This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

I rcently discussed AWB General Fixes (Genfixes) removing spaces before HTML (i.e. invisible) comments with Neils51 on his talk page. We agreed to disagree. If I understand Neils51 (an expert on AWB) right, he seems to believe that Genfixes in this case does a valid edit, while I (a lesser editor) believe it does wrong. He nevertheless suggested I should discuss it here to obtain consensus.

Genfixes seems to automatically remove all spaces placed immediately before HTML comments. It seems to assume that spaces before such comments result in unwanted white-space. Indeed MOS:COMMENT advises to check for unwanted whitespace when adding HTML comments. This may happen under some circumstances but not always.

Help:Whitespace (I thank User:1TWO3Writer, who pointed me to this page) recommends to avoid all whitespace (in particular spaces) before an HTML comment. It looks as if Genspaces implements that recommendation, but as a HELP is not MOS, this is compulsory.

In Antoine Hamilton I added HTML comments on some of the Help:List-defined references. For example, I started a definition of a citation from Corp's article on Antoine Hamilton in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in a line reading:

<ref name=Corp2004a766lc38> <!-- Anthony Hamilton, ODNB -->

Running Genfixes changed this to:

<ref name=Corp2004a766lc38><!-- Anthony Hamilton, ODNB -->

removing the space. I find that this edit makes the code less readable. The space does not create an unwanted whitespace in the text.

WP:AWBRULES prescribes "You are expected to review every edit, just as if you were making an edit using Wikipedia's edit form when editing by hand." Edits made with Genfixes are not excepted nor are edits that do not impact on the text ("cosmetic" or "inconsequential" edits). I believe that according to the AWB rules this edit should not be made. Best would be when Genfixes would make such fixes only if they introduce unwanted whitespace. Second best is that the AWB-operator undoes such fixes. Besides, Genfixes also has a bug "Genfixes removes comma from quoted date", which was logged on Phabricator as T236729 by Tom.Reading on 28 October 2019. It also results in edits that should be reverted by the AWB operator. With thanks and best regards, Johannes Schade ( talk) 17:28, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

Based on a quick experiment, I think removing the space is not necessarily harmless. If the HTML comment is not immediately followed by a space but some plain text, this genfix will remove a, often syntactically important, space. David Brooks ( talk) 19:27, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

any other approval for to activate the bot menu with time or this option was removed. IJohnKennady ( talk) 14:08, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

@ IJohnKennady: Hi. I'm not sure if you are asking that: only the accounts with a bot flag (which are listed in "enabledbots" section of the Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON) get the bot menu/options. —usernamekiran (talk) 21:18, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

@ IJohnKennady: In order to run bots (AWB or otherwise) on the English Wikipedia, you have to request approval at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval. GoingBatty ( talk) 02:08, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Hello, I was unsure about reporting this as a bug because that felt a little presumptuous. I just tried clicking on the "False" button, but the False positives.txt file was never created (yes, I'm checking it in the same directory where AutoWikiBrowser.exe is located). I even tried creating it "manually" so see if AWB would update it, to no avail. Victor Lopes ^{Fala!• C} 20:06, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

@ Victor Lopes: I've tried this and then asked Windows to search for the file. It's at C:\Users\<myname>\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser\False positives.txt -- John of Reading ( talk) 20:37, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

Indeed! It was there all along. I wonder why. Thanks a lot! Victor Lopes ^{Fala!• C} 00:47, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

The manual seems to suggest that the "Wiki search" is similar to searching on Wikipedia. I think I am overlooking something though because I get very different results. For example, I can search for insource:"{{refbegin|3}}{{legend" here and get 96 pages to fix: https://en.wikipedia.org/?search=insource%3A%22%7B%7Brefbegin%7C3%7D%7D%7B%7Blegend%22&title=Special%3ASearch&ns0=1

If I run the same input through AWB, it gives me well over a thousand results. I can see that I'm typing something wrong, but I don't know what? Rjjⁱⁱⁱ( talk) 07:20, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

Personal opinion. I never use AWB search, because it can return weird results. For example, I get more than once some results for particular search in all namespaces, and much more results if constraining the same search for the articles only. IKhitron ( talk) 19:58, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

A quick trace suggests that AWB is submitting two different search queries, with the vertical bar inappropriately treated as a separator (which also results in unbalanced quote marks). The second therefore searches for 3}}{{legend" and returns every page with both the number 3 and the word legend, the braces being treated as grayspace. I don't know why the first part returns no hits. I suspect insource:/\{\{refbegin\|3}}\{\{legend/ would work, although you seem to have fixed the 96 by now. David Brooks ( talk) 02:44, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Many thanks to both of you. I discovered that JWB took the search query at face value and was able to resolve my issue that way. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ( talk) 03:04, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

BTW, even if this is fixed, note that grayspace handling in wiki search means that your search string could just as well been insource:"#refbegin#3#legend". Use the (slow) RE version for precision. David Brooks ( talk) 18:58, 17 September 2023 (UTC)

Hello,

I recently found out I no longer use AutoWikiBrowser when 2FA is active by receiving an error, "Failed". When I turned it off, there was no problem. But, to use AWB, must I deactivate the 2FA? Or there is something I am missing. -- Victor Trevor ( talk) 12:17, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

@ Victor Trevor: The instructions you need are at Wikipedia:Using AWB with 2FA. -- John of Reading ( talk) 13:27, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

I think this is a fantastic tool for doing repetitive work across hundreds to thousands of articles. My most recent use is in the area of re-stubbing articles so that specific stub categories can be reduced in size, replaced by "manageable" sized categories. Without this tool, many mass-action stub-related and category-related edits would be nigh on impossible. There should be some recognition of this tool for its utility. Thank you. --User:Ceyockey ( talk to me) 01:08, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

@ Ceyockey: Agreed! See this for one recognition received by AWB. GoingBatty ( talk) 01:28, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

Maybe I've been reading the instructions wrong, but after I create a list, configured all the options and click start, nothing happens except for the text on the bottom left corner which says "Restarting in n" (n is a changing number). Is there anything wrong with what I'm doing? ¹⁴¹ Pr { contribs} 07:29, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

Praseodymium-141, it will typically loop on restart if you don't have an internet connection. Assuming you do, can you, via the 'file' tab, logout and back in successfully? Neils51 ( talk) 12:12, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

I can log back in successfully, and I can access the internet, which means that I have a working internet connection. It still does this though. Could it be to do with VirtualBox? (I'm working from my Mac, I should've said that earlier) I have put a screenshot here. ¹⁴¹ Pr { contribs} 13:13, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

