Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Kingbotk plugin/Archive 2

Logging
Using 0.9 and when I check "Upload" it says I need to fill out Folder-- what do I put there? --PlangeBot 23:10, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
 * never mind :-) figured it out... --plange 02:36, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
 * For other folks: it's the location for storing log files. Just click the button and select a folder. --kingboyk 11:51, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to remind folks that the logging version is "alpha", and a few issues have been identified (see the todo list). I'm not in any hurry to release the next version as I'm busy working on articles. Please bear with me and if you hit any serious problems turn logging off or go back to the previous version (but do report any issues to me of course!) --kingboyk 15:24, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Trains WikiProject
Would it be possible to add full support for TrainsWikiProject? I love this plugin, and it would be great if it had this. -- Selmo  (talk) 01:52, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Ooh you have a lot of parameters :) Any idea how many untagged articles you have?
 * I probably won't be available to do these requests until after Christmas, but we have a new coder on board now so maybe he'll volunteer. I think we have a few higher priority things to do (fixing a few bugs, adding a few simple feature requests etc) but if you have plenty of untagged articles still it can certainly go onto the request list. Hope that helps. --kingboyk 14:01, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the reply. There's alot of articles whose tag is out of date. It isn't super-important, but it would be nice. -- Selmo  (talk) 18:34, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I did most of the work for the India plugin off the back of the Australia plugin. It is something that i can try and get most of the groundwork done for this, and then get steve to finish off the last few bits of the implementation/testing. Reedy Boy 19:33, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
 * This is quite an old request now Sam. If they still want it, I'm happy with the above plan. Same goes for the other updates we need. --kingboyk 18:46, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Novels support
I have yesterday added a fresh request from this project on the main page which is where I thought it should go! :: Kevinalewis  :  (Talk Page) / (Desk)  14:10, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Cheers for the Request. As for the above request, this should be able to be done. Will see what free time i get to have a look. Reedy Boy 19:33, 21 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Is there any movement on this plugin. :: Kevinalewis  :  (Talk Page) / (Desk)  16:41, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Still no movement. :: Kevinalewis  :  (Talk Page) / (Desk)  10:23, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

New version - Alpha version logging
It appears that if you run more than one "session" per day the log of the second session overwrites the first session and then adds the same date tagged entry to the "Logs" article. This makes it look like two "or more" sessions have the same references but when you look at the linked article the deatil is the same. You need to look at the history to find the earlier session updates. :: Kevinalewis  :  (Talk Page) / (Desk)  15:42, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Sounds like a simple thing. I'm not really 100% ofe (sp?) with the running/usage of the plugin and its logging. Will look into it/speak to steve Reedy Boy 19:33, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Looking at User:Kevinalewis/Logs I can see what you mean about it over writing the log files. Im presuming that it really should be making the incrementing pages for each log, rather than overwriting the earlier? Reedy Boy 21:37, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
 * The idea is that you'd manually give the second session a different name (i.e. it's a feature not a bug :)). However I do agree that's not very intuitive. We need to come up with a better idea... Reedy Boy hopefully we can catch up on MSN over Christmas. --kingboyk 08:12, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

GPL
Could you please release the sourcecode for User:Kingbotk/Plugin/WikiFunctions2 as a direct compilation based on a GPL product (ie. Wikifunctions.dll) is automatically licensed under the GPL. Thanks, 59.167.98.46 20:39, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
 * No it isn't, and this isn't the way to ask.


 * My plugin is not derived from AWB in any way whatsoever. It merely references AWB binaries. --kingboyk 04:04, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Template:WPAstronomy
Could this plugin support the new tag, please? Mike Peel 22:54, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry about the delay in replying. You should be able to use the "generic plugin" feature except when tagging articles which need the object=yes or astrophysics=yes parameter. I don't know if that's a minority of articles or a majority. As for full programatic support, I'll have a chat with Sam (ReedyBoy) about it. --kingboyk 18:48, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Kingbot
Moved from User talk:Reedy Boy

Do you happen to know when this is likely to updated to work with the latest AWB. If this isn't kept alive - it will die. And project doing assessments are finding it extremely useful. :: Kevinalewis  :  (Talk Page) / (Desk)  10:22, 26 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi, Between Steve and myself, we have got the AWB plugin working with the SVN versions of AWB. However, the thing that is holding us back is a change of the settings saving/loading methods for plugins. We have only had limited success saving/loading the settings, and therefore, haven't released a new version of the plugin. It would be possible for us to release a version based on the SVN version, but save/load functionality of settings would not be avaliable. With AWB due to change its check page method for the next release version (of course, if needed, AWB 3.0.4.1 can be left on the old check page), it would be ideal if we could get it sorted out. If you would want a version (without save!!), we could do this, but i am going to try and see if we can sort out save. Progress is ongoing, just not at a fast rate!! Reedy Boy 10:28, 26 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the update. Would it be possible to give a sort of "update news" on the plugin page so we have some idea that there is progress and what direction that is likely to be taking, thanks.


 * I also would need to talk sometime about have a "task force" enabled element to the plugin, similar to that for MilHist. Thanks. :: Kevinalewis  :  (Talk Page) / (Desk)  10:34, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
 * The problem is that I became busy with other things and also to an extent lost interest in coding this tool any further, and ReedyBoy is still learning the ropes. Ideally if we could get svn (source code) access to 1 or 2 other folks who can code in VB.NET we'd not be relying on me :) (besides these periods of inactivity I might get hit by a bus or something!)
 * Martin made a big change to the plugin API which hasn't really been explained to us in a way we understand, and I don't read C# too well. I did get as far as reading and writing a simple string setting, but that was it.
 * Anyway, since you ask nicely I'll make sure we get something out this week, whether it be a version which works fully with the current AWB or a compromise interrim version without any settings save/load ability. --kingboyk 18:40, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm pleased to say that I finally cracked the settings thing. I've also been given write access to the AWB code, which was a help in getting it to work. I still doubt the wisdom of the changes in AWB that broke compatability in the first place, but you don't care about that :) What you want to know is when a new version will be out, and my answer is it should be tommorow. --kingboyk 00:21, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Request
Moved from User talk:Reedy Boy

Hi Reedy Boy, the plugin is working great for WP:India. Infact many new sub projects have opened since you customised the plugin for us. Can I request you to have a look at the new subprojects and add them to the plugin? Thanks &mdash; Lost (talk) 12:39, 26 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi, an edit like that, ie just adding the extra bits, and then some check boxes would be quite easy to do. The only problem is, we are in a version that isnt fully compatible with the latest SVN, in the way that we cant save/load settings. I'll be able to add it into that version easily, but should be able to check out an old version from SVN, ie the 3.0.4.1 and update it.


