjwilmsi 18:44, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you! I think that many MOS fixes can be applied by bot normally, but changing the "of"s and "th"s gets into typo-fixing, IMO, and so shouldn't be done by bot. Now I may finally be able to get rid of using a custom module! :) Thanks. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 18:47, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Sections containing brackets

 * You mean the logic to delink section headers? Rjwilmsi  11:26, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, sorry my fault I wasn't more clear.--Kumioko (talk) 12:47, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Within, (which should be named RegexRemoveLinksInHeadings) is already supposed to support headings to level 4. There are no unit tests to cover it at level 4 though. We should add and see if they pass. If they don't then  has a bug. I'm not at my PC so can't do this myself. Rjwilmsi 17:27, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds good thanks.--Kumioko (talk) 18:48, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

A bug really, now fixed. Diff of AWB edit. Rjwilmsi 18:48, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks again, I notice that there are stils some quotes contained in the headings and I think they should also be removed although I cannot find a reference at the moment. I will keep looking but I wanted to mention it in case someone else knows.--Kumioko (talk) 19:52, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Please remove this or provide an opt-out option. AWB shouldn't do things like this, and there are plenty of other cases where doing this automatically is a Bad Thing. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 19:19, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I think instead of links on the headers there should be a "main article" link under the header. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:24, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree with you, but there are too many instances where links are in section headers but there aren't main links to have AWBots making the change... removing all of the links to those main articles, which certainly isn't correct. As I said, I'd be fine with this if there was a way to turn it on and off when wanted. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 21:40, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
 * only remove links in headings if < 6 matches in article, otherwise (badly done) articles with 'list of...' and lots of links in headings will be further messed up. That's a reasonable solution as such articles need individual fixing to use main etc. Rjwilmsi  22:58, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds good; thank you. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 23:00, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Remove "format=HTML" in citation templates

 * resolves first request. Rjwilmsi  07:35, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Might this also be extended to language=English? Just in the citation templates, of course. - Jarry1250 (t, c, rfa) 08:56, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Removes language=English on en-wiki only. Rjwilmsi  13:32, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * remove empty 'format=' field when URL is to HTML or HTM page. Rjwilmsi  14:05, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Some additional edits

 * Hmm. 1 can certainly be a general-fix frond if not a general fix ; 3 : WP:REFPUNC does not advise the changing from one style to another. 2 and 4 seem slightly less obvious. - Jarry1250 (t, c, rfa) 18:55, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Here is the reference I was talking about on the page you just gave "When a reference tag coincides with punctuation, the reference tag is normally placed immediately after the punctuation, except for dashes". I do see where it says that some prefer the other style and the page should go with whichever style is more dominant in the article however when articles are going up for Good or featured status or are being peer reviewed that is one of the things that is consistently brought up that must be changed. --Kumioko (talk) 19:19, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I completely support #1 and #3, but I am wondering whether #2 is unambiguous enough to include as an AWB general fix. How could we account for articles about mathematics, for instance, where it may be valid to start a sentence with a number (as in an equation)? Also, could we account for bulleted lists within articles that specify quantities or percentages? –B LACK F ALCON  (T ALK ) 20:08, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thats true and it could start with a date too, especially date related articles. (for example, 1999 was a year when...)--Kumioko (talk)

Adds request 1. Request 2: 'no way'. Request 3: no consensus to always do this even though it's the majority opinion. Rjwilmsi 14:25, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks, is there anything you can do for #4?--Kumioko (talk) 18:17, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Warning if dead link found on page? Rjwilmsi  21:27, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Warning if article has dead link. Rjwilmsi  19:38, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Sweet, thanks.--Kumioko (talk) 17:34, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Support new Mediawiki maxlag parameter
I suppose that it could be accomplished using the nudge timer? Does it work ok currently? Max S em 18:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I think it's probably a bit broken in terms of implementation. The basic idea certainly works, as it one's of several features which ran in my plugin without incident for some time, and which got moved over to AWB. The nudge timer would probably have to be modified somewhat anyway, so that it knows it's waiting on a maxlag retry (good) rather than possible network/server problems (bad). We also presumably have the page save timer for auto-save, that would be able to be removed. --kingboyk 16:30, 18 May 2007 (UTC)
 * The api stuff is being implementing caring for maxlag... —  Ree dy  22:15, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

=Partially implemented=

Merge multiple tags into one template:articleissues tag

 * I'm not familiar with these tags, so would somebody please provide a list of the relevant tags or a link to such a list and some examples of edits that correctly combined these tags. Thanks Rjwilmsi  19:06, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * To do this you need a list of templates supported by articleissues. In most cases:

becomes. I don't find it so important to implement. For me would be better if we could implement the following: Id Articleissues has only one issue (this means only one "|") then convert it to the original template. This means that has to change to  -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:08, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Implemented 'Articleissues has only one issue' fix. Thanks Rjwilmsi  19:12, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Great. For the original request I would like to comment that there is no consensus for that, so it can't be a general fix in AWB. A bot request can be made as a start. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:45, 2 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I think it's obvious that empty Articleissues tags have to be removed as I did here. This can be added it in AWB.-- Magioladitis (talk) 22:59, 3 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I think Rjwilmsi addition can't handle Commissioner v. Banaitis, because of the break line. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:16, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
 * It can handle the line break but not article issues with a space in. I'll add an update to match on and  .  Rjwilmsi  22:40, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Reedy did it under . updates the unit tests too.  Rjwilmsi  20:53, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Renaming of the new keywords
Well, if they were the same as the wikipedia ones, there would be nothing to do in AWB, as wikipedia would process it - Ie there would be no point doing it in AWB aswell. Reedy Boy 10:16, 18 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Unless you want to want to change to a variable. Like changing <tt style="font-size:small"> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature_requests&action=edit </tt> to <tt>  </tt>
 * Note that SmackBot has several hundred regex rules which put subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME etc in pages: becasue of the above mentioned bug in Wikimedia I then need to use a regex to replace this a month literal - which I inevitably forget to update fully.  So having an AWB variable for currentmonth/year would fix one of the known problems  for me, not as well as if the mediawiki bug were fixed though.
 * Note 2. The above proposal is to use the same naming convention - the mediawiki magic words need "__" or "{" around them, not "%%".
 * Rich Farmbrough, 10:34 15 October 2007 (GMT).
 * It will be helpful to add magic words to AWB, for example, some time I want to include page's name in the summery. If you apply this, I'll can write summery as "Editing %%PAGENAME%%"..--OsamaK (talk) 04:52, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Still wanted, presumably? —  Ree dy  21:10, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

