Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests/Archive 6

=Implemented=

Preview the diff AWB plans to commit while bot timer counts down

 * IMHO, this needs to be checkbox optional, and probably with a delay of >= 5 seconds. Sound alright? —  Ree dy  10:58, 8 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Yep! –xenotalk 16:49, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
 * —  Ree dy 

Eliminate space between full stop and &lt;ref> tag

 * Done. Rjwilmsi  09:34, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Use rich text edit box (with fixed width font) for edit box

 * Should almost be a 1:1 swap to go to the RichText editor.. I'll probably have a play with this for you tonight. —  Ree dy  14:45, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Ok, so. AWB wasn't using a TextBox directly, it was using a wrapped textbox in the form of "ArticleTextBox". I updated that to be a RichTextBox, and updated the PluginInterface to use "TextBoxBase", which both TextBox and RichTextBox both derive from (hopefully reducing most breakages.. This might need/want changing for an ArticleTextBox in the future, though it probably wont matter too much, unless people are needing more specific things from it). Removed a couple of designer things that caused errors. Updated find to use TextBoxBase aswell. —  Ree dy  15:04, 26 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I think this is causing the diff's to not play so nicely.. We get a font change when we go to non english characters.. I'll leave the rev commited for the moment (so Rjwilmsi can have a play), it might just require a few tweaks and properties setting —  Ree dy  15:08, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Rob, just a thought. If you want to revert this, can you let me know, and i'll do it? As the whole revision doesn't have to be reverted, and i'll make a patch to allow easy changing.. —  Ree dy  15:54, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I won't be doing much/any AWB work for a few days, so hopefully that will leave you time to resolve the problems. Rjwilmsi  11:34, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

- Rich Text Box uses \n.. Replacing \n with \r\n fixes up the diffs. —  Ree dy  19:51, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Initial implementation of syntax highlighting in edit box (optional, off by default). Rjwilmsi  17:29, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Performance improvement to syntax highlighting. Rjwilmsi  13:01, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Is this now finished, Rjwilmsi? —  Ree dy  21:55, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I am archiving it. -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:21, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Double-click shouldn't return diff window to top

 * I have also noticed that in addition to this if I make a change in addition to those being suggested by AWB, double clicking will eliminate any manual edits I have made. --Kumioko (talk) 16:32, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * You can get around this by clicking "diff" immediately after doing a manual edit.&mdash; Chowbok  ☠  16:42, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * thanks, didn't know that. --Kumioko (talk) 19:24, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Resolves Kumioko's issue. Rjwilmsi  13:06, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Both issues (loss of position and loss of manual changes) resolved. Rjwilmsi 13:22, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmm... I checked-out & compiled revision 5036 and I'm still seeing this behavior. Is there something I need to set?&mdash; Chowbok  ☠  21:07, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Try the latest API edit snapshot. Rjwilmsi  09:43, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

"Apply to selection" in "make list" box?

 * Hmm. Something like this would have to be done if the text box at the top is empty, i suppose... The other option is to keep it the same, and do it much more programmatically. —  Ree dy  22:10, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Programmatically implemented this for you. All the providers that require an input (ie use the selected as specified pages), are added. . No list maker plugins though.. —  Ree dy  18:07, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Treat talkpage exactly as talkheader

 * —  Ree dy  20:16, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Database scanner: ongoing count articles of scanned

 * Time remaining is probably impossible. IIRC when MaxSem made it multi threaded, the bar became a proper indication of % of the way through... Might be wrong though —  Ree dy  17:10, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I find the progress bar to be accurate in terms of linearity of progress. What we could do is show the actual percentage and elapsed time on top of the coloured bar so that the user could do a rough calculation (10% took 2 minutes, so ~18 minutes left...). Rjwilmsi  18:05, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Time elapsed and textual % would be alright... Possibly as a mouse over tooltip? Or something else? —  Ree dy  11:00, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

We can look at predecessor systems. For example, downloading items from the web gives an interface that has a progress bar with text underneath. The text says 'xx minutes remaining - yy of zz MB (qq kB/s)' or something like that. We all know that the time remaining is just an estimate and resolution only needs to be to the nearest minute. Instead of counting MB, I would like it to count articles. Could we have 'xx minutes remaining - yy of zz articles'? Lightmouse (talk) 12:01, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Pages cant really be done. The Dump doesn't give us a number of pages in the total thing, so would mean going through and counting them all before running. Which is a waste of time and resources. Currently, the progress bar value is setup using "return (double)stream.Position / stream.Length;".... Which we could use to display a textual % complete. A start time can be recorded, and the % in the time of execution, can give an expected time to completion... (execution time is already recorded) —  Ree dy  20:29, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually pages would be lees useful. The dump is front loaded - early articles tend to be larger. Rich Farmbrough, 14:51 28 February 2009 (UTC).