Might need comment from someone with a MAC who has this combination working. I'll just throw in; .NET, firewall, port forwarding... for fun. Neils51 ( talk) 10:11, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

Just a shot in the dark, but this is reminiscent of late 2019 when the wikipedia servers started requiring TLS 1.2 (or better) for API connections, and that needed an obscure setting (at least in my software) to change the default security protocol setting in .NET 4.5. Is it possible the Mac network stack is still ending up using a pre-TLS 1.2 protocol? (forgive the flagrant hand-waving.) Can you use a debugging proxy and inspect the first AWB connection to the servers? David Brooks ( talk) 00:37, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

What is the MacOS version? Neils51 ( talk) 23:41, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

MacOS Ventura I think... I'm not near my mac right now. ¹⁴¹ Pr { contribs} 07:25, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

There seem to be issues with certain permutations. Need version info. MacOS, 13.x?, VirtualBox, 7.xx?, Windows? Familiar with Wireshark? Neils51 ( talk) 11:27, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

I've been back to using AWB after a long absence, and it continues to work great. I was wondering though if the current software can do the following things or can be modified with a module or plugin to do them:

1. Skip a specific named typo check (I manually skip ones I don't feel comfortable with, but not showing them to me in the first place would speed up my typo checking a lot).
2. Set watchlist expiry upon on saving an edit (I'd like to watch articles I edit for a few days like I can do using a script when editing on the Wikipedia website).

Thanks for any ideas. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 00:14, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

@ StefenTower: Unfortunately not. GoingBatty ( talk) 01:25, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

@ StefenTower: for #1, you can take the regex(s) of the rule(s) you wish to avoid, and put them (carefully) into AWB's skip-if-contains field, or create separate find-and-replace rules for them, then pre-parse your master list to find only those few pages changed, then remove them from your master list.

You should put in a feature request for #2 at WP:Phabricator; that sounds useful.   ~  Tom.Reding ( talk ⋅ dgaf)  11:12, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

#2 goes hand-in-hand with m:Community Wishlist Survey 2022/Watchlists/Preference to set default watchlist expiry. AWB and similar tools could respect the default if there were one; I don't think this would even require any coding (just continue to omit the API parameter). Certes ( talk) 11:50, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

I tried starting AutoWikiBrowser on my computer but my antivirus blocked it with the message "Virus detected W32/Exploit.gen". Does my antivirus software suffer from paranoia or is it a problem with the latest release of AutoWikiBrowser? Hubba ( talk) 12:01, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

@ Hubba: AWB version 6.2.1.0 was released over two years ago, and doesn't generate any antivirus messages for me. I suggest whitelisting AWB with your antivirus software. GoingBatty ( talk) 14:02, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

So I keep getting a network error "The request was aborted: Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel" Any clue why it's doing this?

When I try to refresh, it tells me to check my internet and see if my wiki is online even though I know for a fact that neither of these should be an issue 2601:5CB:C080:18D0:85D:2ED4:8637:C42F ( talk) 05:56, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

Were you using AWB to edit English Wikipedia or some other wiki? You don't seem to be logged in. Certes ( talk) 09:07, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

Because I’m not trying to use it here, I’m trying to use it for a Fandom.com wiki. I don’t even have an account here. 2601:5CB:C080:18D0:C115:3A0C:7CAC:F887 ( talk) 22:34, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

If you're using Fandom then you should be looking for help there instead of on Wikipedia. — Panamitsu (talk) 22:39, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

You think I haven't tried to? The reason I came here was because I've gotten no help from Fandom. 2601:5CB:C080:18D0:485B:53CB:3DC6:EF03 ( talk) 23:19, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

In order to use AWB here, your username must be added to Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON. Which Fandam.com wiki are you trying to edit? Does the Fandom.com wiki have a similar requirement? Do other editors of the wiki user AWB? GoingBatty ( talk) 03:13, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Re: some of the responses so far, in all fairness, this is the home of AWB. On the other hand, initially mentioning the platform it is being used on would have moved the matter more expeditiously. At any rate, my question is... Have you used it on Fandom successfully before, and thus is this a new issue, or is this a first-time use? If it's first-time use, I'd check to see if you've jumped through the hoops Fandom has set up for its use there. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 02:30, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

To answer both sets of questions in order: I am using it on the Digimon Wiki, my account is in the link, at least two of my fellow admins use it, and I was using it for a while after some initial trouble starting. 2601:5CB:C080:18D0:485B:53CB:3DC6:EF03 ( talk) 03:21, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

That link didn't work for me, but I found this link - same? Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 03:44, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Yes. 2601:5CB:C080:18D0:485B:53CB:3DC6:EF03 ( talk) 05:25, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

One admittedly unlikely circumstance that could cause the breakage would be (a) you are using a fairly old version of AWB (b) the wiki was recently upgraded to require TLS1.2 level encryption. That's if you are using Windows. If you are on a Mac, see above for a possibly different cause, still unresolved. David Brooks ( talk) 14:02, 11 October 2023 (UTC) ETA: AWB and OS versions, and Mediawiki version if you know it, are always useful. David Brooks ( talk) 14:27, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

I thought I had the most recent one, I just downloaded it less than a month ago, I’m on Windows 7 but only because there’s not much point shelling out for like Windows 10 when it’d be cheaper to just get a new computer. 2601:5CB:C080:18D0:ED4B:2AB7:A9BF:3D4E ( talk) 19:29, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

That should be the most recent version, and it supports Windows Vista or later. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 21:57, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

I'm guessing the Mediawiki version is irrelevant in this case, as his fellow admins are apparently using AWB without the same issue (unless I'm reading this wrong). Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 22:43, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

New question. Per [1], might you be using a device managed with on-premises MDM (mobile device management)? If so, that could be the stopper. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 23:44, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

At any rate, it seems to me that the TLS-related problem you're experiencing would be the same if you were using AWB on Wikipedia or any Wikimedia project, as they require TLS 1.2. So, this likely boils down to some difference between you and your fellow admins about how you're connecting, through some kind of on-site management, or perhaps some really old equipment (particularly regarding the age of firmware inside them) being utilized in the line of connection. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 00:34, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

If none of the above applies, note that Windows 7 doesn't support TLS 1.2 by default. Here is how to fix that. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 00:50, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

I'm not sure that fix would be relevant. The doc says "This update will not change the behavior of applications that are manually setting the secure protocols instead of passing the default flag." AWB current source sets the protocols in all (I think) the appropriate places:
ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol |= SecurityProtocolType.Tls11 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls12; David Brooks ( talk) 03:12, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

That sounds reasonable and certainly lowers the odds of their Window 7 setup being the problem. But if nothing else can be found to have caused the issue, I don't think it would hurt to update their Windows 7. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 03:40, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

