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==ToDo List==
*Better handling of {{tl|uncategorized}} template ([[User:TFCforever|TFCforever]]), ''what exactly?'' <small>→probably he means the subject under [[#Categorizing uncategorized content with Cat-a-lot]]</small> 
*Keyboard support ([[User:Jean-Frédéric|Jean-Fred]])
*Compatibility with gallery details gadget ([[User:Docu]])
*Copying images from categories added through templates ([[User:Docu]]) (You want to copy images or categories? -- ''[[User:Rillke|Rillke]]''<sup>[[User talk:Rillke|(q?)]]</sup>) (Images) Works now {{done}}  -- [[User talk:Docu|<span style="font-size:80%;border:#000 solid 1px;padding:0"><span style="margin:0;color:#CE2029">&nbsp;Docu&nbsp;</span></span>]] <span style="font-size:75%">at</span> 06:03, 17 February 2013 (UTC)
*Remove category from search results  ([[User:Docu]]) (Which category? Or "Category not found?" -- ''[[User:Rillke|Rillke]]''<sup>[[User talk:Rillke|(q?)]]</sup>) A category to be added in the entry box  -- [[User talk:Docu|<span style="font-size:80%;border:#000 solid 1px;padding:0"><span style="margin:0;color:#CE2029">&nbsp;Docu&nbsp;</span></span>]] <span style="font-size:75%">at</span> 06:03, 17 February 2013 (UTC)
*Ability to move categories too ([[User:Timeshifter]]). Seems {{done}}  - - [[User talk:Docu|<span style="font-size:80%;border:#000 solid 1px;padding:0"><span style="margin:0;color:#CE2029">&nbsp;Docu&nbsp;</span></span>]] <span style="font-size:75%">at</span> 06:03, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

=Comments=

== Duplicate category ==

I notice in this [http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:EscudoGeneralEscobedoNL.jpg&diff=prev&oldid=75483932 edit], that when you have duplicate category, if you use Cat-a-lot then both categories are renamed instead of delete duplicate category. --[[User:Smooth O|Smooth_O]] ([[User talk:Smooth O|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 12:49, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

:Just noticed this still happens; see the history of [[:File:Bluebells - panoramio (3).jpg]] for example. For some reason a bot added the disambiguation cat {{C|Newark}} twice. When I moved the file with ''Cat-a-lot'' and then copied it to two other cats from the new location (all without actually seeing the wikitext, of course), all three lines got duplicated.—[[User:Odysseus1479|Odysseus1479]] ([[User talk:Odysseus1479|talk]]) 20:47, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

== flat file lists as input ==

Cat-a-lot is great, but it would be greater if I could take the results of a query from Cat Scan for example, trim them down as necessary for my purposes, and use the flat file list as input to Cat-a-lot. Is it conceivable that you could add such a feature? In this case, the page that Cat-a-lot was running "on" would not be relevant; instead of selecting files on that page with a mouse, I would select "manual file list" within Cat-a-lot, and paste in my file list, in the format
<code><poem>
Category:Charles Backofen
Category:Charles Codman
Category:Charles Osgood
Category:Edward Troye
Category:Erastus Salisbury Field
Category:Fitz Hugh Lane
Category:Francis William Edmonds
Category:Frederick R. Spencer
</poem></code>

and then select the destination category with the current interface options. In the above example, I want to add "c:19th-century painters from the United States" without having to select each one from "c:Painters from the United States" (imagine that the list has 100 entries...). More specifically, I want to move them from the old category, which leads to a variation of this suggestion. Another way of looking at this is that I want to paste in a list of files/categories that are ''programatically selected'' from the current category page, instead of the user clicking on each one. Short version: I am suggesting one or both of the following features: "Paste a list of files/categories to be selected ''programatically'' from the current page" allowing for adding OR moving; and/or "Paste a list of files/categories to be added to any category" (so the page I'm currently on does not matter to Cat-a-lot).  If I had to pick one, I would pick the programmatic selection from the current category, as it allows for moving. I just gave an example but I believe this feature has broad applicability. Thanks for taking the time to read this message. [[User:Boo-Boo Baroo|Boo-Boo Baroo]] ([[User talk:Boo-Boo Baroo|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 05:46, 10 December 2012 (UTC)
:That might be a useful cat-a-lot improvement, though as a current work around, if you have a list of files, you can paste them as a list of thumbnails on a sandbox page and use [[Help:VisualFileChange.js]] to make almost any change you are likely to want, including changing categories. Thanks --[[User:Fæ|Fæ]] ([[User talk:Fæ|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 06:29, 10 December 2012 (UTC)
:When cross-posting, it would be kind to add a ref to the previous post: [[COM:HD#category additions in batch]]. But thanks for your suggestion. It sounds good. -- ''[[User:Rillke|Rillke]]''<sup>[[User talk:Rillke|(q?)]]</sup> 17:28, 10 December 2012 (UTC)
:: Thank you both for your replies. Rillke, I didn't see your reply there (about two weeks later) and thought my question was stale. Thanks for the info--I plan to try VisualFileChange for files--but there doesn't seem to be any solution for altering categories themselves (as you've noted). The main use I envision is dispersing categories that contain hundreds/thousands of other categories into more usable subsets (in the case of categories for people, by century, for example). [[User:Boo-Boo Baroo|Boo-Boo Baroo]] ([[User talk:Boo-Boo Baroo|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 19:24, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

== working on template /doc==
Hi, we use this great tool in fa.wiki according to Hebrew version, the only problem is when the category exists in /doc subpage it can not remove or edit or move that template's category! for example moving [[:fa:رده:Language icon templates]] members. I tried to make a hack for it but doesn't work! would you please tell me where should i change? ([[:fa:مدیاویکی:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js]]) yours, [[User:Yamaha5|Yamaha5]] ([[User talk:Yamaha5|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 10:37, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

==Remove all categories but one==
Is there any hope of seeing an upgrade soon that allows removing ALL categories from file(s) except a selected category? Maybe adding a small checkbox in the bottom right corner, that if checked, will do that. This would be extremely helpful in sorting large number of files that are excessively over-categorized but have their own specific category. --[[User:P199|P199]] ([[User talk:P199|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 23:42, 11 October 2013 (UTC)
:IMO Visual File Change will do. --[[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] ([[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 10:12, 12 October 2013 (UTC)
:* What is Visual File Change? -- '''[[User:P199|<span style="color:#199199;">P&nbsp;1&nbsp;9&nbsp;9</span>]]'''&nbsp;&nbsp;<big>[[User talk:P199|✉]]</big> 18:00, 13 October 2013 (UTC)
:*: [[Help:VisualFileChange.js]], you can use some regexes (a.k.a RegExpr, which can match any category except one or more specific categories) to do a replacement (to empty). --[[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] ([[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 08:43, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
:::*Tried it and it is very cumbersome. Not the way to go. I strongly suggest to increase the functionality of Cat-a-lot. -- '''[[User:P199|<span style="color:#199199;">P&nbsp;1&nbsp;9&nbsp;9</span>]]'''&nbsp;&nbsp;<big>[[User talk:P199|✉]]</big> 18:21, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
::::This would be nice to have in Cat-a-lot. I'd certainly find it useful, and it would be more intuitive than Visual File Change. [[User:HJ Mitchell|<font color="Teal" face="Tahoma">'''HJ&nbsp;Mitchell'''</font>]] &#124; [[User_talk:HJ Mitchell|<font color="Navy" face= "Times New Roman">Penny for your thoughts? </font>]]  15:18, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

:I don't think that is a good idea. When using cat-a-lot in a category you see the files in that category, so you can see if they fit in the category or if they should be moved or copied to other categories. But you don't see which other categories the files are in, so you can't know if all those categories are wrong or not.  /[[User:Ö|Ö]] 16:13, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
::Often enough, this has to be done to all files in a certain category, then you know it, otherwise you could look.
::In my opinion, it would be more (very!) helpful to be able to remove all files in the current category from a different category. For example, removing all files in the current category from the category one level higher is something that has to be done all the time (because people over-categorize that way). Also, in these cases, no file should be in the current and the superordinate category, so selection is easy and not a lot can be done wrong. — [[User:Julian_Herzog|Julian H.]]<span style="font-size:smaller;line-height:1em;"><sup>✈ </sup>([[User_talk:Julian_Herzog|<small>talk</small>]]<small>/</small>[[Special:ListFiles/Julian_Herzog|<small>files</small>]])</span> 16:33, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
:::I was thinking it would be more useful for search results. For example, I often categorise images of buildings, which might well be best placed in a category for that building and no other category (except hidden categories), but are often placed in categories of the city, the county, buildings in the city, and various other higher-level categories. I also agree with Julian H.'s suggested addition. [[User:HJ Mitchell|<font color="Teal" face="Tahoma">'''HJ&nbsp;Mitchell'''</font>]] &#124; [[User_talk:HJ Mitchell|<font color="Navy" face= "Times New Roman">Penny for your thoughts? </font>]]  16:35, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
:We do need better tools for removing things from parent categories, and it would be great if catalot did that. But I agree that we would have a problem if we automatically removed all other categories without looking at the categories and images involved. For example, if I create a category for the stained glass windows in a church and make that a subcategory of both the church and ''stained glass windows in that county'', then when I move images from the church to the  stained glass windows in that church it would save a bit of work if they also came out of the other parent category ''stained glass windows in that county''. But if one or two of them are in a category ''works by Veronica Whall'' then it would be wrong to remove that category. To some that would look like vandalism. [[User:WereSpielChequers|WereSpielChequers]] ([[User talk:WereSpielChequers|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 11:48, 20 October 2013 (UTC)
:*Of course, like all other tools, such a feature should be used carefully by trusted users. But the potential for mistakes already exists for Cat-a-lot in its current state, so this is not a reason not to implement it. In fact, we need more powerful tools to keep up with the flood of images being uploaded... --'''[[User:P199|<span style="color:#199199;">P&nbsp;1&nbsp;9&nbsp;9</span>]]'''&nbsp;&nbsp;<big>[[User talk:P199|✉]]</big> 00:08, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
:::As you designed it can't be used carefully. If you don't make it automatic, perhaps listing the categories that would be removed then that could work. But automatically removing categories would mean undoing other people's categorisation work and slowing down the process of categorisation. We need better categorisation tools, automatically removing categories even if they are valid and useful would not be a better tool. Some of its edits would look like vandalism. [[User:WereSpielChequers|WereSpielChequers]] ([[User talk:WereSpielChequers|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 21:08, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
:::*We're open to suggestions. I offered one, thinking it might be the way to go, but if you don't think so, maybe you can suggest something else then... --'''[[User:P199|<span style="color:#199199;">P&nbsp;1&nbsp;9&nbsp;9</span>]]'''&nbsp;&nbsp;<big>[[User talk:P199|✉]]</big> 22:51, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
::::OK, here are a few:
::::# Currently we can only search by keywords. Please could we search by geocode and bring up fifty thumbnails closest to the geocode you specify and then just click on the ones you want to put them in a particular category using catalot. This would be even more useful if it included the option to exclude ones in the same category.
::::#Sometimes I'm splitting a village category into two or three villages of the same name in different counties. This is a slow process that requires lots of individual map searches. It would be much better if I could in a slightly similar way to above, have a tool that showed all the items in a category as points on a map, and then be able to draw a line on the map and send all on one side off to foo, Lincolnshire and the rest to Foo, Suffolk. This would also be incredibly useful in processing the backlog of geograph images as we have many geocodes that contain parts of two villages
::::#It would be good to be able to see a list of all the categories that the images in a category are in, and then  be able to click individual categories and mark them remove or move to parent. So I do a lot of English church categories. If I move twenty images into a category "St Foo's church, Boston, Lincolnshire" it would be good if I could then see a list such as, Images in this category are in the following categories:
:::::4 in Gothic churches in Lincolnshire [] move to parent, [] remove
:::::6 in Boston, Lincolnshire  [] move to parent, [] remove
:::::1 Pipistrelle bats in England [] move to parent, [] remove
:::::2 in Anglican churches in Lincolnshire [] move to parent, [] remove
:::::1 in stained glass windows in Lincolnshire [] move to parent, [] remove
:::::1 in brick churches in Lincolnshire [] move to parent, [] remove
:::::13 in Grade I listed churches in Lincolnshire [] move to parent, [] remove
:::::14 in Churches in Boston, Lincolnshire  [] move to parent, [] remove
::::I could then click the boxes as follows and save an awful lot of work, but without losing the work that others have done, including identifying that one of those images has a really nice photo of a bat and another of a stained glass window.
:::::4 in Gothic churches in Lincolnshire [x] move to parent, [] remove
:::::6 in Boston, Lincolnshire  [] move to parent, [x] remove
:::::1 Pipistrelle bats in England [] move to parent, [] remove
:::::2 in Anglican churches in Lincolnshire [x] move to parent, [] remove
:::::1 in stained glass windows in Lincolnshire [] move to parent, [] remove
:::::1 in brick churches in Lincolnshire [x] move to parent, [] remove
:::::13 in Grade I listed churches in Lincolnshire [x] move to parent, [] remove
:::::14 in Churches in Boston, Lincolnshire  [x] move to parent, [] remove
:::::Currently to do the above example in hotcat you need to look at twenty images and a category, hit remove 40 times, and type out large parts of five categories to add them to the parent category. [[User:WereSpielChequers|WereSpielChequers]] ([[User talk:WereSpielChequers|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 08:33, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

== Thoughts on category sorting ==

Since the code is currently getting reworked, I wanted to get some feedback on some thoughts I'd been having. One of the biggest user-level time-wasting maintenance problems on Commons is that there's no simple way to move images that are in Category A and Category B into Category C. Right now, in order to do this, you have to move the files twice from each of the two parent categories. That's annoying, and leads to errors where an image is missed in one category.

The easy way to do it would be to have the ability to choose images in Category A with Cat-a-lot, and be able to either a) then move or copy from Category B into Category C
or b) (preferrably) move in one shot from A and B into C.

