MediaWiki PowerShell Module

This is a PowerShell module for interfacing with a MediaWiki API endpoint that I have worked at on and off occasionally over the last couple of years. It was initially created to assist me in performing various maintenance tasks for the PCGamingWiki (PCGW) community project.

A major focus of the module have been to ensure pipeline compatibility across the cmdlets.

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While other more powerful alternatives exists (e.g. pymediawiki), I prefer working with and use PowerShell as I like that a well-defined PowerShell module exposes APIs and datasets to regular users and allows them to interact with the dataset without the need of any additional dependencies.

Note that due to its focus on the PCGamingWiki and its outdated version of MediaWiki, the module might not support all options/flags added in newer versions. While most of the development has been performed by consulting the official MediaWiki Action API documentation, incompatible stuff have been disabled in favor of making it work more flawlessly with PCGW.

Due to its rather early stage of development, the module might see frequent and massive changes throughout the codebase as I learn, rethink, and redesign functions or the internal components.

Installation

If authenticating, a bot password needs to be used as the module does not support OAuth. Anonymous logins are of course also supported!

1. Download or clone the repository to a local folder called MediaWiki.

2. Launch a new PowerShell session and import the module by using Import-Module <path-to-the-MediaWiki-folder> (e.g. Import-Module .\MediaWiki)

   • Be sure to omit any trailing backslash in the path as otherwise the command will fail.

3. Connect to a MediaWiki endpoint using one of these alternatives:

   • To establish a new connection: Connect-MWSession
   • To use/setup a persistent config: Connect-MWSession -Persistent
   • To log in anonymously as a guest: Connect-MWSession -Guest
   • To use a persistent config as a guest: Connect-MWSession -Persistent -Guest
   • To disconnect from an active session, use Disconnect-MWSession

4. Once a connection has been established, use one of the supported cmdlets.

Examples

For more real-world examples, visit the AemonyBot repository.

Retrieve the wikitext of a page:

Get-MWPage 'NieR: Automata' -Wikitext

Add new content to the end of a specific section:

(Get-MWPage 'NieR: Automata').Sections | Where Line -eq 'Inventory Editor' | Add-MWSection -Content "In Summer of 2038 an updated version was released with bug fixes and QoL improvements." -Summary "Added information pertaining to the 2038 update."

Forces a deeper cache purge of a page by performing an empty edit on it:

Get-MWPage 'NieR: Automata' | Update-MWPage -Force

Performs a Cargo query to retrieve all pages using the SecuROM DRM:

Get-MWCargoQuery -Table Availability -Where "Uses_DRM HOLDS LIKE 'SecuROM%'" -Fields 'Uses_DRM' -ResultSize Unlimited

Performs a deep cache purge on all SecuROM pages:

$Pages = Get-MWCargoQuery -Table Availability -Where "Uses_DRM HOLDS LIKE 'SecuROM%'" -Fields 'Uses_DRM' -ResultSize Unlimited
$Pages | Update-MWPage -Force

Cmdlets

Pages

• Add-MWPage - Add content to a page.
  • Implemented as a variant of Set-MWPage.
• Get-MWPage - Retrieves information about a page. Use -Wikitext to also fetch the wikitext of the page.
  • Interface for action=parse.
• Get-MWPageInfo - Retrieves additional properties of a page.
  • Interface for prop=info.
• Get-MWPageLink - Retrieve all internal wiki links of a page.
  • Uses the links generator.
• Clear-MWPage - Clears all content on the specified page.
  • Implemented as a variant of Set-MWPage.
• Find-MWPage - List all pages on the wiki.
  • Interface for list=allpages.
• Move-MWPage - Moves a page.
  • Interface for action=move.
• New-MWPage - Creates a new page. Implemented as a variant of Set-MWPage.
• Remove-MWPage - Deletes a page.
  • Interface for action=delete.
• Rename-MWPage - Alias for Move-MWPage.
• Search-MWPage - Perform a full text search on the site.
  • Interface for list=search.
• Set-MWPage - Edit the contents of a page.
  • Interface for action=edit.
• Update-MWPage - Purges the cache for a page. Use -Force for a deeper purge by performing an empty edit of the page.
  • An empty edit (-Force) can at times trigger backend refreshes (e.g. extensions such as Cargo) that otherwise would not be affected by a normal cache purge.
  • Interface for action=purge. Imlemented as a variant of Set-MWPage when used with -Force.
• Undo-MWPageEdit - Undo specific edits of a page. Use -Rollback to undo all edits made by the last user to edit the page.
  • Imlemented as a variant of Set-MWPage. Interface for action=rollback when used with -Rollback.

