https://github.com/nichtich/wikidata-lua-client

Experiments in accessing Wikidata with Lua
https://github.com/nichtich/wikidata-lua-client

Last synced: 5 days ago
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Experiments in accessing Wikidata with Lua

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/nichtich/wikidata-lua-client
• Owner: nichtich
• Created: 2014-01-05T13:21:09.000Z (almost 11 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2014-01-05T19:54:39.000Z (almost 11 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-10-30T16:24:49.857Z (about 2 months ago)
• Language: Python
• Size: 113 KB
• Stars: 2
• Watchers: 4
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
This git repository contains some experiments in making use of Wikidata via Lua

scripts.

# tl;dr

MediaWiki supports Lua to make use of content from Wikidata but existing Lua

scripts are not subject to serious software development.

# Lua support in MediaWiki

[Scribunto](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Scribunto) is an extension

to embed Lua scripts in MediaWiki, the software that Wikipedia and other wikis

run with. The scripts are stored as "modules" in form of wiki pages in the

special *module*-namespace of a MediaWiki instance. Each module provides a set

of functions which can be called with optional arguments from other wiki pages.

    {{#invoke: Module_name | function_name | arg1 | arg2 | arg3 ... }}

To give an example ...

    ... TODO

The predefined table `mw` provides [additional Scribunto libraries](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Scribunto/Lua_reference_manual#Scribunto_libraries), for instance to load data and code from one module into another module.

There is a small [tutorial on Lua for MediaWiki](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua_scripting/Tutorial).

# Scribuntu's console API

If a Lua script is not something huge, doesn't require (m)any external

dependencies, and doesn't have user interaction, one can make use of

Scribunto's console AJAX interface:

    ./consoleapi.py https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php < example.lua

# Local MediaWiki and Wikidata libraries

Local lua libraries to access MediaWiki and Wikidata do not exist yet. One

should create *Lua rocks* to access MediaWiki in general and WikiData in

particular.

# Managing Lua modules from MediaWiki in git

Managing program code in form of pages in a wiki is possible, but a pain compared to files in a source control system. Luckily there is [git-remote-mediawiki](https://github.com/moy/Git-Mediawiki/wiki), a bridge between MediaWiki and git.

    git init

    git remote add origin mediawiki::http://en.wikipedia.org/w/

    git -c remote.origin.pages=module:Hello pull

    ...

Fetching all pages in the module-namespace is [not supported yet](https://github.com/moy/Git-Mediawiki/issues/10).

# Managing Lua modules as Lua rocks

If source code is created to be used as programming library by other scripts,

putting it into a revision control system is only one part of serious software

development. The library or module should also be covered by documentation and

unit tests, and it should be distributed as software packaged. In the case of

Lua, the standard package management system is [Lua rocks](http://luarocks.org).

Until now there seems to exist no serious coordination of Lua scripts and

modules for MediaWiki in form of lua rocks. The Wikimedia habbit of just

managing everything in form of wiki pages makes serious management of Lua 

modules difficult but not impossible.