API:Client code

API access libraries
 Notes to library developers


 * Please use GZip compression when making API calls.
 * Bots eat up a lot of bandwidth, which is not free.


 * You must set a descriptive User Agent header
 * Please include your username and wiki or email address.


 * You should attempt to minimize the number of API calls by asking for multiple items in one request. Use  and get all the needed lists and properties at the same time. Only ask for what you actually need.
 * We are planning to migrate to JSON-only API, removing all other formats like XML, YAML, and PHP.
 * When querying, use the new continue parameter. (March 2013)

Awk

 * MediaWiki Awk API Library. Call the API with Awk! Includes an example program (retrieve backlinks ie. Special:WhatLinksHere). Last updated May 2015.

Bash

 * See API:Client_code/Bash. Requires curl package.Smallman12q (talk) 00:02, 7 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Make sure to add your email address to the User-Agent line.

C++

 * libmediawiki. There is a tutorial in KDE TechBase. Last updated Mar 2015.

Clojure
No updates after May 2013:
 * cloki Last updated in 2010.

Common Lisp
No updates after May 2013
 * cl-mediawiki is a Common Lisp wrapper for the mediawiki API. It is available as a direct download, or (more conveniently) via quicklisp. Last updated in 2012.

Delphi/Object Pascal
No updates after May 2013:
 * MediaWiki API Wrapper, based on ICS open-source sockets, with synchronous and asynchronous (event based) requests, requires the JEDI Code Library for dependencies. Last updated in 2012.

Go

 * go-mediawiki Go wrapper for the MediaWiki API
 * go-mwclient another Go wrapper for the MediaWiki API (supports maxlag, query continuations)

Haskell

 * http://hackage.haskell.org/package/mediawiki

Java

 * JavaWikiBotFramework - a Java library that makes almost all API functions accessible. On github: https://github.com/eldur/jwbf . (Evaluation)
 * Wikidata Toolkit - A Java library with functions to process data from Wikidata and other Wikibase sites, via XML dumps or the API. On github: https://github.com/Wikidata/Wikidata-Toolkit . JDoc: http://wikidata.github.io/Wikidata-Toolkit/.
 * Wiki.java — a simple one-class API implementation
 * WPCleaner — a Java editing tool that includes a package for MediaWiki API.
 * Bliki Engine - Java Wikipedia API - very complete. Can convert wikicode to HTML, DocBook or PDF. Has a helper library for API calls.
 * jwiki - A Java library emphasizing simplicity and ease-of-use.

No updates since May 2013:
 * MediaWiki-Java-API
 * Java Wikipedia Library
 * java-mwapi

JavaScript

 * https://github.com/macbre/nodemw - Node.js client, actively maintained as of May 2014.
 * mediawiki.api.js - A module that ships with MediaWiki core, abstracts a handful of API calls into simple one liners (uses  internally).
 * mediawiki-js (npm) Ultra-light, vanilla JavaScript wrapper of Mediawiki API for use in the browser
 * Node.js MediaWiki module - A JavaScript framework of standard requests (e.g. log in, log out, read, edit, etc.) as well as a general wrapper method. Includes some helpful stuff like throttling.
 * WikiJS - a simple node.js library written in Kal language that serves as an interface to MediaWiki

No updates since May 2013:
 * wikifetch
 * mwapilib2 - A layer overtop of the requests. Make JS gadgets easier. Updated 2012.
 * JsMwApi A convenience wrapper around raw requests, with some helpers for editing and parsing.

.NET

 * AutoWikiBrowser's WikiFunctions library has classes for editing and getting lists of pages via the API. See ApiEdit
 * DotNetWikiBot Framework - written in C#, based on Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.5 (Tutorial)
 * MorebitsDotNet contains C# code for uploading files through the API.
 * LinqToWiki, strongly typed library for accessing most of MediaWiki API, with support for autocompletion

No updates after May 2013:
 * WikiAccess - a C#-library that makes some API functions accessible, has write API. Last updated April 2013.

OCaml
No updates after May 2013:
 * ocaml-mediawiki Last updated in 2012.

Perl

 * MediaWiki::Bot - A higher-level Perl module with read and write functions. Easily extensible with plugins, for example to provide administrator functions. Updated Jan 2014. (Evaluation)
 * source code on Github
 * Client scripts (As of May 2014, last updated in 2010)

No updates after May 2013:
 * MediaWiki::API - A Perl module for interfacing with the MediaWiki API with file upload/download and editing support. (Debian package). (Evaluation)
 * CMS-MediaWiki Perl extension for fetching, creating and updating MediaWiki pages. Documentation: http://search.cpan.org/dist/CMS-MediaWiki/lib/CMS/MediaWiki.pm
 * Perl MediaWiki API - An open source Perl module wrapping many of the MediaWiki API functions.

