API:User group membership
| This page is part of the MediaWiki Action API documentation. |
| MediaWiki version: | ≥ 1.16 |
POST request to add or remove users from a group, thereby granting or removing certain user rights.
API documentation
Example
To use this API, you first need to log in to verify your own user group membership. Only certain groups are granted the ability to alter user rights via this API. See API:Login for more details on logging in.
Once you are logged in, make a GET request to obtain a userrights token.
The query above applies to MediaWiki v1.24+; in older versions, the userrights token would depend on the name of the user whose rights were being changed.
The query would be made like so:
For compatibility reasons, the API will also accept the token used in the web UI.
Whichever method you choose, once you have your token, you can use it to make your userrights request, as seen below.
POST request
Remove Bob from the bureaucrat group, and add them to the sysop group, thereby granting them sysop rights.
api.php?
Response
{
"userrights": {
"user": "Bob",
"userid": 2793024,
"removed": ["bureaucrat"],
"added": ["sysop"]
}
}
Sample code
Python
#!/usr/bin/python3
"""
userrights.py
MediaWiki API Demos
Demo of `Userrights` module: Add and remove user rights by
changing the user's group membership.
MIT license
"""
import requests
S = requests.Session()
URL = "https://test.wikipedia.org/w/api.php"
# Step 1: Retrieve a login token
PARAMS_1 = {
"action": "query",
"meta": "tokens",
"type": "login",
"format": "json"
}
R = S.get(url=URL, params=PARAMS_1)
DATA = R.json()
LOGIN_TOKEN = DATA["query"]["tokens"]["logintoken"]
# Step 2: Send a post request to log in. See
# https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Bot_passwords
# for a special note on logging in using a simplified
# interface when accessing wikis via an application,
# rather than the GUI
PARAMS_2 = {
"action": "login",
"lgname": "username",
"lgpassword": "password",
"lgtoken": LOGIN_TOKEN,
"format": "json"
}
R = S.post(URL, data=PARAMS_2)
# Step 3: Obtain a Userrights token
PARAMS_3 = {
"action": "query",
"format": "json",
"meta": "tokens",
"type": "userrights"
}
R = S.get(url=URL, params=PARAMS_3)
DATA = R.json()
USERRIGHTS_TOKEN = DATA["query"]["tokens"]["userrightstoken"]
# Step 4: Request to add or remove a user from a group
PARAMS_4 = {
"action": "userrights",
"format": "json",
"user": "Bob",
"add": "sysop",
"remove": "bureaucrat",
"reason": "OOPS! added Bob to the wrong group",
"token": USERRIGHTS_TOKEN
}
R = S.post(URL, data=PARAMS_4)
DATA = R.json()
print(DATA)
PHP
<?php
- /*
- userrights.js
-
- MediaWiki API Demos
- Demo of 'Userrights' module: Add and remove user rights by
- changing the user's group membership.
-
- MIT license
- */
$endPoint = "http://dev.wiki.local.wmftest.net:8080/w/api.php";
$login_Token = getLoginToken(); // Step 1
loginRequest( $login_Token ); // Step 2
$userrights_Token = getUserRightsToken(); // Step 3
change_userrights( $userrights_Token ); // Step 4
// Step 1: GET request to fetch login token
function getLoginToken() {
global $endPoint;
$params1 = [
"action" => "query",
"meta" => "tokens",
"type" => "login",
"format" => "json"
];
$url = $endPoint . "?" . http_build_query( $params1 );
$ch = curl_init( $url );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookie.txt" );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookie.txt" );
$output = curl_exec( $ch );
curl_close( $ch );
$result = json_decode( $output, true );
return $result["query"]["tokens"]["logintoken"];
}
// Step 2: POST request to log in. Use of main account for login is not
// supported. Obtain credentials via Special:BotPasswords
// (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:BotPasswords) for lgname & lgpassword
function loginRequest( $logintoken ) {
global $endPoint;
$params2 = [
"action" => "clientlogin",
"username" => "username",
"password" => "password",
'loginreturnurl' => 'http://127.0.0.1:5000/',
"logintoken" => $logintoken,
"format" => "json"
];
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, $endPoint );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, true );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query( $params2 ) );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookie.txt" );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookie.txt" );
$output = curl_exec( $ch );
curl_close( $ch );
}
// Step 3: GET request to fetch userrights token
function getUserRightsToken() {
global $endPoint;
$params3 = [
"action" => "query",
"meta" => "tokens",
"type" => "userrights",
"format" => "json"
];
$url = $endPoint . "?" . http_build_query( $params3 );
$ch = curl_init( $url );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookie.txt" );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookie.txt" );
$output = curl_exec( $ch );
curl_close( $ch );
$result = json_decode( $output, true );
return $result["query"]["tokens"]["userrightstoken"];
}
// Step 4: POST request to add or remove a user from a group
function change_userrights( $userrightstoken ) {
global $endPoint;
$params4 = [
"action" => "userrights",
"user" => "ABCDEF",
"add" => "bot",
"expiry" => "infinite",
"reason" => "API Testing",
"token" => $userrightstoken,
"format" => "json"
];
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, $endPoint );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, true );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query( $params4 ) );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookie.txt" );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookie.txt" );
$output = curl_exec( $ch );
curl_close( $ch );
echo ( $output );
}
JavaScript
- /*
- userrights.js
-
- MediaWiki API Demos
- Demo of 'Userrights' module: Add and remove user rights by
- changing the user's group membership.
