Revision as of 16:33, 21 March 2009

Please read this before reporting a bug

Before listing your bug, it would be appreciated if you considered the likely extent of the problem. Most new bugs result from quirky, non-standard ways of specifying data. In many cases, it would probably be quicker to change all the affected references to use the standard format than to re-write extensive portions of the bot, and I'm now hoping to use my time for more constructive editing!

Perennial problems

Updating year for articles on final publication

One other change I noticed in that same edit. It's quite common to cite medical articles when they have been published online but have not been officially assigned year, volume, and pages. For example, Autism therapies formerly contained this citation:

Shimabukuro TT, Grosse SD, Rice C (2007). "Medical expenditures for children with an autism spectrum disorder in a privately insured population". J Autism Dev Disord. doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0424-y. PMID 17690969.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

because the paper was published online in 2007. Eventually the paper was published in the official journal in 2008, and Citation bot updated the citation by adding volume=38 and pages=546, resulting in this partially-improved version:

Shimabukuro TT, Grosse SD, Rice C (2007). "Medical expenditures for children with an autism spectrum disorder in a privately insured population". J Autism Dev Disord. 38: 546. doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0424-y. PMID 17690969.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

To finish the improvement, I had to manually change the year=2007 to year=2008, add issue=3, and add the last page number (552), resulting in the following:

Shimabukuro TT, Grosse SD, Rice C (2008). "Medical expenditures for children with an autism spectrum disorder in a privately insured population". J Autism Dev Disord. 38 (3): 546–52. doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0424-y. PMID 17690969.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

I understand that Citation bot does not have the issue=3 and the last-page 552 information available, so it cannot fix that part of the citation. However, it does have the date available, so it could update year=2007 to year=2008, thus saving me a bit of work. (I have to clean up after the Citation bot a lot, so every bit would help.) Could you please fix the citation bot to add 1 to the year if necessary, when it adds a volume= and pages= info? Thanks. Eubulides (talk) 16:54, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

I can do this. The downside is that where the data in the central database is incorrect, there is no way for users to stop the bot inputting the incorrect year each time it visits a page. I'll leave it up to you to decide which will cause editors more inconvenience - it's a tricky one to resolve! Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 23:01, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Undesirable location= and publisher= for Cite book

This edit to Autism added "|publisher= AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC PRESS INC (DC) |location= United States" to two citations of DSM-IV-TR. In both cases, the publisher= and location= information is undesirable: a "location= United States" is useless for an American organization, and a "|publisher= AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC PRESS INC (DC)" is simply duplicated (and poorly-capitalized) information for a citation that already says "|author= American Psychiatric Association". The Citation bot used to not make changes like this; can you please fix it so that it continues to not make these changes, or let me know how to shut it off for these citations? In the mean time I by hand. Thanks. Eubulides (talk) 04:54, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

I've been thinking about this; can you propose a solution for how the bot can work out when it's inappropriate to add a publisher and location to a citation? If not, the usual trick of adding a <!-- comment --> into any field you want the bot to ignore will work. And I'll make the capitalisation prettier when I get the chance. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 15:38, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Is this a bug?

Is this a bug? I don't know why it added that parameter to the citation template... I'm still semi-new to things here. Killiondude (talk) 07:59, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

It's not a bug, it's to bring to editors' attention the fact that some data is included in the template but is not displayed because it lacks a parameter (e.g."title=") before it. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 14:46, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Bot never finishes on "Causes of autism"

When I visit http://toolserver.org/~verisimilus/Bot/DOI_bot/ and enter "Causes of autism", check only the "Thorough mode" box (without committing edits), and hit "Submit Query", the bot seems to give up about halfway through. The last few lines of output look like this. Maybe that citation is putting it into a loop?

Mercury exposure and child development outcomes
Already has a DOI. All details present - no need to query CrossRef. No CrossRef record found.
Determining format of URL...assessing URL Done.
Checking that the DOI is operational...

