Small wiki toolkits/Starter kit/Bots and Tools
Bots
[edit]Bots are computer programs that help automate repetitive tasks on a wiki such as fixing content, identifying bad edits, cleaning up a Sandbox page, updating maintenance pages, etc.
List of useful bots
[edit]Bots listed on this page meet these criteria:
- Have a broad or deep impact
- Support the work of small wiki contributors
- Active & well-maintained
- Approved by the wiki community
- Holds a potential to create, grow or improve the content on a smaller wiki
About the data listed below:
- Edit count as recorded on English Wikipedia was last updated on this page on May 21, 2020.
- Bot roles were identified in a study on 1601+ Wikipedia bots.[1]
| Role | Bot name | Description | Edit count on English Wikipedia | Bot/Owner contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixer | InternetArchiveBot | Fixes dead links on wikis as well as inconsistencies in sources such as improper template usage, or invalid archives. | 4,255,429 | Cyberpower678 |
| Citation bot | Fixes citations on Wikipedia, including adding DOI, PMID, and ISBN to references, links to open access repositories, and fixing common formatting errors. | 823,443 | Citation bot | |
| CommonsDelinker | Removes links to files deleted at Wikimedia Commons, due to policy infractions. | 723,652 | CommonsDelinker | |
| AvicBot | Operates a series of tasks, including fixing double redirects, tagging pages, maintaining templates, links, and categories, etc. | 1,220,893 | Avicennasis | |
| Tagger | Yobot | Performs auto-tagging of article pages and assesses them into various projects. It categorizes individuals in categories concerning the year, date, and place of their birth & death, their profession, etc. | 4,692,988 | Magioladitis |
| Clerk & Archiver | Cyberbot I | Operates a series of tasks related to updating statistics in a few templates, cleaning up Sandbox, maintaining a list, etc. | 1,189,925 | Cyberpower678 |
| Protector | XLinkBot | Reverts links that are frequently misused by new and anonymous users. | 667,358 | Versageek & Beetstra |
| Monitoring | COIBot | Tries to track edits that are made by users who may have a conflict of interest and reporting on use of domains of external websites. | 1,337,561 | Beetstra |
| LiWa3 | Tracking of additions of links to external websites and basic statistics on use of domains (concerning additions reported through COIBot) | 0 | Beetstra | |
| Advisor | SuggestBot | Suggests Wikipedia contributors find articles to edit. | 184,051 | SuggestBot |
Guidelines for bots
[edit]- See mw:Manual:Creating a bot to get familiar with creating a new bot and dealing with issues around it. Note that exact guidelines to run a bot on a wiki depend on the local wiki (e.g., bot approval process).
- To explore the bots running on English Wikipedia, see list of bots ordered by the total number of edits. If you find a useful bot, you could enable it on your wiki.
- To enable a bot on your wiki:
- Reach out to the bot owner and ask if they already have a setup in place to support other wikis and would be willing to configure, host and maintain the bot for you. Note: If the bot owner cannot enable the bot for you due to their limited capacity, they might share some helpful getting started resources and tips that you could use in the next steps of the enabling process.
- Ensure that the bot is approved to run on your local wiki, well-maintained, and well-documented. See Bot policy for how to obtain bot access on a wiki.
- Configure the bot to meet your local wiki needs. This would require making simple or complex changes to the bot's source code. Most Wikimedia bots are open-source, you can find the link to download the code from the bot's documentation page.
- Host the bot on Wikimedia Toolforge. You could host the bot elsewhere, but if you decide to use Toolforge, make sure that the bot's modified version adheres to best practices for developing bots on Wikimedia Toolforge.
- Monitor the bot frequently and assure that it works as intended.
- Understand the bot's emergency shutdown procedure, and document it in the bot's documentation on your local wiki.
Tools
[edit]
Tools are software applications, external to wikis. They support Wikimedia developers, organizers, moderators, and editors in their work. Web based tools are often hosted on Toolforge.
Note: Unlike bots, tools typically do not require any installation or configuration process to start using them. Most of the tools listed below (except Huggle, which is a desktop tool that needs to be downloaded on a computer) are web tools and can be accessed directly in a web browser.
List of useful tools
[edit]Tools listed on this page meet these criteria:
- Have a broad or deep impact
- Support the work of small wiki contributors
- Active & well-maintained
- Holds a potential to create, grow or improve the content on a smaller wiki
| For | Tool name | Description | Link | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Developers | Wikidata Query Service | Helps run SPARQL queries to access Wikidata's content. | https://query.wikidata.org/ | |
| Quarry | Allows running SQL queries against Wikipedia & other databases. | https://quarry.wmflabs.org/ | ||
| PAWS | A Jupyter notebook deployment hosted by Wikimedia to allow creating and sharing documents that contain live code | https://hub-paws.wmcloud.org/hub/login | ||
| Editors | Citation Hunt | Helps discover missing citations in Wikipedia articles. | https://citationhunt.toolforge.org/ | |
| Content Translation tool | Generates an initial version of an article by translating an existing version from another language. | Access the tool from Special:ContentTranslation from Wikipedia in any language. | ||
| QuickStatements | Allows editing Wikidata items. | https://quickstatements.toolforge.org/ | ||
| Pageviews analysis | Provides analysis on page views and unique device statistics for Wikimedia wikis. | https://pageviews.toolforge.org | ||
| Moderators | XTools | Presents statistics related to administrators, users, and pages on Wikimedia wikis. | https://xtools.wmflabs.org/ | |
| Huggle | Desktop application that helps deal with vandalism and unconstructive edits on Wikimedia projects. Its use requires rollback permissions. | Huggle/Download | ||
| Organizers | Programs & Events Dashboard | Helps organizers manage and track Wikimedia programs (such as editathons and education courses around Wikipedia). | https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/ | |
| Wiki Loves | Set of tools for Wiki Loves Photo Competitions. | https://wikiloves.toolforge.org/ |
Guidelines for tools
[edit]- If you want to develop a new tool, see best practices for developing tools on Wikimedia Toolforge. You can use Toolforge to create, maintain and host your tools.
- To explore the tools that might be beneficial for your local wiki, see a list of tools hosted on Wikimedia Toolforge.
- See a list of Wikidata:Tools and Commons:Tools that you can use to work at Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons more quickly, comfortably and efficiently.
References
[edit]- ↑ Wikipedia bot roles https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/bots-that-make-wikipedia-work/