Commons:Tools/Commonist

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Commonist program icon showing hammer and sickle.
Commonist 0.4.28 on Linux

Commonist is a free Java program to upload large numbers of images to Wikimedia Commons and other Mediawiki installations. The program can also upload to any wiki with a few adjustments.

Contents

[edit] Installation

[edit] Install Sun-Java 1.6.0 or newer

In order to install Commonist you need Sun-Java 1.6.0 or newer:

  • If you have not already installed Java, go to Sun-Java download page and download the version for your operating system.
  • Follow the steps of the Java installer.

[edit] Downloading Commonist

attention: if djini.de should be down, the commonist is also available at http://neonstau.de/commonist/

After you have installed Java:

[edit] 0.4.x version for MediaWiki 1.16 and above

[edit] Easiest way

Start Commonist directly by clicking on this link. This is the easiest way to access commonist. If this method leads to a permission error while trying to upload images, please download and run Commonist as explained below.

[edit] Windows
  1. Download the commonist binary file commonist-0.4.28-bin.zip
  2. Extract the binary to your desktop. It will create a folder commonist-0.4.x (x replaced by version number).[1]
  3. Open Start >> run [2]
  4. Type cmd.exe and click OK [3]
  5. Type chdir c:\ [4]
    This will change the directory to c:\
  6. Find the location of the bin folder in your newly extracted folder. [5]
  7. In the cmd window, change the directory to the folder where you extracted the bin folder. Type cd followed by the location of commononist.bat on your computer. [6]
  8. Type in bin\commonist.bat and press enter.[7]
[edit] Unix, Linux or Mac OS X

Download Commonist from djini.de/software/commonist to your /home folder. Unpack/extract it. It will create a new folder commonist-0.4.x (x replaced by version number).

Start commonist with bin/commonist (After chmod u+x bin/commonist this may do). Browse down to the /home/commonist-0.4.x/bin folder and double click on commonist.

[edit] Ubuntu Linux

To hook Commonist to a launcher icon on the top tool bar, control drag the commonist to the tool bar. In the pop-up dialogue, double click on the blank icon- you now navigate to the Commonist.svg hammer & sickle icon in any folder, and select.

[edit] 0.3.43 patch

As of 25 April 2010 Commonist version 0.4.10 is the current version. Commonist version 0.4.0 is a complete rewrite and will behave slightly differently from the previous version. Commonist version 0.4.0 solves the problem of Commonist 0.3.42 becoming incompatible with the newer wikimedia version 1.16.

A patched version that fixed the login problem for versions before 0.4.0 is still available.

  • Ubuntu Linux using the patched version, download the commonist-0.3.43-patched.jar and save the file. Right click on the jar, select properties, on the Permissions-tab check the Execute/Allow box. Double click on the icon, and the patched version runs.

[edit] Create a Commonist icon

[edit] Create a new icon

Commonist.svg

If you would like a desktop icon for Commonist on your desktop, you should follow your system's recommendation for adding an icon.

  • Ubuntu Linux: Right click on this icon, 'Save Image as..' .Right click on 'commonist-0.3.43-patched.jar' , Properties. Click on icon, and it allows you to browse through to the 'Hammer and Sickle'. Now select the Permissions-tab, check the Execute/Allow box if you have not already done so.

[edit] Link commonist to an existing icon

  • Ubuntu Linux: To attach the patched version to the existing icon, right click on the jar, select properties, on the Permissions-tab check the Execute/Allow box if you have not already done so. On the icon Commonist.svg, right click, select properties and change the Command: to the full path-name of /commonist-0.3.43-patched.jar.
  • Windows download the patch. It will be a .zip file. Rename this to .jar and double click to start.

[edit] Usage

With the installed version of commonist:

After commonist is installed and started a small hammer and sickle icon will pop up.
On Windows:
You will additionally see a terminal window which you can't close while the program is running.
Another window will pop up. Click "continue".
The Commonist program will appear.
Main screen of Commonist with filled in forms and images ready for upload

When the commonist program has started, note in the lower left is a tree view of your file system. Choose the folder which contains the images you want to upload. After you have selected this folder you will notice a small status message at bottom that Commonist is reading the content of the folder. Commonist will display on the right side a preview of each file.

Promoting commonist

Please place {{Commonist}} in the description box before uploading. On the newly created file page, this template will be displayed:

Commonist.svg
 This file was uploaded with Commonist.

Alternatively, for uploaders which prefer not to display the icon on their uploads, {{Commonist no icon}} may be used which functions in the same way:

This file was uploaded with Commonist.

