Running Wikimedia api.php from command line

Question

First of all, I have no experience with php.

I installed wikimedia software in order to parse wikitext markup strings to html. Thus, I set an Apache server (localhost) and I am parsing the wikitext using api.php from Pyhton (requests library).

Everything is working fine, but the point is that I would do the same using a RPC, or in other words, calling api.php script from command line.

When sending the request the query is:

http://localhost/mediawiki-1.22.5/api.php?action=parse&text=ABC&format=xml&disablepp=1

This query parse the ABC text.

I would do the same from the command line, and I tried different things, like:

$shell>php api.php ?action=parse&text=ABC&format=xml&disablepp=1
or
$shell>php api.php action=parse&text=ABC&format=xml&disablepp=1
...

The reason I am trying to call from command line is that since I am running the server locally, maybe executing directly the script will make things much faster, beyond the fact that I can use other PHP engines, like Facebook HipHop, transparently, I mean, without having to configure the web server.

Maybe the best solution should be to write a simple wrapper script in php which calls api.php internally and converts command args to "url gets". Unfortunately, since I am a complete layman in PHP I don't know how to code it.

Any help here?

P.S: Below the php.api source code:

<?php
/**
 * This file is the entry point for all API queries.
 *
 * It begins by checking whether the API is enabled on this wiki; if not,
 * it informs the user that s/he should set $wgEnableAPI to true and exits.
 * Otherwise, it constructs a new ApiMain using the parameter passed to it
 * as an argument in the URL ('?action=') and with write-enabled set to the
 * value of $wgEnableWriteAPI as specified in LocalSettings.php.
 * It then invokes "execute()" on the ApiMain object instance, which
 * produces output in the format specified in the URL.
 *
 * Copyright © 2006 Yuri Astrakhan <Firstname><Lastname>@gmail.com
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
 * with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
 * 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
 * http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
 *
 * @file
 */

// So extensions (and other code) can check whether they're running in API mode
define( 'MW_API', true );

// Bail if PHP is too low
if ( !function_exists( 'version_compare' ) || version_compare( phpversion(), '5.3.2' ) < 0 ) {
    // We need to use dirname( __FILE__ ) here cause __DIR__ is PHP5.3+
    require dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/includes/PHPVersionError.php';
    wfPHPVersionError( 'api.php' );
}

// Initialise common code.
require __DIR__ . '/includes/WebStart.php';

wfProfileIn( 'api.php' );
$starttime = microtime( true );

// URL safety checks
if ( !$wgRequest->checkUrlExtension() ) {
    return;
}

// Verify that the API has not been disabled
if ( !$wgEnableAPI ) {
    header( $_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL'] . ' 500 MediaWiki configuration Error', true, 500 );
    echo 'MediaWiki API is not enabled for this site. Add the following line to your LocalSettings.php'
        . '<pre><b>$wgEnableAPI=true;</b></pre>';
    die( 1 );
}

// Set a dummy $wgTitle, because $wgTitle == null breaks various things
// In a perfect world this wouldn't be necessary
$wgTitle = Title::makeTitle( NS_MAIN, 'API' );

/* Construct an ApiMain with the arguments passed via the URL. What we get back
 * is some form of an ApiMain, possibly even one that produces an error message,
 * but we don't care here, as that is handled by the ctor.
 */
$processor = new ApiMain( RequestContext::getMain(), $wgEnableWriteAPI );

// Process data & print results
$processor->execute();

// Execute any deferred updates
DeferredUpdates::doUpdates();

// Log what the user did, for book-keeping purposes.
$endtime = microtime( true );
wfProfileOut( 'api.php' );
wfLogProfilingData();

// Log the request
if ( $wgAPIRequestLog ) {
    $items = array(
        wfTimestamp( TS_MW ),
        $endtime - $starttime,
        $wgRequest->getIP(),
        $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']
    );
    $items[] = $wgRequest->wasPosted() ? 'POST' : 'GET';
    $module = $processor->getModule();
    if ( $module->mustBePosted() ) {
        $items[] = "action=" . $wgRequest->getVal( 'action' );
    } else {
        $items[] = wfArrayToCgi( $wgRequest->getValues() );
    }
    wfErrorLog( implode( ',', $items ) . "\n", $wgAPIRequestLog );
    wfDebug( "Logged API request to $wgAPIRequestLog\n" );
}

// Shut down the database.  foo()->bar() syntax is not supported in PHP4: we won't ever actually
// get here to worry about whether this should be = or =&, but the file has to parse properly.
$lb = wfGetLBFactory();
$lb->shutdown();

Answer 1

The normal way to do this would be to call the API via the local server. That's how it is designed to work.

Writing a “simple wrapper script” to serve the API from the command line, as you suggest, would be a lot of work. As you can see in the source code, php.api calls the Title class from title.php, that in its turn calls 10 or so other classes from other PHP files, that in their turn..., well, you get the idea.

It also probably won't have any performance advantages (see e.g. How to avoid network call when REST client and server are on the same server). And it will be a nightmare to maintain.

If you decide to build some command line implementation of the API, check out the maintenance class (designed to write command-line MediaWiki maintenance scripts), and the FauxRequest class (for make ”fake” requests internally to the API).