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Grants:Project/Jayprakash12345/Improve documentation of MediaWiki maintenance scripts/Final

< Grants:Project‎ | Jayprakash12345/Improve documentation of MediaWiki maintenance scripts


Report accepted
This report for a Project Grant approved in FY 2020-21 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.



Welcome to this project's final report! This report shares the outcomes, impact and learnings from the grantee's project.

Part 1: The Project edit

Summary edit

This project is about to improve the documentation of MediaWiki maintenance scripts on MediaWiki.org. There are almost 200+ maintenance scripts. Out of 200+, 125 scripts needed to document, and others were required to restructure. There were 42 scripts that only have a predefined template, and 43 scripts that only had predefined template + one-line descriptions.

MediaWiki maintenance scripts play a vital role in wiki maintenance. According to WikiApiary, There are 21647 standalone wikis and it is painful for the sysadmin to read documentation from the docstring of the script file before running the maintenance script. Lack of documentation can cost to site down for some time. MediaWiki.org is the primary source to provide these kinds of basic support. According to MassViews in 2021, There were 287 views per day on maintenance script pages. So it became important to document them on MediaWiki.org.


Under this project, 180 MediaWiki maintenance scripts have been documented in a structured way with Details, Options/Arguments, Usage, and Common issues section along with Category.

Apart from this, 13 categories have been created according to the nature of the scripts, and the landing main page has been rewritten along with their new sidebar.

Project Goals edit

  • Creating a format/structure with minimum sections like Details, Usage, Parameter/Options, and Troubleshooting.
Originally only 124 scripts mentioned on grant proposal page for documentation but 180 MediaWiki maintenance scripts have been documented in a structured way. This structured documentation consists Details, Options/Arguments, Usage, and Common issues sections (Troubleshooting section renamed to Common issues; The scripts that don't require troubleshooting, don't have this section). And every 180 script also have category in it according to their nature.
  • Creating templates for maintenance script documentations
Under this project, mw:Template:Maintenance scripts and mw:Template:Force option have been created. These templates are used in the scripts pages and main landing pages. These templates help to remove repeated work.
  • Expanding scripts having an only predefined template
All 42 scripts mentioned on grant proposal page has been documented.
  • Expanding scripts having predefined template + one-line description
Out of 43 scripts mentioned on grant proposal page, 40 scripts has been documented. In remaining three, two scripts are include files that don't require documentation as they are scripts to support other scrips.
  • Expanding scripts having predefined template + one-line description + outdated template
Out of 8 scripts mentioned on grant proposal page, 6 scripts has been documented.
  • Expanding/Improving other scripts
All 31 scripts mentioned on grant proposal page has been documented.

Project Impact edit

Targets edit

Planned measure of success
(include numeric target, if applicable) 		Actual result Explanation
124 scripts 180 scripts Originally 124 maintenance scripts were planned to document in grant but we go beyond that.


Grantee documented the below scripts with the following details.

