Commons:Machine-readable data

On Wikimedia Commons, a lot of metadata (including license and author) are not machine readable. As they are entered as free text into the file description page itself, the built-in MediaWiki API cannot help. There are plans to move the metadata into the database, but it is likely they are not going to happen soon.

To make up for this, Wikimedia Commons use a set of standard template which have been made machine-readable in some ways, through HTML elements. Some scripts already make use of that. It is worth noting that this data is available for any wiki using Wikimedia Commons, where it can be read into html of File: page just as other local data.

Machine readable data

Machine readable data set by infobox templates

These are several standard infobox templates tagging different elements of the template with different tags to allow parsing of the information. Several different styles of tags are used:

• Microformat tags follow industry standards and can be parsed by already existing tools.
• <td> id attributes (identifiers) are custom markings which allow more complete tags, which have to be read by custom tools. Many most universal infoboxes have two column structure: column #1 holds name of the field and column #2 holds the value
  • Traditionally <td> id attributes were used to tag the name call in the first column in a row. To get the data, you would need to get the contents of the following <td> cell in the second column.
  • {{Creator}} and {{Institution}} templates have more complicated structure, so the cells with the actual data are tagged with attributes using magenta background.

Template	Fieldname	Description	<td> id attribute	Microformat	Comment
{{Information}}	description	description of the image	fileinfotpl_desc	hProduct.description
{{Information}}	date	date the image was taken	fileinfotpl_date	hCalendar vevent.dtstart	microformat added by {{date}} template
{{Information}}	source	source of the image	fileinfotpl_src
{{Information}}	author	author of the image	fileinfotpl_aut
{{Information}}	permission	permission/license for the image	fileinfotpl_perm
{{Information}}	other versions	other versions of the image	fileinfotpl_ver
{{Artwork}}	description	description of the artwork	fileinfotpl_desc	hProduct.description
{{Artwork}}	date	date the artwork was taken	fileinfotpl_date	hCalendar vevent.dtstart	microformat added by {{date}} template
{{Artwork}}	source	source of the image	fileinfotpl_src
{{Artwork}}	artist	creator of the artwork	fileinfotpl_aut	"hProduct.fn value"
{{Artwork}}	permission	permission/license for the image and artwork	fileinfotpl_perm
{{Artwork}}	other versions	other versions of the image	fileinfotpl_ver
{{Artwork}}	title	title of the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_title	hProduct.fn
{{Artwork}}	object type	artwork object type	fileinfotpl_art_object_type
{{Artwork}}	medium	technique or medium of the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_medium
{{Artwork}}	dimensions	dimensions of the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_dimensions
{{Artwork}}	gallery	institution holding the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_gallery
{{Artwork}}	location	location of the artwork within the institution	fileinfotpl_art_location	hProduct.locality
{{Artwork}}	accession number	accession number of the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_id	hProduct.identifier
{{Artwork}}	object history	object history of the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_object_history
{{Artwork}}	exhibition history	exhibition history of the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_exhibition_history
{{Artwork}}	credit line	credit line of the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_credit_line
{{Artwork}}	inscriptions	inscriptions on the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_inscriptions
{{Artwork}}	notes	notes about the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_notes
{{Artwork}}	references	references related to the artwork	fileinfotpl_art_references
{{Book}}	Author	author of the book	fileinfotpl_author
{{Book}}	Editor	editor of the book	fileinfotpl_book_editor
{{Book}}	Translator	translator of the book	fileinfotpl_book_translator
{{Book}}	Illustrator	illustrator of the book	fileinfotpl_book_illustrator
{{Book}}	Title	title of the book	fileinfotpl_book_title
{{Book}}	Subtitle	subtitle of the book	fileinfotpl_book_subtitle
{{Book}}	Series title	series-title of the book	fileinfotpl_book_series-title
{{Book}}	Authority control	authority control data	fileinfotpl_book_authority
{{Book}}	Publisher	publisher of the book	fileinfotpl_book_publisher
{{Book}}	Printer	printer of the book	fileinfotpl_book_printer
{{Book}}	Year of publication	date or year of the publication of the book	fileinfotpl_date
{{Book}}	Place of publication	place or city of the publication of the book	fileinfotpl_book_place-of-publication
{{Book}}	Language	language of the book	fileinfotpl_book_language
{{Book}}	Description	description of the book	fileinfotpl_desc
{{Creator}}	Name	Name of creator		vCard.fn
{{Creator}}	Alternative names	Alternative names of creator	fileinfotpl_creator_alt-name_value	vCard.nickname
{{Creator}}	Description	Nationality and occupation(s) of creator	fileinfotpl_creator_desc_value	vCard.note
{{Creator}}	Date of death	Date of death of creator	fileinfotpl_creator_deathdate_value
{{Creator}}	Date of birth	Date of birth of creator	fileinfotpl_creator_birthdate_value	vCard.bday
{{Creator}}	Location of birth/death	Location of death of creator	fileinfotpl_creator_deathloc_value
{{Creator}}	Location of birth	Location of birth of creator	fileinfotpl_creator_birthloc_value
{{Creator}}	Work period	Work period of creator	fileinfotpl_creator_work-period_value
{{Creator}}	Work location	Work location of creator	fileinfotpl_creator_work-location_valuev
{{Creator}}	Image	image of creator	fileinfotpl_creator_image
{{Creator}}	Authority control	Authority control related to creator	fileinfotpl_creator_authority_value
{{FileContentsByBot}}	(various)	depends, please confer {{FileContentsByBot}}	(various)	hproduct-by-bot	big data set and still growing, please confer {{FileContentsByBot}}

Machine readable data set by license templates

Introduced in October 2010, using classes <span class="licensetpl_XXX">

licensetpl

Wrapping the all.

licensetpl_short

Short name of the license: “Public domain”, “CC-BY-SA-3.0”, “CC-by-2.0-FR”, etc.

licensetpl_long

Long name of the license: “Public domain”, “Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0”,

licensetpl_attr_req

Whether attribution is required. “true” or “false”.

licensetpl_attr

The required attribution: Free text.

licensetpl_link_req

Whether a link to the license is required. “true” or “false”.

licensetpl_link

The link to the license. “www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/XXX/YYY”

Templates setting these information

• Templates setting licensetpl include: {{PD-Layout}}, {{Cc-by-sa-3.0-migrated}}, {{Cc-by-layout}}, {{Cc-by-sa-layout}}, {{Cc-zero}}, {{FAL}}, {{GFDL}}, {{GFDL-1.2}}, {{GPL}} and {{LGPL}}.

Usage

Scripts using machine-readable data

• MediaWiki:Gadget-Stockphoto.js
• MediaWiki:GallerySlideshow.js
• MediaWiki:Gadget-AddInformation.js
• MediaWiki:FileContentsByBot.js

External tools

• Wordpress plugin
• usecommons, a Python library

See also

• Category:Templates generating microformats
• Commons:Microformats Project
• Experimental, discontinued projects: Commons:API, Commons:Commons API