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.

Installing
Either download or browse to the Gadgets folder in the SVN repository. Copy the Gadgets directory into the extensions folder of your MediaWiki installation. Then add the following lines to your LocalSettings.php file (near the end):

Usage
The list of available gadgets is defined on MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition. 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.

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 must start with a ASCII letter, and must contain between 1 and 25 ASCII letters and numbers!

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 jquery.ui and jquery.effects.clip 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 the gadget available only to users with appropriate permissions, set the rights 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.

ResourceLoader support
All 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"&gt; will be used.

Every gadget that at least partially uses ResourceLoader (that is, that has styles or comatible 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

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