WikiLink - The Mediawiki Interface

2008-07-11T23:17:58Z

RolcoAldel: lavarrelchi

boalroc
WikiLink is actually two separate things; firstly, a java class for interfacing with a mediawiki server, and secondly, a Mathematica package providing a wrapper around this. This page documents the Mathematica package, while the java class, and its addition functionality, will be documented elsewhere.

WikiLink is available as a standalone package, suitable for use with any Mediawiki installation, and is included in the [[KnotTheory`]] package.

====License====
<tt>WikiLink.nb</tt>, <tt>WikiLink.m</tt> and <tt>wikilink.jar</tt> are copyright Scott Morrison, available under your choice of the MIT, Apache or GPL licenses. The other components are copyright by other parties, all available under the Apache license.

====Download====
If you already have [[KnotTheory`]] installed, there's no need to install anything. The functionality of WikiLink is available as soon as you open KnotTheory`.

Otherwise, download [http://katlas.math.toronto.edu/svn/WikiLink/tags/stable/WikiLink.zip WikiLink.zip]. Unzip this anywhere you like. This will create a subdirectory called WikiLink, containing (at least) these files:
{| border=1
|-
!Filename
!Description
|-
| <tt>mathematica/WikiLink.nb</tt>
| The Mathematica notebook containing wrapper function definitions.
|-
| <tt>mathematica/WikiLink.m</tt>
| The Mathematica package automatically generated from <tt>WikiLink.nb</tt>.
|-
| <tt>wikilink.jar</tt>
| The WikiLink java classes and source code.
|-
|
<tt>jars/jdom.jar</tt> 
<tt>jars/commons-httpclient-3.0-rc2.jar</tt> 
<tt>jars/commons-codec-1.3.jar</tt> 
<tt>jars/commons-lang-2.1.jar</tt> 
<tt>jars/commons-logging.jar</tt> 
| Libraries (all available under either GPL or the Apache license) required by <tt>wikilink.jar</tt>
|}

====Importing the package in Mathematica====
If you're not using KnotTheory`, first, you'll need to set some paths, so WikiLink` can find the java files it needs. You need to add the "mathematica/" subdirectory of the WikiLink distribution to the Mathematica $Path.



{{In|
n = 1 |
in = <nowiki>WikiLinkPath = "/path/to/WikiLink/mathematica/";</nowiki>}}



{{In|
n = 2 |
in = <nowiki>AppendTo[$Path, WikiLinkPath];</nowiki>}}



{{In|
n = 3 |
in = <nowiki><<WikiLink`</nowiki>}}


If you've already loaded KnotTheory` (e.g., with the statement <code><<KnotTheory`</code>), you can simply begin at this point.

We then try to connect to the wiki. Executing this line will prompt you for a username and password.

{{In|
n = 6 |
in = <nowiki>CreateWikiConnection[
"http://katlas.math.toronto.edu/w/index.php",
InputString["Enter Your Username:"],
InputString["Enter Your Password:"]
]</nowiki>}}

The function <code>WikiUserName[]</code> checks that we're logged in


{{HelpLine|
n = 4 |
in = <nowiki>WikiUserName</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>WikiUserName[] returns either the name of the user you are logged in as, your IP address if you're not logged in, or $Failed if something more complicated has happened!</nowiki>}}



{{InOut|
n = 5 |
in = <nowiki>WikiUserName[]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>ScottManualRobot</nowiki>}}


====Usage====
WikiLink` provides functions for checking your login status, getting and setting pages, as well as transparently extending some of Mathematica's string manipulation functions to wiki pages.



{{HelpLine|
n = 6 |
in = <nowiki>WikiUserName</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>WikiUserName[] returns either the name of the user you are logged in as, your IP address if you're not logged in, or $Failed if something more complicated has happened!</nowiki>}}




{{HelpLine|
n = 7 |
in = <nowiki>WikiGetPageText</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>WikiGetPageText[pagename] returns the raw text of the specified page.</nowiki>}}



{{HelpLine|
n = 8 |
in = <nowiki>WikiSetPageText</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>WikiSetPageText[pagename, text] overwrites the contents of the specificied page with the given text.
WikiSetPageText[pagename, text, summary] overwrites the contents of the specificied page with the given text and notes summary in the change log.</nowiki>}}



{{HelpLine|
n = 9 |
in = <nowiki>WikiSetPageTexts</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>WikiSetPageText[{{pagename1, text1},{pagename2,text2},...}] efficiently sets multiple pages, by first checking which texts are already up to date.</nowiki>}}



{{HelpLine|
n = 10 |
in = <nowiki>WikiUploadFile</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>WikiUploadFile[name, description] uploads the specified file to the wiki.</nowiki>}}


Thus for example after


{{InOut|
n = 11 |
in = <nowiki>WikiSetPageText["Sandbox", "A robotic edit, at 19:39, 31-August-2005."]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>True</nowiki>}}

we get


{{InOut|
n = 12 |
in = <nowiki>WikiGetPageText["Sandbox"]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>A robotic edit, at 19:39, 31-August-2005.</nowiki>}}


The function <code>WikiSetPageTexts</code> is most useful for batch uploads, as it does considerably more error checking, and filters out edits which won't change the page text. It takes as argument a list of <code>{"title", "text"}</code> pairs, and returns a list of those pairs which failed.