Eubulides (talk) 19:29, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

I'll look into it; there are still some issues with the toolserver servers which are making debugging difficult at the moment, so it might be a short while. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 22:27, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Thorough mode is ugly - it might be a while before I can fix this. Meanwhile, it works in standard mode. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 03:23, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Outstanding bugs and suggestions

Suggestion (arχiv)

• How about extending the bot to cover {{cite arXiv}}?
• How about extending the bot to search the arχiv database for preprints/author info/publication info when published...?
• Make sure to read this before, else the arχiv might not be too happy

Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 00:08, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

That sounds a good idea. I'd need to find out if they had an 'API' first though - i.e. a way that bots are allowed to access their data. If you can find out if they have a robot access policy that would allow the use you are suggesting, then please let me know and I'll add its implementation to my to do list. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 03:43, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm no coder so I don't know exactly what you need, but this seems related.Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 04:53, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Looks promising, thanks. It may be a while until I get round to it but I'll look at implementing it as soon as I can. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 05:14, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

While on the subject, I though I should mention a script I'd written some time ago to semi-automatically normalize arXiv URLs: User talk:Ilmari Karonen/fixarxivlinks.js. Perhaps there are some features there that you might want to include. The linked page on arXiv identifiers for for interacting services may also be useful. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 12:49, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Looks handy, thanks. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 13:29, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Any update on the subject?Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 07:39, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

 Done Now working. Specify an arXiv and the bot will complete the rest. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 01:53, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Cool. However the Bot overwrites some user input. See where the bot changed the way the author was specified (breaking the style of the page).Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 12:41, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

As I understand it, last-first is preferable to author, for reasons including metadata formatting. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 16:19, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Suggestion (format parameter)

Lots of templates have a |format= parameter, where the type of file linked by the URL is written (typically PDFs). DOI bot could easily fill those parameters.Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 08:33, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

On second thought, this is an idiotic idea. There is already the PDF symbol. If anything the bot should remove the |format=PDF parameter.Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 07:41, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

User:SandyGeorgia told me that her browser doesn't display the PDF symbol, and handles PDFs very poorly (can't recall if it crashes the browser or if it runs very slowly). For users of such browers the "|format=PDF" is essential so that users are warned not to click on links to the PDF documents. Eubulides (talk) 08:02, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Alright then. Then it's back to where I was before.Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 08:22, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

The use of the format parameter varies from article to article with editor preference, so I don't think it's appropriate to involve a bot with this parameter, unfortunately. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 16:21, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Bug

Here the bot added already entered parameters (journal, year, volume, issue, and pages were all previously entered). Note that a few of those are re-entered because of typos, these are not the ones I'm talking about. It seems limited to the Nano letters and Critical Reviews in Solid State and Materials Sciences journals. Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 08:38, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

How interesting. Thanks for the report, I'll look into it. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 13:44, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Adding wrong URLs

The bot keeps adding incorrect URLs. I have used your tool in the past without any problems until today when it seemed to start doing a lot of bizarre things regarding adding incorrect and irrelevant URLs. Here is a list of edits that I had to reverse manually after using your citation tool., , , , , , .--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 21:51, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, thanks for the report. Looks like a problem at the PubMed database. I'll try and implement a workaround as soon as I get the chance. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 21:56, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I think that you are right. I noticed that they recently changed at least the layout of search results, so they have certainly made some changes to their system. Thanks.--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 22:28, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Incorrect DOI when different sources have same page number

This edit inserted doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7317.869 for Carapetis et al. 2001 (PMID 11683165), but that's the wrong DOI: that DOI points to Powles 2001 (PMID 11683163). What seems to have happened is that there are four PMIDs (11683163 through 11683166) that all have identical page numbers (PubMed says they're all "BMJ. 2001 Oct 13; 323 (7317): 869"), and the citation bot is confused by this and is mistakenly thinking that the DOI for PMID 11683163 is valid for the other PMIDs. Eubulides (talk) 04:46, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Difficult to treat this false positive: I've manually inserted the correct DOI as a resolution. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 19:42, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, but that edit was not correct, as it reinserted doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7317.869, which (as described above) is the wrong DOI for Carapetis et al. 2001 (PMID 11683165). I worked around the problem by replacing the DOI with a comment saying "citation bot fodder". Is there some way to find out the correct DOI in cases like these? If so, I can insert the correct one by hand. Eubulides (talk) 03:26, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

