API:Protect

This page is part of the MediaWiki API documentation.

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MediaWiki version:

= 1.12

Token

To change a page's protection level, a protect token is required. This token is equal to the edit token and the same for all pages, but changes at every login. A protect token can be obtained as follows: Obtaining a protect token

api.php?action=query&prop=info&intoken=protect&titles=Main%20Page

Protecting pages

Pages can be protected with action=protect.

Parameters

• title: The page you want to protect.
• token: The token obtained in the previous request. Take care to urlencode the + as %2B.
• protections: A pipe-separated list of protections, formatted as action=group, e.g. edit=autoconfirmed|move=sysop
  • If you want to remove a protection, use all as group, e.g. edit=all|move=sysop
  • If you leave out an action, the associated value won't be changed, i.e. edit=sysop leaves the move protection untouched.
• expiry: Pipe-separated list of expiry timestamps in GNU timestamp format. The first timestamp applies to the first protection in protections, the second to the second, etc. The timestamps infinite, indefinite and never result in a protection that will never expire. Timestamps like next Monday 16:04:57 or 9:28 PM tomorrow are also allowed, see the GNU web site for details.
  • The number of expiry timestamps must equal the number of protections, or you'll get an error message
    • An exception to this rule is made for backwards compatibility: if you specify exactly one expiry timestamp, it'll apply to all protections
  • Not setting this parameter is equivalent to setting it to infinite
• reason: The reason for the (un)protection (optional).
• cascade: If set, pages transcluded in the protected page will also be protected. If the required user level to edit is lower than the required user level to protect (e.g. edit=autoconfirmed), cascading can't be enabled, and this parameter will be silently ignored.
  • The latter is to prevent people who shouldn't be able to protect pages from protecting them anyway by transcluding them in a page with cascading protection.

Examples

Note: In this example, all parameters are passed in a GET request just for the sake of simplicity. However, action=protect requires POST requests; GET requests will cause an error. Protecting the Main Page edit=autoconfirmed, move=sysop, the first expiring October 24, 2007 at 16:07:54, the second never, with cascading protection enabled.

api.php?action=protect&title=Main%20Page&protections=edit=autoconfirmed|move=sysop&expiry=20071024160754&cascade&token=58b54e0bab4a1d3fd3f7653af38e75cb%2B\

Protecting "Deletion log" create=sysop, expiring a 2 months from now

api.php?action=protect&title=Deletion%20log&protections=create=sysop&expiry=2%20months&reason=Don't%20create%20this%20for%20now&token=58b54e0bab4a1d3fd3f7653af38e75cb%2B\

Possible errors

In addition to the usual stuff:

• code: notitle
  • info: The title parameter must be set
• code: notoken
  • info: The token parameter must be set
• code: noprotections
  • info: The protections parameter must be set
• code: invalidexpiry
  • info: Invalid expiry time ``expiry''
    • This means the expiry timestamp was invalidly formatted, or is nonexistent (like November 31 or 24:05).
• code: pastexpiry
  • info: Expiry time ``expiry'' is in the past
• code: toofewexpiries
  • info: number expiry timestamps were provided where number were needed
    • Note that this error is misnamed: it's also thrown when you specify too many expiry times
• code: cantedit
  • info: You can't protect this page because you can't edit it
• code: create-titleexists
  • info: Existing titles can't be protected with 'create'
• code: missingtitle-createonly
  • info: Missing titles can only be protected with 'create'
• code: protect-invalidaction
  • info: Invalid protection type ``type''
• code: protect-invalidlevel
  • info: Invalid protection level ``level''