That sounds like it would be an improvement. Lightmouse (talk) 17:41, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Partially there -, thats the textual display done, plus some tweaks and such —  Ree dy  23:17, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Should probably finish this... —  Ree dy  20:23, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Added an ETC in minutes to db scanner. Rjwilmsi 19:11, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

More non-breaking spaces
parser.FixNonBreakingSpaces needs to add more non-breaking spaces, eg the following spaces should be non-breaking:
 * 1) 10 kW
 * 2) 10 mW
 * 3) pp. 1-4 (this is discussed in )

The list is much bigger than this, this is just a start - there will be other common units that need the same treatment.
 * Implements the first two. Rjwilmsi  19:03, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd like
 * 4. 10 mi (for miles)
 * --ospalh (talk) 11:20, 10 July 2009 (UTC)
 * and
 * 5. 10 kN
 * 6. 10 lbf (pound-force)
 * 7. 10 hp
 * 8. 10 lbs (should this be fixed to 10nbsp;lb ?
 * 9. 10 mph
 * 10. 10 lb
 * 11. 10 bhp
 * --ospalh (talk) 11:17, 14 July 2009 (UTC)--ospalh (talk) 10:54, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Those added too (non fixing of 'lbs'). Rjwilmsi 20:33, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

More flexible "Add to list comparer" option

 * Is that add to listmaker? —  Ree dy  20:17, 21 September 2009 (UTC)
 * —  Ree dy  22:43, 22 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Can you do the same for List splitter? -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:19, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
 * -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:28, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

Options -> Preferences -> Tools -> Database Scanner

 * —  Ree dy  14:57, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

Add 'use list' buttons to the list comparer

 * Hmm, i suspect, a button to move the lists back to the first listmaker would do it... —  Ree dy  22:44, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Matt, would that suffice? —  Ree dy  23:21, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
 * ... Leaves them in the original box, just adds them to the first listmaker too. —  Ree dy 

I've just used this in 4.5.2.0 and the button adds the list to the first list in the list comparer rather than the 'Make list' list that's used to work through articles (the 'list box' as shown on File:025 AWB illustrations for AWB manual.png) which is what I meant. Sorry for any confusion, please can this be updated? mattbr 09:29, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I did try to get it to do that, but it was being a pain. It should be doable (in the same way that you can "copy" the list maker to the DBScanner.. —  Ree dy  13:31, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
 * / makes the use list buttons add all the results to the main form list maker. —  Ree dy  21:28, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Add "Clear list" in List menu

 * There is Remove --> All ? —  Ree dy  14:21, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Why can't I see it? :S I see "Remove duplicates" and "Remove non main space" and I have v4.5.1.1 (svn 3911) -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:55, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Right click, remove, 2nd option down is All. Should also have Selected in that menu. Ctrl + A then Del would do the same also —  Ree dy  15:24, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
 * This option is not in the pull-down menu, where I was searching for it. Ctrl+A and tehn Del is not a good idea when working with 25,000 articles. It's slow. Can you add the Remove all on the pull-down menu? -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:57, 4 February 2009 (UTC)



There for me? —  Ree dy  16:03, 4 February 2009 (UTC)



I mean here, in the upmenu. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:40, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Seems a little pointless/redundant to me.. As those are used to affect stuff being added to the list (ie remove dupes on adding, etc etc) Although, no reason why it cant go on —  Ree dy  14:49, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe it's just me but I am used in working with this menu instead of right-clicking. I ve been using Ctrl+A and Del and this was really slow. I am ok if you implement it or not. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:57, 11 February 2009 (UTC)


 * It isn't just you. Items in a contextual menu (i.e. right-click) should not be the only method of accessing a feature. Some expert users like contextual menus. Developers (in all applications, not just AWB) are experts and that is why they focus on contextual menus and sometimes overlook the need to ensure access via basic menus. As your report suggests, it is not just a problem for novices, some experts have problems too. That is partly why I suggested a review of contextual menus throughout AWB. This issue is known and mentioned explicitly or implicitly in usability guidelines. In fact, Microsoft guidelines actually use the term 'redundant' as a good thing. I hope that helps. Lightmouse (talk) 10:16, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * per Reedy. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:51, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Count newpages

 * . Now, does it need/want removing from KingbotK... Or at least, commonising.. —  Ree dy  22:37, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Take advantage of the maximum edit summary length
AWB uses the 255 chars (or worked out in bytes)... Are we allowed more or something? I know there is the "Allow up to 50 more characters in each of your edit summaries. Works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera."... —  Ree dy  17:03, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, with Python I was able to use the following edit summary :  , however with AWB, it was truncated at " ", leaving off the next 34 characters. –xeno talk 17:12, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * AWB was limiting itself to 200.. I've upped this to 250 as of —  Ree  dy  14:17, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Save some edit summary space