- Implemented as such. Looks fine on that, just needs some tests implementing into AWB for it. —  Ree dy  22:00, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
 * , just needs some tests implementing in AWB —  Ree dy  22:05, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
 * , tests added —  Ree dy  22:16, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Only one problem CURRENTMONTHNAME is implemented as CURRENTMONTHABBREV, see WP:MAGIC. — Dispenser 23:10, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
 * MaxSem has made a change. If we put it using the template braces, it makes it then impossible to do searching for that text, so in AWB, %%%% around the keywords would need to be used. He has also disabled the date stuff for the time being, it needs to be the wiki/server local, not the users. —  Ree  dy  08:34, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Those values are always in UTC, the Local time are the ones that depend on the server's location. — Dispenser 13:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Filter out non main space right click context menu + minor UI change

 * As of the current SVN revision, I've removed that button... —  Ree dy  19:33, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Not needed as it already exists in the List menu and it's sticky there too. I'll keep the thing about ellipsis in mind as I go through the interface. — Dispenser 17:02, 14 September 2008 (UTC)


 * When you go through the interface, please use the test:
 * ''is the command complete?
 * rather than the test:
 * ''does a dialog appear?
 * These two tests often give the same answer but not always. The purpose of the ellipsis is to indicate that the user will need to provide more interaction (including confirmation) before the command is completed. For example, in many applications, the 'Properties' and 'About' commands will have no ellipsis because the user interaction is complete, but they will produce a dialog with no further interaction. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511502.aspx#ellipses  Lightmouse (talk) 09:09, 16 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I was wondering about the latter. Looks like I'll be reading up on the official documentation.  I just wish MS could get their own copy dialog right.  — Dispenser 02:00, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Quite. MS doesn't always follow its own guidelines and different products have different implementations. Other corporations are similar. We can be happy if our only usability problem is choosing between a corporation's guidance and its flagship implementation. Lightmouse (talk) 13:33, 14 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Your linked reference
 * "Exception: Don't display shortcut key assignments within context menus. Context menus don't display the shortcut key assignments because they are optimized for efficiency."


 * Then at the IE 8 blog, under the fake heading "WHAT CAN I DO WITH TAB GROUPS?" there's a screen shot showing the tab bar context menu with shortcut keys. Although admittedly that's the only place they can put them since they killed off their menu bar.  — Dispenser 20:15, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Create a 'View' menu

 * Sounds a good idea to me... —  Ree dy  14:24, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
 * does the first 4.. —  Ree dy  11:43, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
 * does the false positives. Any others? —  Ree dy  11:58, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Do you have a method of searching the GUI code for the terms 'Display' or 'Show'? If you haven't, I can go through it in more detail later. I found another instance in 'Preferences' but I thought it might be best where it is (I haven't got access to AWB right now to tell you exactly). Incidentally, I usually consider verb forms of 'Display' to be inferior synonyms of 'Show'. Lightmouse (talk) 13:09, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I can do what would pretty much be a normal find in Visual Studio... Nothing fancy.. Will have a look if i get chance —  Ree dy  13:33, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I now have the 'View' menu (svn 3672). Nice. Thank you. Lightmouse (talk) 14:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Add a date to some maintenance tags
AWB already does all of those... Can easily be expanded —  Ree dy  12:58, 12 January 2009 (UTC)


 * wikify - exists
 * orphan - exists
 * uncategorized - exists
 * uncatstub - ✅
 * cleanup - exists
 * unreferenced - exists
 * importance - ✅
 * expand - ✅
 * merge
 * copyedit - exists
 * fact - ✅
 * not verified - ✅, added as an option for another


 * So, just 6 to add? —  Ree dy  13:00, 12 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Done most of them in . Merge is going to be harder due to other parameters that are likely to be used (needs a slightly more complex regex). TBH, these should all be loaded and created on the fly to include all redirects... —  Ree dy  13:18, 12 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Quotefarm
 * Repetition
 * Review
 * Story
 * Term paper
 * Textbook
 * Too many categories
 * Travel guide


 * LOL -- Magioladitis (talk) 13:15, 12 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Wonder if we should have a typo style page for these... —  Ree dy  13:19, 12 January 2009 (UTC)
 * That sounds good. In the beginning I thought that we could only fix the ones that are more often used but now I am becoming more greedy. With a typo style page we can get them all. :) -- Magioladitis (talk)
 * A while ago there was a feature request to have a typo-style page for rules to shorten external urls (e.g. simplify Amazon links etc.). It was turned down at the time but perhaps it's a good thing to do: a 'format fixes' page with sections to read in fixes for tags, external URLs etc. If the typo list works I suppose that could too. Rjwilmsi  17:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)
 * pt-wikipedia (i think), were trying to do something similar on their Typos page, for category and some other changes... Obviously this didnt work due to hidetext.. —  Ree dy  20:21, 12 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Of course SmackBot does this for some 200 plus templates. Maintaining the template lists and dealing with exceptions takes some considerable time, although I am re-writing some sections of the code to make it easier. Rich Farmbrough, 23:17 13 January 2009 (UTC).
 * Presumably there'd be a category that could actually be loaded (maintenance templates that should be dated)... API can load the list and create regexes... And then redirects... Hmmmmm —  Ree dy  22:33, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Perhaps this could be done in such a way that AWB and Smackbot could both go to one place to see any changes rather than have to update both at the same time. Like a category as mentioned or a flag on the talk page of the template maybe. Also, I believe that there are quite a number of templates that are duplicative and or unneeded and perhaps someonne should review them for the possibility of consolidation or elimination.--Kumioko (talk) 22:11, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Replace multiple maintenance templates with Template:Article issues
I think that automatic tagging based on expressions without reading the context is a bit dangerous to have many false positives. You can request a bot as a beginning. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:23, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Keep in mind that an editor can review the changes and remove the tags if they are unwarrented in the editbox. However, articleissues would be nice on substubs where tags can crowd content.---Ipatrol (talk) 13:25, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

When an article has two or more top-of-page templates supported by Template:Article issues (see here, these templates should be replaced by Template:Article issues, including the dates in which the original templates were added. This would aim to make articles look more tidy by consolidating maintenance templates. --Oldak Quill 01:14, 1 April 2009 (UTC)


 * If we do this it has to be done for three or more. Not two. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:26, 1 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Changes for articleissues:
 * genfixes
 * convert article issues with one issue to the underlying template
 * remove duplciate fields in cite / article issues templates, or second fields with no value given
 * move the supported cleanup template(s) in the zeroth section of the article into an existing article issues template (other wise article/section templates get confused)
 * add an article issues template if three or more supported cleanup templates are found in the zeroth section of the article
 * add dates to undated fields in article issues templates
 * remove the invalid 'date' field from article issues
 * wikify tags from within article issues removed by tagger as appropriate