 * Whatever way, i'll have a look for you =). Should be quite easy to do!! Reedy Boy 14:15, 26 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks a lot! &mdash; Lost (talk) 14:50, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
 * 3.0.4.1 is shipped with the plugin and is available for download from my plugin page. --kingboyk 18:41, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Hi Kingboy/ Reedy Boy, sorry for waking up late but just wanted to check whether 3.0.4.1 carries support for the additional sub projects of WP:India? Is any additional info required from us to make this happen? &mdash; Lost (talk) 21:57, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Hi, You need to download the New Version. To do this, you need to grab the latest AWB (3.1.3.2) from Sourceforge. This includes the latest version of the plugin. Reedy Bot 22:12, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Bugs, feature requests, etc
Now would be a good time to remind me about any unresolved issues - first come first served! :) --kingboyk 21:40, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

New Release
Version 1.0.0 alpha (release candidate 1) is now available for download. As myself and Reedy Boy are now registered as AWB developers too, the plugin is shipped with AWB. Download. Feedback is welcome! --kingboyk 09:10, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I downloaded the new version and extracted it into my AWB folder, but I get an error when I start up AWB now. It says: "Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information." The "Plugins" menu item does not appear, but the rest of AWB seems to work fine. Am I doing something wrong? Using Windows XP Home Edition, if that makes a difference. Jwillbur 18:26, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
 * You need both WikiFunctions2.dll and Kingbotk AWB Plugin.dll in your AWB Directory. Reedy Boy 19:27, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, that worked. Thanks - Jwillbur 23:29, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Is it working OK for you? I see you're doing assessments - are you finding the tool to be a help? --kingboyk 23:35, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, it works now, I just hadn't copied the dll's to the root AWB directory at first. It is very helpful, thanks for all the hard work. Jwillbur 00:06, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

WPBiography
Somebody created a redirect WikiProject Biography without telling me, which may have resulted in one or two double taggings on behalf of WPBio. I've done a run fixing transclusions of that template call and have updated the regular expression in the plugin. It will be released with the next AWB. Shouldn't be any major concern to anybody but please exercise caution with WPBio until I get the new plugin released. --kingboyk 11:44, 3 March 2007 (UTC) (PS: It may be a good idea to check the templates for your WikiProjects, and advise me of any other new redirects, parameters, or logic changes).

Albums plugin problem
The plugin qualify some valid album template instances as "bad". For example: Jogers (talk) 20:24, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
 * That's bad because it has a | at the end with no parameter. --kingboyk 20:39, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
 * OK, I'm going to use "skip bad" option as you suggested anyway. Jogers (talk) 21:02, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Novels support
Thanks for you help - I will endevour to put on the "auto" parameter and not set up but the next "task forces" could well be, "military-task-force=yes", "young-adult-task-force=yes", "fantasy-task-force=yes" & "russian-task-force=yes". Thanks for your assistance on this. :: Kevinalewis  :  (Talk Page) / (Desk)  08:37, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Nice new version - including "NovelsWikiProject" support - I notice though still no support for the other "task forces" mentioned, but more importantly no support for the "needs-infobox-cover" (settings = "yes" or "1st") or "incomp-infobox" (settings = "yes") yet. Thanks for the work so far!. :: Kevinalewis  : (Talk Page) /(Desk)  10:35, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Does it work OK? Reedy Boy started it, but I ripped a lot of the code out and started again as he'd copied the rather more complicated WPBiography code for much of it.


 * The infobox params are in the context menu of the text box. Sam did put them onto the main plugin tab, but I removed them - under what circumstances would you be wanting to tag those with a bot? Since we only read the talk page at present I'm not sure how a bot could make use of these?


 * I didn't add the workgroups as you weren't concrete in your plans. If you're ready to go with those just say the word :) --kingboyk 10:42, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Ok, it runs fine so far - not had too much time with it. Sorry for placing the comment above in the wrong place. Not problem about the pending Task Forces/ Workgroup, just hope that you are available when/if they get the go ahead. On the other point - I am tending to use the plugin in manual review mode mostly so these would be useful ways to save lots of keying which typically I now have to do "after" the "AssessmentForm" responses are OKed. It maybe I am suggesting taking the plugin where it hasn't gone yet! :: Kevinalewis  : (Talk Page) /(Desk)  10:48, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah I see. Let me take a look and I'll see if I can offer any suggestions or find any way of improving things. Brb. --kingboyk 10:53, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * needs-infobox-cover - is that your eqivalent of needs-photo? i.e. If you assess an article and click "Needs photo", the plugin should add needs-infobox-cover=yes? What does needs-infobox-cover=1st mean? --kingboyk 11:20, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Close, however it is conceivable that other photos may be requested (but that is a minor issue. the main one is that on many occasions a undesirable later edition cover is present and we need to indicate the a "1st" edition cover is what should be sought out and used. :: Kevinalewis  : (Talk Page) /(Desk)  12:15, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, you'll have to help me out a bit here :) The architecture of the plugin is that it's designed actually as a set of plugins. Each plugin is built on an object called PluginBase which contains common functionality and placeholders for customised functionality which every templating plugin must implement. In assessments, the user selects certain parameters (as you know) and these are sent to each active plugin so that it can add/amend the template it owns. So, adding something like "first edition cover" needed would add quite a lot of complexity because yours is the only template which supports it. Ideally, we need to settle on one parameter/value which the Novels plugin would add when it's told that a photo is needed.
 * Ok, I can see two ways to deal with this one (allow "photo request" to check the image infobox parameter to see is "image:" is present and if not add with the ="yes" setting or if present add the "=1st") or two add support for these options to the "you right click in that box you get a menu, with Insert Tag" idea you mention below and have these two options addable at that point. I think that might be a cleaner solution and might be easier for you to code. :: Kevinalewis  : (Talk Page) /(Desk)  12:55, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Both are fairly easy to do. We explode each template into a template name and a collection of parameters/values, so it's easy enough to check existing values. I'll see what I can come up with. --kingboyk 13:04, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I may even prefer the second option as it leaves (photo req) alone for standard use. Also it leaves the control in the operators hands. Bot, mode might benefit from the first approach though, I'll bow to you superior wisdom on this though. :: Kevinalewis  : (Talk Page) /(Desk)  13:11, 9 March 2007 (UTC)


 * So, you need to help me with the logic. What exactly do you want the Novels Plugin to do when the Assessments Manager tells it a photo is requested? Also, do you want reqphoto templates replaced with a parameter? --kingboyk 12:22, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, may I suggest that Novelinfoboxneeded and Novelinfoboxincomp be deprecated? Better still, merge them into NovelsWikiProject and delete? (We can have a bot do it if there are many uses). Having a template and a template parm doing the same thing mean having to write extra logic.
 * Agreed, I was trying to replace these as rapidly as possible with the "param" version. Full support for these in the plugin would assist in this process and I would aim to make the switch fairly quickly after such automation was available. I would expect no support for Novelinfoboxneeded and Novelinfoboxincomp in the plugin although an automated replacement would be a nice to have! :: Kevinalewis  : (Talk Page) /(Desk)  12:15, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * OK, I'll write some regular expressions and code to have the plugin replace those templates with parameters. I'll also replace the context form insertion with parameters instead of template calls. --kingboyk 12:22, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Finally, when assessing, once you've selected the grade and clicked OK, you get the talk page in the normal AWB window, right? At the bottom right of the screen is an editable textbox containing the talk page text. If you right click in that box you get a menu, with Insert Tag and other options. Underneath Insert Tag is a Novels menu. (Currently it inserts the old templates, I'll modify it to insert needs-infobox-cover= and so on). --kingboyk 11:28, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Ideal, how did I miss this functionality, must be dense I suppose!. Yes, to the proposal you mention above. 12:17, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * No comment! ;) --kingboyk 13:04, 9 March 2007 (UTC) (in fairness, it seems most people miss this...)

