Extension:TitleBlacklist

MediaWiki extensions manual - list

TitleBlacklist Release status: stable
Implementation	User rights, API
Description	Block the creation of pages matching a regular expression blacklist
Author(s)	Victor Vasiliev (VasilievVVtalk)
Last version	v1.4.2 (2008-08-05)
MediaWiki	1.12+
Database changes	no
License	GPL v2+
Download	Download snapshot (Git master) Git [?]: repo summary tree code changes
Parameters $wgTitleBlacklistSources
Added rights tboverride tboverride-account
Hooks used getUserPermissionsErrorsExpensive AbortMove AbortNewAccount AbortAutoAccount EditFilter ArticleSaveComplete UserCreateForm
Check usage and version matrix

The TitleBlacklist extension allows wiki administrators to block the creation, movement and upload of pages, the title of which matches one or more regular expressions, as well as blocking creation of accounts with matching usernames.

Requirements

Extension requires MediaWiki 1.12.0 or above (it needs AbortMove hook).

Download

You can download the extension directly from the MediaWiki source code repository (browse code). You can get:

One of the extensions tags

Not all extensions have tags. Some extensions have tags for each release, in which case those tags have the same stability as the release. To download a tag

• Go to the tags list
• Click the name of the tag you want to download
• Click "snapshot"

The latest version of one of the extensions branches

Each extension has a master branch containing the latest code (might be unstable). Extensions can have further branches as well.

• Go to the branches list
• Click the branch name
• Click "snapshot"

A snapshot made during the release of a MediaWiki version.

This might be unstable and is not guaranteed to work with the associated MediaWiki version.

• Download snapshot

After you've got the code, save it into the extensions/TitleBlacklist directory of your wiki.

If you are familiar with git and have shell access to your server, you can obtain the extension, with all its tags and branches, as follows:

cd extensions
git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/p/mediawiki/extensions/TitleBlacklist.git

Installation

1. Add the line

   require_once( "$IP/extensions/TitleBlacklist/TitleBlacklist.php" );
   

   to your LocalSettings.php file
2. Configure blacklist sources (see below)

Installation can be verified through the Special:Version page on the wiki.

Note: By default it only affects non-sysop users. To make it default for all use $wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['tboverride'] = false;.

Multiple blacklist sources

Title blacklist can be gathered from multiple sources except local message. For configuring blacklist sources use code like this:

$wgTitleBlacklistSources = array(
    array(
         'type' => TBLSRC_LOCALPAGE,
         'src'  => 'MediaWiki:Titleblacklist',
    ),
    array(
         'type' => TBLSRC_URL,
         'src'  => 'http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Title_blacklist&action=raw',
    ),
    array(
         'type' => TBLSRC_FILE,
         'src'  => '/home/wikipedia/blacklists/titles',
    ),
);

• Use TBLSRC_LOCALPAGE for using local page as title blacklist
• Use TBLSRC_URL for using external URL as title blacklist
• Use TBLSRC_FILE for using file as title blacklist

Editing the blacklist

The title blacklist is found on the MediaWiki:Titleblacklist page.

This page consists of regular expressions, each on a separate line, for example:

Foo <autoconfirmed|noedit|errmsg=blacklisted-testpage> 
[Bb]ar #No one should create article about it

Each entry may also contain optional attributes, enclosed in <> and separated with |

• autoconfirmed - only autoconfirmed users are able to create/upload/move such pages
• casesensitive - don't ignore case when checking title for being blacklisted
• noedit - users are also unable to edit this article
• moveonly - forbid moves but allow ordinary creation (rev:35163)
• newaccountonly - forbid creation of matching usernames, but allow page creation (rev:38977)
• reupload - allow reuploads of existing blacklisted files (rev:33656)
• errmsg - the name of the message that should be displayed instead of standard

What is referred to here as regular expressions are not proper regular expressions, but rather subpatterns that are inserted into a hard-coded regular expression. i.e. the subpattern Foo from above would create a regular expression like /^Foo$/usi.

Underscores ("_") in regular expressions will be converted to spaces by the extension, because titles are matched against its text form ("Page title" instead of "Page_title").