S. No. Script Details Parameter/Options Usage See also Category
1 generateSchemaSql.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
2 makeTestEdits.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
3 findMissingFiles.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
4 findDeprecated.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
5 invalidateUserSessions.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
6 jsparse.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
7 validateRegistrationFile.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
8 resetPageRandom.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
9 dumpCategoriesAsRdf.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
10 mysql.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
11 view.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
12 protect.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
13 mctest.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
14 orphans.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
15 populateInterwiki.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
16 purgeModuleDeps.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
17 mcc.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
18 addSite.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
19 categoryChangesAsRdf.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
20 deleteTag.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
21 exportSites.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
22 importSites.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
23 refreshFileHeaders.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
24 renameRestrictions.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
25 initUserPreference.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
26 cleanupRevActorPage.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
27 checkBadRedirects.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
28 findOrphanedFiles.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
29 migrateFileRepoLayout.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
30 copyFileBackend.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
31 updateCredits.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
32 manageForeignResources.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
33 cleanupRemovedModules.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
34 populateBacklinkNamespace.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
35 populateRevisionSha1.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
36 runBatchedQuery.php  Y  Y  N  Y  Y
37 syncFileBackend.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
38 checkImages.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
39 manageJobs.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
40 mergeMessageFileList.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
41 cleanupBlocks.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
42 addRFCandPMIDInterwiki.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
43 checkDependencies.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
44 deduplicateArchiveRevId.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
45 deleteAutoPatrolLogs.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
46 populateIpChanges.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
47 minify.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
48 populatePPSortKey.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
49 refreshExternallinksIndex.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
50 checkLess.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
51 deleteSelfExternals.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
52 populateArchiveRevId.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
53 updateArticleCount.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
54 cleanupWatchlist.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
55 deleteLocalPasswords.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
56 populateParentId.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
57 removeUnusedAccounts.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
58 purgeExpiredWatchlistItems.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
59 purgeExpiredUserrights.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
60 updateExtensionJsonSchema.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
61 getConfiguration.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
62 renameDbPrefix.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
63 updateRestrictions.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
64 initEditCount.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
65 patchSql.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
66 convertUserOptions.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
67 preprocessorFuzzTest.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
68 fixExtLinksProtocolRelative.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
69 dumpLinks.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
70 generateLocalAutoload.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
71 cleanupInvalidDbKeys.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
72 getReplicaServer.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
73 checkUsernames.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
74 rebuildmessages.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
75 formatInstallDoc.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
76 showSiteStats.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
77 rebuildImages.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
78 deleteOrphanedRevisions.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
79 importSiteScripts.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
80 checkComposerLockUpToDate.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
81 deleteDefaultMessages.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
82 purgeChangedPages.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
83 fixTimestamps.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
84 migrateImageCommentTemp.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
85 tidyUpT39714.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
86 uppercaseTitlesForUnicodeTransition.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
87 fixDefaultJsonContentPages.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
88 populateFilearchiveSha1.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
89 populateImageSha1.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
90 populateExternallinksIndex60.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
91 populateLogSearch.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
92 compareParserCache.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
93 findHooks.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
94 fileOpPerfTest.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
95 getSlaveServer.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
96 mwdoc-filter.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
97 populateRecentChangesSource.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
98 populateRevisionLength.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
99 populateContentTables.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
100 pruneFileCache.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
101 purgeChangedFiles.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
102 populateLogUsertext.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
103 clearInterwikiCache.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
104 eraseArchivedFile.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
105 deleteBatch.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
106 refreshImageMetadata.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
107 populateCategory.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
108 nukePage.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
109 updateDoubleWidthSearch.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
110 dumpTextPass.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
111 attachLatest.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
112 fixUserRegistration.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
113 updateCollation.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
114 copyJobQueue.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
115 wrapOldPasswords.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
116 alltrans.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
117 langmemusage.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
118 dumpMessages.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
119 digit2html.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
120 benchmarkHooks.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
121 benchmarkParse.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
122 benchmarkPurge.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
123 checkStorage.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
124 moveToExternal.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
125 lag.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
126 dumpRev.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
127 date-formats.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
128 listVariants.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
129 sql.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
130 SqliteMaintenance.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
131 sqlite.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
132 sqlite.inc  Y n/a n/a  Y  Y
133 doMaintenance.php  Y n/a  Y  Y  Y
134 createCommonPasswordCdb.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
135 convertExtensionToRegistration.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
136 deleteArchivedFiles.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
137 deleteArchivedRevisions.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
138 deleteEqualMessages.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
139 deleteOldRevisions.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
140 deleteUserEmail.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
141 fixMergeHistoryCorruption.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
142 getText.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
143 fetchText.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
144 findClasses.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
145 emptyUserGroup.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
146 findMissingActors.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
147 getLagTimes.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
148 generateConfigDefaultSettings.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
149 generateConfigNames.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
150 generateConfigSchemaArray.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
151 generateConfigSchemaYaml.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
152 cleanupUsersWithNoId.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
153 createAndPromote.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
154 cleanupUploadStash.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
155 cleanupTitles.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
156 cleanupSpam.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
157 cleanupPreferences.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
158 cleanupEmptyCategories.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
159 cleanupCaps.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
160 addChangeTag.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
161 blockUsers.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
162 changePassword.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
163 createBotPassword.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
164 dumpUploads.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
165 invalidateBotPasswords.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
166 migrateActors.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
167 nukeNS.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
168 pageExists.php ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
169 populateChangeTagDef.php ‎ ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
170 purgeExpiredBlocks.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
171 purgeOldText.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
172 purgePage.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
173 reassignEdits.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
174 rebuildall.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
175 rebuildrecentchanges.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
176 rebuildtextindex.php ‎ ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
177 removeInvalidEmails.php ‎ ‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
178 recountCategories.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
179 purgeMessageBlobStore.php  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y
180 purgeParserCache.php‎  Y  Y  Y  Y  Y

Story edit

When I got this grant approved, I got COVID infected along with my family at that time. That was hard time for me as this project slip for two months. But my project advisor Alex was so supportive that we started project with new energy.

