API:Query
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 | This page is part of the MediaWiki Action API documentation. |
The action=query module allows you to fetch information about a wiki and the data stored in it, such as the wikitext of a particular page, the links and categories of a set of pages, or the token you need to change wiki content.
Contents
API documentation
action=query(main | query)
Fetch data from and about MediaWiki. All data modifications will first have to use query to acquire a token to prevent abuse from malicious sites. Parameters:
Examples:
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Query modules
The query module has three types of submodules (also called query modules):
- Meta information about the wiki and the logged-in user.
- Properties of pages, including page revisions and content.
- Lists of pages that match certain criteria.
Examples
Example 1: Specifying pages
Unlike meta and list query modules, all property query modules work on a set of pages that can be specified in one of the following ways:
- By name using the
titlesparameter, e.g.titles=Foo|Bar|Main_Page.
- By page ID using the
pageidsparameter, e.g.pageids=123|456|75915.
- By revision ID using the
revidsparameter, e.g.revids=478198|54872|54894545. Most query modules will convert revision ID to the corresponding page ID. Only prop=revisions actually uses the revision ID itself.
- Using a generator.
GET request
Response
{
"batchcomplete": true,
"query": {
"pages": [
{
"pageid": 1130,
"ns": 0,
"title": "Avicenna"
},
{
"pageid": 17412,
"ns": 0,
"title": "Klein bottle"
},
{
"pageid": 33642,
"ns": 0,
"title": "Warrant"
}
]
}
}
Example 2: Title normalization
Title normalization converts page titles to their canonical form.
This means capitalizing the first character, replacing underscores with spaces, and changing namespace to the localized form defined for that wiki.
Any trailing line breaks in page titles (\n) will cause odd behavior and they should be stripped out first.
GET request
api.php?
Response
| Response |
|---|
{
"batchcomplete": true,
"query": {
"normalized": [
{
"fromencoded": false,
"from": "Project:articleA",
"to": "Wikipedia:ArticleA"
},
{
"fromencoded": false,
"from": "article_B",
"to": "Article B"
}
],
"pages": [
{
"ns": 0,
"title": "Article B",
"missing": true
},
{
"ns": 4,
"title": "Wikipedia:ArticleA",
"missing": true
}
]
}
}
|
Example 3: Missing and invalid titles
Titles that don't exist or are invalid will have a missing or invalid attribute set in the response.
In output formats that support numeric array keys, missing and invalid titles will have negative page IDs.
GET request
api.php?
Response
| Response |
|---|
{
"batchcomplete": true,
"query": {
"pages": [
{
"ns": 0,
"title": "Doesntexist",
"missing": true
},
{
"title": "Talk:",
"invalidreason": "The requested page title is empty or contains only the name of a namespace.",
"invalid": true
},
{
"pageid": 15580374,
"ns": 0,
"title": "Main Page"
}
]
}
}
|
Example 4: Continuing queries
When all the data is not returned in the response of a query, there will be a continue attribute to indicate that there is more data.
To get further data, add its values to the original request.
GET request
Response
| Response |
|---|
{
"continue": {
"accontinue": "List_of_19th_century_baseball_players",
"continue": "-||"
},
"batchcomplete": "",
"query": {
"allcategories": [
{
"*": "List of"
},
{
"*": "List ofPalestinians"
},
{
"*": "List of \"M\" series military vehicles"
},
{
"*": "List of ''The Fast and the Furious'' characters"
},
{
"*": "List of 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd"
},
{
"*": "List of 1919 Actors"
},
{
"*": "List of 1972 births"
},
{
"*": "List of 1999 ballet premieres"
},
{
"*": "List of 19th-century Russian artists"
},
{
"*": "List of 19th century Russian artists"
}
]
}
}
|
Example 5: Batchcomplete
The API returns a batchcomplete element to indicate that all data for the current batch of items has been returned.
MW 1.25+
In the response of the sample query below, batchcomplete has been included to indicate that all the data for each of the three images has been returned.
The next continuation will begin returning data for the next set of 3 images.
