This is the workshop support page for the user script WatchlistSorter.js. Comments and requests concerning the program are most welcome. Please post discussion threads below the section titled Discussions. Thank you. By the way, the various scripts I have written are listed at the bottom of the page.^[1]

This script is undergoing upgrade, to replace deprecated code. In the meantime, it works.

This script sorts your watchlist by namespace, making it much easier to browse. It is not compatible with Internet Explorer, or its successors. It is not compatible with the "Enhanced recent changes" option in Preferences.

Script's workshop

This is the work area for developing the script and its documentation. The talk page portion of this page starts at #Discussions, below.

Description / instruction manual for WatchlistSorter.js

This script is undergoing upgrade, to replace deprecated code. In the meantime, it works.

This script sorts your watchlist by namespace, making it much easier to browse.

Important: It is not compatible with Internet Explorer, or its successors. It is not compatible with the "Enhanced recent changes" option in Preferences.

Attribution: This is the WatchlistSorter.js script by User:Misza13, with some upgrades. That version had some deprecated code, and Miszal13 had not logged in since Feb 2015, so I undertook to bring the script up to date and further improve it. (I'm in the process of doing that now).

How to install this script

To install this script, add this line to your common.js (or your vector.js) page:

importScript("User:The Transhumanist/WatchlistSorter.js");

Save the page and bypass your cache to make sure the changes take effect. By the way, only logged-in users can install scripts.

Explanatory notes (source code walk-through)

This section explains the source code, in detail. It is for JavaScript programmers, and for those who want to learn how to program in JavaScript. Hopefully, this will enable you to adapt existing source code into new user scripts with greater ease, and perhaps even compose user scripts from scratch.

You can only use so many comments in the source code before you start to choke or bury the programming itself. So, I've put short summaries in the source code, and have provided in-depth explanations here.

My intention is Threefold:

to thoroughly document the script so that even relatively new JavaScript programmers can understand what it does and how it works, including the underlying programming conventions. This is so that the components and approaches can be modified, or used again and again elsewhere, with confidence. (I often build scripts by copying and pasting code that I don't fully understand, which often leads to getting stuck). To prevent getting stuck, the notes below include extensive interpretations, explanations, instructions, examples, and links to relevant documentation and tutorials, etc. Hopefully, this will help both you and I grok the source code and the language it is written in (JavaScript).
to refresh my memory of exactly how the script works, in case I don't look at the source code for weeks or months.
to document my understanding, so that it can be corrected. If you see that I have a misconception about something, please let me know!

In addition to plain vanilla JavaScript code, this script relies heavily on the jQuery library.

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to post them at the bottom of this page under Discussions. Be sure to {{ping}} me when you do.

General approach

(general approach goes here)

More specifically, starting at the beginning...

Aliases

An alias is one string defined to mean another. Another term for "alias" is "shortcut". In the script, the following aliases are used:

$ is the alias for jQuery (the jQuery library)

mw is the alias for mediawiki (the mediawiki library)

These two aliases are set up like this:

( function ( mw, $ ) {}( mediaWiki, jQuery ) );

That also happens to be a "bodyguard function", which is explained in the section below...

Bodyguard function

The bodyguard function assigns an alias for a name within the function, and reserves that alias for that purpose only. For example, if you want "t" to be interpreted only as "transhumanist".

Since the script uses jQuery, we want to defend jQuery's alias, the "$". The bodyguard function makes it so that "$" means only "jQuery" inside the function, even if it means something else outside the function. That is, it prevents other javascript libraries from overwriting the $() shortcut for jQuery within the function. It does this via scoping.

The bodyguard function is used like a wrapper, with the alias-containing source code inside it, typically, wrapping the whole rest of the script. Here's what a jQuery bodyguard function looks like:

1 ( function($) {
2     // you put the body of the script here
3 } ) ( jQuery );

See also: bodyguard function solution.

