API:Search

MediaWiki Action API
Basics All Query modules Get properties of pages List pages matching a criterion Get module parameters information Get meta information about the wiki and user Authentication Get tokens for data modifying operations Login Logout Assert user Accounts and Users Create an account Block or unblock a user Get the current user's watchlist as a feed Change user options Change user group membership Send an email Page Operations Parse content of a page Create and edit a page Upload a file Import a page Delete a page Watch or unwatch a page Purge cache for page(s) Rollback a page Move a page Patrol a page or revision Restore revisions of a deleted page Change a page's protection level Change a page's language More... Search Search for a title or text Fetch results in an OpenSearch format Search for wiki pages near a location Search for a language Perform a prefix search for page titles Developer Utilities Access libraries Cross-site requests Creating an API module in an extension Using the API in MediaWiki and extensions Restricting API usage Localisation Implementation strategy

MediaWiki version:

≥ 1.11

GET Request to search for a title or text in a wiki.

API documentation

list=search (sr) (main | query | search) This module requires read rights. This module can be used as a generator. Source: MediaWiki License: GPL-2.0-or-later Perform a full text search. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/API:Search Parameters: srsearch Search for page titles or content matching this value. You can use the search string to invoke special search features, depending on what the wiki's search backend implements. This parameter is required. srnamespace Search only within these namespaces. Values (separate with | or alternative): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 90, 91, 92, 93, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 486, 487, 828, 829, 1198, 1199, 2300, 2301, 2302, 2303, 2600, 5500, 5501 To specify all values, use *. Default: 0 srlimit How many total pages to return. No more than 500 (5,000 for bots) allowed. Type: integer or max Default: 10 sroffset When more results are available, use this to continue. Type: integer Default: 0 srqiprofile Query independent profile to use (affects ranking algorithm). classic Ranking based on the number of incoming links, some templates, page language and recency (templates/language/recency may not be activated on this wiki). classic_noboostlinks Ranking based on some templates, page language and recency when activated on this wiki. empty Ranking based solely on query dependent features (for debug only). wsum_inclinks Weighted sum based on incoming links wsum_inclinks_pv Weighted sum based on incoming links and weekly pageviews popular_inclinks_pv Ranking based primarily on page views popular_inclinks Ranking based primarily on incoming link counts engine_autoselect Let the search engine decide on the best profile to use. One of the following values: classic, classic_noboostlinks, empty, wsum_inclinks, wsum_inclinks_pv, popular_inclinks_pv, popular_inclinks, engine_autoselect Default: engine_autoselect srwhat Which type of search to perform. One of the following values: title, text, nearmatch srinfo Which metadata to return. Values (separate with | or alternative): totalhits, suggestion, rewrittenquery Default: totalhits|suggestion|rewrittenquery srprop Which properties to return: size Adds the size of the page in bytes. wordcount Adds the word count of the page. timestamp Adds the timestamp of when the page was last edited. snippet Adds a parsed snippet of the page. titlesnippet Adds a parsed snippet of the page title. redirecttitle Adds the title of the matching redirect. redirectsnippet Adds a parsed snippet of the redirect title. sectiontitle Adds the title of the matching section. sectionsnippet Adds a parsed snippet of the matching section title. isfilematch Adds a boolean indicating if the search matched file content. categorysnippet Adds a parsed snippet of the matching category. score Deprecated. Ignored. hasrelated Deprecated. Ignored. extensiondata Adds extra data generated by extensions. Values (separate with | or alternative): size, wordcount, timestamp, snippet, titlesnippet, redirecttitle, redirectsnippet, sectiontitle, sectionsnippet, isfilematch, categorysnippet, score, hasrelated, extensiondata Default: size|wordcount|timestamp|snippet srinterwiki Include interwiki results in the search, if available. Type: boolean (details) srenablerewrites Enable internal query rewriting. Some search backends can rewrite the query into another which is thought to provide better results, for instance by correcting spelling errors. Type: boolean (details) srsort Set the sort order of returned results. One of the following values: relevance, just_match, none, incoming_links_asc, incoming_links_desc, last_edit_asc, last_edit_desc Default: relevance Examples: Search for meaning. api.php?action=query&list=search&srsearch=meaning [open in sandbox] Search texts for meaning. api.php?action=query&list=search&srwhat=text&srsearch=meaning [open in sandbox] Get page info about the pages returned for a search for meaning. api.php?action=query&generator=search&gsrsearch=meaning&prop=info [open in sandbox]

GET Request

api.php?action=query&list=search&srsearch=Nelson%20Mandela&utf8=&format=json [try in ApiSandbox]

Default search results are without UTF8 encoding. Replace utf8 in the get request above to see the difference.

Response

{
    "batchcomplete": "",
    "continue": {
        "sroffset": 10,
        "continue": "-||"
    },
    "query": {
        "searchinfo": {
            "totalhits": 5060
        },
        "search": [
            {
                "ns": 0,
                "title": "Nelson Mandela",
                "pageid": 21492751,
                "size": 196026,
                "wordcount": 23664,
                "snippet": "<span class=\"searchmatch\">Nelson</span> Rolihlahla <span class=\"searchmatch\">Mandela</span> (/mænˈdɛlə/, Xhosa: [xoliɬaˈɬa <span class=\"searchmatch\">manˈdɛla</span>]; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary,",
                "timestamp": "2018-07-23T07:59:43Z"
            },
            {
                "ns": 0,
                "title": "Death of Nelson Mandela",
                "pageid": 41284488,
                "size": 133513,
                "wordcount": 13512,
                "snippet": "On December 5, 2013, <span class=\"searchmatch\">Nelson</span> <span class=\"searchmatch\">Mandela</span>, the first President of South Africa to be elected in a fully representative democratic election, as well as the country's",
                "timestamp": "2018-07-19T17:30:59Z"
            }
            ...
        ]
    }
}

Sample code

Search.py

#!/usr/bin/python3

"""
    search.py

    MediaWiki Action API Code Samples
    Demo of `Search` module: Search for a text or title
    MIT license
"""

import requests

S = requests.Session()

URL = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php"

SEARCHPAGE = "Nelson Mandela"

PARAMS = {
    'action':"query",
    'list':"search",
    'srsearch': SEARCHPAGE,
    'format':"json"
}

R = S.get(url=URL, params=PARAMS)
DATA = R.json()

if DATA['query']['search'][0]['title'] == SEARCHPAGE:
    print("Your search page '" + SEARCHPAGE + "' exists on English Wikipedia")

Demo app(s)

Article suggestion demo app

• Article suggestion app allows you to pick a category and suggest articles to write on that don't yet exist on English Wikipedia.

Possible errors

Code	Info
nosrsearch	The srsearch parameter must be set. This was param-search before 1.17
search-text-disabled	text search is disabled.
search-title-disabled	title search is disabled.
search-error	search error has occurred

Parameter history

• v1.24: Deprecated score,hasrelated
• v1.23: Removed srredirects. Redirects are always included. Introduced srinterwiki
• v1.22: Introduced srbackend
• v1.17: Introduced nearmatch, score, titlesnippet, redirecttitle, redirectsnippet, sectiontitle, sectionsnippet, hasrelated
• v1.16: Introduced srinfo, srprop

Additional notes

• Depending on which search backend is in use, how srsearch is interpreted may vary. On Wikimedia wikis which use CirrusSearch, see Help:CirrusSearch for information about the search syntax.

See also

• API:Opensearch
• API:All search modules