User:PerfektesChaos/js/localEdit/Firefox

There is an add-on for gecko browsers (mainly Firefox) available.

Distribution

The desired page is linked by action=raw. Usually the result shouldn’t be displayed in your browser, but suggested to be saved. Automatically index.php should have been used as file name then.
- That might be different if a browser has been configured for text/x-wiki or PHP source code handling. However, who is able to do so will know what to do.
The file index.php is to be renamed into wikilocaledit.uue (might trigger tool selection).
It is to be decoded with any of various uuencoding tools for free; e.g. WinZip will unpack automatically.
An extracted file wikilocaledit.xpi (or a similar name with version information) will show up.

The .xpi file is to be put somewhere on the local file system. On the about:addons configuration page for add-ons of the browser there is a tool button. This gives access to “install from file”. Select the downloaded .xpi file, restart browser.
The xpi file is a regular ZIP file. Any source code might be extracted and inspected, even modified and logging debug messages.

On the browser about:addons configuration page for the add-on select “properties”. A dialog window shows up.
At least one information is required: URL of your own user page.
- By copy&paste the entire URL is to take from the address field of the browsers. Special characters are encoded differently and displayed prettier than really present in URL.
- Fill in the URL. Other configuration is not needed immediately.
Check whether the tool bar of the browser is displayed. An icon shall be displayed there now.
- If the tool bar is not visible, check the “view” menu and look for symbol bars. About three icons with same functionality but different size for various heights of your tool bar should be present in repository.
- The icon for the tool should be visible while you are editing. It might be moved to any other bar by “adaption”.
The icon indicates whether the add-on is listening for events sent by the wiki web page. If it is stroke through the tool is blocked and reacts only on a click which is awakening the listener.
If you don’t need the tool for a while you might send it to bed. If you don’t need it for a longer period you might go to the about:addons configuration page and deactivate it (into effect after next restart of the browser).

Actually, the .xpi file is nothing else than a ZIP file. You might rename and unpack it, placing the content into any directory, e.g. WLE.
You can inspect the programming.
- You can put alert() calls or more sophisticated diagnostics into the code wherever you want.
After installation, the .xpi file was copied into your browser profile directory. You may exchange this by your debugging modification:
- Locate your profile folder of the browser application and find your current personal profile (perhaps something like y6a7ng0a.default); see kb.mozillazine.org for assistance.
- There will be an extensions subdirectory.
- Within the extensions subdirectory there is the file PerfektesChaos.localEdit@user.wikimedia.org.xpi (after installation).
- Replace this file by a text file, named:
  PerfektesChaos.localEdit@user.wikimedia.org
  with one line of content, which is the local file system path to the extraction directory, e.g. WLE.
- Now the application in the extraction directory comes into effect; restart browser and follow the directives.

Access to local files on gecko is supported by the XPCOM subsystem. That requires browser restart after each change.

Restartless, or bootstrapped extensions, are not able to use XPCOM and cannot access local files.
No other browser/engine is known to deal with the local file system.

After first configuration the following items are expected on the about:config list:

wikilocaledit.dir.: string; Base directory path
wikilocaledit.dir.project.user: string; Subdirectory path (relative to base directory)
wikilocaledit.leading: boolean; Activate tool at browser start
wikilocaledit.userpages: string; Space separated list with URL of permitted user pages

While testing, these preferences are kept. In productive version they shall be removed on de-installation.

2012-12-08

2012-12-13