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NAME

MediaWiki::Bot - a high-level bot framework for interacting with MediaWiki wikis

VERSION

version 5.007000

SYNOPSIS

use MediaWiki::Bot qw(:constants);

my $bot = MediaWiki::Bot->new({
    assert      => 'bot',
    host        => 'de.wikimedia.org',
    login_data  => { username => "Mike's bot account", password => "password" },
});

my $revid = $bot->get_last("User:Mike.lifeguard/sandbox", "Mike.lifeguard");
print "Reverting to $revid\n" if defined($revid);
$bot->revert('User:Mike.lifeguard', $revid, 'rvv');

DESCRIPTION

MediaWiki::Bot is a framework that can be used to write bots which interface with the MediaWiki API (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php).

METHODS

new

my $bot = MediaWiki::Bot({
    host     => 'en.wikipedia.org',
    operator => 'Mike.lifeguard',
});

Calling MediaWiki::Bot->new() will create a new MediaWiki::Bot object. The only parameter is a hashref with keys:

agent sets a custom useragent. It is recommended to use operator instead, which is all we need to do the right thing for you. If you really want to do it yourself, see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User-agent_policy for guidance on what information must be included.
assert sets a parameter for the AssertEdit extension (commonly 'bot')

Refer to http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:AssertEdit.
operator allows the bot to send you a message when it fails an assert. This is also the recommended way to customize the user agent string, which is required by the Wikimedia Foundation. A warning will be emitted if you omit this.
maxlag allows you to set the maxlag parameter (default is the recommended 5s).

Please refer to the MediaWiki documentation prior to changing this from the default.
protocol allows you to specify 'http' or 'https' (default is 'http')
host sets the domain name of the wiki to connect to
path sets the path to api.php (with no leading or trailing slash)
login_data is a hashref of credentials to pass to "login".
debug - whether to provide debug output.

1 provides only error messages; 2 provides further detail on internal operations.

For example:

my $bot = MediaWiki::Bot->new({
    assert      => 'bot',
    protocol    => 'https',
    host        => 'en.wikimedia.org',
    agent       => sprintf(
        'PerlWikiBot/%s (https://metacpan.org/MediaWiki::Bot; User:Mike.lifeguard)',
        MediaWiki::Bot->VERSION
    ),
    login_data  => { username => "Mike's bot account", password => "password" },
});

For backward compatibility, you can specify up to three parameters:

my $bot = MediaWiki::Bot->new('My custom useragent string', $assert, $operator);

This form is deprecated will never do auto-login or autoconfiguration, and emits deprecation warnings.

For further reading:

set_wiki

Set what wiki to use. The parameter is a hashref with keys:

host - the domain name
path - the part of the path before api.php (usually 'w')
protocol is either 'http' or 'https'.

If you don't set any parameter, it's previous value is used. If it has never been set, the default settings are 'http', 'en.wikipedia.org' and 'w'.

For example:

$bot->set_wiki({
    protocol    => 'https',
    host        => 'secure.wikimedia.org',
    path        => 'wikipedia/meta/w',
});

For backward compatibility, you can specify up to two parameters:

$bot->set_wiki($host, $path);

This form is deprecated, and will emit deprecation warnings.

This method takes a hashref with keys username and password at a minimum. See "Single User Login" and "Basic authentication" for additional options.

Logs the use $username in, optionally using $password. First, an attempt will be made to use cookies to log in. If this fails, an attempt will be made to use the password provided to log in, if any. If the login was successful, returns true; false otherwise.

$bot->login({
    username => $username,
    password => $password,
}) or die "Login failed";

Once logged in, attempt to do some simple auto-configuration. At present, this consists of:

Warning if the account doesn't have the bot flag, and isn't a sysop account.
Setting an appropriate default assert.

You can skip this autoconfiguration by passing autoconfig => 0

For backward compatibility, you can call this as

$bot->login($username, $password);

This form is deprecated, and will emit deprecation warnings. It will never do autoconfiguration or SUL login.

On WMF wikis, do_sul specifies whether to log in on all projects. The default is false. But even when false, you still get a CentralAuth cookie for, and are thus logged in on, all languages of a given domain (*.wikipedia.org, for example). When set, a login is done on each WMF domain so you are logged in on all ~800 content wikis. Since *.wikimedia.org is not possible, we explicitly include meta, commons, incubator, and wikispecies.

Basic authentication

If you need to supply basic auth credentials, pass a hashref of data as described by LWP::UserAgent:

$bot->login({
    username    => $username,
    password    => $password,
    basic_auth  => {    netloc  => "private.wiki.com:80",
                        realm   => "Authentication Realm",
                        uname   => "Basic auth username",
                        pass    => "password",
                    }
}) or die "Couldn't log in";

Bot passwords

MediaWiki::Bot doesn't yet support the more complicated (but more secure) oAuth login flow for bots. Instead, we support a simpler "bot password", which is a generated password connected to a (possibly-reduced) set of on-wiki privileges, and IP ranges from which it can be used.