These templates will not only help promote Commonist but it will place your files into hidden category named Uploaded with Commonist.

Alternatively, when there's a second information to be shown, you may add a bar like this one:

Inkscape logo 2.svg This vector image was created with Inkscape, and uploaded with Commonist. Commonist.svg


Users of Commonist may also place either {{User Commonist}} or {{User Commonist no icon}} on their user page.

[edit] General upload settings

In the upper left you see several fields of a mask below the label "general upload settings", on top of which you will find the fields necessary for the account you want to use for upload:

user
In the "user" field type in your user name of wiki where you want to upload your images. Note that you enter it without the User: prefix.
password
Type in your password for this account there. It will be made invisible to the reader with asterisks (but will be transferred unencrypted over the wire as always when you login to a Wikimedia wiki).
wiki
At the "wiki" drop down menu you can select the wiki where you want to upload the file. In case of Wikimedia Commons choose "commons". Note that within that wiki you need to own the very account you specified above. For a different wiki see Commonist on Other Wikis below.
Further down you can enter general information that will be embedded in the image descriptions of all images you upload. Template:Information is being used for the structured image description (See Commons:First steps for details about the template; in other wikis beside Commons a free form description without the use of a template is being used by Commonist).
description
There you can enter the global description in normal wiki syntax which will be displayed at all image pages of images you upload within that session.
source
Use a statement such as “Own work.” or similar, if you created that file yourself. Otherwise please supply a
  • Link to a website
  • Name of an institution
  • Book source
  • etc.
Note that you can only enter one source for all images you upload at once.
date
Date of creation of the images you want to upload (or date of release if not available), preferably in ISO 8601 format, such as “taken on 2006-01-08” for an image taken on 8 January 2006.
author
Author(s) of the files. If you don’t know any individual, use the name of the institution(s) which released it. In case of self-made work, put your real name and your linked user name in parentheses, such as “John Q. Public ([[User:JQPublic|JQPublic]])”. This will read as “John Q. Public (JQPublic)”. You might as well directly link your real name to the user name such as “[[User:JQPublic|John Q. Public]]”.
categories
Enter one specific category there that fits to all of your images you want to upload without the namespace prefix or leave it blank in case you want to add the images afterwards to a gallery page. Several categories get separated by a vertical bar: “|”. That way you can enter categories containing commas. Be as specific as possible. Don’t add an image to an overcrowded root category like "Astronomy". In order to find a right category for your images the category tree will help you a lot.
license
In Wikimedia Commons it is essential that every file is correctly licensed. So choose out of the "license" the license you want to use for your images. For correct licensing please see Commons:Licensing. In case you did not find the right license leave it blank and have a look at Commons:Copyright tags but don't forget to add the correct license tag afterwards, otherwise your files will be deleted without further notice.

[edit] Image forms

Image viewer of Commonist above the main screen

On the top right you see two buttons labeled "deselect all" and "select all". Click these buttons to check/uncheck the upload status of all images in the current collection. The upload status is shown in the upload check box, next to each file thumbnail. You can manually check/uncheck single files, by clicking on the individual check boxes.

Click (single click) on the image thumbnail and the full size image will appear in a separate window. (See the screenshot.)

Next to each thumbnail, you will also find the following form fields:

name
In the "name" field, you type the 'destination file name' of the image. On starting, the local file name will automatically be displayed here and this will be used by default. You are strongly advised to change the local file name into something meaningful. This edit is non destructive. The file name will not be changed on your hard disk, just the destination file name.
Take special note of this, you cannot rename your file once it has been uploaded.
Non-descriptive file names - e. g. names like “DSC123456.jpg”, render them a lot harder to find and use. Also it is very likely that another user will try to upload a file with the very same name but with different content, and that file will be suggested for deletion.
description
In the "description" field, you enter the description of that file. Use normal wiki syntax. This will be displayed on the image page; it will be appended to the general description. Please give a good description of the content of each file. What do you see, hear, or otherwise perceive? If it's an item of artwork, please provide a brief historical background. In case of scientific data, a brief scientific abstract of the file. Descriptions can be in any language, but it is always a good idea to include an English description as well. If you speak multiple languages, consider adding the description in each of them. (Please use the language templates as described on Commons:Multilinguality, like in this code example for English: "{{en|Example description}}").
permission
Will be filled into the corresponding field in the Template:Information
coordinates
Specify geocoordinates here as comma-separated decimal values to put a Template:Location_dec template on the image description page.
categories
In the "categories" field, you specify additional categories (without the category namespace prefix) separated by a vertical bar. Please also try to be as specific as possible. Try to avoid using more than two topic categories per image, they can be added later.

