API:Help

Languages:

This page is part of the MediaWiki Action API documentation.

MediaWiki Action API
Basics
Etiquette and usage guidelines All query modules All page properties All list modules All meta modules Output formats
Authentication
Get tokens for data modifying operations Login Logout Verifying authentication (assertions)
Accounts and Users
Create an account Block or unblock a user Get info about the current user Get the current user's watchlist as a feed Change user options Change user group membership Send an email
Page Operations
Create and edit a page Get the contents of a page Upload a file Import a page Delete a page Parse content of 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 wiki pages by title (OpenSearch) Advanced search for wiki pages by title or text Search wiki pages near a location Search for a language name 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
Tutorials
Action API Tutorial Article ideas generator Nearby places viewer Picture of the day viewer Holidays viewer
v · d · e

MediaWiki version:

≥ 1.8

GET request to display help for the specified modules.

API documentation

[edit ]

The following documentation is the output of Special:ApiHelp/help, automatically generated by the pre-release version of MediaWiki that is running on this site (MediaWiki.org).

action=help

(main | help)

Source: MediaWiki
License: GPL-2.0-or-later

Display help for the specified modules.

Specific parameters:

Other general parameters are available.

modules: Modules to display help for (values of the action and format parameters, or main). Can specify submodules with a +.; Separate values with | or alternative.; Maximum number of values is 50 (500 for clients that are allowed higher limits).; Default: main
submodules: Include help for submodules of the named module.; Type: boolean (details)
recursivesubmodules: Include help for submodules recursively.; Type: boolean (details)
wrap: Wrap the output in a standard API response structure.; Type: boolean (details)
toc: Include a table of contents in the HTML output.; Type: boolean (details)

Examples:

Help for the main module.: api.php?action=help [open in sandbox]
Help for action=query and all its submodules.: api.php?action=help&modules=query&submodules=1 [open in sandbox]
All help in one page.: api.php?action=help&recursivesubmodules=1 [open in sandbox]
Help for the help module itself.: api.php?action=help&modules=help [open in sandbox]
Help for two query submodules.: api.php?action=help&modules=query+info|query+categorymembers [open in sandbox]

Example

[edit ]

GET request

[edit ]

Get help for a specified module.

api.php?action=help&modules=query+tokens&wrap=&format=json [try in ApiSandbox]

Response

[edit ]

{
"help":{
"mime":"text/html",
"filename":"api-help.html",
"help":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html class=\"client-nojs\" lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<head>\n<meta charset=\"UTF-8\"/>\n<title>MediaWiki API help - Wikipedia</title>\n<script>document.documentElement.className=\"client-js\";RLCONF={\"wgBreakFrames\":!0,\"wgSeparatorTransformTable\":[\"\",\"\"],\"wgDigitTransformTable\":[\"\",\"\"],\"wgDefaultDateFormat\":\"dmy\",\"wgMonthNames\":
...
 }
}

Sample code

[edit ]

Python

[edit ]

#!/usr/bin/python3
"""
 get_help.py
 MediaWiki API Demos
 Demo of `Help` module: Get help for a specified module.
 MIT License
"""
import requests
S = requests.Session()
URL = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php"
PARAMS = {
 "action": "help",
 "modules": "query+tokens",
 "wrap": "",
 "format": "json"
}
R = S.get(url=URL, params=PARAMS)
DATA = R.json()
print(DATA)

PHP

[edit ]

<?php
/*
 get_help.php
 MediaWiki API Demos
 Demo of `Help` module: Get help for a specified module.
 MIT License
*/
$endPoint = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php";
$params = [
 "action" => "help",
 "modules" => "query+tokens",
 "wrap" => "",
 "format" => "json"
];
$url = $endPoint . "?" . http_build_query( $params );
$ch = curl_init( $url );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
$output = curl_exec( $ch );
curl_close( $ch );
$result = json_decode( $output, true );
var_dump( $result );

JavaScript

[edit ]

/*
 get_help.js
 MediaWiki API Demos
 Demo of `Help` module: Get help for a specified module.
 MIT License
*/
varurl="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php";
varparams={
action:"help",
modules:"query+tokens",
wrap:"",
format:"json"
};
url=url+"?origin=*";
Object.keys(params).forEach(function(key){url+="&"+key+"="+params[key];});
fetch(url)
.then(function(response){returnresponse.json();})
.then(function(response){console.log(response);})
.catch(function(error){console.log(error);});

MediaWiki JS

[edit ]

/*
	get_help.js
	MediaWiki API Demos
	Demo of `Help` module: Get help for a specified module.
	MIT License
*/
varparams={
action:'help',
modules:'query+tokens',
wrap:'',
format:'json'
},
api=newmw.Api();
api.get(params).done(function(data){
console.log(data);
});

Possible errors

[edit ]

Code	Info
badmodule	The module `name` does not have a submodule "name2".

Parameter history

[edit ]

v1.25: Introduced submodules, recursivesubmodules, wrap, toc
v1.25: Removed querymodules
v1.21: Deprecated querymodules
v1.17: Introduced action, format, main

API documentation

action=help

Example

GET request

Response

Sample code

Python

PHP

JavaScript

MediaWiki JS

Possible errors

Parameter history

See also