I just updated earlier tonight though and the problem persists, the fix suggested didn't seem to do anything either I'm afraid. 2601:5CB:C080:18D0:1581:26A1:9D7F:13EF ( talk) 03:59, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

So you were, "using it for a while after some initial trouble starting" and with respect to AWB, "I just downloaded it less than a month ago". Therefore is the current version of AWB the only version you have ever used? Does your "using it for a while" mean less than a month? How often do you reboot your Win7? When you say that "I just updated earlier tonight", does that mean you installed SP1, or have you always had SP1 installed? Something changed. If you didn’t install software and no other change occurred then I would have suggested rebooting your router/network equipment and/or Win7. Sometimes reviewing your system logs at/or around the time you first experienced the error can help. Neils51 ( talk) 07:45, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

I was barely started using it at the tail end of September when it stopped working the 6th of this month. And SP1's already installed and as far as I know, there's no reason this should be happening. 2601:5CB:C080:18D0:6491:AC9F:64D1:DCCE ( talk) 04:26, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

Have you tried connecting through a different network? Either something changed in your line of connection or Fandom made a change that not all client computers can tolerate, likely related to the error message you received. Ultimately, you may have to contact Fandom to sort this out. We have no way to see how you're connecting but they do. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 04:45, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

I decided to compare the speed of a find-and-replace rule with the identical rule in C#, both run on German Empire, thinking C# would be somewhat faster. I've found the exact opposite, however.

The following find-and-replace rule:

Find:

(\=+\s*(?:(?:Foot)?Notes|Further reading)\s*\=+)((?:\s*\*?\s*\{\{\s*(?:Wik[it]|Commons|Reflist|Refbegin|Refend|notes?list|notes|cit[ea])[^\}]*\}\}\.?|\<references\s*/\>|\s*\<ref +name[^\<\>]+/\>|\s*\<ref +name[^\<\>/]+\>[\d\D]*?\</\s*ref\>|\s*\</\s*ref\>|\s*\}\}|\s*\<\!\-\-\s*(?!\{\{(?:Wik[it]|Commons))[\d\D]*?\-\-\>|\s*?[\r\n]+[ 	]*\*[^\r\n]+)+)(\s*=+\s*See also\s*=*(?:(?:\s*\{\{(?:Portal|C?Commons|C ?cat|cc(?=\s*[\|\}])|Wik[it]|(?:col *div|colbegin|cols|div *2col|div *col *begin|div *col *start|div[ -]*col|divbegin|divided *column)[^\{\}]*\}\}[^\{\}]+\{\{\s*(?:col * div *end|col *end|div[ -]*col[ -]*end|div *end|end *div *col)|Columns\-list)[^\{\}]*\}\})*))((?:\s*\*(?:\s*\{\{\s*cite[^\{\}]+\}\}|[^\r\n]+))*)

Replace with:

$3$4

$1$2

with "Regular expression" checkbox checked, the others unchecked, "Apply No. of times" = 1, and nothing in the "If" tab, took an average of 64.75s to run over 4 runs (66, 65, 64, 64s).

The following C# module code, however, has been running (hanging), for over 30 minutes:

public string ProcessArticle(string ArticleText, string ArticleTitle, int wikiNamespace, out string Summary, out bool Skip)
{
	Skip = false;
	Summary = "Summary";
	string regex = @"(\=+\s*(?:(?:Foot)?Notes|Further reading)\s*\=+)((?:\s*\*?\s*\{\{\s*(?:Wik[it]|Commons|Reflist|Refbegin|Refend|notes?list|notes|cit[ea])[^\}]*\}\}\.?|\<references\s*/\>|\s*\<ref +name[^\<\>]+/\>|\s*\<ref +name[^\<\>/]+\>[\d\D]*?\</\s*ref\>|\s*\</\s*ref\>|\s*\}\}|\s*\<\!\-\-\s*(?!\{\{(?:Wik[it]|Commons))[\d\D]*?\-\-\>|\s*?[\r\n]+[ 	]*\*[^\r\n]+)+)(\s*=+\s*See also\s*=*(?:(?:\s*\{\{(?:Portal|C?Commons|C ?cat|cc(?=\s*[\|\}])|Wik[it]|(?:col *div|colbegin|cols|div *2col|div *col *begin|div *col *start|div[ -]*col|divbegin|divided *column)[^\{\}]*\}\}[^\{\}]+\{\{\s*(?:col * div *end|col *end|div[ -]*col[ -]*end|div *end|end *div *col)|Columns\-list)[^\{\}]*\}\})*))((?:\s*\*(?:\s*\{\{\s*cite[^\{\}]+\}\}|[^\r\n]+))*)";
	ArticleText = Regex.Replace(ArticleText, regex, @"$3$4" + "\n\n" + @"$1$2", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
	return ArticleText;
}

There are no @, ", ; characters in the regex that need to be escaped, and "Skip if no changes are made" was checked for both runs.

Does anyone know why this is?   ~  Tom.Reding ( talk ⋅ dgaf)  17:44, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

For the record, I can reproduce this result: on my Surface 7, 46 seconds for the find/replace method, and still hanging after 3 minutes for the module code. But the C# method took me 44 seconds in a code snippet independent of any AWB context so, as you probably suspect, there's something odd in the way the module is processed. David Brooks ( talk) 18:52, 26 October 2023 (UTC)

@ Reedy: given what DavidBrooks said, is this a feature or a known/fixed bug (i.e. should I create a phab ticket for this)?   ~  Tom.Reding ( talk ⋅ dgaf)  16:43, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

Well, I ran it under the debugger and now I'm even more confused.

First, the debugger (apparently) decompiles the module code and it turns out it's been optimized (e.g. the last two lines are coalesced, and the @"" version appears as a regular string with escaped \'s). Your version hangs on the assignment of string regex, not on executing the Regex.Replace. Hm, is it too long for either the compiler or the framework? So I chunked the long string and used concatenated literals... and now the string assignment goes through but the regex replace call now hangs. Using String.Concat is optimized to the same thing. Using StringBuilder to join the chunks also hangs in the conversion to a string. Creating a Regex object from the long string doesn't help. Not a solution to your problem, I'm afraid, but just more puzzles.

