Help:Extension:FileImporter/en



The and  extensions aim to make moving files from a local wiki to Wikimedia Commons easier. The new functionality allows to move files with all their original data intact, while documenting the move in the version history.

The provides a link to Wikimedia Commons on the local wiki and hands over a URL to the extension FileImporter. The is a Wikimedia Commons extension which imports the file including all data when all prerequisites are met. Technically, the files won't be "moved", but "copied".

FileImporter has been deployed to Wikimedia Commons in June 2018. To make use of it, you need to activate the FileExporter as a beta feature in your local wiki. (Exception: A few Wikimedia wikis already have the FileExporter as a default feature.)

Background
FileImporter and FileExporter aim to fulfill a request from the German-speaking community's Technical Wishlist and are developed by WMDE's tech team. More information can be found on the main project page on Meta.

Step by step
You need to be logged in in order to use the feature.

How imported files can be found

 * In the revision history of a file, the import is shown as a null revision (i.e. an entry in the revision list that doesn’t actually change the page). If changes were made during import, an additional text revision is created.
 * The revision that is created during import is tagged with . This way it can be filtered on the Recent Changes page.
 * For the import, an upload log entry and an import log entry are created and associated with the null revision and with the importing user, and timestamped with the import date. Having both the null revision and the upload log entry is the default for uploads, although it leads to "doubled" entries on the history page, see this example file and its log entries.
 * For (old) imported file revisions, upload log entries  are created with the date and user of the original upload to make all file revisions appear in Commons' upload log. These revisions are also tagged with.

Deployment roadmap

 * 2018-06-12: Export to test.wikipedia.org
 * FileExporter as a beta feature on mediawiki.org and [//test2.wikipedia.org/ test2.wikipedia.org]. (To test the export, you also need to be an auto-confirmed user on these wikis.)
 * FileImporter on [//test.wikipedia.org/ test.wikipedia.org]
 * 2018-06-25: Export to Wikimedia Commons
 * FileExporter as a beta feature on de.WP, fa.WP, ar.WP
 * exporting from mediawiki.org now to Wikimedia Commons
 * FileImporter on Wikimedia Commons
 * 2018-07-11:
 * FileExporter as a beta feature on [//wikisource.org/ wikisource]
 * 2019-01-16:
 * Deployment of the FileExporter beta feature to all other wikis
 * 2019-09-24:
 * Deployment as a default feature on de.WP, fa.WP, ko.WP, mr.WP and sourceswiki (wikisource.org)

Links

 * Main project page on Meta
 * - extension manual
 * - FileImporter configurations
 * - extension manual
 * tag/move-files-to-commons/ - Phabricator project
 * overview: How templates are matched with the FileImporter extension