Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser - Wikipedia
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Semi-automated editing tool
AutoWikiBrowser 6.4.0.0
Introduction and rules
User manual
How to use AWB
Discussion
Discuss AWB, report errors, and request features
User tasks
Request or help with AWB-able tasks
Technical
Technical documentation
Changelog
Developer discussion
Modules
Regular expressions
Sandbox
Template redirects
Typos
Usage stats
Userbox
Edits made using this software are the responsibility of the editor using it. This software only assists a human editor, unless the account is clearly marked as a bot.
Shortcuts
WP:AWB
WP:AWB
WP:AUTOWB
WP:AUTOWB
You take
full responsibility for any actions taken
using AutoWikiBrowser. You must read and abide by all relevant
Wikipedia policies
when using this tool; failure to do so may result in you losing access to the tool or being
blocked from editing
AutoWikiBrowser
Original author
Bluemoose
(retired)
Developers
Magioladitis
Reedy
Rjwilmsi
Kingboyk
Stable release
6.4.0.0 (February 19, 2025
2025-02-19
[±]
Preview release
SVN
(SVN)
[±]
Written in
C#
Operating system
Windows Vista
and later
Platform
.NET
framework
Available in
Type
Wikipedia tool
License
GPL v2
Website
sourceforge
.net
/projects
/autowikibrowser
Repository
sourceforge
.net
/p
/autowikibrowser
/code
/HEAD
/tree
AutoWikiBrowser
2020
Coolest Tool
Award Winner
in the category
Editor
AutoWikiBrowser
AWB
) is a semi-automated
MediaWiki
editor designed to make tedious or repetitive editing tasks quicker and easier. It is a
.NET
desktop application
which includes a browser capable of processing a user-generated list of pages to modify. For each page, AWB presents proposed changes for implementation, then moves to the next page in the list after the user confirms or skips the changes. When configured to do so, it can also suggest incidental changes, such as formatting adjustments, alongside the main edits.
AWB is developed for
Windows
operating system versions from
Vista
onward. While it also functions reasonably well under
Wine
on
macOS
and certain
Linux
distributions, these platforms are not officially supported.
AWB can generate a list of pages from a variety of sources, including single or multiple categories, "
What links here
",
wikilinks
on a page, a text file, a Google search, a user's
watchlist
, or a user's contributions. It also includes a
Database Scanner
for searching Wikipedia
database dumps
. Additionally, its edit box supports the Microsoft
Text Services Framework
, enabling functionality with speech recognition and handwriting applications.
The sources are available under the
GPLv2
(see
Documentation
page). It is written in
C#
using Microsoft Visual C# Express Edition/
Visual Studio
(now called "Community Edition"), which is freely available at
Microsoft downloads
There is an AWB
IRC
channel at
#AutoWikiBrowser
connect
Usergroup
No. approved
Admins
All (811)
Bots
77
Users
1,666
Rules of use
See also:
Wikipedia:Bot policy § Bot-like editing
Shortcut
WP:AWBRULES
WP:AWBRULES
You are responsible for every edit made.
You are expected to review every edit, just as if you were making an edit using Wikipedia's edit form when editing by hand. Do not sacrifice quality for speed, and review all changes before saving.
Abide by all Wikipedia guidelines, policies and common practices.
Do not make controversial edits with it.
Seek consensus for changes that could be controversial at the appropriate venue; village pump, WikiProject, etc. "Being bold" is not a justification for mass editing lacking demonstrable consensus. If challenged, the onus is on the AWB operator to demonstrate or achieve
consensus
for changes they wish to make on a large scale.
Do not make insignificant or inconsequential edits.
An edit that has no noticeable effect on the rendered page is generally considered an insignificant edit. If in doubt, or if other editors object to edits on the basis of this rule, seek consensus at an appropriate venue before making further similar edits.
Repeated abuse of these rules could result, without warning, in your software being disabled. If you wish to run a bot, see
Wikipedia:Bots
; bots must be approved by the bot approvals group.
