Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Seedbot2

The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. The result of the discussion was Withdrawn by operator.

[edit] Seedbot2

tasks • contribs • count • sul • logs • page moves • block user • block log • flag log • flag bot

Operator: S

Automatic or Manually Assisted: Automatic. Supervised for task #1, unsupervised after trial for task #2.

Programming Language(s): Python; good old Perl, if Python gives me any trouble

Function Summary:

1. Generic maintenance, including fixing double redirects
2. Updating the NYT links at the bottom of Wikicalendar articles once a day

Edit period(s) (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): On demand for task #1; daily for task #2.

Edit rate requested: 8 edits per minute should be more than enough for the maintenance stuff and 1 edit per day tops for the Wikicalendar thing

Already has a bot flag (Y/N): No.

Function Details: Task number 1 involves generic maintenance, including fixing double redirects. I figure this is pretty straightforward since Seedbot is already approved for these very tasks (please see this BRFA).

Task number 2 is based on this request and involves updating the New York Times links at the bottom of Wikicalendar articles. The bot's design is pretty simple: get the current date and check whether the NYT article for that day and for the next 3-7 days is online yet. If it is, update the link to point to the 2007 version of the article. If it's not, sleep. Rinse, lather, repeat the next day.

The reason I'm not doing this under my regular bot account is simply that this will be run on a topologically different machine (a few hundered miles away from my regular box) and I simply don't like to share passwords across machines (what can I say, I used to be a network guy ;). -- S ^up? 07:56, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion

• Task1 Speedily Approved (contigent on Task 2 being approved, otherwise no need for this bot) as identical to other bot. — xaosflux ^Talk 23:10, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
• Task2 Couldn't this be done by replacing that link with variables utilizing date math? — xaosflux ^Talk 23:10, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Approved for trial. In the event it can't go ahead and run a trial of this function, up to 25 edits, and report back here. — xaosflux ^Talk 23:10, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Unfortunately, using magic words wouldn't work as the NYT links for the current year only go online somewhere between three and seven days before the actual date (based on my observations, the time frame seems to differ). --S ^up? 23:32, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure why it wouldn't work if you had a template that used parser functions to determine if it was too early or too late. See User:Madman bum and angel/Sandbox for an example, noting how the link changes once the date is in the past/present. — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 02:06, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Well... thanks. :) I briefly considered using a template for this task when I saw the bot request but then dismissed that possibility (very much prematurely, as it seems) on account of being pretty familiar with Perl but never even having so much as looked at a template parser function for more than a few minutes. I have to say I really like this: it obviously doesn't check if the webserver gives a 404 but that's hardly necessary when we're just dealing with the current date and, well, it's elegant. Thank you very much. I really appreciate the help. Also, please consider this BRFA Withdrawn by operator.. S ^up? 10:55, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.