Re: Removing the PHP response format of Action APIs

Based on the task, there are two community-operated bots that still
actively use this API. Please announce this more widely on Tech News before
making such a breaking change.

Regards,
Sohom Datta
---
Open-source contributor @Wikimedia

On Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 9:31 AM Amir Sarabadani via Wikitech-l <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Hello,
> The PHP response format [1] has been deprecated in favor of json format
> for more than ten years
> <https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=API:Data_formats&diff=prev&oldid=1937805>now.
> The usage of it is extremely low (0.17% which mostly are scrapers loading
> links or examples). In comparison, The xml format that was also deprecated
> for more than ten years now still gets 18 times more requests than the PHP
> format.
>
> It is now time to pull the plug. We will drop the format in a month
> (around May 1, 2026). You can follow the work or comment (for example if
> you need more time) in T118538 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T118538>
> .
>
> [1] for example:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=general|namespaces|namespacealiases|statistics&format=php
>
> Best
> --
> Amir (he/him)
>
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