 * queries that remain:
 * are field names in article issues case sensitive (assumed yes for the moment)?
 * do all field except expert= accept a date (assumed yes for the moment)?
 * Rjwilmsi 23:16, 3 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your efforts on this. --Oldak Quill 01:36, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

The answer to the second question is yes. In the first the answer is a question: What is better? Right now it's case sensitive but if you think it's better to change it I would be very happy. This would save us from some code checks in Article issues. I really hope you take a look at the code there and simplify it. PS Nice piece of job. Next level: Add a blank page to AWB and it will make the article for you :) -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:37, 3 April 2009 (UTC)
 * It's no concern of mine whether it's case sensitive or not, I just need to know all the supported variations to include them in AWB. I can go through the template source and extract them, which I didn't do before (just used documentation), so either the template has to change or I need to further update AWB. Just decide and let me know. Thanks Rjwilmsi  14:38, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Since you are keen on regex and I am not, can you please take a look at the Article issues and transform the parameters and change then in order to be non case sensitive? This will solve problems with "POV" and "pov", "Cleanup", "cleanup". Unless you sense that this may cause other problems, which I don't see right now. -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:00, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll take the other approach, and make sure AWB converts all added fields to lowercase, with the exception of COI, OR and POV. Rjwilmsi  20:28, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Remove double "|" inside templates

 * So literally just "||" on the same line? (I suppose whitespace ones, ie "|   |" should be removed also? —  Ree  dy  19:09, 15 March 2009 (UTC)
 * . Rjwilmsi  21:23, 15 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Many uses of templates legitimately include || for nulls for optional arguments e.g. bibleverse template on Abrahamic religions. I'll have to remove the above, and say no to this request. reverts.  Rjwilmsi  21:50, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Is it possible to implement it for infoboxes and WPBS? -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:27, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

I think the templates that contain the "=" sign can't have double | or am I wrong? -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:45, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

One last solution I am proposing is to implement it as part of the KingbotK plugin only for WPBS, WPBiography and their redirects. Thanks. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:52, 15 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Implemented for the common article issues and citation family of templates. Not possible to implement more widely without having to explicitly name hundreds of templates. Rjwilmsi  23:18, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Multiple links

 * while capitalization is almost never an issue, defining plurality can be. The Crow and The Crows are two very different articles. -ΖαππερΝαππερ BabelAlexandria 16:03, 6 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Well it could be done in a sort of "overlink breakdown" such as


 * Laser (16) (target article, including capitalization and plural variation)
 * laser (6) (target article, specific spelling 1)
 * unpiped (2)
 * lasers (3)
 * highly coherent monochromatic light beam (1)
 * Laser (3) (target article, specific spelling 2)
 * laser (3)
 * lasers (1) (target article, specific spelling 3)
 * unpiped (1)
 * Lasers (7) (target article, specific spelling 4)
 * laser (3)
 * Laser (4)


 * Headbomb {ταλκ – WP Physics: PotW} 06:50, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I can provide a count of duplicate links and treat 'Proton' and 'proton' as the same. Will do in the next few days. Rjwilmsi  11:07, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Counter added to multiple links display, to show how many links on page in total in format 'Proton (3)'. Also, re case matching, the links are now compared with the first character in upper case so proton and Proton are the same but PROTON or proTON are not the same as proton . Can't do the plurals logic as explained with the 'the Crow' example above. Not sure about hiding the 'see also' section – these are still duplicate links. Rjwilmsi  19:57, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Formatting for defaultsort and lifetime templates
I don't understand why this should be in general fixes. -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:30, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * If Defaultsort states that the above rules be applied then should we not include them in the AWB generals fixes? I don't understand whats not to understand?--Kumioko (talk) 16:18, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I am not sure if these changes apply for a big percentage of articles and if it s worth to add them as general fixes or create a bot to do the job. -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:34, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

One of the genfixes removes accents from defaultsort, so there is precedent. --NE2 16:38, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yup, we currently remove any non english (a-z) etc characters and replace them with the plain text version. This is only due to a problem with MySQL and the way it sorts on letters, meaning defaultsort wouldnt sort like expected. —  Ree dy  17:02, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thousands of articles have special characters and defaultsort is needed. I supported this addition from the very first moment. But how many articles have "Saint" in bot their title and in defaulsort? Anyway, if it can be implemented, I 've no problem. -- Magioladitis (talk) 17:06, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Saint is not always an epithet. In the Saint October case, no defaulsort should be added. In general this request sounds to me more like a Bot request that will work with false positives. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:51, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Fair enough, taking Saint out of the equation I think that some of these could be added as edits to AWB. Doing as part of a bot is also a good idea. I can create some regex code to do some of this (convert Mc to Mac and make 2 to nth charachter lower case) if you want me too.--Kumioko (talk) 15:53, 12 May 2009 (UTC)
 * and apply the case rules for defaultsort (point 4).
 * I think 1 and 3 could be applied if AWB first checked that the article was about a person: look for persondata or XXXX births category etc. Rjwilmsi  11:27, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * What can be done for this request has been done. There are too many opinions on defaultsorts to do more at the moment. Rjwilmsi  09:51, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Pagination
Requested of SmackBot by Finell,copied here by Rich Farmbrough, 11:39 11 May 2009 (UTC).
 * 1) Add a non-breaking space where there is no space between  or   and the page number(s)?
 * 2) Replace a space that follows  or   with a non-breaking space?
 * 3) Where a list of numbers is separated by commas without spaces, insert spaces? For example:
 * 4) *Change  to
 * 5) Conform page or number ranges to the rule that drops repeating numerals prior to the 2 final numerals? For example:
 * 6) *Change  to
 * 7) *Change  to


 * 1&2 seem simple, 3 would need to distinguish between thousands separators, 4 - same problem with false positives - may be standard citation speak but does it help Wikipdedia's readership? Rich Farmbrough, 11:39 11 May 2009 (UTC).


 * Just my 2 cents but I think implementing #4 would make things very confusing when dealing with date ranges.--Kumioko (talk) 13:22, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Setting the non breaking space seems feasible, the others not. Rjwilmsi  22:11, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Also #4 is a style issue best left to editors. AWB shouldn't choose or impose a style.Headbomb {{{sup|ταλκ}}<sub style="margin-left:-4.0ex;">κοντριβς – WP Physics} 22:13, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

✅ Implement requests 1 and 2. Rjwilmsi 13:43, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Bold text in headers

 * Do you have some examples (old diffs will do) to act as test cases? Rjwilmsi  17:13, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Sure; I'll make some example fixes using the CHECKWIKI list. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:27, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * ,, , and are some samples. If headings are level 3 or below there seems to be no visual change; level 2 headings do show up as bold with the syntax present, but this is virtually always unnecessary. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:37, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Part implementation: remove bold from level 3 headers and below, as it makes no visible difference. Rjwilmsi 20:58, 22 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Awesome! That's great. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:06, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Working with Alerts

 * I'll add the list of alerts to the AWB manual. Rjwilmsi  19:28, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Existing alerts are now in the manual.


