User:Topaz has created some fantastic user scripts, my favourite of which being the Status Changer. Basically what this does is place at the top of all pages (when you are logged in) besides "log out" a little section with buttons for a number of statuses of your choice. You can click on one, and it changes your status on your user page (see the top of my user page for an example using some dandy little lights I made and an ugly table).
He has written up a great installation guide but I am no good with that sort of stuff. I got it working (with some help from Topaz) and I have permission to write The Layman's Guide To Installing The Status Changer Script.
The Layman's Guide To Installing The Status Changer Script edit
- 1. Make sure you are logged in, and go to your skin's Javascript page. You can find it via this link: Special:Mypage/skin.js. Not too hard! Now click "edit this page". You know where that is, right? I hope so!
- 2. The page is probably blank. If not, don't worry! That's okay too! Go to the bottom of the page if there is stuff on it, and paste the following in:
importScript("User:Topaz/init.js");
importScript("User:Topaz/util.js");
importScript("User:Topaz/comm.js");
importScript("User:Topaz/wputil.js");
importScript("Special:Mypage/statuschanger.js");
- If it is blank, just paste it in, obviously. Save this page. Do not worry if it looks really messed up. This is a-okay. Trust me. Now Bypass your cache.
- 3. Now here comes the trickiest bit yet:
If you like the look of User:Topaz's status (it's at the top of the user page)… edit
Copy this text in to this blank page.
Just copy and paste that in. Don't worry about it; just trust me. Don't worry about the <nowiki> thing. Leave it as-is.
If you like the look of my user page… edit
Go to this page and copy that text in to this blank page. But don't click save just yet! See this piece of code?
/* configuration */
// change these to whatever you'd like to show up on your status page. you can add new lines in
// the same format provided there is a comma at the end of each line but the last one. you can
// also use wikimarkup here to, for example, display an image instead of text.
topaz.statuschanger.statuscode = {
online:'<font color="green">online</font>',
busy:'<font color="orange">busy</font>',
offline:'<font color="red">offline</font>'
};
// this will make wikimarkup work in your stauscodes but will disable auto-updating
topaz.statuschanger.enablewikimarkup = false;
// true to use the personal bar, false to create a panel in the left column
topaz.statuschanger.usepersonalbar = true;
// true if you'd like your status page on your watchlist
topaz.statuschanger.watchstatus = false;
/* end configuration */
(It's at the top, if you can't find it.) Change it to the following:
/* configuration */
// change these to whatever you'd like to show up on your status page. you can add new lines in
// the same format provided there is a comma at the end of each line but the last one. you can
// also use wikimarkup here to, for example, display an image instead of text.
topaz.statuschanger.statuscode = {
online:'[[Image:Online Lights.png]]',
around:'[[Image:Around Lights.png]]',
offline:'[[Image:Offline Lights.png]]',
wikibreak:'[[Image:Wikibreak Lights.png]]'
};
// this will make wikimarkup work in your statuscodes but will disable auto-updating
topaz.statuschanger.enablewikimarkup = true;
// true to use the personal bar, false to create a panel in the left column
topaz.statuschanger.usepersonalbar = true;
// true if you'd like your status page on your watchlist
topaz.statuschanger.watchstatus = false;
/* end configuration */
- 4. Now go to this page and this one and clear the cache. Hopefully there are instructions on how to do that on the top of the page but if not, here is how you do that:
- If you are using Mozilla or Firefox or Safari, hold down Shift while pressing Reload, or press Ctrl+Shift+R (Command+Shift+R on a Mac).
- If you are using Internet Explorer, press Ctrl+F5.
- If you are using Konqueror or Opera just press F5.
- Make sure you do this on both pages!
- 5. You should now have some handy dandy little buttons at the very top right of your page! Hoorah! Click them to change your status around. "But wait!" you ask. "What does this do?" Go right now to User:YOURUSERNAME/Status, of course replacing YOURUSERNAME with your user name. Hooray! It's there! "But wait!" you say. "I still don't get how I put that on my user page!"
- 6. Go to your user page. Click "Edit this page." Wherever you want, put something like this:
This user is {{User:YOURUSERNAME/Status}}.
Now click Save page and look! Your status is there! Change it and refresh the page and your status has changed! Hooray!
Other Notes edit
- If you choose User:Topaz's script, you get three choices: online, busy and offline. If you choose mine, you get online, "around", offline and wikibreak. As you may have realized, mine outputs images. The images can be viewed here.
- All the scripts were written by the fantastic User:Topaz. "My version" is only mine because I changed around three lines at the top to output images, not text. All real credit (except for the images!) goes to Topaz.
- The output and behaviour can be changed! You may have noticed a configuration section near the top of your Status Changer page. In it you can, in fact, configure what appears and what statuses you have. See the list of statuses and their output? You can add new ones. They all have to end in commas except the last one which has to NOT end in a comma. Just follow the format of the first one to do the others, if you want to add more or change existing ones.
- In "my" version, it does not auto-update when you sign in and out. This has to do with images displaying funny, etc. In Topaz's, it auto-updates when you log in and out.
- If you notice any issues with the actual script, you should definitely ask Topaz, not me, as I know nothing about scripts except (now!) how to install them. If part of this tutorial, however, is vague or you get stuck or you are pretty sure you have an easy question, ask me on my talk page. If you have script requests, again, Topaz.
If It Isn't Working edit
You may need to purge the server cache. Don't worry! This isn't as hard as it sounds. Go to both pages (this one and this one) and click "edit this page". See how at the end of the URL it says "&action=edit"? Delete the "edit" and replace it with "purge". Press Return or Go or whatever you normally press to load pages that you've type in the URL for. It may take a little bit longer than normal to load the page, but everything should be working fine now.