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 Approved.

Operator: Happy‑melon

Automatic or Manually Assisted: Supervised automatic

Programming Language(s): Pywiki

Function Summary: Updating ((Infobox rugby league biography))

Edit period(s) (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): One-time-run

Already has a bot flag (Y/N): Y

Function Details: Per this request at Wikipedia:BOTREQ, I've struggled through the necessary code for this and it's finally ready to go for a spin. SpecialWindler has adapted the infobox itself such that it will display correctly in both syntaxes. Happy‑melon 12:48, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Approved for trial (50 edits). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete. No objection given at the botreq page. Looks pretty straightforward. – Quadell ^(talk) 13:19, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think this is intended behaviour, is it? – Quadell ^(talk) 20:34, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think it is! It's an extremely complicated transformation. I'm waiting on a response from SpecialWindler on the first five edits. It looks like the template needs some modification to hide undefined parameters (or else someone's going to have to find a lot of data pretty damn quickly!), but as far as I can tell, it's transforming the data that is there in line with the specification given. Happy‑melon 21:10, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, okay. I'm just a little nervous about Wikipedia:WikiProject Rugby league storming over with complaints of "Why did you approve of a bot that ruined our articles?!?" You know how aggressive Rugby guys can be. I'm glad to see Windler's note here, which I added to. – Quadell ^(talk) 21:48, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A few quick problems, can we retain the "dateofbirth", "height", "weight" and can "pcupdate" be kept but the parameter name change to "updated". Also can "cityofbirth" and "countryofbirth" be merged (in respective order and an added comma after city of birth parameter) into a new parameter "placeofbirth".

Also, this is optional, but will allow us to enter data more easily. In between the parameters "appearancesX" and "pointsX" where X represents an number or letter, can you add empty parameters entitled "triesX", "goalsX", "fieldgoalsX". One after another. That would be greatly appreciated.

In reference to the nervous comment by Quadell, the ongoing discussion on the Rugby league WikiProject talk page is what content should go in there (such as heights, weights, whether or not youth teams should go in there or not.). The point of the bot is to convert the current data to the new format, unanimous decisions by the WikiProject was to change the format to that of a sandboxed version.

Otherwise, the bot is going well. Thanks for your efforts, Happy-melon.  The Windler talk  00:17, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The empty parameters, are supposed to be entered later, as new data for the infobox. I've never tested it without data in there so I'm sorry that it is doing that. I'll be finxing it soon.  The Windler talk  00:18, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually this seems to have done it, as requested above. So that should be the solution to the problem, and will allow data to be entered much easily.  The Windler talk  00:24, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, that's definitely the problem. If any field "appearancesX" is used, the infobox requires all other "X" labelled fields to be included, whether they contain any information or not.

I do have a couple of requests, although they're not entirely critical so don't worry too much about it if you don't have the time. One, can the space between a field name and the "=" be reduced to one space, e.g. "|club5 =" instead of "|club5 = ". Secondly, would it be possible to remove "A" fields appearing on new infoboxes unless they are actually being used? See [1]. Most appreciated and many thanks for helping us out on this one. You've saved a lot of people a lot of time. MDM (talk) 00:57, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looking through it seems that alot of fields are not displaying in the limited test mode on the five or so players that the bot changed. Obviously we are holding fire until those issues are resolved, else we would be giving ourselves a hell of alot of work to do manually.  CorleoneSerpicoMontana  11:56, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have a couple of questions regarding the comments above:

1. Do the |height= and |weight= parameters supercede the |height(m)= / |height(ft)= and |weight(kg)= / |weight(lb)= / |weight(st)= parameters mentioned in the original specification? Which parameters should be included blank if no heights and/or weights are already specified in the wikicode? Similarly for |dateofbirth= verses |dayofbirth=, |monthofbirth=, etc.

The "height" and "weight" parameters, will overide the more preferred ones. I aven't checked the "dateofbirth" one yet, so. Give me a minute.  The Windler talk  22:32, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, it should work, if the "dateofbirth" and "dateofdeath" are used. These bits arne't the most important part of the infobox, so we'll convert it later.  The Windler talk  22:34, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

1. The use of code to balance the number of spaces to align the equals signs is common practice and many people believe that it makes infoboxes much easier to read. Is there any specific reason why you don't want this to be done for this infobox?