Maybe it's a C# 3.5 thing, but the decompiled code looks correct. BTW it's my local build of AWB using Framework 4.8.1 (so it's not a 4.5 problem). David Brooks ( talk) 20:58, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

For those who, like me, found the above conclusion barely credible, I dug a little deeper into the low level code. Turns out that the compiler optimizes out the assignment to ArticleText, but the JITter optimizes out the assignment to the regex string and drops the string directly into the Replace call, which of course contains the hang. It looks like the VS debugger isn't too good at following run-time compiled code. So now I'm beginning to suspect that the fault lies in the version of the assembly (System.Text.RegularExpressions.dll) that contains the Regex class. It's possible, I suppose, that the compiled code binds to an older version of the Framework and that is responsible for the hang, while the find/replace version uses the runtime (Fx 4.5) built into AWB, but here we're at about the limit of where I can figure out runtime CLR bindage. In any case, there may not be a ready solution that AWB could implement. BTW, I did try hacking the source to use v4 of the language, but that didn't help. David Brooks ( talk) 14:37, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

If a regular expression takes more than a couple of seconds to run on wp-article lengths of text then it will be due to catastrophic batcktracking. That's not an issue with AWB or C#, it is a fundamental limitation of how regular expressions work. Backtracking can sometimes be resolved in 10s of seconds or minutes, but it could take years on a sufficiently long input string (as it's an exponential issue). I can't really make sense of the large regex expression given, what I'd suggest to do is separate it into smaller parts and identify which clause or clauses are backtracking, then see if you can adjust them to avoid the issue.

If you are able to write a module you will probably find it is faster to find candidate text with simple regexes, then do your negative checks/exclusions on only those strings of text matched, and proceed to replace if no exclusions found i.e. breaking things down rather than one very large find/replace with lookaheads etc. That way any backtracking is limited to a very short string not the whole text of a wp article etc. Rjwilmsi 18:23, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

Yes, but if it is timing out due to backtracking, wouldn't that also apply to the identical RE presented in the Advanced Find/Replace dialog? That does finish in under a minute for Tom and me. BTW, on a rainy Sunday I managed to hack AWB so that the run-time compile would use the same compiler (and System.dll) as I used to build the executable itself, in case there was some inconsistency in the details of string management, but no help. David Brooks ( talk) 20:06, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

Well, I noodled on this and found a fix. But (a) It's a source code fix; I haven't yet figured out whether the RE can be tweaked to compensate (b) I have no idea why it makes a difference (c) I have no idea if it would introduce regressions. Code in T350636.

tl;dr: during page pre-processing, AWB normalizes line endings from \r\n to \n before running the rule, but not before running the module (which comes first). Making that normalization happen before running the module restores the expected 40-50 second runtime. David Brooks ( talk) 22:57, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Could you, kindly, use a bot to make all "Provinces of..." into "provinces of..." (with a lowercase initial)? It is correct in lowercase, almost all sources, whether in Italian, French or other languages write "provinces" with a lowercase initial. To make it clearer, as in the " Province of Pordenone" page and not as in the " Province of Rovigo" page. Thanks in advance. JackkBrown ( talk) 14:44, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

@ JackkBrown: Already posted at Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks#Provinces of Italy. Let's keep the discussion there. GoingBatty ( talk) 15:06, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Hi, on this page, Wikipedia:Vital_articles/Level/5/History, I am trying to put the events prior to 1945 in the late modern section and the events after 1945 in the Contemporary section. I was hoping that someone can provide me with step-by-step instructions on how I can sort the events using AWB. Thank you. Interstellarity ( talk) 14:20, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

I'm not sure AWB is the best tool (outside of generic section ordering) for chronologically re-sorting or similarly rearranging content on a page. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 20:48, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

@ StefenTower What would be a better tool to use besides AWB? Interstellarity ( talk) 00:50, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

Manual labor. :) Seriously, this is just one page being edited, and sometimes editing can be tedious. There's not always a tool to help us. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 00:58, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

Maybe Excel. Neils51 ( talk) 02:51, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

This does not look like a job for AWB. The information is simply not on the page: good luck guessing which section Great Recession goes in without reading the article. Perhaps you could split Modern and Contemporary into separate sandboxes, use a tool such as PetScan or Quarry to see which pages linked from each sandbox have a Category: containing four digits that are a year in the wrong era (beware: "Category:1940s whatever" may be either) and move them by hand. Theoretically, a complex AWB module might be able to do this; in practice even the ablest programmer could do it much quicker manually. Certes ( talk) 09:48, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

Hi. I'm trying to edit some repetitive text out of some files on Wikimedia Commons. Unfortunately there's thousands of instances of it. So I'm going through individual folders to edit each file which I don't necessarily have a problem with, but if I load all the files into the pages list and click save it only edits a single file at a time. So is there a way to batch save the edit to all the files in the list without having to click save thousands of times? Otherwise I'm going to have to click save 65,000 time, which I rather not do if I can just do all the edits at once. Thanks. Adamant1 ( talk) 03:01, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

@ Adamant1: Hi there! You could consider creating a bot. Instead of clicking save each time, you'd load the list and the bot would click save once every 10 seconds based on the rules you set up in AWB. GoingBatty ( talk) 05:11, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

I'll have to look into that. I'm not really up on how to create bots but it's better then nothing. -- Adamant1 ( talk) 07:09, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

There are people with bots who will often accept requests, handle the coding, approval process, testing, etc., if you have a well-formed proposal such as a tested AWB setup. Go to WP:BOTREQ. Dicklyon ( talk) 19:13, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

Please see this discussion with User:Primefac about a problem with the placement of WP:VITAL. It was concluded long ago at WP:TALKLEAD that Vital Wikproject is included in the banner shell. SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 11:55, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

@ SandyGeorgia: Thanks for the update - I've reopened the AWB request in Phabricator. GoingBatty ( talk) 14:04, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 14:08, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

@ SandyGeorgia: This request has been kindly resolved by Rjwilmsi. Now we just need a new version of AWB. GoingBatty ( talk) 18:33, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Thanks all (even if it's Greek to me :) SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 18:37, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

I could use the new AWB release, as a while back, I had done some cleanup of talk page banners with this incorrect moving out of vital from the banner shell. Any word on when the new release is coming out? Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 18:41, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Last version was released 2021, so don't hold your breath. -- Trialpears ( talk) 21:14, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Fully aware of that as I'm a long-time user of AWB, but there had been rumblings about a new release recently. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 21:17, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Apparently, in this edit, AWB moved the "hatnote group" shell below the actual hatnotes (rather than surrounding them), leaving an error message on the page. Can this be fixed to avoid repetition? BD2412 T 01:31, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

@ BD2412: see above @ #GENFIX error - it's fixed in the sandbox, but still pending a version update.   ~  Tom.Reding ( talk ⋅ dgaf)  02:00, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Understood, thanks. BD2412 T 02:08, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Why should editors request permission for AutoWikiBrowser? Should the application be open without registering? Toadette ^{( let's chat together)} 11:33, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

@ ToadetteEdit: Using AWB makes it easy to vandalize a large number of pages very quickly. Requesting permission gives the admins the ability to look at a user's contribution history and confirm they're here to build an encyclopedia before granting access. GoingBatty ( talk) 16:52, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

In this diff, AWB's GENFIX set messed up an implementation of {{ hatnote group}}. Could this be fixed to resolve the error? {{u| Sdkb}}  ^talk 04:38, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

I have run into that error as well. What I saw was when AWB seeks to replace a redirect to the template, it ungroups the contents and places the {{ hatnote group}} template separately beneath what it had previously grouped. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 04:46, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

It was logged as a bug a couple of years ago. -- John of Reading ( talk) 06:52, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

@ Sdkb, StefenTower, and John of Reading: I received an email this morning that Rjwilmsi has fixed this issue.

