User:Kingpin13/WikiAlerter/Manual

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This is the User Manual for WikiAlerter. Please note that WikiAlerter is still only a Beta program, so a lot of the functions below remain untested. In particular PROD, AfD, and AIV need testing. All feedback is incredibly valuable. Thanks! - Kingpin¹³ (talk)

Getting started

Approval

Please ask Kingpin13 or another admin to approve you before you attempt to use the program. The list of approved users is at User:Kingpin13/WikiAlerter/users.css. Administrators may run the program, and will be approved automatically.

Downloading

Go to sourceforge to download WikiAlerter. You will also need to download dotnetwikibot, which WikiAlerter uses for some of its functions. Once you've downloaded the two projects, extract them both, and then place the DotNetWikiBot.dll file next to the WikiAlerter.exe file. Run WikiAlerter.exe.

Startup screen

Enter your user name and password. Select "import CSD file", and "create default settings". Then "begin startup". The program will log you in, then bring up an open file dialog. Browse to the .csd file which comes with the WikiAlerter download. The program should then load without further bother.

In future you should select "import settings". Only use the "create new CSD" if the current CSD file becomes outdated (see User:Kingpin13/WikiAlerter#CSD file for explanation).

Feel free to add the userbox to your page.

Using WikiAlerter

A screen shot of WikiAlerter, with labels for different functions.

After opening WikiAlerter be sure to log into the web browser control (select "proceed to start page" and then log in), this is required for marking pages as patrolled. And also prevents you from accidentally editing while logged out.

Browsing

The program allows for normal browsing, use buttons 1, 2 and 3 for back, forward and refresh. The navigation bar is hidden in the drop down list in the top right corner. Prefix your text with "?" (default) to do a Google Search, or "!" (default) to do a Wikipedia Search. Press enter to do the search within WikiAlerter's browser, or use the arrow button to open the url in the textbox in an external browser.

Deletion declining

Use button 4 to remove the CSD tag from a page, and notify the user who placed the tag. It brings up a separate dialog, where you can customise the warning for the CSD tagger, and the reason for the declination.

Page deletion (Admin only)

Button 5 brings up the deletion dialog. If the page is already marked for speedy deletion, then the default deletion reason is what ever the nominator used. Otherwise you can choose a different CSD, or a custom reason. If the page is already marked for deletion, and you choose a different CSD, then the "More>>" button gives you an option to warn the nominator that you used a different deletion reason than they did. WikiAlerter allows you to easily select multiple reasons for deletion.

AfD nominator

Button 6 brings up the AfD nominator wizard. This is designed to be an easy to use wizard to take you through the steps at WP:AFDHOWTO. It will tag the page, create the AfD page, log the page, and warn the creator.

PROD nominator

Button 7 is to propose an article for deletion. It requires a reason for deletion, and allows a custom user warning.

If the page is already proded, then the program will give you options for how to proceed. You can either second the prod, contest the prod, or (admin only) delete the page as an expired prod. To second the prod simply select "Second ProD", and enter an (optional) additional reason for deletion. To contest, press "Contest ProD" and enter an (optional) reason to keep, and the message to leave the tagger. To delete, press "Delete per ProD", and approve the deletion reason which will pop up.

Mark patrolled

Button 8 will mark the current page as patrolled, this is done automatically for you when you mark a page for deletion and (by default) when you add maintenance tags. The program can only mark pages for deletion if they are in the new page list (item 14) or you went to the page from Special:NewPages.

Block user

Button 9 reports the current user to AIV, with a custom reason.

List update

Button 10, when selected, continuously updates the page list (from Special:NewPages by default). The updater runs in a background thread, to provide quick updates without causing the program to freeze up.

Clear list

Button 11 clears the current page list. If the list updater is checked then it will repopulate immediately.

Alert box

Item 12, provides alerts, designed mainly for admin use, to notify of new pages in categories (such as Category:Attack pages for speedy deletion). This is disabled by default, so may just be a big white box which takes up some room .

CSD buttons

Buttons 13 are to mark pages for speedy deletion, and warn the creator of the deletion. Select the criterion you wish to mark the page as (mouse over for detailed explanation), and the program does the rest. Template parameters are entered via pop-up boxes, and if the CSD has a specific template (e.g. Db-person), this is chosen by the user, if set in the options (by default G4, G6, and A7 are checked).

Page list

Item 14 is a list of pages, from an optional source (new pages by default, other options are from custom categories, or the back of new page list). Unpatrolled pages show up with a yellow background, and patrolled ones with white, there is also an option to hide patrolled pages, see #Settings for customisation help.

Warning options

Item 15 provides some extra options for warning the creator. Leaving a custom message. Leaving {{firstarticle}}, which will start the message with {{firstarticle}} with the correct parameters. Or not leaving a warning at all. These options take effect when a CSD button (Item 13) is pressed.

Maintenance tagging

Item 16 is for adding maintenance templates to pages, including {{Notenglish}} and {{Stub}}. Select the templates you want to add from the list, and optionally enter a specific stub-type, or multiple specific stub-types. Use the "check" button to check if the stub template exists, or choose one from the drop down auto-complete list. Select "Apply Tags", and you will be prompted for any parameters used by the templates you've selected.