 * What format of alert would you want users to be adding? List of regular expressions? Rjwilmsi  07:54, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * For this one I was thinking it would be nice if users could set an edit as an alert rather than have it stop on the article every time. Maybe in the Find and replace Normal setting and advance settings you could add a checkbox to allow users to "Set as Alert".--Kumioko (talk) 15:26, 20 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Would a new skip option 'skip if no alerts' satisfy point 3 (potentially combined with use of pre-parse mode)? Rjwilmsi  07:54, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I was actually thinking the other way around. As far as I know, right now if an Alert comes up for an article that does not have another edit made, it will skip that article. Sometimes I would like to look for an alert though, especially the missing introduction one, or the unbalanced brackets. The more I think about this one the more I think a check box stating something like "Stop on Alert" might do.--Kumioko (talk) 15:26, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmm, AWB works on a skip basis. I think pre-parse mode and 'skip if no alerts' would work quite well for you. Rjwilmsi  15:17, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Option to skip pages if no alerts. Rjwilmsi 08:12, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

=Not implemented=

some development to ignore images

 * I believe AWB already uses the locale name for images rather than just assuming 'image:' and also I know that it does catch galleries. Rjwilmsi  08:52, 23 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Sure does. AWB tries to use the namespace variable if at all possible (regexes are just built on the fly, rather than defined at compile time) —  Ree dy  13:32, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

List comparer "Save List" buttons

 * Its still there on my svn version.... —  Ree dy  09:27, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Mine is 4.4.0.0 and all I see is a "Clear All" button. I can't do <CTRL - A> the <CTRL-C> as a workaround, either. In short, I can't save the results. Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR) 11:18, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
 * What resolution are you on? Can you take us a screenshot of your list comparer window please? —  Ree dy  15:25, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I'll email ping you. Screenshot emailed later... Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR)

Seems to be a resolution related problem as the buttons are there on my version... —  Ree dy  19:56, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * In my computer works fine as well. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:52, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikify click function

 * Are you aware of the button on the edit box toolbar (View --> show edit box toolbar) to wikify links? Rjwilmsi  19:15, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * No, I wasn't aware of that. Is there a keyboard shortcut? I couldn't find this info on the manual. Anyway, the button will already be a great help. Thanks! 16:00, 24 January 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by GoEThe (talk • contribs)
 * No, there isnt... Want one adding, presumably? —  Ree dy  19:29, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, the button is working fine. No need. Thanks for your help. GoEThe (talk) 11:26, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

automatically ignore when no changes

 * Pre-processing added for next version. —  Ree dy  09:30, 26 January 2009 (UTC)


 * You could also just check the box next to "No changes are made", that alleviates most of the need to click ignore. §hep   •  <sup style="color:green; font-family:Comic Sans MS;">Talk  20:36, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Add Person data template to AWB

 * Duplicate of later . Rjwilmsi  19:37, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Added Infobox and person data support

 * Any comment on whether this might happen or not?--Kumioko (talk) 20:00, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
 * AWB isn't likely to implement this as its to specific for the general sotware to have. So I've filed this under the plugin section.  If you'd like to implement this, there plenty of tools you can use and you aren't restricted to C# or VB.NET if you use the external processing function.  Also, next time when you fill out a feature request be a bit more specific on what you want.  — Dispenser 02:07, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Duplicate of. Rjwilmsi 19:37, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Populate PERSONDATA template with data from the infobox or categories

 * Has anynoe considered this request yet. At the very least AWB should include the article name when the persondata template is added.--Kumioko (talk) 15:56, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

I think someone can make a module for that but it shouldn't be a built-in feature. -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:24, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

If someone wants to do that, better create a bot. This needs to get through BAG team. -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:56, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Expand out contractions
It would be possible to achieve via WP:RETF, when we patch it not to touch quotes. Max S em(Han shot first!) 20:48, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
 * The next version of AWB includes logic to hide quotes from the typo fixing module, therefore this would be best achieved by expanding the RegExtypofix rules, should there be a strong consensus in favour of this. Rjwilmsi  09:19, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Move text under categories above external links

 * Unfortunately I see no way for AWB to determine between additional text that is not part of the external links and additional text that is in fact an expansion of the existing external links, therefore I don't think we can make any changes to current functionality. Rjwilmsi  09:16, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Automatic inclusion of template:intro-missing

 * There's no documentation for intro-missing to explain how it should be applied, so more information is needed before this feature might be added. Rjwilmsi  09:47, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Sometimes this tag should not be applied. In the case of a stub there is no reason to add tenths of tags. I think this is not a good template to add automatically. Some other problems from my experience: Inexperiened editors add in the a bio article about "foo" the following:

==foo== Foo was a blah blah blah

So the problem here is not that the there is an intro missing but that they should not be a header. -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:38, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm going to decline this feature request on the basis that there will be no way for AWB to tell with high accuracy whether an introductory section is in fact missing, or that a header simply needs to be removed. Rjwilmsi  19:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

return inaccessible pages to the search list

 * This can be a real pain. The other day when the servers went down, I lost maybe a dozen pages before I noticed what had happened. (I let AWB run in the background while I do other things, because it takes so godawful long to open a page.) Since there were 8000 articles on my list, and this happened after I had gone through 2000, I'm not going to find them again. kwami (talk) 19:07, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
 * There is the log... —  Ree dy  21:59, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

I don't see the need to change anything here – the articles log is filterable to find any inaccessible articles, and they can be added back to the list from there. Rjwilmsi 12:17, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Removing deleting media

 * You can remove links to deleted media with the Images area. There is a remove option and you can remove files/images with that... Is that what you were after? —  Ree dy  14:58, 2 January 2009 (UTC)
 * And then the IFD plugin which will allow you to do it even more en-mass —  Ree dy  20:36, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
 * With that, can it remove any deleted media or do I have to choose a specific file. My goal is to remove multiple images en mass, as you hinted at. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 17:59, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * You'd just need to put the File name in (in the required format). But it could do infinte files at the same time if you so wished —  Ree dy  18:04, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * "it could do infinte files at the same time if you so wished" that is what I want to do. So just pick a file and put it in the same boxes that I use to switch images? User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 18:23, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * In the IFD plugin? —  Ree dy  19:12, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes. I have the plug in loaded. I am not sure if I am being clear, but I know AWB will remove images if specified. However, I want to remove that whole string, including the comments. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 20:56, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

As per IRC, i'll consider making an IFD++ to remove —  Ree  dy  15:42, 9 January 2009 (UTC)


 * This would be handy to be able to remove deleted/commented images, I have always wondered why they left the comments on there.. it messes some articles with unneeded whitespace. --<span style="font:bold 11px Arial;display:inline;border:#151B8D 1px solid;background-color:#DFDFDF;padding:0 3px 0 4px;">Typ932 T&middot;C 12:03, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
 * If nobody wants these deleted image comments left behind, then the bot(s) that comment them out should surely be changed to just remove them? Rjwilmsi  09:52, 24 January 2009 (UTC)


 * The comments are left in order to help people upload new versions of the files with the same filename. If there were just to be removed this would be done by the bots themselves in the first place. Commented out files should not be removed immediatelly after deletion of the file but after some time. Moreover, some bots comments out not deleted media until a fair-use raitonale is given or a caption is added. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Per comment from Magioladitis, blanket deletion of commented out images does not seem appropriate. AWB can't determine when it might become appropriate to remove a particular commented out image, so I'm going to decline this FR. Somebody could write a bot to remove commented out images after x days if the community think that's warranted.