The harder way I asked at [[Help talk:FastCCI#The Perennial Question]], but I thought I'd get some feedback here too. If Cat-a-lot modified to talk to [[Help:FastCCI|FastCCI]], then the intersections generated by FastCCI could be used to transfer. I suspect that would require a pretty difficult amount of work to implement, though. [[User:Pi.1415926535|Pi.1415926535]] ([[User talk:Pi.1415926535|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:37, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

:Keep in mind that currently FastCCI has no interface to limit the intersection to a depth of zero (which is what you seem to want), instead it scans deep into subcategories and may return a lot more results than you want. --[[User:Dschwen|Dschwen]] ([[User talk:Dschwen|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 07:33, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

:In theory a combined search with, for example <code>incategory:"Foo" incategory:"Bar"</code>, should return the intersection. -- ''[[User:Rillke|Rillke]]''<sup>[[User talk:Rillke|(q?)]]</sup> 10:15, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

::How does that work in Cat-a-lot?  ([[User talk:Pi.1415926535|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 14:14, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

:::You go to [[Special:Search]], select the file namespace, search for <code>incategory:"Foo" incategory:"Bar"</code> and then use cat-a-lot to categorize the result. -- ''[[User:Rillke|Rillke]]''<sup>[[User talk:Rillke|(q?)]]</sup> 09:39, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

::::The problem, I think, is that cat-a-lot can only ''add'' categories when working with search results, when often the objective is to move them out of one or more of the other categories. (Apologies to [[User:Pi.1415926535|Pi.1415926535]] if this isn't what you were trying to get at.) --[[User:Junkyardsparkle|jnkyrdsprkl]] ([[User talk:Junkyardsparkle|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:34, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

:::::Yes, that is exactly the problem, you said it better than I. [[User:Pi.1415926535|Pi.1415926535]] ([[User talk:Pi.1415926535|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:53, 10 August 2014 (UTC)
::::::I solve it simply by doing several edits with Cat-a-lot. For example, I've been subcategorizing [[:Category:Audio files in English]] and [[:Category:Audio files of males speaking English]] recently. And I just did two edits on each affected file, sometimes three:
::::::* [[Special:Diff/880491704]] + [[Special:Diff/880491713]]
::::::* [[Special:Diff/880491187]] + [[Special:Diff/880491195]]
::::::* [[Special:Diff/880491388]] + [[Special:Diff/880491555]] + [[Special:Diff/880491596]]
::::::Other sections on this talk page also mention [[Help:VisualFileChange.js]], which can be used to achieve similar result with more preparation, but fewer edits. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 11:50, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

== Cat-a-lot in gallery pages bug? ==
I am trying to add the category [[:Category:Taken with Sony DSC-WX70]] to some [[User:Fructibus/A|10,000]] files, but Cat-a-lot hangs after categorizing a few thousand files. I tried in Chrome first, it stopped at 1,900 count. Then I tried in Firefox and it stopped at 3,400. Then I tried in Chromium and it hanged at 8,600. Maybe this happens because of the browser limitations though? -- [[User:Fructibus|Fructibus]] ([[User talk:Fructibus|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 22:02, 20 November 2017 (UTC)
: {{Ping|Fructibus}} Hm, maybe, but there is also a speed cap for edits for normal users (which you should have exceeded by far). High probably your gallery exceeds the normal view limit too (it does not display for me). <kbd style="white-space:nowrap;color:#456;"> -- ''[[User: Perhelion]]'' <small>23:36, 20 November 2017 (UTC)</small></kbd>
:: {{re|Perhelion}} Ohh, I didn't know about the speed cap. How much is it? Can you limit Cat-a-lot speed to stay below that? Well, I must admit it's quite easy for me to ask for all kind of new features.. :D -- [[User:Fructibus|Fructibus]] ([[User talk:Fructibus|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 23:51, 20 November 2017 (UTC)
::: Normally the limit is 8 hits/minute, maybe for autopatroller as you the limit is higher. We could implement [[MediaWiki:Gadget-libAPI.js]], which has a time handling of this (but I'm not sure yet on this). <kbd style="white-space:nowrap;color:#456;"> -- ''[[User: Perhelion]]'' <small>00:42, 21 November 2017 (UTC)</small></kbd>

:::: {{re|Perhelion}} I think such a speed limit might be already documented, shall I ask at the village pump about it?
:::: Meanwhile I would like to ask for another feature, related to this: to add a button to select all the file links. When the user selects the files in a search result or in a category or in a gallery, they actually select file links. Therefore I think it's not a significant difference to select links too. For example I would like to select all the image links in this page: [[User:Fructibus/C]]. Then the users won't need to create a gallery - when a gallery contains thousands of images, the browser consumes a lot of memory and processor power. -- [[User:Fructibus|Fructibus]] ([[User talk:Fructibus|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 08:23, 21 November 2017 (UTC)
:::: I got another indication: I just tested Cat-a-lot with [[User:Fructibus/A|the same gallery of 10,054 images]], to add them in a category where they were already added, and the gadget hanged at the item 8078. There is no edit on the server, so this is a browser limitation for sure. -- [[User:Fructibus|Fructibus]] ([[User talk:Fructibus|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 20:59, 23 November 2017 (UTC)
::::: {{Ping|Fructibus}} So I can't fix this here. But I can fulfill your second request (select all files). I would fulfill this combined  with this request [[#flat file lists as input]] <kbd style="white-space:nowrap;color:#456;"> -- ''[[User: Perhelion]]'' <small>17:24, 25 November 2017 (UTC)</small></kbd>
:::::: That's such a great news, thanks! :) -- [[User:Fructibus|Fructibus]] ([[User talk:Fructibus|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 19:36, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

:{{ping|Perhelion}} There's an OOM condition here. getContent() is called with an immediate for loop in getTargetCat(), and editCategories() is only an event handler of getContent(). This causes the doAPICall()s from getContent() be effectively executed before every single doAPICall()s from editCategories(). Since browser usually has a limit of per-domain concurrent requests, no edit can be made until all the wikitext of thousands of pages are loaded, effectively breaking garbage collection. I wonder if there is a workaround. --[[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] ([[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 08:39, 26 November 2017 (UTC)
:: Yes indeed, thanks for pointing this out. I also thought on an API call like in AQD. I'll do this also soon.  -- ''[[User: Perhelion]]'' 11:01, 26 November 2017 (UTC)
: Btw: As I see right now, [[User:Rillke/genCatList.js|this]] could be useful too. <kbd style="white-space:nowrap;color:#456;"> -- ''[[User: Perhelion]]'' <small>16:12, 13 December 2017 (UTC)</small></kbd>

== Bug: cat-a-lot does not detect failed edits ==

When an edit fails, cat-a-lot doesn't detect it. For example, try to categorize [[:File:Example.jpg]]. (assuming you are not an admin)

Because of [[Commons:Village pump/Proposals#Rate limit is at 90 edits per minute|the ratelimit]] a massive number of categorizations was lost. - [[User talk:Alexis Jazz|Alexis Jazz]] <sup><small>ping plz</small></sup> 15:32, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

== Request regarding copying and sortkeys ==

Currently, Cat-a-lot will preserve the previous sortkey if a page is copied from one category to another. Would it be possible to toggle this behaviour so you could use the copy function without adding the "old" sortkey? This would be useful whereever the "Defaultsort" entry is preferred over any local sortkeys. [[User:De728631|De728631]] ([[User talk:De728631|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:48, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

== Ignore all the ones in Category:Wikidata infobox maintenance ==
I suggest to the developers that all subcats of [[:Category:Wikidata infobox maintenance]] be ignored by cat-a-lot, because they are automatically added by {{tl|wikidata infobox}}. They are not meant to be added manually. They are also taking up too much space in the cat-a-lot menu because almost every cat using the infobox has three or more ''Uses of Wikidata Infobox blah blah blah''.--[[User:Roy17|Roy17]] ([[User talk:Roy17|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 17:34, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

:A more general alternative solution would be to ignore every subcategory of [[:Category:Uses of Autocat template]]. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 12:02, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

== Feature requests for over-categorization ==

#Configurable limit for traveling up the tree
#Configurable limit for traveling down the tree
#Ability to fix over-categorization by removing the upper cat automatically
#Configurability to ignore "(flat category)" for overcat purposes
&nbsp; — <span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small><sub> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</sub></small> 16:47, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

:Yes, I am still interested in all of these. &nbsp; — 🇺🇦<span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</small>🇺🇦 12:20, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

== Could Cat-a-lot add the function to move the disambiguation pages? ==

There are too much pages using [[template:disambig]] or [[template:disambiguation]] crowded in categories of disambiguation. If cat-a-lot could deal with the disambiguation pages, it will be faster to clean them. [[User:迴廊彼端|迴廊彼端]] ([[User talk:迴廊彼端|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 10:13, 13 August 2019 (UTC)
: Hello [[User:迴廊彼端|迴廊彼端]], that would be far too much for CaL, because this requires an extra level of logic, what this picture is to be concrete. Simple removal does not seem to be an option. <span style="white-space:nowrap;color:#456;"> -- ''[[User: Perhelion]]'' <small>07:29, 14 August 2019 (UTC)</small></span>

== Local help page ==

I created a local help page on Hebrew Wikipedia. Is it possible to link to it from the gadget panel? [[User:דגש חזק|דגש חזק]] ([[User talk:דגש חזק|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 22:33, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

:[[User:דגש]], page [[Help:Gadget-Cat-a-lot]] doesn't seem to be translated into Hebrew yet. You could create a subpage [[Help:Gadget-Cat-a-lot/he]] with a link to Hebrew Wikipedia. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 12:08, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

== Disable in other pages ==

Is it possible to make Cat-a-lot visible only in category pages? It feels quite annoying and distracting to see them in mainspace articles. --<span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family: Papyrus">[[User:Kailash29792|<font color = "black" ><b>Kailash29792</b></font>]] [[User talk:Kailash29792|<span style="color:black;">(talk)</span>]] </span> 05:31, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

:[[User:Kailash29792|Kailash29792]] this can be achieved with JavaScript. Here are instructions:
:# Disable the gadget at [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets]]
:# Copy JavaScript from [[Help:Gadget-Cat-a-lot#As a project gadget]]
:# Add it to [[Special:MyPage/common.js|your "common.js"]], tweak <code>window.catALotPrefs</code> to what you want, and save
:Note the code <code>if (mw.config.get('wgNamespaceNumber') === 14) {</code> – '''14''' is the ID number of namespace "Category". See [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Namespaces|Help:Namespaces]] and [[:en:Wikipedia:Namespace]]. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 12:16, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
::{{u|Andrybak}}, I've done it. But looks like there are errors, can anyone else correct it? <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family: Papyrus">[[User:Kailash29792|<font color = "black" ><b>Kailash29792</b></font>]] [[User talk:Kailash29792|<font color = "black" >(talk)</font>]] </span> 12:37, 22 June 2024 (UTC)
:::@[[User:Kailash29792|Kailash29792]], you got one too many 14s. In <code>window.catALotPrefs = 14 </code>, remove the 14. It should be just <code>window.catALotPrefs = { editpages: true, subcatcount: 100 };</code>. Hope this helps. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 18:22, 22 June 2024 (UTC)
::::Tried. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family: Papyrus">[[User:Kailash29792|<font color = "black" ><b>Kailash29792</b></font>]] [[User talk:Kailash29792|<font color = "black" >(talk)</font>]] </span> 06:47, 23 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::@[[User:Kailash29792|Kailash29792]], you're missing a closing curly brace <code>}</code>. Open the {{Custom edit|User:Kailash29792/common.js|editor on page User:Kailash29792/common.js}}. You should see a code editor (as on the screenshot in [[mw:Extension:CodeEditor]]). There you can hover the mouse over the error marker (a red square with a white cross inside) on line 4. It will tell <code>Unmatched '{'.</code> To fix the error, add the matching closing curly brace <code>}</code> to the <code>if</code>, at the bottom, as line 11.
:::::This means, that in [[Special:Diff/886853339]], when copy-pasting from [[Help:Gadget-Cat-a-lot#As a project gadget]], you've missed the last line. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 22:05, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

== Request: add class "noprint" to the main box ==

When trying to print ANY content or category page in Commons where this gadget ''may'' be used and is visible, if we try to print, the "Cat-a-lot" box appears on EVERY printed page, over the actual content we want to print (it appears partly at top of the printed page with the shadow and bottom border of the box, and the rest at bottom, within the printable margins of the page; there's no way to hide this unwanted box).

Please add the class "noprint" to the main container of the Cat-a-loc" box, that should never be printed, even if it's visible during navigation. Or use CSS "@media print{ /*selector of the box*/ {display:none}}".

