[Commons-l] JavaScript CheckUsage alternative

[Magnus Manske]

Hi all,

I'm slowly getting settled in at Cambridge, and as a warm-up I hacked
a little JavaScript that might be an alternative to the CheckUsage
script. Demo at:

http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/commonsusage.html

It runs through a combination of project types (currently wikipedia,
wikibooks, wikinews) and languages (currently en, de, es, fr, pl, it,
sv), and queries the usage of an image through the API, which is
always up-to-date. Enter an image name and click "Search", and you can
see the list getting shorter as queries are completed (or longer if
there are many hits); IMHO this cuts down on the "subjective waiting
time" ;-)

Two drawbacks to this:
* It hits the API, which might slow things down if used large-scale
* Due to JavaScript security limitations, I have to go through a Perl
script on the toolserver for each query (ugh!)

However, it might be an in-place alternative to Duesentrieb's script
if installed on commons. Note that the perl script would also have to
be on commons.

Magnus