Wikipedia:WikiProject edit counters/Flcelloguy's Tool/Help

This is the help page for Flcelloguy's Tool.

FAQ

What is Flcelloguy's Tool?

The tool, originally created by Flcelloguy and expanded by Titoxd, AySz88, and other members of Wikiproject edit counters, is a program that can count the number of edits a particular Wikipedian has, and that can provide statistics on those results, such as breakdown by namespace, the percentage of minor edits, percentage of edit summary usage, and a graphical profile of the user's editing history. More features will be released soon.

What distinguishes this from Kate's Tool and Interiot's Tool?

This tool was inspired by the original Kate's Tool, which generates the edit count by querying the toolserver. However, during that time the tool and the server were down frequently, and Flcelloguy's Tool was developed as a backup. Because it does not make SQL queries from the toolserver, the tool is an independent program that can run at all times, provided that the Wikipedia website is up. Interiot's Tool, programmed by Interiot, was later designed by Interiot as an alternative to Kate's Tool; however, it too also queries from the toolserver, and is subject to the same replication lag Kate's Tool suffers. Thus, while Flcelloguy's Tool is relatively crude compared to the other two, we offer this more as a backup and as a tool to offer more detailed statistics. Interiot's tool is more robust and less heavy on the servers, so if possible, use it instead of this tool.

Instructions

Downloading

Java is required to run this program. Most computers do not have built in Java capabilities to compile and execute code, so you may need to download it. See the links for downloads from Sun Microsystems. The downloads are free, safe, and should take only a few minutes. See the links for more information.

Compiling and executing

There are two ways to execute the program. The first method, which we recommend at the moment, is to download the JAR program from the SourceForge repository. You do not need to save the file; opening the JAR will suffice.

The second method, which requires more time and effort, is to individually copy and compile the Java code into new .java files. This will require the download of a freeware Java run-time development program. We recommend JCreator, BlueJ, or Eclipse; see links for more details. Once that is done, you will need to individually copy and paste the code from each class into a new file with the respective class name. Make sure all the files are in the same folder. After you have done so, you will need to compile each file individually, and then execute the program. See your run-time development program's tutorial or help for more information on this.

Additionally, you may be interested in downloading the source code from the CVS repository; however, this code is not always stable, and may contain bugs from time to time, as it is the current development version. However, new features are always released there first.

Using the Tool

Once you have opened the tool, it should look like the screenshot at right. To start the counting, select "Download" from the drop-down menu and type in the user's name whose contributions you wish to analyze. Also, select the type and the resolution of a graph, if you desire to display graphical output as well. After clicking "Proceed", please allow the tool several moments while it contacts the server, then downloads and parses the contributions. The status of the download is displayed in the label underneath the drop-down; it may take a long time for the server to respond, but please be patient.

Due to MediaWiki restrictions, only 5000 contributions (the maximum for one page) can be downloaded and parsed at a time. If the user has over 5,000 edits, you will need to confirm each page separately. Click on "Yes" when the tool prompts you if you want to analyze the next 5,000 contributions. This will need to be done for each contributions page; that is, if a user has 14,000 edits, the tool will need to parse three pages of contributions. Approximately, each 5,000 edits are a 3 MB download.

After the completion of the parsing, the edit count and some associated statistics will be displayed on the right hand side. Currently displayed are the total edit count, breakdown by namespace, percentage of minor edits, and edit summary usage. You can also switch tabs to display the graph with the options you selected. Note that some of the features displayed are currently non-functional, such as the tree, and filtering options. We are currently working on these and improving the tool.

Alternatively, you can also parse contributions from a given file already downloaded and saved on your computer. This is useful if you only want to analyze a section of a user's contributions. To do so, copy and paste the edits you wish to analyze from the [[Special:Contributions/USER]] (user contributions) page, and save the file as a .txt(Notepad), or right-click the contributions page, click "view page source" (the wording may differ from browser to browser), and go to file, and then save page as. This will save it as either a .html or .htm file. Then, in the tool, select either "single local" or "multiple local" from the drop-down menu. If you have more than one page to analyze (i.e. you wish to analyze more than 5000 edits), select multiple; otherwise, select single. Then click "browse", specifying the file that you wish to analyze.

Creating a new query and quitting

To start a new query (i.e. analyze another user's contributions), you can go to Document and then New query. This will open a new query box; you may close the previous one at any time. To close a query, click the close box in the upper right hand corner of the box; to close the tool, click the close box for the tool or go to Document and then Quit.

Troubleshooting

I clicked on "proceed", but the tool doesn't do anything. What's wrong?
The tool takes several moments to parse through the contributions. Even though it doesn't appear to be doing anything, in reality, the tool is downloading and calculating the statistics. It should take no more than a few minutes, at the maximum, to parse one contributions page. Please be patient. Also, if you are using a previous version of the tool, it may be disabled; please download the newest version to guarantee there aren't any issues with the version you're using.

When I minimize the tool and re-maximize it, it appears blank. What gives?
This is a known issue, which has been resolved, and can be remedied by downloading the latest version of the tool from SourceForge. If you're sure you have the latest version and this happens to you, please report this as a bug to one of the authors.

After a query, I make more edits. How come it doesn't show a change?
The tool is not connected to the toolserver or Wikipedia in any way, and thus cannot be updated automatically; you need to re-parse the contributions by clicking "Proceed" again. If you attempt to do this within a short time (10 minutes as of April 26, 2006) of already parsing the same contributions, it may give you the previous results, to avoid overtaxing the servers.

Additional help

For more help, please feel free to contact any member of the WikiProject for help. We will be glad to assist you.