Alright, I propose to do this: Let me know pronto if any of this doesn't meet your requirements as I'll try to get it done this afternoon. --kingboyk 13:43, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * If the user assesses that a photo is needed, add a needs-infobox-cover=yes if not already present
 * Replace any unparameterised reqphoto with needs-infobox-cover=yes
 * Convert Novelinfoboxincomp to incomp-infobox=yes
 * Convert Novelinfoboxneeded to needs-infobox=yes
 * Add needs-infobox-cover=yes, needs-infobox-cover=1st, incomp-infobox=yes and needs-infobox=yes to the context (right click) menu.


 * Sounds Ok to me thanks. :: Kevinalewis  : (Talk Page) /(Desk)  13:53, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I've done and am testing the above. I'll look at the other issues afterwards.
 * Do you want your template parameters seperated by newlines (like this) or do you want them all on one line? --kingboyk 18:12, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

All done. I've uploaded it to the AWB repository and it should ship with the next minor release of AWB. --kingboyk 20:38, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Major change in Version 1 RC3
I'm currently working on release candidate 3 of version 1, which includes various bug fixes and tweaks, as well as support for WikiProject Novels.

I've discovered that the plugin is rejecting some valid instances of WPBiography. This is because since the plugin was written, the project has added a parameter which can have a space in it's value. Checking WPMILHIST, I see too they now have parameters which might contain spaces.

Since the regular expressions are at the very heart of the program, and their robustness is well proven by the lack of complaints about the plugin, I'm very reluctant to change them. However, I do think that the best way to deal with this is to change the basic regex pattern I use for all templates.

In prior versions, template parameters were caught with the following regex capture group:

(? [^}{|\s\n\r]*)

I will be removing the space from the excluded characters, so that it becomes:

(? [^}{|\n\r]*)

With quite a few other tweaks and changes in this version I strongly recommend running some extensive manual tests before letting it loose with a bot. --kingboyk 14:08, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Assessments with plugin
Response to my talk page question - yes it appears to be working fine. The edit summary was a trick I missed and I have removed the text to allow the "automatic" to work 'as is'. thanks :: Kevinalewis  : (Talk Page) /(Desk)  14:00, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * What buttons did you press [|here]? The summary says Unassessed class - did you type Stub in manually or use the checkbox on the popup assessment form? --kingboyk 14:03, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Neither, if I remember correctly I left the AssessmentFrom blank for the Class to test the "auto" assigning of the "Stub from the main article, which does get assigned. Is this wrong? the Novels tab has the "Auto-Stub", Stub-Class", "Crime" selected. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  14:37, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmm. Auto=yes should be disabled in non-bot mode, I'll have to fix that. As for how you're using it, it wasn't really designed that way and I'd have to test what happens. The idea I suppose is that you're tagging as Stub by default but changing it to a better class if you feel it deserves it? As I said, I didn't expect anybody to use it like that so some testing is in order :) --kingboyk 15:02, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually the other templates don't disable it, and it would be too much hassle to fix right now. I'll look at the edit summary and any remaining issues after dinner. --kingboyk 19:04, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Also when "Class" and "Importance" tag pre-exist and are OK but you want to allow the page through to auto populate the Task force, pressing "OK" the fuctionality is fine but the "edit summary" claims it as a "Unassessmed" see. Talk:Black and Blue (novel) which I have just don that way. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  15:00, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah, because the edit summary is built from what you click on the popup form. As above - I'll look into this. --kingboyk 15:02, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I've changed it to only display the class in the edit summary if the user selected a class on the popup form. --kingboyk 20:38, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * All seems to be working fine - for me. That is in non-bot mode. I dont' have acess to a bot enabled account to try that one out. SO I suppose it will have to wait. Thanks. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  15:59, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
 * You've still got "Tagging" in your edit summary :) Perhaps I should put some code into place to prevent that? --kingboyk 16:09, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Oops, forgot - :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  16:30, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Minor bug in albums plugin
I've been notified of incorrect behavior of the plugin at User talk:Jogersbot. I don't expect substituted album template instances to be very common but if there was some easy workaround to this issue it would be nice. Jogers (talk) 11:24, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Not a bug, the templates shouldn't be subst'd and rarely are. I think a workaround would be too complicated with too little return (my bot has tagged over 200,000 times and this hasn't come up before as far as I can recall). --kingboyk 11:37, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

New version
Hi guys, I am unable to figure out how to work the plugin in the latest version of AWB. The instructions here seem to be out of date as the new version has a completely different format. Can someone guide me on how to go about using the plugin... Thanks &mdash; Lost (talk) 19:51, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Could you be a little more specific? Doesn't the plugin load at all or is the problem related to the settings? Valentinian T / C 19:54, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Should be fairly simple. Just move or copy the two .dll files from the kingbotk folder to the main AWB folder, and proceed as normal. If that doesn't work please post back with more detail. --kingboyk 20:04, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, when I put on the AWB, a popup message tells me Problem loading plugin - Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderException property for more information. Once I click on the pop up, another pop up comes up saying Please re-save this settings file to use the new settings format &mdash; Lost (talk) 22:44, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Copy both DLL files! That error means you only copied one.
 * The second message comes from AWB and needs to be obeyed, because the settings file format changed. Just save the settings again and all should be well. --kingboyk 22:54, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Hey it worked! Thanks a lot &mdash; Lost (talk) 23:14, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Another problem
With the previous version of AWB, whenever I wanted to make a list for wikiproject tagging from categories, I would do the following:


 * Type the category name in the search box and generate list
 * Sort alphabetically, select categories, and through right click, populate from the selected categories
 * Again sort alphabetically and repeat search.