To create one, visit Special:BotPasswords on the wiki. Enter a label for the password, then select the privileges you want to use with that password. This set should be as restricted as possible; most bots only edit existing pages. Keeping the set of privileges as restricted as possible limits the possible damage if the password were ever compromised.

Submit the form, and you'll be given a new "username" that looks like "AccountUsername@bot_password_label", and a generated bot password. To log in, provide those to MediaWiki::Bot verbatim.

References: API:Login, Logging in

logout

$bot->logout();

The logout method logs the bot out of the wiki. This invalidates all login cookies.

References: API:Logging out

edit

my $text = $bot->get_text('My page');
$text .= "\n\n* More text\n";
$bot->edit({
    page    => 'My page',
    text    => $text,
    summary => 'Adding new content',
    section => 'new',
});

This method edits a wiki page, and takes a hashref of data with keys:

page - the page title to edit
text - the page text to write
summary - an edit summary
minor - whether to mark the edit as minor or not (boolean)
bot - whether to mark the edit as a bot edit (boolean)
assertion - usually 'bot', but see http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:AssertEdit.
section - edit a single section (identified by number) instead of the whole page

An MD5 hash is sent to guard against data corruption while in transit.

You can also call this as:

$bot->edit($page, $text, $summary, $is_minor, $assert, $markasbot);

This form is deprecated, and will emit deprecation warnings.

CAPTCHAs

If a CAPTCHA is encountered, the call to edit will return false, with the error code set to ERR_CAPTCHA and the details informing you that solving a CAPTCHA is required for this action. The information you need to actually solve the captcha (for example the URL for the image) is given in $bot->{error}->{captcha} as a hash reference. You will want to grab the keys 'url' (a relative URL to the image) and 'id' (the ID of the CAPTCHA). Once you have solved the CAPTCHA (presumably by interacting with a human), retry the edit, adding captcha_id and captcha_solution parameters:

my $edit = {page => 'Main Page', text => 'got your nose'};
my $edit_status = $bot->edit($edit);
if (not $edit_status) {
    if ($bot->{error}->{code} == ERR_CAPTCHA) {
        my @captcha_uri = split /\Q?/, $bot->{error}{captcha}{url}, 2;
        my $image = URI->new(sprintf '%s://%s%s?%s' =>
            $bot->{protocol}, $bot->{host}, $captcha_uri[0], $captcha_uri[1],
        );

        require Term::ReadLine;
        my $term = Term::ReadLine->new('Solve the captcha');
        $term->ornaments(0);
        my $answer = $term->readline("Please solve $image and type the answer: ");

        # Add new CAPTCHA params to the edit we're attempting
        $edit->{captcha_id} = $bot->{error}->{captcha}->{id};
        $edit->{captcha_solution} = $answer;
        $status = $bot->edit($edit);
    }
}

References: Editing pages, API:Edit, API:Tokens

move

$bot->move($from_title, $to_title, $reason, $options_hashref);

This moves a wiki page.

If you wish to specify more options (like whether to suppress creation of a redirect), use $options_hashref, which has keys:

movetalk specifies whether to attempt to the talk page.
noredirect specifies whether to suppress creation of a redirect.
movesubpages specifies whether to move subpages, if applicable.
watch and unwatch add or remove the page and the redirect from your watchlist.
ignorewarnings ignores warnings.

my @pages = ("Humor", "Rumor");
foreach my $page (@pages) {
    my $to = $page;
    $to =~ s/or$/our/;
    $bot->move($page, $to, "silly 'merricans");
}

References: API:Move

get_history

my @hist = $bot->get_history($title);
my @hist = $bot->get_history($title, $additional_params);

Returns an array containing the history of the specified page $title.

The optional hash ref $additional_params can be used to tune the query by API parameters, such as 'rvlimit' to return only 'rvlimit' number of revisions (default is as many as possible, but may be limited per query) or 'rvdir' to set the chronological direction.

Example:

my @hist = $bot->get_history('Main Page', {'rvlimit' => 10, 'rvdir' => 'older'})

The array returned contains hashrefs with keys: revid, user, comment, minor, timestamp_date, and timestamp_time.

For backward compatibility, you can specify up to four parameters:

my @hist = $bot->get_history($title, $limit, $revid, $direction);

References: Getting page history, API:Properties#revisions

get_history_step_by_step

my @hist = $bot->get_history_step_by_step($title);
my @hist = $bot->get_history_step_by_step($title, $additional_params);

Same as get_history(), but does not return the full history at once, but let's you loop through it.

The optional call-by-reference hash ref $additional_params can be used to loop through a page's full history by using the 'continue' param returned by the API.

Example:

my $ready;
my $filter_params = {};
while(!$ready){
    my @hist = $bot->get_history_step_by_step($page, $filter_params);
    if(@hist == 0 || !defined($filter_params->{'continue'})){
        $ready = 1;
    }
    # do something with @hist
}

References: Getting page history, API:Properties#revisions

get_text

Returns the wikitext of the specified $page_title. The first parameter $page_title is the only required one.

