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Yuri Astrakhan wrote:

Hello and welcome to the new API list.

The new version of the API is now up on all WikiMedia sites, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php

== Breaking Changes == backlinks, embeddedin, and imageusage lists no longer use the global "titles=" parameter; instead backlinks now uses bltitle=, embeddedin -- eititle=, and imageusage -- "iutitle=". For a little while, if you do not supply ...title= parameter, titles= will still work, but a warning is returned. Soon it will not work, so please update your code if you use any of this 3 lists.

I've no problem deprecating the title parameter, but must we disable it? I see no problem with leaving it enabled, though discouraged, and having it function as it does now with all queries on which it previously worked. You know me and my backwards-compatibility nazism; the suggestion of removing the titles param altogether, one that is widely used by a multitude of bots and other client software, just sends shivers up my spine.

== New Features ==

• list=categorymembers - list pages/categories belonging to a category
• page protection status
• prop=imageinfo - returns image info including repository, size,

URLs, and upload history

• list=exturlusage - search for URLs used in a wiki
• list=alllinks - list all links, regardless of what page they are on

(allows search for unique links only )

• list=allusers - list of all users registered in a wiki, together

with an edit count

• prop=siteinfo - can now return database servers replication lag

== Other Changes ==

• Documentation has been significantly updated with examples. Please

contribute more :) : http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API

• Report bugs & post requests are at

http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?component=API&bug_status=NEW&a... (don't forget to set Component=API when creating new entries)

Indeed it has -- I'll be mosying on over there soon--I promise! :)

== Current Issues ==

• Security: If a namespace cannot be read by the current user, some of

the titles in that NS are still shown in various enumerations (e.g. in the apfrom= continue value)

A note to readers who use the API on their own MediaWiki installs and to MediaWiki extension developers: This will be fixed as part of a sweeping reform of how access control is managed by MediaWiki. Please keep up with the discussion [1] on wikitech-l, as it will likely effect many extensions and third-party software. We're also going to refrain from fixing this security issue until such time as this reformation is complete (correct me if I'm wrong, Yuri).

== Current Efforts ==

• Some core code has been updated to allow Rollback implementation

(thanks Roan).

For the sake of clarity, this functionality is *not* included as part of the update on Wikimedia.

• API home page needs short coding examples of client access for

Python, PHP, C#, and Java clients (or any other languages if you prefer). Older examples are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Yurik/Query_API/User_Manual#Usage

Ah, yes, I should get some of my code snippets up there ....

Thank you, Yuri and all other API developers, for all of your hard work!

- -- Daniel Cannon (AmiDaniel)

http://amidaniel.com cannon.danielc@gmail.com