[edit] Proxy

Proxy settings are read from java's system properties http.proxyHost, http.proxyPort and http.nonProxyHosts. If these are not set, the environment variable http_proxy is used.

[edit] Upload

After you have finished your preparations for the upload click on the "upload" button in the lower right corner of the main window. There is a status bar at the bottom line explaining what Commonist is doing. You can cancel the upload at any time by clicking on "abort" next to the "upload" button. If everything works well, it will display first the login procedure and then the upload status of the single files there. If something went wrong please check if you typed in the correct user name, password and wiki.

Every uploaded file will be added automatically to your watchlist, so that you can always track the changes by others to your files. Every uploaded file also will be added to a personal user gallery located at User:YOUR_USERNAME/gallery, grouped by upload jobs and upload date, with the image description as description of the thumbnail, so that you will automatically have a pleasant overview of all of your uploads.

[edit] Commonist on Other Wikis

[edit] Commonist 0.4 version

Requirements
  1. Only wikis having file upload via api.php enabled are supported.
  2. The wiki must be running MediaWiki 1.16.0 and above (check your version at Special:Version).
  3. This only works on the installed version of commonist. An editor cannot edit the files when commonist is directly started.

Find the wikis.txt file. The wikis.txt file is also found in the bin folder here:

C:\Users\t\Desktop\commonist-0.4.23-src\src\main\resources

A copy of wikis.txt may also be found also in ~/.commonist/wikis.txt

In this wikis.txt file add a line. This line consists of three fields:

  1. Name of the wiki,
  2. language code or "_" and
  3. the url of its api.php.

Kamelopedia, for example, looks like this:

kamelopedia _ http://kamelopedia.mormo.org/api.php

Click here for a screenshot of wikis.txt as seen on text editor Notepad++. Your format should look like lines 2 and 3.

[edit] Commonist 0.3 version

For wikis less than 1.16.0 see Commons:Tools/Commonist/Other Wikis

[edit] Geocoding

Geocoding is attaching geographic location information to files uploaded with commonist. If a image includes geocoding in the embedded EXIF data, commonist extracts this data and places a {{location dec}} template on the file (image) description page.

The best way to geocode your images is with a GPS reciever integrated in your camera or synchronised with a GPS logger on your computer. For those who don't have a GPS but know the location of the camera when the photo was taken there are two ways to geocode your images:

[edit] Option 1: Panorado Flyer

This option is for windows users with Google Earth and Panorado Flyer installed only. It's advantage is that you can easily set the camera heading. Search the location in Google Earth and place it in the middle of the screen. Rotate the satellite map so that the viewing direction of the image is equal to the upward direction of the screen. Then right click on your image in Explorer, Panorado Flyer->Get location from Google Earth, OK. Start Commonist and the coordinates text field will be filled automatically.

[edit] Option 2: Google Maps

An other way to save time is adding a special bookmark to the browser, and locating the position of the camera on a maps.google.com map. When the special bookmark is used, the browser generates geocode tag. This works on Linux and other operating systems.

  • First create a bookmark (on Firefox: Bookmarks>Organise Bookmarks>New Bookmark) with the location as:
    • javascript:void(prompt('',"{{location dec|" + gApplication.getMap().getCenter().lat().toFixed(4) + "|" + gApplication.getMap().getCenter().lng().toFixed(4) + "}}"));

For each image:

  • Open Commonist, and select the target image.
  • Load maps.google.com in the browser.
  • Search for the correct location.
  • Click on "Satellite" if it helps to find the location more easily, and zoom in.
  • Double Click on the exact location the media was recorded to zoom and center the map.
  • Click on your bookmark and you'll get a prompt with the geocode tag to add to the image.
  • Press Ctrl-C to copy this tag.
  • Switch to Commonist, click on the description field of the target image, press Ctrl-V to paste the tag.

[edit] Downloading current and older versions


[edit] Bugs and feedback

For sending feedback to the program author please:

  1. use the talk page or
  2. email: the dot gray at gmx dot net (in English or German).

[edit] License

Commonist is licensed under the GNU General Public License (Wikipedia article)

[edit] Translating Commonist

Support for more languages can be added to Commonist via translatewiki.net, see http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Commonist. Here's a page about how to get started.
Support for Commonist was dropped at translatewiki.net on 2009-12-06 because the developer was not responding to e-mails and has not integrated translations since March 2009.

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons:Tools/Commonist&oldid=69827049"
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