Help:Tracking categories

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Tracking categories are a feature of MediaWiki which allows pages with certain characteristics to be tracked. They work by adding any such page to a category automatically.

Since MediaWiki 1.23 , tracking categories are listed in the $wgTrackingCategories configuration variable, and can be viewed on Special:TrackingCategories. Since MediaWiki 1.25, tracking categories, which are added by MediaWiki itself, are hard-coded in the MediaWiki source code, and $wgTrackingCategories is kept for backwards compatibility.

What category to use is determined by the tracking category's system message, that is, a page in MediaWiki namespace. If the message is a single hyphen-minus (-), then the tracking category is disabled. Often wiki admins mark such categories as hidden (using the __HIDDENCAT__ magic word), since they are meant for maintenance and not general consumption. Some sites use Parser functions to modify which category is used based on namespace, but that doesn't work properly until 1.19.

Some wikis add custom tracking categories via some hacks, for instance this category, which tracks pages with #expr errors, added through the relevant errors shown on such pages.

If a page is created before a tracking category is defined, but the tracking category should apply to that page, the page will not show up in the category until the page has been manually reparsed. This is not done automatically because it's expensive (Compare Topic:Wutoqrsj56lam465).

Core edit

The following tracking categories are added by MediaWiki itself, or have been in the past.

Default category Message What triggers the category's inclusion Version
Pages with too many expensive parser function calls expensive-parserfunction-category The page uses too many expensive parser functions (like #ifexist). See Manual:$wgExpensiveParserFunctionLimit.
This tracking category replaced pfunc_max_ifexist_category, which was added by Extension:ParserFunctions .
1.13
Pages containing omitted template arguments post-expand-template-argument-category The page is bigger than $wgMaxArticleSize after expanding a template argument (something in triple braces, like {{{Foo}}}). 1.13
Pages where template include size is exceeded post-expand-template-inclusion-category The page size is bigger than $wgMaxArticleSize after expanding all the templates, so some templates were not expanded. 1.13
Noindexed pages noindex-category The page is not indexed by robots because it has the magic word __NOINDEX__ on it and is in a namespace where that flag is allowed. 1.15
Indexed pages index-category The page has a __INDEX__ on it (and is in a namespace where that flag is allowed), and hence is indexed by robots where it normally wouldn't be. 1.15
Hidden categories hidden-category-category The category contains __HIDDENCAT__ in its page content, which prevents it from showing up in the category links box on pages by default. 1.13
Pages with broken file links broken-file-category The page contains a broken file link (a link to embed a file when the file does not exist).
This does not include links to files on the bad image list, files that cannot be displayed inline (due to lack of handler support), links directly to a file page (by preceding with a colon, e.g. [[:File:Example.png]]). The category, if enabled, is linked from Special:Wantedfiles since 1.19.
1.18
Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls duplicate-args-category The page contains template calls that use duplicates of arguments, such as {{foo|bar=1|bar=2}} or {{foo|bar|1=baz}}. 1.25
Pages where node count is exceeded node-count-exceeded-category The page exceeds the maximum node count. 1.24
Pages where expansion depth is exceeded expansion-depth-exceeded-category The page exceeds the maximum expansion depth. 1.24
Pages with ignored display titles restricted-displaytitle-ignored The page has an ignored {{DISPLAYTITLE}} because it is not equivalent to the page's actual title. 1.28
Pages using invalid self-closed HTML tags deprecated-self-close-category The page contains invalid self-closed HTML tags, such as ‎<b /> or ‎<span />. The behavior of these will change soon to be consistent with the HTML5 specification, so their use in wikitext is deprecated. 1.28 (removed in 1.36)
Pages with template loops template-loop-category The page contains a template loop, ie. a template which calls itself recursively. 1.29
Pages using ISBN magic links magiclink-tracking-isbn This page uses ISBN magic links. See mediawiki.org on how to migrate.
This tracking category is only added if $wgEnableMagicLinks is true.
1.28
Pages using RFC magic links magiclink-tracking-rfc This page uses RFC magic links. See mediawiki.org on how to migrate.
This tracking category is only added if $wgEnableMagicLinks is true.
1.28
Pages using PMID magic links magiclink-tracking-pmid This page uses PMID magic links. See mediawiki.org on how to migrate.
This tracking category is only added if $wgEnableMagicLinks is true.
1.28
Pages which use = as a template template-equals-category The page contains {{=}} but on this wiki that does not expand to =. This usage is deprecated; a future MediaWiki version will implement {{=}} as a parser function. 1.36
Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments nonnumeric-formatnum The page contains a non-numeric argument to the formatnum parser function. 1.36

Extensions edit

The following tracking categories are added by extensions, or have been in the past. Extensions can add new tracking categories using the extension registration system . Prior to 1.25, this was instead done via Parser::addTrackingCategory, with the tracking category name added to $wgTrackingCategories .