There were many things that I did not think but I added that thing in scripts while documentation like using MW version template to show MediaWiki version in which the script was added.

Originally, I planned for 124 script as mentioned in the grant proposal. But I got so interested in this project that I continued the work till 180 maintenace script. We finnally finished the work with 180 maintenace. This number is too far from what I expected while starting the work.

It is weird for me but an experienced user endorsed my grant even after 9 months after from grant approved. This show success of this project.

Survey(s) edit

Project Pralekhan feedback was collected from 25 Feb 2022 to 5 March 2022 through Google Forms. We got 12 responses from Google Form. There are 6 responses with username (including 2 WMF staff). Please read the detailed compiled version at mw:Project Pralekhan/Survey Result.

Interesting outputs or outcomes
  1. 91% of users are finding new structured documentation helpful. (A huge surprise success)
  2. 75% users are satisfied with the usage section (Again, huge success as project documentation main goal was to demonstrate usage)
  3. 33% users are not finding easy navigation between the scripts. (We improved mw:Manual:Maintenance scripts/List of scripts based on this feedback)
  4. Use LimeSurvey ( LimeSurvey ) instead of Google Form for future surveys as Google Form is forbidden in China and many other countries.

Apart from this, grantee also took a Unconference session on this project at Wikimania 2021 to showcase and take feedback from community.

Other edit

Is there another way you would prefer to communicate the actual results of your project, as you understand them? You can do that here!

Methods and activities edit

Project resources edit

Learning edit

What worked well edit

It is now good to see that so many scripts now have structured documentation. With great help from APaskulin (WMF), I have done 180 maintenance scripts. Everything going very well except the below challenges.

I find below learning pattern useful:

What didn’t work edit

  • Every script has its own use so creating the environment for every script is sometimes very stressful. I need to collect information and then have to replicate different-different situations for every script to run in the terminal.
  • Some scripts have a bug (Like one I discovered during this project see phab:T291331) that makes documentation a little bit hard.
  • I faced an issue with collecting feedback from visitors as it has some privacy concern that needs some follow-up with WMF's legal team. It was discussed with project advisor at phab:T295695 and we decided to not take feedback at wiki instead, used Google Form.

Other recommendations edit

If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please list them here.

Next steps and opportunities edit

There are total of 200-250 maintenance scripts. Under this project, I have documented 180 maintenance scripts. This project already done lot of work and there is small amount of work remained. So I will be work on those as volunteer to document them. So there is nothing major for future's next steps.

Part 2: The Grant edit

Finances edit

Actual spending edit

Expense Approved amount Actual funds spent Difference
Technical writer 8750 8750 0
Internet 200 240 -40
Contingency 400 261 139
Total 9350 9251 99


There is a minor $40 increase in the Internet bill as I forget to add tax on the $200 internet plan. There is an 18% of Goods and Services tax per Government of India. This amount has been adjusted through the contingency fund.

Although, It took 420 hours for the technical writer as he documented 180 scripts instead 124 scripts that were originally mentioned in the grant. But this is not being compensated through a contingency fund. It is just being mentioned here for any reference.

Remaining funds edit

Do you have any unspent funds from the grant?

Remaining funds have been used or will be used for other approved mission-aligned activities. This use has been requested in writing and approved by WMF.
  • Yes, the remaining amount is 99 USD. Since, It is part of contingency so this was as a backup fund.

If you have unspent funds, they must be returned to WMF. Please see the instructions for returning unspent funds and indicate here if this is still in progress, or if this is already completed:

Documentation edit

Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grantsadmin wikimedia.org, according to the guidelines here?

  • Yes

Confirmation of project status edit

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?

  • Yes, best in my knowledge.

Is your project completed?

  • Yes, with major success.

Grantee reflection edit

It is a really very awesome experience for me to work on maintenance scripts. Even, I have been working on MediaWiki since early 2017 but only after working on this project, I came to know many other scripts as well that are very useful. I got Alex as my mentor. I can't express how she is good in nature. A great thank you, Alex.

The project got some delay from my end which I acknowledge. But this is the nature of human work. We can't expect to things go as well as planned. Working and giving shape to this project with help of Alex really made me proud. Thank you again Alex for your support and WMF for funding.-Jayprakash >>> Talk 19:08, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

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