The second parameter is a hashref with the following independent optional keys:

rvstartid - if defined, this function returns the text of that revision, otherwise the newest revision will be used.
rvsection - if defined, returns the text of that section. Otherwise the whole page text will be returned.
pageid - this is an output parameter and can be used to fetch the id of a page without the need of calling "get_id" additionally. Note that the value of this param is ignored and it will be overwritten by this function.
rv... - any param starting with 'rv' will be forwarded to the api call.

A blank page will return wikitext of "" (which evaluates to false in Perl, but is defined); a nonexistent page will return undef (which also evaluates to false in Perl, but is obviously undefined). You can distinguish between blank and nonexistent pages by using defined:

# simple example
my $wikitext = $bot->get_text('Page title');
print "Wikitext: $wikitext\n" if defined $wikitext;

# advanced example
my $options = {'revid'=>123456, 'section_number'=>2};
$wikitext = $bot->get_text('Page title', $options);
die "error, see API error message\n" unless defined $options->{'pageid'};
warn "page doesn't exist\n" if $options->{'pageid'} == MediaWiki::Bot::PAGE_NONEXISTENT;
print "Wikitext: $wikitext\n" if defined $wikitext;

References: Fetching page text, API:Properties#revisions

For backward-compatibility the params revid and section_number may also be given as scalar parameters:

my $wikitext = $bot->get_text('Page title', 123456, 2);
print "Wikitext: $wikitext\n" if defined $wikitext;

get_id

Returns the id of the specified $page_title. Returns undef if page does not exist.

my $pageid = $bot->get_id("Main Page");
die "Page doesn't exist\n" if !defined($pageid);

Revisions: API:Properties#info

get_pages

Returns the text of the specified pages in a hashref. Content of undef means page does not exist. Also handles redirects or article names that use namespace aliases.

my @pages = ('Page 1', 'Page 2', 'Page 3');
my $thing = $bot->get_pages(\@pages);
foreach my $page (keys %$thing) {
    my $text = $thing->{$page};
    print "$text\n" if defined($text);
}

References: Fetching page text, API:Properties#revisions

get_image

$buffer = $bot->get_image('File:Foo.jpg', { width=>256, height=>256 });

Download an image from a wiki. This is derived from a similar function in MediaWiki::API. This one allows the image to be scaled down by passing a hashref with height & width parameters.

It returns raw data in the original format. You may simply spew it to a file, or process it directly with a library such as Imager.

use File::Slurp qw(write_file);
my $img_data = $bot->get_image('File:Foo.jpg');
write_file( 'Foo.jpg', {binmode => ':raw'}, \$img_data );

Images are scaled proportionally. (height/width) will remain constant, except for rounding errors.

Height and width parameters describe the maximum dimensions. A 400x200 image will never be scaled to greater dimensions. You can scale it yourself; having the wiki do it is just lazy & selfish.

References: API:Properties#imageinfo

revert

Reverts the specified $page_title to $revid, with an edit summary of $summary. A default edit summary will be used if $summary is omitted.

my $revid = $bot->get_last("User:Mike.lifeguard/sandbox", "Mike.lifeguard");
print "Reverting to $revid\n" if defined($revid);
$bot->revert('User:Mike.lifeguard', $revid, 'rvv');

References: API:Edit

undo

$bot->undo($title, $revid, $summary, $after);

Reverts the specified $revid, with an edit summary of $summary, using the undo function. To undo all revisions from $revid up to but not including this one, set $after to another revid. If not set, just undo the one revision ($revid).

References: API:Edit

get_last

Returns the revid of the last revision to $page not made by $user. undef is returned if no result was found, as would be the case if the page is deleted.

my $revid = $bot->get_last('User:Mike.lifeguard/sandbox', 'Mike.lifeguard');
if defined($revid) {
    print "Reverting to $revid\n";
    $bot->revert('User:Mike.lifeguard', $revid, 'rvv');
}

References: API:Properties#revisions

update_rc

This method is deprecated, and will emit deprecation warnings. Replace calls to update_rc() with calls to the newer recentchanges(), which returns all available data, including rcid.

Returns an array containing the $limit most recent changes to the wiki's main namespace. The array contains hashrefs with keys title, revid, old_revid, and timestamp.

my @rc = $bot->update_rc(5);
foreach my $hashref (@rc) {
    my $title = $hash->{'title'};
    print "$title\n";
}

The "Options hashref" is also available:

# Use a callback for incremental processing:
my $options = { hook => \&mysub, };
$bot->update_rc($options);
sub mysub {
    my ($res) = @_;
    foreach my $hashref (@$res) {
        my $page = $hashref->{'title'};
        print "$page\n";
    }
}

recentchanges($wiki_hashref, $options_hashref)

Returns an array of hashrefs containing recentchanges data.

The first parameter is a hashref with the following keys:

ns - the namespace number, or an arrayref of numbers to specify several; default is the main namespace
limit - the number of rows to fetch; default is 50
user - only list changes by this user
show - itself a hashref where the key is a category and the value is a boolean. If true, the category will be included; if false, excluded. The categories are kinds of edits: minor, bot, anon, redirect, patrolled. See "rcshow" at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Recentchanges#Parameters.

