This page describes a script. In general, it refers to the script in its current form, but pywikpedia coders tend only to add functions, not take them away. Chances are that you'll be able to use most of the information on the page, regardless of the age of your installation.
| Watchlist.py | ||
|---|---|---|
| Creator: | Daniel Herding
Pywikipedia team | |
| Code location: | mediawiki repository | |
| What it does: | Produces your bot account's watchlist | |
| Complexity: | Basic | |
| Applicability: | all MediaWiki installations | |
Watchlist.py is a script that either lists your bot account's current watchlist — in Wikia terms, the list of pages that your bot is following — on cmd, or, with Mackintosh computers, saves it in a folder called "watchlists" within the pywikipedia folder. It thus has different functionalities depending on the operating system.
Syntax[]
The syntax for this script is:
python watchlist.py
This will produce a watchlist file for the current wiki.
Parameters[]
| Name | Function |
|---|---|
| -all | reloads watchlists for all wikis where a watchlist is already present |
| -new | loads watchlists for all wikis referenced in user-config.py; if you use your bot account on several different wikis, this parameter will look at your watchlist on all those wikis |
Use cases[]
No actual use cases are known, or even imaginable.
Sample output[]
Windows[]
On a Windows machine, output is given within the cmd box itself, in the format:
STDOUT: Alonso Frame STDOUT: Terence Woodfield STDOUT: Skutloid STDOUT: Shur STDOUT: Amaryll
OS X[]
In Apple systems, output is in a separate file in a folder called "Watchlists" in the pywikipedia folder. It uses an even more unusual, but at least regular, format:
(lp0 VAlonso Frame p1 aVTerence Woodfield p2 aVSkutloid p3 aVShur p4 aVAmaryll p5
As can be seen, the letters aV appear before every entry, except for the first one, and the page numbers appear underneath. Why this format obtains is unclear.
It's also uncertain why, on Mac systems, the resultant file has a .dat extension. This is usually associated with video files, so Mac users have to force target the opening application to be something like TextEdit.
The utility of this list is therefore obscure. It doesn't even help you manage your watchlist, which can be more effectively done at Special:EditWatchlist/raw.