 * However, if asked, I can provide a regex to use in the find & replace screen of AWB if particular users have particular commented out images they want to quickly remove using AWB. Thanks Rjwilmsi  18:10, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

AWB for Mac?

 * (See the FAQ) The current AWB requries the .NET framework. Maybe someday Mono will have enough .NET support for AWB to run under it. The AWB developers would be very happy if this happened, but it's outside our control. Current AWB works fine using VMWare though. Rjwilmsi  15:40, 1 February 2009 (UTC)
 * And/or we get full API migration (should help along the process) —  Ree dy  19:01, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

More "skip" options.
All of the above can be achieved using regular expressions with the existing AWB release. If you don't know regex leave me a message with your particular needs and I can help you out. Rjwilmsi 07:51, 11 February 2009 (UTC

Please treat like a quote template

 * Rjwilmsi has already added it —  Ree dy  12:51, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I am using svn3950 and it doesn't appear to be in that. Which version is it in? Lightmouse (talk) 13:00, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Put a 3963 version up. Was added in 3953 —  Ree dy  13:03, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I will download and test it later. You guys do great work. Lightmouse (talk) 13:06, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Format Infobox
A very high proportion of articles begin with either an Infobox or a Taxobox template. Some are tidy and easy to read, but many are a ragged mess. I have thought about how it might be possible to tidy-up these templates using regex expressions, but for various reasons this turns out to be very difficult. However, an algorithm for tidying these template should be pretty straightforward and might be built into AWB.

I would move to suggest that the best arrangment for such templates is to have each parameter on a new line immediatley preceeded by a space, the pipe (vertical bar) character and a single space. The parameter name should then apprear, followed by a variable number of spaces, an equals sign, a single space and then the parameter value. The parameter value may itself contain a template, in which case it should be reproduced exactly as it was left by the previous editor, but if it contains new line with a pipe as the first non-whitespace character, the line should be padded with preceeding spaces to align the pipe with the opening curly brackets of the template.

For example:

Just as a comment, this would need to be opt-outable. I agree it would be nice to auto-tidy some infoboxes, but non-tidy infoboxes also have their uses in helping you to identify "old" ones that need their content updating. FlagSteward (talk) 11:45, 7 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Very true. I wonder, would it be possible to have a completely general "format template" button that formats the template on which the cursor is currently resting? Gaius Cornelius (talk) 16:55, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I am somewhat concerned that if a particular editor has used a style of infobox whereby it is all on a single line or the pipe is at the end of the line, AWB uses who modify the Infobox by changing whitespace only will be accused of a pointless change and/or unnecessarily changing the existing style of the article. If such a feature were to be implemented I think we would need to see evidence of a strong consensus in favour of doing this and a further explanation of the particular value of a change that won't be visible to anybody reading the article. I can understand that a standardisation of Infobox formatting might be helpful to editors, but I'm not sure that's enough to justify reformatting them all. Rjwilmsi  09:32, 24 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Not everyone's edit window uses a monospaced font (Safari on Mac OS X, for example) making this a very bad idea. — Bellhalla (talk) 04:39, 30 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't like this idea. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:15, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

For the reasons above we can't implement this feature request. Thanks Rjwilmsi  18:34, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Ignore duplicate wikilinks in infoboxes, etc.

 * I could change the logic to only look for duplicate wikilinks outside of templates, but is this what everybody would want? Rjwilmsi  19:03, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't agree with this change. For example some people have the same birth and death city and they are both linked. Or football players have the same team linked many times. This is overlinking even if it is in an infobox. If someone needs a different way to fix wikilinks can create a module, but this shouldn't be in the general fixes. -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:02, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Add consecutive internal links to AWB suggested edits

 * How would you propose to fix such examples? I suppose it's delink the first term or delink the second? For inclusion in AWB there would need to be an agreed answer to ALWAYS do one action. Such fixes could be controlled by an optional checkbox that the user would tick if they wanted to fix such links. If there's no 100% answer, AWB could be used to insert a comment after the links to prompt an editor to review the linking. Rjwilmsi  11:29, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. I'd say most cases are of the type where the first link (which should be removed) goes to a parent topic, whereas the first one goes to a much more directly relevant article. Like galaxy M31. But yes, there are of course exceptions and human judgement is necessary to discern which link should go. <span style="font-family:lucida sans, console;">Everyme 11:36, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Sometimes it's better to merge the internal links. Especially when dealing with cities and countries separated by a comma. Athens, Greece is better to change to Athens, Greece instead of Athens, Greece. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:24, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Perhaps consecutive links could be flagged up as requiring attention by highlighting them in another colour. (BTW, I disagree about how to handle Athens, Greece. The point of this sort of link is the link to "Athens". The "Greece" is merely contextual information, not requiring a link at all - if anyone wants to know more about the country Athens is in, they can use the link in the "Athens" article. Similarly with Athens, Georgia where the "Georgia" part must be present for disambiguation but doesn't have a link of its own). Colonies Chris (talk) 13:47, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree with Chris: "Greece" is a common term that hardly needs linking, and in any case will be treated in the linked article on "Athens". But more broadly, consecutive links each require human supervision to correct; sometimes the whole clause requires rewording to avoid the double link, almost always with considerable improvement to the expression. Flagging seems to be a good idea. Tony   (talk)  12:39, 1 November 2008 (UTC)


 * If this suggestion is taken up, a nice little enhancement would be to highlight pairs of links which (a) are separated by only <comma, space> and (b) the second of the links is to a US state. This would draw attention to a of lot of ambiguous links caused by linking city and state separately - e.g. Jackson, Mississippi instead of Jackson, Mississippi, Colonies Chris (talk) 15:20, 22 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, I would prefer the latter than the first one, based on the MoS stated above. -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:58, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

