User:The Transhumanist/Outline of scripts

The following Wikipedia-user-reference outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to userscripts:

Userscript – userscripts are programs, usually written in JavaScript, for extending the capability of one's browser and for modifying web pages. Using them is referred to as augmented browsing, and there are thousands of them available around the Internet. Those work through a browser extension, and some of them are designed to work on Wikipedia pages. Independent from those, Wikipedia includes a feature that allows users to install user scripts (designed specifically for use on Wikipedia) on their Wikipedia accounts, and those only work while a user is logged in on Wikipedia. Within the Wikipedia community, scripts designed to work via WP user accounts are referred to as "user scripts" (notice the space between "user" and "scripts").

This outline was written mostly with the JavaScript programmer in mind. It attempts to track down the source code for all userscripts (external and internal, including gadgets), and everything about developing user scripts (including gadgets) for Wikipedia and MediaWiki. MediaWiki is the program that Wikipedia is run on.

Note that most gadgets are JavaScript programs (the rest are css snippets). Gadgets are selected by user account, and therefore, those that are JavaScript programs are user scripts, though they are removed from user script lists once they become "gadgets". The type of gadgets that are JavaScript programs are covered by this outline.

Using scripts

Using Wikipedia user scripts

Wikipedia user scripts – powerful customizations written in JavaScript, authored by the community (Wikipedia users), that allow registered Wikipedians to change Wikipedia's interface, and process data (content), beyond the options available in preferences. Wikipedia user scripts are designed to be run from and while logged in to Wikipedia. On Wikipedia, a userscript feature is enabled for registered users that allows them to install userscripts on their user accounts to augment editing and viewing of the encyclopedia's pages.

Frequently Asked Questions about user scripts –
Easier editing with JavaScript – chapter from The Missing Manual. You don't have to understand JavaScript to use it. You just need to know the process for cutting and pasting chunks of code to your personal JavaScript file. This chapter shows you how.
{{Install user script}} – this template should always be substituted (i.e., use importScript( '{{{1}}}' ); // Backlink: [[{{{1}}}]]).
Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests – a place to request a user script that you wish existed.

Using userscripts in general

Userscript – program, usually written in JavaScript, for modifying web pages to augment browsing. They are enabled in browsers by use of a userscript manager browser extension. Userscripts are often referred to as Greasemonkey scripts, named after the original userscript manager Greasemonkey for the Firefox browser. Some userscripts out there are designed to work on Wikipedia.

Greasemonkey – Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to web page content after or before the page is loaded in the browser. Firefox changed its extension system as of version 57, and so Greasemonkey 4 (Fall, 2017) was almost a complete rewrite. Because of this, some Greasemonkey scripts written before that no longer work.

Writing Wikipedia user scripts

User Scripts Guide – guide on writing user scripts for Wikimedia sites. Of course, to write user scripts, you will need to have some knowledge of JavaScript.
mw:Gadget kitchen – tutorial on writing userscripts/gadgets.
Common techniques – techniques for achieving common tasks needed in writing user scripts.
Help:Customizing toolbars
Dive into Greasemonkey – even though it was written in 2005, it still includes many patterns that are relevant to writing user scripts on Wikipedia.

Modules, and loading dependencies

mw:mw.config – to ease JavaScript programming, the MediaWiki software exposes a number of configuration values in an object called mw.config. It is always available, and contains lots of useful stuff.
- mw:Manual:Interface/JavaScript
mw:ResourceLoader

Global scripts

Global scripts – these scripts work on all users, or a specific group of users, on a wiki, if installed on that wiki. They are included here because what's in them may affect how your scripts work, and so you may need to look at them.

MediaWiki:Common.js – works on all skins, but ignored by the mobile website provided by MW:Extension:MobileFrontend
MediaWiki:skinname.js – per skin, for example MediaWiki:Vector.js
MediaWiki:Group-group.js – per user group, for example MediaWiki:Group-sysop.js
MediaWiki:Mobile.js – specific to the mobile website and provided by MW:Extension:MobileFrontend
Special:Gadgets

Caveats

Automated editing – scripts that modify and save the contents of pages without editor interaction are bots, and must be approved by the bot department before they can be used on Wikipedia. An example of a bot would be any script that saves a page that it has worked on, rather than leave it to the user to do so. Only editors and approved bots are allowed to save.

JavaScript resources

JavaScript – the programming language that user scripts are written in.

Draft:Outline of JavaScript – overview of everything on Wikipedia about the JavaScript ecosystem. A programming language's ecosystem includes everything to do with that programming language, including its system requirements, its components, extensions of it, tools for writing in it, the programs written in it, books and tutorials about it, its standards, its development community, and so on. Everything.
Index of JavaScript-related articles – alphabetical list of articles on Wikipedia about JavaScript.
Wikipedia:WikiProject JavaScript/Reference library – list of articles, bibliographies, e-books, glossaries, study guides, tutorials, and videos about JavaScript.
Wikipedia:WikiProject JavaScript –
IRC channel –
Greasemonkey – Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to web page content after or before the page is loaded in the browser.
- Wikipedia:Tools/Greasemonkey user scripts –
Firebug –

MediaWiki's JavaScript support pages

mw:ResourceLoader
- mw:ResourceLoader/Modules – all modules part of MediaWiki core
mw:jQuery
JavaScript code conventions
mw:JavaScript performance
mw:Snippets — helpful code snippets!
mw:Extension:Gadgets & mw:Gadget kitchen – how site admins and users can write JavaScript to modify and extend MediaWiki behavior

Actual user scripts

Actual Wikipedia user scripts

Looking for Wikipedia user scripts? This section provides links to where you can find them, and lists some of the more useful or interesting scripts.

Lists of Wikipedia user scripts

Main script list –
Most imported scripts
Exhaustive script list (category) –
Code snippets –
User:Writ Keeper/Scripts (27 scripts)
- User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/noAutoRedir.js –
Other:
- Deprecated script list –
- Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/(All pages) – inactive/historical list

Most gadgets are user scripts

Wikipedia:Gadget – userscript and/or a CSS snippet that can be enabled simply by checking an option in your preferences. The gadget's function is provided by the MediaWiki extension Extension:Gadgets. Gadgets are among the best user scripts, and their sourcecode is of the highest quality JavaScript programming on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia:Gadget#Currently installed gadgets – partial list of installed gadgets, with descriptions
Gadgets list – preference menu of gadgets
Special:Gadgets – list of the preferences entries for gadgets, along with a link to the source page (script, or css snippet) for each
MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition –
mw:Gadget kitchen – tutorial on writing userscripts/gadgets.