Contents

Wikipedia:AutoEd

User script that automates Wikipedia article cleanup

Warning: You take full responsibility for any action you perform using AutoEd. You must read and understand Wikipedia policies and use this tool within these policies, or risk being blocked from editing.

AutoEd (source) is a user script that helps to automatically make certain changes in articles. It also allows for easy design, use, and customization of user scripts related to automated article cleanup. It is based on CodeFixer, Plastikspork's script, and Formatter, but allows for further customization and the easier creation of new functions. It is currently maintained primarily by Plastikspork.

AutoEd should not be used to make edits that only remove whitespace or that make no change in the actual appearance of the article. Exceptions exist, such as fixes for syntax errors or removal of invisible characters; see WP:COSMETICBOT for details and links.

It is VERY easy to install AutoEd, and you don't need a shred of technical ability! If you can follow a recipe for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you can install this script. Instructions are below. If you get anxious, ask on the discussion page for help.

1. Sign into Wikipedia. (This feature is only available for registered users.)
2. Make sure your web browser supports JavaScript. Unless you are using a decades-old web browser or have explicitly ordered it to disable JavaScript, you don't need to do anything.
3. Go to your common.js page.
   • Expert users may wish to activate AutoEd only when a certain skin is active. So, instead they should go to the .js page corresponding to their current skin. See the "Appearance" tab of Special:Preferences for a list of all .js pages.
4. Click "Edit" or "Create" on the .js page.
5. Add one of the presets to the page and save it. To import all the "official" modules, add importScript('Wikipedia:AutoEd/complete.js');
   • If you want to use modules not included in presets, see § Customization, below.
   • To install the "complete" module on all wikis, import the following code to m:Special:MyPage/global.js: mw.loader.load('//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:AutoEd/complete.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript'); Make sure AutoEd's edits are in line with every wiki's own Manual of Style.
6. Go to any page you can edit. Under the "More" or "Tools" drop-down menu tab at the top of the article, you should see a new entry labeled "auto ed". This entry should be visible in both the viewing and editing modes. If you don't see it, bypass your cache or ask us for help.

This script can aid in making edits by using regular expressions to replace certain lines of text (typically errors) in articles with other, correct lines of text. The main setup creates a single tab at the top of the page entitled "auto ed". Clicking this tab will open the editform (if it isn't already open) and run the script, making various fixes depending on what modules you are using, and finally clicking the "diff" button so that you can see the changes. Right now the modules are very limited and customization isn't fully implemented, but the presets described below present an easy way to use the script without needing to know JavaScript or understanding the technical details of the script.

Customization[edit]

Wikipedia:AutoEd/Customization will contain details on how to customize this script and create new modules and presets. It is not yet completed, but currently contains some basic information about variables and choosing your own modules which may be useful.

wikEd[edit]

AutoEd is also compatible with wikEd. For it to function properly, however, you need to add the following to your monobook.js page. This disables the diff page from opening automatically, but at this time is required in order for AutoEd's changes to be made correctly in wikEd.

autoEdClick = false;

Although each user can customize AutoEd to fit their personal tastes, and can even use its core coding to help build other scripts, AutoEd has a number of "preset" customizations which can be used without any knowledge of JavaScript. So far the "basic", "wikichecker", "formatter", and "complete" presets have been created, although what they do will continue to expand and more presets can be created by any user or upon request.

To install a preset, just add the code given in each section to your monobook.js page (if you're using a different skin, you probably know what to do) and purge your cache by following the instructions on that page. The script should then be installed and ready for use; if it doesn't seem to be working, please mention this on the talk page so that we can try to fix it.

Basic[edit]

The "basic" preset serves to clean up various problems with wikitext, headlines, templates, and ISBNs.

importScript('Wikipedia:AutoEd/basic.js');

Once installed, the "auto ed" tab should appear on all non-talk pages. Clicking it will run the following fixes:

• HTML entities like Ö will be replaced with their unicode characters like Ö.
• Some headline names will be fixed to comply with the manual of style (e.g., "Weblinks" becomes "External links")
• HTML code like <i> or <h1> will be replaced with the equivalent wikitext.
• <br> HTML tags will be fixed to use correct HTML or XHTML syntax.
• A space will be added before the slash in <references /> so that it looks more like backward-compatible XHTML.[1]
• The unneeded "Template:" prefix will be removed from template names.
• Unicode control characters will be removed. These characters are hard to remove by hand because they are all "invisible," but they can cause problems and unnecessarily increase the page's size.
• Some wikilinks will be simplified. For example, [[dog|dogs]] becomes [[dog]]s. Wikilinks that link to the current article are also removed.
• Redirects to {{Reflist}} are changed to actually use the main {{Reflist}} template (this can help certain scripts which don't detect the redirects as being the same as the main template).
• Substituted {{Reflist}} templates are replaced with the non-substituted version.
• Bold text is removed from the beginning and end of headings; this is typically unnecessary formatting.
• Colons are removed from the end of headings; it is typically bad form to have a colon after the section name to "introduce" the section's main text.

If you want, you can view the code for this preset at Wikipedia:AutoEd/basic.js.

Formatter[edit]

This preset is designed to function as a replacement for the Formatter script, and it includes most all of the functions of that script, plus a few more.

importScript('Wikipedia:AutoEd/formatter.js');

This script features all of the functions of the basic script except for template and ISBN cleanup, along with the following:

• Whitespace is cleaned up.

It also differs from the basic version because the name of the tab at the top of the screen is changed to "format".

The code for this preset can be viewed at Wikipedia:AutoEd/formatter.js.

Wikichecker[edit]

This preset is designed to fix as many of the errors listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Check Wikipedia as is possible for a semi-automated script.

importScript('Wikipedia:AutoEd/wikichecker.js');

This script features all of the functions of the basic script along with the following:

• HTML tables will be converted to wikitables. This change often needs fine-tuning to make sure that there aren't any problems, which is why it isn't included in the basic script.
• <br> tags will be removed from the ends of image descriptions, wikilinks, and templates, and when they are at the end of lines in bulleted lists. This change can sometimes cause errors so more detailed manual checking is needed than with some fixes.

It also differs from the basic version because it provides a link in the automatic edit summary to the WikiProject Check Wikipedia page and the name of the tab at the top of the screen is changed to "check".

The code for this preset can be viewed at Wikipedia:AutoEd/wikichecker.js.

Complete[edit]

This preset does just what it sounds like it should: It contains most of the modules created for AutoEd.

importScript('Wikipedia:AutoEd/complete.js');

The code for this preset can be viewed at Wikipedia:AutoEd/complete.js.

Community[edit]

This table lists the core community "modules" available for use.

User[edit]

If you create new modules, feel free to add them onto this list alphabetically. If a module is in your userspace, please put your user name for "maintainer".

• Curlyfixer — substitutes curly quotation marks (and apostrophes) per MOS:STRAIGHT. Included in the "Complete" preset. Maintainer: Jerome Frank Disciple
• Dashes – reformats dashes per WP:MOSDASH. Maintainer: Ohconfucius, forked from GregU.

There is a customizable AutoEd userboxatWikipedia:AutoEd/Userbox, for those interested in such things.