Help:Contributing/import

Instead of hand-creating an item per author or source, use the external-authority pages in the semantic tools sidebar.

They fetch metadata from public services (Wikidata, dblp, OpenAlex, Crossref, Open Library, ORCID, YouTube, Wikipedia) and let you pick the right record. They create a local stub item with the authority identifiers (ORCID, VIAF, ISNI, DOI, ISBN, OpenAlex, YouTube IDs, …) and citation metadata (given/family name, journal, publisher as an entity, pages, volume, issue) — every imported statement carries an imported from <authority> reference. Each created item also gets a classic wiki page (Person:, Source: or Collective:) sitelinked to it, whose infobox renders the item's statements at view time — except book excerpts, which are part of a book and get only an item. Where the authority has page prose (an abstract, a plot, lyrics, a lead intro), it is fetched and offered for review before it is written to the classic page (see Help:Contributing/import#Fetched page content).

Page	Creates	Input
Special:AddPerson	a person item + a Person: page	name, ORCID iD, VIAF ID, ISNI, or a Wikidata Q id
Special:AddSource	a source item + a Source: page — see the class list below	class first, then the class-specific input
Special:AddFictionalCharacter	a fictional-character item (no classic page)	a name (Wikidata)
Special:AddCollective	a non-person agent item (organization, company, band, agency, institution, team…) + a Collective: page	a name

Every import flow offers a manual fallback — Create the item manually instead — on the search page and on the candidate-selection page. The manual form is prefilled with what you typed in the search boxes (a person name is split into given/family, e.g. "Marie Curie" → given Marie, family Curie), so you correct instead of retyping. When the form is prefilled from fetched data (the website/web page URL entry), the form is titled Item details — you are verifying fetched content, not entering an item from blank.

People: lifecycle fields

The person review step pre-fills these from the authority when available:

• Given name / Family name — the item's label is the full name, auto-generated from these two fields (there is no separate label field). The Person: page title follows the same rule; a harvested record that has only a label keeps it.
• Description — a one-line summary of the person (below the name fields; pre-filled from the authority when available). Descriptions can be up to 2000 characters on this instance.
• Date of birth / Date of death — day-precision date fields (YYYY-MM-DD).
• Place of birth / Place of death — entity search boxes: type a name to pick an existing place item (or type a Q-id directly). A place fetched from the authority is proposed by its label and matched against existing items: a good match fills the box and asks "{field} fetched from source: {label}, we think this corresponds to {item} (Q#)." — Yes, that's right keeps it, No, let me correct clears the field. No match shows "External record: {label} — pick an existing item, or create it first if it does not exist yet." Create missing places first (see Help:Contributing/entities).
• This person is deceased — toggle, off by default; tick it to reveal the date/place of death fields.
• Official website (optional) — the person's own website, if any (a plain URL field). The value is written as an official website statement and renders in the Person: page infobox.
• OpenAlex ID — the person's OpenAlex author identifier, fetched from the authority when available (otherwise type it, or leave empty).
• Portrait — optional, behind the "I will upload a portrait image for this person" toggle. Choose the source yourself — upload a local image file, paste an image URL, or reuse an existing file on this wiki (type to search the File: namespace; the suggestions show thumbnails). Nothing is pre-selected: the matching input appears after you pick a source. For a pasted URL, click Validate next to the field — a preview thumbnail, the pixel + file size and a best-effort auto-fill of the author / licence fields appear (Wikimedia image URLs are read from your browser, so they are not rate-limited; clicking Validate again shows only the latest result). Fill the portrait license (required when a portrait is provided), and optionally Portrait author and Additional license information (free text — e.g. the attribution line for a CC BY image). The file is saved as File:<name>-portrait.<ext> and linked from the item with image, license, image author and additional license information statements; the portrait renders in the Person: page infobox (the infobox image cell reads the item's image statement — the portrait shows on every page sitelinked to an item that has one, including pages created before the portrait existed).

Fictional characters

Special:AddFictionalCharacter searches Wikidata by name (search → review candidates → create). The review step has Given name / Family name and Appears in (entity search, several works allowed). The label auto-generates as {given name} {family name} (fictional character); the description auto-generates as fictional character in {works} when left blank. Characters get no classic page — just the item.

Collectives: common classes

The collective class is inferred from the harvested Wikidata instance-of hints and chosen on the review step (the search-results selection step no longer shows a class field — pick the record first, then classify it when the harvested data is in front of you): private company, public company, non-profit organization, governmental agency, music band, educational institution, research institute, political party, trade union, religious organization, sports team — plus the generic organization / group of humans.