{{InOut|
n = 13 |
in = <nowiki>WikiSetPageTexts[{{"Sandbox", "A robotic edit, by --~~"<>"~~"}, {"Sandbox2", "The determinant of the knot [[3_1]] is 3."}}]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>{}</nowiki>}}



{{InOut|
n = 14 |
in = <nowiki>WikiGetPageText["Sandbox2"]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>The determinant of the knot [[3_1]] is 3.</nowiki>}}


=====String manipulation functions=====
<code>WikiLink`</code> provides functions WikiPageMatchQ, WikiPageFreeQ, WikiStringReplace and WikiStringCases. Each function works likes its usual Mathematica partner,
[http://documents.wolfram.com/mathematica/functions/StringMatchQ StringMatchQ],
[http://documents.wolfram.com/mathematica/functions/StringFreeQ StringFreeQ],
[http://documents.wolfram.com/mathematica/functions/StringReplace StringReplace]
or [http://documents.wolfram.com/mathematica/functions/StringCases StringCases]. Instead of providing a string, or list of strings, as the first argument, you should give the name of a page, or a list of names.

You can use these to perform all sorts of editing tricks.



{{InOut|
n = 15 |
in = <nowiki>WikiPageMatchQ[{"Sandbox", "Sandbox2"}, "determinant"]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>{False, False}</nowiki>}}



{{InOut|
n = 16 |
in = <nowiki>WikiPageFreeQ[{"Sandbox", "Sandbox2"}, "[["~~(DigitCharacter..)~~"_"~~(DigitCharacter..)~~"]]"]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>{True, False}</nowiki>}}



{{InOut|
n = 17 |
in = <nowiki>WikiStringCases[{"Sandbox", "Sandbox2"}, "[["~~ShortestMatch[__]~~"]]"]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>{{Sandbox, {[[User:ScottManualRobot|ScottManualRobot]]}},

{Sandbox2, {[[3_1]]}}}</nowiki>}}



{{InOut|
n = 18 |
in = <nowiki>WikiStringReplace[{"Sandbox", "Sandbox2"}, "robotic edit"->"robotic edit (using WikiLink`)]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>$Failed</nowiki>}}



{{InOut|
n = 19 |
in = <nowiki>WikiGetPageTexts[{"Sandbox", "Sandbox2"}]</nowiki> |
out= <nowiki>{{Sandbox, A robotic edit, by\

--[[User:ScottManualRobot|ScottManualRobot]] 14:54, 18 Feb 2006\

(EST)}, {Sandbox2, The determinant of the knot [[3_1]] is 3.}}</nowiki>}}


====Troubleshooting====
The instruction <code>ShowJavaConsole[]</code> will bring up a window in which some debugging information is displayed.

====Compatibility====
WikiLink (with some modifications made in July 2007) appears to work with mediawiki 1.10.1. Bug reports appreciated!

WikiLink has been tested against mediawiki 1.4.5beta3 and 1.4.7.

WikiLink has known issues on mediawiki 1.5.0. Retrieving multiple pages at once is broken. This appears to be a mediawiki bug, and will not be fixed. The same problem does not occur on mediawiki 1.5.8. --[[User:Scott|Scott]] 10:56, 27 Mar 2006 (EST)

I expect WikiGetPage text to continue working in mediawiki 1.5 and beyond, because it uses the stable interface [[Special:Export]]. Logging in and setting pages will quite likely break in the next version. If you've tried this, please let me know about your experiences. I'm hoping that soon (1.5?) [[Special:Import]] will become available, and I can switch to using this. --[[User:Scott|Scott]] 15:57, 31 Aug 2005 (EDT)

====Todo====
I'd love to [http://ant.apache.org/manual/develop.html#writingowntask create an Ant task] which allows uploading a file to a wiki. We could then use this in build scripts for KnotTheory, etc. --[[User:Scott|Scott]] 04:07, 17 Sep 2005 (EDT)

====See Also====
All of the Mathematica notebooks in [[:Category:Knot Atlas Maintenance Software]] rely on WikiLink, and so are good examples of how to use it.

You may also be interested in the Wikipedia page on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bot mediawiki bots], and in particular the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywikipediabot/ Python Wikipedia Robot Framework].

Knot Atlas - User contributions [en]

WikiLink - The Mediawiki Interface