This way, the category and all its subcategories would be populated in my list and there would be no repetition. But in the current version, I am getting repetition. Every time I search on the subcategories, a duplicate list appears. Solution please? &mdash; Lost (talk) 23:36, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I believe its possible to right click the list and filter through all namespaces as well as filter duplicates. RHB Talk - Edits 23:49, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Aah ok... Looks like that option has been recently added. Thanks &mdash; Lost (talk) 23:54, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Might be worth reporting at the AWB page though. --kingboyk 00:23, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

I couldn't help noticing that many of the pages you're tagging for WikiProject Protected areas of India also have a Messagebox protected areas on them (example). Do you think it would be a good idea to have your WikiProject Protected areas of India group be connected with, and advertise, WikiProject Protected Areas? Then, we can code the plugin to replace any Messagebox protected areas on a page which also has WP India with a protected-areas=yes parameter. I'm not just not too keen on multiple tagging where it can be avoided as it's starting to get out of hand. --kingboyk 00:23, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes thats a good idea. Infact there are other similar subprojects where we could do a similar thing. But as you can make out, I am not a technical person, so if you want, I can give you a list of such India related projects which are also descendent projects of other larger projects and we can work out this option for them &mdash; Lost (talk) 09:24, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Version 1.0.0.1 rc5 17 March 2007
Not sure this is working correctly - I have just download this one and tried it and I start by getting errors like "Unable to cast object of type 'System.Windows.Forms.Button' to type 'System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox' when I select a settings file (note. it is a settings file created by 'this' version)". From then on other errors appear and the talk pages fail to load and the assessment form fails to appear. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  09:28, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Yikes. Don't like the sound of that! Will investigate, could you email me the settings file please? You might need to zip it up first. I've just sent you an email so u have my address. --kingboyk 11:37, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * sent as requested :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  12:39, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Looks like there was a small change in AWB I didn't know about. I've just built and emailed a new version to you which should be OK. Please report back. HTH. --kingboyk 12:42, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Appears to have fixed the problem - will proceed with caution. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  13:58, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Well that was only a cosmetic issue, not a flaw in the regular expressions or anything serious (basically, a button was added to AWB in an area where (through a hack) I latch onto checkboxes. I've made it more robust by having the code check that each object in the loop actually is a checkbox before trying to use it like one. Really nothing to worry about.
 * WRT to testing the new novels plugin, a test of each parameter over a random sampling of 100 or so pages really ought to be enough. The plugin is built on the same base code as all the others, and that basic code is obviously sound given the absence of complaints! Worry ye not, in other words. --kingboyk 14:03, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Logging bug
I've observed that when a job finishes and the plugin asks if it should upload the logs, a second near-empty log page gets deleted. I'll try and fix this before the next release.

If you get such pages and you're an admin, please delete them. If you're not an admin, tag the faulty page for user-requested speedy deletion using db-user. --kingboyk 10:41, 25 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Surely you mean that instead of "a second near-empty log page gets deleted", a "a subsequent near-empty log page gets created". The only content of which is a "Page prior|current page" header and then a "plugin version" and "AWB version" legend. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  13:33, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's it. --kingboyk 13:37, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Notes to self: use notifyicon instead of upload form when AWB ius minimised or minimised to tray. Consider impact of short AWB nudge timer on log upload process.
 * Log upload caught in a loop on current svn/AWB svn, adding log entry multiple times until I killed process: I don't recall changing any logging code? did Sam? did something else cause a breakage? or an issue with new AWB?
 * Need to add bad tags log upload. --kingboyk 14:19, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * No looping with current builds on last run. Will keep an eye on this with subsequent test runs (I have plenty of tagging queued up).
 * The extra-log-page at upload time I think I have identified the problem. Found some suspect code when hitting that code block in the debugger; skipping it resulted in this and only this log being created. Will test further but expect a fix in the next version. --kingboyk 16:07, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Sigh. Thought I'd fixed it but still having problems. This issue is a right pain in the arse! --kingboyk 19:17, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Rather ironically, it seems it was the "make my life easier by having the nudge in AWB" change that broke the logging to cause this new problem! AWB was resuming operations whilst logs were still uploading; the plugin received new article text, saw that it had exceeded its "lines to write to log before upload" quota, and started a new upload, potentially in an infinite loop.

I've added some code to AWB to have it ask plugins before nudging; kingbotk plugin denies permission to nudge whilst it's busy with logging. Old issue of extra log page was certainly solved by my earlier bug fix. Fingers crossed anyway, but so far so good in testing. --kingboyk 21:53, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

just a thought on "bad tag" the ONLY ones we have had are those with "" style comments between parameters. Is it possible for the Plugin to "handle" these and thus not see them as "bad". :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  14:23, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * The regular expression change since version 1 should have altered that behaviour. The only characters not allowed in parameters now are line breaks. Your logs say you're using Plugin version 1.0.0.1, so you're up to date - could you check your recent "bad tag" logs for me and confirm whether this is still happening? --kingboyk 16:12, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Talkheader and skiptotoctalk templates
Currently, if the plugin has added or moved a template to the top of a talk page, it then checks for talkheader and skiptotoctalk and moves them to the top. However, if it's simply modified a template in situ it doesn't do this.

Result: if a page has a talkheader below a WikiProject template, like this, and we then just modify the WikiProject template, we don't move anything.

Should we retain this behaviour, or always run a check/move operation for talkheaders?
 * Status quo - Every operation which involves searching for text and moving it risks introducing errors, including moving stuff that folks don't want moving. Also, we're under no obligation to fix problems introduced by others.
 * Change - if it's felt that edits like this are a problem.

I'm inclined to leave it, although I was at first puzzled to see that diff until I worked out the logical process and remembered why I'd coded that way. --kingboyk 19:25, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I've decided to change this behaviour. If we don't skip the page, we'll always modify the layout. --kingboyk 13:41, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Novels Plugin etc
Having used the Plugin with the Novels element for a while now I would like to add a few requests.

I have missed the ability to easily add "Task forces" when working manually. Then I noticed that the relevant options are available on the WPBiography "right mouse" context menu. So my request run like this. Could we have a menu that looks like the following

I hope that is all fairly simple. It should be I think and I hope that makes sense - any questions please let me know. I used the pattern on the WPBiography and then blended in our features, hope that is OK :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  14:11, 30 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Makes mine/steve's lives easier. He's poked me to ask me to do it, so when i get chance to speak to him on msn to check some specifics, i should be able to add it for you. Will let you know Reedy Boy 18:51, 30 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi, there is no 'Cover incomplete', discussing it with steve, we decided you must have meant the 'benefit from 1st edition cover', and have left it as so. If this is not the case, let us know asap and this can be changed for the next release Reedy Boy 20:02, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Quite right, well spotted. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  09:41, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
 * All OK? --kingboyk 13:42, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Altered spec above to match what you delivered - which was right on the money! :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  14:12, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, not me, it was entirely Sam (Reedy Boy). Thanks anyway! --kingboyk 14:15, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

