An alpha of beta males ([info]erorus) wrote in [info]lj_nifty,
@ 2006-12-14 16:21:00
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Current mood: tricky

Greasemonkey Script brings back the old Update Journal Page
As you're probably well aware, there were a few changes made to LJ Wednesday, including a major overhaul of the Update Journal (and Edit Journal Entry) pages. More than a few users didn't like the new changes.

Behold, I have created a GM script to bring the old Update Journal back from the dead.

It's just javascript that moves the form elements around to where they used to be, more or less. I got the old layout from GreatestJournal. I encourage you to give the script a try, modify it, improve it, fix it, throw it away, whatever.

    Disclaimers
  • I built this all today, so it's not like there's a lot of testing done on it. I tried it on my journal, modified a post with it, and it seemed to work. (Edit: been using it the past few days, no problems.) I have not tested it thoroughly, though.
  • This may or may not work with community posts. Haven't really tried it. (This is the first one, I guess.)
  • This was tested and developed in Firefox 1.5.0.8 with Greasemonkey 0.6.6.20061017.0 on a Windows XP machine with 1280x1024 desktop resolution. If you don't run it like this, it may or may not be ugly. I tried to bring it back to the old layout which worked under most circumstances.
  • I tested more with new posts than updating old posts, so updating old posts may have more bugs than I saw.
  • If this sets your new private post to public or something, don't blame me. It really doesn't do much with the form values and should be quite portable, but TEST IT before you do anything sensitive with it. Disable Greasemonkey for sensitive posts if you want to be sure, until you know it works for you. (Edit: This really, really shouldn't be a problem.. just a disclaimer, is all.)


    Known Bugs
  • Sometimes the preview of your user picture icon ends up in the upper left corner of the page. Reload, and it may or may not go back to where it belongs. I can't reliably duplicate this to debug it. (Edit: Haven't seen this bug reappear in a while.)
  • When you set the security to "custom", the friends groups still have the old styling which moved them waaay over to the right. Untangling that list of checkboxes looked tedious and the current display doesn't bother me much, but it isn't exactly like it used to be.


I think it's good enough for daily use, even though it's not perfect. I also figure it's a good starting point for anyone who's really bothered by it to just finish it up to perfection instead of starting from scratch.

(Edit: I've fixed a few bugs since I asked this to be posted on [info]lj_nifty five days ago. I've modified this post to reflect the changes.)

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Typo...
[info]lsanderson
2006-12-19 02:31 pm UTC (link)
"chamges" should be "changes"

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Re: Typo...
[info]_milashka
2006-12-19 02:47 pm UTC (link)
yeah, and those chamges were not done yesterday, but a week ago :)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Typo...
[info]erorus
2006-12-19 02:50 pm UTC (link)
It took [info]lj_nifty five days to approve my post.. I thought it'd be quicker.

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Re: Typo...
[info]_milashka
2006-12-19 02:52 pm UTC (link)
yeah, I saw your edit :) Wow, long approval time. Can you imagine if you had posted during Christmas?

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[info]vorona
2006-12-19 03:38 pm UTC (link)
I think we should call the latest changes "chamges," because, well. They're a mistake. I loathe the look and feel of the new update page. Whyyyyy? It's jumpy and nasty. Anyway, thank you for working to override these hideous "improvements."

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[info]finefinemusic
2006-12-19 03:49 pm UTC (link)
My God, you people really don't know how to shut up, do you? "Even though you fixed my menial concerns.. I would still like to complain."

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]vorona
2006-12-19 04:38 pm UTC (link)
How rude. Yes, people discuss. It's human. Why should we not discuss our "menial" concerns with something that's quite important to us, LiveJournal, on... LiveJournal? It's completely relevant. I don't understand your snappish reaction. If you find this topic so "menial," why not go do something which interests you more, instead picking a fight about other people's stress, and insulting strangers? You don't know me, but now our only interaction has been your snapping "shut up" - what's the idea? I was simply expressing my opinion on a trend which concerns me. I like LJ very much, I want it to thrive, and open criticism is part of making and keeping a community great.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]grrliz
2006-12-19 05:04 pm UTC (link)
I suspect [info]finefinemusic is just pretty sick of every single post on LJ that talks about the changes to the update page turning into yet another place for people to whine profusely about it and that more of the same will happen in this post. There are several posts in [info]lj_design (here and here) by actual LJ staff about the new page where people have been registering their opinions and are having those opinions addressed; this [info]lj_nifty post is giving people a way to get the old page back, so I'm not sure why continuing to complain about the new page here, in this post, serves any purpose.

I want LJ to thrive just as much as you do, but I also recognize that there's a time and a place for these things; this post just isn't it.

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[info]torakiyoshi
2006-12-19 05:08 pm UTC (link)
Thank you for the replacement of a far better update page than the new one! Now, because I'm not that great with java-- how do I get it to work, please?