To extend that to lock in "mw" to mean "mediawiki", use the following (this is what the script uses):

1 ( function(mw, $) {
2     // you put the body of the script here
3 } ) (mediawiki, jQuery);

For the best explanation of the bodyguard function I've found so far, see: Solving "$(document).ready is not a function" and other problems (Long live Spartacus!)

The ready() event listener/handler

The ready() event listener/handler makes the rest of the script wait until the page (and its DOM) is loaded and ready to be worked on. If the script tries to do its thing before the page is loaded, there won't be anything there for the script to work on (such as with scripts that will have nowhere to place the menu item mw.util.addPortletLink), and the script will fail.

In jQuery, it looks like this: $( document ).ready(function() {});

You can do that in jQuery shorthand, like this:

$().ready( function() {} );

Or even like this:

$(function() {});

The part of the script that is being made to wait goes inside the curly brackets. But you would generally start that on the next line, and put the ending curly bracket, closing parenthesis, and semicolon following that on a line of their own), like this:

1 $(function() {
2     // Body of function (or even the rest of the script) goes here, such as a click handler.
3 });

This is all explained further at the jQuery page for .ready()

For the plain vanilla version see: http://docs.jquery.com/Tutorials:Introducing_$(document).ready()

Deactivation filters

Many scripts are written to work on a particular page or page type, and might have unexpected results if run on some other page. So a deactivation filter is used so the program does not run for the wrong pages.

For example:

    if (document.title.indexOf("Watchlist - Wikipedia") == -1) {
        // use a return statement to end the local function and hence the program's body
        // important: this approach does not work outside of a function
        return;
    }

What this if statement does is checks that the current page is not the one we want, and if that is true, we end the program via a return statement.

What return; does when alone like this (without any parameters), is to end the highest-level function which it is within. And since the body of the program is also within that function, if the if statement isn't true, the program ends.

You could do something similar with a straight if construct without "return;", checking for a page match, but then you'd have to have your whole script body inside the construct, which adds a level of indentation. The more filters, the more levels of indentation. The above approach avoids unnecessary indentation, and makes it easier to keep track of the curly brackets, as the closing bracket isn't way off at the end of the program.

var

This is the reserved word var, which is used to declare variables. A variable is a container you can put a value in. To declare the variable portletlink, write this:

var portletlink

A declared variable has no value, until you assign it one, such as like this:

portletlink = "yo mama";

You can combine declaration and assignment in the same statement, like this:

var portletlink = mw.util.addPortletLink('p-tb', '#', 'Remove red links');

Caveat: if you assign a value to a variable that does not exist, the variable will be created automatically. If it is created outside of a function, it will have global scope. For user scripts used on Wikipedia, having a variable of global scope means the variable may affect other scripts that are running, as the scripts are technically part of the same program, being called via import from a .js page (.js pages are programs). So, be careful. Here are some scope-related resources:

Change log for WatchlistSorter.js

2018-01-10
- Copied User:Misza13/watchlistSorter.js, to begin upgrade
- Added intro comments
- Wrapped program in bodyguard function
- Defined $ and mw aliases
- Wrapped program in ready() event listener/handler
- Changed == to ===
2018-02-16
- Added variable declarations for all but one of the variables from throughout the script (none of them had one).
- Turned assignment statement for "days" into a declaration/assignment statement.

Task list

Bugs reports

Desired/completed features

Completed features are marked with Done

Development notes for WatchlistSorter.js

Legacy JavaScript

The following message was posted on User talk:Misza13/watchlistSorter.js:

Hello! This script has been detected as using deprecated parameters that need to be replaced with the updated version. Examples include addOnloadHook( ... ) needs to be replaced with $( ... ) or $( function() { ... } ) (depending on use); all wgGlobalVariables need to be properly gotten with mw.config.get( 'wgGlobalVariable' ); and addPortletLink needs to be called with mw.util.addPortletLink. Please see MW:ResourceLoader/Legacy JavaScript for details. Thank you. — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(e • t • c)} 21:47, 19 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Script dependencies

Discussions

This is where the actual talk page starts for WatchlistSorter.js. Please post your discussion threads below...

toggle on/off?