I'm not sure what MDM means by this, I don't really see any problem with the code.  The Windler talk  22:34, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Happy‑melon 20:25, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Five more edits to peruse here. Please have a look and get back to me with any problems. Happy‑melon 16:45, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The bot seems great, the only problem is there are a number of fields that still aren't appearing. Definitely think we need to get them in before going full-scale, ie currentclub, along with a few issues on formatting, errors showing additional material as seen with Simon Mannering.  CorleoneSerpicoMontana  01:00, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

OK, here are a few mistakes: I got it wrong on one.

1. I originally said to merge "cityofbirth" and "countryofbirth" with a comma in between. Don't do this, sorry.
2. Instead, "cityofbirth" can be renamed as a parameter to "placeofbirth". And "countryofbirth" is just transferred over.  The Windler talk  06:33, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
3. With images, can it take the "File:" off the start and the "" off the end of that parameter. If that's possible, thanks.
4. Can "currentclub" be kept and simply transferred over to the new template.
5. Can "dateofdeath", "countryofdeath" be transferred over from the old template to the new one AND "cityofdeath" renamed as a parameter to "placeofdeath". This didn't happen for Édouard Ponsinet.

Hopefully, that is all.  The Windler talk  06:33, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Could I make the suggestion of testing the bot out with a page such as Ricky Stuart? His covers all four sections of the infobox - it'll be a good tester. MDM (talk) 09:26, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ricky Stuart uses ((Infobox Rugby Union biography)) instead of Rugby league. Happy‑melon 12:09, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fair point. It seems that someone made a clone of the template for rugby union players, with the same fields and the same look. I've changed the template name back now, if you still want to test it out there. MDM (talk) 12:21, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmn... if you're going to be fighting over which players get which templates, wouldn't it be sensible to be converting all these to use a template name like ((Infobox Rugby biography)), without the league/union distinction? Unless there are quantitative differences between the information required between the two sports... Here's Ricky's conversion, anyway. Happy‑melon 12:26, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

From what I can see from the "what links here" page for that template, Ricky Stuart was the only rugby league exception to use that rugby union one. As for the conversion, I am incredibly impressed by how well it works. I guess the one thing I need to fix is removing "premierships" from appearing if unused. By the way, just one last request - is it possible to reduce the spaces between the line break, template field and entry text to just one space each time instead of having several? Unless that is an unavoidable thing due to the bot, it would be great to change it - mostly because I'm pedantic but also because it reduces the size of the page and also makes it easier to edit. Thanks again. MDM (talk) 12:57, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You asked that before; as I said above, there are a lot of people who believe that aligning the equals signs makes the code easier to read, and I'm inclined to agree. Of course it's possible to not do it (there's actually about five lines of code that is dedicated just to working out how many equals signs to add!) but now that it's there, I don't really see any problem with keeping it there. Happy‑melon 13:18, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I missed seeing your response earlier. In that case I don't really have a problem with it. Sorry for asking twice. MDM (talk) 13:34, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Five more for evaluation. Happy‑melon 12:05, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

They look pretty good, with the exception of Albert Johnston (rugby league). I think the field "countryofbirth" needs to be included, even if blank. Secondly, the field "coachpremiershipsX" is now called "premiershipsX". MDM (talk) 12:57, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure if renaming "coachpremierships" to just "premierships" is a good idea... all the other parameters in that block begin with "coach..." It's trivial to make that change if you still think it's a good idea. Happy‑melon 13:18, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure why it isn't coachpremierships either. I'll change it back now. By the way, the new bot edit seemed to have wiped out Ricky Stuart's representative coaching section. MDM (talk) 13:19, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmn... seems the |repcoachteamX= parameters were left out of the specification. Can't help you on why they're not being displayed properly. Happy‑melon 13:50, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ten more. Looks like we're close to finalising this... Happy‑melon 16:33, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looks fantastic mate - great work. I'd be ready to give the all clear for it although maybe we should wait for SpecialWindler though. MDM (talk) 06:58, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

One last issue - the bot is adding an extra break after the infobox, causing a blank line to appear at the top of the page. MDM (talk) 07:52, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Of the examples I've looked at, there are no problems. Hopefully our tests have gone through all possibilities. I'll give it the go ahead, though I hope others may have checked more estuetly than me.

If I had one request. After they have all been, I could ask, if when we remove the "new" bit from the template so it only runs off the one. I would ask could the bot go through and remove the "new = yes". It dosen't matter if this is done though. Thanks very much.  The Windler talk  10:08, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

 Approved. This is all good. Improvement discussion should probably move to User talk:MelonBot. – Quadell ^(talk) 18:43, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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.