An "Options hashref" can be used as the second parameter:

my @rc = $bot->recentchanges({ ns => 4, limit => 100 });
foreach my $hashref (@rc) {
    print $hashref->{title} . "\n";
}

# Or, use a callback for incremental processing:
$bot->recentchanges({ ns => [0,1], limit => 500 }, { hook => \&mysub });
sub mysub {
    my ($res) = @_;
    foreach my $hashref (@$res) {
        my $page = $hashref->{title};
        print "$page\n";
    }
}

The hashref returned might contain the following keys:

ns - the namespace number
revid
old_revid
timestamp
rcid - can be used with "patrol"
pageid
type - one of edit, new, log (there may be others)
title

For backwards compatibility, the previous method signature is still supported:

$bot->recentchanges($ns, $limit, $options_hashref);

References: API:Recentchanges

what_links_here

Returns an array containing a list of all pages linking to $page.

Additional optional parameters are:

One of: all (default), redirects, or nonredirects.
A namespace number to search (pass an arrayref to search in multiple namespaces)
An "Options hashref".

A typical query:

my @links = $bot->what_links_here("Meta:Sandbox",
    undef, 1,
    { hook=>\&mysub }
);
sub mysub{
    my ($res) = @_;
    foreach my $hash (@$res) {
        my $title = $hash->{'title'};
        my $is_redir = $hash->{'redirect'};
        print "Redirect: $title\n" if $is_redir;
        print "Page: $title\n" unless $is_redir;
    }
}

Transclusions are no longer handled by what_links_here() - use "list_transclusions" instead.

References: Listing incoming links, API:Backlinks

list_transclusions

Returns an array containing a list of all pages transcluding $page.

Other parameters are:

One of: all (default), redirects, or nonredirects
A namespace number to search (pass an arrayref to search in multiple namespaces).
$options_hashref as described by MediaWiki::API:

Set max to limit the number of queries performed.

Set hook to a subroutine reference to use a callback hook for incremental processing.

Refer to the section on "linksearch" for examples.

A typical query:

$bot->list_transclusions("Template:Tlx", undef, 4, {hook => \&mysub});
sub mysub{
    my ($res) = @_;
    foreach my $hash (@$res) {
        my $title = $hash->{'title'};
        my $is_redir = $hash->{'redirect'};
        print "Redirect: $title\n" if $is_redir;
        print "Page: $title\n" unless $is_redir;
    }
}

References: Listing transclusions API:Embeddedin

get_pages_in_category

Returns an array containing the names of all pages in the specified category (include the Category: prefix). Does not recurse into sub-categories.

my @pages = $bot->get_pages_in_category('Category:People on stamps of Gabon');
print "The pages in Category:People on stamps of Gabon are:\n@pages\n";

The options hashref is as described in "Options hashref". Use { max => 0 } to get all results.

References: Listing category contents, API:Categorymembers

get_all_pages_in_category

my @pages = $bot->get_all_pages_in_category($category, $options_hashref);

Returns an array containing the names of all pages in the specified category (include the Category: prefix), including sub-categories. The $options_hashref is described fully in "Options hashref".

References: Listing category contents, API:Categorymembers

get_all_categories

Returns an array containing the names of all categories.

my @categories = $bot->get_all_categories();
print "The categories are:\n@categories\n";

Use { max => 0 } to get all results. The default number of categories returned is 10, the maximum allowed is 500.

References: API:Allcategories

linksearch

Runs a linksearch on the specified $link and returns an array containing anonymous hashes with keys 'url' for the outbound URL, and 'title' for the page the link is on.

Additional parameters are:

A namespace number to search (pass an arrayref to search in multiple namespaces).
You can search by $protocol (http is default).

$options_hashref is fully documented in "Options hashref":

Set max in $options to get more than one query's worth of results:

my $options = { max => 10, }; # I only want some results
my @links = $bot->linksearch("slashdot.org", 1, undef, $options);
foreach my $hash (@links) {
    my $url = $hash->{'url'};
    my $page = $hash->{'title'};
    print "$page: $url\n";
}

Set hook to a subroutine reference to use a callback hook for incremental processing:

my $options = { hook => \&mysub, }; # I want to do incremental processing
$bot->linksearch("slashdot.org", 1, undef, $options);
sub mysub {
    my ($res) = @_;
    foreach my $hashref (@$res) {
        my $url  = $hashref->{'url'};
        my $page = $hashref->{'title'};
        print "$page: $url\n";
    }
}

References: Finding external links, API:Exturlusage

purge_page

Purges the server cache of the specified $page. Returns true on success; false on failure. Pass an array reference to purge multiple pages.