I was wondering about being able to toggle this on and off. Sometimes I have plenty of time to meander through my watchlist and don't mind just paging through until I hit that horizontal line. Other times I want to check certain namespaces. Obviously I can just uninstall/reinstall, but a toggle button would be cool. —valereee (talk) 20:45, 22 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

^

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User scripts by The Transhumanist under development
Semi-automated
editing
RedlinksRemover.js – remove red linked list items that are end nodes (last item of a branch), reiteratively, and delink the rest, from outlines and lists.
Search results page
enhancements
SearchSuite.js – suite of search features, each on a switch, so you can turn them on and off as desired (and it remembers the switch positions). SearchSuite replaces all the search scripts below.

StripSearchSorted.js – provides menu item that turns sorted strip search on/off; Includes the features of all the other search scripts below, and sorts the results alphabetically. Co-written by User:Evad37; he did the heavy-duty programming.
StripSearch.js – provides menu item that turns strip search on/off; strips search results down to bare pagenames.
StripSearchSansRedirecteds.js – strips search results down to bare pagenames, with redirected entries removed. No off switch.
StripSearchInWikicode.js – strips search results down to bare pagenames, and presents as bullet list with pagenames enclosed in double square bracket link delimiters (just like in wikicode). Redirected entries are also removed. No off switch.

StripSearchSimple.js – strips all search results down to bare pagenames. No off switch.
Viewing
enhancements
ViewAnnotationToggler.js – turns list item annotations off and on.

OutlineViewImageToggler.js – turns the display of images off and on, across all outlines.

OutlineViewTOCToggler.js – turns the TOC feature for all outlines off and on.
Viewing
enhancements
for list and
outline editors
hunting for
list items
ViewAsOutline-AllPagesWithPrefix.js – adds list item wikicodes to the on screen results of All pages with prefix, for easy copying/pasting into outlines and lists. No off switch.

ViewAsOutline-Category.js – removes the alphabetical headings, and adds list item wikicodes, for easy copying/pasting into outlines and lists. No off switch.
ViewAsOutline-Book.js – converts page to outline format on screen, with wikicodes for easy copy and paste into outlines and lists. No off switch.
ViewAsOutline-CategoryTree.js – on menu item click, converts tree to outline format on screen, with wikicodes for easy copying/pasting into outlines and lists. Refresh page to undo.
ViewAsOutline-Templates.js – converts navboxes and sidebar boxes on current page into outline format, with wikicodes displayed, for easy copying/pasting into outlines. No off switch. (Needs to be enhanced to show base links rather than pipes.)

ViewAsOutline-Glossary.js – converts glossaries to list format on screen, with wikicodes for easy copy-and-paste into outlines and lists. No off switch. (In early development, very rough. Currently, only converts bullet list glossary format.).
Coming
eventually
QuickPortal.js – portal tool, for creating and restarting portals. Will be expanded for modification and maintenance as well.

P-link.js – place links to portals.

OutlineDedupeHolding.js – remove duplicate list items from the outline's holding sections (See also, holding bin, place these, general concepts, and list section). That is, it will remove from each of these sections, in turn, all topics that exist anywhere else in the body of the page (not in templates).
StripSearchFilter.js – narrow down search results.
OutlineMain2LI.js – convert main links in outline to list items.
TopicPlacerFromBin.js – Topic placer (loads topics from holding bin into an array, then assists in placing each one). For use on lists and outlines.
FetchCategory.js – import category to present location.
FetchCategories.js – import categories to tagged locations.
FetchSection.js – import section to present location.

TopicSender.js – prompts for parent topic (outline), then checks if it is already there, if it isn't, then it sends it to the receiving section of that outline)
PlaceCategory.js –

OutlineViewConventional.js – change the viewed formatting of the current outline into that of a conventionally indented outline, without headings.

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User talk:The Transhumanist/WatchlistSorter.js