Useful tools for developing userscripts - in both CLI and API modes (CLI uses asynchronous calls while API can use either).

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Compatibility
• Usage
  • CLI usage
  • API usage
• Examples
  • CLI examples
    • Creating a .meta.js file from a .user.js file
    • Extracting the entire metadata block
  • API examples
    • Extracting the .meta.js metablock and writing it to a new file
    • Extracting the full metadata block
    • Combining with UglifyJS
  • Grunt task example
• Notes before running tests

Features

• Extract the entire metadata block
• Extract the small portion of the metadata block that's required for .meta.js files (@updateURL)

Installation

npm install -g userscript-utils

Compatibility

Requires node version >=0.12

Usage

CLI usage

{lamb} userscript-utils --help

Userscript utilities

Usage: userscript-utils <cmd> [options]
Pass -h or --help to any command to display command-specific help

Commands:

    get-metablock   - Retrieve the entire metadata block
    get-updateblock - Retrieve a shortened metadata block for .meta.js files

---

{lamb} userscript-utils get-metablock --help

Retrieve the entire metadata block

Usage: userscript-utils get-metablock [options]

Options:

    -h, --help      - Display this help
    -i, --infile    - Get contents from a file as opposed to STDIN
    -o, --outfile   - Output result to a file as opposed to STDOUT

---

{lamb} userscript-utils get-updateblock --help

Retrieve the shortened metadata block required for .meta.js files and @updateURL

Usage: userscript-utils get-updateblock [options]

Options:

    -h, --help          - Display this help
    -i, --infile        - Get contents from a file as opposed to STDIN
    -o, --outfile       - Output result to a file as opposed to STDOUT
    -u, --updateurl     - Include the @updateURL tag in the output
    -d, --downloadurl   - Include the @downloadURL tag in the output

API usage

See generated JSDoc.

Examples

CLI examples

Creating a .meta.js file from a .user.js file

Bare minimum:

userscript-utils get-updateblock -i foo.user.js -o foo.meta.js;
#or
userscript-utils get-updateblock -i foo.user.js >> foo.meta.js;

Include @updateURL & @downloadURL:

userscript-utils get-updateblock -i foo.user.js -o foo.meta.js -du;
#or
userscript-utils get-updateblock -i foo.user.js -du >> foo.meta.js;

From STDIN:

cat foo.user.js | userscript-utils get-updateblock -o foo.meta.js;
#or
cat foo.user.js | userscript-utils get-updateblock >> foo.meta.js;

Or simply view the output by omitting the -o and --output options.

Extracting the entire metadata block

Same options/arguments as above with the exception of -d, -u, --downloadurl and --updateurl being invalid:

userscript-utils get-metablock -i foo.user.js -o foo.big.meta.js;

API examples

Extracting the .meta.js metablock and writing it to a new file:

var utils = require('userscript-utils').getUpdateMetablock,
    fs = require('fs'),
    inputFile = "foo.user.js",
    outputFile = "foo.meta.js",
//For fs.writeFile
    innerCallback = function (e) {
        if (e) {
            throw e;
        }
    },
//For userscript-utils
    outerCallback = function (e, o) {
        if (e) {
            throw e;
        } else {
            fs.writeFile(outputFile, o, 'utf8', innerCallback);
        }
    };

//Bare minimum
utils.fromFile(inputFile, outerCallback);

//Include @updateURL
utils.fromFile(inputFile, outerCallback, true);

//Include @downloadURL
utils.fromFile(inputFile, outerCallback, false, true);

//Include @updateURL @downloadURL
utils.fromFile(inputFile, outerCallback, true, true);

// For synchronous mode simply omit the callback argument and replate the method with "fromFileSync":
try {
    utils.fromFileSync(inputFile);
} catch (e) {
    //handle
}

//And you can just as easily do the same if you have the file contents as a string:
utils.fromString(stringContainingFileContents, outerCallback);

try {
    utils.fromStringSync(stringContainingFileContents);
} catch (e) {
    //handle
}

Extracting the full metadata block

var utils = require('userscript-utils').getMetablock,
    fs = require('fs'),
    inputFile = "foo.user.js",
    outputFile = "foo.meta.js",
//For fs.writeFile
    innerCallback = function (e) {
        if (e) {
            throw e;
        }
    },
//For userscript-utils
    outerCallback = function (e, o) {
        if (e) {
            throw e;
        } else {
            fs.writeFile(outputFile, o, 'utf8', innerCallback);
        }
    };

//Async
utils.fromFile(inputFile, outerCallback);

// Sync
try {
    utils.fromFileSync(inputFile);
} catch (e) {
    //handle
}

//And you can just as easily do the same if you have the file contents as a string:
utils.fromString(stringContainingFileContents, outerCallback);

try {
    utils.fromStringSync(stringContainingFileContents);
} catch (e) {
    //handle
}

Combining with UglifyJS

var utils = require('userscript-utils'),
    minify = require('uglify-js').minify,
    fs = require('fs'),
    inFile = "foo.user.js",
    outFile = "foo.min.user.js";

//Get our metablock
utils.getMetablock.fromFile(inFile, function (e, metablock) {
    if (e) {
        throw e;
    } else {
        // Minify the JS
        var minified = minify(inFile).code;

        //Open our file for writing
        fs.open(outFile, 'w', function (e, fd) {
            if (e) {
                throw e;
            } else {
                //Write our file
                fs.write(fd, metablock + "\n" + minified, function (e) {
                    try {
                        if (e) {
                            throw e;
                        }
                    } finally {
                        fs.close(fd, function (e) {
                            if (e) {
                                throw e;
                            }
                        });
                    }
                });
            }
        });
    }
});

Grunt task example

You'll need grunt-run:

npm i --save-dev grunt-run;

Add a run task to your Gruntfile.js under any name (e.g. foo) containing a CLI command to execute, e.g.:

module.exports = function (grunt) {
    // Initializing configuration objects
    grunt.initConfig({
        run: {
            foo: {
                exec: 'userscript-utils get-updateblock -i foo.user.js -o foo.meta.js'
            }
        }
    });

    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-run');
};

Run the task:

grunt run:foo;

Notes before running tests

If you cloned this repository and want to run tests be sure to run npm link beforehand otherwise you'll get errors!