Thanks. [[User:Verdy p|verdy_p]] ([[User talk:Verdy p|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 01:28, 2 May 2020 (UTC)

== Allow translating Cat-a-lot's name ==

The tool shows a yellow box at the bottom of the page with the label "Cat-a-lot" in it. This label should become translatable. This is particularly useful for languages that do not use [[:en:Latin alphabet|Latin alphabet]] (e.g. Persian, Cantonese, Hindi, etc.) [[User:Huji|Huji]] ([[User talk:Huji|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:49, 11 May 2020 (UTC)

== Installation on non-Wikimedia projects ==

I wonder if it possible to install cat-a-lot to other non-Wikimedia wikis. The instructions only said {{teal|If Cat-a-lot is not present as gadget in your local Wikimedia project (like Wikipedia)}}. [[User talk:pandakekok9|<span style="color:orange">'''''panda'''''</span>]][[User:pandakekok9|'''''<span style="color:orange">kekok</span>''''']][[Special:Contributions/pandakekok9|<span style="color:orange">'''''9'''''</span>]] 13:06, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
:{{re|Pandakekok9}} Two months late but I saw this now. I don't really know what you mean since the help page explicitly tells you how you add it on, for example enwikipedia. You can see [[w:User:Jonteemil/common.js]] how I've copied the help page example.[[User:Jonteemil|Jonteemil]] ([[User talk:Jonteemil|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:17, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

== Request: add page to category ==

so we have tools to add categories to pages (e.g. hotcat), and cat-a-lot, which manipulate pages via the category page. so i can select an article or file from the category page, and without leaving the category, remove this article. what i'm missing is the reverse action: add page to the category, regardless of how (or even if) this file or article is categorized now. should be pretty simple - pop a new input line with autocompletion, similar to the "category" input line, except it should be for any page, not just categories, and click.

bonus points for textarea, where i could paste a multi-line list of pages, but for me, at least, this is secondary. the ability to "pull" a page into a category from the category page itself would be very useful in many cases. peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 19:45, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

:{{o}} 1. This would be a separate tool and not cat-a-lot so I think this discussion should be closed here and such a tool be requested elsewhere 2. I think one should only be able to add a file or gallery or category to a category from the respective page or the search results because there one sees some info on the page and otherwise people would often add unfitting pages, e.g. because they confused them or because the only have the filetitle info etc. [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 09:04, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

== Difficult to use on mobile devices (suggestions) ==

On mobile devices the screens are often curved, causing part of the Cat-a-lot link to be invisible, so it only reads "Cat-a" and is difficult to click on since the very corner of the screen is not as responsive or easy to touch. The font size and size for the floating text to start the tool are also too small.
Suggestions:
* Please add it to Page tools menu, rather than having to scroll to the bottom turn back up to run it 
* Move floating text slightly higher up, and add a border at least 2em in size 
* Increase the  text size for both the floating text and the X to close the tool
* Change the close X to be "X (close)" or add an icon so it's much larger to select 
* Improve the instructions by including a screenshot showing where to find the tool 
Great tool! Thanks to all contributors. [[User:Amousey|Amousey]] ([[User talk:Amousey|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:26, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

==Cat-a-lot nuisance clutter==
Recently a whole lot of hidden parent categories have been appearing in Cat-a-lot's listings for a category; e.g. [[:Category:Carduelis carduelis]] includes [[:Category:Biology categories with double wikidata item]], [[:Category:Biology pages with wikidata item specified in VN]], [[:Category:Biology pages with wikidata link]], [[:Category:Interwiki from wikidata]], [[:Category:Uses of Wikidata Infobox]], [[:Category:Taxon categories]], [[:Category:Uses of Wikidata Infobox for taxons]], and so on. All of these push the subcategories that one actually wants to use, off the bottom of the page where they have to be scrolled to - very tedious. In the vast majority of uses of Cat-a-lot, one doesn't use these. Can these hidden parent categories be, well, hidden, from the Cat-a-lot list, unless specifically asked for in Cat-a-lot Options, please? (i.e., add an option in Preferences "Show hidden parent categories"). Thanks! - [[User:MPF|MPF]] ([[User talk:MPF|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 21:08, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

:[[User:MPF|MPF]], please see section [[MediaWiki talk:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js#Ignore all the ones in Category:Wikidata infobox maintenance]] about a similar request. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 12:24, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

== Cat-a-lot cannot handle white characters ==
I've noticed that if some of white characters is present in the code of the changed category (caused mostly by copying, e.g. left-to-right mark (‎): <code><nowiki>[[Category:ABC‎]]</nowiki></code> – see the code with CodeMirror), Cat-a-lot won't move the file to other category as the ''category cannot be found''. The copying is not affected, though. —&nbsp;'''[[User:Draceane|Draceane]]'''&nbsp;<sup>[[User talk:Draceane|talk]]</sup><sub style="margin-left:-20px">[[Special:Contributions/Draceane|contrib.]]</sub> 20:42, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

== cat-a-lot edit tags ==

so i tried to decipher from documentation and from code, and couldn't figure it out.

it seems that cat-a-lot edits are tagged on commons, but not when loading the gadget from other projects (using mw.loader.load() ), which we do on hewiki.

is there a way to tell cat-a-lot to add an edit tag on other wikis? for reference, here is the hewiki cat-a-lot gadget source:
<syntaxhighlight lang="javascript">
if ( mw.config.get( 'wgNamespaceNumber') == 14 ) {
	window.catALotPrefs = { editpages:  true, subcatcount: 500 };
	mw.loader.using(['jquery.ui', 'mediawiki.util']).done(function(){
		mw.util.addCSS("#cat_a_lot { left: inherit !important; }"); // for some reason, cat-a-lot from commons has a quirk with RLT, and this fixes it
		mw.util.addCSS("#cat_a_lot_settings { display:none !important;}"); // preferences depend on some other gadgets,not available on hewiki, so hide linkette
	  	mw.loader.load('//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');
	  	mw.loader.load('//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.css&action=raw&ctype=text/css', 'text/css');
	});
}
</syntaxhighlight>
thanks. peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:33, 12 April 2021 (UTC)
: In code, the tag is disabled for anything other than Commons: <syntaxhighlight lang="javascript">
		// TODO: better extern project support for possible change-tag? (needs currently change after init)
		if ( project === 'commonswiki' ) { mw.messages.set( { 'cat-a-lot-using-summary': '' } ); } else { // Reset
			this.changeTag = '';
			this.settings.redir_category = '';
		}
</syntaxhighlight>
: So code changes would be needed, if other projects are to have their own version of the edit tag.
: For the tag itself, there are pages [[MediaWiki:Tag-Cat-a-lot]] and [[MediaWiki:Tag-Cat-a-lot-description]], but I don't know if anything else is needed for "integration" of the tag. [[MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition]] ([[mw:Extension:Gadgets]]) doesn't seem to mention tags. From [[mw:Manual:Tags]], it seems that tags are created manually by administrators at [[Special:Tags]]. However, this page is a bit confusing and it talks mostly about use of tags in Extensions as opposed to Gadgets.  Perhaps [[User:Steinsplitter]] (author of these pages) knows if there's anything else. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 01:33, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

== MediaSearch ==

Will the gadget be fixed to work with [[Special:MediaSearch|MediaSearch]]? --[[User:INS Pirat|INS&nbsp;Pirat]] ([[User talk:INS Pirat|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 20:53, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

:+1. this would be really good.
:#line 422 findAllLabels
:#line 1518
:i think these parts need to be edited. [[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:58, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
:Also wondered why it doesn't work on the modern search and just the old special search with small thumbnails and a vertical display. Could somebody add MediaSearch support? [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 10:28, 27 May 2024 (UTC)
:Please test the version mentioned below: [[#Special:MediaSearch_support]]. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 11:26, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

=== Enabling it on [[Special:MediaSearch]] ===

Making it available on [[Special:MediaSearch]] would be helpful. [[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]] ([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 09:42, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

:@[[User:Andrybak|Andrybak]]: would this be easy to add? [[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]] ([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 12:59, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
:@[[User:Nardog|Nardog]]: what do you think? [[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]] ([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 13:00, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

== Enwiki ==

This doesn't quite behave properly when categorising redirects (it [[en:Special:Diff/1041492930|edit a the redirect target]]). Also, I'm not sure how the preferences work (nothing happens when clicking on the button), but it says in [[#cat-a-lot edit tags]] {{tq|preferences depend on some other gadgets,not available on hewiki, so hide linkette}}. Presumably this is the same, though still not sure how to change it? <small>(Please ping me, or I won't see any replies.)</small> [[User:Qwerfjkl|Qwerfjkl]] ([[User talk:Qwerfjkl|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 21:16, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

:<small>Pinging @[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]] (Not sure where to announce this, as the page notice says).</small> [[User:Qwerfjkl|Qwerfjkl]] ([[User talk:Qwerfjkl|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 21:15, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
::{{re|Qwerfjkl}} I can confirm the reported behavior and speculate that following redirects is usually a wanted behavior (categorizing redirects is not done on Commons). &nbsp; — <span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small><sub> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</sub></small> 09:31, 3 September 2021 (UTC)
:::@[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]] Would it be possible to do this on other wikis? [[User:Qwerfjkl|Qwerfjkl]] ([[User talk:Qwerfjkl|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 13:00, 3 September 2021 (UTC)
::::{{re|Qwerfjkl}} Sorry, I don't know. {{Pinging|Krinkle|Kwj2772|Steinsplitter}} as recent editors of the script who still have access. &nbsp; — <span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small><sub> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</sub></small> 09:31, 4 September 2021 (UTC)

== Making a stable version of getMarkedLabels() ==
{{tl|Edit request|technical=yes}}

I noticed this function that returns selected files:

 mw.libs.catALot.getMarkedLabels()

But it has a strange return type! Try it in your console. An user expects an iterable array but it's not. An user also expects each element as a clean self-describing object but they are not.

How to fix that? Let's create another function for backward-compatibility. For example:

 mw.libs.catALot.getMarkedLabelsArray()

This new proposal should return a clean array, with simple objects. So it's more stable and can be used from other gadgets as well!

Here the example return type:

 [
   {
     fullPageName: "Complete title of the page with namespace",
     selectedEl:   "jQuery selector of the selected box",
   },
   ...
 ]

=== OK OK. How to do that? ===
I have worked on a safe copy-paste version to fix that. This can be done by any sysop or interface admin. Here how:

# Copy this source: [[Special:PermaLink/617020624]]
# Paste here: [[MediaWiki:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js]]
# View diff (it's very small)
# Save!

That's all! <3

=== Can I do something more? ===
Sure! I also prepared another version, that is more risky since it's a refactor to clean stuff:

# Copy this source: [[User:Valerio Bozzolan/MediaWiki:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js]]
# Test in your browser console
# Say here if it works for you:
## Tested adding and removing a category and it just works, maybe we should test other things --[[User:Valerio Bozzolan|Valerio Bozzolan]] ([[User talk:Valerio Bozzolan|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 14:43, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
## Tested by moving some files in a category, and then picking more files and moving to another category (also without reloading the page) and it works --[[User:Valerio Bozzolan|Valerio Bozzolan]] ([[User talk:Valerio Bozzolan|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 09:04, 7 January 2022 (UTC)
## Tested by ...

When we reach a certain number of reviewers we can save. Thank you for your participation! --[[User:Valerio Bozzolan|Valerio Bozzolan]] ([[User talk:Valerio Bozzolan|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 14:43, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

:[[User:Valerio Bozzolan|Valerio Bozzolan]], I can't comment on the changes you're proposing, but there have been [[Special:Diff/546449613/876868575|other changes to the gadget since 2021]], so your instruction to copy-paste [[Special:Permalink/617020624]] from 28 December 2021 isn't workable anymore.
:Instead of a permalink, you can also prepare a link to [[Special:ComparePages]], which would highlight the proposed changes, making it easier to apply them, regardless of intervening changes to the live version of the gadget. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 00:03, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:I’m not convinced this addition is worth it, to be honest. To convert the array-like object into an array you could just use <code>Array.from( mw.libs.catALot.getMarkedLabels() )</code> (or even <code>[ ...mw.libs.catALot.getMarkedLabels() ]</code>? not sure about the browser compatibility of that); and I’m not sure how helpful the object names are – in particular, given that the selected element is a jQuery object, not a native DOM element, I’d really expect it to have a <code>$</code> in the name. [[User:Lucas Werkmeister|Lucas Werkmeister]] ([[User talk:Lucas Werkmeister|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:14, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
:: I've disabled the edit request for now, because the proposed code isn't actual anymore + there isn't a consensus for this change. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 23:58, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

== Non-mainspace pages ==

On enwiki (at least), I think the gadget doesn't recognise pages not in the mainspace e.g. User: - it just says "No files selected" when you try to perform an action. [[User:Qwerfjkl|Qwerfjkl]] ([[User talk:Qwerfjkl|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:40, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

== Can't save preferences ==

I'm getting "Error saving User:Joeyconnick/common.js. Code is missingparam." Can someone help me out? —[[User:Joeyconnick|Joeyconnick]] ([[User talk:Joeyconnick|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 19:44, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

== Cat-a-lot not working on Chrome/Android ==

Since a few days (since Monday?) Cat-a-lot isn't working on smartphones with Chrome browser. The reason is the user comment field displayed. Searching for another category the virtual keyboard does not display the return key. Instead of the return key tab or next key is displayed - and the search for the category name in the search field doesn't work. The cursor switches to the user comment (pressing "next" on the virtual keyboard). Here the return key is displayed on the virtual keyboard, but it has no function. As workaround I've added <nowiki>mw.util.addCSS("#cat_a_lot_comment { display:none !important;}");</nowiki> to my common.js. I've the difficult to explain problem only on smartphone browsers. --<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">[[User:XRay|XRay]]</span> [[User_talk:XRay|💬]] 04:37, 17 May 2022 (UTC)
:{{Ping|King of Hearts}} Probably this is the reason why I tried to solve the problem for a long time yesterday: {{Diff|628829593|656251182}}. --<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">[[User:XRay|XRay]]</span> [[User_talk:XRay|💬]] 05:07, 17 May 2022 (UTC)
::{{ping|Alexis Jazz}} Are you able to reproduce this? -- [[User:King of Hearts|<b style="color:red">King of ♥</b>]][[User talk:King of Hearts|<b style="color:red"> ♦</b>]][[Special:Contributions/King of Hearts|<b style="color:black"> ♣</b>]][[Special:EmailUser/King of Hearts|<b style="color:black"> ♠</b>]] 07:23, 17 May 2022 (UTC)
::If you are not able to reproduce it, I can make Screenshots and send it. But I won't upload Screenshots (seen by public) here. --<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">[[User:XRay|XRay]]</span> [[User_talk:XRay|💬]] 08:00, 17 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Easier. Here are 2 screenshots: <s>[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Y07Tpn5tiS8BJiaYSppgl4PWl-6OmBE1?usp=sharing]</s> I'll remove the access to the screenshots if you've seen them. --<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">[[User:XRay|XRay]]</span> [[User_talk:XRay|💬]] 08:19, 17 May 2022 (UTC)
:::@[[User:XRay|XRay]], [[User:King of Hearts|King of Hearts]] any updates? —[[User:MdsShakil|MdsShakil]] ([[User Talk:MdsShakil|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 16:04, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
::::I've got access to a modified version. This version is working fine. --<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">[[User:XRay|XRay]]</span> [[User_talk:XRay|💬]] 17:10, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
:I too can't use it any more on Android. Can't select a category that I've typed in. Android WebView 101 on Android 11 to be precise.--<span style="font-family:'Vivaldi',serif;font-size:142%;">[[User:1Veertje|Vera]]</span> <sup>([[User talk:1Veertje|talk]])</sup> 18:43, 25 May 2022 (UTC)
::I'm now getting this error: 
::<code><nowiki>Uncaught TypeError: $searchInput.autocomplete is not a function from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=jquery%2Coojs-ui-core%2Coojs-ui-widgets%7Coojs-ui.styles.icons-editing-advanced&skin=vector&version=ve7ok at line 52:838 TypeError: $searchInput.autocomplete is not a function at initAutocomplete (https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript:254:17) at fire (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=jquery%2Coojs-ui-core%2Coojs-ui-widgets%7Coojs-ui.styles.icons-editing-advanced&skin=vector&version=ve7ok:46:934) at Object.fireWith [as resolveWith] (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=jquery%2Coojs-ui-core%2Coojs-ui-widgets%7Coojs-ui.styles.icons-editing-advanced&skin=vector&version=ve7ok:48:135) at deferred.<computed> [as resolve] (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=jquery%2Coojs-ui-core%2Coojs-ui-widgets%7Coojs-ui.styles.icons-editing-advanced&skin=vector&version=ve7ok:51:632) at <anonymous>:769:951 at Object.enqueue (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=startup&only=scripts&raw=1&skin=vector:10:831) at mw.loader.using (<anonymous>:769:910) at HTMLAnchorElement.<anonymous> (https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript:328:15) at HTMLAnchorElement.dispatch (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=jquery%2Coojs-ui-core%2Coojs-ui-widgets%7Coojs-ui.styles.icons-editing-advanced&skin=vector&version=ve7ok:70:260) at elemData.handle (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=jquery%2Coojs-ui-core%2Coojs-ui-widgets%7Coojs-ui.styles.icons-editing-advanced&skin=vector&version</nowiki></code><span style="font-family:'Vivaldi',serif;font-size:142%;">[[User:1Veertje|Vera]]</span> <sup>([[User talk:1Veertje|talk]])</sup> 19:46, 11 September 2022 (UTC)
:::This arises when I try to use cat-a-lot on [[Special:Search]] <span style="font-family:'Vivaldi',serif;font-size:142%;">[[User:1Veertje|Vera]]</span> <sup>([[User talk:1Veertje|talk]])</sup> 20:13, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