-
- MIT license
- */
var request = require('request').defaults({jar: true}),
url = "http://dev.wiki.local.wmftest.net:8080/w/api.php";
// Step 1: GET request to fetch login token
function getLoginToken() {
var params_0 = {
action: "query",
meta: "tokens",
type: "login",
format: "json"
};
request.get({ url: url, qs: params_0 }, function (error, res, body) {
if (error) {
return;
}
var data = JSON.parse(body);
loginRequest(data.query.tokens.logintoken);
});
}
// Step 2: POST request to log in.
// Use of main account for login is not
// supported. Obtain credentials via Special:BotPasswords
// (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:BotPasswords) for lgname & lgpassword
function loginRequest(login_token) {
var params_1 = {
action: "clientlogin",
username: "username",
password: "password",
loginreturnurl: "http://127.0.0.1:5000/",
logintoken: login_token,
format: "json"
};
request.post({ url: url, form: params_1 }, function (error, res, body) {
if (error) {
return;
}
getUserRightsToken();
});
}
// Step 3: GET request to fetch UserRights token
function getUserRightsToken() {
var params_2 = {
action: "query",
meta: "tokens",
type: "userrights",
format: "json"
};
request.get({ url: url, qs: params_2 }, function(error, res, body) {
if (error) {
return;
}
var data = JSON.parse(body);
userrights(data.query.tokens.userrightstoken);
});
}
// Step 4: POST request to add or remove a user from a group
function userrights(userrights_token) {
var params_3 = {
action: "userrights",
user: "ABCDEFG",
add: "bot",
expiry: "infinite",
reason: "API Testing",
token: userrights_token,
format: "json"
};
request.post({ url: url, form: params_3 }, function (error, res, body) {
if (error) {
return;
}
console.log(body);
});
}
// Start From Step 1
getLoginToken();
MediaWiki JS
- /*
- userrights.js
-
- MediaWiki API Demos
- Demo of 'Userrights' module: Add and remove user rights by
- changing the user's group membership.
-
- MIT license
- */
var params = {
action: 'userrights',
user: 'ABCD',
add: 'sysop',
reason: 'Added ABCD to the sysop group',
format: 'json'
},
api = new mw.Api();
api.postWithToken( 'userrights', params ).done( function ( data ) {
console.log( data );
} );
Possible errors
| Code | Info |
|---|---|
| nouser | The user parameter must be set. |
| nosuchuser | User "user" doesn't exist This may happen when trying to change an anonymous user's rights.
|
| notoken | The token parameter must be set. |
| badtoken | Invalid CSRF token. |
| readonly | The wiki is currently in read-only mode. |
Parameter history
- v1.29: Introduced
expiry - v1.23: Introduced
userid
Additional notes
- By default, only users in the bureaucrat group can grant or remove user rights.
- Some wikis allow non-bureaucrats to grant or remove rights on a limited basis, such as restricting those abilities to the user's own account.
- If you do not possess the ability to grant or remove rights to the target user, the API will not throw an error; instead, the
addandremovefields in the response will simply contain empty arrays.
See also
- Help:User rights and groups - describes how user rights and group membership work in greater detail.
- Special:ListGroupRights - lists all the rights and privileges conferred to each user group on a particular wiki.
- Special:UserRights - a GUI way to add or remove user rights, available in wikis running v1.29+.
- API:Users - gets information about a list of users, including their groups and rights.