Extension:UserMerge

MediaWiki extensions manual

UserMerge Release status: stable
Implementation	Special page, User identity
Description	Merges references from one user to another user in the Wiki database - can also delete old users following merge
Author(s)	Tim Laqua, Thomas Gries, Siebrand Mazeland
Latest version	1.10.1 (2017-04-15)
MediaWiki	1.29+
PHP	5.4+
Database changes	No
License	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history code review
Parameters $wgUserMergeProtectedGroups
Added rights usermerge
Hooks provided UserMergeAccountFields MergeAccountFromTo UserMergeAccountDeleteTables DeleteAccount
Translate the UserMerge extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Check usage and version matrix.
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

The UserMerge extension allows wiki users with the usermerge permission (Bureaucrat by default) to merge one Wiki user's account with another Wiki user's account.

The extension allows to

• merge (refer contributions, texts, watchlists, edit count of a first account A to a second account B
• delete the first account A after the merge (option box)

Limitations

• you cannot delete a user A without having merged the user A to B
• you cannot merge your own account (logged-in user) into a different user

Extras

• if you omit the "New User" field, then the extension auto-populates the New User as "Anonymous" (user_id 0), and ask you to confirm a merge to Anonymous. This is used for user deletion: you first empty (merge to user 0) contributions of a user A, and then delete the user A.
  • If your version of the extension complains about an empty "New User" field you can fill in  "Anonymous"
• the extension creates a User Merge log and logs all User Merge extension activity.

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called UserMerge in your extensions/ folder.

• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

  wfLoadExtension( 'UserMerge' );
  // By default nobody can use this function, enable for bureaucrat?
  $wgGroupPermissions['bureaucrat']['usermerge'] = true;
  
  // optional: default is array( 'sysop' )
  $wgUserMergeProtectedGroups = array( 'groupname' );
  

•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

To users running MediaWiki 1.25 or earlier:

The instructions above describe the new way of installing this extension using wfLoadExtension() If you need to install this extension on these earlier versions (MediaWiki 1.25 and earlier), instead of wfLoadExtension( 'UserMerge' );, you need to use:

require_once "$IP/extensions/UserMerge/UserMerge.php";

The change to group-based merge protection ($wgUserMergeProtectedGroups) in v1.5, r30872.

The addition of the 'usermerge' permission in v1.2 - this must be explicitly granted as shown above.

Usage

• follow Installation Instructions
• a new Special Page Special:UserMerge with the title Merge and Delete Users is created
• unmergeable users can be defined (examples):

# Allow all users to be merged (by default, the 'sysop' group is unmergeable)
$wgUserMergeProtectedGroups = array();

# Disallow merging of the users in the 'sysop' or 'awesomeusers' groups
$wgUserMergeProtectedGroups = array( 'sysop', 'awesomeusers' );

Known issues

• phab:T41636 - The extension lacks an API interface module
• phab:T162563 - The merge will fail if both accounts have at least one page watchlisted in common.

See also

• Extension:BlockAndNuke - Extension to block and delete users.
• hideuser right - Allows to "hide" users from various lists when indefinitely blocking them
• phab:T8397 - Flag to mark accounts locked/hidden (aka remove/delete user)