Redirect Generator

Using R code to automatically generate new Wikipedia redirect pages

Published

January 2, 2026

Using Quarto and R to generate text for Wikipedia

This page is an experiment with using Quarto and R to generate text for Wikipedia. The goal is to create a reproducible workflow that can help in generating content for Wikipedia articles, such as redirects, summaries, or infoboxes. The basic design is human-in-the-loop editing and the first experiment here is the simplest possible configuration, just linking two names together. It’s a proof of concept to enable much more complex content addition, supervised at each step by human verification.

Example: Generating Redirects

Redirects allow multiple names to link to the same encyclopedic content on Wikipedia.

We create two functions to create redirects on Wikipedia:

create_redirect(from_title, to_title): Generates a link to create a redirect from from_title to to_title if the from_title page does not already exist.
create_multiple_redirects_to_one(redirects_from, redirect_to): Uses create_redirect to generate multiple redirects from a list of titles to a single target title.

Code

create_redirect <- function(from_title, to_title) {
  
  # 1. Manually define the Wikipedia redirect syntax with Hex Encoding
  # # = %23 | [ = %5B | ] = %5D | Space = %20
  prefix  <- "%23REDIRECT%20%5B%5B"
  suffix  <- "%5D%5D"
  
  # 2. Encode the destination title for use inside the URL
  # We use URLencode with reserved = TRUE to catch spaces and special chars
  encoded_destination <- utils::URLencode(to_title, reserved = TRUE)
  
  # 3. Assemble the preload text and the edit summary
  preload_content <- paste0(prefix, encoded_destination, suffix)
  edit_summary    <- paste0("Redirecting%20to%20%5B%5B", encoded_destination, "%5D%5D")
  
  # 4. Check if the page exists using your existing logic
  wikipedia_pages <- page_info("en", "wikipedia", page = from_title)$query$pages
  
  if (names(wikipedia_pages) == "-1") {
    # Construct the raw URL targeting index.php
    # We use from_title for the 'title' param so we are creating the new page
    base_url <- "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php"
    auto_fill_url <- paste0(
      base_url, 
      "?title=", utils::URLencode(from_title, reserved = TRUE),
      "&action=edit",
      "&preloadtext=", preload_content,
      "&summary=", edit_summary
    )

    # 5. Return as a raw HTML link to protect the %23 from Quarto's renderer
    link_html <- paste0(
      '<a href="', auto_fill_url, '" target="_blank" ',
      'style="color: #0056b3; text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;">',
      '🚀 Create redirect: ', from_title, ' → ', to_title, '</a> ',
      '<br>Add this text:'
    )
    
    # We also keep the copy-paste box as a fallback
    redirect_text_plain <- paste0("#REDIRECT [[", to_title, "]]")
    copy_box <- paste0(
      '<div style="display: flex; align-items: center; width: 80%; border: 1px solid #dee2e6; border-radius: 4px; padding: 5px; background-color: #f8f9fa; margin: 10px 0;">',
      '<code style="flex-grow: 1; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">', redirect_text_plain, '</code>',
      '<button onclick="navigator.clipboard.writeText(\'', redirect_text_plain, '\'); this.innerText=\'✅\'; setTimeout(()=>this.innerText=\'📋\', 1000)" ',
      'style="border:none; background:none; cursor:pointer; padding-left: 10px;">📋</button>',
      '</div>'
    )

    return(paste0(link_html, "<br>", copy_box))
    
  } else {
    wikipedia_url <- wikipedia_pages[[1]]$fullurl
    return(paste0("Page [", from_title, "](", wikipedia_url, ") already exists."))
  }
}

create_multiple_redirects_to_one <- function(redirects_from, redirect_to) {
  if (length(redirect_to) != 1) {
    stop("This function needs one redirect destination.")
  }
  if (assertthat::is.string(redirects_from)) {
    return(create_redirect(redirects_from, redirect_to))
  } else {
    redirects_md <- sapply(redirects_from, function(from) {
      create_redirect(from, redirect_to)})
  }
  
  return(paste(glue("## Redirects to '{redirect_to}'\n\n"), 
               paste(redirects_md, collapse = "\n\n---\n\n")))
}

Here are three sample uses of the create_multiple_redirects_to_one function. The last two are practical uses, coming from the corresponding pages: Hickory Ground and Occaneechi people. The latter ultimately comes from the name lists (or synonymy) generated by James Mooney as shown in the margin.

Code

create_multiple_redirects_to_one(
  c("Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma", "Delta"),
  "Greek Letters")

# A Native American settlement known by multiple names
create_multiple_redirects_to_one( c("Otciapofa", "Odshiapofa", "Ocheopofau",
                                    "Ocheubofau", "Oce Vpofa"), "Hickory Ground")

# A Native American people referenced by different names in the historical record
create_multiple_redirects_to_one( c("Achonechy", "Aconechos", "Akenatzy",
                "Hockinechy", "Occaneches", "Occaanechy", "Occhonechee",
                "Occonacheans", "Occoneechee", "Ockanechees", "Ockanigee",
                "Okenechee", "Acconeechy", "Occaneeches", "Ochineeches", "Ockinagee"),
                "Occaneechi")