WPBio Listas
Moved from User talk:Kingboyk

Hi there, I have been strolling thought the Unassessed biography articles, the Is in particular. I noticed that the bot is tagging articles like Harry Perry III with the listas parameter "III, Harry Perry" which causes the article to show up in the Is. Similarly it tags James J. Barry Jr as "Jr, James J. Barry" which puts the article in the Js. It is not a big deal to me, and there aren't that many of them, but I thought that you might like to know. Also, just thought I would let you know that I appreciate all of your hard work with the bio project and such. Cheers--DO11.10 22:07, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks. It really doesn't matter, as listas= is purely cosmetic. That said, the AWB devs are aware that I, II, III etc needs to be fixed (I call a function in AWB for that feature). I did wonder how long it would be before I got a message about listas, and now I know the answer ;) --kingboyk 22:15, 26 March 2007 (UTC) PS "Jr" ought no longer be erroneous. That was fixed in the latest AWB. Please see this discussion for more info.
 * Although I've now turned this feature off for automated edits, please note that the roman numerals cases should now work as 2 AWB devs (MaxSem and myself) have done some fine tuning of the MakeHumanCatKey code. --kingboyk 11:53, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

There are also errors when tagging Asian bio articles, as the article names are already surname-first. Since you said it's purely cosmetic, should I not bother editing all the ones that are incorrect? SKS2K6 20:40, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * No, I wouldn't bother changing them, as all it does it determine what letter the talk pages are filed under in the maintenance categories. Hardly important. What I would suggest you look at though is whether the articles themselves are misnamed and should be moved. I think Naming conventions (people) seems to be saying that articles about people should be named Firstname Lastname, in the Western style, even if the person is/was Asian. I'd suggest reading the policy more fully than I just did, but I think that's the basic principle. --kingboyk 20:46, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Interestingly, the Asian naming conventions pages, such as Korean and Chinese, suggest otherwise. SKS2K6 21:32, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't know, but I asked at Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_%28people%29. --kingboyk 21:39, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Kingbotk: Chinese names at Wikipedia already have surname first, please don't change the name order. Yao Ziyuan 05:35, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
 * As I said before, it doesn't really matter as it all does is assign some order to the maintenance categories. However as a few people now have expressed concern I think I shall make this feature work in manual mode, with the edits approved by the operator, only. --kingboyk 11:29, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Done. From now on, listas won't be added in bot mode. --kingboyk 11:37, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Listas and DEFAULTSORT
Kingbotk doesn't see to understand that DEFAULTSORT exists and what it does. It obviates the needs to add listas= parameters to the WP:BIO talk page header if DEFAULTSORT is already present at this page, as long as it precedes the project tag. Compare your and my last diffs of Vilmos Foldes for example. &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 20:09, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Indeed not. I wouldn't expect folks to be putting DEFAULTSORT onto talk pages anyway. Let's get a grip here, categorisation of talk pages really isn't important. Of course I could write a regular expression to search for that keyword but would it really be a good use of my time? --kingboyk 20:13, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I'll think about this further. Maybe I'll add the regular expression needed, but I daresay human editors will still commit the same "mistake" and at the end of the day I don't think it matters too much. Any sorting helps the maintenance categories look neater, but doesn't do any more than that AFAIK. --kingboyk 20:40, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Reply to both of the related sub-threads above: It isn't purely cosmetic. Some WikiProjects use the (correct) name sorting to make their internal categories (e.g. for assessment purposes) readable.  There isn't anything in DEFAULTSORT's dox that suggest it is only for use on articles, or only for use in X circumstance.  It's just general functionalilty. Given that people will use it where ever they think it adds functionality, Kingbotk should probably understand what is happening and not add duplicate (or worse yet, as it has been doing, conflicting) listas= parms.  Human editors making the "Wu, Chia-ching" sort error has actually not been problematic at all.  For everyone 1 of those I've encountered I've seen dozens generated by Kingbotk.  All that said, I didn't come here to imply "Kingbotk sucks" or anything; the fact that it's adding living=yes WP:BIO tags to articles that need them in a good thing (though I've been updating these taggings where needed to include the sports taskforce parameter, needs-photo=yes, etc., and to use more concise code.  NB: I'm not watchlisting this, so if there's a question for me with regard to this stuff, please let me know more directly.  PS: I advocate DEFAULTSORT because, well, it's part of the software and just works; there is no longer a need for listas-type parameters.  Wikiproject tags are already far too incompatible with each other (cf. WP:BIO's "priority=" and most other projects' "importance=", and so forth). Anything that eliminates an opportunity for further functionality forking of these tags strikes me as a Good Thing. &mdash;  SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 21:44, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I personally don't favour listas either; in fact I unilaterally deprecated it. However, I was overruled on that, and we got a new solution using DEFAULTSORT. If you are still of the opinion it should go please post at Template talk:WPBiography. I'll likely agree with you. --kingboyk 21:55, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Done! &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 22:13, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Nonetheless, I maintain that it's cosmetic. "Some WikiProjects use the (correct) name sorting to make their internal categories (e.g. for assessment purposes) readable." Yes, which is cosmetic! Provided they're not all filed under T for Talk it really doesn't matter a hoot :) --kingboyk 21:55, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * The T-for-talk issue is precisely what it solves. So, in that sense I don't think it's cosmetic.  In the sense that DEFAULTSORT is also used to do things like DEFAULTSORT:Osullivan, Michael to thwart missorting (from a human standpoint) of names with spaces, punctuation and mixed case, yes, it's cosmetic. &mdash;  SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 22:13, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * When talking about numbers, please bear in mind that my bot is just coming to the end of a run through 34,000 living people articles, and has also done several thousand peerage and baronetcies articles this week.
 * priority= was forced on us. I can't find the thread right now, but basically we were told that assessing the "importance" of living people could bring legal problems or breach WP:BLP. Our parameter name was changed with the full support of the WP1 team and Oleg, the Mathbot creator. So, having parallel parameters for importance/priority really isn't a problem. --kingboyk 21:55, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * It's problematic in my mind, from a human editor perspective, is all. I'd love to see all of them simply use "priority", with "importance" being deprecated across-the-board, to get rid of the unnecessary bifurcation of WProj template syntax.  But this doesn't rank very high only my list of WP issues to address.  :-)  &mdash;  SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 22:13, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Let's cut to the chase. How would this be "fixed" for you? Not adding a listas= when there's a DEFAULTSORT on the page? If that's all, consider it done in the next version. --kingboyk 21:55, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Si, I think that would deal with my little issue. Thanks! &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 22:13, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Okie dokie. I probably would have spent less time just implementing it rather than debating it first, heh... that's wiki I suppose :) Thanks for the chat, will get that little tweak before next release. --kingboyk 22:17, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * How's this? Start with randomly placed talkheader, skiptotoctalk, and DEFAULTSORT template; insert WPBio, move aforementioned 3 to top, use DEFAULTSORT magic word keyword. Only problem is, the page doesn't seem to be properly sorted in the category so have I made a mistake?
 * Other changes in forthcoming version: plugin writes logging info to on-screen AWB logging tab. --kingboyk 17:26, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmm. Nothing is coming immediately to mind.  I know the DEFAULTSORT-at-top order is important (even the docs of it say that order is important), and that this works fine with Cue sports project; the WP:CUE categories it puts articles (well, their talk pages) are sorted by family name, as intended.  Oh!  One thing I noticed while testing this stuff myself a month or so ago, and just about pulling my hair out, is that it can take up to a couple of hours for the DEFAULTSORT to work!  I think the DB has to "catch up". &mdash;  SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 21:48, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I think you're the lucky finder of a MediaWiki bug. Everything you did is right, but MediaWiki doesn't recognize the DEFAULTSORT when a template places an article in a category. — M ETS 501 (talk) 21:48, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Novels Plugin & documentation
This is going all rather too well (could you introduce some bugs to make all our lives more interesting - no I jest). What I wondered though would be if you (or I if you would prefer) write up a NovelsWikiProject documentation section, in the same manner and style as you WPBiography section. Just to give those new to AWB and the plugin an idea or two on hold it can and should be used. Thanks for all your help. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  13:25, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Go for it. I have User:Kingbotk/Plugin/How it works to write (feel free to edit that too anyone). --kingboyk 13:34, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
 * PS The documentation is quite old, and not well organised. "This is wiki" applies here too, so if you can make it more useful please feel free... --kingboyk 13:37, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Logging signon confusion
I'm not sure what is going on so I would have difficulty describing in detail, but! Simplest way to put it is that the logging appears confused as to who is logged on and is logging against the wrong user name and sometimes log location. Have a look at User:KevinalewisBot/Logs/040407 Automatically assessed novel articles 1 for instance, I did that work in AWB with the Novels plugin and logged on as Kevinalewis. Is it another case of me not understanding. Probably. 195.171.206.98 16:05, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it uses the login details you supplied when you first set up logging. They're encrypted and stored in the registry. I did it that way so I could tag as Kingbotk but upload the logs and watchlist them as kingboyk. --kingboyk 16:07, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually, if it's the log location that's wrong, I suspect it's something else. Have you perchance been logged in as one user and then switched to another inside AWB? The plugin doesn't get notified of your username by AWB, it discovers this info once per session and stores it. If this is what's happening we can consider it a bug. Since I'm now an AWB dev too I could perhaps have AWB tell plugins about username changes. Please give me more feedback on what's happening and I can consider how best to fix it, if there's anything to fix. --kingboyk 17:54, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
 * This might be it. I did a run as KevinalewisBot and then loged out (both in AWB and using the IE browser. Then signed back in as Kevinalewis using both. Then the confussion happened. Not sure if you can see what the problem might be - or if I am just not understanding. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  09:31, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I looked at the link rather than just make assumptions ;) I suspect then it's because you've changed usernames during the session. Will look into this (but there's a proposal to alter the way AWB handles logins anyway). --kingboyk 11:32, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
 * With any luck this in fixed in version 1.3 of the plugin. I now get the username as needed from AWB and don't store it in variables of my own. --kingboyk 23:11, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Somewhere, I'm not sure where, you said that the job names could get messed up if you start a new job in an "old" AWB, i.e. one that already's completed a job and uploaded a log. I can confirm this is a bug, as I just experienced it too.

