Last modified: 2006-10-13 21:21:52 UTC
Scripts, bots, toolserver extensions, and JavaScript extensions would benefit from a lightweight way of checking a live database for the existence of a given article by name, and also whether that article is a redirect and what it redirects to. Some ways it might work: http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=foo&action=exists might return a single character: n=no, it doesn't exist, y=yes, it exists, r=it exists and is a redirect http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=foo&action=isredirect might return: yes, no, redirect=bar or perhaps a tiny XML file could be returned: <xml> <page>foo</page> <exist>1</exist> <redirect>bar</bar> </xml> There are obviously many ways to skin this cat. But the less weight the better and ease of parsing by JavaScript is a must.
I'd suggest this could be a job for the BotQuery extension.
My citation tab JavaScript extension on English Wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=User:Hippietrail/personalsidebar.js) would use this feature if it existed. Currently it has to load whole pages using &action=raw just to know if the pages exist. In the worst case it will load two extra pages per page actually viewed by the user.
This has already been done in both the both the query api -- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/query.php , and the new api -- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php Using Query (please note that query will be obsolete once the new API is done): * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/query.php?titles=NonExistingArticle|Main%20page Using New API: * without redirect info: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&titles=NonExistingArticle|Main%20page * with redirect info: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=info&titles=NonExistingArticle|Main%20page * with automatic resolution of all redirects and extra info: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=info&redirects&titles=NonExistingArticle|Main%20page