@ Rjwilmsi: What are the plans to release an updated version of AWB with this fix (and hopefully resolve a few more bugs beforehand)? Thanks!

You would need to arrange with Reedy if you think a new AWB release is worthwhile. Rjwilmsi 17:55, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

I find it weird that AWB releases seem to be done in giant versions, rather than small updates automatically pushed out. The latter seems the more modern approach. {{u| Sdkb}}  ^talk 18:00, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

@ Reedy: Could we please have an updated version of AWB soon (hopefully with a few more resolved bugs)? Thanks! GoingBatty ( talk) 05:27, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

@ Rjwilmsi: Is Reedy the only one who can release a new version of AWB? Reedy hasn't been very active here lately. GoingBatty ( talk) 22:13, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

Effectively yes. I can do local builds but on my setup (MonoDevelop/Linux) I can't do a full clean build as Reedy has updated the AWB solution to use C# reference libraries etc. that MonoDevelop can't (yet) handle. Also the AWB release process requires changes to admin-protected pages to update release versions. If Reedy doesn't respond then I suppose I'll have to get Visual Studio set up on a spare Windows machine so I can do a full build and then hopefully we can find another admin to get the AWB version page updated. Rjwilmsi 18:27, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

This certainly points to a systemic issue. AWB ideally should be converted to an online tool (rather than a program you have to download) that can be updated constantly whenever there is a fix needed. {{u| Sdkb}}  ^talk 19:21, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

@ Rjwilmsi: Reedy ( talk · contribs) hasn't been online since 1 October, and not very often all year. I reached out to Reedy on #AutoWikiBrowser ^connect, but didn't get a response, so any help you could provide would be appreciated. GoingBatty ( talk) 03:30, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

It would be nice if we can figure out a way to share build duties at least, and have more regular releases. I'm a former software developer and would like to see if I can build it, but only if all the required tools are free. That is, is Visual Studio Community enough for the task? Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 00:41, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

I'm also a software developer, but Java rather than C#. Regardless, I'm trying to follow the instructions here. After getting through Microsoft's gross privacy-invading processes to download an old version of Visual Studio, I now have it installed. (It was by comparison much easier to install TortoiseSVN.) I've now started VS and opened the AWB project, but I don't know what this instruction means - "When the IDE has loaded, select release rather than debug (next to the green forward arrow).". If anyone can enlighten me, that would be much appreciated. Cheers, Kiwipete ( talk) 02:48, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

On Turkish Wikipedia, Flagged revisions is actively used on all articles. I do not want AWB to make changes to pages with Pending Changes. Is this technically possible? Sadrettin ( talk) 18:51, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

Template:Double soft redirect is in the process of being deleted per Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2023 December 12#Template:Double soft redirect. Apparently, AWB is set up to bypass redirects pointing towards it as a uncontroversial maintenance task, so informing this page in the event AWB needs to be updated. Steel1943 ( talk) 02:07, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

We really should have automatic detection of past TfDs for discussions like this. If the arguments from the previous discussion had been raised I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been kept. -- Trialpears ( talk) 02:18, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

...Speaking of which, I totally forgot that I was the nominator for the previous discussion that looks like took place 7 years ago. Can't speak for the current WP:CCC situation though. Steel1943 ( talk) 19:02, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

In the current version of AWB 6.2.1.0, I do find Make List of "User contribs", which is nice.

But for Wikimedia Commons a "User uploads", and for Wikipedia a "User created" would be extremely handy options to alow to get the list of files uploaded by a user, or pages created... This functionality seems to be missing? I assume it could very easily added? Geertivp ( talk) 19:33, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

@ Geertivp: Hi there! You can use the "filing a new task" link above to request a feature in AWB. Note that there hasn't been a new official release in over two years, so you may want to seek out alternate solutions while you're waiting. GoingBatty ( talk) 21:48, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

Sorry, can you be more explicit? I don't see a new "filing a new task" link, or "feature request button" on this page? Geertivp ( talk) 00:04, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

The "Filing a new task" link is in the first box under the Before you post section. When you land on the phabricator "New Generic Task" page there are links to the Feature Request form (I don't think there's a button). David Brooks ( talk) 02:42, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks... task T354110 created. Menu was well hidden... :-) Geertivp ( talk) 09:18, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

I've been trying to think of a way you can generate a list that can be then fed into AWB. The best I could find, so far, is using this tool to generate a list of pages you created, with "View as wikitext" checked. Then copy and paste all that into a text editor to whittle down to a raw list. If you need pointers on how to do that part, I can help there too. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 20:15, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

You can also save that Pages Created tool's wikitext list somewhere, e.g. to Special:MyPage/my articles, then you can use PetScan to get a raw list of those links: [2] 1) change User:Me/sandbox in the Templates&links tab to your list's location, 2) check Plain text in the Output tab, 3) click "Do it!" and 4) Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C on that page. This same method also works for file uploads; you only have to change to the file namespace in that Pages Created tool and in the "Page properties" tab in PetScan. If the assessment symbols like File:Symbol question.svg in your list bother you, you can break the links by changing File:Symbol to something like File Symbol with any text editor's search and replace tool or with the edit toolbar's Search and Replace function. -- JAAqqO ( talk) 21:40, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

Excellent - that approach certainly beats the more complicated text editing methods required for my recommendation. Thank you! Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 22:13, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for your updates, related to Xtools. One could as well copy/paste the table into Excel "as unformatted text" (Ctrl-Shift-V). Then you don't need to remove the markup manually... Geertivp ( talk) 09:57, 31 December 2023 (UTC)

There is also a "Download" options. What might be added here is a copy/paste button to have a tabbed list. Geertivp ( talk) 10:03, 31 December 2023 (UTC)

