Provenance

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of social sharing and other similar efforts for Wikimedia projects, a query parameter named wprov can be appended to URLs, as in https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Provenance?wprov=abcd1.

The value of this parameter will be recorded in the X-Analytics field of the webrequest table (as x_analytics_map['wprov']). Requests with different wprov values will not be cached separately (as it would be the case with other, arbitrary parameter names), thus avoiding cache fragmentation.

Using it

To use wprov, simply choose the value you want and start adding it to links. The data will be recorded automatically as people click on the links—no preregistration needed. However, it's strongly recommended that you (1) check the list of currently reserved values below to make sure you're not reusing another project's value and (2) add your own value to the list to help others do the same.

It's also recommended that you choose a value with the following format: <3_letters_for_the_feature><1_letter_for_the_platform><1_number_for_versioning>

Notes

After a user clicks a link and arrives at the page, the wprov parameter will be removed from the address bar as defined in this code.
On both the beta cluster and production, PHP cannot access the ‎wprov value via ‎$out->getRequest()->getVal( 'wprov' )

Currently reserved values

acww1 Used to track mw:Extension:ArticleCreationWorkflow
iwsw1: Interwiki Search web, feature version 1. Queries that have been chosen to participate in the interwiki search test will have wprov=iwsw1 for any cross wiki search results. This is limited to "inline" search results, and not the sidebar as used in itwiki.
mfsw1: Share beta feature in MobileFrontend [no longer active]
nrvf1: New Readers video in Hindi distribution on Facebook
nrvf2: New Readers video in Spanish distribution on Facebook
nrvi1: New Readers video in Hindi distribution on Instagram
nrvi2: New Readers video in Spanish distribution on Instagram
nrvt1: New Readers video in Hindi distribution on Twitter
nrvt2: New Readers video in Spanish distribution on Twitter
nrvy1: New Readers video in Hindi distribution on YouTube
nrvy2: New Readers video in Spanish distribution on Foundation YouTube
nrvy2i: New Readers video in Spanish distribution on Influencer YouTube
sdlw1: Search Deep Link web, feature version 1. Users selected by the TestSearchSatisfaction schema have this added to all article links when arriving at a page with either the srpw1 or sdlw1 wprov.
sfia1: Share a Fact on Android for image cards, feature version 1
sfii1: Share a Fact on iOS for image cards, feature version 1
sfla1: Share a link to an article (from lead image toolbar, or link preview), feature version 1
sfsi1: Standard sharing on iOS for text shares, feature version 1
sfta1: Share a Fact on Android for text shares, feature version 1
sfti1: Share a Fact on iOS for text shares, feature version 1
srpw1: Search Result Page web, feature version 1. Attached to result links in Special:Search.
tssw1: TestSearchSatisfaction schema for Special:Search in WikimediaEvents, feature version 1
vctw1: Vector (non-legacy) feature for Desktop Improvements Project (T243281)
wppw1: Wikipedia Preview Pilot on Web v1 (T261949)
- wppw1t: Wikipedia Preview events from touch-capable devices (T297172)
wppw2 / wppw2t: Wikipedia Preview v2 of the above (includes instrumentation fixes)
wpwpp: Wikipedia Preview WordPress plugin
yicw1: Links from YouTube videos about certain topics like global warming (introduced in 2018)
arde1: Links to https://thankyou.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurring_donor_page/en for the Fundraising Active Recurring Donor email, first send
tyza1: Fundraising Thank You banners - South Africa - variant 1
tyza2: Fundraising Thank You banners - South Africa - variant 2
tyin1: Fundraising Thank You banners - India - variant 1
tyin2: Fundraising Thank You banners - India - variant 2
tyin3: Fundraising Thank You banners - India - variant 3
tyin4: Fundraising Thank You banners - India - variant 4
tybr1: Fundraising Thank You banners - Portuguese Brazil - variant 1
tybr2: Fundraising Thank You banners - Portuguese Brazil - variant 2
esla1: Fundraising Thank You banners - Spanish LatAm - variant 1
esla2: Fundraising Thank You banners - Spanish LatAm - variant 2
enla1: Fundraising Thank You banners - English LatAm - variant 1
enla2: Fundraising Thank You banners - English LatAm - variant 2
rlsa1: Reading List Sharing feature from the Android app, version 1
gpio1: GPT Plug-In for OpenAI, version 1 (inactive)
cna1: Citation Needed API, version 1 (reference) (inactive)
rarw1: Related Articles extension Read More, web, version 1
aafw1: Add-A-Fact future audiences project (inactive)
aafw2: Add-A-Fact future audiences project (quicksurvey) (inactive)
chtw1: Chat bot future audiences project
mtim1: Referred pageviews from MinT for Wiki Readers
cbeer (inactive): CentralNotice banner experiment event registration for FY WE2.1.1
cbeca (inactive): CentralNotice banner experiment create account for FY WE2.1.1
cbent (inactive): CentralNotice banner experiment newcomer tool for FY WE2.1.1
diim1: Used for links from discord link previews
shhu0: ShareHighlight experiment by Reader Growth
pwaw1: The progressive web app (mobile site) was launched from the home screen
shaw1: Section share link, see https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T431514, currently enabled only on Persian Wikipedia

History

Analytics mailing list thread from 2015
task T90606
Before the mobile domain sunsetting in August–September 2025, the wprov parameter was dropped when a user was redirected to the mobile version of a site (T252227)

Using it

Notes

Currently reserved values

History

See also