>  By the way, it was AMillarBot that string-joined

> the two series and put it in one list item, instead of adding one item
> for each series. Could you perhaps change that?

Ay, there's the rub.  The current implementation of stuff running under the 
AMillarBot account is actually browser scripting (specifically, Selenium IDE in 
Firefox).  As such, it doesn't use the formal API's; it uses the 
human-interface web forms.  So it is limited in structuring the data to what 
the web form supports.

I started with the browser scripting because I was doing semi-automated 
changes.  Things like breaking out multi-author entries in works (like 
http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL2800968A/NIVEN_POURNELLE), where I would 
confirm the correct entries before saving.  Since there have been a lot of 
them, mostly automated in simple patterns, it seemed like a good idea to mark 
the account as a bot account, to unclutter the recent changes listings.

Other changes, like moving series or edition notes out of titles, have been 
running completely automated (no confirmation needed by me on each one), once 
given a specific string to match, but still executing as Selenium IDE scripts 
in Firefox.  I download the Works dump file and massage with grep&sed to make 
the string matching work list.  I guess to a certain exent, it is still 
semi-automated, in that I enter a series name or other string into the Selenium 
script, let it fix a few dozen works/editions, then do the next string, and so 
on.  After a month, download new works dump and refresh my worklist.  Lather, 
rinse, repeat  :-)

I've been considering making the jump to a proper script for the simpler mass 
changes, but haven't gotten around to it.

One question that certainly comes to my mind: if I force a list or array 
through the API, when the web form UI doesn't support it, how will anyone edit 
it later?

I did file a bug report to change the web form UI to allow the list/array for 
series field.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/openlibrary/+bug/1014956

- Alan
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