One thing with New Zealand Wikipedia is that it is incredibly common for articles to be filled with American spellings, eg "color" vs "colour". I'd like to find these typos by searching for the {{Use New Zealand English}} template and a typo, eg "color". How would I do this? I'm unsure how people search for things, and I'm unsure how to plug these search results into AWB. — Panamitsu (talk) 03:20, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

@ Panamitsu: One way you could do this is make a list or articles where the source is "What transcludes page" with "Template:Use New Zealand English", which brings up 21301. You could then add some find and replace rules such as color --> colour, and click the "Skip if no replacement" box. Hope this helps, and happy editing! GoingBatty ( talk) 03:57, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Thank you this works well! — Panamitsu (talk) 04:34, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Yeh, great to see someone else who knows we speak and write English proper-like here in New Zild :)

Could you also add this typo to your list - fiber -> fibre? (as seen in this edit). Cheers, Kiwipete ( talk) 08:10, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Yep, funny thing is I actually had fiber listed but the replacement was also "fiber" so it was doing nothing. — Panamitsu (talk) 10:47, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Is there a way to have over 25,000 search results? These queries appear to have a maximum of 25,000 and I'd like to move onto the "next page" of results. Is this possible? — Panamitsu (talk) 22:58, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

Not as such, but you can search for hastemplate:"Use New Zealand English" prefix:A to get a manageable number of results then repeat with Prefix:B, etc. Certes ( talk) 23:36, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

Make sure you exclude text in references as these may be American articles where color is the "correct" spelling for the reference title or text. Ditto names and deliberate spelling errors. - X201 ( talk) 08:29, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Don't worry I've been looking out for that :) — Panamitsu (talk) 11:04, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

A search like this might help. Be aware of false positives such as the use of the target word in a book title or other text that should not be changed. – Jonesey95 ( talk) 16:47, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

I'd like to discuss this here before creating something on Fabricator. In doing work deleting infobox parameters and their data, sometimes the replacement of the entire line deletes a named ref with its information, thus causing the deletion to mess up the other usages of this named ref. Would it be possible for AWB to look for this in the changed result and either alert or move the ref to the next occurance of the named ref? Naraht ( talk) 16:28, 31 December 2023 (UTC)

Have you tried adjusting your search or your find/replace expression so that it excludes parameters with named references in their values? – Jonesey95 ( talk) 18:01, 31 December 2023 (UTC)

I've tried various tweeks, would appreciate ideas. Consider the following examples as to whether or not they should be deleted (parameter to be deleted is mission)

• mission=foo OK to delete
• mission=bar<ref>important</ref> OK to delete
• mission=baz<ref name=ref1>important</ref><ref name=ref2/> Generally not OK to delete, but is OK to delete if <ref name = ref1/> does not occur elsewhere in the article.
• mission=fub<ref name=ref1/> OK to delete

Naraht ( talk) 08:32, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Naraht: you can use this regex to ignore parameters with a reference definition ~

\|\s*mission\s*=\s*(?![^\{\|}]*<\s*ref\s+name\s*=\s*[^<>/]+>)(?# append parameter removal regex here )

The important bit is inside the negative lookahead (?!...), and most importantly the / inside the negation set [^<>/]+, which allows <ref name=ref2/> to pass (via a double negative), but avoids <ref name=ref1>.  ~  Tom.Reding ( talk ⋅ dgaf)  10:20, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

Tom.Reding Two question here. What is the "Append parameter removal regex here" and how does this distinguish as to whether a <ref name=ref1/> occurs later in the article? Naraht ( talk) 15:58, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Naraht: I assume(d) you have some of your own regex to remove the parameter (and nothing but the parameter). If you do, that's where it would go.

My regex example doesn't look up nor down the page for other instances of the named ref. That's more complicated to do safely & reliably, and better suited for a custom module, as opposed to a simple line of regex.   ~  Tom.Reding ( talk ⋅ dgaf)  16:06, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

Tom.Reding The regex is for the find and replace and replaces various combinations with pipe on both ends with a pipe. Part of the issue is that infoboxes allow for the pipe to either be before or after a parameter line as long as there is one pipe between each, so I'm looking at various combinations of multi-line matching. I'm also not sure what the ?# is. And if the check for the ref name being farther up or down isn't possible to include, I'm probably better off simply looking at the AWB difference and skipping the problematic ones.

Additionally, this is the problem, I *think* that if a non named reference containing a cite or other template in it prior to the named ref occured it wouldn't handle it correctly, but that's all due to the fact that calculating the "level" that something occurs at can be very difficult (inside a template down one level, inside a cite inside a template down two levels, etc.)

In terms of the Custom Module, how difficult would it be for AWB to be able to tell that the resulting page from a save would generate the "Cite error: The named reference bensmith was invoked but never defined" that would occur if a the named ref bensmith was removed? I found to my surprise this doesn't occur in userspace, but I think *something* could be done. (It might even be able to check before and after to indicate if the changes caused the "invoked by but never defined"

This is part of the reason that I wanted to bring it up here rather than on Fabricator. Naraht ( talk) 16:43, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Naraht: there is a 'Preview' button which will show that cite error in the references, but that's a manual operation. If there's a way to grab that rendered Preview output in the custom module, then you could certainly search for the error. I don't know if it's possible to do that currently, but it would be useful.   ~  Tom.Reding ( talk ⋅ dgaf)  12:40, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

Tom.Reding Agreed. No idea. Hopefully someone who knows the custom modules can speak to that. Naraht ( talk) 15:27, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

Several people have been asking for a release of the latest builds. If you trust me <insert snarky comment here>, I've thrown a build of the latest release - revision 12554, dated Nov 1 - up on github. Go to https://github.com/DavidWBrooks/UnofficialAWB/releases/latest, and click AutoWikiBrowser6211.zip. You can then follow the installation instructions from Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser#(2) Download. As they say, it works for me. David Brooks ( talk) 23:10, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

@ DavidBrooks: Works well for me - thanks so much!!! GoingBatty ( talk) 03:08, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

Working for me as well. Thank you! Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 06:21, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

Is there a list of changes for this build? Gonnym ( talk) 19:44, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

@ Gonnym: I don't remember the revision for the official 6210 release, but you can see it in Help > About. (maybe rev 12530?) Then you could look at https://sourceforge.net/p/autowikibrowser/code/commit_browser and click "Browse commits" to see the list of changes since then through 12554. GoingBatty ( talk) 20:50, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

It was 12528, but 12529 isn't there any more and 12530 was just to update the version to 6.2.1.1 prior to the next release. David Brooks ( talk) 15:21, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