Have the best

-=TK

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how to get it to work
[info]erorus
2006-12-19 07:02 pm UTC (link)
1. Download and install Firefox, if you're not using it already.
2. Download and install Greasemonkey, which is a browser extension for Firefox.
3. Click the "Behold" link in my post above, and Greasemonkey will ask if you want to install the script. Click the "install" button in the window that pops up, and you're done.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: how to get it to work
[info]torakiyoshi
2006-12-19 09:06 pm UTC (link)
Cool, thanks! =^_^=

Have the best

-=TK

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]oncolgist
2006-12-20 06:03 am UTC (link)
I... I love you.

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[info]duelist
2006-12-20 09:58 am UTC (link)
EXCELLENT.

Thank you SO MUCH!

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[info]morgandawn
2006-12-20 06:42 pm UTC (link)
I adore this fix. And it works too. ;-) Thanks again.

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[info]tzikeh
2006-12-20 11:39 pm UTC (link)
Holy shit - you are AWESOMENESS DEFINED!

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[info]thepouncer
2006-12-21 12:17 am UTC (link)
Thank you.

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[info]dahliablue
2006-12-21 01:09 pm UTC (link)
*bows to you*
Thank you so much!
Now I might actually be able to edit entries.

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[info]rainbow
2006-12-22 05:33 am UTC (link)
oh, that is SO much better. i could not use the new one at all.

is there any way i can change the scrip to make the lines around the text box black? it is hard for me to see them (eye probelms) and the old page had darker ones.

but jsut have the definition at the bottom is a big big big help. thank you!

boo

(Reply to this) (Thread)
editing the script
[info]erorus
2006-12-22 02:02 pm UTC (link)
Follow these steps to edit your script to add definition to the borders:
  1. Open an LJ update page
  2. Right-click the Greasemonkey icon in the lower right corner of your browser window, and select "Manage User Scripts"
  3. Select "LJ Old Update Journal Page" in the list at the right
  4. Click the "Edit" button
  5. Look for the following text near the end of the script: removeNode(divgreybox);
  6. Insert the following right after that line:
    inputs = document.getElementsByTagName('input');
    for (x = 0; x < inputs.length; x++) {
    if (inputs[x].type == 'text') {
    inputs[x].style.border='2px solid black';
    }
    }
    selects = document.getElementsByTagName('select');
    for (x = 0; x < selects.length; x++) {
    selects[x].style.border='2px solid black';
    }
    getEle('draft-container').style.border='2px solid black';
  7. Save the script, and reload your Update Journal page to see the changes.
You can also change the 2px to 1px if the border is too thick.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: editing the script
[info]rainbow
2006-12-22 08:22 pm UTC (link)
thank you very, very much! *happydance!*

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[info]metalfatigue0
2006-12-22 09:52 am UTC (link)
Very useful. Thank you.

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[info]nufaciel
2006-12-22 04:56 pm UTC (link)
Thank you very much! :)

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[info]china_shop
2006-12-23 07:11 am UTC (link)
Thank you! :-)

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[info]icedmaple
2006-12-28 01:02 am UTC (link)
I honestly love you.

It's kind of weird using one that's like-the-old-one-but-not, but it's so much better than the pap they had us using recently.

Thank you.

(Hah. I got an error posting this.)

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[info]shiny_starlight
2006-12-28 01:15 am UTC (link)
Seriously, you are full of awesome like an awesome thing. This is so much better than what thedy made us change to. Thanks hon *hugs*

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[info]gizmometer
2006-12-30 12:02 am UTC (link)
First: LOVE LOVE LOVE OMG.

It basically works great!

However I have noticed one problem - editing entries, where you said there might be issues - if there have been any tags assigned before editing... they... vanish, once the entry's saved. Not a problem if you notice/know it's happening, can just go back and add, but people might not notice!

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[info]harmonyfb
2007-01-01 04:38 am UTC (link)
Thank you.

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[info]abby_i
2007-01-05 05:57 pm UTC (link)
Wonderful, thanks. This may make me finally move from IE to FF full time!

I was just wondering though, is there a way to adjust the width of the tables used?

I'm still on good old 8x6 and it's far too wide for me at the moment.

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[info]abby_i
2007-01-05 06:05 pm UTC (link)
Sorry, is it also possible to make the next one size larger?

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[info]erorus
2007-01-05 06:20 pm UTC (link)
I can resize my browser window to a width of 898 without horizontal scrolling. I think the scrolling is related to the width of the text boxes for "music", "location" and "tags".. everything else should size/move with the window. Those are the same size as they used to be, so you'd have scrolling with the old layout anyway. Get out of the dark ages of 800x600. :)

To increase the text size in Firefox, hold Ctrl and press the + key, or hold Ctrl while using the scrollwheel on your mouse.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]abby_i
2007-01-05 07:59 pm UTC (link)
Sadly larger than 8x6 looks rather wonky on my computer, and I need that res for my job. One day I'll move with the times. LOL

I think the problem is that on the old page, it used to move the second column of options across so you have one single column that elimitated the scroll bar. Oh well, I'm still greatful to have the old layout back, scroll or not. Now at least when I want to preview, I won't be posting by mistake. LOL

Ta again.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]iamzuul
2007-01-30 09:35 pm UTC (link)
FOR THE WIN.

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