 * The problem we have is all projects might not have this redirect.... —  Ree dy  08:34, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
 * What about creating these redirectrs to each project? Or (mus simplier) implement this for en.wiki only. -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:32, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Seconding this request. AWB being able to utilized the gadget "Allow up to 50 more characters in each of your edit summaries. Works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera." would be cool too. (Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature requests). –xenotalk  20:55, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * MediaWiki:Gadget-LongEditSummaries.js (for my future reference) —  Ree dy  19:03, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * At the very least, why not Project:AWB, if that hasn't been done yet? --Izno (talk) 23:06, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm happy to change this, if someone decides what we should use. —  Ree dy  14:17, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
 * —  Ree dy  14:34, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Make List comparer faster

 * / —  Ree dy  15:51, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Add "remove selected" in ListComparer

 * —  Ree dy  23:48, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Removing pp in page parameter in cite templates even without dot

 * catch both "p" and "pp". Rjwilmsi  19:21, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Consistent tagging of Citation needed and its redirects

 * Done. Bug really. Rjwilmsi  19:08, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Update automatically substituted templates

 * Added stuff to right page.. Shouldn't require any internal changes as they're subst'd. —  Ree dy  12:32, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Optimise updater to close AWB only if new version is found

 * AWB does check that there is a newer version... Oh, i getya. —  Ree dy  12:11, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The SVN code is set up to do that (it's undergone various refactorings..) I dont know what version thats on vs whats current out.. —  Ree dy  12:24, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Which ask window? (What message?) —  Ree dy  12:25, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Help->Check for updates->"AWB needs to be closed. To do this now, click 'yes'. If you need to save your settings, do this now, the updater will not complete until AWB is closed." -- Magioladitis (talk) 12:30, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * and simplified things a lot. -- Magioladitis (talk) 17:59, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * offloads it to the Updater to check for newer versions, and inform the user to close AWB —  Ree dy  14:30, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

Uniform terminology

 * Preference? —  Ree dy  12:27, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Skip is used when the article is skipped and ignore if something is not considered. Fr example: "Skip if page is a redirect", "Ignore templates" Where is the mix?
 * Would seem to me to be "Skip if no changes" etc, vs user "Ignore" —  Ree dy  12:37, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The big "Ignore" key has as text "Skip this page without saving...". Anyway, if people think Ignore is confusing we can change it to Skip. -- Magioladitis (talk) 13:04, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I think "Skip" makes more sense because you didn't really "Ignore" the page, you looked at it, and decided to explicitly skip it. ("Skipped by user") –xenotalk 14:08, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * We have to change the similar button of KingbotK plugin as well and the statistics at the bottom (Ignored->Skipped). -- Magioladitis (talk) 17:19, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

In Stats.cs:

In Main.Designer.cs:

Added in -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:55, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Save space in edit summary by shortening some pipes

 * I'll do something about it. I am waiting for Reedy to review it. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:10, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
 * simplified the links. The rest later. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:38, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Traverse to error of unbalanced brackets / dead links

 * There's already an item on the options menu to highlight the unbalanced bracket errors, and focus will scroll there in the edit box. Rjwilmsi  13:50, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
 * For dead links. Rjwilmsi  11:02, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Add tooltip texts to "Skip if no cat changed" and "Remove sortkey"

 * Added. Rjwilmsi  10:35, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Ensure that Kingbotk plugin recognizes all redirects to Template:WikiProjectBannerShell

 * Template:WPBS
 * Template:Wikiprojectbannershell
 * Template:WikiProject Banner Shell
 * Template:WPBannerShell
 * Template:Wpbs
 * Template:WBS


 * Template:Multiple WikiProjects


 * Template:WikiProject BannerShell
 * Template:WikiProject Bannershell
 * Template:WikiProject Banner shell
 * Template:Banner

Any luck in reducing the number of redirects? -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:42, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Well I did notice that the plugin will bypass the redirect when it adds tags, so this will deprecate the redirects over time. –<b style="font-family:verdana; color:black;">xeno</b><sup style="color:black;">talk  19:44, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I got rid of three. –<b style="font-family:verdana; color:black;">xeno</b><sup style="color:black;">talk 19:49, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
 * :) Good job. I sent one more for RfD. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:50, 8 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Why's it necessary to delete these? I don't see how they're hurting anything, and some people might be in the habit of using some of the redirected names. (Some of those people fight figure out what's going on when they make a new page and just get a redlink, but other people might be confused by it.) <b class="Unicode">r ʨ anaɢ</b> talk/contribs 20:09, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The ones I deleted had very few uses (I think 1, 2, and 8), so it's doubtful anyone is using them. –<b style="font-family:verdana; color:black;">xeno</b><sup style="color:black;">talk 20:12, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
 * To second that, especially the third one was not even in the same style with the main one. -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:17, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm re-creating them, since they're valid possibilities that someone who doesn't know the exact template name might type. --NE2 10:00, 9 December 2009 (UTC)
 * RfDs resulted to the deletion fo some of them. NE2 re-created one redirect after deleted by RfD. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:13, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Skip if no major replacement is made
Replace existing option with:

Skip if ☑ no replacement ☐ no major replacement is made.

