User:MiszaBot/Archive HowTo

There are 3 bots that perform archiving of pages for different namespaces:
 * Talk: namespace -
 * WikiQueer:, WikiQueer talk: and Template talk: namespaces -
 * User talk: namespace -

Setting up archiving
Put the following template at the top of the page that you want automatically archived:



Well, maybe not exactly that (read about required options below), but that's how it's done. By the way, the template has no content and is sysop-protected, so don't worry about visual appearance. :)

The bot expects to see only one parameter per line. The closing }} must be on its own line. There must be no leading spaces before the pipes. If you drop out the newlines used in the above example, e.g. by wrapping the template invocation onto a single line, the bot may not do what you expect.

Also, the template must be located:
 * 1) before the first ==second level header== on the page
 * 2) on the actual page and not transcluded from a subpage, such as a page header, etc.

Quick examples
To get the hang of it - configuration may not be intuitive, but it's flexible and gives potentially vast possibilities.


 * Please change "User talk:Example" to the exact name of your own page!
 * If it's still not working, read about the "minthreadsleft" and "minthreadstoarchive" parameters below.

Example 1 - static archive


This setup archives threads from User talk:Example to User talk:Example/Archive after they are 7 days old (counting from newest timestamp). The archive will grow indefinitely. Probably not a very useful config (unless for sending threads to a periodically cleaned trash bin or to decide yourself when to go to the next archive page), but it's easiest, so I'm mentioning it first.

Example 2 - incremental archives


This tells the bot to archive threads over a month old (leaving the four most recent) from User talk:Example to User talk:Example/Archive 1 (more about variables below) until it fills up to 70 kilobytes, whereupon the bot will move to 2 (updating the counter when saving page). Remember to specify the maximum size of an archive, or it will behave pretty much like in the first example. In addition, each archive page is given a talk archive navigation banner, which makes it easy to move between the different archive pages.

Example 3 - date-based archives


In this configuration, threads older than 5 days will land in archives depending on their date (that is newest timestamp). You can read about other variables below.

Variables
Those python-savvy people will immediately recognize these variables are filled at runtime with the % operator and should know how to adjust the format. A few points of interest to others:
 * make sure you don't mess up the last letter after the brackets (it's "d" for integers and "s" for strings)
 * integer variables may be left-padded with zeros:
 * %(counter)03d evaluates to 013 if the counter's value equals 13,
 * %(month)02d becomes 05 for May etc.

After you have set up archiving
The bot runs once a day at a preset hour, or twice a day for WQ:AN and WQ:AN/I. Simply wait for the next cycle and you should see the bot's entries in the history list of your article providing there was anything to archive, and the history list entry should provide a link to the archive page you specified.

Various templates will produce an automatic list of archive subpages. Typically, such a template will be added to the top-level talk page to make archives easier to find. Simply add the template name in  where you want it to appear. Popular templates used for this purpose include:
 * (this template has other functions, but can include a list of archives and a search box)
 * (this template has other functions, but can include a list of archives and a search box)
 * (this template has other functions, but can include a list of archives and a search box)

Delaying or preventing archival of particular threads
Archiving can be delayed for a particular thread by substituting the template DNAU into the thread. Use  to retain a thread indefinitely, or   to retain a thread for days. see the template documentation for details about its use and function.