Recent wiki vandalism

[Dunk]

From:

http://jrandomhacker.info/MediaWiki_troubleshooting

Cannot use an & in a page title

Visiting the page truncates the title and shows a blank page.
Brion replied:
This is a problem with your rewrite rules. Apache unescapes the string, including the ampersand, so when you place it into the query string it counts as two separate parameters.
To avoid this you can:
1) Use an Alias directive instead of mod_rewrite; this is the simplest in most cases.
2) Use the ampescape patch to Apache (in maintenance/) to add a rewrite modifier function which can properly re-escape the ampersand.

Any help to us?

[maroual]

I couldn't tell.

Below is the list of the pages impacted with the ampersand issue (exception made for pages mentionned earlier in this post):

A&E Biography
Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
America Drinks & Goes Home
Amos & Andy
Baby Ray & The Ferns
Battle of Eric Burdon & the Animals and the Mothers of Invention
Chunky, Novi & Ernie
Conrad & The Hurricane Strings
Cops & Buns
Cucamonga Science & Beyond
Dance Of The Rock & Roll Interviewers
Don & Dewey
Dwarf Nebula Processional March & Dwarf Nebula   
Dwarf Nebula Professional March & Dwarf Nebula
El-Malo Ryuichiro Yunoki & Shalgekazu Alla Meets Fz
El-Malo Ryuichiro Yunoki & Shigekazu Aida Meets Frank Zappa
FZ & The Mothers Of Invention (The Bootleg)
Fast & Bulbous
Frank Zappa & l'Amérique parfaite
Frank Zappa & la dînette de chrome
Frank Zappa & les mères de l'invention
Freaks & Motherfuckers
Freaks & Motherfuckers (BTB)
Gary Puckett & the Union Gap
Gene & Eunice
Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions
Harry & Rhonda
Hot & Putrid
Invocation & Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin
JCB & Kansas On The Bus
JIM & I "The Siamese Twins"
Jim & Tammy's Upper Room
Joe's Garage Acts 2 & 3
Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III
Joe's Garage Acts II & III
Joe Perrino & The Mellotones
John & Yoko
Le Concert Impromptu & Bossini
Little Green Scratchy Sweaters & Courduroy Ponce
Loeb & Leopold
Lowell George & The Factory
Lucy's Seduction Of A Bored Violinist & Postlude
Lumpy Gravy & Elsewhere
Mom & Dad
Needles & Pins
Pigs & Repugnant
Resolver & Brutality
Revised Music For Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra
Rock Flashbacks: Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention
Sacco & Vanzetti
Sam The Sham & The Pharaos
Scratch & Sniff
Shut Up & Play yer Guitar Bonus
Shut Up & Play yer Guitar Promo
Simon & Garfunkel
Sky Saxon & The Seeds
Sonny & Cher
The Legend Of Cleetus Awreetus-Awrightus & the Grand Wazoo
The Nancy & Mary Music
The Story Of Ruben & The Jets
Tom & Jerry
Unmatched, Absolutely Five & Sex
Varèse: The Rage & The Fury
Vito's Studio & Store
Zappa: Leading The Way In Digital & CD Technologies

[maroual]

Mmmh. Seems we'll also have to deal with the categories... such as Category:Samplers & Promos.

[maroual]

Okay, relatively limited impact on the categories...
Category:Clubs & Bars
Category:Samplers & Promos
Category:Schools & Colleges
Category:Tributes & Cover Albums
Category:Tributes & Cover Bands

[maroual]

The redirection can be temporarily put in an already existing page such as Frank Zappa (for instance #REDIRECT[[Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention (The Album)]]).
So there is no blocking point to move *&* to *And*. It's just very time consuming 

A big part has been completed (Category:Samplers & Promos and America Drinks & Goes Home have been like hell, the Tributes should be the same).