That's the DOI I found here, which is the page I found when I googled the title quoted in the citation. Perhaps, because the articles are on the same page, they have been given the same DOI? Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 03:36, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Maybe so (and if so, it's clearly an error; see this brief summary of DOI errors (PDF)); but for whatever reason doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7317.869 clearly does not work for Carapetis et al. 2001 (PMID 11683165). The URL you gave, http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj%3b323/7317/869/a, hints that doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7317.869/a or doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7317.869.a might work, but they don't work either. And I can't use the doi_brokendate= parameter of {{Cite journal}}, since it would generate a claim that doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7317.869 is inactive, even though it is not inactive: it's a perfectly valid DOI for Powles 2001 (PMID 11683163). For now I can't think of any better solution than putting a citation-bot fodder comment into the doi= field. Eubulides (talk) 05:54, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Probably worth making sure this comment explains the situation to human editors, and following this up with the publishers. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 14:28, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Suggestion: ISBN

Any reason why the bot doesn't search for ISBNs for {{cite book}}?Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 08:46, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

API thingy whatever an API is.Headbomb {_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics}

The database only permits 100 automated queries per day; once the bot has exceeded this limit it cannot search for more. These queries are prioritised so manually-initiated uses of the bot get first dibs on the queries. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 17:30, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

A period in the author's name?

After running a request for DOI bot, it performed this edit. The last edit it made put a period after the author's name. Is it really supposed to be doing this? -ΖαππερΝαππερ _Alexandria 20:58, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I think this is fixed (but hard to test, as it only gets such erroneous authors from ISBNs, and I've exhausted today's searches.) Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 03:42, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

UPPERCASE change to Titlecase inappropriately

Some journals have all uppercase words, e.g., FEBS Journal. Your otherwise very useful bot changes these to titlecase (Febs in this case). Xasodfuih (talk) 20:05, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

For practical reasons I have to add these exclusions on an individual basis. Let me know if there are any others. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 03:14, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Added month= and day= when not wanted

The same edit added "|month= Feb |day= 02" to the following citation:

{{cite journal |journal= Psychiatr News |year=2007 |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=22 |title= Schizophrenia risk factor found in maternal blood |author= Arehart-Treichel J |url=http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/3/22}}

Generally speaking, I don't want month= or day= added to citations: I want only the year to be displayed. There are exceptions (e.g., newspapers) but this isn't one of them. Eubulides (talk) 09:36, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't have access to the bot server at the moment so can't implement changes. Best solution is to enter a comment in the parameters. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 23:08, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

I think this is  Fixed. Let me know if not. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 16:33, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Incorrect parameters inserted into citation template

Hi, your bot inserted the following parameters into the following citation template in "Treasure trove" which are entirely incorrect:

Incorrect: "Treasure finds", Dental student, 49 (7), Department for Culture, Media and Sport: 52–6, 1971, ISSN 0011-877X, PMID 5281826, retrieved 2008-04-12 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help).

Correct: Treasure finds, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, retrieved 2008-04-12.

— Cheers, JackLee 19:01, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi, at this edit the bot added a publisher name ending in "Group". According to {{citation}} these should be treated the same way as "Inc.", "Ltd." and "Publishing", which is to say truncated.LeadSongDog (talk) 20:56, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

page= vs pages=

This edit to Cancer inserted "|pages = 1167" to a citation that already had "|page = 1167". For "cite journal", there is no difference between "|page=" and "|pages=", so shouldn't the bot leave citations like that alone? Eubulides (talk) 05:58, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Unwanted day=01

The same edit to Cancer inserted an unwanted "|day=01" to a citation that already had "|year=2004" and "|month=August". That journal is monthly, no? So the "|day=01" isn't wanted there. There is a similar problem with a later citation. Eubulides (talk) 05:58, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Tagging dead links

Could not see anything about this above. Bot is adding dead link tags for links that are not dead: Kind regards, Tom B (talk) 22:28, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

at least for the first one, it might be because the doi (doi:10.1038/news050321-9) is bad, not the url.  —Chris Capoccia ⁄_C

It's more likely because at the instant that the bot tried to access the links, it could not establish a connection to the server. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 15:38, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Random page creation

Bot re-created page Template:Cite pmid/19240221 with nonsense redirect. MBisanz 07:39, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Recreated Template:Cite pmid/16230032 with a bad redirect. MBisanz 05:35, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

The problem is that the bot isn't creating the target page when it ought to. I'll fix this when I get the opportunity (Saturday?). Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 15:36, 16 March 2009 (UTC)