Saving contest page fails if contest page too big

[jhsoby]

If the contest page is too big (roughly >2 MB), it will fail to save, and the bot grinds to a halt.

Proposed solution: Make a check for this error; if the error (contenttoobig) happens, set a config flag for the current contest (how?) so that tooltip_text in https://github.com/danmichaelo/UKBot/blob/3e658f5e0bce8fae0da45df3885f847989f086df/ukbot/contributions.py#L316 (which can be relatively huge) is turned into something like "Calculation unavailable"), which should reduce the page size drastically.

[jcreusand]

Another idea:
Have format in contributions.py save the text it generates in a subpage of the contest.

We would have a subpage for each participant, something like Contest root/contributions/Jack, Contest root/contributions/Jill, ...

Then, the contest page would just include each subpage, doing something like:

===  [[User:Jill|Jill]] (159 p) ===
5 articles, {{formatnum:33.83}} kB
{{:Contest root/contributions/Jill}}

===  [[User:Jack|Jack]] (139 p) ===
4 articles, {{formatnum:23.83}} kB
{{:Contest root/contributions/Jack}}

This way, we don't lose functionality, and we would hit the problem only if the contributions of one single user hit the 2MB mark.

[jcreusand]

Actually contenttoobig should still get checked, and if it happens, we should truncate the output as Jon suggests. If my idea gets implemented, that would affect only one user, though.

[jcreusand]

Another solution:
Have the bot save the results in a separate page: Contest root/Results

The contest page would have something like:

== Results ==
<!-- Begin:ResultsSection -->
{{:Contest root/Results}}
<!-- End:ResultsSection -->

If the results page grows over 2MB, then the bot should create a second results page (and a third one, if needed), and include them all in the contest page.

== Results ==
<!-- Begin:ResultsSection -->
{{:Contest root/Results}}
{{:Contest root/Results_1}}
<!-- End:ResultsSection -->

[jhsoby]

Another idea: Have format in contributions.py save the text it generates in a subpage of the contest.

We would have a subpage for each participant, something like Contest root/contributions/Jack, Contest root/contributions/Jill, ...

Then, the contest page would just include each subpage, doing something like:

===  [[User:Jill|Jill]] (159 p) ===
5 articles, {{formatnum:33.83}} kB
{{:Contest root/contributions/Jill}}

===  [[User:Jack|Jack]] (139 p) ===
4 articles, {{formatnum:23.83}} kB
{{:Contest root/contributions/Jack}}

This way, we don't lose functionality, and we would hit the problem only if the contributions of one single user hit the 2MB mark.

I like this idea the best, and it is also what @zache-fi has suggested.

[zache-fi]

It still could/would hit to the expanded page size limit.

[jhsoby]

It still could/would hit to the expanded page size limit.

If that turns out to be a problem, couldn't we just link to the subpages instead of transcluding them?

[zache-fi]

Yes, my original idea was just to link to the page.

[jcreusand]

You're right, I see now that the post-expand include size is again 2 MB, so we wouldn't gain anything by transcluding the pages.

Should we create the subpages every time, or only if we get close to the 2MB mark?

[jhsoby]

I think only when we get close to the 2MB mark. In the majority of cases, we don't need to split it, it is only when a contest gets really popular that we need to consider that.