API:Backlinks

This page is part of the MediaWiki Action API documentation.

MediaWiki version:

≥ 1.9

GET request to list pages which link to a certain page.

API documentation

The following documentation is the output of Special:ApiHelp/query+backlinks, automatically generated by the pre-release version of MediaWiki that is running on this site (MediaWiki.org).

list=backlinks (bl)

(main | query | backlinks)

This module requires read rights.
This module can be used as a generator.
Source: MediaWiki
License: GPL-2.0-or-later

Find all pages that link to the given page.

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/API:Backlinks

Specific parameters:

Other general parameters are available.

bltitle: Title to search. Cannot be used together with blpageid.
blpageid: Page ID to search. Cannot be used together with bltitle.; Type: integer
blcontinue: When more results are available, use this to continue. More detailed information on how to continue queries can be found on mediawiki.org.
blnamespace: The namespace to enumerate.; Values (separate with | or alternative): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 90, 91, 92, 93, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 486, 487, 710, 711, 828, 829, 1198, 1199, 2600, 5500, 5501; To specify all values, use *.
bldir: The direction in which to list.; One of the following values: ascending, descending; Default: ascending
blfilterredir: How to filter for redirects. If set to nonredirects when blredirect is enabled, this is only applied to the second level.; One of the following values: all, nonredirects, redirects; Default: all
bllimit: How many total pages to return. If blredirect is enabled, the limit applies to each level separately (which means up to 2 * bllimit results may be returned).; Type: integer or max; The value must be between 1 and 500.; Default: 10
blredirect: If linking page is a redirect, find all pages that link to that redirect as well. Maximum limit is halved.; Type: boolean (details)

Examples:

Show links to MediaWiki.: api.php?action=query&list=backlinks&bltitle=MediaWiki [open in sandbox]
Get information about pages linking to MediaWiki.: api.php?action=query&generator=backlinks&gbltitle=MediaWiki&prop=info [open in sandbox]

Example

GET request

List backlinks to the philosophy page.

api.php?action=query&format=json&list=backlinks&bltitle=philosophy [try in ApiSandbox]

Response

{
    "batchcomplete": "",
    "continue": {
        "blcontinue": "1|987",
        "continue": "-||"
    },
    "query": {
        "backlinks": [
            {
                "pageid": 12,
                "ns": 0,
                "title": "Anarchism"
            },
            {
                "pageid": 128,
                "ns": 1,
                "title": "Talk:Atlas Shrugged"
            },
            {
                "pageid": 336,
                "ns": 0,
                "title": "Altruism"
            },
            ...
        ]
    }
}

Sample code

Python

#!/usr/bin/python3

"""
    get_backlinks.py

    MediaWiki API Demos
    Demo of `Backlinks` module: Get request to list pages which link to a certain page.

    MIT License
"""

import requests

S = requests.Session()

URL = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php"

PARAMS = {
    "action": "query",
    "format": "json",
    "list": "backlinks",
    "bltitle": "philosophy"
}

R = S.get(url=URL, params=PARAMS)
DATA = R.json()

BACKLINKS = DATA["query"]["backlinks"]

for b in BACKLINKS:
    print(b["title"])

PHP

<?php
/*
    get_backlinks.php

    MediaWiki API Demos
    Demo of `Backlinks` module: Get request to list pages which link to a certain page.

    MIT License
*/

$endPoint = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php";
$params = [
    "action" => "query",
    "format" => "json",
    "list" => "backlinks",
    "bltitle" => "philosophy"
];

$url = $endPoint . "?" . http_build_query( $params );

$ch = curl_init( $url );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
$output = curl_exec( $ch );
curl_close( $ch );

$result = json_decode( $output, true );

foreach( $result["query"]["backlinks"] as $k => $v ) {
    echo( $v["title"] . "\n" );
}

JavaScript

/*
    get_backlinks.js

    MediaWiki API Demos
    Demo of `Backlinks` module: Get request to list pages which link to a certain page.

    MIT License
*/

var url = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php"; 

var params = {
    action: "query",
    format: "json",
    list: "backlinks",
    bltitle: "philosophy"
};

url = url + "?origin=*";
Object.keys(params).forEach(function(key){url += "&" + key + "=" + params[key];});

fetch(url)
    .then(function(response){return response.json();})
    .then(function(response) {
        var backlinks = response.query.backlinks;
        for (var b in backlinks) {
            console.log(backlinks[b].title);
        }
    })
    .catch(function(error){console.log(error);});

MediaWiki JS

/*
	get_backlinks.js

	MediaWiki API Demos
	Demo of `Backlinks` module: Get request to list pages which link to a certain page.

	MIT License
*/

var params = {
		action: 'query',
		format: 'json',
		list: 'backlinks',
		bltitle: 'philosophy'
	},
	api = new mw.Api();

api.get( params ).done( function ( data ) {
	var backlinks = data.query.backlinks,
		b;
	for ( b in backlinks ) {
		console.log( backlinks[ b ].title );
	}
} );

Redirects

In the example above, only direct links to the philosophy page are returned. When blredirect is set, the response will include any pages which backlink to redirects for the value in bltitle.

These redirected backlinks are treated as separate groups within the response hierarchy, one level down from the redirect itself.

The limit set in bllimit applies separately to each level of the response, so bllimit=25 would return up to 25 direct backlinks, and up to 25 backlinks within each individual redirect.

In addition, using blcontinue when a redirect was in the response will return more second-level backlinks, before finally moving on to more direct backlinks, once all the backlinks for a redirect have been returned in full.

Possible errors


Code	Info
blbadcontinue	Invalid continue param. You should pass the original value returned by the previous query.