Unfortunately I think I made the logging code just a bit too complicated and it's a real bugger to debug :) Hopefully though we'll be integrating a lot of it into AWB, and improving it all round. Sam even suggested that AWB could log to a SQL server... --kingboyk 20:46, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Logs
Just a minor point, but could the entries in the logs either wrap in nowikis or remove the  –, because it is transcluding the template which has no visual output. Thanks, mattbr 22:03, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, I noticed your edits on my watchlist. Will fix it, thanks for the spot! --kingboyk 22:18, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
 * The code is in AWB (but I wrote it); I've just committed a change which should fix it. --kingboyk 22:41, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
 * That was quick, thanks! mattbr 22:57, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Feature request - categories

 * Is it possible to make the plug-in traverse categories. Given a main category, it should recursively tag all sub-categories. Regards, Ganeshk  ( talk ) 00:33, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
 * No, it really can't do that, it would be too dangerous. However, I do have a feature planned which will help you somewhat (an interactive automated list builder). I'll probably put the feature into AWB rather than into the plugin. --kingboyk 11:16, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
 * AWB Now has a recursive category getterer!! Reedy Boy 20:29, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Can the plug-in be made to traverse categories that have been tagged with the project? This way there is no danger and false-positives can avoided. Please let me know if this needs further explanation. Thanks, Ganeshk  ( talk ) 19:46, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * This is how User:WatchlistBot works. -- Ganeshk  ( talk ) 19:48, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah, you'd better explain in a bit more detail what you mean. Cheers. --kingboyk 19:52, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Unable to load one or more of the requested types
Ok, I'm not so lucky. I am also receiving the error message ''Problem loading plugin - Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderException property for more information''. I am not receiving the second one. When I click OK the program appears to load normally and I can log in as usual. Any thoughts? Jody B  13:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Error messages like that are almost always due to one or more file versions being out of date/incompatible, or a file is missing.
 * Please try downloading the latest version of AWB from Sourceforge, and extracting the zip file to a fresh folder. Then copy or move the files "Kingbotk AWB Plugin.dll" and "WikiFunctions2.dll" to the AWB folder. Let us know if that works or not; if it doesn't we'll have to ask some more questions to try and find out what's happening. Cheers. --kingboyk 13:42, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Done. It seems to load properly. But I have to do some work now... arrrrrrgh! I will check it shortly and report back if there is a problem. I appreciate your quick response.  Jody B   14:04, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I do not see the assessments plugin. Should I? Is it under the plugins drop down list? Jody B   15:09, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Short answer yes - you should have "generic template" followed on top of each other "Albums Plugin", "Australia Plugin", "India Plugin", "Military Plugin", "Songs Plugin", "Novels Plugin", "Biography Plugin", etc These are the specific plugins for projects with more complex parameter support requirements. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  15:34, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
 * You have to enable a templating plugin type, probably generic, then select Assessments on the main Plugins tab. You won't see the Plugins tab until you first enable a templating plugin. --kingboyk 15:40, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Novels support- new task force
The next "task forces" are "australian-task-force=yes" and "fantasy-task-force=yes", which should be added to the plugin when you next have a look at the code supporting the WP:Novels project. The second is just about to get added. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  09:28, 16 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I've lost track here... Does this still need to be done? If it does, perhaps you'd ask Sam (Reedy Boy) directly. He usually gets the simple jobs like this and is a bit quicker at getting stuff done than me :) (nothing to do with being half my age of course! hmph) --kingboyk 21:29, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Still needed - yes please. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  13:08, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Added Australian for next release. I see Fantasy isnt listed, so not added. Reedy Boy 20:28, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