The collective review step also offers:

• Parent organization (optional) — an entity search box: the organization this collective is a subsidiary or subdivision of (type a name to pick an existing item, or type a Q-id).
• Official website (optional) — the collective's own website (a plain URL field). The value is written as an official website statement and renders in the Collective: page infobox.
• Logo (optional) — behind the "I will upload a logo image for this collective" toggle. Choose the source yourself — upload a local image file, paste an image URL, or reuse an existing file on this wiki (two collectives often share a logo, e.g. a website and its TV channel — pick the already-uploaded file instead of re-uploading; the suggestions show thumbnails). Nothing is pre-selected: the matching input appears after you pick a source. A pasted URL has a Validate button with preview + auto-fill, like the portrait. Fill the logo license (required when a logo is provided) and optionally Logo author / Additional license information. The file is saved as File:<name>-logo.<ext> and linked from the item with image, license, image author and additional license information statements; the logo renders in the Collective: page infobox (the infobox image cell reads the item's image statement — the logo shows on every page sitelinked to an item that has one, including pages created before the logo existed).

Special:AddSource is class-first

Special:AddSource opens on a class picker — choose the source type (the page title is Special:AddSource); the page then shows the adapted first step (search, or a URL entry for websites/web pages) and the adapted review fields for that class.

Class	Kind	First step
Book	parent	search: ISBN-13, title, or author
Scholarly article	parent	search: DOI, title, or author
Website	parent	enter the URL — metadata (title, description, intro) is fetched automatically
Song · Film · Video	parent	search: title or author (Wikidata)
YouTube channel	parent	search: YouTube name or URL (exact match for a URL)
YouTube video	child of YouTube channel	search: YouTube name or URL
Book excerpt	child of book	manual: parent book + pages
Web page	child of website	enter the URL — metadata fetched automatically

• Website / web page URL entry: type a public web address (http:///https://) and the title, description and intro are fetched automatically when the site allows it — you correct everything on the next pages. For websites the URL is collapsed to the site root (a website is the site, not a page) and there is no year field (a website is dynamic); for web pages the full URL is kept.
• Publisher is an entity (book, scholarly article): the publisher field is an entity search box — type a name to pick an existing publisher item (or type a Q-id). Create a missing publisher first (e.g. via Special:AddCollective). The item's publisher statement then points at that entity.
• Journal is an entity (scholarly article): the journal field is an entity search box, like the publisher — pick the journal item (create a missing one first, e.g. via Special:AddCollective).
• Access (book, scholarly article, song, film, book excerpt): how this source can be accessed — a toggle with four modes:

 * Access URL (non-direct) — a link to a page where the work can be accessed (a landing page, not the file itself).
 * Direct download link — a URL whose file is fetched and saved on this wiki automatically (as File:<title>.<ext>).
 * Local file — pick a file on your computer to upload.
 * N/A (no direct access) — the work is only reachable via archives or physical copies; no access statement is written.
 The download/file modes expand a license field (pick an existing license item — CC0, CC BY, GNU, etc., or type to search). Uploaded files are named after the item (your original filename is ignored) and you should not upload copyrighted content unless you have the right to distribute it publicly.

• The Access row on the Source: page — the infobox of every Source: page shows an Access row: a stored copy renders as the file name (click it to open Special:SourceFile — an embedded PDF preview when the file is a PDF, the licence, and a download button that requires accepting the licence conditions), a non-direct access URL renders as a clickable link, and a source without access shows N/A.
• Child classes need a parent: for a book excerpt, YouTube video or web page you first pick the parent item (book, YouTube channel, website) with an entity search box. The line under the box — "Book not yet imported to RonzzWikiBase? import it yourself" — jumps to the parent's import page. On creation the child is linked to the parent with a part of statement. For a web page the parent is proposed automatically from the URL's site root: the site is matched against existing website items and the best match fills the parent box with the "we think this corresponds to …" confirmation — Yes, that's right keeps it, No, let me correct clears it. When no record matches, the box stays empty with "No record found for {URL} — the website exists, but we don't have a record of it yet. Add the website first, then pick it above." (add the website via Special:AddSource/website).
• Book excerpts: after picking the parent book, fill the pages and optionally the volume and chapters. A blank description auto-generates as Pages a-b (Volume c) of {book} from the pages/volume fields and the book's title; blank year and author(s) fall back to the parent book's own values (Leave blank if same as the parent book).
• Website vs web page: add an entire website once, then add specific pages as child items (see the explanation on Special:AddSource/website).
• Duration (film, song, video, YouTube video): type MM:SS or HH:MM:SS — stored in seconds.
• A source needs at least one author — except a book excerpt that inherits its authors from the parent book: the review step requires picking author entities (person, organization or group — type a name to search, or type a Q-id). Create missing people first via Special:AddPerson. This is enforced at creation.

Fetched page content

When the authority has page prose, it is fetched automatically and shown on a dedicated content review step after the record review — confirm, correct or clear each block; only what you keep is written to the page. Each block carries an attribution line (from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0):, from OpenAlex:, …).

• Scholarly article — Abstract + Key words (OpenAlex, Crossref as fallback).
• Book — Summary (Wikipedia lead).
• Song — Overview (Wikipedia lead) + Lyrics (the Wikipedia article's lyrics section, when present).
• Film — Overview (Wikipedia lead) + Plot.
• Person — Biography (Wikipedia lead) on the Person: page.
• Website / web page — the intro/summary fetched from the site itself.

The classic pages render sections only when they have content (no empty placeholders; no See also); websites and YouTube channels show a short intro without headings.