GET request
Response
| Response |
|---|
{
"batchcomplete": "true",
"continue": {
"aicontinue": "20020822143445|Do_You_Want_to_Know_a_Secret_(Beatles_song_-_sample).ogg",
"continue": "-||"
},
"query": {
"allimages": [
{
"name": "Simon_and_Garfunkel_-_Mrs_Robinson.ogg",
"timestamp": "2002-08-04T19:55:17Z",
"url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/Simon_and_Garfunkel_-_Mrs_Robinson.ogg",
"descriptionurl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Simon_and_Garfunkel_-_Mrs_Robinson.ogg",
"descriptionshorturl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67723",
"ns": 6,
"title": "File:Simon and Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson.ogg"
},
{
"name": "Simon_and_Garfunkel_-_Scarborough_Fair.ogg",
"timestamp": "2002-08-04T20:01:36Z",
"url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c1/Simon_and_Garfunkel_-_Scarborough_Fair.ogg",
"descriptionurl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Simon_and_Garfunkel_-_Scarborough_Fair.ogg",
"descriptionshorturl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67779",
"ns": 6,
"title": "File:Simon and Garfunkel - Scarborough Fair.ogg"
},
{
"name": "Beatles_please_me.ogg",
"timestamp": "2002-08-22T14:34:00Z",
"url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ee/Beatles_please_me.ogg",
"descriptionurl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beatles_please_me.ogg",
"descriptionshorturl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74826",
"ns": 6,
"title": "File:Beatles please me.ogg"
}
]
}
}
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Example 6: Generators
Use generators if you want to get data about a set of pages.
For example, to get data about pages in a certain category, instead of querying list=categorymembers and then querying again with pageids set to all the returned pages, combine the two API calls into one by using generator=categorymembers.
When using a list module as a generator, you don't need to specify the pages.
However, for a property module, you should specify the pages which the generator will work on.
For example, to load all pages that are linked to from the main page, use generator=links&titles=Main%20Page.
Parameters passed to a generator must be prefixed with a g. For instance, when using generator=backlinks, use gbllimit instead of bllimit.
The sample query below gets links and categories for the first three pages in the main namespace starting with "Ba".
GET request
api.php?
Response
| Response |
|---|
{
"continue": {
"plcontinue": "14977970|0|Kirkwall_Ba_game",
"continue": "||categories"
},
"query": {
"pages": [
{
"pageid": 98178,
"ns": 0,
"title": "Ba",
"links": [
{
"ns": 0,
"title": "BA"
},
{
"ns": 4,
"title": "Wikipedia:Mainspace"
},
{
"ns": 4,
"title": "Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization)"
},
{
"ns": 4,
"title": "Wikipedia:Protection policy"
},
{
"ns": 4,
"title": "Wikipedia:Redirect"
},
{
"ns": 10,
"title": "Template:R from miscapitalisation"
},
{
"ns": 10,
"title": "Template:R from modification"
},
{
"ns": 10,
"title": "Template:R to disambiguation page"
},
{
"ns": 14,
"title": "Category:Redirects from ambiguous terms"
},
{
"ns": 14,
"title": "Category:Redirects from other capitalisations"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"ns": 14,
"title": "Category:Redirects from ambiguous terms"
},
{
"ns": 14,
"title": "Category:Redirects from other capitalisations"
},
{
"ns": 14,
"title": "Category:Unprintworthy redirects"
}
]
},
{
"pageid": 14977970,
"ns": 0,
"title": "Ba'"
},
{
"pageid": 33351890,
"ns": 0,
"title": "Ba'Al Shem Tov"
}
]
}
}
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Possible warnings
| Warning message | Cause |
|---|---|
| No support for special pages has been implemented. | Thrown if a title in the Special: or Media: namespace is given. The pages in these namespaces cannot be queried. |
| Redirect resolution cannot be used together with the revids parameter. Any redirects the revids point to have not been resolved. | Thrown if the redirect parameter is used in a query that specifies pages using revids.
|
Parameter history
- v1.21: Introduced
continue - v1.24: Introduced
rawcontinue(note raw continuation was the default behavior until v1.26)
Additional notes
- Specifying titles through
titlesorpageidsis limited to 50 titles per query, or 500 for those with theapihighlimitsright. - Use multiple query modules together to get what you need in one request, e.g.
prop=info|revisions&list=backlinks|embeddedin|allimages&meta=userinfo. - Generators only pass page titles to the query module and do not output any information themselves. Setting parameters like
gcmpropwill therefore have no effect.
See also
- API:Main Page - The quick start guide.
- API:Raw query continue - Contains information on how to use the
rawcontinueparameter.
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