Wikibase/API

All features shown on this page should be working, but the API is still in active development, and may change at any time.

Please see wikidata.org/w/api.php for a perfectly up to date copy.


 * Requests that change content should use a token.
 * Requests should use POST or GET requests according to api module (use POST to avoid problem with non-behaving proxies).
 * Clients should be aware of and handle errors from the API.
 * If documentation is missing below then please instead see wikidata.org/w/api.php.

In the examples below the requests are shown as GET but many that change content should be POST.

Modules
There are some parameters that are nearly always available. Plural forms are used in those cases where a parameter can take several values.


 * id | ids : Identifies a specific entity or entities, most typical an item. Plural form is used in wbgetentities.
 * site ∩ title | sites ∩ titles : Identifies a single item or multiple items. Plural form is used in wbgetentities. Only one of sites and titles can have multiple values at the same time.
 * language | languages : The language is used as a filter mechanism to filter labels and descriptions in get actions or to identify a specific language for set actions.
 * format : Should always be set to json (or jsonfm for debugging), or xml (or xmlfm for debugging), no other form is supported.
 * summary : Adds a user specified summary instead of the system generated one. If not provided the module will generate its own summary, and if this fails the item itself will provide a summary.
 * token : An encrypted string the requester must pass on shall the request be fulfilled.
 * baserevid : An id for the last known revision that must be passed on shall the server be able to detect edit collisions.

Normally the return value either has a success key with a boolean cast as an integer or an error key with an object of two, optionally three, keys code, info and "*". The last one is additional information. Information about the action is either passed on the top level or under item if its one single item or items if its several. If it is several items each is found under a key with its own item id. See and.


 * Note that empty objects are returned as json arrays and not as objects.
 * Note that empty parameters removes the actual entry from the item.

wbgetentities
Module to get the content of several entities, possibly with only parts of the entity included. Entities that are checked for existence, but not found, are reported (bugzilla:45509). During lookup both sites and titles can be a list, that is if the entities are items, but the shorter one is cycled to match the longer one. If one of the lists contain a single entry it will be used for all entries from the other list. If both lists are equally long the sitelinks will be well-formed pairs. getEntities( ( ids XOR ( sites, titles ) ), *props, *languages )
 * ids are numeric identifiers for existing entities, if the entities does not exist they will be marked as missing.
 * sites ∩ titles is pairs that identifies multiple existing entities (only items), if they do not exist they will be marked as missing.
 * props which list to report, possibly filtered by language if they are language specific. Possible values are labels, descriptions, sitelinks, claims. Note that sitelinks are not language specific.
 * sort
 * dir
 * languages are one or more languages to filter the list against. If it is missing all valid languages are reported.
 * languagefallback Apply language fallback for languages defined in the "languages" parameter
 * normalize Try to normalize the page title against the client site (This only works if exactly one site and one page have been given)
 * ungroupedlist Do not group snaks by property id


 * Examples


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result

wbeditentity

 * id is the numeric identifier for an existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * site ∩ title is a pair that identifies a single existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * data
 * clear is a marker to clear out the complete item and start from scratch.
 * new


 * Examples


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result

or
 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result

or
 * Request
 * Result

wbsetlabel
Module to set a label for a single Wikibase entity.


 * id is the numeric identifier for an existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * site ∩ title is a pair that identifies a single existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * language is the language for the label. The language must be a valid identifier.
 * value is the value of the label


 * Set the string "Wikimedia" for page with id "Q42" as a label in English language :
 * Set the English language label to "Earth" for the item with site link enwiki => "Earth" :

wbsetdescription
Module to set a description for a single Wikibase entity.


 * id is the numeric identifier for an existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * site ∩ title is a pair that identifies a single existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * language is the language for the description. The language must be a valid identifier.
 * value is the value of the description.

