Last modified: 2014-10-29 08:16:37 UTC
When you use a generator together with a non-query module that can work on a list of pages (e.g. purge), the new continue format is always used, the parameter rawcontinue is unknown: http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/api.php?action=purge&generator=allpages&gapfrom=A&gaplimit=2 http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/api.php?action=purge&generator=allpages&gapfrom=A&gaplimit=2&rawcontinue=1 Both add "continue" as continuation data, the second warns about the fact that rawcontinue is unknown. As the continuation data was only added after the new continue format existed (bug 60734), I'm not sure whether this really is a bug, but at least it's not documented.
For all existing non-query modules that use ApiPageSet, there's no functional difference between the raw continuation and the simplified continuation so an option for raw continuation was never added. It's not clear what documentation you're asking for here. "rawcontinue" is documented for action=query because it exists there, while it's not documented elsewhere because it doesn't exist elsewhere.
In generator mode there are never two continues(*), so there is no need for the "old" continue style. (*)In my opinion there cannot be two or more continues, because there is no way to define a prop= which limit is exceeded and needs therefor its own continue (to complete the batch of titles from the generator module).
(In reply to Brad Jorsch from comment #1) > It's not clear what documentation you're asking for here. "rawcontinue" is > documented for action=query because it exists there, while it's not > documented elsewhere because it doesn't exist elsewhere. "continue" is documented only for action=query, too. [[mw:API:Query#Continuing_queries]] says: "For backwards compatibility, clients must specify continue= in their initial queries to select this method.", which is true for action=query&generator=, but not for action=purge. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=info&generator=allpages&gapfrom=A&gaplimit=2 and http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/api.php?action=purge&generator=allpages&gapfrom=A&gaplimit=2 to behave the same regarding continuation, and thus expecting a "query-continue" instead of "continue" for the action=purge request, too. The current behavior is inconsistent, making it easily possible to miss the continuation for non-query modules. Only when the "continue" becomes default, it will be consistent again.
(In reply to Michael M. from comment #3) > Only when the "continue" becomes default, it will be consistent again. That's being worked on.
(In reply to Michael M. from comment #3) > "continue" is documented only for action=query, too. I see "continue" documented for action=purge, action=setnotificationtimestamp, and action=watch. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?modules=purge|setnotificationtimestamp|watch Since the requested documentation is already present in the auto-generated help output and we're not going to add rawcontinue to these other modules, I'm going to WONTFIX this. If you're referring to the documentation on mediawiki.org, feel free to update that.
(In reply to Brad Jorsch from comment #5) > If you're referring to the documentation on > mediawiki.org, feel free to update that. I added [[mw:API:Query#Generators and continuation]]. Can you check that I didn't write anything wrong there?