Boxes should be mutually exclusive. -- Magioladitis (talk) 13:25, 27 November 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ I like this one! –<b style="font-family:verdana; color:black;">xeno</b><sup style="color:black;">talk 13:27, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I also like this one. --Kumioko (talk) 02:20, 24 December 2009 (UTC)


 * , partial —  Ree dy  13:37, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

TO-DO:
 * Skip Boxes should be mutually exclusive like the Skip page if exists/doesn't exist.
 * Add tooltip texts

-- Magioladitis (talk) 23:50, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Create your own general fixes

 * I suppose it wouldnt be hard to convert to a Custom Module, and you could easily add skip otions... —  Ree dy  12:45, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Great, it could really be useful. /Poxnar (talk) 12:51, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
 * We can now mark find & replace entries as minor fixes and skip for only minor f&r changes. I think that covers this request. Rjwilmsi  01:01, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Group tagging in edit summary to save space

 * is a prequisite to this. Should've done the rest, but not commited as untested. Will check in the morning! —  Ree dy  01:10, 1 January 2010 (UTC)
 * does it —  Ree dy  16:33, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Force send statistics to the server

 * —  Ree dy  16:11, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Group same references with different name together

 * But what name is AWB to keep? Rjwilmsi  14:03, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The first found. It's not really important I think. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:36, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Initial version. Longer of the two reference names is kept. Rjwilmsi  13:47, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

List comparer without alphabetical sort
Here is a perl script to randomise a text file

while(<>){ $hash{$_}++; } print keys %hash;
 * 1) randomises a uniqued list, but not randomly

Gotta love perl. Rich Farmbrough, 21:37, 6 September 2010 (UTC).


 * Thanks. I've met perl lovers before, there seems to be a lot of them. I could be one of them if I knew how to get started. Where would I put that script to run it? Lightmouse (talk) 22:03, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Sorting makes comparing fast. Any reason not to sort? -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:20, 10 February 2011 (UTC)


 * It's inconsistent. Lists are unsorted by default with a simple checkbox option to sort. I like the way you've done that but can't put a strong case for it. The feature either adds value and should exist throughout, or has no value and should be removed throughout. If it's difficult to implement consistently, then it's a judgement call for you guys. Not a big deal, feel free to decline. Lightmouse (talk) 10:15, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I've been thinking of that today. If we implement the non-alphabetised version it would mean that we would have to check every element of the one list with every element the other and that's slooooooow. I guess if someone really needs this can do it alone by saving both lists and using external sort programs. -- Magioladitis (talk) 10:29, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
 * You can copy and sort the lists, do the comparison, then link the result back to the original lists. Algorithmically, that's easy (and $$n log n$$ for each list). I don't know exactly what the result of the comparison should be, though (a list of elements in list a, but not list b, and vice versa?). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 10:45, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

Intersection and symmetric difference found in Filters should give unosorted lists but are buggy. My idea is the following at the moment: I prefer this because it's much faster and needs less memory space to store all items. -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:47, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Compare lists: Gives A-B, B-A and $$A \cap B$$ (intersection) all alphabetised. Method works with duplicates.
 * We can get $$(A-B) \cup (B-A)$$ (symmetric difference) with the same method.
 * Remove forced sort during list compare without affecting performance. Rjwilmsi  21:15, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

Exception to removal of blank lines within template calls

 * ✅ Was fixed some months ago. Rjwilmsi  20:50, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

Stop adding whitespace with Fix all excess whitespace

 * This was resolved by a recent bug fix. Rjwilmsi  20:40, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

Increase maximum delay for timer, prevent invalid settings, or warn user

 * Bot save delay maximum allowed value now 99 seconds. Rjwilmsi  20:27, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

=Partially implemented=

Interwiki the AWB link in edit summary
– Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 02:40, 3 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Hmm. theres 2 things to take care of, the project differences, and the language differences. I think having it linked wherever, would be the best... Just what if there is the local page... Hmm Reedy Boy 16:02, 3 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Juts create a local page. It can soft redirect to WP:en. Rich Farmbrough, 15:22 11 October 2007 (GMT).
 * Thats probably a better idea. Thanks Rich! Reedy Boy 15:50, 11 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I did notice that we can in the variables set a link to the AWB page... But that is by language.. Reedy Boy 13:29, 2 November 2007 (UTC)