== Cat-a-lot covers "Add links" link for non-linked pages ==

Hello, I'm from ckbwiki. It's a RTL language. I just wanted to say that the Cat-a-lot gadget covers "Add links" link for non-linked pages. I think it should be fixed to the left. Thanks! [[User:Aram|Aram]] ([[User talk:Aram|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:46, 30 July 2022 (UTC)

:MediaWiki “flips” the CSS rules automatically when it detects that the user interface language is different from the site language. This works well on [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cat-a-lot?uselang=ckb Commons]; on ckbwiki, however, MediaWiki expects the CSS rules to be aligned for right-to-left languages. This also means that left-to-right languages like English get rules that are aligned for right-to-left languages, so you can just take the [https://ckb.wikipedia.org/w/load.php?modules=ext.gadget.Cat-a-lot&only=styles&debug=1&lang=en CSS for English] (which is flipped) and copy it to the [[ckb:MediaWiki:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.css|local stylesheet]]. —[[User:Tacsipacsi|Tacsipacsi]] ([[User talk:Tacsipacsi|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 13:09, 31 July 2022 (UTC)
::{{ping|Tacsipacsi}} Thanks for the reply! I have another question. Why the preferences link are not available on Wikipedia project? I can see it just on Commons. Additionally, I think the source of [[Special:PermaLink/274436499#L-20|L-20 in the CSS page]] is broken. Thanks! [[User:Aram|Aram]] ([[User talk:Aram|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 13:22, 1 August 2022 (UTC)

== Cat-a-lot not working for on-screen keyboards ==

With cat-a-lot, if I have an on-screen keyboard on android I can't OK my input when I hit enter. Instead the cursor switches to the "custom edit comment" field. This makes this gadget unusuable. <span style="font-family:'Vivaldi',serif;font-size:142%;">[[User:1Veertje|Vera]]</span> <sup>([[User talk:1Veertje|talk]])</sup> 19:31, 23 December 2022 (UTC)
:I looked into this further. It seems that my on-screen keyboard tries to be helpful and replace the "enter" key with a "next field" key if the form has multiple input fields. I've for now added the code of cat-a-lot to a user page and made the comment field hidden. This fixes it for me for now. I found [https://stackoverflow.com/a/58082211 this StackOverflow comment] that says the "next input field" key produces key event nr. 229. It wasn't as simple as adding that as an OR to the Enter key's 13. The StackOverflow comment also says it produces an "Unidentified" key event. Adding another event listener that has "Unidentified" as its event and key 229 didn't work for me. This is probably too obscure a bug to fix. Another fix would be to have an actual button that triggers the same event as hitting enter now does.

:On a side note, I'm not a fan of using the placeholder value as a label. You [https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/06/placeholder-attribute/ shouldn't use placeholder value as a label]. --<span style="font-family:'Vivaldi',serif;font-size:142%;">[[User:1Veertje|Vera]]</span> <sup>([[User talk:1Veertje|talk]])</sup> 11:50, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
::Hi, could you give me ELI5, step-by-step instructions on how to implement your work around for this issue? I also struggle with it, but I think it used to work properly until 1-2 months or so ago, so that's a rather new bug to me. [[User:Nakonana|Nakonana]] ([[User talk:Nakonana|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:33, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

== Stub tag spacing issue on Enwiki ==

Hi,

If it is the bottom category being changed, any lines of spacing below the category will be removed which causes an issue when it comes to stub tags. The MOS requires two lines of spacing between the categories and stub tag. [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andressa_de_Morais&diff=prev&oldid=1158762783 Example]. Not sure if anything can be done about this? Thanks! [[User:Jevansen|Jevansen]] ([[User talk:Jevansen|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) [[User:Jevansen|Jevansen]] ([[User talk:Jevansen|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 02:58, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

:For reference, the spacing requirement is [[:en:WP:STUBSPACING]]. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|talk]]) 22:26, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

== Getting unexpected results with "Check over-categorization" ==

When I go to Category [[:Category:Landschaftsschutzgebiet innerhalb des Naturparks Hassberge (ehemals Schutzzone)|Landschaftsschutzgebiet innerhalb des Naturparks Hassberge (ehemals_Schutzzone)]], select files [[:File:An der Hohen Straße westlich von Kottenbrunn 4.jpg|''An der Hohen Straße westlich von Kottenbrunn 4.jpg'']] and [[:File:Aufgang zum Streifberg bei Ostheim.jpg|''Aufgang zum Streifberg bei Ostheim.jpg'']] and "Check over-categorization", the first file is marked over-categorized while the second is not. However, both are in same categories (and both are '''not''' over-categorized). Why is the first file marked? [[User:Plozessor|Plozessor]] ([[User talk:Plozessor|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:51, 9 June 2023 (UTC)
:i dont know. it's weird. here're the lists of cats on each file right now.
{{cot}}
{{Columns|2|text=<pre>
[[:File:An der Hohen Straße westlich von Kottenbrunn 4.jpg]]
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Files with coordinates missing SDC location of creation (50° N, 10°E)

Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2023
Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2023 in Germany
Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2023, DE landscape

Images from Wiki Loves Earth missing SDC depicts
Images from Wiki Loves Earth missing SDC location of creation
Images from Wiki Loves Earth missing SDC participant in
Landschaftsschutzgebiet innerhalb des Naturparks Hassberge (ehemals Schutzzone)
Pages with maps
Photos of protected areas by Stephan van Helden
Self-published work
Uploaded via Campaign:wle-de
</pre>
<pre>
[[:File:Aufgang zum Streifberg bei Ostheim.jpg]]
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Files with coordinates missing SDC location of creation (50° N, 10°E)
Germany photographs taken on 2017-03-26
Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2021
Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2021 in Germany
Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2021, DE landscape
Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2021, DE-BY
Images from Wiki Loves Earth missing SDC depicts
Images from Wiki Loves Earth missing SDC location of creation

Landschaftsschutzgebiet innerhalb des Naturparks Hassberge (ehemals Schutzzone)
Pages with maps
Photos of protected areas by Stephan van Helden
Self-published work
Uploaded via Campaign:wle-de-by
</pre>}}
{{cob}}
:--[[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 19:56, 22 July 2023 (UTC)
::@[[User:RZuo|RZuo]] I really can't get any meaningful results from this function. When I open [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ermershausen Category 'Ermershausen'], select all files and run "Check over-categorization", it highlights three files:
::* [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ermershausen_Blick_zum_Sportplatz.jpg Ermershausen Blick zum Sportplatz]
::* [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Der_Dippacher_Berg_westlich_von_Ermershausen.jpg Der Dippacher Berg westlich von Ermershausen]
::* [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winging_over_Germany_-_panoramio.jpg Winging over Germany - panoramio]
::But none of these images is over-categorized. None is in a child or parent category of "Ermershausen". [[User:Plozessor|Plozessor]] ([[User talk:Plozessor|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:44, 7 September 2023 (UTC)
::Is it possible that the script fails to parse certain files (due non-English characters, uncommon formatting, etc.)? [[User:Plozessor|Plozessor]] ([[User talk:Plozessor|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:47, 7 September 2023 (UTC)
:::it's really weird. for [[:File:广州南尽头 - Southmost Land of Guangzhou - 2012.03 - panoramio.jpg]], before my edit, when i tested it in [[:Category:Guangzhou]], it was considered overcat. after my edit (which i only moved it down [[:Category:Guangzhou]], added a newly created cat, and removed "check categories" template), and when i tested it in [[:Category:Ji Sap Cung]], it's not overcat. [[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 17:12, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

== Adding the first category to an article at enwiki ==

At enwiki, Cat-a-lot does not remove the uncategorized tag when adding the first category to an uncategorized article ([https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=S/2020_S_10&diff=prev&oldid=1168976941 example]). –[[User:LaundryPizza03|'''<font color=#7f7fbf>Laundry</font><font color=#ffbf00>Pizza</font><font color=#bf0000>03</font>''']] ([[User talk:LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00df00>d</font>]][[Special:Contributions/LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00bfff>c&#x0304;</font>]]) 07:42, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
:{{re|LaundryPizza03}} [[Help:Gadget-Cat-a-lot#Preferences]].--[[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 08:35, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
::The button in the Cat-a-lot popup does nothing. –[[User:LaundryPizza03|'''<font color=#7f7fbf>Laundry</font><font color=#ffbf00>Pizza</font><font color=#bf0000>03</font>''']] ([[User talk:LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00df00>d</font>]][[Special:Contributions/LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00bfff>c&#x0304;</font>]]) 16:30, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

== Logo ==

[[File:Catalot proposed logo.svg|thumb|A proposed logo for the cat-a-lot gadget.]]
This is somewhat frivolous, but, after using this script for the first time (which took ten seconds), I proceeded to design a logo for it in Inkscape (which took half an hour). What do you think (you can see my weak explanation at the file description)? [[User:Edward-Woodrow|Edward-Woodrow]] ([[User talk:Edward-Woodrow|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 22:29, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

== Cross cat mergers? ==

Is this a good tool for generating the common entries in [[:Category:Purple things]] and [[:Category:People Eaters]] and moving them to [[:Category:Purple People Eaters]]? Thank you.[[User:Naraht|Naraht]] ([[User talk:Naraht|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 13:59, 10 October 2023 (UTC)
:{{re|Naraht}} i think the short answer is no.
:theoretically, to accomplish what you describe, you can do a search of <code>deepcat:"A" deepcat:"B"</code>, then use catalot to move all search results from A to the target new cat C, then use catalot again to remove all from B.
:it's easier to do this with [[com:vfc]] and do a "custom replace".--[[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 08:37, 10 November 2023 (UTC)
::{{U|RZuo}}Thank you, I'll take a look.[[User:Naraht|Naraht]] ([[User talk:Naraht|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:32, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

== Check over-categorization ==

What does the option "Check over-categorization" do? This is not explained anywhere. –[[User:LaundryPizza03|'''<font color=#7f7fbf>Laundry</font><font color=#ffbf00>Pizza</font><font color=#bf0000>03</font>''']] ([[User talk:LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00df00>d</font>]][[Special:Contributions/LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00bfff>c&#x0304;</font>]]) 16:13, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

:@[[User:LaundryPizza03|LaundryPizza03]] It ensures that pages are not [[COM:OVERCAT|overcategorized]] (qv). &nbsp; — 🇺🇦<span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small><sub> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</sub></small>🇺🇦 00:06, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
::There seem to be lots of false negatives where an article is more than one level down from the current category; can you confirm this? –[[User:LaundryPizza03|'''<font color=#7f7fbf>Laundry</font><font color=#ffbf00>Pizza</font><font color=#bf0000>03</font>''']] ([[User talk:LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00df00>d</font>]][[Special:Contributions/LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00bfff>c&#x0304;</font>]]) 00:11, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
:::@[[User:LaundryPizza03|LaundryPizza03]]: Do you have any particular pages that are overcategorized but undetected by the gadget when checking on a particular category? Specifics, please. &nbsp; — 🇺🇦<span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small><sub> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</sub></small>🇺🇦 01:27, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
::::[[:en:Goop (company)]] is in both [[:en:Category:Pseudoscience]] and [[:en:Category:Alternative medicine organizations]] two levels down, and a Cat-a-lot run on the higher category fails to identify "Goop (company)" as an overcategorized page. –[[User:LaundryPizza03|'''<font color=#7f7fbf>Laundry</font><font color=#ffbf00>Pizza</font><font color=#bf0000>03</font>''']] ([[User talk:LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00df00>d</font>]][[Special:Contributions/LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00bfff>c&#x0304;</font>]]) 01:46, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
:::::(ec)@[[User:LaundryPizza03|LaundryPizza03]]: When I selected all in the latter cat and clicked "Check over-categorization", the gadget found (and highlighted with a dotted border) seven overcategorized pages (but not [[:en:Goop (company)]]). I see now that the two cats are connected by [[:en:Category:Alternative medicine]]. Perhaps the overcategorization check only works on pages that are in two cats that are directly in a parent-child relationship, rather than grandparent-grandchild. &nbsp; — 🇺🇦<span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small><sub> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</sub></small>🇺🇦 02:11, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
::::I also encountered a false positive in the flagging of [[:en:Category:Advocates of pseudoscience]], a first-level subcategory of "Category:Pseudoscience" that is not elsewhere in the tree. –[[User:LaundryPizza03|'''<font color=#7f7fbf>Laundry</font><font color=#ffbf00>Pizza</font><font color=#bf0000>03</font>''']] ([[User talk:LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00df00>d</font>]][[Special:Contributions/LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00bfff>c&#x0304;</font>]]) 02:08, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
:::::@[[User:LaundryPizza03|LaundryPizza03]]: Strange. &nbsp; — 🇺🇦<span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small><sub> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</sub></small>🇺🇦 02:15, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