English language : page with a sitelink to enwiki:Wikipedia :
 * Set the string "An encyclopedia that everyone can edit" for page with id "Q42" as a description in
 * Set the string "An encyclopedia that everyone can edit" as a description in English language for

wbsetaliases
Module to set, add and remove aliases from items. Aliases are alternate names for the items, that can be queried and used for lookup. setAliases( ( id XOR ( site, title ) ) OR baserevid, ( add OR remove ) XOR set, *summary )
 * id is the numeric identifier for an existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * site ∩ title is a pair that identifies a single existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * set contains a list of strings that will be used as the new list of aliases. The values are normalized before they are used.
 * add contains a list of additional strings that will be used as aliases. The values are normalized before they are used.
 * remove contains a list of strings that will be removed from the the list of aliases. The values are normalized before they are used.
 * language


 * Examples


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result

wbsetsitelink
Module to define new links to pages at external client sites. During processing of requests the module will query the external site to verify the existence of the page and to acquire the canonical form of the prefix and the pagename. linkSite( ( id XOR ( site, title ) ) OR baserevid, linksite, linktitle, *summary )
 * id is the numeric identifier for an existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * site ∩ title is a pair that identifies a single existing item, if the item does not exist an error is returned.
 * linksite is the site id for a client site that will be the target of the new link. The site will be queried during the call.
 * linktitle is the title of the page at the client site that will be the target of the new link. The site will be queried during the call.
 * badges is the list of badges linked to the given sitelink.


 * Examples


 * Request
 * Result


 * Request
 * Result

wbgetclaims
Module for getting Wikibase claims.


 * entity is Id of the entity from which to obtain claims.
 * property is optional filter to only return claims with a main snak that has the specified property.
 * claim a GUID identifying the claim. Required unless entity is provided.
 * rank is optional filter to return only the claims that have the specified rank. (deprecated, normal, preferred)
 * props which list to report, possibly filtered by language if they are language specific. Note that sitelinks are not language specific.


 * Examples


 * Request
 * Result

wbcreateclaim

 * entity is the id of the entity you are adding the claim to.
 * snaktype (value, novalue, somevalue)
 * property is the id of the snaks property.
 * value of snak when creating a claim with a snak that has a value.

Add a claim with a string data value:

'action' => 'wbcreateclaim', 'entity' => 'Q82', 'property' => 'P4', 'snaktype' => 'value', 'value' => '"Cyqi3STlJtEJ"', 'bot' => 1,

Add a claim with a wikibase-item data value:

'action' => 'wbcreateclaim', 'entity' => 'Q82', 'property' => 'P2', 'snaktype' => 'value', 'value' => '{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":63}', 'bot' => 1,

Add a claim with a time data value:

'action' => 'wbcreateclaim', 'entity' => 'Q82', 'property' => 'P11', 'snaktype' => 'value', 'value' => '{"time":"+00000002010-01-02T00:00:00Z","timezone":0,"before":0,"after":0,"precision":11,"calendarmodel":"http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1985727"}', 'bot' => 1,

Add a claim with a globe-coordinate data value:


 * Note: value parameters "globe" and "precision" are optional. Default for "globe" is "http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2" (earth).

'action' => 'wbcreateclaim', 'entity' => 'Q9188', 'property' => 'P625', 'snaktype' => 'value', 'value' => '{"latitude":40.748433,"longitude":-73.985656,"globe":"http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2"}', 'bot' => 1,

Add a claim with a quantity data value:


 * Note: ... 

'action' => 'wbcreateclaim', 'entity' => 'Q556', 'property' => 'P1086', 'snaktype' => 'value', 'value' => '...', 'bot' => 1,

wbsetclaim
Module for creating or updating an entire Claim.


 * claim a claim in json form
 * index


 * Example :

wbsetclaimvalue
Module for setting the value of a Wikibase claim.


 * claim a GUID identifying the claim. Required.
 * snaktype (value, novalue, somevalue).
 * value of snak when setting a claim with a snak that has a value.


