On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 10:54 PM, Levin Magruder levin_magruder@yahoo.com wrote:
I'm trying to use the API in Mediawiki 1.17.
You should probably upgrade.
Content-Length: 59
format=xml&action=login&lgname=mybot&lgpassword=pwd
The length of the post data you have here is 51 bytes. Your bot's real username and password together must be 8 bytes longer than "mybot" and "pwd".
Content-Length: 99
format=xml&action=login&lgname=mybot&lgpassword=pwd&lgtoken=0e8287f8976207131b153ca2acf25cfb
The length of the post data you have here is 92 bytes. You added 41 bytes, which is consistent with the length of the "&lgtoken=0e8287f8976207131b153ca2acf25cfb" string that was added to the post data. But you only added 40 to the Content-Length header, so the server is probably seeing "&lgtoken=0e8287f8976207131b153ca2acf25cf", with the last character is cut off.
Also, BTW:
User-Agent: Java/1.7.0_09
It's good practice to use a custom user agent for your bot, including an email address or URL to a webpage with a way to contact you, instead of something generic like this. On wiki.readytheory.com it may not matter, but if you ever decide to use your bot on a WMF wiki a custom User-Agent is required.