Page MenuHomePhabricator

MediaWiki API intro message about "HTML format" should mention the format parameter
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Description

At a URL like https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=blocks, the API currently says:


You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but probably is not suitable for your application.

See [complete documentation], or [API help] for more information.

I think this blurb should mention the format parameter. I think it's non-obvious that the default format is xmlfm. Maybe even mention the format parameter with a more direct link to the section of the documentation about the format parameter. But nobody wants a wall of text of documentation. They just want to know how to make the output _not_ the HTML format.

Also, I think the language "probably is not suitable for your application" should be toughened up (remove the "probably"), but I'm too lazy to file a separate bug.

Ideally the language would be something like...


You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the [format parameter] to change the output format.

Please see the [complete documentation] or [API help] for more information.


Version: unspecified
Severity: normal

Details

Reference
bz34313

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Needs Triage.Nov 22 2014, 12:08 AM
bzimport set Reference to bz34313.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).