On 17/09/05, Nick Jenkins nickpj@gmail.com wrote:
If you can narrow down the request a bit that makes it more likely we'll slip something into the backup script. :)
Why do that when MediaWiki comes with an import tool built-in? ;)
Because I'm not importing it into MediaWiki. I'm importing it into a database, to then run non-MediaWiki software analysing the data
The point being, I take it, that your software mimics the MediaWiki <=1.4 database schema, because it was designed to work with the old SQL dumps? So what you're asking for, specifically, is an SQL dump which mimics how the data would have looked in an installation of MediaWiki <=1.4 - which, it should be noted, is *not* how it actually looks in any database under >1.5.
Of course, with an XML dump you could always have analysis software that used whatever schema was appropriate for the job in hand (I'm pretty sure at least one set of tools did this *anyway*, I think it was the Topbanana reports) and have your own import scripts, but obviously that requires rather more effort on your part.
What about everyone who wants something slightly different?
But the database dumps have never tried to be all things to all people.
Rather they've been snapshots of the various Wikipedias at semi-regular intervals of time, which you can load into a database
Yes, but until now, they've been snapshots from the database as used by the software, which could be loaded into that same software. The closest equivalent to that would be an SQL dump for v1.5, but that would be pretty pointless given there's already an import script, and wouldn't help people like yourself whose databases just mimic what the old schema looked like.
There's never been such a major redesign before, so there wasn't really a problem with whether it was all things to all people or not - it just carried on being there.