Wikipedia API 1.0

Wikipedia API is a simple API to embed Wikipedia content dynamically on a Web site.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia in which the user community is encouraged to submit information for its entries. Wikipedia is unique in that it is free to the public, the content is fairly well moderated, and its content is licensed under the GFDL (GNU Free Documentation License); therefore, all of its text can be copied, modified, and used any way you see fit.

The only stipulation to using its text, is that the names of the original authors must remain intact. KillerTux.com is currently embedding some of the relevant entries in its own site and has decided to make the API open for public use. It is a simple implementation and should be easy to use. If you are a webmaster and would like to use KillerTux.coms Wikipedia API, this is the place to learn how to do it.

What is an API

An API is an application programming interface with which external applications can communicate with. The syntax and usage of the API dictates the type of data, format, and other specifics of the information to be exchanged. In this case, the API is a simple call to KillerTux.coms web server via the HTTP protocol.

Wikipedia API usage

The URL for the API is "http://scrapers.killertux.com/wikipedia-api.php". It uses the get request method and only has 3 parameters. These parameters are as follows:

wikititle=
wikiformat=[html | text]
wikiimages=[yes | no ]

The wikititle value is the name of the Wikipedia entry you are looking for, in Wikipedias variable entry. This can be found by going to Wikipedia.org and finding an entry. The name is the last part of the URL. For instance, the Wikipedia entry for "Computer Program" is "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Program". Notice the space is an underscore in the URL. Defining the wikititle value for this API would look like this: wikititle=Computer_Program. This value must be specified. A sample API call would be "http://scrapers.killertux.com/wikipedia-api.php?wikititle=Computer_Program". The wikiformat value currently has two possible values: html and text. html is the default if no value is specified. If you use HTML format, it is recommended that a style sheet be used, although it may not be necessary.

A sample CSS is provided here. The text format option strips all HTML code from the document and returns plain text formatted at 80 characters per column. A sample API call would be "http://scrapers.killertux.com/wikipedia-api.php?wikititle=Computer_Program&wikiformat=html". The wikiimages value is only valid for HTML format; images for the text format are disabled. Image source locations are preserved and images are loaded from Wikipedia, not KillerTux.com. If wikiimages=no is selected, all images and captions will be striped from the document, while other HTML code should remain intact such as links to other articles. A sample API call would be "http://scrapers.killertux.com/wikipedia-api.php?wikititle=Computer_Program&wikiimages=no".