The remaining are:
Category:Schools & Colleges
Category:Tributes & Cover Albums
Category:Tributes & Cover Bands
A&E Biography
Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Amos & Andy
Baby Ray & The Ferns
Battle of Eric Burdon & the Animals and the Mothers of Invention
Chunky, Novi & Ernie
Conrad & The Hurricane Strings
Cops & Buns
Cruising With Ruben & The Jets (partially solved)
Cucamonga Science & Beyond
Dance Of The Rock & Roll Interviewers
Don & Dewey
Dwarf Nebula Processional March & Dwarf Nebula   
Dwarf Nebula Professional March & Dwarf Nebula
El-Malo Ryuichiro Yunoki & Shalgekazu Alla Meets Fz
El-Malo Ryuichiro Yunoki & Shigekazu Aida Meets Frank Zappa
Flo & Eddie (partially solved)
FZ & The Mothers Of Invention (The Bootleg)
Fast & Bulbous
Frank Zappa & l'Amérique parfaite
Frank Zappa & la dînette de chrome
Frank Zappa & les mères de l'invention
Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention (The Album)
Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention (The Album - 2)
Freaks & Motherfuckers
Freaks & Motherfuckers (BTB)
Gary Puckett & the Union Gap
Gene & Eunice
Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions
Harry & Rhonda
Hot & Putrid
JCB & Kansas On The Bus
JIM & I "The Siamese Twins"
Jim & Tammy's Upper Room
Joe's Garage Acts 2 & 3
Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III
Joe's Garage Acts II & III
Joe Perrino & The Mellotones
John & Yoko
Le Concert Impromptu & Bossini
Little Green Scratchy Sweaters & Courduroy Ponce
Loeb & Leopold
London Symphony Orchestra Vol. I & II
Lowell George & The Factory
Lucy's Seduction Of A Bored Violinist & Postlude
Lumpy Gravy & Elsewhere
Mom & Dad
Needles & Pins
Pigs & Repugnant
Resolver & Brutality
Revised Music For Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra
Roxy & Elsewhere (partially fixed)
Rock Flashbacks: Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention
Sacco & Vanzetti
Sam The Sham & The Pharaos
Scratch & Sniff
Simon & Garfunkel
Sky Saxon & The Seeds
Sonny & Cher
The Legend Of Cleetus Awreetus-Awrightus & the Grand Wazoo
The Nancy & Mary Music
The Story Of Ruben & The Jets
Tom & Jerry
Unmatched, Absolutely Five & Sex
Varèse: The Rage & The Fury
Vito's Studio & Store
Zappa: Leading The Way In Digital & CD Technologies

[maroual]

From:

http://jrandomhacker.info/MediaWiki_troubleshooting

Cannot use an & in a page title

Visiting the page truncates the title and shows a blank page.
Brion replied:
This is a problem with your rewrite rules. Apache unescapes the string, including the ampersand, so when you place it into the query string it counts as two separate parameters.
To avoid this you can:
1) Use an Alias directive instead of mod_rewrite; this is the simplest in most cases.
2) Use the ampescape patch to Apache (in maintenance/) to add a rewrite modifier function which can properly re-escape the ampersand.

Any help to us?

Mmmh... looks 'easy' to implement (maybe some more details would be needed). What do you think about it Barry?

[Barry]

1) Use an Alias directive instead of mod_rewrite; this is the simplest in most cases.

Nope. Tried this before, doesn't work. From the manual: "If you get a "500 error", it probably means alias is not allowed for you." That is apparently the case. Might write support to ask them to enable this though.

2) Use the ampescape patch to Apache (in maintenance/) to add a rewrite modifier function which can properly re-escape the ampersand.

Erh yes. Does one of you know how to "add a rewrite modifier function which can properly re-escape the ampersand"? I don't! Found a file called "apache-ampersand.diff" file in /maintenance/ that looks like its doing something similar, but how do I hook it up to the wiki?

[Barry]

Hang on: seems like I solved the ampersand problem following these directions. Please poke around and test!

Update: this doesn't play well with dots in the title though (such as "London Symphony Orchestra Vol. I & II") -- but really: how many of those are there in the wiki?

[Dunk]

Congratulations! You have won your MediaWiki Master badge as well as our gratitude.   

[Dunk]

It works for me.  What does not work?

[Barry]

It works for me.  What does not work?

... well that url (London_Symphony_Orchestra_Vol._I_%26_II) is supposed to point to "Vol. I & II" - in fact it points to "Vol. I"...

[Dunk]

This is what I get...

[Barry]

This is what I get...

Weird! Now I get that too. Swear it wasn't like that before! All's well that ends well, I suppose

[Dunk]

So what do we get with the update - apart from the spambot thing - are there any particularly exciting new features we should know about?

[Barry]

So what do we get with the update - apart from the spambot thing - are there any particularly exciting new features we should know about?

Perhaps not _that_ exciting but: faster performance, vastly more secure.
Also potentially useful: Extensions.

I'm sure Maroual could give more info regarding new functionality.