== Force cat a lot to appear on certain pages？ ==

can i force it to appear on https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:AllPages&from=%E5%BA%B6&namespace=14 for example? it would be good if it can be used on such pages too. [[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 12:37, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

:@[[User:RZuo|RZuo]]: No, but it does appear on [[Special:PrefixIndex/Category:庶]]. Please note that the character is used in a bunch of languages per [[wikt:庶]]. &nbsp; — 🇺🇦<span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small><sub> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</sub></small>🇺🇦 13:40, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

== Buggy category search in cat-a-lot via mobile browser  ==

When searching for categories via cat-a-lot that are not already in immediate parent-child "vicinity" (like in cases of uncategorized media), one needs to "confirm" one's search result either via kicking "enter" on mobile keyboard or by tapping on the search result to "add" the found category to the cat-a-lot list of categories to choose from. However, neither of the two ways of "confirming" the search result is currently working in (my chromium-based) mobile browser, which means that I need to open every single file individually and add the categories manually. Example: there's media on Skopje in "All media needing categories as of 2019" (let's shorten that here to "All2019"). When opening cat-a-lot on "All2019", cat-a-lot only offers options like "Uncategorized files", "Hidden categories", and "Files needing categories by year". If I enter "Skopje" in the "Enter category name" search box, there's no way for me to actually select or add "Skopje" to the list of categories to choose from. That's the bug. I'm stuck with the options "Uncategorized files", "Hidden categories", and "Files needing categories by year". The only way to get to the Category:Skopje is to manually click through the whole category tree, first moving to some parent of All2019, and from there to a child category that hopefully has Skopje somewhere down the line of the category tree. This is obviously not very feasible, so every file needs to be categorized manually in the end. [[User:Nakonana|Nakonana]] ([[User talk:Nakonana|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:25, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

:Actually, it's sounds like the same issue as described in "Cat-a-lot not working for on-screen keyboards", except, it used to work for up until 1-2 months or so ago. [[User:Nakonana|Nakonana]] ([[User talk:Nakonana|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:29, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
::I just had the same problem. Somehow I miraculously could select my target destination once, but when I tried to do it again I couldn't get it. How do I do the equivalent of "pressing enter key on PC" on mobile web browser? (Using brave browser.) [[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:52, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

@[[User:Nakonana|Nakonana]] I just realised how it might work.
#select files/pages
#type your target category 
#click the first clickable category underneath the search bar
#now go back to search bar. When you press the -> button on your onscreen keyboard, it probably behaves like the enter key.
If it doesn't, then keep clicking any clickable item, then first clickable item, then try enter key in search bar, until you get the target category selected.--[[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 17:32, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

:It seems it works more likely if you click something that needs to "load", that is, a category that has lots of subcategories. Then after "loading" you will be able to press the enter key. [[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 17:40, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
::@[[User:RZuo|RZuo]] Thanks for the tip. I'll try it next time I get to categorizing stuff :) [[User:Nakonana|Nakonana]] ([[User talk:Nakonana|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 12:16, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

== taking up space ==

Can we fix cat-a-lot to NOT take up the bottom corner all the time ? It's annoying and gets in the way with the fullscreen view of videos (esp on mobile this is very annoying), sometimes the wide layout button of vector-2022, several of the fullscreen gallery options etc. I understand that if you use this tool every day it's handy, but everytime i try it, i have to disable it again because of this. Almost every other tools is launched from the Tools section, why can't this one be ? —[[User:TheDJ|Th<span style="color: green">e</span>DJ]] ([[User talk:TheDJ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/TheDJ|contribs]]) 17:42, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

:{{reply to|TheDJ}} For the why: probably because there was no other option at the time. This script was written in May 2007; according to [[mw:RL/MGU#MediaWiki 1.16 and before]], <code>addPortletLink()</code> appeared in 2008.
:For the why not: muscle memory. Maybe there could be a preference for that (Cat-a-lot already has preferences), defaulting to the legacy placement.
:(By the way, I also use it very rarely, but it doesn’t annoy me. I use Vector 2010, though, maybe it’s more annoying on Vector 2022.) —[[User:Tacsipacsi|Tacsipacsi]] ([[User talk:Tacsipacsi|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 07:55, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
:{{tq|the wide layout button of vector-2022}} – this one should be going away per [[mw:Reading/Web/Accessibility for reading/Updates]] (it's being replaced with an "Appearance" menu), so at least Cat-a-lot's button in the corner won't be affected anymore. You can check out the new menu by enabling checkbox "Accessibility for Reading (Vector 2022)" in [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures|beta features]]. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 21:40, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

== User Categories with Cat-a-lot? ==

Is it possible to use [[Commons:User-specific galleries, templates and categories#Categories|user categories]] with Cat-a-lot?

Any advice/guidance, suggestions, or best practices?

--[[User:CmdrDan|CmdrDan]] ([[User talk:CmdrDan|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:34, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

:Categorizing user pages using Cat-a-lot is possible – just turn on categorization of pages in "Preferences" (checkbox "Allow categorising pages (including categories) that are not files" – it's disabled on Commons by default). I don't think Commons has specific guidelines for editing of other editors' user pages. Check out [[:en:WP:UP#Editing of other editors' user and user talk pages|enwiki's guideline]], which {{em|doesn't apply to Commons}} (it's for a different project), but it may give you an idea of what kind of editing is acceptable.
:Categorizing user categories should also be possible. However, there are currently two discussions about bugs in editing category pages: [[MediaWiki talk:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js#Cat-a-lot failing 202402]] and [[MediaWiki talk:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js#Problem with moving categories]]. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 21:36, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
::Hello @[[User:Andrybak|Andrybak]], I'm really interested in categorizing categories with Cat-a-lot on Commons, but I cannot find "Allow categorizing pages etc." in Preferences, in which tab is it exactly? [[User:Una tantum|Una tantum]] ([[User talk:Una tantum|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 08:24, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
:::[[User:Una tantum|Una tantum]], it is in preferences of Cat-a-lot itself. See red rectangle on the screenshot at [[Help:Gadget-Cat-a-lot#Preferences]]. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 08:28, 12 August 2024 (UTC)

== Misleading tooltip on the "+" button ==

I just made a mess because the "+" button in the interface does say "Copy" in the tooltip. Like it would copy the category to the clipboard. But I don't want to create a copy of anything. Not a copy of a file. Not a copy of a category. All I want to do is to add the files I selected to the category. The only other button I could find was the "→" arrow that says "Move", but that actually ''deleted'' something completely unrelated without giving me a chance to review or even understand how it's going to decide what will be deleted and what not. For a start, can you please fix the tooltip to say '''"Add this category to the selected files"'''? Thank you. --[[User:Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)|Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)]] ([[User talk:Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 07:59, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

:@[[User:Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)|Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)]]: The "+" button copies the selected items into the category next to that button. The  "→" arrow copies the selected items into the category next to that button and removes them from the currently viewed category (that is, moves them to the new category from the currently viewed category). &nbsp; — 🇺🇦<span style="font-size:115%;background:#FFA">[[User:Jeff G.|Jeff G.]]</span> ツ<small> please [[Template:Ping|ping]] or [[User:Jeff G./talk|talk to me]]</small>🇺🇦 15:17, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
::Files aren't "copied". There aren't two files after any of these actions. That terminology is incredibly confusing and doesn't align with user's expectations. What happens is that the category is added to the files, and as a consequence of that the files are also added to the category (in other words: they are now linked). I made a suggestion how this can be significantly improved without any actual change to the UI. It's just a tooltip. Expert users that know what the "+" button does can easily ignore the tooltip. [[User:Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)|Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)]] ([[User talk:Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:18, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

== Highlight files already in category (2024-07) ==

When selecting files to be add to a category, these are highlighted in yellow.

They get grayed out once the addition takes place, except if the file is already in the category.

In this case, the file just gets white again. I think it would be better to give them a different color, e.g. a lighter gray. This should make it easier to work on longer list that are to be added to different categories. Possibly [[#Select all on Special:Search]] needs to be fixed first. [[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]] ([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 10:28, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

== Feature request: Rate-limiting pause ==

In depopulating a large category, I noticed that Cat-a-lot ignores edit rate limits, leading to annoyingly waiting one minute after every 45 pages. I think this should be changed so that it waits 60 seconds every time the rate limit is hit, and tries again once the limit is up. Proof of concept is the rate-limiting code in [[:en:User:Qwerfjkl/scripts/massXFD]]. –[[User:LaundryPizza03|'''<font color=#7f7fbf>Laundry</font><font color=#ffbf00>Pizza</font><font color=#bf0000>03</font>''']] ([[User talk:LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00df00>d</font>]][[Special:Contributions/LaundryPizza03|<font color=#00bfff>c&#x0304;</font>]]) 23:21, 7 July 2024 (UTC)

== [Feature request] max height ==

it'd be nice if the gadget can be a bit smarter by limiting its max height so that the input bar doesnt get pushed above the visible window.

or maybe the input bar can be fixed at the bottom. [[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 14:11, 22 July 2024 (UTC)

== Is there a way to remove items from one's watchlist after moving files with CAL? ==

Maybe other users of this tool have found a way for that. Sometimes I forgot to first uncheck the watchlisting of files I move with cat-a-lot but didn't intend to watch or I only did so for the first page of files.

Is there a way to unwatch all files in a category (either directly or also including files in their subcategories)? [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 22:12, 17 August 2024 (UTC)

:It’s possible using the API: go to [[Special:ApiSandbox#action=watch&format=json&unwatch=1&generator=categorymembers&formatversion=2]], click ''generator=categorymembers'' on the left, fill in ''gcmtitle'' as instructed, and click ''{{int:apisandbox-submit}}''. If an error popup appears, let it fill in the token automatically. (While it’s called “API <em>sandbox</em>”, it actually modifies your watchlist.) I don’t know about any more user-friendly solution. —[[User:Tacsipacsi|Tacsipacsi]] ([[User talk:Tacsipacsi|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 09:51, 19 August 2024 (UTC)

== Very slow performance ==

When I perform an action with Cat-a-lot in the Special:Search mode, the performance is very slow: copying and removing 500 files takes each more than 5 minutes, while earlier it was only some seconds. What happened? Can it be fixed? [[User:JopkeB|JopkeB]] ([[User talk:JopkeB|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 09:21, 19 August 2024 (UTC)

:And for working in a category: it is just as slow. [[User:JopkeB|JopkeB]] ([[User talk:JopkeB|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 09:50, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
:The code was changed to make actions sequentially and with a small pause in between (in order to comply with the API usage requirements). Hopefully that pause can be refined at a later time, but due to problems this gadget was causing, this restriction had to be put in place for now. —[[User:TheDJ|Th<span style="color: green">e</span>DJ]] ([[User talk:TheDJ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/TheDJ|contribs]]) 11:13, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
::It's too slow now. 
::Maybe one could fix the script so the server doesn't get hammered twice for every edit: [[MediaWiki_talk:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js#Select_all_on_Special:Search]] [[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]] ([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:54, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
:::"It's too slow now." I'd say it was too fast before, as it wasn't complying with the API requirements for tools. Its one of those 'with great power comes great responsibility' things... —[[User:TheDJ|Th<span style="color: green">e</span>DJ]] ([[User talk:TheDJ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/TheDJ|contribs]]) 14:11, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
::::I think it broken when someone changed [[Special:Search]]. One of those, "tools are not our responsibility"-things. [[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]] ([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 14:20, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
::I hope there is a solution to this! [[User:Sinigh|Sinigh]] ([[User talk:Sinigh|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 13:54, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
::Thanks [[User:TheDJ|TheDJ]], for looking after it. So it might get a little bit faster, but it will "never" get as fast as before. That is something we have to learn to live with. [[User:JopkeB|JopkeB]] ([[User talk:JopkeB|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:19, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
:::If I may suggest an alternative: [[:meta:User:Lucas Werkmeister/QuickCategories|QuickCategories]] also lets you edit categories in bulk, but should play more nicely with the server, and can also automatically retry edits that failed if the wiki was temporarily too busy. Maybe some Cat-a-lot power users will find it useful? (Disclaimer: I made the tool, so I’m naturally biased towards it ^^) [[User:Lucas Werkmeister|Lucas Werkmeister]] ([[User talk:Lucas Werkmeister|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:45, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
::::looks like a better tool. thx. [[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 05:41, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
::::But it can't be used to recategorize files in bulk, or? [[User:Sinigh|Sinigh]] ([[User talk:Sinigh|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 14:02, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
:::::[[Help:VisualFileChange.js|VisualFileChange]] could be another alternative. Use "append any text" as option to add categories. [[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]] ([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:08, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
::@[[User:TheDJ|TheDJ]], please provide the link where, "''The code was changed to make actions sequentially and with a small pause in between (in order to comply with the API usage requirements).''" Thank you, -- [[User:Ooligan|Ooligan]] ([[User talk:Ooligan|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 04:11, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
:::https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki%3AGadget-Cat-a-lot.js&diff=912145148&oldid=907459999 —[[User:TheDJ|Th<span style="color: green">e</span>DJ]] ([[User talk:TheDJ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/TheDJ|contribs]]) 07:01, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
:The new "Tech News" praises <u>Cat-a-lot</u> as recipient of the '''[https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Coolest_Tool_Award#2024_Winners| Coolest Tool Award 2024]''' at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2024/34 [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2024/34].
:*What would really be "cool"- would be this <u>now very slow tool</u> be returned to its <u>'''former fast speed that actually made this tool an award winner in 2024.'''</u> -- [[User:Ooligan|Ooligan]] ([[User talk:Ooligan|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 04:03, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
::Agree – there shouldn't be a focus on finding alternatives for this extremely useful tool: instead, please actively try to have these rate-limits changed or make cat-a-lot become an exception in the API usage requirements (in general or when used by e.g. established users and/or specifically on Wikimedia Commons). And please link such efforts here such as a phab issue about it. [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:16, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
:::{{Agree}}! [[User:Sinigh|Sinigh]] ([[User talk:Sinigh|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 19:01, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
::::same {{Agree}}[[User:GiovanniPen|GioviPen]] [[User talk:GiovanniPen|<small><sup><span>'''GP msg'''</span></sup></small>]] 11:25, 28 September 2024 (UTC)