Default category Message What triggers the category's inclusion Added by extension Version
Pages with too many ifexist calls [1] pfunc_max_ifexist_category Warning: This page contains too many #ifexist calls. It should have less than $2, there are now $1.
This tracking category was replaced with expensive-parserfunction-category, which is added by core. The messages for the tracking category and its description were removed in rev:32965.
ParserFunctions (removed in 1.13)
Pages with syntax highlighting errors syntaxhighlight-error-category There was an error when attempting to highlight code included on the page. SyntaxHighlight 1.26
Pages using Timeline timeline-tracking-category No description available. EasyTimeline 1.32
Pages with reference errors cite-tracking-category-cite-error Pages in this category have errors in the usage of references tags. Cite 1.27
Pages which use score score-use-category These pages use the Score extension. Score
Pages with score rendering errors score-error-category There was an error while rendering the score. Score 1.22
Pages using deprecated score attributes score-deprecated-category These pages use options provided by the Score extension which are deprecated. These are: "override_audio", "override_ogg", and "override_midi". Score
TemplateStyles stylesheets with errors templatestyles-stylesheet-error-category The TemplateStyles stylesheet has an error. TemplateStyles 1.32
Pages with TemplateStyles errors templatestyles-page-error-category There was an error when processing a <templatestyles/> tag on the page. TemplateStyles 1.32
MassMessage delivery lists massmessage-list-category The page is a delivery list for the MassMessage extension. MassMessage 1.24
Files with no machine-readable license commonsmetadata-trackingcategory-no-license The file does not have any machine-readable license template. CommonsMetadata 1.25
Files with no machine-readable description commonsmetadata-trackingcategory-no-description The file does not have a machine-readable information template, or its description field is not filled out. CommonsMetadata 1.25
Files with no machine-readable author commonsmetadata-trackingcategory-no-author The file does not have a machine-readable information template, or its author field is not filled out. CommonsMetadata 1.25
Files with no machine-readable source commonsmetadata-trackingcategory-no-source The file does not have a machine-readable information template, or its source field is not filled out. CommonsMetadata 1.25
Files with no machine-readable patent commonsmetadata-trackingcategory-no-patent The file does not have a machine-readable patent template. CommonsMetadata 1.31
Pages with math errors math-tracking-category-error Pages in this category have errors in the usage of math tags. Math 1.28
Pages with math render errors math-tracking-category-render-error Pages in this category have rendering errors in the math tags. Math 1.30
Pages with malformed coordinate tags geodata-broken-tags-category The page has a malformed {{#coordinates:}} tag. GeoData 1.19
Pages with unknown globe value geodata-unknown-globe-category The page uses an unknown value of the globe parameter for coordinates. GeoData 1.19
Pages with invalid region value geodata-unknown-region-category The page uses an invalid value of the region parameter for coordinates. GeoData 1.19
Pages with unknown type of coordinates geodata-unknown-type-category The page uses an unknown value of the type parameter for coordinates. GeoData 1.19
Pages with script errors scribunto-common-error-category There was an error when processing the modules included on the page. Scribunto 1.19
Scribunto modules with errors scribunto-module-with-errors-category The module has an error in it. Scribunto 1.23
Pages with unreviewed translations cx-unreviewed-translation-category Pages translated with the Content Translation tool that contain a high amount of unreviewed content ContentTranslation 1.33
Pages with graphs graph-tracking-category The page includes a <graph> tag. Graph 1.26
Pages with obsolete Vega graphs graph-obsolete-category The page includes a <graph> tag that should be updated to version 5. Graph 1.27
Pages with broken graphs graph-broken-category The page includes a <graph> tag with invalid usage. Graph 1.26
Pages with maps kartographer-tracking-category The page includes a map Kartographer 1.27
Pages with broken maps kartographer-broken-category The page includes an invalid map usage Kartographer 1.27
Pages with unresolved properties unresolved-property-category This category lists pages that reference Wikidata properties that cannot be found neither by their property ID nor label. Wikibase Client 1.29
Redirects connected to a Wikidata item connected-redirect-category This category lists redirect pages that are connected to a Wikidata item. Wikibase Client 1.31

See also edit