If you really care, a true return value is the number of pages successfully purged. You could check that it is the same as the number you wanted to purge - maybe some pages don't exist, or you passed invalid titles, or you aren't allowed to purge the cache:

my @to_purge = ('Main Page', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'Very unlikely to exist');
my $size = scalar @to_purge;

print "all-at-once:\n";
my $success = $bot->purge_page(\@to_purge);

if ($success == $size) {
    print "@to_purge: OK ($success/$size)\n";
}
else {
    my $missed = @to_purge - $success;
    print "We couldn't purge $missed pages (list was: "
        . join(', ', @to_purge)
        . ")\n";
}

# OR
print "\n\none-at-a-time:\n";
foreach my $page (@to_purge) {
    my $ok = $bot->purge_page($page);
    print "$page: $ok\n";
}

References: Purging the server cache, API:Purge

get_namespace_names

my %namespace_names = $bot->get_namespace_names();

Returns a hash linking the namespace id, such as 1, to its named equivalent, such as "Talk".

References: API:Meta#siteinfo

image_usage

Gets a list of pages which include a certain $image. Include the File: namespace prefix to avoid incurring an extra round-trip (which will also emit a deprecation warnings).

Additional parameters are:

A namespace number to fetch results from (or an arrayref of multiple namespace numbers)
One of all, redirect, or nonredirects.
$options is a hashref as described in the section for "linksearch".

my @pages = $bot->image_usage("File:Albert Einstein Head.jpg");

Or, make use of the "Options hashref" to do incremental processing:

$bot->image_usage("File:Albert Einstein Head.jpg",
    undef, undef,
    { hook=>\&mysub, max=>5 }
);
sub mysub {
    my $res = shift;
    foreach my $page (@$res) {
        my $title = $page->{'title'};
        print "$title\n";
    }
}

References: API:Imageusage

global_image_usage($image, $results, $filterlocal)

Returns an array of hashrefs of data about pages which use the given image.

my @data = $bot->global_image_usage('File:Albert Einstein Head.jpg');

The keys in each hashref are title, url, and wiki. $results is the maximum number of results that will be returned (not the maximum number of requests that will be sent, like max in the "Options hashref"); the default is to attempt to fetch 500 (set to 0 to get all results). $filterlocal will filter out local uses of the image.

References: Extension:GlobalUsage#API

links_to_image

A backward-compatible call to "image_usage". You can provide only the image title.

This method is deprecated, and will emit deprecation warnings.

is_blocked

my $blocked = $bot->is_blocked('User:Mike.lifeguard');

Checks if a user is currently blocked.

References: API:Blocks

test_blocked

Retained for backwards compatibility. Use "is_blocked" for clarity.

This method is deprecated, and will emit deprecation warnings.

test_image_exists

Checks if an image exists at $page.

FILE_NONEXISTENT (0) means "Nothing there"
FILE_LOCAL (1) means "Yes, an image exists locally"
FILE_SHARED (2) means "Yes, an image exists on Commons"
FILE_PAGE_TEXT_ONLY (3) means "No image exists, but there is text on the page"

If you pass in an arrayref of images, you'll get out an arrayref of results.

use MediaWiki::Bot::Constants;
my $exists = $bot->test_image_exists('File:Albert Einstein Head.jpg');
if ($exists == FILE_NONEXISTENT) {
    print "Doesn't exist\n";
}
elsif ($exists == FILE_LOCAL) {
    print "Exists locally\n";
}
elsif ($exists == FILE_SHARED) {
    print "Exists on Commons\n";
}
elsif ($exists == FILE_PAGE_TEXT_ONLY) {
    print "Page exists, but no image\n";
}

References: API:Properties#imageinfo

get_pages_in_namespace

$bot->get_pages_in_namespace($namespace, $limit, $options_hashref);

Returns an array containing the names of all pages in the specified namespace. The $namespace_id must be a number, not a namespace name.

Setting $page_limit is optional, and specifies how many items to retrieve at once. Setting this to 'max' is recommended, and this is the default if omitted. If $page_limit is over 500, it will be rounded up to the next multiple of 500. If $page_limit is set higher than you are allowed to use, it will silently be reduced. Consider setting key 'max' in the "Options hashref" to retrieve multiple sets of results:

# Gotta get 'em all!
my @pages = $bot->get_pages_in_namespace(6, 'max', { max => 0 });

References: API:Allpages

count_contributions

my $count = $bot->count_contributions($user);

Uses the API to count $user's contributions.

References: API:Users

timed_count_contributions

($timed_edits_count, $total_count) = $bot->timed_count_contributions($user, $days);

Uses the API to count $user's contributions in last number of $days and total number of user's contributions (if needed).

Example: If you want to get user contribs for last 30 and 365 days, and total number of edits you would write something like this:

my ($last30days, $total) = $bot->timed_count_contributions($user, 30);
my $last365days = $bot->timed_count_contributions($user, 365);

You could get total number of edits also by separately calling count_contributions like this:

my $total = $bot->count_contributions($user);

and use timed_count_contributions only in scalar context, but that would mean one more call to server (meaning more server load) of which you are excused as timed_count_contributions returns array with two parameters.

