User:Henna/VF

Vandal Fighter home • User Manual • Bug Reports • Feature Requests • Old VF versions • Development notes
Downloads Latest - stable: 3.3 (Mar/06) • beta: 3.5b51 (Jul/09) Older versions • Latest source code
I'm merging some features written by cs:User:Beren, courageous people can get the latest version from svn

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Vandal Fighter, as the name suggests, is a descendant of the original CryptoDerk's VandalFighter. User:Henna has been roped into taking over maintenance for it.

Brief description: Vandal Fighter is software that watches Wikipedia edits in real-time and has many built-in filters (multiple regular expressions can also be used) to allow users to specify exactly what types of information they would like to see. Examples: watching custom article watchlists, watching edits by non logged in (IP) editors, ignoring edits by people marked as "ok" (or, the reverse as well), and watching comments with the word "revert" in them are just a few of the almost limitless ways in which Vandal Fighter can be configured to produce custom output.

Contents

Manual

Download the topmost vf.jar file.

Upgrading

ALWAYS make a backup of vfdata.dat before trying out a new version.

Manual for using this page

Feel perfectly free to add feature requests, or bugs, just leave your name so I can find you if I need more info and you're not watching this page :). Please leave the hints and releases alone apart from editing. It's perfectly alright to fix links, language and such. Just leave them uncluttered :)

Getting Help

Leave questions where I can find them :), I regularly read these pages, my userpages on en: and my userpages on nl:. If you need urgent help, you can try irc. I'm usually found in the #wikipedia channel on freenode, as well as on #nl.wikipedia and a few others, I go by the name of henna, or hennaBED or variants. I might not be able to help immediately, I'm only human and in need of sleep, food, outside air&sun. I'm also on msn as hennawikipedia.be and email at that address is read.

User Manual

How it works

Vandal Fighter connects to an Internet Relay Chat server, with a special recent changes channel. It reads the changes data from here, which means it doesn't have to query the database at all. Relevant information is then added to a table (see screenshot).

Note: Though you can use any browser, it's probably easiest if you use a browser that supports tabbed browsing (e.g. Firefox 2+ or IE7+) and set it to open links from an external program in a new tab.

Extra functionality

To assist in sorting the good from the bad, the following features are present

User whitelist and blacklist - whitelisted user edits do not show up in the table, blacklisted user edits are highlighted. Users can be autoadded to the blacklist if they are reverted by someone in the whitelist or if they created a page that is speedied.
Article watchlist - edits to pages on the watchlist are highlighted. You can auto-watchlist speedied pages, making it easy to see recreations, and you can also import your Wikipedia watchlist (go here to view your full watchlist). Save that page as an html file and then import it into CDVF.
Regular expressions - allows you to watchlist, blacklist, or whitelist pages, summaries, or user names/IPs matching any regular expression. See the Java class Pattern for help on making regular expressions. If you are having problems coming up with a proper regular expression, just ask on the talk page.

- Basic examples:

- - Whitelisting the sandbox - Make sure the "Apply regexp whitelist to page names" option is checked and enter this regexp in the whitelist: ^Wikipedia:Sandbox
  - Whitelisting user talk pages - Make sure the "Apply regexp whitelist to page names" option is checked and enter this regexp in the whitelist: ^User talk:.*
  - Blacklisting edit summaries with the word "shit" - Make sure the "Apply regexp blacklist to edit summaries" option is checked and enter this regexp in the blacklist: .*shit.*

Easy access to edit data and user data

- Clicking on the article name or the edit summary causes a browser window to open with the most recent edit. This works in both the table and the Watchlist.
- Clicking on the user name causes a browser window to open with a list of the user's contributions. This works in both the table and the Whitelist/blacklist.
- Clicking on the T causes a browser window to open to that user's talk page.
- Clicking on the B causes a browser window to open to the block page to block the user. Or, if the option is set, will open up WP:VIP on en to report a vandal, if you're not an admin
- Clicking on the X causes that row to be removed from the table.
- Clicking on the Clear list button causes the entire table to be cleared, though the whitelist, blacklist, and watchlist entries will remain.
- Clicking on the Pause button (or hitting Alt-A) pauses the feed. It can be unpaused later and resumed. Edits can either be queued up or discarded.
- Columns can be moved, sorted and resized so that you can easily view the information you want to see.

