Script Summary: Lets you add and share page annotations with the StumbleUpon community
Version: 0.9.11 BETA
License: Freeware - (c) 2010 by dirtbagbubble (at yahoo dot com). See script for details.
OVERVIEW
This extension lets you add annotations to specific elements like paragraphs, images or links on any web page that has been added to StumbleUpon.
Imagine it as "postit" comments that are directly embedded into the page you visit through StumbleUpon, giving you the ability to directly reference a specific part of the page.
Your annotations are shared with the StumbleUpon community and everybody who installs this extension can see your annotation you have added to a page.
Annotations are stored in your review for that page as special tags. Of course you can also write a normal review text alongside with these tags.
IMPORTANT
Please read this update information post about the new smart annotation positioning in 0.9.9.7 BETA.
REQUIREMENTS
- You need to be logged into StumbleUpon. Otherwise the toolbar won't show up.
- You need at least Firefox version 3.0 or higher, or the Iceweasel equivalent. This script also might work on Google Chrome, but this is not tested, yet. I'd appreciate feedback from Chrome users.
HOW ANNOTATIONS ARE STORED
The annotations are stored as tags in your review of the annotated page. These tags look like as follows:
[SUA/html/body/some/path]
Here comes my comment
[/SUA]
If you select the option "Hide in blog post" the annotation tags are hidden on your blog (unless you edit the review). These hidden annotations are put into following special HTML structure that is appended to your review:
<ul style="display:none">
<li>
[SUA/html/body/some/path]
Here comes my comment
[/SUA]
</li>
</ul>
If you want to completely remove these annotations you can delete the whole block of HTML gibberish starting with <ul style="display:none"> and ending with </ul>.
UPDATE INFORMATION
- v0.9.11 BETA When selecting a text block you can switch into the "orange text selection mode" by clicking the right mouse button. Doing so lets you highlight an arbitrary text portion with your mouse, enabling you to put an annotation at any place you wish.
- v0.9.10 BETA Another fix for permission denied error. Fixed duplicate annotations problem for stumbles with more than one review sub-page. Fix for proper deletion of the last annotation if SUA has created a new review during the current page visit / script execution.
- v0.9.9.9 BETA Fix for "permission denied error" popup. Improved error reporting function. If you cannot write me a private message through StumbleUpon for whatever reason, an email will be auto-generated instead.
- v0.9.9.8 BETA Added an option for permanently turning off the "sensitive URL" warning message. Please be aware, that SUA stays inactive on sensitive pages which are for example SSL-encrypted. If you want to force loading the annotations anyway, you need to select the user script commands menu entry [SUA] Force Loading Annotations. If you have any ideas for improving this security feature, please let me know. If you have questions about it, please let me know, too.
- v0.9.9.7 BETA Improved the annotation positioning. The result will be more stable across browsers that use NoScript or turn off JavaScript and those browsers that allow script execution. A smart XPath expression is created for the annotation's referenced page element, that looks at both the content and the close context of the referenced element. These smart XPath expressions will also happen to be more stable over time when the annotated page changes a bit. Furthermore a solution for the special characters problem caused by SU is implemented, which also happens to fix the "random spaces" issue, that came up in a few annotations. Some words contained spaces where none were written. This is actually a bug by SU's review pages.
USAGE
If the current page you're looking at has been already submitted to StumbleUpon, you can add as many annotations as you wish to any element of the page.
As soon as this extension has checked the current page for existence in the StumbleUpon database, a toolbar is added to the top of the page. The toolbar contains the button "Add Annotation".
Clicking the button starts the annotation mode which allows you to select a specific element on the page to comment. Moving the mouse over images, paragraphs, links etc. highlights them by adding a red, semi-transparent layer above it.
You can cancel the annotation mode by either pressing the <esc> key or by clicking the "Add Annotation" button again.
In annotation mode you can select an element by clicking the left mouse button. Doing so opens a small editor for the highlighted element right above it.
This may look like as following example:
After clicking the "Save" button, the annotation will be automatically added to your StumbleUpon review of that page.
A special annotation tag will be created and appended to your review if it already exists (otherwise a new review will be created).
Annotations from every StumbleUpon user are automatically detected and embedded into the page you visit.
By clicking an annotation you can read the comment that has been written by the user:
You can turn off the Annotation Toolbar by clicking the red close button or with GreaseMonkey's user-script commands menu. Just select the menu item [SUA] Toggle Annotation Toolbar, that also serves for turning on the toolbar.
Please note that due to a bug in Greasemonkey the toolbar might not immediately re-appear after clicking that menu item. You need to reload the page to make it appear.
Alternatively you can make use of the keyboard shortcut <ctrl> + <alt> + <t>.
You can also turn off just the annotations on the current page by either clicking the green speech balloon next to the "Add Annotation" button or by selecting the user script menu item [SUA] Hide/Show Annotations.
Alternatively you can make use of the keyboard shortcut <ctrl> + <alt> + <h>.
StumbleUpon Annotator automatically detects when you are currently visiting a page that might contain sensitive information, like SSL-encrypted pages for online-banking or shopping or administration, email, search or login pages.
SUA will be automatically deactivated on such pages for your own security and a warning message pops up that gives you the option to force loading annotations anyway.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
- <CTRL> + <ALT> + <C> Add a new annotation
- <CTRL> + <ALT> + <S> Add a new scribble
- <CTRL> + <ALT> + <E> Expand / collapse every annotation on the page
- <CTRL> + <ALT> + <T> Toggles the toolbar
- <CTRL> + <ALT> + <H> Toggles the annotations
- <CTRL> + <ALT> + <O> Turn on/off SUA
IMPORTANT NOTE
I thoroughly tested this extension and I didn't notice any grave bugs, yet.
However, this extension is currently BETA and chances are that it may yield odd results and stuff like slowdowns of page loads (since the review pages of a stumble are loaded and searched for annotations). In worst case this extension might mess up your existing review of the annotated page (but that didn't happen to me so far).
Use this extension at your own risk!
If you're curious about using this thing and happen to notice problems, please let me know. You can add comments into the discussions section of this extension or into the according thread on StumbleUpon.</h></alt></ctrl></t></alt></ctrl></esc>