This kind of changes should be done manually and not automatic. There can be no specific rules to do it. Linking heavily depends on the context. -- Magioladitis (talk) 03:06, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

There is no clear consensus of how this is done and always depends on the context. A semi-automated bot could do this job partially. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:23, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Image to File

 * This is an iffy one. AWB supports both, but from what i recall, there is no reason to go through and change the Image to the file (no benefit in doing so)... —  Ree dy  10:36, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Would it be possible to make the change if another modification is made (not general fixes). §hep  Talk  17:42, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm not aware of any consensus or standard to change existing uses of 'Image:' to the new 'File:'. Rjwilmsi  21:22, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Seems like a good general fix that wouldn't hurt if done with substantive edits. --NE2 22:13, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I wouldnt be so adversed it being done with other fixes/changes, if the file is indeed a file, not an image, ie a PDF or similar... But it depends on community consensus really —  Ree dy  22:38, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I hadn't really thought about needing consensus. I just assumed that the use of image had been deprecated. Enter CambridgeBayWeather, waits for audience applause, not a sausage 23:45, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I thought similarly today, trying to get search and replace to do that while I am in the process of doing other changes to articles anyway. There seems to be a ignore build in on the term 'image' Agathoclea (talk) 23:15, 28 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Agree, I thought 'image' had been deprecated in favour of 'file' too. Nevertheless, there is an editor who has been going about doing exactly those sorts of changes since 25 March, and nothing else. So Reedy, you're saying it's not actually productive? Ohconfucius (talk) 04:14, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * These changes are non-constructive.Thanks for reporting. I'll contact the editor. -- Magioladitis (talk) 08:30, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I wrote a message to its talk page. The specific editor has been making a string of non-constructive edits. -- Magioladitis (talk) 08:40, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Cheers. Yeah, it is more not constructive.. I can understand it, if its for a PDF file and such... But yeah, mass editing is a no no —  Ree dy  12:12, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Flashing in start bar when a change has been found

 * Already exists. Options, Preferences, Editing and saving tab. Tick the flash button at the bottom. —  Ree dy  12:55, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Oops! Sorry! Thanks for the reply :)--Jonru (talk) 13:43, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Additional right click functionality

 * Theres a nowiki option on the Toolbar? —  Ree dy  14:01, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks I never noticed that before. Consider this request withdrawn then. --Kumioko (talk) 14:22, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Allow users to change the highlighting color

 * How can you not see the first unbalanced bracket? The edit box shows it in red and does not colour highlight other changes, only syntax highlighting, which you can disable if you don't like it. Rjwilmsi  15:25, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I do not see anything highlighted. For example the Daniel Sickles article gets the unbalanced brackets message and I cannot find it anywhere in the article. I am currently using SVN 4312 although I recently downloaded an update that I thought was 45 something.--Kumioko (talk) 16:31, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Download a snapshot. You'll see what I mean. Rjwilmsi  16:57, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Do you know what the most recent one is so I can make sure I grab the right one. Not really sure about how the snapshots work. --Kumioko (talk) 17:00, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Nevermind I figured it out and I see what you mean. I guess I had an older version. Thanks again. --Kumioko (talk) 17:07, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Audio signal when stopping
I think this has to do Windows and it can't be fixed. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:16, 23 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Ah, it seems that the sound does come from IE. Maybe someone knows how to disable it, then? Also, AWB still could emit a distinctive sound when it stops! &mdash;ZeroOne ( talk / @ ) 10:07, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
 * This is a matter of configuring your Windows sound settings to your liking. Not AWB. Rjwilmsi  11:13, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Nope, I can't configure Windows to emit a sound when AWB reaches a page that needs me to manually click "Save". I can, most likely, configure Windows to not emit a sound when a new page is selected in IE but it has already been established that that is beyond AWB. &mdash;ZeroOne ( talk / @ ) 12:50, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I will look into AWB beeping when an article is loaded ready to saving. Rjwilmsi  14:58, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

AWB already has the beep for ready to save.. Its just off by default. Options --> Preferences, Editing and saving tab, When ready to save, tick beep, ok, save your settings. As for the IE click, check the FAQ on WP:AWB —  Ree dy  15:40, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Remove empty parameters in citation templates

 * I could easily do this, but am concerned that leaving empty parameters may be considered helpful so that other users who see them might be encouraged to fill them in. I will implement this if there is discussion on the citation template talk pages showing a strong consensus in favour. Thanks Rjwilmsi  16:31, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Currently, all of the citation templates say that empty parameters should be removed when you add the template, which is where I got this idea from. It could make sense to leave some of the more common parameters (like author, url, etc.) in, but maybe take out the more uncommon ones like doi, chapterurl, lastauthoramp, others, and editor. Those aren't commonly used so I don't think that they'd be controversial; sometime in the next few days I'll ask around to see if there's a consensus. Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C) 16:43, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * "priority=" and "class=" parameters in WPBiography should not be removed. In fact KingbotK plugin adds them in every opportunity. I think this should not be a general fix. A bot can be made to remove empty parameters from the requested templates after discussion and approval by BAG. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:25, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Of course they shouldn't... that's why I corrected my request to specify only parameters in references, not all empty parameters because, as in your example, there are many times where they are useful. –Drilnoth (T • C) 18:37, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Agreed. In references they hace to be cleaned. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:48, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Please don't! I use them (and have seen them used very often) as placeholders and reminders of what is missing for the citation to be complete. Some parameters could be cleaned up, (last2/first2 and the like, coauthors, which only end up there because of copy/paste from the documentation) but others (isbn, doi, year, author, last/first ...) should definitely not be removed. Headbomb {{{sup|ταλκ}}<sub style="margin-left:-4.0ex;">κοντριβς – WP Physics} 06:35, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Bot Halt, or like feature
What my plugin does is open bad pages in the browser; they can be fed back into AWB later if need be*. That way the bot doesn't stop processing, a feature which would annoy more people than it would help I suspect. Would that be a better option? Either way we could certainly consider a "halt or open in browser on hitting regex x" feature I guess. --kingboyk (talk) 09:35, 5 March 2008 (UTC) *I use the skip log for feeding pages back in. --kingboyk (talk) 09:36, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm thinking how that a halt feature might introduce more complexities and clutter than its worth. The ideas of skipping when the output matches a regex is more flexible.  — Dispenser 22:34, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
 * AWB already has the "skip if contains", and you can make them regex... —  Reedy  Boy  22:42, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
 * But those are processed before my regexes are applied. I'd like something where I can check to make sure the output is correct.  — Dispenser 05:24, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Hmm.. I suppose, it wouldnt be difficult to have a "early and/or late" check, like there is with the normal FaR - ie they can be applied before or after the general fixes...? —  Reedy  Boy  08:32, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

