I have added a new function to Special:Export. Just letting you know, in case you worry why I do that so shortly before 1.5 going life:
* The function is dead simple * It requires $wgAllowArticleList to be set "true", which it isn't by default
So it shouldn't break anything...
What it does is to return a simple XML list of all articles changed at or after a specific time. Example syntax: Special:Export&action=list&since=20050625083959
Output looks like this: <mediawiki version="0.1"> <articlelist> <article prefixed_title="Main_Page" title="Main_Page" namespace_id="0" namespace_name=""/> <article prefixed_title="Help:Contents" title="Contents" namespace_id="12" namespace_name="Help"/> </articlelist> </mediawiki>
The reasoning behind this is to ease mirror updates, which then won't have to wait for the next dump. Goes like this: * Check your mirror database for the latest date any article has * Get a list of all articles that have changed since that moment * Get all these articles via the "normal" Special:Export function * Update your database with these
I'm not sure if we'll have such a function via the SOAP interface soon, but - so what?
Magnus