Uploading files (Special:Upload)

Special:Upload is the general file-upload page (also reachable from the Upload file link in the sidebar). It saves the file to a File: page and — for every form upload — creates (or reuses) a linked image item holding the file's structured facts, so uploaded files are first-class, queryable entities (the facts in the item, prose on the page model).

• Source — the radio defaults to URL (paste a link — the common case); switch to file from your device when the image is only on your computer.
• File name + description — filled in by hand, or auto-filled: for a pasted URL, click Validate next to the URL field — a preview thumbnail, the pixel + file size and a best-effort auto-fill of the name / description / author / licence fields appear (clicking Validate again shows only the latest result). Wikimedia image URLs (Wikipedia, Commons, upload.wikimedia.org) are read from your browser — they are not rate-limited, and the image bytes are downloaded by your browser too (the server never fetches Wikimedia). For files larger than 50 MB from Wikimedia, save the image to your device and upload it instead.
• License — a searchable combobox of the instance's license items (CC0, CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, GNU licenses, MIT, … — pick from the list or type to search). The license is recorded as a semantic statement on the image item and renders on the File page as a link to the license item.
• Image author (optional) — the person or organization that created the image, as free text.
• Additional license information (optional) — free text (attribution lines, terms, credits — e.g. what a CC BY license requires).
• The single Maximum file size: 1 GB note applies to both upload methods.
• The File page carries an Attribution section with the author / license / source; the image item holds the same facts as statements (image, license, image author, additional license information, source URL) and is sitelinked to the File page.

Re-editing an imported item

Imported items can be edited in place with the same form that created them — no need to re-import or hand-edit statements. On the item page (/wiki/Item:Q1), the Update basic information button under the title opens the matching page (Special:UpdatePerson, Special:UpdateSource, Special:UpdateCollective, Special:UpdateSoftware, Special:UpdateFictionalCharacter — chosen from the item's class), prefilled with the item's current values. Change what needs changing and submit: the label, description and the form's statements update; everything else (sitelinks, other statements, uploaded portraits/logos you did not replace) stays. A changed label renames the classic page too. See Help:Contributing/entities#Updating basic information with a form.

• Replacing an image — the upload toggle on the Update pages reads "I will upload a new portrait/logo image … (replacing existing)": tick it and pick a source to replace the current image; leave it unticked to keep it.
• Fields you leave blank are kept as they are — the update form never overwrites a value you did not provide (a blank description keeps the existing one). Removing a statement is an explicit edit on the item page itself.

When a field is auto-filled from fetched data, the wiki asks you to confirm: "{field} fetched from source: {value}, we think this corresponds to {label} (Q#)." — Yes, that's right keeps it, No, let me correct clears the field for you to pick another item. This happens for:

• the license on Special:Upload and the Add\* portrait/logo URL fields (from the image's metadata);
• the publisher and journal on the book / scholarly-article review (a harvested name that matches — exactly or closely — an existing item is prefilled and confirmed);
• the place of birth / place of death on the AddPerson review (a harvested place label matched against local items; no match → the "External record: …" hint);
• the parent website on the web-page entry (the site root of the entered URL matched against website items; no match → the "No record found for {URL} — add the website first" hint);
• the harvested developer / license / programming language facts on AddSoftware;
• a free-text author name in the AddSource search: if it matches an existing person, the manual form is prefilled with that person and confirmed (previously a free-text name was only a search filter).

Workflow

For classes with an authority: search → review the candidates (same-name disambiguation) → review the record → [review the fetched content, when present] → create. Each candidate carries a see record details link to its canonical authority page (opens in a new tab). Repeating a lookup for an already-imported label reuses the existing item (create-or-skip). The English label comes from the authority; add fr/eo labels afterwards. Source labels carry the source type in parentheses for disambiguation — e.g. The Hobbit (Book), Example Domain (Website), Chapter 3 (Book excerpt) — the suffix is added automatically (and editable) on the AddSource review/manual forms, and the Source: page title follows the label. Fetch failures degrade to manual entry at Special:AddSource/<class>/manual.

Notes:

• The authority lookups run only when you click search — never on page load.
• Author search on the book / scholarly-article / film / song / video pages narrows the results for common titles. Toggle between free text (an author name, e.g. Albert Einstein) and semantic entities (Wikidata Q-ids, comma-separated — e.g. Q937, Q42). The semantic mode resolves works by the author entities on the Wikidata hub.
• YouTube: paste a URL for an exact match (no match → no match for the provided URL), or type a name for the top 10 matches.
• The provenance form on Special:AddQuotation (and the other content pages) has entity search + autofill for attributed to and source: type a name, pick the entity, the item id is filled in. Manually typed ids still work.
• Citations use the source item's harvested metadata (journal name, publisher, volume/issue/pages, DOI, ISBN) and cite the source type correctly (a book quote cites as a book, a song quote as a song).

See also

• Help:Contributing — the hub
• Help:Contributing/entities — creating and editing items and properties
• Help:Contributing/semanticDynamicContent — page↔item sitelinks (incl. the Sitelink tab)