What I am really asking for is a if is a set of  and   that are evaluated after the regexes have finished parsing. There's been a similar request here before to have this too. It's a good idea since bot ops can ensure the saved page is correct. — Dispenser 00:47, 12 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Suppose, it could have an option for early/late checking.. Like general fixes do..? —  Ree dy  22:20, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Option to apply  and   after processing the page. Rjwilmsi 10:37, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Add tooltip texts to "Page is redirect" and "No alerts"
used "if there are no alerts". Rjwilmsi 09:23, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Replace redirect for some templates
Ospalh, I prefer fact with {{tl|citation needed} because is sorter and used in thousands of articles. moreover, I don't think there a consensus for that. As a general advice I think it's better before adding a request in here to seek consensus in the template pages. Friendly, Magioladitis (talk) 11:32, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The move discussion was almost unanimous, as typing the old fact and cn still works. And User:SmackBot is already changing it, but it could use the help I feel AWB may be able to offer. See for example changes to Guitar or Earth radiation picked pretty much at random from its contributions.--ospalh (talk) 16:37, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
 * This runs afoul of WP:R2D. –<b style="font-family:verdana; color:black;">xeno</b><sup style="color:black; font-family:verdana;">talk 16:47, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Seems like a bad idea to just go around changing it. SmackBot might be allowed to as long as its dating tags anyway, but having this in AWB by default seems like a bad idea to me (although it would be trivial to code it into custom find/replace regex). –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 17:08, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't think that WP:R2D is relevant here. That's about fixing redirects for things like performance by adding a pipe to links or changing the visible text. To the contrary, one point in WP:R2D is that adding piped targets "makes the article more difficult to read in page source form." The reason for the fact to citation needed move was to make the article easier to understand in the source form. To a new editor it's not neccessarily clear that a, as opposed to a  , in the source means that somebody should dig up a citation for that sentence. (And cn is just cryptic.) So I see the change as a real (but small) improvement. With that it doesn't seem like a bad idea to include this fix in AWB. When SmackBot is "allowed" to change it when making other fixes, AWB could just as well go around and make this fix along with the other fixes.--ospalh (talk) 21:03, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Can you give us a link with the discussion in which this was decided? Thanks, Magioladitis (talk) 08:48, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Sure.--ospalh (talk) 12:21, 8 July 2009 (UTC)
 * OK! Let's implement it then. This is a consensus in the template's talk page and they are some very good arguments. -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:41, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

Implemented as requested. Rjwilmsi 15:15, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Paste More (context menu in the Edit box)
Added in rev4877 ClickRick (talk) 01:02, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Replace Image with File

 * Yup, but there is no benefit from doing so, and IIRC the WP:MOS says theres no need to change between them (i believe) —  Ree dy  13:20, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh ok --Kumioko (talk) 13:27, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Yep; I think that it should be changed if you're editing anyway, but there seems to be resistance to having it built into tools (I discovered this while working on WP:CODEFIXER). –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 13:29, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * We discussed this before and the answer is that it's no good. -- Magioladitis (talk) 13:57, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Replacing categoring and keeping pipes
I don't understand what you're asking for: if you remove a category its sortkey has to go with it. Rjwilmsi 18:13, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I would like to be able to replace category A with category B without losing the sortkey. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:43, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
 * option to remove sortkey when replacing categories. Rjwilmsi  21:29, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
 * thanks. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:22, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Commons category
Agreed, per documentation at Template:Commons_cat. I'll do this in the next few days. Rjwilmsi 13:34, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Done. Rjwilmsi  17:30, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Enter CambridgeBayWeather, waits for audience applause, not a sausage 17:51, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Basic CheckWiki list provider
I had a go at doing this myself; a basic implementation (which works at the very least) is:

(Lengthy code removed.)

This should save some time for all the people using AWB for CheckWiki fixes, probably a request about it up there ^ somewhere. - Jarry1250 (t, c) 12:36, 7 June 2009 (UTC)


 * , i redid the code to simplify it and make it more reusable. Did a specific version of it inheriting from a base HTMLScraper Implementation. Cheers —  Ree  dy  14:38, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Show what links here for images
yeah, i asked for something like this a while ago... don't know what happened to it... -ΖαππερΝαππερ BabelAlexandria 20:39, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I think having a What Links Here tab next to the History tab would useful (for me at least). It would simply mimic the result of "What links here" link on a page normally. In fact, I think I could do it myself and submit it as a patch, shouldn't be too hard. Maybe make it optional. - Jarry1250 (t, c) 17:18, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Nearly done (haven't made it optional yet though). "Any objections?", he asks, bringing it out of the archives. I'm thinking of a new tab to the right of "History", by the way, reading "What links here". It would definitely also work for images. - Jarry1250 (t, c) 18:56, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Okay, so this patch would create that tab (compulsory) and make it work:

(Lengthy code removed.)


 * - Jarry1250 (t, c) 19:34, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

/ —  Ree dy  15:12, 7 June 2009 (UTC)


 * yay! -- ΖαππερΝαππερ BabelAlexandria 16:39, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Suppress JS errors on history tab
, we already had it enabled for the main web control :) —  Ree dy  18:57, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

minuses

 * Extend Parsers.Mdashes, seems perfectly reasonable. Rjwilmsi  23:02, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I take it from MOSNUM that the correct symbol is a unicode minus, so hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes are converted. This will not be applied within tags.  Rjwilmsi  10:27, 6 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Also the string - could be converted to − . I have never seen, and cannot even imagine, one such use of a hyphen where a minus is not meant. Headbomb {{{sup|ταλκ}}<sub style="margin-left:-4.0ex;">κοντριβς – WP Physics} 20:12, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Substituted templates
Mainspace only for category? And the sorting general fix will still have to be applied to get the new category in the right place. Rjwilmsi 21:00, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Partial implementation:
 * on en-wiki mainspace add articles matching 'noinclude' etc. to 'substituted templates' category, if not already in that category
 * in HideMore hide 'noinclude' etc. too (allows find&replace / custom modules to avoid such tags)
 * I don't think it's appropriate to unilaterally disable all general fixes just because some part of the article uses such tags, as this category says articles using these items are to be cleaned up not to use them. Rjwilmsi  21:49, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
 * The biggest problem is that AWB tends to pull stuff out of the subst'd template and place it where it "belongs" but where it won't get removed when the subst'd template is finally fixed. For example, AWB pulled several categories out of a #if here, the template was desubst'd here, but I had to remove the cats here.  AWB pulled languages out of a noinclude here, the template was desubst'd in October 2007 here, and it wasn't until May 2009 I finally noticed what had happened and pulled out the language links here.  When a template gets subst'd into an article AWB has no way of knowing what is article and what is template, and generally does a good job of shuffling the two together making it even harder to fix.  --Pascal666 23:01, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
 * You might have mentioned that before. Don't sort any cats/interwikis/dablinks etc. when mainspace article has 'noinclude' or programming element etc.  Rjwilmsi  06:43, 5 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you, however please note that #if can be used in articles and its presence does not necessarily mean that the article has had a template substituted into it. The keywords I listed in the original request are the only ones that have no use in articles, only in templates.  I apologize if my example of prior bad behavior by AWB confused the issue.  --Pascal666 07:03, 5 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Best to discuss one issue at a time. drop checks for '#if'.  Rjwilmsi  17:18, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Recently added text at Category:Substituted templates said "These keywords should never be found in the main namespace." I have removed that sentence because it is incorrect, contradicting pages such as Help:Template and WP:Transclusion. Pages containing these constructs are not necessarily the result of substituted templates and should not be added to the category just because they contain them. M<SMALL>AN</SMALL>d<SMALL>ARAX</SMALL> •  <SMALL>XAЯA</SMALL>b<SMALL>ИA</SMALL>M  19:07, 5 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I had not run into these before. So if one of the keywords listed above is found, AWB will have to check if the page is actually transcluded somewhere and only apply this general fix if not.  --Pascal666 08:58, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Category addition commented out for the moment. New logic to avoid pulling categories out of noinclude etc. remains. Rjwilmsi  09:34, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Standard level 2 headers

