Forum:Bot Requests

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Bot Requests

Where does one ask for a bot be used for some mundane but expansive task? (Alternatively, how does one make a bot of one's own and/or gain access to Special:ReplaceText?)

My proximate want is to add Guide links to Railway Board (Guide) to a whole buncha pages. I've done this stuff manually before but this one involves kind of an excessive amount of pages.

- PSGarak (talk) 01:43, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

how does one make a bot of one's own

You register a new account and ask an admin to give it the bot role. Then you use a software of your choice to connect to the account via the MediaWiki API and do edits, using the software as the interface to the API. Personally, using Windows, I use AutoWikiBrowser (sourceforge download, user manual). But theoretically, you can use anything that you feel comfortable with that can issue HTTP requests. I yet have to encounter a scenario I couldn't solve with AWB, though, optionally with some preprocessing on the list of articles, and with some heavy use of regular expressions.

Features you are most likely to use (and that AWB has) are

• skip articles if they do contain/do not contain a particular keyword
• restrict to a particular namespace
• regular expressions (I use regex101 to test mine)
• preprocessing mode - known as "dry run" in most software contexts, this restricts the list of pages to the list of pages that would actually get changed.
• run changes without supervision (the default is that you have to save each edit manually, so there is some supervision involved)

You can theoretically play around for a bit on your main account, or use your main account on staging, I guess; but middle-term you should get a bot account so that it can be blocked separately in case it runs amok. Alan has also requested that far-reaching bulk edits be at least partially tested on staging, although I have been remiss to do that in the past. (I wouldn't do it if you, like, do 10 edits via bot with supervision, but given that my bot edits tend to be more in the "several hundred pages" range...). -- RagCall (talk) 07:06, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

add Guide links to Railway Board (Guide) to a whole buncha pages

If you want to, post a list of articles in some form (pastebin, SMW query, category, intersection of categories, or something else), preferably line-break separated plaintext. Although this is probably in fact a good first project for playing with a bot yourself. -- RagCall (talk) 07:08, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

Pages in mind are "actions From the Convening or Debating storylets, and discrete qualities starting with the word Board." This should cover all proposals and conclusions; the actions to persuade each board member; the actions that fiddle with Board Against qualities; Board Membership qualities; and Board Against qualities.

SMW query of pages. Looks to be just shy of 300.

You're right this would be a good first project, but I'm also unlikely to bring it to a conclusion in the next six months. So let's get this one out now, and hopefully by the next time I have a need I'll have found enough spare time to fiddle with stuff.

- PSGarak (talk) 19:18, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

Oh, and last but not least:

Where does one ask for a bot be used for some mundane but expansive task?

I believe the page to do so is here now :) -- RagCall (talk) 12:00, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

Re gain access to Special:ReplaceText it is locked behind being a sysop (specifically behind the replacetext right) --Asarta (talk) 16:17, 21 May 2022 (UTC)