Commons:Bots/Requests/JhealdBot

JhealdBot (talk · contribs)

Operator: Jheald (talk · contributions · Statistics · Recent activity · block log · User rights log · uploads · Global account information) (assign permissions)

Bot's tasks for which permission is being sought: To add a link to the NYPL Georeferencer for 2900 maps which have been georeferenced there, as per this diff [1]

Automatic or manually assisted: Automatic

Edit type (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): One time run; may run again in future, if more maps from the NYPL are either uploaded or georeferenced.

Maximum edit rate (e.g. edits per minute): Once every 5 seconds

Bot flag requested: (Y/N): Y
(though it would probably only be User:Fae's watchlist, if anybody's, that would be affected.)

Programming language(s): Perl

Jheald (talk) 08:43, 8 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

Could we import coordinates directly, so any map services could be used instead of NYPL site? --EugeneZelenko (talk) 14:11, 8 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
- @EugeneZelenko: Yes. There's an instance of the same map-warper program, which was in fact written by User:Chippyy, already now installed at http://warper.wmflabs.org/ There's a fairly straightforward API that can be used to pull all the data from NYPL, and install the map with the data on our own version of the software. This should happen soon.

However, there at least three reasons why it's still a good idea to link to the NYPL warper.

(1) It's a courtesy to link to the original site, which has made the images available.
(2) There's some discussion as to whether changes to better integrate the software, and give it a new more pretty look, should be implemented first, with our own version of the warper kept on ice, before mass rollout to the community. See the projected plan for next year with comments, and this thread on the Commons Wikimaps list.
(3) The addition of control points is a work in progress. After pulling the data, NYPL users may add more points and improve the georeferencing of the map. Our users should be able to find that better georeferenced map.

In fact, there is also a discussion about whether there is a case for designating a "master site" for each map, which users are directed to to make all georeferencing improvements, which we might then synchronise to periodically -- ie that we might turn off the option to improve the georeferencing here for some maps, and instead send users to NYPL or the BL or wherever is the 'home site' for that particular map. This is a somewhat controversial view however, and eg User:Susannaanas, who is leading the historic maps project, is not convinced by such a proposal.

So the answer to your question is yes, we can import the coordinates directly; but there is still a case for linking to the originating site. Jheald (talk) 16:43, 8 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Test edit failing with "Error code 0"

I don't understand it. The bot tells me it's logged in okay, retrieves the test page, makes the change to it (which looks fine in an editor); but then when it tries to make the edit, it goes away for several seconds, but then I get "Error code 0", and no edit is uploaded. The code looks about as simple as it could be,

   $bot->edit({
       page    => $page,
       assert  => 'user',
       text    => $text,
       summary => 'Add link to NYPL georeferencer. (Bot test).',
   });

But no edit is made, and no sign as to why it hasn't worked.

Can anyone spot what I'm doing wrong? I thought I was meant to make some test edits. Is it the system that is not allowing me? Or is there something I have slipped up with? Jheald (talk) 18:17, 8 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

- So now I've tried in Python with PyWikiBot, and it's sent me back a Captcha. wtf? It seems to have made the edit (diff) now I've given it the Captcha. But seriously, none of the wiki pages about bots warned me there might be a Captcha to have to solve. Jheald (talk) 22:23, 9 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, so the Captcha turns up because the Bot isn't autoconfirmed for the first 4 days; so in two more days this whole issue should go away. But I do think this is a point that should be flagged up in the page on creating a Bot account; because for many of us it may be a very long time (if ever) since we've been presented with a Captcha to make an ordinary edit.

Also it seems I may have been unlucky because the Captcha code in the version of the MediaWiki::Bot library I installed (v. 5.006000) had been being newly worked on, so I may have been caught by a regression there. Jheald (talk) 07:40, 10 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Test run completed successfully (now that the bot account is old enough to be autoconfirmed). Jheald (talk) 00:30, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Looks OK for me. On second thought, coordinates should be to Wikidata-for-Commons which is only in plans yet :-( --EugeneZelenko (talk) 14:27, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Imho the Bot should be approved only temporary because this is a one time run. --Steinsplitter (talk) 05:58, 18 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
If you wish. However (1) the georeferencing at NYPL is ongoing, so in 6 months time there may be more maps that should get this template; and (2) of the maps that have already been georeferenced, there are about 2000 maps for which it hasn't yet been possible to trace a Commons equivalent. User:Fae is hoping to look into this when he is back from vacation (see this on his talk page). It's possible some may not have been uploaded, either because they were duplicates; or because there was a glitch in the upload script; or because they simply still remain to be done. So for both of these reasons, it is likely that a bit more tagging with this template will be useful in future. Jheald (talk) 08:37, 18 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Jheald: could you point me to a test edit that inserts a coordinate template. I thought adding those as well was one of the points made above. --Dschwen (talk) 16:49, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Dschwen: It's not clear where the control-point data should be put. One could put extremal North/South/East/West values, but that wouldn't say how the map should be warped. At the moment, control-point data only lives with the map warper on labs, to which it can be added with rather a different API. So I'm not clear quite what you're asking for. Jheald (talk) 21:09, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well, rather than control point data it might be useful to just use one of our location templates to get the map into the coordinate database (center point with a dim parameter maybe for the approximate extent of the map). The warper link should still be there as the next tier of geocoding. --Dschwen (talk) 22:41, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, but let me add the NYPL links because that's easy, then I'll think how to add the centre-point. I probably ought to discuss with the c:Commons:Wikimaps group, who probably have thoughts about this. Jheald (talk) 23:52, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough. I think we should approve this bot now to allow Jheald to carry on with his work. The location task can easily done with a secondary bot run. --Dschwen (talk) 14:50, 21 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Approved. --Dschwen (talk) 21:05, 10 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]