 * Extend logic within Parsers.FixHeaders, sounds reasonable. Rjwilmsi  06:44, 5 June 2009 (UTC)
 * As requested. Rjwilmsi  10:44, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 18:51, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Bug: Unforeseen problem with feature request which has been discovered since code was implemented and which should be fixed, but which does not fit the definition of "bug" :)  : It shouldn't change any headers, regardless of level, that are underneath those common headers. This is an error, for example. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 20:49, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
 * only apply 'headings up one level fix' if all level 3 headings and lower are before the first of references/external links/see also. Hilarious that when the solution is implemented per your stated requirement, and it later fails to satisfy a requirement you failed to mention, you call it a bug. You could work for the client on my current project (real life job)... Rjwilmsi  21:51, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the update. I've also updated my request –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:05, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
 * No problems. The previous was written while sporting a cheeky grin. Your userpage doesn't specify if you're British: if not, my sense of humour may evade you. Rjwilmsi  22:22, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I thought that you were being humorous (wasn't positive... just thought)... and that's why I responded with a bit of humor myself. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 22:26, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Summary editor Enter, scroll

 * Presumably you only need/want vertical scroll bars? (As long text wraps around). Enabled a vertical scrollbar, and also allowed enter to be pressed in the control to make a newline, rather than pressing ok. . The enter pressing ok might've been my fault when tweaking stuff... No harm done —  Ree dy  14:52, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, I was only requsting a vertical scoll bar. Thanks! M<SMALL>AN</SMALL>d<SMALL>ARAX</SMALL>  •  <SMALL>XAЯA</SMALL>b<SMALL>ИA</SMALL>M  17:25, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Merging duplicate references

 * I would add that the dates should be consistent throughout the article. So if the article has 15 dates on it, 14 of them are formatted as Month Day, Year and 1 is formatted as Day Month Year then the Day Month Year format should be changed to match.  Basically it shoudl take the prevailing date format used thruoghout the article if not a quote. If it helps here is a line of java code to help construct an equivilant filter for AWB.

//Replace 1 January XXXX date style with January 1, XXXX

ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, @"(?i)([0-3][\d]|[\d])(?:st|nd|rd|th|)\s(January|February|March|April|May|June|July|August|September|October|November|December)", "$2 $1,");

--Kumioko (talk) 18:24, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Black Falcon's two requests are reasonable. However, fro Kumioko's request, I don't think AWB should be converting between valid date formats. There is too much contention in this area, and too many users who would find reasons to complain. Rjwilmsi 10:37, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I understand, thought I would throw it out there thuogh. --Kumioko (talk) 16:55, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

This should implemented as a typo fixing rule so that users could see and ignore false positives. Consider: I think the existing AWB logic goes as far as can be done with high accuracy and low controversy. Rjwilmsi 15:39, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * following the 9th of May beer festival -> following 9 May beer festival missing 'the', would be incorrect for AWB to change as specified.
 * On May 9 2004 people got drunk Not up to AWB to choose whether a comma is good or not.

Add quotes to named refs

 * As of AWB already has logic to add quotes where the reference name contains spaces or non-ASCII characters. What more do you need?  Rjwilmsi  23:13, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, the quote marks are otherwise unnecessary - but I like them. In fact, we weren't even using them in our examples until I changed it a couple of weeks back (given our editor base). - Jarry1250 (t, c) 11:55, 9 May 2009 (UTC)r
 * They're not really nessecary, but consensus seems to be that they should be used, as can be seen in both the guideline and in practice (long standing pages use quote marks, but new pages are sometimes created without). More standardization would just be a good idea, IMO. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 13:24, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * When I did this myself a while ago some users objected. See my talk page archive. Rjwilmsi  14:14, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I think AWB should work according to Manual of Style for general fixes. The subject has to be discussed there and the addition or not of this feature should depend on that. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:28, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * It's already in a style guideline (WP:Footnotes), but when I have more time I'll bring it up for more discussion at a MOS page or similar. Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 14:56, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * WP:REFNAME reads "The ref name need not be placed within quotes unless it contains a space or some non-ASCII characters" -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:36, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, okay. It doesn't prohibit using quote tags, either, so more discussion is indeed needed before implementing it as a standard change. Thanks for pointing out that line. –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 16:10, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

No for the moment - AWB already adds quotes to named refs where they are indeed neeeded. Rjwilmsi 14:38, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Generic template removal
(Request template removed; fix below works fine) I'm hoping this can be added because I'd like to be able to go through a list of pages and remove a certain template, regardless of its parameters. The closest option currently is just to use Find and Replace to get rid of the template, but this really only works if the template is the exact same each time. With the template I'm trying to remove, AFC submission, the parameters change with each use of the template, since it has a timestamp parameter and a creator parameter. If there's some way to do this using RegEx then I apoloize for my ignorance and would appreciate being told how to do this. Thanks much, Robert Skyhawk So sue me! (You'll lose) 23:22, 6 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I think the following works: \{\{foo\|([^\}]*)\}\} I'm sure there's a much more elegant way to do it, but essentially this finds the opening brackets with the template name, then a string of any length that doesn't contain a closing bracket, then the closing brackets. --NE2 01:27, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
 * That actually works great, thanks. Robert Skyhawk So sue me! (You'll lose) 04:05, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Strongly suggest you use \{\{foo\|([^\}\{]*)\}\} as templates can be nested. Rich Farmbrough, 16:12 28 February 2009 (UTC).