 * Example of setting a claim with GUID :

wbremoveclaims
Module for removing Wikibase claims.


 * claim a GUID identifying the claim.


 * Example of removing a claim with a GUID :

wbsetqualifier
Module for creating a qualifier or setting the value of an existing one.


 * claim a GUID identifying the claim. Required.
 * property Id of the snaks property
 * value
 * snaktype
 * snakhash

In this example, p4 is a string property:

'format' => 'json', 'action' => 'wbsetqualifier', 'claim' => 'q2$4554c0f4-47b2-1cd9-2db9-aa270064c9f3', 'property' => 'p4', 'value' => '"GdyjxP8I6XB3"', 'snaktype' => 'value', 'token' => 'f18s833ctn49799614c4o747521237c27+\\'

Add a qualifier with a wikibase-item data value:

'format' => 'json', 'action' => 'wbsetqualifier', 'claim' => 'q2$4554c0f4-47b2-1cd9-2db9-aa270064c9f3', 'property' => 'p2', 'snaktype' => 'value', 'value' => '{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":63}', 'token' => 'f18s833ctn49799614c4o747521237c27+\\'

Add a qualifier with a time data value:

'format' => 'json', 'action' => 'wbsetqualifier', 'claim' => 'q102865$94797627-7ec6-47fd-9207-b615ccd682eb', 'property' => 'p580', 'snaktype' => 'value', 'value' => '{"time":"-00000000363-01-01T00:00:00Z","timezone":0,"before":0,"after":0,"precision":9,"calendarmodel":"http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1985727"}', 'token' => 'f18s833ctn49799614c4o747521237c27+\\'

wbremovequalifiers
Module for removing a qualifier from a claim.


 * claim a GUID identifying the claim. Required.
 * qualifiers a hash of the qualifier that should be removed.


 * Remove qualifier with hash "1eb8793c002b1d9820c833d234a1b54c8e94187e" from claim with GUID of "q42$D8404CDA-25E4-4334-AF13-A3290BCD9C0F" :

wbsetreference
Module for creating a reference or setting the value of an existing one.


 * statement a GUID identifying the statement. Required.
 * snaks
 * snaks-order
 * reference a hash of the reference that should be updated.
 * index

action:wbsetreference format:json statement:q76$D4FDE516-F20C-4154-ADCE-7C5B609DFDFF snaks:{"p143":[{"snaktype":"value","property":"p143","datavalue":{"type":"wikibase-entityid","value":{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":11696}}}]} baserevid:779 token:+\

action:wbsetreference format:json statement:q76$D4FDE516-F20C-4154-ADCE-7C5B609DFDFF snaks:{"p888":[{"snaktype":"value","property":"p888","datavalue":{"type":"string","value":"00905364"}}} baserevid:779 token:+\

wbremovereferences
Module for removing one or more references of the same statement.


 * statement a GUID identifying the statement. Required.
 * references a hash of the reference that should be updated.


 * Example of removing a reference with hash from claim with GUID :

wbsearchentities
Module to search for entities.


 * search is the text string to search for
 * language is the language to search in
 * type is the type of entities to return
 * limit is the maximum number of results to return (default 7)
 * continue offset to continue the query from a previous search


 * Search for "abc" in English language, with defaults for type and limit :
 * Search for "abc" in English language with a limit of 2 :
 * Search for "alphabet" in English language for type property :

wblinktitles
Module to associate two articles on two different wikis with a Wikibase item.


 * tosite ∩ totitle is pair that identifies first sitelink
 * fromsite ∩ fromtitle is pair that identifies second sitelink


 * Add a link "Hydrogen" from the English page to "Wasserstoff" at the German page :

wbmergeitems
Module to merge two Wikibase items.


 * fromid is the numeric identifier for the item to merge from
 * toid is the numeric identifier for the item to merge to
 * ignoreconflicts Array of elements of the item to ignore conflicts for, can only contain values of "label" and or "description" and or "sitelink"


 * Example:

wbparsevalue
Module to parse strings using a backend ValueParser.


