I have a bot editing script that started having trouble logging in to the English Wikipedia a few days ago. I think what's happening is that the login process started using Javascript in a way it didn't before, and is detecting that my script doesn't do Javascript (which it doesn't), and throwing a second, fallback, non-Javascript-using login page at the point where the script is expecting to have already logged in.
So the question is, if this is the case, is there a way to force the use of the non-Javascript login page from the beginning? Or if this is not the case, is there some other recent change that might have affected the flow?
(And, in case you're wondering, no, the script does not use the API, but yes, I know about it, and this may be the circumstance that goads me into actually using it.)
Screen scraping is evil. I think your issue is HTTPS
On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 10:02 PM, Steve Summit scs@eskimo.com wrote:
I have a bot editing script that started having trouble logging in to the English Wikipedia a few days ago. I think what's happening is that the login process started using Javascript in a way it didn't before, and is detecting that my script doesn't do Javascript (which it doesn't), and throwing a second, fallback, non-Javascript-using login page at the point where the script is expecting to have already logged in.
So the question is, if this is the case, is there a way to force the use of the non-Javascript login page from the beginning? Or if this is not the case, is there some other recent change that might have affected the flow?
(And, in case you're wondering, no, the script does not use the API, but yes, I know about it, and this may be the circumstance that goads me into actually using it.)
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=help&modules=login
~Daniel Friesen (Dantman, Nadir-Seen-Fire) [http://danielfriesen.name/]
On 2013-08-30 7:02 PM, Steve Summit wrote:
I have a bot editing script that started having trouble logging in to the English Wikipedia a few days ago. I think what's happening is that the login process started using Javascript in a way it didn't before, and is detecting that my script doesn't do Javascript (which it doesn't), and throwing a second, fallback, non-Javascript-using login page at the point where the script is expecting to have already logged in.
So the question is, if this is the case, is there a way to force the use of the non-Javascript login page from the beginning? Or if this is not the case, is there some other recent change that might have affected the flow?
(And, in case you're wondering, no, the script does not use the API, but yes, I know about it, and this may be the circumstance that goads me into actually using it.)
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
There is very little JavaScript on the login page.
Is your script HTTPS-compliant? Logging in is now HTTPS-only since a few days ago, attempting to access the login page via HTTP will redirect you to HTTPS.
My guess is either the script does not handle redirects, and is failing when the login page tries to redirect you to HTTPS, or your script doesn't handle HTTPS, and fails when redirected to the secure page.
*-- * *Tyler Romeo* Stevens Institute of Technology, Class of 2016 Major in Computer Science www.whizkidztech.com | tylerromeo@gmail.com
On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 6:48 AM, Bartosz Dziewoński matma.rex@gmail.comwrote:
There is very little JavaScript on the login page.
Is your script HTTPS-compliant? Logging in is now HTTPS-only since a few days ago, attempting to access the login page via HTTP will redirect you to HTTPS.
-- Matma Rex
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That would be a good guess, but the script handles redirects and https just fine -- or at least it did, when those changes went into effect a month ago. It was working fine up until this past Tuesday or Wednesday, when it stopped being able to log in.
Tyler Romeo wrote:
My guess is either the script does not handle redirects, and is failing when the login page tries to redirect you to HTTPS, or your script doesn't handle HTTPS, and fails when redirected to the secure page.
On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 6:48 AM, Bartosz Dziewoński matma.rex@gmail.comwrote:
There is very little JavaScript on the login page.
Is your script HTTPS-compliant? Logging in is now HTTPS-only since a few days ago, attempting to access the login page via HTTP will redirect you to HTTPS.
-- Matma Rex
Ah, spoke too soon. It was handling redirects and https, but not always redirects and https and POST. But if I simply reconfigure the script to hit the https: addresses from the beginning (meaning the server doesn't have to send any redirects at all), everything works fine. Dunno why I didn't try that at first. (In hindsight, dunno why I didn't do that years ago.)
I wrote:
That would be a good guess, but the script handles redirects and https just fine -- or at least it did, when those changes went into effect a month ago. It was working fine up until this past Tuesday or Wednesday, when it stopped being able to log in.
Tyler Romeo wrote:
My guess is either the script does not handle redirects, and is failing when the login page tries to redirect you to HTTPS, or your script doesn't handle HTTPS, and fails when redirected to the secure page.
On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 6:48 AM, Bartosz Dziewoński matma.rex@gmail.comwrote:
There is very little JavaScript on the login page.
Is your script HTTPS-compliant? Logging in is now HTTPS-only since a few days ago, attempting to access the login page via HTTP will redirect you to HTTPS.
-- Matma Rex
On Aug 30, 2013 10:02 PM, "Steve Summit" scs@eskimo.com wrote:
(And, in case you're wondering, no, the script does not use the API, but yes, I know about it, and this may be the circumstance that goads me into actually using it.)
Do that. It's much better than screen scraping.
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