Forum:Making bots

I am curious, how are they exacly done? Where can i get and make one? EmperorZelos 20:29, March 25, 2010 (UTC)


 * Most folks use AutoWikiBrowser or Pywikipediabot as they're already established frameworks with various functions and scripts. More advanced users can run scripts against the API, but I don't know anything about that. -- 21:03, March 25, 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, what charitwo said. AutoWikiBrowser is a lot easier to get the hang on in my opinion, but there are alot more things you can do with pywikipedia. Though pywikipedia, lacks some good documentation pages, like you may find for AutoWikiBrowser. I would advice AWB for now.. --Lcawte 21:59, March 25, 2010 (UTC)
 * Most usage for the scripts of Pywikipedia is documented in the script themselves. Just execute it without any arguments and it will output the documentation. -- 22:27, March 25, 2010 (UTC)

I honestly haeve no clue how to use pywikipedia, its confusing. --EmperorZelos 23:04, March 25, 2010 (UTC)

Been trying to figure it out myself. Bunai82 20:21, March 30, 2010 (UTC)

I'm looking into pywikipedia to remove a whole bunch of pages from a category. I created a metalgear_family.py script but when I login I get WARNING: Token not found on metalgear:en. You will not be able to edit any page. Login failed. Wrong password or CAPTCHA answer? --Drawde83 04:43, March 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * I got that when trying to write my own family file. I'll give you an example Wikia one to help you out.. This one is for Brickipedia (lego.wikia.com) http://bricki.pastey.net/131257 --Lcawte 10:53, March 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * thanks that worked great --Drawde83 03:50, April 1, 2010 (UTC)
 * how do you revert all changes by a user? we have someone that has added a category to pages where it doesn't apply. but if I use remove it will take it out of all the pages where it does. --Drawde83 20:38, April 5, 2010 (UTC)

I'd really like a bot too, but it really requires some knowledge about it, it sucks that there's no decent program out there that people who don't know how it works could use. -- Light Daxter |  Talk  12:24, March 31, 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to see some kind of video tutorial. If one has better function than the other, I would like to use that one. Bunai82 21:37, March 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * Pywikipediabot would be a bit hard to make a video tutorial of because it changes slightly per operating system, and has soo many scripts to it.. AWB should be pretty easy though. I'll see what I can do next time I get on my window's laptop.. --Lcawte 21:48, March 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Though I would like to know what exactly is the difference between the two? Bunai82 14:53, April 1, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, for starters, AWB has a visual interface, where Pywikipediabot is just some scripts, in a folder that you have to have python installed, then run via Command Prompt/Terminal. --Lcawte 09:20, April 2, 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks again. Though it seems I will be doing things manual for quite a while, since this bot things seems confusing. If I do ever use one (AWB) I will need to track down some tutorials, since I work better with visual instructions. Bunai82 23:20, April 11, 2010 (UTC)

I decided to get the AWB and must say it's an amazingly useful program. Much thanks for showing me this :D -- Light Daxter |  Talk  05:34, April 12, 2010 (UTC)
 * Is it working like the pywikipediabot? I just need some detail, because I got articles and images to move. Bunai82 21:43, April 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * AWB has a full UI that help using it. I never use it to move thing around yet but i dont know why it wound't be able to do this. — TulipVorlax 13:38, April 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * To add to the discussion somewhat late, I always found PyWikipediaBot to have too much boilerplate nonsense to use. If you know Perl, I recommend the module MediaWiki::API. Surgo 20:58, April 18, 2010 (UTC)


 * I just installed and used the AWB using this account w:c:gintama:User:MS-RZ78-GINSAN. I was able to replace the templates in close to 200 pages (manually, no automated script since I dunno how to do it yet), GUI is user-friendly but most of the terms are currently still confusing for me. Also the 200+ edits are jamming up the w:c:gintama:Special:RecentChanges edit log, I have problems seeing other editors edts now :<. Was wondering whether there is a way to exclude them from the REcentChanges list? Gin-san (Talk) 06:25, April 19, 2010 (UTC)

Excluding an account from the Special:RecentChanges basically involves giving it a bot flag. Then, by default, it won't show the account's edits, except if "Show bot" is clicked. The 888th Avatar  (talk)  09:40, April 19, 2010 (UTC)

Forgot to ask, do you make a Bot on a seperate account with a seperate email? @Gin-san, what do you mean by "manually"? As in, you told the bot what to do, but didn't set it to auto? ;_; I wish there was a manual for this stuff. Bunai82 20:12, April 19, 2010 (UTC)


 * You don't have to "make a bot" on a separate account or even on a separate email, but many do so for convenience (and because that account can be bot flagged, resolving Special:RecentChanges flood). By "manually", I assume that Gin-san is referring to the default mode in AWB, where the user approves all edits and the software merely loads the next page in edit view with the text already changed. You can set AWB to make automated edits by going to the "bot" tab - there are options there to set it to automatic. The 888th Avatar   (talk)  23:20, April 19, 2010 (UTC)