 * The use of "suppress using AWB in edit summary" minimises the problem. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:29, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I am marking this as partial since there was some progress after 2 years on this one. Plus, many local pages for AWB now exist. -- Magioladitis (talk) 08:08, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Customise "using AWB" per language

 * Unless i've completely lost it, this can be done very easily, as the code is in place, it just requires users notifying us that they want it changing. —  Ree dy  20:50, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * An alternative is to provide a UI so the user can specify the string (checking for the cases where 'using AWB' is going to be used, that is). This might be simpler than tyring to collect all the appropriate strings for every language. ClickRick (talk) 22:31, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * User-specified strings would be great. In my quest to conserve edit summary space, I would probably make it simply  for myself.   would also be a solution in lieu of translating "using" into various languages.  M<SMALL>AN</SMALL>d<SMALL>ARAX</SMALL>  •  <SMALL>XAЯA</SMALL>b<SMALL>ИA</SMALL>M  22:54, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * , added (as you use SVN revisions), pending a better long term solution. —  Ree dy  19:01, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Minor changes
Number 5 should go to the RegexTypoFix page. As that is what that sorta thing is for (not just actual typos). I thought AWB did remove the Template: from Templates.... —  Ree dy  19:48, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * On number 5 do you want me to put the whole list of the ones I have? in regards to the template: thing maybe I have an old version and the new version will fix that when it comes out. --Kumioko (talk) 19:54, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * For number 5 make some requests on WP:AWB/T. Rjwilmsi  20:53, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Add "accessedate" fix (request 2). Rjwilmsi 20:53, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks

Add "accessed" fix (request 3). Rjwilmsi 21:11, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you, just to verify did you use "accessed" or "date accessed". I should have been more clear but you should be looking for "date accessed" and changing that not just "accessed"--Kumioko (talk) 17:02, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Okay, I'll fix that by the end of the weekend. Rjwilmsi  10:29, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Amended. Rjwilmsi  18:45, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Number 5 could be more easily deployed to an (albeit at the moment small) collection of users through fronds. - Jarry1250 (t, c, rfa) 16:52, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks I added them as well as several others.--Kumioko (talk) 16:56, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

For number 1 it appears that AWB has been doing this within FixSyntax for at least two years (SyntaxRegexTemplate regex). Do you have examples of where it didn't? Rjwilmsi  19:16, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * No because when I noticed it wasn't doing it I made a manual edit in my AWB. I will deactivate that and see if it comes up again and let you know.--Kumioko (talk) 19:38, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Category and stub handling enhancements

 * Can we also include change so that Lifetime is included after the categories? As per the Usage guidelines for Lifetime template, it needs to come last, but I believe AWB moves the Lifetime template before the categories. VasuVR  ( talk,  contribs ) 15:36, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Lifetime moved after categories on en wiki. Rjwilmsi  20:35, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you. That was quick... VasuVR  ( talk,  contribs ) 05:25, 28 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Hm... I am not sure that the "usage guidelines" are correct! Since Lifetime includes defaulsort it should be in the same place defaultsort exists. The only reason to put it at the bottom is to override any usage of defaultsort! -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:58, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I do not agree. Default sort does not affect the content or display of the page, I guess. It only affects the listing within a category - hence DEFAULTSORT can be anywhere. So, Lifetime's position need not be affected by the fact that it includes DEFAULTSORT. Also, the Categories for Living people, year of birth, year of death, are not more important than other categories. Hence they should come at the end among list of categories. VasuVR  ( talk,  contribs ) 05:25, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

AWB will now automatically add 'XXXX births/deaths', 'living people' category etc. where the date is available in the article (either following name in bold at top, or within birth date template or similar). There's a skip option and database scanner option for this logic. Rjwilmsi 16:58, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

I think we can close that. "Date of birth missing" and "Date of birth missing (living people)" should not be in article namespace. There are intended for talk pages only. The rest are already implemented. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:23, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Follow redirects on the list comparer
If this is done, it should be optional, since there are other cases where redirects will be categorized. --NE2 01:28, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
 * No problem with that. I just want to be able to figure out which articles we have and which ones we need. bd2412  T 07:16, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Try this - it's a bit complicated but it should work. Turn off all general fixes, and set it to skip if it has the text Category:Foo, and to skip if no changes are made. Load the list and set it to follow redirects. Then run through, and after it's done (there won't be anything to save) look at the "skipped" box in the logs tab. Filter to exclude the skip reason "no change" and you have your list. --NE2 08:15, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The new pre-parsing mode could be used here to achieve this more prettily. Rjwilmsi  12:08, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I followed NE2's advice and it worked like a charm. Cheers! bd2412  T
 * I am marking it as partial, since it's already done somehow. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:25, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Delete blue links / Links on page (no blue links)
I would suggest that you request this job done by a bot. See Bot requests. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:19, 19 May 2009 (UTC)


