WikiLink - The Mediawiki Interface

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

WikiLink.nb, WikiLink.m and wikilink.jar 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 WikiLink.zip. Unzip this anywhere you like. This will create a subdirectory called WikiLink, containing (at least) these files:

Filename	Description
`mathematica/WikiLink.nb`	The Mathematica notebook containing wrapper function definitions.
`mathematica/WikiLink.m`	The Mathematica package automatically generated from `WikiLink.nb`.
`wikilink.jar`	The WikiLink java classes and source code.
`jars/jdom.jar` `jars/commons-httpclient-3.0-rc2.jar` `jars/commons-codec-1.3.jar` `jars/commons-lang-2.1.jar` `jars/commons-logging.jar`	Libraries (all available under either GPL or the Apache license) required by `wikilink.jar`

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[1]:= WikiLinkPath = "/path/to/WikiLink/mathematica/";

In[2]:= AppendTo[$Path, WikiLinkPath];

In[3]:= <<WikiLink`

If you've already loaded KnotTheory` (e.g., with the statement <<KnotTheory`), 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[6]:= CreateWikiConnection[ "http://katlas.math.toronto.edu/w/index.php", InputString["Enter Your Username:"], InputString["Enter Your Password:"] ]

The function WikiUserName[] checks that we're logged in

In[4]:=	?WikiUserName
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!

`In[5]:=`	`WikiUserName[]`
`Out[5]=`	`ScottManualRobot`

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.

In[6]:=	?WikiUserName
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!

In[7]:=	?WikiGetPageText
WikiGetPageText[pagename] returns the raw text of the specified page.

In[8]:=	?WikiSetPageText
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.

In[9]:=	?WikiSetPageTexts
WikiSetPageText[{{pagename1, text1},{pagename2,text2},...}] efficiently sets multiple pages, by first checking which texts are already up to date.

In[10]:=	?WikiUploadFile
WikiUploadFile[name, description] uploads the specified file to the wiki.

Thus for example after

`In[11]:=`	`WikiSetPageText["Sandbox", "A robotic edit, at 19:39, 31-August-2005."]`
`Out[11]=`	`True`

we get

`In[12]:=`	`WikiGetPageText["Sandbox"]`
`Out[12]=`	`A robotic edit, at 19:39, 31-August-2005.`

The function WikiSetPageTexts 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 {"title", "text"} pairs, and returns a list of those pairs which failed.

`In[13]:=`	`WikiSetPageTexts[{{"Sandbox", "A robotic edit, by --~~"<>"~~"}, {"Sandbox2", "The determinant of the knot [[3_1]] is 3."}}]`
`Out[13]=`	`{}`

`In[14]:=`	`WikiGetPageText["Sandbox2"]`
`Out[14]=`	`The determinant of the knot [[3_1]] is 3.`

Troubleshooting

The instruction ShowJavaConsole[] will bring up a window in which some debugging information is displayed.

Compatibility

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. --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. --Scott 15:57, 31 Aug 2005 (EDT)

WikiLink - The Mediawiki Interface

Contents

License

Download

Importing the package in Mathematica

Usage

Troubleshooting

Compatibility

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