AWB Hanging
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ACyril_Gordon_Martin&diff=136450716&oldid=110624713

Didnt like the "|musician-work-group Martin, Cyril Gordon"

Using current SVN AWB, latest built plugin in AWB SVN

Reedy Boy 21:30, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Next update?
Just a query as to when we are likely to see our next update. We have a bug fix (for WPNovels) to come I think and at least one "task force" addition that needs adding. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  09:43, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Wikifunctions 2 has been ported to C# and included in AWB. The logging has also been migrated, but due to steve having computer trouble, the development for this has not been very active. So until this is sorted in AWB, and the plugin tested as working, there aint really gonna be a release. AWB other than this, is nearly complete for v4 Reedy Boy 10:06, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The port of logging is "mostly working" now; I'm working on the upload code now to use a new AWB feature called "Profiles". The next plugin will ship with the next AWB; I did think about making it v2 of the plugin but really we need to get the new AWB out of the door asap so the plugin will ship pretty much as is.
 * If I can nail this and a few other bugs in AWB this weekend I'll propose to the guys that we get v4 out as an alpha version because I know folks are getting tired of waiting :)
 * Also if there's any pressing changes needed in the plugin you'd better give me a gentle reminder, as I haven't frequented this page for a while and my memory isn't what it used to be! --kingboyk 21:02, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Logging problem
I don't know if anyone is getting the same problem as me - when I use the Manually assess option (i.e. non BOT). I am not able to get the log to load to wikipedia. Everything appears to work fine until it gets to the stage of wanting to display the resultant loaded Log page. It then brings up the page which says the page does not exist and do you want to create it. Ideas? :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  13:11, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Which version of AWB would that be? We ported the logging code to C# (i.e. moved it from the plugin to the AWB codebase), but the current repository version most definitely isn't working (I have Visual Studio open right now and am working on it). It's probably best to hold fire on logging problems until we've released at least a beta version of AWB version 4 - if you're using the svn of AWB I know it doesn't work, and if you're using an old AWB and plugin that code is no longer current :) --kingboyk 21:27, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
 * It is AWB v 3.9.0.0 and Plugin v 1.2.0.0 - there has been some time now between versions and I think quite a few would like to get hold of the work you have obviously been beavering away on. If you need extra testers let me know. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  13:14, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I have logging working again in AWB 4 (see e.g. User:Kingbotk/Logs/200707 20th century deaths 4 1, AWB 4 plugin 1.4). Something seems to have changed at Wikipedia's end regarding editing of pages; if that is indeed so then it's to be expected that all old versions will no longer work.
 * We have people testing the prerelease of AWB 4, I've just asked Sam if he'll put a new testing version out and add you to the spam list. --kingboyk 15:43, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

AWB and Kingbotk Plugin
I have been using it constantly for a couple of days now and can find no errors in it at all. However now I have said that I probably will as soon as finishing this entry. Great work. All I would say is that the new logging approach needs to be clearly documented and announced. I didn't get it to start with but now is working fine. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  10:32, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
 * It shouldn't really be much different. It's mostly the same code (but converted from VB.NET in which the plugin is written to C#.NET in which AWB is written). There's a little more complexity behind the scenes now, as each time an article is processed it gets pumped through the logging interface (whether or not logging to file is turned on) and then put onto the lists under the Log tab. We'll probably be relying on knowledgeable users like yourself to get the docs up to scratch btw ;)
 * The main trick I spotted was to swithc on a profile, which I hadn't come across before and then everything logging wise started working. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  16:01, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Personally, once I've finished testing it, I think I shall probably stop uploading logs. The benefit is slight at best, and it's a pain when AWB or the computer crashes before a log got uploaded. Possibly I shall add an option for abridged "job logging", that is have AWB or the plugin just record what category and settings were being used rather than upload a list of every page that got touched. Thoughts? --kingboyk 14:50, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I think a limited logging configuration would be a good idea. perhaps configurable by element as to what to Log.
 * i.e.
 * Grand totals
 * Stats
 * Titles changed.
 * What about each title changed.
 * Titles Skipped
 * Why skipped
 * Oh you get the idea. The gist is to have the logging aid users see why AWB and the plugins have don what they have. I'm not entirely convinced about the longer term benefit of all runs being logged. However some Automation Departments might benefit from certain controlled content logging. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  16:01, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
 * That sounds like the French Developers code...? Reedy Boy 16:26, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Can't honestly remember, but could be. If you want to have a go at plumbing some of their stuff that's up to you, but personally I'm done with logging for v4.0 (bug fixes aside) :) --kingboyk 16:54, 25 July 2007 (UTC)


 * One small thing I have found that you may not consider a bug - but here goes.
 * Before, using the plugin and using the assessment dialog, if you pressed the skip button the talk page was immediately bypassed and the next title in sequence accessed. Now it passes control back to AWB and the application pauses for "Save" or "Ignore" buttons to be selected. As I say this change may be by design - but it is a change. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  09:25, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
 * That is probably more of a bug than a required change... To do with the amount of internal code change that has occured... Reedy Boy 09:37, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Didn't happen by design == a bug. Please report it as an AWB bug (although I'll try and look at this myself later today, I imagine it's trivial). --kingboyk 12:05, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I think I fixed it - . AWB v4 beta going out now so you'll soon be able to test for yourself. --kingboyk 22:35, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

AWB 4.0 won't load the plugins
I get Problem Loading Plugin: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.

I had previously been running 3.9XX with the plugin without problem.