Hi, my name is Amir Sarabadani and I work at [[mw:SRE|SRE team]] at the foundation. Our job is to make sure the site is available to everyone at all time. We had to introduce sleep between each edit because it was making edits at such rate that it brought down all Wikis more than ten times. [[phab:T370304|This phabricator ticket]] has more technical details. The way it operated was a clear violation of [[mw:API:Etiquette|our API policy]] and as such can't be changed back to the previous state. Similarly, no forking shall be done as it will endanger reliability of the site. I understand this is frustrating but the options here are between a slower gadget or sites being down. If a volunteer is willing to, they can refactor the gadget to make sure the edits are done in serial and then reduce the sleep time to 0.5s which would make it slightly faster but it won't be as fast as it used to be (and it shouldn't as I explained above why). I hope this makes it clearer why such change was done. Apologies for the inconvenience but we have no other choice. Thank you [[User:ASarabadani (WMF)|ASarabadani (WMF)]] ([[User talk:ASarabadani (WMF)|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:54, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

:Thanks [[User:ASarabadani (WMF)|ASarabadani (WMF)]], for the explanation. It's sad, but I understand. [[User:JopkeB|JopkeB]] ([[User talk:JopkeB|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 12:22, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
:{{tq|because it was making edits at such rate that it brought down all Wikis more than ten times}} Wouldn't the next step after some adhoc temporary measure like limiting the tool edit rate be to change cat-a-lot so all users using it can't exceed some edit rate limit so it only becomes slow once its ''overall'' rate is too high? It also seems needed to also look into why it had the effect and which activities caused it. I think this is a rare case of a tool where it is very reasonable and somewhat needed to make it an exception allowed to make edits at rates above the API policy once the aforementioned solution is implemented albeit the sites shouldn't crash but e.g. automatically throttle all automated-tool-tagged edits like those being made with CAL. [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:27, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

I came here for the same issue. Made it very slow and difficult to move files into renamed categories, or other fixes I used to do after uploads (because adding categories through the Wizard is very slow, and need a lot of copy-paste for each single category of files). Please bring back to original speed. [[User:ASarabadani (WMF)|ASarabadani (WMF)]] Having the website down for a few seconds was not a big issue, as it happened really rarely and for very short time. --[[User:Sailko|Sailko]] ([[User talk:Sailko|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 14:06, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

:i'd say the question is, who was using it so massively that it brought down the site, and how.
:the tool has been around for more than a decade? who was using it in the past few days with no regard for edit rate?
:ofc, the tool should also be rate limited, but not as much as 1 or 0.5 sec between each edit? plenty more tools edit quite rapidly too. do they cause similar problems? [[User:RZuo|RZuo]] ([[User talk:RZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 14:17, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
::Other tools limit the maximum number of requests they'll send at one time.
::The [[mediawikiwiki:API:Etiquette|expected standard and documented policy for users of the API]] is that they'll send a request, wait for it to finish, and then send another request.
::Before @[[User:ASarabadani (WMF)|ASarabadani (WMF)]]'s patch, Cat-A-Lot would send all of its edits simultaneously, without waiting for anything at all.  Some of the time, this would result in immense load on the database server, bringing down ''all wikis'' for ''10-30 minutes''.
::The tool could be both fast and safe if it was modified to issue requests serially, not in parallel.
::But that change was not easy for us to do in unfamiliar code during an emergency situation, so we made the edit that would fix the site while unfortunately slowing down the tool.
::We welcome a proper fix from the community.
::– [[User:CDanis (WMF)|CDanis (WMF)]] ([[User talk:CDanis (WMF)|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:01, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
:::With the current performance it is not possible to make bigger changes in the categories. And sorry, you didn't answer the question why it was OK all the years but now it that bad, that you practically shut it down.[[User:Avron|Avron]] ([[User talk:Avron|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:06, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
:::@[[User:CDanis (WMF)|CDanis (WMF)]]: Is there any way to announce or publicize the need for a parallel→serial fix? [[User:Sinigh|Sinigh]] ([[User talk:Sinigh|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:20, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
:Same for me. I used to mass-move hundreds of files under few seconds. It is taking minutes now and the tool is useless now. Quick Categories isn't a visual tool and VFC doesn't help with category tree. WMF is digging another trench between themselves and the community. --—&nbsp;'''[[User:Draceane|Draceane]]'''&nbsp;<sup>[[User talk:Draceane|talk]]</sup><sub style="margin-left:-20px">[[Special:Contributions/Draceane|contrib.]]</sub> 07:18, 30 August 2024 (UTC)
::If there were any replacement solution (per [[Commons:Requests for comment/Technical needs survey]], [[Commons:Requests for comment/Technical needs survey/"Building block" tool to select files]]), I would say nothing. —&nbsp;'''[[User:Draceane|Draceane]]'''&nbsp;<sup>[[User talk:Draceane|talk]]</sup><sub style="margin-left:-20px">[[Special:Contributions/Draceane|contrib.]]</sub> 07:42, 30 August 2024 (UTC)
:::@[[User:ASarabadani (WMF)|ASarabadani (WMF)]]@[[User:CDanis (WMF)|CDanis (WMF)]]: As you can see from the comments in this thread, this is a critical tool that needs to be usable for high-volume edits. It is clear that the community is unhappy about the way this has taken place. I believe it would be appreciated by many if you could answer the following:
:::*This tool has been in use for 17 years. Are these issues new? If so, why; if not, why was nothing done before?
:::*Why was there no notification to the Commons community that a widely-used tool was being limited? Is there any policy for your team about when to notify communities about changes like this?
:::*What is the timeline/path forward to refactor the tool to restore its former level of functionality? Will WMF developer time be allocated to do so, or will it have to be a volunteer?
:::[[User:Pi.1415926535|Pi.1415926535]] ([[User talk:Pi.1415926535|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 02:36, 2 September 2024 (UTC)
::::I would also ask about the guideline. I think the API guideline is for somehow external or additional tools and not for MediaWiki functionalities itself. Of course technically it is an external tool but practically it is like a core MediaWiki feature. And then a question to the rate limiting that already exists. Why does this not prevent the problems? Or are users with ratelimit exception the problem? Generally this needs a server side solution to not impact user experience. [[User:GPSLeo|GPSLeo]] ([[User talk:GPSLeo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 05:59, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

Regarding policy, the policy this gadget was violating is [[:mw:API:Etiquette]] that is explicitly refereed to in [[foundation:Policy:Terms_of_Use#12._API_Terms|our terms of use]] and must be respected. On why it hasn't caused issues before, it can be many reasons, more people are using the gadget, more people are editing Wikimedia Commons, edits are more expensive due to having more features, it can be that because of HTTP/2 more requests are being sent via browsers at the same time (I wrote in more details in [[phab:T370304#10072844]]). At the end day, it doesn't matter. The API policy is there to protect the infrastructure from harm. If it was violated and no issues were seen, it doesn't mean such violations are okay. With regards to responsibility, maintaining gadgets is the responsibility of volunteers. If you want engineering time to be allocated to this, I recommend using [[m:Community Wishlist]]. I say it again, it can be made much faster with proper rewrite of its internals but it can never be turned to its previous speed. Thank you [[User:ASarabadani (WMF)|ASarabadani (WMF)]] ([[User talk:ASarabadani (WMF)|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:07, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

:Wasn't the tool reviewed by WMF and given an award? Also, edit rates at Commons were increased specifically to make this tool possible? Wouldn't one expect WMF to fix the bug identified months ago rather than deactivating it. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 16:11, 2 September 2024 (UTC)
::Additionally, rules and terms of use are not an end in themselves...when a tool would greatly benefit to be exempt from these or when it would be good to change them, then I don't see why it wouldn't make sense to think about some changes that prevent issues from occurring without the speed limitation which probably needs to be done anyway sooner or later and would improve stability & performance: namely making the tool create one batch-command where the server then executes all tasks in the batch as fast as it can but not faster or slower than that (e.g. at max 5 users' queues in parallel with 0.05 sec per task at any point in time). Probably somebody else can explain it better and that wouldn't just be a very useful to get CAL up to speed again but also for various other purposes where I'm somewhat surprised that's not how such API requests are handled. Asking about this in the context of CAL me be inappropriate so one would need to look also into other advantages and needs and prior issues/discussions about something like that if that's indeed missing. [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:26, 2 September 2024 (UTC)
::"Wasn't the tool reviewed by WMF and given an award" No it was not. [[Meta:Coolest Tool Award|Coolest tool]] is an event that is facilitated by the foundation, and the committee are volunteers both from within and outside of the foundation, and often winners from previous years. They do not do code review, they just evaluate the 'coolness' of a project. —[[User:TheDJ|Th<span style="color: green">e</span>DJ]] ([[User talk:TheDJ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/TheDJ|contribs]]) 21:29, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
:::Including WMF staff on a paid WMF staff trip? <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 21:35, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
::::What trip ? The committee uses online communication, and the awards are handed out at events that are already being organized (either the hackathon or wikimania), by people already attending that event for other reasons. I'm not even sure if there is budget for this entire thing. I really don't appreciate this disingenuous take. Talk is easy, but you could use that same energy to do something useful or fun for other people. Like the Coolest Tool Award committee. —[[User:TheDJ|Th<span style="color: green">e</span>DJ]] ([[User talk:TheDJ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/TheDJ|contribs]]) 21:47, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
:::::You know.. it is comments like these, that make it REALLY freaking difficult for me as a volunteer, to fight for attention for Commons among the foundation. Maybe it is time this community forks off. let them solve their own problems. —[[User:TheDJ|Th<span style="color: green">e</span>DJ]] ([[User talk:TheDJ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/TheDJ|contribs]]) 21:50, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
::::::You are free to praise the foundation development staff for their handling of needed functionality and the message that accompanied it. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 21:55, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
:@[[User:ASarabadani (WMF)|ASarabadani (WMF)]]: Please don't take this as a personal insult - this is a cultural problem with the WMF as a whole and not you/your team - but this is a perfect example of why users distrust the WMF. This is a tool that has been in use for 90% of Commons' lifespan (5 years longer than the API policy has even existed) and probably represents >10% of total edits on one of the busiest wikis. (That's likely 100M+ total edits with the tool - more total edits than all but a handful of wikis.) By any definition, that should be considered a core piece of MediaWiki functionality. Yet now it is near-useless with no guarantee it will ever be fixed.
:There were multiple chances to avoid this problem. The volunteer developer (who is no longer active) should have been notified as soon as the issue was identified - which should have been 6 years ago when the code was refactored. The Commons community should have been notified when the problem was first identified to maximize the chance that another developer would step in. And the community should have been notified when the tool was limited, rather than having to ask for answers. 
:Given that failure by the WMF to communicate, it is insulting to the Commons community to say that the WMF can break this essential tool without any warning, yet will not but any effort into fixing it. It is equally insulting to say we should go through the Community Wishlist process, which is excruciatingly slow and has no guarantee that a request will be chosen, just to get back to the level of functionality that we had. Widely-used tools like Cat-a-lot are just as essential infrastructure to editors as the servers are. It doesn't matter to us if the servers are working perfectly if we can't properly categorize files. This problem was created by the WMF, and your team needs to be working with the Commons community to fix this gadget as quickly as possible. [[User:Pi.1415926535|Pi.1415926535]] ([[User talk:Pi.1415926535|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 03:00, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
::From the comments of @[[User:ASarabadani (WMF)|ASarabadani (WMF)]] we learn that there was no real problem with the tool. But then someone from WMF came and and felt a personal mission to enforce a API policy immediatly. This is not what WMF should akt like, but unfortunately it does.[[User:Avron|Avron]] ([[User talk:Avron|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:29, 6 September 2024 (UTC)
:::Weirdly some of the edits listed in the ticket are of Schlurcherbot, who doesn't use it and is generally known as a well-working bot. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 11:34, 6 September 2024 (UTC)
:::@[[User:Avron|Avron]] I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion, It's documented that the gadget took down commons multiple times until users from SRE  brought the site back on-line. [[User:P858snake|P858snake]] ([[User talk:P858snake|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:58, 6 September 2024 (UTC)
::::OK, sorry I overreacted. You are right, there was an incident. But the gadget was used for years without known problems. If only the gadget was the cause, the problem should have happen much earlier.[[User:Avron|Avron]] ([[User talk:Avron|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 12:55, 6 September 2024 (UTC)
:::::I told people it was flagrantly violating the api policy years ago. Nobody cared. Commons has nobody to blame but themselves for this situation. [[User:Bawolff|Bawolff]] ([[User talk:Bawolff|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 06:06, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
:This drastic drop of performance did not go unnoticed from day 1. The waiting time (locking the page) feels unbearable. Pleading for reconsideration/reparation ASAP since there is [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Uncategorized_images_of_the_Rijksmuseum lots of work to do] and it should not take 30 years when it could be done in 3. [[User:Pelikana|Peli]] ([[User talk:Pelikana|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 10:51, 17 September 2024 (UTC)
:{{ping|ASarabadani (WMF)}} «it can never be turned to its previous speed». Thanks for your candour. I never doubted the unfixable rottenness behind all most of the WMF actions in the past decade, but this kind of encasulated statements are more clear and simple than screenfuls of deep analysis. I hope to see really soon you and your ilk out of this job, and the WMF in the hands of people who really care for the curation of free knowledge, not for hype and buzz. -- [[User:Tuvalkin|Tuválkin]] [[User talk:Tuvalkin|✉]] [[Special:Contributions/Tuvalkin|✇]] 01:22, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
::This is unacceptable ad hominem. And you're shooting the messenger. They're not in charge of the amount of resources allocated to the infrastructure that failed because of the previous version of Cat-a-lot. [[User:Nardog|Nardog]] ([[User talk:Nardog|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 04:46, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

