WTB Automated IZoneLinks Creation

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The title says it all. When I create a zone or instance, and we know that on the backend it needs all the links, instead of cut-and-pasting to a redlink page, why don't these pages get spawned autimagically by a script? My carpal tunnel would thank you if you could automate it! :) -- Sigrdrifa ( talk ) 21:30, October 30, 2013 (UTC)

There are no always-running bots to do it is the main reason. There's really noting in the base wiki software that allows automatic spin-off page creation when you create a base page (at least not that I'm aware of). With that said, I might be able to simplify the process a bit so that it would automatically preload the necessary text when following the redlink, thus saving the step of having to copy and paste for each one. It'd still be a manual process but it would hopefully take most of the annoying back-and-forth out of it, since it'd just be following the link and hitting publish. How does that sound? -- lordebon ( talk ) 22:36, October 30, 2013 (UTC)

That would cut down on some of the clicks and make it easier. This was the first time I'd ever set up a bunch of zones all at once, and made me really realize what we do for each zone page. I still have the heroic versions of the instances too, I think. 'Preciate the consideration! -- Sigrdrifa ( talk ) 13:38, October 31, 2013 (UTC)

Good news! I've figured out a way to do it, it's just a matter of iterating through the various options and getting it set-up. Once it's done, instead of the old Template:LinksEdit look, it will look like Template:LinksEdit2 and all you'll have to do is click the link and hit publish. Coming Soon! -- lordebon ( talk ) 15:34, October 31, 2013 (UTC)

New system is live for instances using the IZoneInformation template. I'll work on converting the ZoneInformation template next, but not sure if I'll get to it today or not. If you make any new instance pages, let me know how the new system works or if you find any bugs. -- lordebon ( talk ) 20:34, October 31, 2013 (UTC)

I love it more than chocolate! I am using Firefox with Tab Mix Plus, so I can highlight all the blue boxes, right click, and select "Open links in new tabs". Then I race through the new tabs and just click "Publish" on each. Then I can use "Close Tabs to Right" to close all the new pages and it's done. MUCH, MUCH easier! /blowkiss! -- Sigrdrifa ( talk ) 02:45, November 1, 2013 (UTC)

This thing does seem useful. I have noticed a slight issue when making instanced zones though. The automated links provide the correct "categories" on the page when you make an instanced zone page like The Fanged Sea . However if you click on one of the categories it uses the wrong category link box and you see a link to an Instance category which shouldn't exist. Here is a link to show what I mean Category:The Fanged Sea NPCs . You can see the red instance link.

Compare this to another instanced zone from before the new tool. Category:The Buccaneer's Rest NPCs .

Either the buccaneer's rest is wrong and needs updating or the template needs an adjustment to take out the instance category from the quick category link box.

I can't think of any instances that have another instance in them so I'm thinking that it should be taken off but I admittedly don't know every zone. Jado818 ( talk ) 16:00, November 9, 2013 (UTC)

The preload is working fine. The reason Category:The Fanged Sea NPCs had the wrong box (and thus showed an instance category that shouldn't have existed) is because someone made that category page manually long ago and used the zone rather than izone version; If you look at the history for the category, it was using ZoneLinks instead of IZoneLinks. All newly made zones should be fine. I can't make it fix or detect already incorrectly made category pages, those just have to be corrected manually as we come across them unfortunately.