Whitelist

There is also a whitelist at MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist. The blacklist is applied first, then the whitelist. So user input that matches an entry on the blacklist is blocked, except if it matches an entry on the whitelist. You don't have to configure anything in LocalSettings.php in order to use the whitelist. Some of the optional attributes listed above, for the blacklist, also work for the whitelist, e.g. casesensitive.

Customising warning messages

When an attempt to create a page is blocked due to a blacklisted title, a warning message is shown to the user. This can be customised via system messages

• MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-forbidden-edit: for page creation and editing,
• MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-forbidden-move: for page moves,
• MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-forbidden-upload: for image uploads.
• MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account: for new accounts

Custom messages can be defined by using the errmsg attribute.

Using TitleBlacklist to control user account creation

Conceptual overview

The username for new accounts will be regarded by Titleblacklist differently to the way it regards new articles. Titleblacklist will prepend "User:" (or its localized equivalent) to the string that a user enters at Username on the create account page. So when Titleblacklist is performing matches with your Regex's, as found on MediaWiki:Titleblacklist or MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist, it will match against "User:" + <userinput>.

For example, imagine you want to block "jill" as a new user. Imagine you had a blacklist regex "jill.* <newaccountonly>" and a user enters "jill" as the username on the create account page. This will pass as the comparison Titleblacklist will make will be between "jill.*" (the regex) and "User:jill" (the constructed input string). These don't match and so "jill" is allowed (and you probably didn't intend this). To effect the intended block use a regex like ".*jill.* <newaccountonly>" or "User:jill.* <newaccountonly>" on MediaWiki:Titleblacklist.

If you want to block all users except for all those that do match a regex then block all users in MediaWiki:Titleblacklist and write the permissible regex in the MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist.

A working example

If you would like to force all usernames, during account creation, to consist of exactly two names, space separated, with each name capitalized then do the following:

1. Install TitleBlacklist.

2. Add the following to your LocalSettings.php

require_once( "{$IP}/extensions/TitleBlacklist/TitleBlacklist.php" );
// Apply to all, not just anonymous users.
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['tboverride'] = false; 
$wgTitleBlacklistSources = array(
  array(
    'type' => TBLSRC_LOCALPAGE,
    'src'  => 'MediaWiki:Titleblacklist'
  )
);

3. In https://www.example.com/mywiki/MediaWiki:Titleblacklist add

# Block all user accounts, and only permit those that match the MediaWiki:Titlewhitelistregex 
.* <newaccountonly>

4. In https://www.example.com/mywiki/MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist add

# Only allow two names, separated by a space, with each name capitalized. E.g "Fred Mew" OK, "Fred mew" fails, "Fredmew" fails.
# Depends on .* <newaccounonly> in blacklist
User:[A-Z][a-z]+\s[A-Z][a-z]+ <casesensitive>

5. In https://www.example.com/mywiki/MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account edit

The user name "$2" has been blocked from creation.It matches the following blacklist entry: <code>$1</code>.
 
Please use a real name for the user name. User names need to be comprised of two names separated by a space. Each name must be capitalised.<br />
 
E.g.:
* "Mary Smith". OK.
* "MarySmith". Invalid.
* "Mary smith". Invalid.
* "marysmith". Invalid.
 
User name creation (and article creation) blocking rules are controlled by [[MediaWiki:Titleblacklist]] and [[MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist]]. 
This message can be customised at [[MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account]]

Change log

A complete log of changes to the extension code (including internationalisation updates from third parties) is available from the Subversion log, however, summarised information on changes between point releases is given below:

Version	Revision	Release Date	Comments
1.4.2	38636	2008-08-05
1.4.1	31074	2008-02-18
1.4	28866	2007-12-26
1.3	28657	2007-12-19	Check for blacklist validity before saving
1.2	28504	2007-12-15	Cleaned up version with caching support
1.1	28362	2007-12-10	New version with support of entry attributes and multiple sources
1.0	27208	2007-11-05	Initial version

Resources on regular expressions

• Brief Introduction to Regular Expressions

  http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/services/helpsheets/unix/regex.html

• The 30 Minute Regex. Tutorial

  http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/regextutorial.aspx

• PHP: PCRE regex syntax, the syntax of regular expressions used by PHP — and therefore this extension

  http://php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.syntax.php

See also

• Combating spam and combating vandalism.

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