Sections

• Add-MWSection - Add content to a section.
  • Implemented as a variant of Set-MWPage.
• Clear-MWSection - Clear the content from a section.
  • Implemented as a variant of Set-MWPage.
• Get-MWSection - Retrieves information about a section. Use -Wikitext to also fetch the wikitext of the section.
  • Implemented as a variant of Get-MWPage.
• Remove-MWSection - Removes a section.
  • Implemented as a variant of Set-MWPage.
• Rename-MWSection - Changes the title/header of a section.
  • Implemented as a variant of Set-MWPage.
• Set-MWSection - Sets the content of a section.
  • Implemented as a variant of Set-MWPage.

Files/Images

• Find-MWFile - List all files/images.
  • Interface for list=allimages.
• Find-MWFileDuplicate - Find duplicates of a file/image, if any exists.
  • Uses the allimages generator.
• Get-MWFileInfo - List file information and upload history.
  • Interface for prop=imageinfo.
• Get-MWFileUsage - List all pages that use a file/image.
  • Interface for list=imageusage.

Links / Redirects

• Get-MWBackLink - List all pages which links to a page.
  • Interface for list=backlinks.
• Find-MWRedirect - Variant of Find-MWPage to list all redirect pages.
• Find-MWRedirectOrphan - Helper to generate a list of all orphaned redirects. Takes a long time with ~50k pages, so be warned. :)

Categories

• Get-MWCategoryMember - List all pages in a category.
  • Interface for list=categorymembers.

Templates

• Get-MWEmbeddedIn - List all other pages a page is embedded in.
  • Interface for list=embeddedin.
• Get-MWTranscludedIn - Alias for Get-MWEmbeddedIn.

Namespaces

• Get-MWNamespace - Retrieves all registered namespaces on the site.
• Get-MWNamespacePage - List all pages in a namespace.
  • Implemented as a variant of Find-MWPage.

Recent Changes

• Get-MWRecentChanges - List all recent changes on the site.
  • Interface for list=recentchanges.

Connection

• Connect-MWSession - Connect to an API endpoint.
• Disconnect-MWSession - Disconnect from the API endpoint.

Site information

• Get-MWChangeTag - List all recognized change tags on the site.
  • Interface for list=tags.
• Get-MWProtectionLevel - Retrieves all registered protection levels on the site.
  • Implemented as a variant of Get-MWSiteInfo.
• Get-MWProtectionType - Retrieves all registered protection types on the site.
  • Implemented as a variant of Get-MWSiteInfo.
• Get-MWSiteInfo - Retrieve general information about the site.
  • Interface for meta=siteinfo.

Users

• Get-MWUser - Retrieve information about a user.
• Get-MWCurrentUser - Retrieve general information about the signed in user.
  • Interface for meta=userinfo
• Get-MWCurrentUserPreference - Retrieve the perferences of the current user.
  • Implemented as a variant of Get-MWCurrentUser.
• Get-MWCurrentUserGroup - Retrieve the groups the current user is a member of.
  • Implemented as a variant of Get-MWCurrentUser.
• Get-MWCurrentUserRateLimit - Retrieve the rate limits applied to the current user.
  • Implemented as a variant of Get-MWCurrentUser.
• Get-MWCurrentUserRight - Retrieve the permissions/rights of the current user.
  • Implemented as a variant of Get-MWCurrentUser.

Watchlist

• Watch-MWPage - Not implemented. Will probably end up watching or unwatching a page maybe?

Extensions

• Get-MWCargoQuery - Performs a query against the Cargo backend, provided Extension:Cargo is installed.

Misc

• ConvertTo-MWParsedOutput - Have the site parse the input wikitext and reply with the results.
  • Limited interface for action=parse.
• Invoke-MWApiContinueRequest - Useful helper that automatically handles continuing API requests when there are more results available.
• Invoke-MWApiRequest - Handles the core aspects of performing an API request.

Cheat sheet

If actively working on the module and its code, I find the below one-liner to be quite helpful to reload the whole thing quickly:

• Disconnect-MWSession; Remove-Module MediaWiki; Import-Module .\MediaWiki; Connect-MWSession -Persistent -Guest

Possible future To-Do's

Random personal thoughts and ideas that have come up...

• Summarizing the functions for this readme had me realize that the Find- / Get- verbs in the function names might need a rethink in some cases?
• Change Get-MWGroupMember to actually retrieve the users of a given group?
• Add more helpers/variants e.g. Add-/Remove- ?

Third-party code

Third-party code is noted in the source code, with the appropriate license links. This is a short overview of the code being used:

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/57045268
• https://github.com/abgox/ConvertFrom-JsonToHashtable