It's interesting to know this exists, but AutoWikiBrowser users should not have to be using unofficial releases in order to avoid major problems like the hatnote grouping error. And I worry that, to whatever extent this serves as a band-aid for such problems, it's also obscuring the gaping wound of an issue that AWB has only sporadic major updates rather than regular fixes (or an online portal that gets updated automatically) and bus problem-level dependency to issue a major update. We urgently need to solve that underlying problem. Until that happens, band-aids like this risk doing as much harm (through obscuring that problem) as good. {{u| Sdkb}}  ^talk 18:35, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

@ DavidBrooks, @ StefenTower, @ Gonnym, @ Sdkb: Reedy just released the official 6.3.0.0 (rev 12558). GoingBatty ( talk) 21:45, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Glad to see it! I hope that we now turn our attention toward the underlying problem rather than waiting for the next crisis to come around. {{u| Sdkb}}  ^talk 21:53, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

I'd like to be clear what you mean by the underlying problem: do you mean the delay in releasing after a significant update? If so, "we" is the maintainers (I'm guessing specifically Reedy, yes?) That said, I'll leave my github project active, but not update it unless another crisis does arise. David Brooks ( talk) 04:38, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

@ David Brooks, I'm not a software engineer, so my understanding is a bit limited. But as best I understand it, I see the underlying problem as the difficulty of pushing out small updates. Most tools these days are web-based, not programs that run on your computer, so updating them only requires the developers to change the website code rather than ask users to download anything. And most don't have big version releases, but rather small tweaks pushed out all the time as soon as they're ready. Most also have enough maintainers that there isn't ever a bottleneck around a single user who, as a volunteer, has no obligation (and should have no obligation) to show up. We shouldn't ever be in a situation where a problem gets noticed and reported dozens of times, and a fix coded months ago, but it never gets pushed out because that requires waiting on someone to make the next big release. {{u| Sdkb}}  ^talk 05:44, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

There are several ways to think about this. A pure push version, like an app store or Windows Update, would require serious investment in upstream infrastructure as well as client-side changes. Won't happen. It might be easier to code a menu option "check for updates" and/or a popup "a new update is available; download?", but that too would require some additional upstream infrastructure, a self-installer, and possibly restrictions on where you could install it. Interesting to design, and perhaps you could copy from models like Notepad++, but not a simple fix. Why are you looking at me like that? I retired from Microsoft over 7 years ago.

That said, the evidence from the long cadence between official releases suggests that even the verification, packaging, and uploading to sourceforge are not the highest priority for the maintainers, although reedy should have the chance to comment. David Brooks ( talk) 16:16, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

AWB has had an updater for years, in fact, since 2007 (and IIRC, I did most of the implementation). And it's not massively dissimilar to the Notepad++ one either.

Rewriting it as a web app is very much a non trivial task either. There's been one or two attempts, but AFAIK, haven't got very far. And AWB dates back to 2005, when web apps like this was very uncommon too. So it wouldn't have made sense at the time, and as it's a volunteer project, these things are implemented in whatever language/framework/platform the developer(s) are comfortable in.

The middle ground is moving config onto wiki pages (or similar), which results in things like Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Config. But again, it's not trivial either, especially for more complex logic. Regexes and lists are one thing. Blocks of code are another. Maybe we could just load code files from wiki, and execute them on the fly, it's not much different to CustomModules. But a great chance of users introducing bugs, security issues etc.

A problem we have here is that like many things on Wikipedia, peoples personal itches and their percieved "this is the worst thing in the world" makes it hard to work out what actually is necessary and needs doing. If AWB was causing terror across many projects, or even just enwiki, action would've been taken, and it would've been blocked. And I suspect someone would've probably then poked me from the WMF side asking nicely for me to resolve it. Reedy ( talk) 17:27, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the complete response. I remember now AWBUpdater exists; I've installed it often enough. Serve me right for posting too early in the morning. But it doesn't seem to work: I ran the 6.2.1.0 version and Help/Check for Updates claims "No update available". David Brooks ( talk) 18:32, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

Try now - https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Wikipedia%3AAutoWikiBrowser%2FCheckPage%2FVersionJSON&diff=1196547428&oldid=1196215217 Reedy ( talk) 20:56, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

Works, thanks. David Brooks ( talk) 22:55, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

Great - thanks for the notify! Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 00:37, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

And I just loaded it and built it cleanly in Visual Studio 2022 without a forced upgrade to Framework 4.8. It looks like Microsoft relented on that. Can someone else confirm before I back out my build instructions? David Brooks ( talk) 04:45, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

@ DavidBrooks: I just downloaded it from the official site. GoingBatty ( talk) 06:06, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

I realize that works; I was referring to the instructions for downloading the source and building it. Until recently the current version of Visual Studio would not build a clean copy because reasons, and now Microsoft seems to have relented on that restriction. If I'm the only person here doing this, I'll regard my experience as definitive and revert the instructions I put in place to explain the workaround. David Brooks ( talk) 16:06, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

I've continued to use VS2019 as it works, is available, and is supported upstream! Reedy ( talk) 17:27, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

Oh, I wasn't criticizing your decision, and anyway it makes (made) sense not to require users to get Network 4.8. I was just helping any possible source downloaders with only VS2022 installed, on the basis of my own experience. David Brooks ( talk) 18:36, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

Although I'm still trying to get over my embarrassment at forgetting AWBUpdater, may I make a modest proposal? I do find apps like Notepad++ and others annoying with their frequent "do you want to update?" popups when all I want to do is edit this file, dammit (although, rarely, some apps make it mandatory because of upstream changes). Visual Studio itself has a little flag that offers to update in the background when you eventually exit the app, which is nicer. But I do understand that offering frequent updates to general AWB users is unnecessary.

An alternative, particularly for users who need a particular itch scratched, would be a beta channel. After all, I offered a version of that above. A more frequent propagation of a stable build, accompanied by a list of recent revisions' comments, downloaded on demand from an alternate trusted source either manually or using a gently modified AWBUpdater.

I realize I'm implying extra work on the maintainers, probably Reedy, but I'll put it out there. David Brooks ( talk) 16:47, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

H AWB team! Please can the general fixes described at Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/General fixes#WikiProjectBannerShell fixes (WikiProjectBannerShell) be amended as follows:

• Stop removing |blp=no. This is a valid value for the blp parameter as we are now moving the |living= parameter from {{ WikiProject Biography}} into the banner shell. This is needed for dead people, otherwise the Category:Biography articles without living parameter tracking category will be triggered.
• Do not add explicit call to first unnamed parameter. We had a discussion about this recently and people felt there is no benefit to the |1=.
• Adds {{ WikiProject banner shell}} if 3 or more any WikiProject templates are found. Now the primary way of assessing an article is using the banner shell, so all articles should have a banner shell, regardless of the number of WikiProject templates.