Been experiencing this on multiple occasions. It's not surprising that {{u|JopkeB}} and others are also experiencing the snail-like performance of a tool that is supposed to execute recategorizations within seconds. To illustrate, as can be seen in [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/JWilz12345 my contributions], I transferred 162 more or less image files of [[w:en:Asin Road]] from {{u|Judgefloro}}-created "[[:Category:Anduyan-Rizal-San Pascual-Nangalisan-Asin Road (Tubao, La Union section)]]" (very loong category name as expected from Judgefloro's creations) to [[:Category:Asin Road (Tubao segment)]]. It took me around 8 minutes, between 5:57 and 6:06 pm (Philippine Standard Time/UTC+8). Before, it was possible to recategorize all in less than a minute. While the API limit concern does seem valid, I agree with users like {{u|Pi.1415926535}} and {{u|Avron}} that the API issue should have been investigated more thoroughly and not pinpoint ''all'' blame to this useful tool that has been in use for many years – even before this API policy. Valid recategorizations, such as fixing messy categories left behind by Judgefloro or his socks (like {{u|Ramon FVelasquez}} and {{u|JFVelasquez Floro}}), are supposed to be done within seconds, not minutes. Slow recategorizations waste valuable time for many editors (including off-wiki/real world errands and works). This should be addressed. In short, very disappointing snail-like performance. <span style="font-family:Footlight MT">[[User:JWilz12345|JWilz12345]] <span style="background-color:#68FCF1">(''[[User talk:JWilz12345|Talk]]''|''[[Special:Contributions/JWilz12345|Contrib's.]]'')</span></span> 10:21, 21 September 2024 (UTC)

:Agree. Now that we're more than a month in, I have to say that this issue hasn't been handled very well so far. There are probably many organizational and resource-related constraints that I'm unaware of, but still:
:Changing the tool was a highly disruptive edit, so it follows that WMF should have at least notified Commons users immediately and publicly, while also putting in ''some'' effort towards finding an actual solution, knowing that they only solved one problem by causing another. Instead, this discussion had to be started after the fact for most people to have any idea what had happened, and so far we've only been referred to the wishlist.
:It was a good thing that the downtime issues were fixed, of course, but the fix had consequences that WMF should take responsibility for. There is still a problem, albeit a different and smaller one, and it was caused by WMF directly. Simply handing a problem you yourself caused to the people affected by it, along with some barely useful advice that they don't even need, is a counterproductive attitude to have in any situation, but perhaps especially towards a volunteer community.
:One would at least expect some act of solidarity towards the people who build and improve WMF's projects on their own time and dime. If there is indeed tension between WMF and the community, as previous posts suggest, I now understand why, and this certainly won't do anything alleviate it.
:[[User:Sinigh|Sinigh]] ([[User talk:Sinigh|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:31, 21 September 2024 (UTC)
::From a technical perspective, the root of the problem lies in the gadget code. It should not have been sending all edit requests simultaneously, as this was the core issue, and the subsequent responses were merely addressing the symptoms. When we consider the role of WMF site reliability engineers, which is to ensure the site remains operational, it's easier to understand why their focus is on resolving issues that directly impact site stability and then moving on to the next task. If they were responsible for fixing all external tools, they wouldn't have the time to maintain the platform itself.
::This doesn't imply that they are dismissive of or unaware of Cat-a-lot's importance—it's simply that it falls outside the scope of their primary responsibilities. Additionally, software needs to be updated over time as the environment around it evolves. Even if something worked well in the past, changes in web browsers, Wikimedia APIs, the system environment, and usage patterns all necessitate updates. It's unrealistic to expect that software will continue functioning without any ongoing maintenance.
::Personally, I believe that Wikimedia communities should prioritize building capacity to maintain the tools they develop. While Cat-a-lot may be somewhat unique due to its widespread use—being utilized by 5-10% of daily Commons editors—it should ideally receive some support from the WMF, though this likely falls under a different team's responsibilities rather than the SREs. -- [[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:01, 23 September 2024 (UTC)
:::I have no objections to what you're saying, of course, but a rehashing of the general situation really doesn't address what I said. If anything, you're basically just describing the problem, as I see it. With some good suggestions added.
:::I believe everyone already understands that Wikimedia as a whole is incredibly complex and that responsibilities have to be structured in a reasonable way. But that shouldn't also mean that someone can expect not to be held accountable at all, simply because what they did was necessary, when their actions directly interfered with someone else's area of responsibility and caused problems for them. That way of thinking doesn't make any sense to me. Of course you help someone when you mess up their stuff, even if all you can do at first is make sure that they know what just happened and why.
:::I feel the need to stress that I did not say that the WMF should be "responsible for fixing all external tools," just that they should take some responsibility for this one problem, which they caused. In this case, the widespread use of the tool means that not only is this important in principle, but also very much so in practice.
:::[[User:Sinigh|Sinigh]] ([[User talk:Sinigh|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:01, 23 September 2024 (UTC)
:::@[[User:Zache|Zache]] is it possible to separate APIs used in Cat-a-lot instead? So that the concerns on breaking Wikimedia servers are alleviated if Cat-a-lot uses own APIs that are distinct to those used in other tools or functions. <span style="font-family:Footlight MT">[[User:JWilz12345|JWilz12345]] <span style="background-color:#68FCF1">(''[[User talk:JWilz12345|Talk]]''|''[[Special:Contributions/JWilz12345|Contrib's.]]'')</span></span> 02:25, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
::::The problem, as far as I know, was that changing categories triggers an update to the category, which in turn updates that row in the database table. The row will be locked until the update is complete. This lock prevents new writes to that exact row until the previous update is finished. If there are multiple edits coming in very quickly and there is load on the database, the writes will start to pile up, eventually causing a noticeable problem. The proposed fix for this in Phabricator was that these writes wouldn't need to be performed for every edit; instead, the system could flag the value as 'dirty' and update it when there is time. However, they were not able to make these changes on the fly, so the ad-hoc limited the cat-a-lot as quickfix, and even they are fixing the server side it doesn't change that cat-a-lot should work inside the rules. --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 06:15, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::{{Ping|Zache}} I can tolerate the speed of [[COM:VisualFileChange]] though. It temporarily stops edits after the 900th edit, and need to wait for a minute or two before resuming the execution of the tool (in my case of custom replacing {{tl|Licensed-FOP}} with {{tl|Licensed-PD}} for files of PD-Philippine buildings). Nonetheless, the speed is acceptable for me (ensuring smooth and fast performance but not risking breaking some WMF servers). Will that speed be the same speed to be implemented in the updated/revamped Cat-a-lot? <span style="font-family:Footlight MT">[[User:JWilz12345|JWilz12345]] <span style="background-color:#68FCF1">(''[[User talk:JWilz12345|Talk]]''|''[[Special:Contributions/JWilz12345|Contrib's.]]'')</span></span> 09:30, 12 October 2024 (UTC)
::::::VisualFileChange uses 5 parallel edits for regular users (and 10 for sysops/bots) by default. My personal guess is that 5 could also be achieved with Cat-a-lot. However, we are starting with 2 to see if there are any problems, and will gradually increase it from there.   --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 07:46, 13 October 2024 (UTC)


Unfortunately, after @[[User:SDeckelmann-WMF|SDeckelmann-WMF]] took over as Chief Product and Technology Officer, Commons seems to have become [[Commons talk:Think big - open letter about Wikimedia Commons#WMF response to the Wikimedia Commons open letter|WMFs' ugly]] [[meta:Talk:Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan/2024-2025|duck]]. Quite clearly, we are not a priority, and this is yet another blatant evidence of this.<p>
"''With regards to responsibility, maintaining gadgets is the responsibility of volunteers''" - and the responsibility of WMF is to support volunteers. Looking at all funds that were wasted in the failed processes of branding and strategy, and bizarre initiatives like fostering diversity ''outside'' wikimedia (that Knowledge Equity stuff or whatever it is), I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be difficult to find some cents to put in fixing cat-a-lot and, for a change, funds would be applied in something they are meant to, instead of those reckless experiments. If they are not doing it, it's because we are not a priority. [[User:DarwIn|<span style="font-family:Candara; color:#4153A0; font-size:110%;"> '''Darwin'''</span>]] [[User Talk:DarwIn|<span style="color:#4153A0; font-style:oblique;"><sup>Ahoy!</sup></span>]] 01:09, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

=== Modified version of Cat-a-lot ===
{{phab| T375355}}
{{ping|ASarabadani (WMF)}} Would you like to check if [[User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.js|my version of cat-a-lot.js]] ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User%3AZache%2Fcat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.js&diff=927909969&oldid=927908028 diff]) would be working nicely  enough in terms of parallel editing so it could be used? I changed the code so that it will limit the number of concurrent edits to 5 when [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&format=json&titles=Main%20Page&maxlag=-1 maxlag] is under 1.5s and if it higher it drops it to 1. Currently it checks maxlag only when user starts the batch, but it can be changed so that it would check it every 50 edits or so also. 1.5s is selected as lag seems to be changing between 0.3 - 1.1s so I just selected a value which is little-bit higher than normally.  --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 04:59, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

:Hmm, the abort-button doesn't work currently as the edits are delegated to libAPI. I need to sort that out. --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:15, 24 September 2024 (UTC)
:If somebody wants to test the script by removing current cat-a-lot from [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets|Preferences]] and adding this line to your [[Special:Mypage/common.js|common.js]] ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Zache/common.js&oldid=931436029 example])
:<code>mw.loader.load('//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');</code>
:Couple notes:
:# This solves the abort by patching the $.Ajax() function and aborting it there. This is bad practice. So, libAPI code needs to be updated so that [[MediaWiki:Gadget-libAPI.js|libAPI]] supports the aborting the requests and use that instead. (done, but waiting that libAPI gadget will be [[Commons:Administrators%27_noticeboard#Edit_request_MediaWiki:Gadget-libAPI.js|updated]])
:# Current version uses two parallel requests. It's idea is not to be faster but, that human can abort it if it doesn't work correctly.
:# There should be more testing on if it works correctly (ie. aborting, undoing, text/colors become visible in right order etc). <strike>The spinner doesn't go away after abort, but that was broken already.</strike> Spinner is fixed.
:# Special:Search selection should be working. (TODO: check that nothing else broke because fix)
:# selected number should be working after clicking "Invert". (when it broken number were inverted. (ie. 1 selected, number was 199 etc, 199 selected number was 1). --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 12:13, 5 October 2024 (UTC)
:--[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 05:55, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
::Hi Zache, thanks for this effort. In my test it works smooth and acceptable for a few times and than randomly fails to load the requested category branch. After a page refresh (abandoning the selection of already picked pages) it starts up with requested cat in textfield. [[User:Pelikana|Peli]] ([[User talk:Pelikana|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:34, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
:::@[[User:Pelikana|Peli]] Thanks for testing. Can you describe step-by-step tutorial how I can try to replicate that? (I am not regular user of cat-a-lot so I don't know how how it actually works or how people are using it so it) --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 21:16, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
::::Yes. Have the tool enabled. Go to [[:cat:Collections of the National Museum of Finland]]. Bring up the tool. Select a file to test the process by clicking emty space under it. File will be highlighted. Move this file for example a medal to one of the available cats seen at the top, by pasting the cat name in the formfield of cat-a-lot or selecting a target cat in the list of CaL. Press enter twice to really set it active ready to go, double check to see if the desired action is programmed and see if the desired target is selected. Press the arrow to move or the Plus sign to add and this does the action. Press esc to clear the results panel. Now I pick another kind of object and try to move it to a different cat like Miscellany. Do this by pasting or typing another cat name in the formfield. Soon enough the tool will throw the endless-loading-error if you try to move some files back and forth between some various or unexpected cats. [[User:Pelikana|Peli]] ([[User talk:Pelikana|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 22:19, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::Thanks, confirmed. This is bug by me in the code which handles aborting. --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 12:00, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::@[[User:Pelikana|Peli]] endless-loading-error should be fixed. --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:33, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
::::::Great fix. I like that result panel seems to get ready much faster without obligatory waits when no action is needed. "The following () pages were skipped, because the old category could not be found:" - Such as removing a redundant cat from a large batch when no file uses it.[[User:Pelikana|Peli]] ([[User talk:Pelikana|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 01:50, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

{{ping|Pelikana|Prototyperspective}} Please check that everything still works. The requested update was done to [[MediaWiki talk:Gadget-libAPI.js|mediawiki:Gadget-libAPI.js]] and I changed also my loading code so that it will work in other wikis than Commons too (it is used least in en.wikipedia.org) ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User%3AZache%2Fcat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.js&diff=935188463&oldid=933159261 diff]). After this I will make edit request to copy my changes to [[mediawiki:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js]]. --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 04:12, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

:Everything still works as far as I can see. Yes, please request the gadget to get updated. Thanks a lot for your development of this important tool! [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 08:59, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

=== Edit request: Update Cat-a-lot to libAPI version ===
{{tl|Edit request}} {{ping|Lucas Werkmeister}}, latest version of [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.20241008.js&oldid=935197976 User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.20241008.js] (version redid: 935197976, 8 October 2024‎ 03:59) could be updated to [[MediaWiki:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js]]. The version is identical to latest [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.js&oldid=935198162 User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.js] which have been in testing. I have just combined changes so there is clear diffs to review. 