Thanks JodyByak, yak, yak 00:29, 28 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I just loaded the new version and it seems to be working fine for me. The only problem I had was that I forgot to uncheck "sort alphabetically", so the talk pages always dropped to the T's when trying to assess articles. Have you tried removing the old version completely? - auburn pilot   talk  01:08, 28 July 2007 (UTC)
 * No I didn't let me give it a shot.Thanks AP JodyByak, yak, yak 01:14, 28 July 2007 (UTC)
 * That was it exactly - I should've known. JodyByak, yak, yak 01:25, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Remove exisiting template
May be missing something really simple here, but I can't figure it out. When using the generic template to assess articles I need to both remove the old template and reapply it with the proper class parameter. The plugin adds the new template but doesn't remove the old. Thanks for your help. The plugin is a huge time saver I'm sure. Jody B  20:12, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Hi Jody. What's the name of the template you want to add, and what's the name of the template you want to remove? (I can't really help until I know what you're trying to achieve you see... :) Indeed, if you were to tell me exactly what you're trying to do I might even be able to email you a settings file) --kingboyk 21:11, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I hate to trouble you. Here's the plan. I am assessing Category:Unassessed Alabama articles. These articles already have the WikiProject Alabama banner on their talk pages. When I complete the assessment using the plugin, it puts two banners on the page, one with the parameter and one without. I am obviously doing something backwards.
 * Also, please see these two diffs which seem to be a different problem: and .  I'm not sure what happened. Thanks for your help.   Jody B   22:44, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I've just sent you an email, so you now have my email address. If possible, please send me your AWB settings. --kingboyk 22:50, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Seems to be working now :) Is the tool to your satisfaction? --kingboyk 00:57, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes it is -- perfectly. I replied to your email and sent the settings. But the problem was that I was including the brackets in the Template name. Once I eliminated the, it worked perfectly. Again, thanks for your help. I'm sure I'll be back with more.  Jody B   02:14, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I thought it might be that. I'll put some code in place to prevent others making the same mistake. Cheers. --kingboyk 12:02, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Fixed in next version. --kingboyk 18:07, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Novels support
On the "Fantasy task force" support I was awaiting the support here before creating it - as it will be a hugh task to add this without it. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  15:37, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah right. Well, i can add the support for the next release, its not difficult, its just a little tedious/takes a bit of time. Reedy Boy 15:43, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Added for 1.4.0.3 - Due with the next AWB release very soon - "fantasy-task-force" Reedy Boy 21:10, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Top job - thanks :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  08:38, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

WikiProjectBannerShell
Another template you should be aware of wrt nested templates.

I think you're idea of "self-identifying" project banners is a good one. Alternatively, a category of WikiProject banners would make them easy to find. -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 21:42, 2 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Having said that, there is one: Category:WikiProject banners. -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 21:44, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
 * That would require parsing the category though.
 * Anyrode, I'll be thinking about this for version 2. --kingboyk 10:39, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Feature request
Could you have the plugin remove the "auto=yes" parameter from the WPBiography tag, if it exists, when assessing such an article for another WikiProject? jwillburtalk 02:45, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Is this wise? :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  07:39, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * He's talking about manual assessments, so I don't see why not. Am I missing something? --kingboyk 11:46, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Assumes the manual assessor is paying attention to the "other" project's settings. If they were why the need for the auto removal of another project's "auto" tag. Don't quite see it myself. :: Kevinalewis  : <sup style="color:#C90">(Talk Page) /<sub style="color:#C90">(Desk)  11:59, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Agree that it's not too difficult to remove the auto=yes manually (select with the mouse and press backspace or delete), and doing it manually shows attention is being paid. However, let's hear from Jwillbur as we might be missing something. --kingboyk 12:31, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmm. Possibly. How often has this been an issue? Which project are you tagging for? --kingboyk 11:46, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I've been tagging articles in Category:Caribbean people stubs for WP:CARIB, and nearly all of them have the WPBio tag with auto=yes. I thought it would make sense to remove the "automatically assessed" banner when my manual assessment matches that of WPBio. The plugin already removes Stubclass where it exists, doesn't it? It's not that big of a deal to remove the auto=yes by hand for a hundred or so articles, but there are thousands. jwillburtalk 17:32, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * That sounds fair enough.
 * Although this is a simple request, it might not be that easy to implement because of the internal structure of the plugin (each supported template is an independent "object" in code). I'll certainly take a look at this for you but probably won't have time today. --kingboyk 18:37, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Me again, when I select the "Photo requested" button, nothing seems to be added. The stub/start/B is displayed correctly. Thanks! Jody B  00:11, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
 * It seems that it only adds something if the template in question has a "needs photo" parameter. (It will add it to the /Comments page though, if you choose to create one). I'll put fixing this onto the feature request list. There's already code in the plugin for finding reqphoto and other templates; the problem I suppose is that there's a potentially large number of other templates it would have to recognise before being able to decide that it needs to add a new one to the talk page. --kingboyk 15:06, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, when I get around to making version 2, I plan to expand the generic templates feature to include declaring parameters and other rules. --kingboyk 18:08, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I changed our template a bit and included "reqphoto" but that doesn't work either. What exactly is the plugin looking for. I can add that easily I think.  Jody B   15:47, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Generic.vb:

The templating plugin needs to support reqphoto too. As the above hopefully demonstrates, currently "generic" doesn't - it's design and implementation followed the "KISS" model. It was really a very basic way of adding support for all WikiProject templates without coding for each one seperately.

As I said, the next version will hopefully have everything but the kitchen sink in generic templates, meaning you'll be able to tell the plugin that your template has a needs-photo parameter and what it's called. I could add that feature now I suppose, but you'll have to convince me it's gonna be really uesful to you and a good way for me to spend my time :) (Or, for User:Reedy Boy to spend his time). --kingboyk 16:44, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I understand stand now. I thought it would read it and use if it were present in the template itself. Not a problem at all. I'll await the next version. Jody B  18:27, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Nope, it doesn't actually read the template at all. Maybe in the next version it could, it might be possible for generic templates to be auto-configuring to an extent. I'll think about that. --kingboyk 18:47, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

WikiProjectBannerShell
As you have mentioned having problems with pages containing WikiProjectBannerShell, can you take a look at this? That shouldbe good for adding new banners inside the bannershell. Currently every WikiProject banner is bannershell compatible. &mdash; Shinhan  &lt;&thinsp; talk &thinsp;&gt; 20:10, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Sam and I both have AWB version 4 as our priorities at the moment, but one or both of us will look into this issue when we've got that done. As always a gentle reminder may be needed :) Cheers. --kingboyk 21:28, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm familiar with VB.NET, though I prefer C# .NET, and I may be able to help you with this. I do think it should be of some priority, given the prevalence of WikiProjectBannerShell and the fact that all WikiProject banners are currently nestable.  &mdash; <span style="font-family:monospace, monospace;">madman bum and angel 05:37, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Sam didn't tell me you'd posted this (slaps with a trout) and I was away from meta stuff.... sorry. If you're still interested in helping out please let me know and I can arrange svn access. Sam's more in the loop than me but I presume this would go into the plugin not AWB? --kingboyk (talk) 19:15, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The new version detects the presence of these containers and in such cases won't move any existing WikiProject template. The time consuming process in adding full support (i.e. writing new templates into the shell, and possibly cleaning up existing shells) is going to be creating and testing the regular expression(s). Perhaps if somebody supplied me with some well-tested regexes and/or psuedocode it would be quite easy to do. I'll ask at the bot owners' noticeboard I think. --kingboyk (talk) 16:31, 16 January 2008 (UTC) Doh! You supplied me a link already. I'll take a look.
 * Doesn't look like a robust regex and the author does state it's not well tested, but it gives me an idea of how to do it. I'll have a play with the regex tester and some wacky but valid template instances and see if I can make it suitably robust for bot operations. --kingboyk (talk) 16:42, 16 January 2008 (UTC)