Extension:Gadgets

The Gadgets extension provides a way for users to pick JavaScript or CSS based "gadgets" that other wiki users provide.

Gadgets are made up of JavaScript and/or CSS snippets located on pages in the MediaWiki namespace. Each gadget is defined by a line in MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition, providing a name and description for the gadget, and a list of the JS and CSS snippets that it uses (see the Usage section below).

Since Gadgets reside in the MediaWiki namespace (the list defining the gadgets as well as the actual code snippets), only sysops (aka wiki admins) can edit the code. This is as it should be: only users especially trusted by the wiki community should be able to edit JavaScript code that is used by other users, since JavaScript can easily be used to hijack accounts or spy on people.

Usage
The list of available gadgets is defined on MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition. Once created with at least one valid gadget, gadgets defined there show up in the "Gadgets" section of Special:Preferences, so users can pick the gadgets they would like to use. An overview of the gadgets defined by MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition is also shown on Special:Gadgets, along with links to the respective system messages, for easy editing. Statistics on gadget usage can be seen at Special:GadgetUsage. Also, Special:GadgetUsage shows stats for each gadget installed on the wiki, it shows the number of users who have activated the gadget.

Format
Each line in MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition that starts with one or more "*" (asterisks) characters defines a gadget; it must have the following form: * gadget_name [options (can be omitted)] | page names

The first field (" gadget_name " in the example) is the gadget's internal name, and references a system message (MediaWiki:Gadget- gadget_name  in the example) that contains a short description of the gadget, using wiki syntax.

The internal name is used as part of the name of a form field and must follow the rules defined for NAME attribute values. This means it must begin with a letter ([A-Za-z]) and may be followed by any number of letters, digits ([0-9]), hyphens ("-"), underscores ("_"), colons (":"), and periods (".").

Options format: [option1 | option2 | ... optionN] whitespace can be omitted. Single option can either consist of single option name (in this case it is a flag option), or contain a comma-separated list of values: option = value1, value2, value3

Examples: * mygadget|mygadget.js|mygadget.css or * mygadget[ResourceLoader]|mygadget.js|mygadget.css or * mygadget[rights=foo,bar]|mygadget.js|mygadget.css or * mygadget[ ResourceLoader | rights=foo, bar ] | mygadget.js | mygadget.css

Options
You can specify extra dependencies for your gadgets, for example: * mygadget[ResourceLoader|dependencies=jquery.ui, jquery.effects.clip]|mygadget.js|mygadget.css

Here, we ask ResourceLoader to load modules  and   with mygadget. Note that gadgets can't depend on scripts from pages, static files or external URLs, only on modules already registered in ResourceLoader. To make a script from a page depend on another script from a page, each should be a gadget which registers itself as a module in ResourceLoader, then they can be made to have dependencies using the following syntax: * childgadget[ResourceLoader|dependencies=ext.gadget.parentgadget]|childgadget.js

To enable a gadget by default, use " ": * mygadget[ResourceLoader|default|dependencies=mediawiki.util]|mygadget.js|mygadget.css

To make the gadget available only to users with appropriate permissions, set the  option. For example, * ImprovedDeletion [rights=delete] | ImprovedDeletion.js makes the gadget available only to users who can actually delete pages. Note that restrictions are based on permissions, not user groups like administrators or bureaucrats. Here are some real examples: * modrollback[ResourceLoader|rights=rollback]|modrollback.js * UTCLiveClock[ResourceLoader|rights=purge]|UTCLiveClock.js * Ajax_sysop[ResourceLoader|rights=patrol,rollback,markbotedits,delete]|Ajax_sysop.js

ResourceLoader support
Each gadget's CSS is always loaded via the ResourceLoader. However, older JavaScript is often incompatible with RL, so every gadget must be explicitly marked as compatible in order to have its scripts loaded by RL. Otherwise, plain old &lt;script src="/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Gadget- gadget_name.js &action=raw&ctype=text/javascript"&gt; will be used.

Every gadget that at least partially uses ResourceLoader (that is, that has styles or compatible scripts) has its own RL module. The modules are named ext.gadget.&lt;gadget name&gt;.

Pages
The remaining fields on the line refer to the JavaScript or CSS code that makes up the gadget, contained in system messages (MediaWiki:Gadget-mygadget.js and MediaWiki:Gadget-mygadget.css in the example); the names of those messages must end with ".js" or ".css", respectively. A gadget can use any number of code messages, specifically, common code can be put into a code message used by several gadgets, in addition to their own specific code, e.g:

* frobinator|commonStuff.js|frob.js|frob.css|pretty.css * l33t|commonStuff.js|tools.js|l33t.js

Please note that if your code contains strings that could be interpreted as wiki syntax, you may want to enclose your code into &lt;nowiki&gt; and &lt;/nowiki&gt; and put these tags in JavaScript or CSS comments so they're not interpreted when actually used. See the first and last lines of MediaWiki:Gadget-externalsearch-bar.js for an example.

Sections
The list of gadgets in MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition can be broken into sections using lines that start and end with two or more "=" (equals) characters, enclosing the name of a system message that defines the section's name - for example:

== interface-gadgets ==

This would define a new section, with the title defined on the page MediaWiki:Gadget-section-interface-gadgets.

ToDo

 * Fulfill Basic gadgets