 * This couldn't be done by a bot. The page has to be checked before it is deleted to make sure the blue link isn't remove if the page is going to be deleted in 15 minutes. This is why semi-automatic would be great. Acebulf (talk) 19:39, 20 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I do it the following way: Load page in AWB with links on page (no red links). Save new list. Reload initial list and exclude articles found in new list. Save result and replace initial page with it.
 * We could create a "Links on page (no blue links)". -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:42, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

In the case we implement this the name should be: "Links on page (only red links)" and rename the "... (no red links)" to "Links on page (only blue links)". -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:15, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Renamed, and now we have only blue and only redlinks, aswell as the one that will pull all. —  Ree  dy  12:43, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Put more in preferences form, cleanup options menu

 * "Preview the diff in bot mode" could probably slide in there too, but contra Mag, I would like "Auto save settings" to remain quickly accessible. –<b style="font-family:verdana; color:black;">xeno</b><sup style="color:black;">talk 18:22, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I think the first 5 are obvious. I am ok if Auto save remains outside. -- Magioladitis (talk) 07:02, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The 3 highlight options can just go to a sub-emnu on the "Options" menu. -- Magioladitis (talk) 01:22, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Handle 504: Gateway Timeout more gracefully, like retrying again in 5 minutes

 * Same thing for "underlying connection keepalive" error. –<b style="font-family:verdana; color:black;">xeno</b><sup style="color:black;">talk 15:54, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Should start restart timer if 'Gateway Timeout' happens. Rjwilmsi  21:48, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Placement of within punctuation
We already have some stuff for this in the general fixes, but more couldn't hurt. — M ETS 501 (talk) 16:52, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Would you clarify that? Snowman 18:26, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually, we don't. MaxSem disabled them in . Jogers (talk) 15:38, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

It would be great if someone who uses regular expressions to fix placement of tags shared their experience. Jogers (talk) 17:36, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I have not worked on it, but is sounds easy I have been told by a programmer - try using the octal forms of brackets and backslashes in the reg ex. Probably need to first recognise if the format is correct or not, and then only put the wrong ones through a subroutine to save doing too many loops. Snowman 13:32, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
 * It should be fairly easy (just needs someone with the time to sit down and play with it) - Set of regex's to match the bad ones, then something to find the nearest/next full stop, and then just move the reference to there.. Reedy Boy 17:37, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
 * As I have suggested the refs in the middle of text and not adjacent to punctuation would be difficult to reposition because the punctuation might need sorting out, and it might not be satisfactory to move them to the next punctuation, where the refs might look like they are referring to the wrong facts. At the present time I was thinking that these would be left where they were in the middle of the sentence.  It is where the spacing is wrong adjacent to punctuation that could be quite easily fixed with reg ex. Spaces could be swapped out/in and/or punctuation moved. The case of more than one ref at a punctuation also needs to be considered. It can be tested in the above block of text although all variations are not included. Snowman 18:15, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
 * True - I suppose some fixes would be better than none - Like moving ones before full stops to after them. Reedy Boy 18:20, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, that would be helpful; but not just for full stops but for all punctuation, brackets, and quotation possibilities as well, and refs where the punctuation is included before the end of italics and bold text. Perhaps, start with punctuation marks and obvious ref positions points to get it launched with a success. I think that the diff screen needs to show changes in blank spaces more clearly to show what has been done - that is another suggestion. Have you seen the diff display in Winmerge software, also on sourceforge? Snowman 18:45, 30 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I have a set of regular expressions that do this job. I am happy to share my work with anybody who is interested. Gaius Cornelius 17:39, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
 * That would save us having to come up with ourselves for the AWB project. And would mean they could be added fairly easily to AWB for the next release. If you wouldnt mind, we'll certainly use them. And give you credit in the code ;) —  Reedy  Boy  20:27, 14 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Here are my rules, they must be applied in the order given:

Rule:   Move reference to after punctuation (1) Replace: ( |/>)([\.,;:"]) With:   $4$1$2$3

Rule:   Delete white-space before reference (1) Replace: \s( |/>) With:   $1$2$3 Apply:  Twice

Rule:   Delete white-space between references (1) Replace: ( |/>)\s( |/>) With:   $1$2$3$4$5$6

Rule:   Delete white-space before punctuation followed by reference (1) Replace: \s([\.,;:"])( |/>) With:   $1$2$3$4

Rule:   Delete white-space before punctuation followed by reference (1) Replace: \s([\.,;:"])( |/>) With:   $1$2$3$4

Rule:   Move reference to after punctuation (1) Replace: ( |/>)([\.,;:"]) With:   $4$1$2$3

Rule:   Delete white-space before reference (1) Replace: \s( |/>) With:   $1$2$3 Apply:  Twice

Rule:   Delete white-space between references (1) Replace: ( |/>)\s( |/>) With:   $1$2$3$4$5$6

Rule:   Delete white-space before punctuation followed by reference (1) Replace: \s([\.,;:"])( |/>) With:   $1$2$3$4

Rule:   Add space after reference followed by text. Replace: ( |[^b][^r]\s/>)([A-Za-z0-9]) With:   $1 $2
 * I find this set to be reasonably reliable and effective, would like to hear how others get on.