PHP
There are many PHP frameworks for the api, see here for a full list and comparison of frameworks.
 * Apibot - a modular, somewhat ambitious bot with overlayed UNIX-like framework
 * mediawiki-api-base - Library for basic MediaWiki api use, actively maintained as of May 2014.
 * mediawiki-api - Library for querying MediaWiki, actively maintained as of May 2014.
 * wikibase-api - Library for querying Wikidata, actively maintained as of May 2014.
 * wikidrain - A wrapper for the WikiMedia API centralized around easily and simply querying Wikipedia articles. (Still actively being developed as of April 2014)
 * MediaWiki_Api - A simple PHP curl based API wrapper with basic functionality. Almost completely undocumented.
 * Wikimate - Gets and edits MediaWiki pages.

No updates after May 2013:
 * SxWiki - a lightweight, simple MediaWiki bot framework. (Unmaintained since 2008)

Sometimes people try to use this kind of libraries to access a MediaWiki installation on the same server. This is often unnecessary because MediaWiki itself is written in PHP, especially when the only purpose of the script is interacting with MediaWiki. By 'ing WebStart.php (  may need to be set beforehand, see Manual:$IP), a script gets access to MediaWiki components and consequently it can call the API internally or use other MediaWiki classes and functions directly, which greatly reduces server load.

Python

 * Pywikibot - A collection of python scripts. Frequently updated (Nov 2014) (Git repository) (IRC) (Evaluation)
 * [//github.com/mwclient/mwclient mwclient] - A Python library that makes most of the API functions accessible. ([//pypi.python.org/pypi/mwclient/ PyPI]) (Evaluation)
 * wikitools - Provides several layers of abstraction around the API. Should be up to date ([//pypi.python.org/pypi/wikitools PyPI]) (Evaluation)
 * [//github.com/ianweller/python-simplemediawiki simplemediawiki] - A simple, no-abstraction interface to the API. Handles cookies and other extremely basic things. Python 2.6+ and 3.3+ compatible. Docs at http://pythonhosted.org/simplemediawiki/ .([//pypi.python.org/pypi/simplemediawiki PyPI]) (Evaluation)
 * Wikipedia -  A Python library that makes it easy to access and parse data from Wikipedia. (PyPI)
 * [//github.com/yuvipanda/python-mwapi python-mwapi] - A simple wrapper around the Mediawiki API, meant to closely mirror its interface ([//pypi.python.org/pypi/python-mwapi PyPI])
 * [//github.com/legoktm/supersimplemediawiki supersimplemediawiki] - Similar to simplemediawiki, but does not handle tokens or compression.
 * Pattern, - web mining module, has classes for handling MediaWiki API requests, handles continuations
 * ceterach - Python3 library, fully PEP8 compliant.
 * mediawiki-utilities - Python3 library, part of a larger suite of research/database tools ([//pypi.python.org/pypi/mediawiki-utilities PyPI])

R

 * WikipediR - a read-only API wrapper.

Ruby

 * mediawiki/ruby/api (GitHub mirror), Mediawiki Ruby API (Gerrit master repo) - Ruby API client library in active development by Wikimedia Foundation as of January 2015
 * MediaWiki::Gateway - Ruby framework for the API. Maintained (as of January 2015) but not actively developed; patches are welcome. Tested up to MediaWiki 1.23, compatible with Wikimedia wikis.  Currently incompatible with new continue system. (Evaluation)
 * wikipedia-client - Ruby framework using the API.
 * Sunflower - Provides Ruby access to MediaWiki API; can be used as a base for more sophisticated bots or as standalone by beginners

No updates after May 2013:
 * RWikiBot - a Ruby framework using the API. No releases since 2008.
 * rbmediawiki - Another Ruby framework that uses the API. No releases since 2009.
 * mediawikiclient - No releases since 2007
 * wikipedia-api - No releases since 2008

Scala

 * dbpedia extraction framework data extraction framework for DBpedia with support Wiki source retrived via MediaWiki API
 * scmw Simple MediaWiki API wrapper for needs of Commonist image upload tool

Comparing clients
API:Client code/Gold standard describes best practices for web API client libraries.

A support-matrix of many of the actively developed packages from this page for some of the more used API features can be found on the Wikia API Wiki. (19 May 2014; note this has not been updated since 2011.)