hi all,
this message is from the MediaWiki API-mailing list and it should be interesting for those which use the old query.php API interface...
Greetings Luxo
-------- Original-Nachricht -------- Betreff: ATTENTION: query.php will be removed soon Datum: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 14:46:49 -0500 Von: Yuri Astrakhan
For those who use old query.php API interface:
Per http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12881 , query.php has been fully ported to the api.php, and thus no longer needed. Unless there are significant reasons to keep it around, it will be removed both from the extensions and from the mediawiki sites fairly soon.
If you are still using it, see http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API description on how to use the new api.php.
Thanks for all the support!
--Yuri
Unless there are significant reasons to keep it around, it will be removed both from the extensions and from the mediawiki sites fairly soon.
That query api was written to secure people who write bots from web interface changes. Tell that "developer" who wants to remove it now, that I'll never use _his_ "stable interfaces" any more, because I just haven't enough time to rewrite what I was working on for weeks just because someone "has ported that to some other interface" and wants to delete it without backward compability. That developer really doesn't understand what he is doing.
-- Ed
2008/2/3, Edward Chernenko edwardspec@gmail.com:
That query api was written to secure people who write bots from web interface changes.
So the new API interface does. It has some serious advantages in comparison to unmaintained query.php.
I just haven't enough time to rewrite what I was working on for weeks just because someone "has ported that to some other interface" and wants to delete it without backward compability.
Writing a post of this size takes more time than making update to your code. Old query API is capable to produce output in same formats as the new one, you just have to change some tags' names, that's it.
Of course, we could keep it, but read what the head API developer says:
Agree, backwards compatibility is important, but it has to be balanced with efforts required to maintain query.php.. Every db schema change must be looked at to see if query.php must be updated. Internal api changes may also impact its functions and performance. IIRC, there are already some queries not working as intended.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mediawiki-api/2008-February/000347.html
If you would like to continue the discussion, please move to mediawiki-api mailing list. This conversation is offtopic here.
— Kalan
On Feb 3, 2008 4:47 AM, Kalan kalan.001@gmail.com wrote:
Of course, we could keep it, but read what the head API developer says:
Agree, backwards compatibility is important, but it has to be balanced with efforts required to maintain query.php.. Every db schema change must be looked at to see if query.php must be updated. Internal api changes may also impact its functions and performance. IIRC, there are already some queries not working as intended.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mediawiki-api/2008-February/000347.html
So isn't the obvious answer to rewrite query.php so that it uses api.php as a backend, not just chuck it out the window? Then you only have to care about query.php when you're changing the semantics of api.php's existing parameters, which you shouldn't be doing often anyway. Obviously maintaining query.php as a whole separate backend is stupid, but the backend is separate from the user-exposed interface, which should not change if it can be plausibly avoided.
This doesn't sound like a reasonable or correct decision to me.
Forwarding to mediawiki-api. Shall we keep the discussion centralized?
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Simetrical Simetrical+wikilist@gmail.com Date: Feb 3, 2008 4:48 PM Subject: Re: [Toolserver-l] Fwd: ATTENTION: query.php will be removed soon To: toolserver-l@lists.wikimedia.org
On Feb 3, 2008 4:47 AM, Kalan kalan.001@gmail.com wrote:
Of course, we could keep it, but read what the head API developer says:
Agree, backwards compatibility is important, but it has to be balanced with efforts required to maintain query.php.. Every db schema change must be looked at to see if query.php must be updated. Internal api changes may also impact its functions and performance. IIRC, there are already some queries not working as intended.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mediawiki-api/2008-February/000347.html
So isn't the obvious answer to rewrite query.php so that it uses api.php as a backend, not just chuck it out the window? Then you only have to care about query.php when you're changing the semantics of api.php's existing parameters, which you shouldn't be doing often anyway. Obviously maintaining query.php as a whole separate backend is stupid, but the backend is separate from the user-exposed interface, which should not change if it can be plausibly avoided.
This doesn't sound like a reasonable or correct decision to me.
_______________________________________________ Toolserver-l mailing list Toolserver-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/toolserver-l
Edward Chernenko writes:
Unless there are significant reasons to keep it around, it will be removed both from the extensions and from the mediawiki sites fairly soon.
That query api was written to secure people who write bots from web interface changes. Tell that "developer" who wants to remove it now, that I'll never use _his_ "stable interfaces" any more, because I just haven't enough time to rewrite what I was working on for weeks just because someone "has ported that to some other interface" and wants to delete it without backward compability. That developer really doesn't understand what he is doing.
-- Ed
Don't worry. We're going to keep it for enough time, so everybody will be able to rewrite his code. --VasilievVV
2008/2/3, VasilievVV vasilvv@gmail.com: Don't worry. We're going to keep it for enough time, so everybody will be able to rewrite his code. --VasilievVV
erm erm.
I think that the point here was :
Developers shouldn't have to rewrite their code, updates should ensure backward compatibility. api.php is sort of new. What if, one month later, a bunch of parameters change ? These developers would need to rewrite their code to fit, again, the new api.php...
The easy way here, as it has been told, is to rewrite solely query.php so that developers using the stable query.php don't have to change anything
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/query.php?what=revisions&titles=Main%20Page&am...
That is how "stable" query.php is at the moment. I don't really think we should keep query.php
Thanks for AzaTht for pointing to that example on IRC.
Huji
Huji wrote:
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/query.php?what=revisions&titles=Main%20Page&am...
That is how "stable" query.php is at the moment. I don't really think we should keep query.php
Thanks for AzaTht for pointing to that example on IRC.
Huji
So, as Simetrical suggested, the query.php interface should be adjusted to work as a frontend to api.php, with full backwards compatibility. We've been told that all of the query.php functions are supported in api.php, so this should be possible and is certainly worthwile (there are *a lot* of programs out there being run by people who aren't the original maintainers that would crash to a halt were query.php to be removed).
In this way, the query you just pointed out would work.
Martin
{{sofixit}}.
If, however, you're not willing to fix query.php to wrap to api.php, then the issue is moot. No other developer has expressed a willingness to do so, as there are many other things on the plate. Therefore, making query.php play nicely with api.php is totally up to you guys. If someone's willing to step up to the plate to ensure backward compatibility, that'd be awesome. If not, then so be it. :P *shrug*
-slakr
On Sunday 03 February 2008 16:49, Martin Peeks wrote:
Huji wrote:
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/query.php?what=revisions&titles=Main%20Page&am... niqusr&rvlimit=3&rvcomments&rvcontent
That is how "stable" query.php is at the moment. I don't really think we should keep query.php
Thanks for AzaTht for pointing to that example on IRC.
Huji
So, as Simetrical suggested, the query.php interface should be adjusted to work as a frontend to api.php, with full backwards compatibility. We've been told that all of the query.php functions are supported in api.php, so this should be possible and is certainly worthwile (there are *a lot* of programs out there being run by people who aren't the original maintainers that would crash to a halt were query.php to be removed).
In this way, the query you just pointed out would work.
Martin
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