Using this software
(1) Register
Shortcut
WP:AWBCRITERIA
WP:AWBCRITERIA
Request permission at
Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/AutoWikiBrowser
if you would like to use the software. Once your username is added to the list on the
check page JSON
, you can then use AutoWikiBrowser on the English Wikipedia.
Anyone can be registered, but only if an admin approves your registration. As a general rule, only users with more than
250 non-automated
mainspace
edits
or
500 total mainspace edits
will be registered. You can check your non-automated contributions on
XTools
. You will probably not be contacted when your registration has been approved, so look at the check page periodically for your name or watchlist the page. Admin accounts are automatically approved for using the software, even without being registered. Admins and other users with
pseudo-bot or flooder
(not available on the English Wikipedia) will still need to be added into the bots section (
enabledbots
) of the CheckPageJSON to be able to use the Bots tab.
If you are planning to use only the "Make list" or "List comparer" options, then there is no need to register. These parts of the software do not prompt for a username or check the account permissions.
(2) Download
Download the release version
here
. Please ensure that you click on the correct download button on the SourceForge page, as there may be more than one. The correct button is green and inside the box containing the description, just above the screenshots.
A newer pre-release version (snapshot) may be available
here
If you want to run the latest SVN version (by building it yourself), see
Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Sources
Running on Windows
AutoWikiBrowser requires
Windows Vista
or newer to edit on Wikimedia wikis; it no longer supports
Windows XP
and versions of the tool that support XP can no longer be used on Wikimedia. They may work on other wikis, though.
AWB comes in a zip file, and it is recommended that it be unzipped to a new directory, rather than running, for example, straight from the desktop. AWB is not installed on the PC and runs mostly as a standalone application: AutoWikiBrowser.exe (the provided WikiFunctions.dll file is also required).
On most versions of Windows, you should first "unblock" the zip file. Right-click on the file and select "Properties". If there is a checkbox at the bottom of the page labeled "Unblock" then click the checkbox and click "OK". AWB can then be unzipped to any directory; however, on some machines there can be permissions problems that stop AWB working correctly if the directory used is on a network drive. If you're unsure, unzip AWB to somewhere on the machine's C: drive, for example, within "Downloads".
Running on Linux or Mac
AWB running on
Ubuntu
Linux 16.10
Main page:
Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Mono and Wine
On
Linux
, AWB mostly works with
Wine
with .NET 4.5 installed and is suitable for use for regular editing. The installation process is the same as
Wikipedia:Huggle/Wine
AWB can also be started on
Mono
, albeit with some strange errors, and the web browser component does not yet work under Mono. AWB under Mono is not yet suitable for use for regular editing.
On
macOS
, AWB is not natively available, but one option is to use
virtualization
with software such as
Parallels Desktop
VMware Fusion
, or
VirtualBox
and then run
Microsoft Windows
virtually with AWB as per the Windows instructions above. A paid license is required for both Parallels Desktop and Microsoft Windows, though VirtualBox is
free and open-source software
and VMware Fusion provides a freeware version. Another option is to use
Boot Camp
to install Windows on an Intel-based Mac, although this is not available on Macs with
Apple Silicon
(to check if your computer is Apple Silicon based, please see this
Apple Support article
). AWB can also be used under Wine on a Mac. A package manager such as
Homebrew
can be used to install Wine; see
Wine on a Mac using homebrew
. However, AWB has not been compiled for ARM (Wine has been) so AWB won't run natively on Apple Silicon.
Alternatively,
JavaScript Wiki Browser
may be used on any major operating system in web browsers.
(3) Get started
A default screen arrangement for standard AWB editing
A dual-monitor screen arrangement for more complex AWB diffs
See also:
Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/User manual
Select "Make from Category", then enter a category name.
Click "Make list", then let the list load up.
Set any options, such as find and replace, edit summary, etc.
Click "Start", it will load up the page, automatically make any changes, and then go to the diff.
Change anything in the page you want in the Edit box on the lower right, not the normal website textbox in the browser, then click "Save" or "Skip / Ignore", the next page will load up automatically.