 * parser
 * values
 * options



wbformatvalue
Module for formatting DataValues.


 * generate
 * datavalue
 * datatype
 * options



Time

 * Calendar model
 * Q1985727 - Gregorian calendar
 * Q1985786 - Julian calendar

Token
See also Manual:Edit token.

Revision
The API uses revision ids for edit collision detection. If the revision id is known from an previous reply, page load or similar, then pass on the revision to the edit. Without the revision id it is not possible to detect edit collisions in a reliable way. If there is an edit collision the requester must acquire a newer revision id to be able to continue. This typically involves requesting wbgetentities for the item in question, and then storing (and using) the revision from the entry.

Errors
Possible errors for all modules can be found at  eg. wbeditentity

If the error condition is prepared and expected, and a format is defined, the error messages will have a standardized form.

The servedby is given unconditionally for error messages, but could be missing for some less than fatal errors. In some cases error messages can be appended to a success and be called warning(s).
 * example :

All error messages from the Wikibase modules should be internationalized (i18n) and localized (l10n), but note that error messages from the base API system will usually not be localized. The user language for the logged in user (usually the same as in the web interface) will be the default for error messages. This can be overridden by putting uselang in the URL.

Do not depend on the info string for testing, use the code as this will remain independent of localization.

An internationalized error message that isn't localized as it should will have additional angle brackets.

With correctly localized error message the angle brackets will go away and the info string will print out in clear text. Assuming the user is logged in and use English language it will print as something like the following. Switching to Norwegian in the Special:Preferences or by appending  it will change the text of the info string to a localized variant, while the code string remains constant. A lot of error messages are not properly localized.
 * example :

Success
Can be removed since all normal calls will return data of some kind, unless there is an error condition.

If a success is achieved it will have the following form when the The interpretation of the value for success can be dependent on the actual parameters in the call, but usually it is a boolean that is type casted to an integer. Its meaning is that every previous tests evaluated to true. If the number is 0 (zero) any additional values might be wrong.

There might be additional values in the structure after a successful call.

Generic API parameters
The following list includes the parameters that can be used with the Wikibase API:

Which action to perform The format of the output Maximum lag can be used when MediaWiki is installed on a database replicated cluster. To save actions causing any more site replication lag, this parameter can make the client wait until the replication lag is less than the specified value. In case of excessive lag, error code "maxlag" is returned with a message like "Waiting for $host: $lag seconds lagged". Set the s-maxage header to this many seconds. Errors are never cached. Set the max-age header to this many seconds. Errors are never cached.
 * : Verify the user is logged in if set to "user", or has the bot userright if "bot".
 * : Any value given here will be included in the response. May be used to distinguish requests.
 * : Include the hostname that served the request in the results.
 * : Include the current timestamp in the result.
 * : When accessing the API using a cross-domain AJAX request (CORS), set this to the originating domain. This must be included in any pre-flight request, and therefore must be part of the request URI (not the POST body). This must match one of the origins in the Origin: header exactly, so it has to be set to something like http://en.wikipedia.org or https://meta.wikimedia.org. If this parameter does not match the Origin: header, a 403 response will be returned. If this parameter matches the Origin: header and the origin is whitelisted, an Access-Control-Allow-Origin header will be set.
 * : Language to use for message translations. A list of codes may be fetched from action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=languages, or specify "user" to use the current user's language preference.
 * : When accessing the API using a cross-domain AJAX request (CORS), use this to authenticate as the current SUL user. Use action=centralauthtoken on this wiki to retrieve the token, before making the CORS request. Each token may only be used once, and expires after 10 seconds. This should be included in any pre-flight request, and therefore should be included in the request URI (not the POST body).

Examples
Please see [https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php?action=help&recursivesubmodules=1 wikidata.org/w/api.php] for a perfectly up to date copy.