Thanks in advance — Martin ( MSGJ ·  talk) 14:33, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

Hi, to add to this, should also move "Remove diacritics from |listas=" from WikiProject Biography section to the banner shell section and move the parameter itself as part of the fixes. Plus, ideally should also remove |living= from WikiProject Biography and explicitly set |blp= in the banner shell based on it's value. If no objections to any of this, can then file something on Phabricator. Thanks. - Kj cheetham ( talk) 14:53, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

Could someone respond to these requests please? — Martin ( MSGJ ·  talk) 21:39, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Since this apparently requires a change to the AWB software, has a Phabricator issue been created? Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 21:53, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

The task here is for all fraternity and sorority list articles to have the listas parameter added if they don't have one. So in Talk:List of Omicron Nu chapters , replace {{WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities| with {{WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities|listas=Omicron Nu chapters. I can grab all of the ones that I want in Category:List-Class Fraternities and Sororities articles, and skip any that already have listas. But given that the listas depends on the title, any ideas on using the article title here? Naraht ( talk) 20:20, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

Have you considered using the {{ARTICLEPAGENAME}} variable? Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 20:56, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

StefenTowerSo perhaps two find and replaces.

1. WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities| to WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities|listas={{ARTICLEPAGENAME}}
2. WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities|listas=List of to WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities|

Unfortunately, AWB doesn't evaluate, so it looks like two separate passes... Naraht ( talk) 21:55, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

StefenTower Just inserted the string {{ARTICLEPAGENAME}} (using nowiki for here, did *not* include that in the advanced find and replace) did *not* evaluate. Naraht ( talk) 21:59, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

Probably because you didn't substitute. Try {{subst:ARTICLEPAGENAME}}. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 22:07, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

Ah! Thanx! Naraht ( talk) 22:45, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

Glad I could be of assistance. Stefen Tower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 00:11, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Naraht, while we're here, please don't bother saving edits like Special:Diff/1208536769 - you have effected no change and (as a user clicking "save" every time) you should be skipping those pages. Primefac ( talk) 09:33, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Primefac, While the change to the redirected template doesn't have a particular advantage, I believe setting the list of other templates being specifically set to 1= makes the overall bannershell template less likely to have problems with other edits. Naraht ( talk) 14:17, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

@ Naraht: Note in the #Request to change banner shell general fixes section above, MSGJ stated "We had a discussion about this recently and people felt there is no benefit to the |1=." GoingBatty ( talk) 15:06, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm finding and replacing "parking metre" - an incorrect spelling of "parking meter". When I use wiki search (text) and enter "parking metre" the search finds spellings with both "parking meter" and "parking metre", which I do not want. I only want to find the spellings errors. How do I prevent it from showing both spellings? — Panamitsu (talk) 10:01, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

@ Panamitsu: Hi. That is WP:ENGVAR scenario. Metre is British English, meter is American English. —usernamekiran (talk) 11:25, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

Actually British English distinguishes between "meter and "metre". A meter is something that measures something (speedometer, parking meter, etc), so "parking metre" is also incorrect in the Commonwealth. — Panamitsu (talk) 11:29, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

~"parking metre" insource:/[p|P]arking [m|M]etre/ - no results. Neils51 ( talk) 12:24, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

Actually parking insource:/[pP]arking [mM]etre/ gives me one hit: Timeline of South Australian history, where the correct term (intentionally) pipes to "parking metres". To Panamitsu: that was a regular expression search, which is precise but very slow and resource-heavy. The "parking" does a pre-filter. David Brooks ( talk) 16:22, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

Good point, I could have done this ~"parking metre*" insource:/[p|P]arking [m|M]etre/. Leave to Panamitsu to fix the article. Neils51 ( talk) 23:17, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

Sure, but you would have had to have foreknowledge of the plural use :-) Also you have a somewhat hybrid use of [pP] and the (almost) equivalent (p|P), not that it hurts in this case. David Brooks ( talk) 00:15, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Great thanks everyone for your help/ — Panamitsu (talk) 01:40, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

I've recently enabled Two-factor authentication, and since then, I've encountered difficulty logging into AWB. I would like to know if there is any solution to this issue, as repeatedly disabling two-factor authentication to use AWB is quite hazardous. Thank you. GSS  ^💬 15:29, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

@ GSS: Yes, you shouldn't do that. See instead Wikipedia:Using AWB with 2FA. -- John of Reading ( talk) 16:05, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Many thanks, John of Reading, for your suggestion. It worked! GSS  ^💬 07:27, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

After hour of editing I accidentally type Escape key. Any way to continue editing or to save changed text? Thank you. A.sav ( talk) 19:21, 12 March 2024 (UTC)

Using Escape is documented as 'stopping the editing process' and as you have discovered is quite successful. I had a bit of a play and can't see any way of successfully resuming, retaining edits. I would call that a bug and suggest you make a Phabricator request for the ability to 'continue'. I would suggest also that you wait to see if anyone else has a magic solution (unless you have exited). If doing gross editing then consider using another editor that perhaps has autosave capability then copy/paste. What can occur more often is that someone else edits in the interim and you have a conflict situation. Having your material elsewhere makes it easier to handle such situations and less frustrating. Neils51 ( talk) 02:32, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

The "Stop" button has a similar effect, but first pops up a warning about losing the "manual changes in the edit box". If the Escape key has a similar effect it should show a similar warning. -- John of Reading ( talk) 08:36, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

Thank you all! -- A.sav ( talk) 12:29, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

I agree there should be a safeguard against an accidental press (or touch) of ESC, and have filed a feature request. David Brooks ( talk) 19:08, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

Did we just update? I edited with AWB yesterday, no issues, but just now when i started up i was required to re-download the software. I don't see anything on this page or the project page indicating anything, so just wondering if there was an update and if anything i ought to know about will have changed? Happy days, ~ Lindsay ^{H ello} 08:41, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

Per Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/History the last AWB release was a few weeks ago in January. Rjwilmsi 13:38, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

Me too. I had to update it right now, but I don't know what changed in this new version. Mazewaxie ( talk • contribs) 17:17, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

There is no new official release (6.3.0.0 is apparently current), but it looks like version 6.2.1.0 was disabled by reedy yesterday. David Brooks ( talk) 17:43, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

@ Mazewaxie: According to the Changelog, version 6.2.1.0 was rev 12528 and version 6.3.0.0 was rev 12559. You can browse the commits between those revisions to see a summary of each change that was made to the code. GoingBatty ( talk) 05:15, 16 March 2024 (UTC)