MassEdit is a task automation and bulk editing tool written in ES5-compliant JavaScript. Its development was inspired by a desire to make the bulk editing capabilities of dedicated bot software like AutoWikiBrowser and Pywikibot and the in-editor capabilities of FindAndReplace more readily available to the average contributor.
Run as an in-browser application, MassEdit provides users with the ability to automate otherwise tedious editing and upkeep tasks. It can create a new set of pages (articles, templates, categories, et cetera), add or remove content from existing pages, categorize or recategorize pages in bulk, find-and-replace select content from pages at will, message users, generate lists of member pages belonging to categories or namespaces, or generate listings of pages transcluding certain templates. In addition to providing a listing of loose pages, users may also input the names of categories or namespaces to edit their respective member pages in bulk.
As of its most recent updates, the script employs a number of other external dependencies similarly housed on Dev. In addition to those loaded by default in MediaWiki, MassEdit makes use of Modal.js, Placement.js, I18n-js, Colors.js, and WgMessageWallsExist for the purposes of standardizing modal design and providing more comprehensive i18n support. Due to the potential for abuse in the form of vandalism or spam, the application can only be used by high-level local staff (i.e. admins, moderators, and bots) and assorted global groups.
Installation
Configuration
Certain elements of the MassEdit script may be configured to its users' liking via the inclusion of a window variable named window.MassEditConfig. Though users are free to adjust the interval at which the script edits pages, rates faster than the limits imposed on users and bots will be adjusted to the internal maximum intervals of 1500 ms for users and 750 ms for bots. Users may also modify the default placement of the "MassEdit" button used to open the modal and begin use of the script. As this script supports all of Placement.js's approved element locations, users may list any supported placement location as MassEdit's default button location; see Placement's approved locations for details.
An example config object is displayed below:
window.MassEditConfig = {
interval: 2500,
placement: {
element: "toolbar",
type: "append"
}
};
| Variables | Data Type | Default value(s) |
|---|---|---|
interval
|
Number | 1500 (750 for bots)
|
placement.element
|
String | "tools"
|
placement.type
|
String | "prepend"
|
General usage
In addition to the standard usage of the "prepend" and "append" options to edit content of existing pages, these options may be used interchangeably to create a set of new pages based on the inputted values of the pages text area. Selecting either option and inputting page titles of nonexistent pages creates these pages automatically, allowing for a quick and efficient means of publishing new articles from a template or text extract.
Furthermore, though the find-and-replace function may be used as intended to locate and replace wikitext, HTML, or plaintext from existing articles, it may also be used to remove content from pages. Leaving the "New Content" field blank is counted as an empty string, allowing for the removal of the content of the "Target Content" field from the articles in question.
Users are also provided with the ability to edit/delete/replace content from pages in a set of inputted categories. Selecting the "Categories" dropdown option and including the names of the categories in the textarea edits all extant pages currently in the category. (Note: Category titles may be included as Category:Example Category or simply as Example Category.)
In addition to the above category-based editing, users may also edit pages belonging to certain legitimate namespaces, separating individual namespace numbers (0 for main namespace, 4 for Project namespace, etc.) by line breaks, as per standard usage instructions.
Users may also use the listing generation functionality to collate listings of pages transcluding selected templates. As with categories and namespaces, multiple embedded templates may be included as input on separate lines, with all duplicate entries making use of several input templates removed prior to sorting and display.
Changelog
- 04-10-21
- UCP update 4; removal of legacy MW 1.19 code, reinstitution of limited messaging functionality for UCP Message Walls
- 20-10-20
- Patch to address Fandom-side API bug related to comment section protection on UCP wikis
- 20-09-20
- UCP update 3; bug fixes to
ModalButtonenable/disable toggling, adjustments to modal assembly mechanism - 26-08-20
- UCP update 2: addition of Colors dependency, further updates to make basic functionality available on UCP wikis
- 05-07-20
- Improvements to dependency loader
init.load, minor bug fixes - 01-07-20
- Initial experiments in drafting extendable, UCP-friendly dependency-loading framework, pending UCPification of Dev dependencies or importation of legacy functionality like
importArticle(s)and ResourceLoader modules likeext.wikia.LinkSuggest - 27-06-20
- Organizational restructuring for enhanced readability, improvements to module/dependency loading, addition of
exportsobject towindow.dev.massEditto expose public debugging methods, minor bug fixes to user messaging functionality - 18-06-20
- Minor patching to handle ArticleComments extension edge cases, addition of
TESTINGconstant for testing API methods without actually editing page content - 28-05-20
- Refactor of find-and-replace functionality to accept user-input regex; refactor of scene-generation mechanism to lazy-initialize interfaces only when needed; addition of
localStoragecaching for scenes - 03-04-20
- Addition of functionality to generate listings of template transclusions via Embeddedin; addition of functionality to remove duplicate entries from listings prior to Quicksorting
- 08-10-19
- Expansion using WgMessageWallsExist to offer mass-messaging functionality; addition of category member page generation functionality per MassNullEdit; modal redesign and code expansion/alterations
- 20-09-19
- Addition of functionality to replace only specific occurrences of a replacement target; addition of case sensitive/insensitive matching for find-and-replace; minor code alterations
- 18-09-19
- Minor rewrite using Placement and Modal; addition of rudimentary pause/resume functionality,
query-continuehandling for categories/namespaces containing over 5000 member pages, and jQuerylinksuggest. - 24-05-18
- Removal of static config-based edit summary in favor of modal-based summary textbox; assorted cosmetic and improper input behavior fixes
- 17-04-18
- Addition of namespace-based editing/find-and-replace function
- 12-04-18
- Addition of category-based editing/find-and-replace function
- 07-01-18
- Addition of find-and-replace function for set of pages; improved/expanded error handling for nonexistent pages, empty input fields, and pages without target text; general cleanup
- 18-12-17
- Retrofitting of I18n-js, addition of "find-and-delete" option, addition of config options, cleanup
- 06-02-17
- Revision of regex, removal of character limit
- 05-02-17
- Initial revision