Additional behind-the-scenes functionality includes:

Special pages (Log/block, Log/delete) do not show up in the table. However, if a page that is in the table is deleted, it will be removed from the table. This can be turned off.
Multiple edits on an article will only show up once in the table. That means if a vandal vandalizes an article, then someone on your whitelist reverts it, the row will disappear from the table. This can be turned off.
All lists and options are saved, so they will appear next time without having to reenter them.

Usage

You will need the Java 2 Runtime Environment (J2RE, or JRE) version 1.6. If you do not know if you have this installed, you can attempt to run the program, but if it does not work, you will need to download the JRE. Here is a link to the latest JRE: click on Download Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6.

All that you need to do is download the 'jar' file, run it, and click the connect button. If you're using the command line, run java -jar vf.jar.

Troubleshooting

FIRST: check your java version

If you are experiencing problems with Vandal Fighter, please check which version of the Java Runtime Environment you are using. Upgrading to the latest version may solve your problem, so please try this before reporting a bug below. The latest version can be downloaded from the java.sun.com website. If you only intend to run Vandal Fighter or other Java applications you should download and install the JRE 5.0 Update 9. If you also plan to develop Java applications, well you'll know exactly what to download.

importing watchlist

To import a watchlist first save the watchlist as an html file. Do not copy it, just FILE -> SAVE PAGE AS (or similar depending the browser).

Translation help

Want Vandalfighter in your own language? Translate the Messagesfile and send it back to me (hennar@wikipedia.be). The Messagesfile can be found in the .jar archive or at User:henna/VF/Translations, work it out (but maybe keep the English messages as well, easier when you have to change something later on) and send it to me, see above for contact details.

If you want, you can make the file on your homewiki somewhere or in subdirectories here, in which case you can copy user:henna/VF/translations as a startfile. (However, it is probably easier to use translating software to help you. Look further down the page for more info.)

Downloads and release notes

Note: hekla.rave.org is not available

Confirmed

Stable

3.5

Went back to 3.3 to fix a bug (graying bug) which seemed determined not to be fixed. (12 Apr 2006)

Development versions of 3.5 can be found at http://hekla.rave.org/vf/3.5 - the numbering scheme seems simple to me, but otherwise, the higher up the alphabet the newer. interesting additions, compared to 3.3:

English, French, Dutch and Italian vandalismchannel feeds
German translation
language chooser, and it will try to start with the language of your OS the first time
improved parser
tried to move the options screen to something a little more intuitive
fixed white/black/watchlists
textbased configfiles
fixed some small bugs
after opening the new version for the first time, you can move vfdata.dat to some safe storage or delete it. It's been replaced by vfdata2.dat & vfdata2.txt
fixed ip's only
managed to get the icon in there :)
fixed the non-ascii characters garbled bug
moved all configuration data to plain text configuration file
connect to several different channels in one go by entering the names separated with commas (eg #en.wikipedia,#nl.wikipedia)

Vandalfighter 3.5b-3, maybe stable - August 2, 2006

Archive.org Mirror.
Download does currently not work. Try to download beren.
You can also try my mirror

language added version of 3.5b-51 is available. More translation is needed. August 14, 2010

3.3

fixed the links to contributions
fixed the import admins link, thx to User:That_Guy,_From_That_Show!
fixed the importbutton (for sharing lists)
started localisation (finished setting up translation possibilities) (If anybody is willing to translate, it's just a simple file)
added Dutch anti-vandalism channel

Download vf.jar, Nederlandstalige versie
Download vf.jar, English version (Alternative site, with admin whitelist pre-loaded)
Download vf.jar, version Française
Download vf.jar, versione italiana
- Downloads currently do not work. Try to download beren (see below)

Previous versions

Previous versions and notes can be found on the previous versions page.

Development

3.5b26 (beren)

Released 29-Nov-2006.

configuration page easier to use, add tree to break up sections

3.5b51

Released 2009. This version is located here.

3.5b52

Released 2010 (see talk page).