References: Extension:UserDailyContribs

last_active

my $latest_timestamp = $bot->last_active($user);

Returns the last active time of $user in YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.

References: API:Usercontribs

recent_edit_to_page

my ($timestamp, $user) = $bot->recent_edit_to_page($title);

Returns timestamp and username for most recent (top) edit to $page.

References: API:Properties#revisions

get_users

my @recent_editors = $bot->get_users($title, $limit, $revid, $direction);

Gets the most recent editors to $page, up to $limit, starting from $revision and going in $direction.

References: API:Properties#revisions

was_blocked

for ("Mike.lifeguard", "Jimbo Wales") {
    print "$_ was blocked\n" if $bot->was_blocked($_);
}

Returns whether $user has ever been blocked.

References: API:Logevents

test_block_hist

Retained for backwards compatibility. Use "was_blocked" for clarity.

This method is deprecated, and will emit deprecation warnings.

expandtemplates

my $expanded = $bot->expandtemplates($title, $wikitext);

Expands templates on $page, using $text if provided, otherwise loading the page text automatically.

References: API:Parsing wikitext

get_allusers

my @users = $bot->get_allusers($limit, $user_group, $options_hashref);

Returns an array of all users. Default $limit is 500. Optionally specify a $group (like 'sysop') to list that group only. The last optional parameter is an "Options hashref".

References: API:Allusers

db_to_domain

Converts a wiki/database name (enwiki) to the domain name (en.wikipedia.org).

my @wikis = ("enwiki", "kowiki", "bat-smgwiki", "nonexistent");
foreach my $wiki (@wikis) {
    my $domain = $bot->db_to_domain($wiki);
    next if !defined($domain);
    print "$wiki: $domain\n";
}

You can pass an arrayref to do bulk lookup:

my @wikis = ("enwiki", "kowiki", "bat-smgwiki", "nonexistent");
my $domains = $bot->db_to_domain(\@wikis);
foreach my $domain (@$domains) {
    next if !defined($domain);
    print "$domain\n";
}

References: Extension:SiteMatrix

domain_to_db

my $db = $bot->domain_to_db($domain_name);

As you might expect, does the opposite of "domain_to_db": Converts a domain name (meta.wikimedia.org) into a database/wiki name (metawiki).

References: Extension:SiteMatrix

diff

This allows retrieval of a diff from the API. The return is a scalar containing the HTML table of the diff. Options are passed as a hashref with keys:

title is the title to use. Provide either this or revid.
revid is any revid to diff from. If you also specified title, only title will be honoured.
oldid is an identifier to diff to. This can be a revid, or the special values 'cur', 'prev' or 'next'

References: API:Properties#revisions

prefixindex

This returns an array of hashrefs containing page titles that start with the given $prefix. The hashref has keys 'title' and 'redirect' (present if the page is a redirect, not present otherwise).

Additional parameters are:

One of all, redirects, or nonredirects
A single namespace number (unlike linksearch etc, which can accept an arrayref of numbers).
$options_hashref as described in "Options hashref".

my @prefix_pages = $bot->prefixindex("User:Mike.lifeguard");
# Or, the more efficient equivalent
my @prefix_pages = $bot->prefixindex("Mike.lifeguard", 2);
foreach my $hashref (@pages) {
    my $title = $hashref->{'title'};
    if $hashref->{'redirect'} {
        print "$title is a redirect\n";
    }
    else {
        print "$title\n is not a redirect\n";
    }
}

References: API:Allpages

search

This is a simple search for your $search_term in page text. It returns an array of page titles matching.

Additional optional parameters are:

A namespace number to search in, or an arrayref of numbers (default is the main namespace)
$options_hashref is a hashref as described in "Options hashref":

my @pages = $bot->search("Mike.lifeguard", 2);
print "@pages\n";

Or, use a callback for incremental processing:

my @pages = $bot->search("Mike.lifeguard", 2, { hook => \&mysub });
sub mysub {
    my ($res) = @_;
    foreach my $hashref (@$res) {
        my $page = $hashref->{'title'};
        print "$page\n";
    }
}

References: API:Search

get_log

This fetches log entries, and returns results as an array of hashes. The first parameter is a hashref with keys:

type is the log type (block, delete...)
user is the user who performed the action. Do not include the User: prefix
target is the target of the action. Where an action was performed to a page, it is the page title. Where an action was performed to a user, it is User:$username.

The second is the familiar "Options hashref".

my $log = $bot->get_log({
        type => 'block',
        user => 'User:Mike.lifeguard',
    });
foreach my $entry (@$log) {
    my $user = $entry->{'title'};
    print "$user\n";
}

$bot->get_log({
        type => 'block',
        user => 'User:Mike.lifeguard',
    },
    { hook => \&mysub, max => 10 }
);
sub mysub {
    my ($res) = @_;
    foreach my $hashref (@$res) {
        my $title = $hashref->{'title'};
        print "$title\n";
    }
}

References: API:Logevents

is_g_blocked

my $is_globally_blocked = $bot->is_g_blocked('127.0.0.1');

Returns what IP/range block currently in place affects the IP/range. The return is a scalar of an IP/range if found (evaluates to true in boolean context); undef otherwise (evaluates false in boolean context). Pass in a single IP or CIDR range.