 * Gaius Cornelius 21:07, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The white space diff is reported to be ready in the next version, which will help to show what the above (or similar) has done in the AWB diff sceen. Snowman (talk) 00:46, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Only the first rule seems to work for me. Also, it seems when only using the first rule, it would be useful to let it work repeatedly (when more references are present to move the punctuation just in front of the very first one in the whole row) - however when I set to repeat it, it did not seem to take effect. I also do not understand why you duplicate some rules and why you say "apply twice" on some - isnt it the same?--Kozuch (talk) 20:39, 17 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Common issues of this set are:
 * double punctuation not removed (example:  like here)
 * works within comments too - unwanted actually (there are also often hints how to use the ref tags in the References sections)--Kozuch (talk) 09:16, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

I implemented the above routines, but as Kozuch pointed out there problems with them and the mess around with the white space too much. So I've created them with focus on only moving things around when needing too and setting a fixed amount of whitespace after a reference. — Dispenser 23:10, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Looks interesting. Max and myself are planning on getting the next version out this weekend, so will look at this afterwards! =) —  Ree dy  23:36, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Just out of interest... Whats the loop for? Or is that just extra thats not needed? —  Ree dy  13:01, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Basically the loop are used to move the space and punctuation one by one to each side of multiple refs. I've updated the example to what's being used on the server.  Now there's a bug, since it only moves spaces when there's text on the line to the right it will leave spaces before the last ref e.g. "end of text.[3][4] [5]".  So it probably a good idea run "Delete white-space between references " after doing this.  There might be another bug if there's a ref starting on each line...   — Dispenser 14:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

So, in CSharp

Yes? —  Ree dy  19:46, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's correct. However I've been running it for some time and got the following corner cases.  I'll try and remove the loop hack.  Bellow are some issues I found while using the code.  — Dispenser 03:24, 23 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Done the following code should work well enough and test case for AWB's general fixes. I think the matching named groups is not implemented in C#.  — Dispenser 18:35, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

References come in all forms , and "With links and quotes everywhere." . "It sung" "He said,"

"She said. " (Hinting to previous estimates ) a '''another person from another year''' (1999).

References prevalence rate : bunch up and \n begin moved around: done tries her tricks . ...
 * With lists, but never speaking of the unsavory gopher:// external link right next to her side
 * And every new line the vix

and still be could be wrong

April 2009
Partial implementation:
 * remove any spaces between consecutive references
 * ensure a space between a reference and word character following (for references within a paragraph). Rjwilmsi  18:23, 14 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Is this implemented? And if so how do I activate it? I've been trying to add them as Find/Replace rules, but have had little success thusfar (though tis my first day). - RoyBoy 21:07, 31 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I resorted to adding the individual regexp's in Find/Replace (normal), but there has to be a easier way to have the multiple expressions together in one Rule, instead of individual lines. I also added the regexp: ([\.,;:"])([\.,;:"])( |<ref ), replace with: $2$3, which removes repeated punctuation. - RoyBoy 21:45, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Enable general fixes and it's implemented. Rjwilmsi  20:44, 1 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I've reinstalled recently, and it keeps ignoring Spaceship_Earth_(Epcot). I have general fixes selected, but it does not pick up the ref spacing issues. What do I have to change? - RoyBoy 05:21, 25 December 2009 (UTC) Using built 5739.
 * It worked for me. What was the skip reason? Rjwilmsi  08:22, 28 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Says "Only general fix changes". I notice it doesn't do punctuation changes, so I would still have to use the regex anyway for that? - RoyBoy 16:53, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

removes spaces at the end in references. One step closer. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:22, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

AWB "removes spaces between punctuation and references" as well. -- Magioladitis (talk) 12:07, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

AWB now removes leading spaces as well. -- Magioladitis (talk) 13:04, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Rereading the initial request, I think we did all that could be possibly done. The rest could not be part of genfixes since WP:REFPUNCT allows different puncation styles. I ll archive this soon if there are no disagreements. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:38, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

=Not implemented=

Fact → citation needed only when other changes are made

 * Skip if no header fixes? Rjwilmsi  06:43, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I think this change is already in minor fixes, or not? So, it's not AWB#s fault but bot's fault that does minor fixes. -- Magioladitis (talk) 10:51, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
 * There's a genfix skip option to skip if no "header errors fixes". That covers what you need here. Rjwilmsi  11:30, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
 * D'oh! My apologies. I keep forgetting about that set of options. Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 19:04, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I kinda agree, on the other hand the change in clean-up template name in this instance was done to clarify meaning, not for the ususal readability or combining reasons. Rich Farmbrough, 15:19, 12 September 2009 (UTC).