Refer to the
FAQ
for more information, including problems with other software and Wikipedia skins.
Features
AutoWikiBrowser's main feature is to easily make the same type of edit to a large number of pages. For example, fixing a typo, adding a navbox, or adding a category to dozens or hundreds of pages.
Create a list of pages, files, categories to run edits on. Criteria for list building include:
CheckWiki
errors
items in category
Google search results
links or categories on target page
links or a simple list of titles in a text file
watchlist contents
special page
results
pages that link, transclude or redirect to target
Wikipedia search results
Search and replace wikitext – plain text or
regular expressions
Add material to the beginning or end of each page
Add, remove, or replace categories and files
Rules-based page skipping
Custom user scripts
AutoWikiBrowser also has some other features.
Make list articles
Offline database scanner
Automatic fixes of common issues
Database scanner
See also:
Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Database Scanner
AWB includes a database scanner that scans versions of Wikipedia downloaded to your local computer. It can be used to search wikitext, without causing extra unnecessary load on Wikimedia servers. This is useful for building lists of titles to perform AutoWikiBrowser tasks on, and for performing searches that would time out on-wiki searches. The scanner supports
regular expression
searches and users can run multiple instances at once.
Database dumps are created from time to time (more info
here
) and are available for free download. As the page states, the best/most useful dump is the
enwiki-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2
dir
). Visiting the
database dump progress site
allows you to view the status of the current dump and easily browse to the downloads in it.
After downloading, the archive needs to be uncompressed; this will turn it from a ~22 GB
bz2
archive into an
XML
database dump around 100 GB.
A scannable .xml file of selected files can also be generated by visiting
Special:Export
Scripting
Custom modules
Main page:
Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Custom Modules
AWB allows you to write your own C# or VB.NET code and execute it inside the program, via Custom Modules. This can be accessed via Tools -> Make module.
Plugins
Main page:
Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Plugins
AWB can also load and use fully customized
plugins
. These plugins can process page text and extend the user interface, and are in the form of libraries (.dll files) which can be made in any .NET language such as
C#
or
Visual Basic .NET
. When AWB loads, it automatically checks to see if there are any plugins in the folder from which it was executed. Any plugins found are loaded and initialized without further intervention by the user.
AWB ships with WikiFunctions.dll, which can be referenced by other standalone projects. The DLL includes a wiki-ready web browser control, a simple page editor, a listmaker, and other tools and components.
See also
Free and open-source software portal
JavaScript Wiki Browser
– A user script with similar functionality to the downloadable AutoWikiBrowser, but loaded within the web browser
JavaScript Wiki Browser in toolbar
– Installs the above script, then puts the link to the script in the toolbar for easy access
wAwB
– A script inspired by JWB and AWB, featuring regex and JavaScript find-and-replace rules, granular protections and targeting of various wikitext elements, and a full-fledged
CodeMirror editor
AutoEd
– A user script that helps to automatically make certain changes in articles
autoFormatter
– A user script that semi-automatically fixes more than 200 common errors in wiki markup
WPCleaner
– A tool designed to help with various maintenance tasks, especially repairing links to disambiguation pages, checking Wikipedia, fixing spelling and typography
Wikiget
– A Unix command-line tool to generate a list of articles from categories, templates, backlinks, etc.
WP:HIDEAWB
– Instructions on how to hide AWB edits from your watchlist.
{{
AWB topicon
}}
– a
top icon
template to indicate you have the AutoWikiBrowser user right – adds a category to page automatically
Category:AutoWikiBrowser user templates
– Userboxes to show AutoWikiBrowser userright (e.g.
{{
Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Userbox 2
}}
generates the userbox below
Wikipedia:Using AWB with 2FA
Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Userbox 2
External links
This page is referenced in the
Wikipedia Glossary
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
AutoWikiBrowser
Project home on SourceForge
Browsing the source code on SourceForge
Regular Expression Language Elements
from the .NET Framework Developer's Guide in the online documentation of Microsoft
Automated and semi-automated editing tools
AfC helper script
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Inactive
igloo
STiki
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igloo
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See also:
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