User talk:Cacycle/wikiWatch

Criticism

(version 0.0.2)

1. Scripts breaks enhanced expanded watchlist: little blue triangles fail to expand collapsed changes.
2. As the script takes some time to execute, personally I would prefer it not to run onload but rather be executed by clicking a link.
3. Description:
   1. it's not clear what "Most recent" means (at least it could say "first 16 changes")
   2. it's not clear what could be achieved by changing "WLSText"
   3. would you conisder using <source> instead of <pre> in the documentation?
4. Code:
   1. couldn't WLSAddEventListener be replaced by hookEvent or addHandler from wikibits.js?
   2. there is no way to partially redefine WLSCss. Imho a better approach would be to let users define their own additional sheet like this below.

myCustomCSS = '\
.WLSSection0 {background-color: #ffffff}\
.WLSSection1 {background-color: #f2f2f2}\
'

—AlexSm 20:58, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments, I will consider them. Some specific replies:

• Ad 1: I have noticed that too (plus some entries are sorted in incorrectly) and will fix that.
• Ad 3.2: WLSText can be used for customized translations so that the script can be used on other language Wikipedias as a gadget
• Ad 4.1: If the script is used as a Greasemonkey script it has no access to functions defined in other scripts for security reasons. Also, both functions are not defined on old Mediawiki installations (I will also try to find a replacement for using the wg variables).

Сасусlе 02:27, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Then I think you should have two versions of this script, one, shorter and optimized, for Wikipedia (possibly a gadget), and another, longer one, for Greasemonkey/older MediaWiki.

Enhanced expanded watchlist is a bit tricky, so I'll share some notes: every line starts with either SPAN#RCMXX or IMG, and ends with either BR or BR DIV. This is complicated by the fact that Firefox recognizes '\n' node after BR, and PngFix transforms IMG into SPAN for IE. I have some working code at testwiki:MediaWiki:Gadget-watchlist.js, after comment //sort rows in HTML. —AlexSm 16:16, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I have already figured it out myself and it works fine. I will put it online tomorrow. I will also add a mouseover roll-out to the arrows. I will not maintain different versions and the difference in code length does not really matter, even for dial-up connections. Also, the scripts are cached and loaded only once every few days (or weeks). For the user only the functionality is important, not the "redundancy" of the code. Сасусlе 18:23, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

The current version 0.0.3 is fully functional and supports the extended watchlist style. I have noticed that DOM traversing takes forever and have started to move to innerHTML text manipulation, this also makes the script much shorter... Сасусlе 03:43, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Comments on new version

Ok, since you invited me I'll make a few comments:

1. Bug: watchlist is emptied when "Enhanced recent changes" preferences option is unchecked
2. Possible improvement: "unwatch" links could use ajax, like in my script user:js/watchlist
3. Potential imcompatibility: the part TD {text-indent: -2em} already affects one of my watchlist scripts in a bad way
4. I still don't get the meaning of "Show all/most recent only", it seems like it picks items on random
5. Personally, I don't see the point in having first all the changes and then below the same changes sorted, imho it should've been the switch, not both at the same time
6. Minor thing: "Show all" link is missing "cursor:pointer" style

—AlexSm 19:25, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. I have now fixed a bug that ate articles and it seems now to be fully functional. The main point beside the sorting was to have an extended watchlist where you don't have to click to see the edits. I have also completely switched from DOM operations to innerHTML text manipulations to speed things up for the sorting step.

1. Not for me using Seamonkey or IE - which browser do you use?
2. Will check that, unfortunately I cannot get your script installed (there is not even an error message). Does it currently work for you?
3. Would it help when I restrict this to the normal watchlist table?
4. The default shows the recent top 15 changes and you can expand it to all changes (i.e. the full normal watchlist). The current version gets rid of any randomness...
5. Often you are more interested in checking recent edits by time rather than looking for namespace sorted ones. E.g. if you have already gone through your long watchlist once and now are only checking every half an hour for updates to this.
6. Added

Thanks again, Cacycle (talk) 01:15, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

1. Well, watchlist becomes empty pretty much everywhere: Firefox 1.5 and 2, IE 6, Opera 9 ... did you notice the "Enhanced recent changes"-option-off part?
2. I use my script all the time, and it should work on most browsers, please note that on page loading it doesn't really do anything except adding several extra links (that you're supposed to click).
3. I guess restricting CSS rule should help.

—AlexSm 04:33, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

1. Yes, it works for me independent of extended or not. Maybe this is an incompatibility with other scripts?
2. OK, will try again.

(Bugs to work on: mouseout popup closing when hovering over the popup, rare double additions of entries to most recent). Thanks, Cacycle (talk) 13:01, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

"Extended"? Just in case: the option in question is not Watchlist → Expand watchlist, it is Recent changes → Enhanced recent changes: yes, this one also affects watchlist a lot. —AlexSm 14:11, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Oops, got it :-S It seems like the script is far from being complete... I really appreciate your help, you must think I'm an idiot ;-) Cacycle (talk) 18:53, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

The current version is compatible with "Enhanced recent changes" unchecked and I have fixed the other issues. Cacycle (talk) 20:28, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

I have also added user contributions support. Cacycle (talk) 03:07, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Why does Joseph Son of Jacob Egyptian Historical correlation: Imhotep? show up separately from other mainspace articles?

It shows up as a 'section' heading, with the article's changes below it. Hm, looking at it, the section heading is just 'Joseph Son of Jacob Egyptian Historical correlation', so it's the colon that's the problem? I doubt it will last long. :-) Dougweller (talk) 11:47, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for that note. This script is currently not under active development and it is probably not fully functional or might have bugs. I might fix / update it in the future though. Cacycle (talk) 13:41, 27 April 2009 (UTC)