Support the beta version of WP

 * Beta and future?? Its working fine on current svn.. And newer releases are going to use the api, which is less susceptible to stupid breaking changes. What version are you having problems with?? —  Ree dy  15:01, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
 * SVN 4974. I will go and download a more recent one if there is one. --Kumioko (talk) 16:28, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It's working fine for me on 4662. --Auntof6 (talk) 23:02, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Mention reference consolidation in edit summary
It is my understanding (though only recently reached) that AWB will only do this with existing named references (i.e. it never makes up the names for refs, only propagates them. But yeah, it would be nice to see. - Jarry1250 (t, c) 17:44, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately the reason for some of the AWB general fixes may not be self-evident, but the edit summary is very short, so I don't think it's appropriate to start adding such things to the edit summary. If we added this there would be many others, and we'd soon run out of space, and also, what about the summary on non-English wikis.
 * Jarry1250's understanding is correct. I will update the information on the general fixes in the user guide when the named reference tidying is in the official release. Rjwilmsi  17:56, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I understand. BTW I thought I had references seen being named, but I might be mistaken. -- User:Docu
 * I have a custom module that gives references names (sometimes). Part of it might get into a future release of AWB, but not yet. Rjwilmsi  18:20, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Separate ref tag details from text, put inside references tag
Is there consensus on this? I don't think that there have been any major discussions recently, just one a few months ago, and unless there is overwhelming support it probably shouldn't be a genfix. (also, how it is done could vary from article to article depending on if it uses Harvard refs, full citations, or something else altogether). –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 23:56, 17 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Separating refs from body text is a long-requested feature - wikitext is presently almost unreadable and uneditable. I'm sure someone will consider editable wikitext a flaw, but I'd hope they were vastly outnumbered. As for referencing style, shirley leaving what's inside the &lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;tags unaltered would be sensible - David Gerard (talk) 00:10, 18 September 2009 (UTC)
 * We can do this but there needs to be a reasonable period of discussion on WP:REFNAME or similar to establish that it's the agreed new best practise. Rjwilmsi  07:29, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

God no. It's a lot easier to do The line opened in 1859. than The line opened in 1859.<ref="Blow, p. 45"/> and then put the reference separately at the end. It's impossible for an automated process to determine whether moving it to the end is the right thing to do. (I could see consensus for moving already-named refs to the end, though.) --NE2 11:15, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

I disagree as well. We ll be be going pageup-pagedown all the time. Why this improves editability? -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:28, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

I also disagree with the proposal to have AWB force this recent cite.php feature change indiscriminately/automatically. That feature change may have been designed to address an editability issue that occurs in only one of wikipedia's referencing systems (namely, "[long] footnotes") but it does not really make any sense to apply it to the other systems. In bibliography-based referencing systems, like WP:CITESHORT and WP:PAREN/WP:HARV, the articles already have a separate list that contains the full references/sources, ie the bibliography. For citeshort all that's in-between the tags is something like "Smith 2001: 123", or sometimes a discursive note. Replacing these with named tags and then listing them all out at ) and some of them have been fixed since the dump was created. I considered the stub templates to be the same only when they were spelled exactly the same. The list is at . Svick (talk) 10:51, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Svick, you are great. :) Maybe you fill in a request to CHECKWIKI as well? After that, I agree we have to implement this for AWB. --Magioladitis (talk) 11:14, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
 * This already exists in AWB. Why did nobody actually check? Unit tests to come... Rjwilmsi
 * If its there it doesn't seem to be working in all cases as shown by the example article.--Kumioko (talk) 19:09, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
 * On "James Lewis (United States Army)" it works for me with genfixes enabled. Rjwilmsi  19:55, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
 * What is puzzling is that the duplicate was added by ; instead of moving it to the proper place, it copied it. I've never seen it do that before. Or was that change manually done? M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:00, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I didnt do it intentially, I dont have any logic that deals with stubs except for what awb does.--Kumioko (talk) 20:17, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I don´t have access to AWB right now but I think that Kumioko undid one part of the changes by accudent by double-clicking to the diff window. So, the what AWB originally tried was to "move stub at the bottom". --Magioladitis (talk) 20:38, 3 January 2010 (UTC)