Wikivoyage talk:AutoWikiBrowser

Usage notes

Here are some quick notes that might be useful to anyone using AWB:

Download: w:Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser

User Manual: w:Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/User manual

Installation Steps:

• Download
• Unzip
• Execute AutoWikiBrowser.exe

Initial Configuration:

• Tools --> Preferences --> Site --> Project --> Wikivoyage
• File --> Log in/Profiles --> Add --> Login
• Options --> Regex typo fixing --> "Enable Regex TypoFix"

To run: Go to the "Source" box and either select an option OR type in a page name and click "+". From there click on "Make List". Now scroll across the tabs to "Start" and click the "Start" button. The program will begin running through the list of articles in the "Source" box, displaying a diff for any with cleanups to be made. After reviewing the diff click "Save" to save the changes or "Skip" to move to the next article. You can also manually edit the proposed changes in the edit box prior to saving.

-- Ryan • (talk) • 00:45, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

I've converted WV:AWB to be a documentation page rather than a soft redirect to w:WP:AWB and copied the above usage instructions. Hopefully doing so will make them easier to find - please update as needed. -- Ryan • (talk) • 01:03, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Append:missing Wikipedia links

Here's one that will look at articles without a WP link, use Module:Wikibase to check if the corresponding WD item has an entry for enwiki, and if it does, add it to the end of the article. If the corresponding WD item does not have an enwiki link, it will instead add {{no Wikipedia link}} to the article, which places the article in Category:Articles without Wikipedia links. This one needs to be run on its own, not in conjunction with other changes.

• Make your target list
• Under Options, disable Find and Replace
• Under More, enable Append, and put the following code in the window:

{{subst:#if:{{subst:#invoke:wikibase|sitelink|enwiki}}|[[wikipedia:{{subst:#invoke:wikibase|sitelink|enwiki}}]]|{{no Wikipedia link}}}}

• Under Skip, put a check next to Regex and then check the Contains field and put in (wikipedia|no Wikipedia)
• Under Start put in your edit summary.
• Start it up.

Texugo (talk) 02:19, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Append:missing Geo templates

This one will relies on Module:Wikibase to look at articles without a {{geo}} tag, check to see if the corresponding wikidata item has coordinates listed, and if so, it appends a properly formatted geo tag to the end of the article using those coordinates. If the WD item has no coordinates, it will still add the code to the article and save it, but the code all disappears upon save (i.e. doesn't even show up on Recent Changes because nothing was actually changed). This one needs to be run on its own, not in conjunction with other changes.

• Make your target list
• Under Options, disable Find and Replace
• Under More, enable Append, and put the following code in the window:

{{subst:#if:{{subst:#invoke:wikibase|latitude|}}|{{geo|{{subst:#invoke:wikibase|latitude|}}|{{subst:#invoke:wikibase|longitude|}}}}}}

• Under Skip, put a check next to the Contains field and put in {{geo
• Under Start put in your edit summary.
• Start it up.

Texugo (talk) 02:19, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

My very loud advice would be to ALWAYS MANUALLY check the co-ordinates are appropriate for what you are trying to achieve and set the zoom level to something appropriate too. Remember that if you don't set a zoom level, that level will currently default to 13 (that default level may be changed in future), so it's also best to always set a zoom level. A zoom level of 13 is always going to be inappropriate in a country level article (except perhaps for Monaco or San Marino so "machine edits" like this one where {{geo|17.066666666667|-88.7}} was added, rather than a more appropriate {{geo|17.2|-88.7|zoom=8}} so the map would be centred more equidistantly between the northern and southern borders of Belize and show more than just a small patch of jungle when opened or where the dynamic map of the third largest country in the world opens at a high magnification view of the tiny village of Hézuò "City" are perhaps not to be encouraged. --W. Frank^email_talk 14:10, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Use Category:Articles needing the Geo zoom defined to follow up and fix the zoom/centering for region/country/huge city articles. Fixing the zoom is something we have never done thoroughly before, so there are more than a thousand old things in that category that also need fixing. Prioritize easy things - countries, well-known regions, areas you are familiar with. If you don't know what the appropriate zoom level is (sometimes the map doesn't show the appropriate borders, etc.) just leave it and maybe someone who knows better will fix it. But it is still better to have unadjusted coordinates than no coordinates at all, because at least the article will show up on the dynamic map. Texugo (talk) 14:29, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

A tip: temporarily changing the default display layer to "OSM (Mapnik)" at zoom levels of 8 or below will usually display political boundaries in either grey or purple so you can set the centre better. (Although "OSM (Mapnik)" is not usually the best display layer to leave set in the actual template for zoom levels of 8 or below). --W. Frank^email_talk 15:02, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Updated instructions

The Wikidata format for coordinates has apparently changed. The following instructions worked as of 27-Feb-2016:

1. Make your target list
2. Under Options, disable Find and Replace
3. Under More, enable Append, and put the following code in the window:

   {{subst:#invoke:sandbox/Wrh2|makegeo}}

4. Under Skip, put a check next to the Contains field and put in {{geo
5. Under Start put in your edit summary.
6. Start it up.

