John wrote:
Central Auth has been around for about 5 years now and we still lack a API to interact with it. There is no blocking/unblocking/locking/unlocking ability at all. see https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23821 who do I need to bribe/torture/put a fire underneath in order to get basic access to said tools?
This was kind of enjoyable to investigate.
I was surprised to read that it's been five years. For the curious, Tim Starling is user ID 1 in the CentralAuth database. His registration date is 04:16, 13 March 2008, so it's a bit closer to four and a half years: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Tim_Starling. :-)
Anyway, this is actually two bugs currently, both of which probably need to be split out into more specific bugs:
* CentralAuth/global user rights/groups API; Get global user rights, membership to global groups; and userlist of global groups https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/16860
* Write API for CentralAuth extension https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/23821
The first bug is about read access; the second is about write access. The problem you're hitting here is that developers don't do well with broad, overly vague bugs like this. There needs to be something directly actionable (e.g., "implement this specific feature <link to GUI version> into the API").
The read bug can probably be left alone (though it really is three separate bugs rolled into one). It's straightforward enough, I think. I've gone ahead and marked it as easy (with a keyword), which should hopefully get a few more eyes on it.
For the write bug (bug 23821), you should file separate bugs for each feature you want available in the API. Vague mega-bugs will almost always get no response and your most recent comment on the bug (when asked for clarification) was spectacularly unhelpful. You need to be specific and detailed as humanly possible, describing exactly what you want, if you have any chance of getting other who come along to help you out.
MZMcBride