Remember that clients should not be depending on the specific query string data returned inside the query-continue or continue nodes. Clients should be treating the returned key-value pairs as opaque data to be returned to the server with the subsequent query.

Interested users may also wish to review the discussion thread from when a similar change was made last year.[1]

To finish fixing bug 24782[2], Gerrit change 103589[3] changes the names and values of various items under the continue or query-continue node in the API response. Specifically,

* list=allimages will always use aicontinue, rather than sometimes using aistart. The formatting of the value for the modes that formerly used aistart will differ from that used by the modes that already used aicontinue. * list=blocks will now use bkcontinue rather than bkstart. * list=categorymembers will always use cmcontinue, rather than sometimes using cmstart. The formatting of the value for the modes that formerly used cmstart will differ from that used by the modes that already used cmcontinue. * list=deletedrevs will always use drcontinue, rather than sometimes using drstart. The formatting of the value for drcontinue is also changing for the modes that did use it, and the formats differ between modes. * list=logevents will now use lecontinue rather than lestart. * list=protectedtitles will now use ptcontinue rather than ptstart. * list=recentchanges is changing the formatting of the value of rccontinue. * list=usercontribs will always use uccontinue, rather than sometimes using ucstart. The formatting of the value for uccontinue is also changing for the modes that did use it previously, and the formats differ between modes. * list=watchlist will now use wlcontinue rather than wlstart.

These changes should be deployed to WMF wikis with 1.23wmf23, see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/Roadmap for the schedule.

Also, if anyone is aware of other modules that use a bare timestamp[4] or other non-unique value as their continuation, please reopen bug 24782 (if they are in MediaWiki core) or file a new bug (if they are in an extension). Thanks.

[1]: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mediawiki-api/2013-March/002926.html [2]: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24782 [3]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/103589/ [4]: Note prop=imageinfo uses a timestamp, but this is OK as in this case it is apparently a unique identifier.