-- Ryan • (talk) • 04:10, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

Question: WP:MOS option

Question - the "Do not apply WP:MOS fixes" option in AWB does the following: "If enabled won't fix Mdashes, date Ordinals/Of and non-breaking spaces". I initially left this option enabled since we don't seem to have hard-and-fast rules for these items, but on second thought I'm thinking it would be better to leave it off for use on Wikivoyage. That means that "7 km" won't be converted to "7 km", etc. Should we call that out as something for everyone to do when using AWB, or is it better to just let this option do its thing? -- Ryan • (talk) • 16:09, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Wikivoyage customized settings

I've started a page with AWB settings customized for Wikivoyage at Wikivoyage:AWB/settings-wikivoyage.xml. It would be nice if we could get everyone who runs AWB here to use an agreed-upon set of rules, and ideally if we could build on the current set to include additional fixes. Additions, suggestions and comments appreciated. -- Ryan • (talk) • 01:07, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Good idea. I do use AWB sometimes. It's too bad I can't really read what you've got there so far though, don't understand it very well. This is something separate from the giant list of misspellings, obviously. Could you explain a little more? Texugo (talk) 01:14, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

I've added an overview that explains the goal - does that help to make things clearer? Technical documentation has never been my strong suit... -- Ryan • (talk) • 01:22, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

AWB settings files

Previously I posted the contents of a Wikivoyage settings file for AWB at WV:AWB/settings-wikivoyage.xml, but:

1. It seems easier to just make that file available as a download, rather than asking people to copy text from a wiki page onto a file on their home computer.
2. Having the file available as a download allows the possibility of multiple versions - I've created a "basic" and "advanced" version for starters.

I'm not sure if this is controversial or not, but since Mediawiki won't allow uploading of XML files via Special:Upload I linked to files hosted on my home server. I'm happy to push the current versions elsewhere if there is a place that would be more acceptable to host them.

Also, if anyone has questions about using AWB, or suggestions for improving the current instructions, please ping me. It's a hugely valuable tool and one that Wikivoyage would benefit from greatly if more people were using it. -- Ryan • (talk) •

Is there any chance they could be uploaded to Github or similar? That way it would be easy for people to fork/raise PRs with improvements (I have a few ideas...) Danielt998 (talk) 17:46, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

AWB

Swept in from the pub

Hi, I was wondering if there are any minimum requirements for using AWB on this wiki, as I use this for typo fixing on Wikipedia and Wikiquote and am familiar with the relevant policies. Thanks, --Rubbish computer (HALP!: I dropped the bass?) 18:31, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Currently I think we only have a couple of people that use it on Wikivoyage. I've built several Wikivoyage-specific rules (convert plain text to {{listing}}, update section headers, fix addresses, etc) that are linked from WV:AWB, but if you have experience with the tool then cleanups, additions, and suggestions would be appreciated. -- Ryan • (talk) • 18:54, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

@Wrh2: Okay, thanks! --Rubbish computer (HALP!: I dropped the bass?) 19:14, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Should be fine, I would recommend setting up a bot user name if you are going to do a lot of simple repetitive changes. Keep your semi-automatic edits separate from the manual ones and helps others filter the recent changes list. --Traveler100 (talk) 03:41, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

@Traveler100: Okay, thanks. --Rubbish computer (HALP!: I dropped the bass?) 22:45, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Superscripts

Currently it seems our default settings change km² to km². Is the rendering of the former problematic or are there some other technical reasons for it? I suppose we use superscripts just for areas and (more seldom) volumes, where there is little risk of confusion (in my browser the former superscripts are tiny, but you know what the number is supposed to be). Therefore I don't see the need for these "fixes" – I think they could equally well go the other way round. –LPfi (talk) 17:05, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Adding "fax" parameters to listings

Ground Zero noticed that the AutoWikiBrowser is adding "fax" parameters to listings where they are unlikely to be used. How can we stop the program from adding unnecessary fax parameters? --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 19:53, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Can AWB be used on a mac?

I'm guessing not, but is there a way on how to? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 08:44, 1 February 2022 (UTC)

Macs have a Unix core, since OS X, so many Unix tools work at command line and system call level. At least when OS X was introduced, the Unix windowing system X11 was also available. Thus you might be able to run Windows applications under Wine (which seems to officially support OS X) or similar. –LPfi (talk) 16:50, 11 May 2022 (UTC)

Typos

Hi, can AWB be used to fix typos here? Has consensus changed since 2015? I'm ok to go over any edits with the community before I make them if controversial. Cheers, Rubbish computer Ping me or leave a message on my talk page 16:51, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

We have Wikivoyage:Correct typos in one click, but that tool doesn't always work properly, and it's currently empty. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 11:04, 10 May 2022 (UTC)

Hi SHB2000, thanks for the reply, I will have a look at it this week hopefully. Rubbish computer Ping me or leave a message on my talk page 16:02, 10 May 2022 (UTC)

@Rubbish computer: I haven't seen the consensus changing, from whatever it has been. I think that if you are going to make half-automated changes, you should tell about it, do them on a limited scale to show what you are going to do, and ask for opinions. The tool that SHB linked seems to have flaws, which need to be handled by the user.

Regardless of tool used, language variety shouldn't be changed, local terms and theme-specific jargon should be left alone (although checking that they are explained as needed is good), and any comments the tool makes on talk pages should be made comprehensible, by editing or removing them if necessary.

–LPfi (talk) 15:42, 11 May 2022 (UTC)

Hi LPfi, no worries, I will check with the community before making semi-automated edits. Rubbish computer Ping me or leave a message on my talk page 16:28, 11 May 2022 (UTC)