References: Extension:GlobalBlocking

was_g_blocked

print "127.0.0.1 was globally blocked\n" if $bot->was_g_blocked('127.0.0.1');

Returns whether an IP/range was ever globally blocked. You should probably call this method only when your bot is operating on Meta - this method will warn if not.

References: API:Logevents

was_locked

my $was_locked = $bot->was_locked('Mike.lifeguard');

Returns whether a user was ever locked. You should probably call this method only when your bot is operating on Meta - this method will warn if not.

References: API:Logevents

get_protection

Returns data on page protection as a array of up to two hashrefs. Each hashref has a type, level, and expiry. Levels are 'sysop' and 'autoconfirmed'; types are 'move' and 'edit'; expiry is a timestamp. Additionally, the key 'cascade' will exist if cascading protection is used.

my $page = 'Main Page';
$bot->edit({
    page    => $page,
    text    => rand(),
    summary => 'test',
}) unless $bot->get_protection($page);

You can also pass an arrayref of page titles to do bulk queries:

my @pages = ('Main Page', 'User:Mike.lifeguard', 'Project:Sandbox');
my $answer = $bot->get_protection(\@pages);
foreach my $title (keys %$answer) {
    my $protected = $answer->{$title};
    print "$title is protected\n" if $protected;
    print "$title is unprotected\n" unless $protected;
}

References: API:Properties#info

is_protected

This is a synonym for "get_protection", which should be used in preference.

This method is deprecated, and will emit deprecation warnings.

patrol

$bot->patrol($rcid);

Marks a page or revision identified by the $rcid as patrolled. To mark several RCIDs as patrolled, you may pass an arrayref of them. Returns false and sets $bot->{error} if the account cannot patrol.

References: API:Patrol

email

$bot->email($user, $subject, $body);

This allows you to send emails through the wiki. All 3 of $user (without the User: prefix), $subject and $body are required. If $user is an arrayref, this will send the same email (subject and body) to all users.

References: API:Email

top_edits

Returns an array of the page titles where the $user is the latest editor. The second parameter is the familiar $options_hashref.

my @pages = $bot->top_edits("Mike.lifeguard", {max => 5});
foreach my $page (@pages) {
    $bot->rollback($page, "Mike.lifeguard");
}

Note that accessing the data with a callback happens before filtering the top edits is done. For that reason, you should use "contributions" if you need to use a callback. If you use a callback with top_edits(), you will not necessarily get top edits returned. It is only safe to use a callback if you check that it is a top edit:

$bot->top_edits("Mike.lifeguard", { hook => \&rv });
sub rv {
    my $data = shift;
    foreach my $page (@$data) {
        if (exists($page->{'top'})) {
            $bot->rollback($page->{'title'}, "Mike.lifeguard");
        }
    }
}

References: API:Usercontribs

contributions

my @contribs = $bot->contributions($user, $namespace, $options, $from, $to);

Returns an array of hashrefs of data for the user's contributions. $namespace can be an arrayref of namespace numbers. $options can be specified as in "linksearch". $from and $to are optional timestamps. ISO 8601 date and time is recommended: 2001-01-15T14:56:00Z, see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Timestamp for all possible formats. Note that $from (=ucend) has to be before $to (=ucstart), unlike direct API access.

Specify an arrayref of users to get results for multiple users.

References: API:Usercontribs

upload

$bot->upload({ data => $file_contents, summary => 'uploading file' });
$bot->upload({ file => $file_name,     title   => 'Target filename.png' });

Upload a file to the wiki. Specify the file by either giving the filename, which will be read in, or by giving the data directly.

References: API:Upload

upload_from_url

Upload file directly from URL to the wiki. Specify URL, the new filename and summary. Summary and new filename are optional.

$bot->upload_from_url({
    url => 'http://some.domain.ext/pic.png',
    title => 'Target_filename.png',
    summary => 'uploading new pic',
});

If on your target wiki is enabled uploading from URL, meaning $wgAllowCopyUploads is set to true in LocalSettings.php and you have appropriate user rights, you can use this function to upload files to your wiki directly from remote server.

References: API:Upload#Uploading_from_URL

usergroups

Returns a list of the usergroups a user is in:

my @usergroups = $bot->usergroups('Mike.lifeguard');

References: API:Users

get_mw_version

Returns a hash ref with the MediaWiki version. The hash ref contains the keys major, minor, patch, and string. Returns undef on errors.

my $mw_version = $bot->get_mw_version;

# get version as string
my $mw_ver_as_string = $mw_version->{'major'} . '.' . $mw_version->{'minor'};
if(defined $mw_version->{'patch'}){
    $mw_ver_as_string .= '.' . $mw_version->{'patch'};
}

# or simply
my $mw_ver_as_string = $mw_version->{'string'};

References: API:Siteinfo

Options hashref

This is passed through to the lower-level interface MediaWiki::API, and is fully documented there.