The main function of the update is to enable submitting parallel edits without overwhelming the server. Idea is to start with 2 parallel edits and then to gradually increase it. ([[phab:T375355]])

; Changelog
* Update Cat-a-lot to use libAPI for editing to manage number of parallel edits. ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User%3AZache%2Fcat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.20241008.js&diff=935189720&oldid=935182966 diff])
* Fixing the [[Special:Search]] selection user interface ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.20241008.js&diff=next&oldid=935189720 diff], bugreports: [[MediaWiki_talk:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js#Select_all_on_Special:Search|1]], [[MediaWiki_talk:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js#Double_entry_bug|2]], [[MediaWiki_talk:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js#Unselecting_files_on_SpecialSearch_broken;_Display_broken|3]])
* Fixing the incorrect dialog height bug ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.20241008.js&diff=next&oldid=935195794 diff], bugreport: [[MediaWiki_talk:Gadget-Cat-a-lot.js#Unselecting_files_on_SpecialSearch_broken;_Display_broken|1]])
--[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 01:56, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

:@[[User:Zache|Zache]] Two questions:
:# I assume the <code>console.log()</code> before the <code>abortPendingRequests()</code> was left over accidentally?
:# Has the behavior implemented in <code>updateMaxLag()</code> / <code>maxSimultaneousReq</code> been discussed here, especially with WMF people? I haven’t read through the whole discussion that took place here over the past weeks, but as far as I remember, the previously communicated acceptable edit rate is “one request after the other”, i.e. fully sequential. (In fact, what Amir wrote on 23 August was serial edits <em>plus</em> a shorter but still nonzero sleep after each edit.)
:[[User:Lucas Werkmeister|Lucas Werkmeister]] ([[User talk:Lucas Werkmeister|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:01, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
::Okay, I chatted a bit with Amir and it sounds like this is okay, but <b>let’s hold off on this until Monday</b> when ops availability will be better in case the site goes down again after all. [[User:Lucas Werkmeister|Lucas Werkmeister]] ([[User talk:Lucas Werkmeister|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:23, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
:::Answers
:::# it was there just to see when the abort was executed. In the version where $.ajax() was overwritten there was race condition on abort where last edited file was not reverted when user clicked undo. However, I haven't seen that on libAPI version. In any case I removed console.log() from the code as it was not useful without other information too.
:::# I also tried sequential editing first. The problem with sequential edits was that each edit regularly took longer than 1 second, so making it sequential slowed it down even more compared to Amir's parallel but with a 1-second sleep between starting new edits. For this reason interactive use cases—i.e., when a user selects a limited number of images and then adds/removes from them—parallel editing will be required to have a usable user experience. (in this context I don't think true mass editing, thousands edits or ten thousands edits in a batch, is not interactive editing and would require some other approach if it is still a problem) 
::: Monday is fine for me also. --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:46, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
:::: {{done}} – let’s hope it works out! (I did a small whitespace edit to your code first, I hope you don’t mind.) --[[User:Lucas Werkmeister|Lucas Werkmeister]] ([[User talk:Lucas Werkmeister|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 17:47, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::Thank you very much! --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 19:04, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
::::::@[[User:Lucas Werkmeister|Lucas Werkmeister]]@[[User:Zache|Zache]] thank you so much! Speed has improved: I just recategorized eight deletion requests under [[:Category:French FOP cases/pending]] to "/deleted" category. Great improvement! <span style="font-family:Footlight MT">[[User:JWilz12345|JWilz12345]] <span style="background-color:#68FCF1">(''[[User talk:JWilz12345|Talk]]''|''[[Special:Contributions/JWilz12345|Contrib's.]]'')</span></span> 07:19, 15 October 2024 (UTC)
:Good news. Could you get it to work on Special:MediaSearch as well? There is a suggestion for possible code above at [[#MediaSearch]]. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 18:28, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
::I looked it. It should be possible, but it is little bit more trickier than other pages as special:mediasearch list is dynamically generated using [[:en:Vue.js]] so it require disabling Vue.js click handling when the Cat-a-lot is active. I will look this more after the current changes are successfully live first. --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 18:32, 10 October 2024 (UTC)
:@Zache thank you so much for your work! I just noticed how fast the tool is now :) [[User:Don-vip|vip]] ([[User talk:Don-vip|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:00, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

== Bug: Cat-a-lot does not work (again) for categories and gallery pages in Special:Search mode ==

It is not possible again to use Cat-a-lot in the Special:Search mode for categories and gallery pages (after clicking on "Preferences", and "Allow categorising pages (including categories) that are not files"). Can this please be solved soon? [[User:JopkeB|JopkeB]] ([[User talk:JopkeB|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 10:33, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

:And now Cat-a-lot does not work for files either in Special:Search mode. This is very sad. [[User:JopkeB|JopkeB]] ([[User talk:JopkeB|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 09:53, 31 August 2024 (UTC)
::If I understood the bug report about the outage a while ago, it was cat-a-lot issue mentioned at [[#Select_all_on_Special:Search]] that lead to the issue when a user tried to add "photographs by .." to thousands of files, each being hammered twice. It would be good if the bug were fixed so this can get back to normal. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 10:10, 31 August 2024 (UTC)
:::That is certainly not what I did. I just selected less than a dozen photos from perhaps 40 hits and tried to copy them to another category. One time 8 out of 10 were copied, another times none out of four. [[User:JopkeB|JopkeB]] ([[User talk:JopkeB|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:50, 31 August 2024 (UTC)
::::No, it was somebody else. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 16:00, 31 August 2024 (UTC)
:::::I think that I was able to fix the Special:Search to ''Modified version of Cat-a-lot'' (see above), please test if it works and nothing else is broken. --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:35, 3 October 2024 (UTC)

== Double entry bug ==

For a while now, if I select, say, 20 files and add them to a category, Cat-a-lot will tell me it is updating 40 files. Its progress counter will count past 20, all the way up to 40. If it reports that some files were skipped, they are each listed twice.

Is anyone else seeing this? Is there a fix or work-around? <span class="vcard"><span class="fn">[[User:Pigsonthewing|Andy Mabbett]]</span> (<span class="nickname">Pigsonthewing</span>); [[User talk:Pigsonthewing|Talk to Andy]]; [[Special:Contributions/Pigsonthewing|Andy's edits]]</span> 12:16, 27 September 2024 (UTC)

:I think I remember the same thing ocurring several years ago, for a while, then it went back to normal. -- [[User:Tuvalkin|Tuválkin]] [[User talk:Tuvalkin|✉]] [[Special:Contributions/Tuvalkin|✇]] 01:13, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
:I could not duplicate this, but I tried to duplicate the "Unselecting files on SpecialSearch broken" I noticed that invert selection shows reversed numbers (1 image selected it shows 19, 19 images selected it shows 1) --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:51, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

== Mass editing usage question ==

I’m considering the idea of adding support of moving very large editing batches to background jobs. For example, modifying the Cat-a-lot UI so that it suggests submitting the batch to [[:m:User:Lucas Werkmeister/QuickCategories|QuickCategories]] and running the edit batch there. However, to implement this, I need to better understand how people are using Cat-a-lot for editing large batches.

I have a couple of questions for this:
# What are you trying to achieve when editing over 200 files in a single batch? (ie. is there some specific task what you are doing)
# On which page are you selecting the files? (ie. category, special:search, Special:ListFiles ...)
# Are you selecting all the files from the list, or are you making custom selections?

--[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 12:31, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

:I most often use it on two kinds of pages, categories and special:search.
:on cat pages, the max you can select, i think, is 200 for each kind (subcats, files, pages). usually, no one does such things unless the cat is moved and contents are being moved from the old name to the new name. i think i mostly move < 100 things at once.
:on special:search, the limit is of course how many results there are on a single page, which can go up to 5000 if you like. but i usually also move < 100 things at once.
:only in the aforementioned case of moving everything from old name to new name might i select everything blindly. but, i dont normally do that but leave it to the bot in charge of clearing redirected cats. for other cases, i always inspect the files to see if i can better diffuse them into more suitable subcats. [[User:RoyZuo|RoyZuo]] ([[User talk:RoyZuo|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 16:10, 13 October 2024 (UTC)
:The tasks where I use cat-a-lot the most:
:- Move files from "review" categories to correct categories, or remove the review category, for files uploaded by my bot, on a daily basis
:- Split large categories (> 1k pictures) into more precise categories (by topic, by year, etc.). This task has become a nightmare
:- Create a new category for a new topic, and look for existing pictures on Commons, add all found pictures into the new category from the search result page [[User:Don-vip|vip]] ([[User talk:Don-vip|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 19:40, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
:I usually use Cat-a-lot in recategorizations while in category pages, including:
:* recategorizations of multiple files by {{user|Judgefloro}}, like dozens of images of a small segment of a Philippine road that is best recategorized to the parent category of the said Philippine road segment (as many of subcategories of road segments he created have been unnecessary forks encouraging [[COM:REDUNDANT|redundancy]]);
:* after moving a category name to its more desired category name (usually those created by Judgefloro), and this involves massive transfers of his files to the desired category name, which may take several minutes due to Judgefloro's numerous files; and
:* moving some files to a subcategory which may either be newly-created by me or specific but valid subcategory (e.g. moving a few files of [[:Category:Electric fans]] to [[:Category:Orbit fans in Japan]] // <small>also from "Electric fans" to</small> [[:Category:Orbit fans in the Philippines]], or from [[:Category:Saint Isidore the Laborer Parish Church (Pulilan)]] to [[:Category:Saint Isidore the Laborer Parish Church (Pulilan) at night]]).
:I would also ping here a fellow user here in the Philippines who also extensively uses Cat-a-lot in dealing Judgefloro's thousands of file dumps here. Ping {{re|Sanglahi86}}. <span style="font-family:Footlight MT">[[User:JWilz12345|JWilz12345]] <span style="background-color:#68FCF1">(''[[User talk:JWilz12345|Talk]]''|''[[Special:Contributions/JWilz12345|Contrib's.]]'')</span></span> 20:06, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
:I also use Cat-a-lot in recategorizing non-files like subcategories and deletion request pages under multiple FoP cases/pending categories (to FoP cases/deleted categories). <span style="font-family:Footlight MT">[[User:JWilz12345|JWilz12345]] <span style="background-color:#68FCF1">(''[[User talk:JWilz12345|Talk]]''|''[[Special:Contributions/JWilz12345|Contrib's.]]'')</span></span> 07:21, 15 October 2024 (UTC)
:1. I use Cat-a-lot in quickly recategorizing images and the categories themselves (thanks to JWilz12345, who taught me that categories can be recategorized in batch using Cat-a-lot). Currently, I am focusing on improving categories of Roman Catholic churches images in the Philippines.
:2. I use Cat-a-lot in Category pages only (at least for now).
:3. I mostly select custom files/images and categories. I also, but seldom, select all files from the list. [[User:Sanglahi86|Sanglahi86]] ([[User talk:Sanglahi86|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 02:27, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
Example. Presented with [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Uncategorized_images_of_the_Rijksmuseum 117k uncategorized files] with mixed object types, I would like to move a batch of over 5k photo files by the museum itself to a [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Rijksmuseum_Afdeling_Beeld prepared subcategory]. I used to do this in batches of 500-1000 and the tool was fast enough to wait for it and repeat the action 5 to 10 times. Being done within an hour. In this use case I would work from special search by a quoted chain of keywords. Nowadays the tool is too slow to sit and wait for it to finish the job, so normally I will start a larger job in one tab and while it is running do small tasks in other tabs. I like the idea of giving this kind of large tasks too a bot request, beacuse there is no real hurry and in fact I will avoid these kinds of large tasks nowadays and focus more on small tasks of reviewing and moving [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=%22Adriaen%20de%20Vries%22%20-deepcat:%22Adriaen_de_Vries%22&title=Special:Search&ns0=1&ns4=1&ns6=1 30-300] files to categories of artworks by creator. Most of the times from special search, sometimes by inspecting and reorganising category content. I like that the experimental version of the tool is fast enough for small tasks (~20-40 files) to finish soon enough to keep going on the same project. It would come in handy coming from special search if the tool could be able to remove the old category in the same edit, but it would require a second formfield i guess. The way it is today we have to run the same batch twice, once to add a new and once to remove the old cat. I think a button for "reselect last batch" would come in handy, especially if they are hand picked files scattered in a long list. [[User:Pelikana|Peli]] ([[User talk:Pelikana|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 10:02, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

== Special:MediaSearch support ==

{{ping|Enhancing999}} I added now a version with [[Special:MediaSearch]] support to testing. 

If somebody wants to test the script by removing current cat-a-lot from [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets|Preferences]] and adding this line to your [[Special:Mypage/common.js|common.js]] ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Zache/common.js&oldid=931436029 example])
:<code>mw.loader.load('//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');</code>

;Source code: 
* [[User:Zache/cat-a-lot-edit-libAPI.js]] 
* [[User:Zache/cat-a-lot.css]]

; Notes for testing
# There is a potential race condition where selecting stops working in newly loaded results when the user scrolls down and Special:MediaSearch page dynamically loads additional results, or when the user performs a search with a different keyword, returning new results. I would be interested to know if this issue still occurs.

--[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 15:48, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

:Thanks, it's promising to see the cat-a-lot-box on that page. 
:Somehow I can't seem to select a file on [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:MediaSearch&search=-incategory%3A%22Sanborn_maps_index_pages%22+incategory%3A%22Sanborn_maps_title_pages%22+-incategory%3A%22Map+legends+of+Sanborn_maps%22+Port+Arthur&type=image]. to add categories: it keeps opening the preview on the right side. For me it would be sufficient to use a different tab or windows to view the file. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 21:20, 15 October 2024 (UTC)
::If it opens the preview then code was not able to capture the events from Vue.js. Probably because it tries to do it before Vue is ready. Just to confirm, if I understood correctly it didn't work on any other search either and this was systematic error? Second confirmation, which browser you are using? --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 04:42, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
::Just as info, I found one concept level bug on how it tries to capture events from Vue so I am solving it. --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:46, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
:::@[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]] Now there is new version, could you confirm if you can now select the file? (also if it fails in any tab, please tell in which tab it fails) --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 20:05, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
::::It already fails on the first tab. I still keep getting the preview. I guess I should look into updating the browser unless there is a hack that allows me to deactivate the preview completely. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 21:27, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::[[File:Cat-a-lot-mediasearch 2024-10-17 at 8.12.04.webm|thumb|Example video of Cat-a-lot mediasearch]]. I added a video about how it is expected to work when it works: 
:::::# When Cat-a-lot is active it captures click events from Vue.js and selects files. It should not show preview in this mode. 
:::::# If cat-a-lot is disabled (the 'x' -button in bottom bar) Cat-a-lot will disable its own handlers and mediasearch should work normally. There should be mediasearch previews.
:::::# If cat-a-lot is activated again from bottom bar (the 'cat-a-lot' link text) then it will again capture the click events.  It should not show preview in this mode. Existing preview window needs to be closed manually.
:::::--[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 05:44, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
::::::Maybe we can roll it out for all users. For those that it works, all the better. the others will have mostly current behaviour. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 13:00, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::::Most likely not as if with three tester, it is broken with one (you) it is likely broken with a lot of more users too. I could try to replicate the problem if you tell what browser you are using? --[[User:Zache|Zache]] ([[User talk:Zache|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 14:49, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
::::::::Maybe we can get more testers in the forum. My outdated browser shouldn't be an obstacle.
::::::::As a user, is there a way I can deactivate the preview function completely? Personally, I could do without it on mediasearch. <br/>&nbsp;∞∞&nbsp;[[User:Enhancing999|Enhancing999]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Enhancing999|<span class="signature-talk">talk</span>]]) 15:47, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

== Tag to filter recent changes in Wikipedia ==

This tool is also used in different Wikipedias, mine is Romanian Wikipedia. Is it possible to add a tag for Recent changes to also filter them there like it is in Commons? Thank you. [[User:Gdaniel111|Gdaniel111]] ([[User talk:Gdaniel111|<span class="signature-talk">{{int:Talkpagelinktext}}</span>]]) 11:53, 29 October 2024 (UTC)