Extension:Gadgets

This extension comes with MediaWiki 1.18 and above. Thus you do not have to download it again. However, you still need to follow the other instructions provided.

MediaWiki extensions manual

Gadgets Release status: stable
Implementation	MyWiki , Special page , API
Description	Allow users to enable JS-based, user-provided gadgets from their preferences page
Author(s)	Daniel Kinzler (Duesentriebtalk)
Compatibility policy	Snapshots releases along with MediaWiki. Master is not backward compatible.
MediaWiki	1.19+
License	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review README
Example	Wikimedia Commons: Gadget overview, user preferences (click "Gadgets"; you need to be logged in of course)
Parameters $wgGadgetsRepo $wgSpecialGadgetUsageActiveUsers
Hooks used BeforePageDisplay CodeEditorGetPageLanguage ContentHandlerDefaultModelFor DeleteUnknownPreferences GetPreferences PageDeleteComplete PageSaveComplete PreferencesGetIcon PreferencesGetLegend ResourceLoaderRegisterModules UserGetDefaultOptions getUserPermissionsErrors wgQueryPages
Quarterly downloads	118 (Ranked 49th)
Public wikis using	4,529 (Ranked 177th)
Translate the Gadgets extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

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 (interface admins from 1.32) 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.

Installation

• Download and move the extracted Gadgets folder to your extensions/ directory.
  Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:cd extensions/
git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/Gadgets
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'Gadgets' );
  

•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Usage

Selection of some gadgets at the user preferences in de.wikipedia

There are two ways to define gadgets depending on the $wgGadgetsRepoClass. If It is 'MediaWikiGadgetsDefinitionRepo' (the default value), the list of available gadgets is defined on MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition. In an alternative way, Gadget definitions are defined on pages in the Gadget definition namespace when $wgGadgetsRepoClass is set to 'GadgetDefinitionNamespaceRepo'.

Caution:

Migration of the existing gadget definitions is not yet supported, so you will lose previously defined gadgets after changing this option.

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 for non-default gadget usage can be seen at Special:GadgetUsage.

Format

Using MediaWiki Gadgets Definition

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 basic Latin 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. A single option can either consist of a 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[ResourceLoader]|mygadget.js|mygadget.css

or

 * mygadget[ResourceLoader|package]| mygadget.js | mygadget-Foo.js | mygadget-data.json | mygadget.css

or

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

Using Gadget Definition Namespace

Creation of the Gadget definition:mygadget page and putting in it the below JSON code have the same effect as mygadget[ ResourceLoader | rights=foo, bar ] | mygadget.js | mygadget.css.

{
	"settings": {
		"rights": [ "foo", "bar" ],
		"default": false,
		"package": false,
		"hidden": false,
		"skins": [],
		"actions": [],
		"category": ""
	},
	"module": {
		"scripts": [ "mygadget.js" ],
		"styles": [ "mygadget.css" ],
		"datas": [],
		"peers": [],
		"dependencies": [],
		"messages": [],
		"type": ""
	}
}

In above example, the Gadget:Mygadget.js and the Gadget:mygadget.css are used. Remember the ResourceLoader option is always true in the gadget definition namespace.

User rights

This extension adds two new user rights, gadgets-edit and gadgets-definition-edit, which by default aren't given to any group.

You can add the following in your LocalSettings.php to provide the appropriate permissions for users who are within the interface-admin group. Editing pages in the Gadget namespace requires the gadgets-edit right and editing pages in the Gadget definition namespace requires the gadgets-definition-edit right.

$wgGroupPermissions['interface-admin']['gadgets-edit'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['interface-admin']['gadgets-definition-edit'] = true;

Options

Name	Parameters	Description	Since
ResourceLoader	None	Marks gadget's scripts as compatible with ResourceLoader .	?
dependencies	Comma-separated module names	See list of default modules. Note that this option has no effect if current gadget has no ResourceLoader-compatible resources (i.e. no styles and scripts not marked as compatible).	?
rights	Comma-separated privilege names	Make the gadget available (and visible in preferences) only to users who have the specified privileges.	?
hidden	None	Hide the gadget from the Preferences page. This can be used in two ways: Enable a gadget by default without ability to disable (as modular alternative to Common.js). Note that you need to add both: hidden | default to load a module for all users. Gadgets that are not meant for end-users, but rather are meant to be loaded by other gadgets. For example to allow two gadgets to re-use the same internal code, or to register the "core" part of a gadget that only loads on certain pages.	1.28
skins	Comma-separated skin names	Make the gadget available (and visible in preferences) only to users who use the specified skins. Before MediaWiki 1.32 it was taking into consideration the skin set in preferences for the user, not the current displayed one (like when adding ?useskin=monobook in the URL, task T199478).	?
actions	Comma-separated action names	Make the gadget available only on the specified page actions. E.g. actions = edit, history to load a gadget only while editing and on history pages. Specifying edit action will also load it on action=submit. Invalid actions effectively disable the gadget since it can't be run anywhere.	1.38-wmf.16
default	None	Enable the gadget by default for everyone (including IPs). Registered users can still disable it in their preferences.	1.18
package	None	Mark this gadget as packaged. In this mode, only the first JavaScript page will be executed. Other pages can be imported by using the require() function. This mode also enables use of JSON pages, which cannot be included otherwise.	1.38-wmf.16
targets	desktop (default), mobile or desktop,mobile	Set the ResourceLoader target(s) for the gadget.	gerrit:60954
type	styles or general	Use styles for modules that only modify styling for elements already on the page (e.g. when customizing the skin, layout, or article content). It will cause the CSS files of the module to be included from the page HTML instead of being loaded via JavaScript. For details, see ResourceLoader/Migration guide (users)#Gadget type. Using styles will not load in any specified JavaScript files. For gadgets that modify styling for elements through both JavaScript and CSS, two individual gadget definitions are required.	1.28
peers	Comma-separated module names	Require CSS-only gadgets (which usually would be hidden). These gadgets will be loaded sooner than by dependencies, and will be loaded even if JavaScript is disabled. For details, see ResourceLoader/Migration guide (users)#Gadget peers.	1.29.0-wmf.11 (pre-release)
supportsUrlLoad	None | true | false	Make the gadget available to be loaded with the ?withgadget URL query parameter.	1.38
requiresES6			1.40.0-wmf.7
top	None	(removed in 1.29) Makes the gadget to be top-loaded. This should be used sparingly, but may be needed for some initialization stuff like registering plugins with VisualEditor.	gerrit:75506

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 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 "default":

* mygadget[ResourceLoader|default|dependencies=mediawiki.util]|mygadget.js|mygadget.css

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. 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

Pages

The remaining fields on the line refer to the JavaScript, CSS or JSON 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[ResourceLoader]|commonStuff.js|frob.js|frob.css|pretty.css
 * l33t[ResourceLoader]|commonStuff.js|tools.js|l33t.js
 * foobar[ResourceLoader|package]|foo.js|bar.js|foobar.json

Please note that if your code contains strings that could be interpreted as wiki syntax (e.g. the signature code ~~~~), you may want to enclose your code into ‎<nowiki>...‎</nowiki> 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.

Popular gadgets

See meta:Gadgets for gadgets which are popular in Wikimedia communities.

See also

• Extension:Gadgets/Roadmap
• Gadget Manager
• Extension:Widgets
• Snippets