If using more than one template which is compatible with {{multipleissues}}, the program will automatically place them within {{multipleissues}}.

For {{notenglish}}, the program will also list the page at WP:PNT. It will prompt you for any additional comments you want to make.

User info

Item 17 displays information about the creator of the current page.

Random page

Button 18 makes the web browser navigate to a random page in the list (item 14).

Next page

Button 19 makes the web browser navigate to a next page in the list (item 14), the order the pages are in is from bottom to top.

Settings

To bring up the settings window, click the image of the screwdriver in the top right of the program.

Alerts

Use this to add or remove categories from the alert function. If alerts is enabled, then whenever a new page is added to one of the checked categories, an alert message will appear in the alertbox (item 12).

Browsing

This allows you the set the search prefixes (see #Browsing above), as well as where the links in the welcome page lead.

Edit summaries

This is used to set the edit summaries used in different functions, and the suffix used by the program. It also allows admins to change the default deletion reasons for ProD and CSD.

List

This is used to customise the page list (item 14). The page list can either be filled from the new pages, or from a number of categories. If using new pages, then you can patrol from the back of the log, hide patrolled pages, choose a namespace, and select how many pages should be shown at once. If using a category/categories, you simply choose which category/ies to fill the list from.

You can also set the colour and size of the items on the list.

Tagging

This allows you to choose when the program should ask for a sub-CSD. For example, if you added CSD G3 to this, then when you mark a page as G3 it will ask you to choose either {{Db-g3}} or {{Db-hoax}}. It also allows you to tell it which CSD templates need extra parameters. To add a new parameter, click "Add", enter the template which the parameter is for, and then the parameter name. You can also choose "autofill", this means the value of the parameter will be automatically set by the program when tagging (enter the auto-value in the second textbox). Otherwise an input box will ask for the value from the user when the template is used.

Maintenance

This allows you to set the maintenance templates which can be used by the program, the stub types which are in the auto complete list when tagging, and if the program should mark tagged pages as patrolled. To add a new template to the maintenance template list select "Add New...". Then enter the name of the template, whether it is added at the top or bottom of the pages, and the parameters it uses (in the autofill, {m} = month, {d} = day, and {y} = year). If the template is supported by {{multipleissues}}, then check "compatible with {{multipleissues}}", and enter the parameter text to use in the multipleissues template (e.g. "| POV = {m} {d}"). To change the stub-type list select "Edit stub types..." and add new stub-types by adding the template name to the text box, and selecting "+", or remove by selecting the type to remove, and pressing "-".

Warnings

This is for setting which warning to use when tagging a page under CSD, and the default warnings used by other functions. Each warning has the CSD it is used for, the name of the warning template (the warning has to be a template, although a custom warning can be used when tagging), whether the template needs signing, and the parameters used by that template. If you want the value of one the parameters to be the same as the value of one of the parameters used in the CSD template (e.g. the url parameter in the copyright violation warning should be the same as the url parameter in the {{Db-g12}} template), then select "autofill" and "corresponding", and then in the autofill textbox, enter the name of the parameter in the CSD template.

CCSD

When opening Change Criteria for Speedy Deletion (CCSD), the first thing to do is load the CSD file you want to change. You can type the file location, or browse to it. This file won't be saved over unless you request, so it doesn't matter if you mess up (and if you do accidentally save over the file, you can use WikiAlerter to create a new default CSD file. When you do this, the changes you have made using CCSD won't be integrated into the resulting file, so you will have to make any changes over. You can request changes to the default file from Kingpin13.

Adding a new CSD

Type "1" to add a new CSD. First enter the code, then the name of the main template (not a redirect), then the names of all the pages which redirect to that template, separate each template by pressing return, type finish once you're done (hope that Template:Finish doesn't redirect to your CSD template!). Next you enter the CSD deletion reason, followed by the default decline reason. Next, enter where the CSD should be inserted. Bear in mind that WikiAlerter sorts the CSDs by this through out the program (e.g. this defines the order of the CSD buttons, and the drop down list, etc.), sub-CSDs (e.g. {{Db-person}}) should be put after the main one (e.g. {{Db-a7}}). By default all the CSDs will be sorted neatly. Lastly you should confirm all details, make sure you have everything perfect, or it will result in poor edits.

Remove a CSD

Type "2" to remove a CSD. This is much easier than adding a CSD, you simply enter the location in the list of the CSD to delete. If you're not sure where the CSD you want to delete is located, see below.

View CSD

Type "3" to view the CSDs in the list. It gives to the integer location of each CSD (used in removing and moving CSDs), followed by the code and primary template. You can choose to view any one in further detail, by typing the integer location of the CSD you'd like to view. This will give you the additional details: Template redirects, explanation, and default decline reason. If you don't want to view any CSD in further detail, type "finish".

Moving a CSD

Type "4" to change the integer location of a CSD. First type the integer location of where it is currently, and then the new location (remember that the CSD at the current location is removed, so all CSDs after the old location will drop one).

Finishing off

If you're satisfied with your changes, type "0" to save the CSD file. You can save over the old file, or create a new one, WikiAlerter lets you browse to the CSD file you want to use for each session.

To exit CCSD, type "5", followed by "exit". Or use the X at the top right corner :).