Last modified: 2011-03-13 18:05:57 UTC
Often it would be very helpful to do batch edits. Especially for replacing works you may want to change 8 articles in one go and don't have to wait 20 seconds per article to do a change. Often one wants to mark 5 articles with exactly the same text. I could think about such a request: /api.php? action=edit& title=A|B|C& summary=batch%20edit& text[0]=article%201%20content& text[1]=article%202%20content& text[2]=article%203%20content& basetimestamp[0]=20070824123454& basetimestamp[1]=20070824123453& basetimestamp[2]=20070824123452& &token=%2B\ and /api.php? action=edit& title=A|B|C& summary=Added%20[[Category:Test]]& appendtext=[[Category:Test]]& &token=%2B\ such the request distinguishes between simple parameters and field parameters. For simple parameters the value should be used for all articles. For single article requests the result should be perfectly the same like now and arrays for multi article requests.
(In reply to comment #0) > Often it would be very helpful to do batch edits. Especially for replacing > works you may want to change 8 articles in one go and don't have to wait 20 > seconds per article to do a change. Where did you get that 20s per article figure from? AFAIK MediaWiki doesn't rate-limit in that particular way (rather in terms of total edits per minute). Anyway, batch editing is something that clients can do just fine by themselves, without needing special facilities in the API. If you find the rate limits too restrictive, apply for a bot flag (bots have higher limits). Marking as WONTFIX.
(In reply to comment #1) > Where did you get that 20s per article figure from? AFAIK MediaWiki doesn't > rate-limit in that particular way (rather in terms of total edits per minute). > Its the "soft limit" by the communities on de.wp and I think en.wp, too. The hard limit for non admins is 8 edits per 60 seconds. > Anyway, batch editing is something that clients can do just fine by themselves, > without needing special facilities in the API. > I got the flag. I just wanted to make the interface easier.
(In reply to comment #2) > (In reply to comment #1) > > Where did you get that 20s per article figure from? AFAIK MediaWiki doesn't > > rate-limit in that particular way (rather in terms of total edits per minute). > > > Its the "soft limit" by the communities on de.wp and I think en.wp, too. Allowing batch editing won't change that: you'd still see 5 edits in the same minute, and no one's gonna know that they were made in one request rather than 5 parallel ones.
(In reply to comment #2) > (In reply to comment #1) > > Where did you get that 20s per article figure from? AFAIK MediaWiki doesn't > > rate-limit in that particular way (rather in terms of total edits per minute). > > > Its the "soft limit" by the communities on de.wp and I think en.wp, too. The > hard limit for non admins is 8 edits per 60 seconds. There is no limit for established registered users, administrator or otherwise. The limit for unregistered and newly registered users is 8 edits per 60 seconds. There is also no "soft limit" anywhere near as draconian as one edit every 20 seconds, at least not on en.wikipedia. One edit every 3 seconds is more or less standard when dealing with vandalism.
