Part of the Mix'n'match manual

Mix'n'match Catalog Editor

The catalog editor lets catalog owners and site admins configure a catalog's basic metadata and optional matching behaviours.

Accessing the editor

Open any catalog page, click the Action drop-down in the top-right corner, and choose Catalog editor. The link only appears if you are either:

a site-wide catalog admin, or
the original creator of that catalog (the account that first imported it).

If you are neither, you will see a warning message and all fields will be disabled.

Basic information

Field	Description
Catalog name	The public display name. Shown on the catalog page header and in search results.
Type	A free-form category label (e.g. person, place, work). Used to group entries in the type overview and to gate certain features (e.g. initial-search button for Q5 entries).
Description	A short human-readable description of the catalog's content.
Catalog URL	Homepage of the source catalog. Shown as a link on the catalog page.
Main language	BCP 47 language code (e.g. `en`, `de`, `fr`). Used as the default Wikipedia search language and the language label on newly-created Wikidata items.
Wikidata property	The P-number (digits only) of the Wikidata external-identifier property for this catalog, e.g. `7471` for P7471. Leave blank if no property exists. When set, a "sync" link appears in the Action menu and Match edits automatically add the property claim to the matched Wikidata item.
Catalog is active	Tick to make the catalog visible in listings. Untick to hide it (entries are preserved).

Note: Catalogs that carry a qualifier (wd_qual) are a legacy feature. The qualifier field is intentionally hidden in this editor; such catalogs continue to function but cannot be reconfigured here.

Update external URLs

When a Wikidata property is set, a button labelled Update external URLs from Pnnn formatter URL appears. Clicking it fetches the formatter URL (P1630) from the property and rebuilds every entry's ext_url by substituting the entry's external ID. This overwrites all existing external URLs for the catalog — use with caution.

Automatchers

Use generic automatchers

When ticked (the default), the standard automatch jobs (search by name, by sitelink, from other catalogs, etc.) are eligible to run on this catalog via the Jobs page. Un-tick to opt out, e.g. for a catalog that is matched exclusively via a custom SPARQL query.

Use entry description for new items

When ticked (the default), the entry's description field is copied into a newly created Wikidata item's description label when a user clicks Create new item. Un-tick if entry descriptions are internal notes not suitable for Wikidata.

SPARQL query (automatch_sparql)

Paste a WDQS SPARQL query here to drive the automatch_sparql job. The query must return at least two variables:

?q — the Wikidata item URI, e.g. wd:Q42
?label — a string that will be matched against entry names

Example:

SELECT ?q ?label WHERE {
  ?q wdt:P31 wd:Q5 ;
     rdfs:label ?label .
  FILTER(LANG(?label) = "en")
}

Leave blank to remove the SPARQL configuration. When a query is saved, an automatch_sparql job becomes available on the catalog's Jobs page.

Recommendation: run purge automatches first so that re-running the SPARQL job is not blocked by stale preliminary matches from a previous pass.

Complex automatch constraints (automatch_complex)

Limits the SPARQL-based automatch to items reachable via specific (property, item) root constraints. Each row specifies one constraint:

Column	Meaning	Example
Property (P-number)	The Wikidata property used as the traversal edge	`31` (P31 = instance of)
Item (Q-number)	The Wikidata item that the property must point to	`5` (Q5 = human)

After you type a P or Q number, the editor fetches the label from Wikidata and displays it inline for readability.

Click + Add constraint to add a new row.
Click the × button on any row to delete it.
Rows where either number is blank, zero, or negative are silently dropped on save.
Saving an empty list removes the automatch_complex configuration entirely.

When constraints are configured, an automatch_complex job becomes available on the catalog's Jobs page.

Recommendation: run purge automatches first so re-runs are not blocked by stale preliminary matches.

Location matching

This section is only shown for catalogs that carry coordinate data (i.e. those tagged has_locations=yes in the system). It controls which location-based tools and automatch passes are enabled.

Setting	Default	Description
allow_location_operations	off	Enable the coordinate-based tools (map view, quick-compare image matching) for this catalog.
allow_location_match	off	Let the coordinate matcher propose candidate items based on geographic proximity.
location_allow_full_match	off	Permit the coordinate matcher to create automatic (no user review) matches.
allow_location_create	off	Permit automatic Wikidata item creation from unmatched location entries.
location_force_same_type	off	When matching by location, the candidate's P31 (instance of) must match the entry's type.
Maximum distance	—	Radius (in metres) within which a Wikidata item is considered a location match candidate. Enter a plain integer; it is stored as e.g. `200m`. Leave blank to remove any distance cap.

Saving

Click Save changes to write the catalog metadata and all kv settings in one operation. The button is disabled while a save is in progress. Click Cancel to discard all unsaved edits and return to the catalog page.

After saving, the catalog's overview row is automatically rebuilt in the background so updated statistics appear on the next page load without requiring a manual Refresh.