Latest source code

The latest version can be retrieved via anonymous SVN at:

svn://hemlock.ts.wikimedia.org/henna/subversion/VF/src

SVN can be obtained here. If you are using Windows a more user-friendly SVN interface (TortoiseSVN) is available here.

TO DO

~~fix the Logurls (fix ircstream~~ (finished for now)
refactor
1. ~~rewrite datatier~~ (got it out of the main class, finished for now)
2. rewrite uitier
add errormessages
add irc-vandalstreams (started)
localize (started)
save edittablestate
improve the ircconnection (reconnect, multiple channels)

Userfriendliness

import white/black/watch/.. lists -> 2.4, currently rather unuserfriendly but functionality exists
~~orange colored edits aren't completely colored~~
ui for suspicious edits configuration

Feature Requests

If you have feature requests, please feel free put them in the discussion of the Vandal Fighter feature requests page.

Localisation

For translating the interface (when the internationalition is possible :)), OmegaT might be useful, especially to make it easier to translate newer versions. OmegaT supports Java property files for GUI localization and HTML files for Help files translation (among other file formats). It is GPL software hosted on SourceForge.

http://www.unicode.org/cldr/

Translations 3.3

French Translation

If you want to help translating VF in French, I started here --Effco 11:16, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Done translation terminated, you can find it here. It would be nice to release VF with all the available translations and have a "Language" dropdown list in the "Configuration" tab so that user could choose its preferred language--Effco 21:31, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

is on the list of things to do, i'd just like to see if there's problems with the new bits first. atm, you can switch languages by starting the program 'java -jar vf33-english.jar langcode country' in a terminal (cmd). So for French in Canada this will be 'java -jar vf33-english.jar fr CA'. Will package and upload tomorow for French. Henna 23:02, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

moved (and corrected a bit) to user:henna/VF/French --Effco 18:22, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Italian Translation

I have added a draft Italian translation to User:Henna/VF/Italian (I didn't want to create a new page in your user space, but I think that a subpage for each language like User:Duesentrieb/CategoryTree would be a better idea). Feel free to modify it at will. --BrokenArrow 00:19, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

moved to user:henna/VF/Italian Henna 13:41, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Dutch Translation

nl:gebruiker:henna/VFvertaling

Japanese Translation

It looks end the supporting already, but I upload translation. Translation is not perfect, but almost every terms are translated. thank you.user:henna/VF/Japanese. --Was a bee (talk) 08:24, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Translations 3.4

French Translation

Done Translation OK --Effco 21:19, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Italian Translation

Done User:Henna/VF/Italian

Dutch Translation

Done nl:gebruiker:henna/VFvertaling

German Translation

Translations 3.5

Russian

I have made Russian: User:Henna/VF/Russian. --ajvol 16:27, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Portuguese

Portuguese translation: pt:Wikipedia:Vandal Fighter/Tradução (based on User:Henna/VF/Translations) Mosca2 08:52, 22 December 2006 (UTC) Done, moved to user:Henna/VF/Portuguese. LeonardoGregianin (talk) 15:49, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Japanese

I have made Japanese: User:Henna/VF/Japanese based on vf35b51. --Was a bee (talk) 07:45, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Project localisation

Block requests

Userbox

And now, a nice little box to put on your page!

Warning to Vandals: This user is armed with Vandal Fighter.

Code: {{User Vandal Fighter}}

Bugs

Bug reports moved to here while preparing to include the fairly large manual in this article. Please use that page for bug reports.

—-- That Guy, From That Show! ^(talk) 2006-03-23 14:08Z~

Manual

Upgrading

Manual for using this page

Getting Help

User Manual

How it works

Extra functionality

Usage

Troubleshooting

Translation help

Downloads and release notes

Stable

3.5

3.3

Previous versions

Development

3.5b26 (beren)

3.5b51

3.5b52

Latest source code

TO DO

Userfriendliness

Feature Requests

Localisation

Translations 3.3

French Translation

Italian Translation

Dutch Translation

Japanese Translation

Translations 3.4

French Translation

Italian Translation

Dutch Translation

German Translation

Translations 3.5

Russian

Portuguese

Japanese

Project localisation

Block requests

Userbox

Bugs

See also