The hashref can have 3 keys:

max

Specifies the maximum number of queries to retrieve data from the wiki. This is independent of the size of each query (how many items each query returns). Set to 0 to retrieve all the results.

hook

Specifies a coderef to a hook function that can be used to process large lists as they come in. When this is used, your subroutine will get the raw data. This is noted in cases where it is known to be significant. For example, when using a hook with top_edits(), you need to check whether the edit is the top edit yourself - your subroutine gets results as they come in, and before they're filtered.

skip_encoding

MediaWiki's API uses UTF-8 and any 8 bit character string parameters are encoded automatically by the API call. If your parameters are already in UTF-8 this will be detected and the encoding will be skipped. If your parameters for some reason contain UTF-8 data but no UTF-8 flag is set (i.e. you did not use the use utf8; pragma) you should prevent re-encoding by passing an option skip_encoding => 1. For example:

$category ="Cat\x{e9}gorie:moyen_fran\x{e7}ais"; # latin1 string
$bot->get_all_pages_in_category($category); # OK

$category = "Cat". pack("U", 0xe9)."gorie:moyen_fran".pack("U",0xe7)."ais"; # unicode string
$bot->get_all_pages_in_category($category); # OK

$category ="Cat\x{c3}\x{a9}gorie:moyen_fran\x{c3}\x{a7}ais"; # unicode data without utf-8 flag
# $bot->get_all_pages_in_category($category); # NOT OK
$bot->get_all_pages_in_category($category, { skip_encoding => 1 }); # OK

If you need this, it probably means you're doing something wrong. Feel free to ask for help.

ERROR HANDLING

All functions will return undef in any handled error situation. Further error data is stored in $bot->{error}->{code} and $bot->{error}->{details}.

Error codes are provided as constants in MediaWiki::Bot::Constants, and can also be imported through this module:

use MediaWiki::Bot qw(:constants);

AVAILABILITY

The project homepage is https://metacpan.org/module/MediaWiki::Bot.

The latest version of this module is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Visit http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ to find a CPAN site near you, or see https://metacpan.org/module/MediaWiki::Bot/.

SOURCE

The development version is on github at https://github.com/MediaWiki-Bot/MediaWiki-Bot and may be cloned from git://github.com/MediaWiki-Bot/MediaWiki-Bot.git

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

You can make new bug reports, and view existing ones, through the web interface at https://github.com/MediaWiki-Bot/MediaWiki-Bot/issues.

AUTHORS

Dan Collins <dcollins@cpan.org>
Mike.lifeguard <lifeguard@cpan.org>
Alex Rowe <alex.d.rowe@gmail.com>
Oleg Alexandrov <oleg.alexandrov@gmail.com>
jmax.code <jmax.code@gmail.com>
Stefan Petrea <stefan.petrea@gmail.com>
kc2aei <kc2aei@gmail.com>
bosborne@alum.mit.edu
Brian Obio <brianobio@gmail.com>
patch and bug report contributors

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software, licensed under:

The GNU General Public License, Version 3, June 2007

To install MediaWiki::Bot, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm MediaWiki::Bot

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install MediaWiki::Bot

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

	Global
`s`	Focus search bar
`?`	Bring up this help dialog

	GitHub
`g` `p`	Go to pull requests
`g` `i`	go to github issues (only if github is preferred repository)

	POD
`g` `a`	Go to author
`g` `c`	Go to changes
`g` `i`	Go to issues
`g` `d`	Go to dist
`g` `r`	Go to repository/SCM
`g` `s`	Go to source
`g` `b`	Go to file browse

	Search terms
module: (e.g. module:Plugin)
distribution: (e.g. distribution:Dancer auth)
author: (e.g. author:SONGMU Redis)
version: (e.g. version:1.00)

Take me over?

NAME

VERSION

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

METHODS

new

set_wiki

login

Single User Login

Basic authentication

Bot passwords

logout

edit

CAPTCHAs

move

get_history

get_history_step_by_step

get_text

get_id

get_pages

get_image

revert

undo

get_last

update_rc

recentchanges($wiki_hashref, $options_hashref)

what_links_here

list_transclusions

get_pages_in_category

get_all_pages_in_category

get_all_categories

linksearch

purge_page

get_namespace_names

image_usage

global_image_usage($image, $results, $filterlocal)

links_to_image

is_blocked

test_blocked

test_image_exists

get_pages_in_namespace

count_contributions

timed_count_contributions

last_active

recent_edit_to_page

get_users

was_blocked

test_block_hist

expandtemplates

get_allusers

db_to_domain

domain_to_db

diff

prefixindex

search

get_log

is_g_blocked

was_g_blocked

was_locked

get_protection

is_protected

patrol

email

top_edits

contributions

upload

upload_from_url

usergroups

get_mw_version

Options hashref

ERROR HANDLING

AVAILABILITY

SOURCE

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

AUTHORS

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Module Install Instructions