badsegue.org • • • • •

background

Previously we showed how to pull GPS waypoints from MSN Yellow Pages and Google Maps results using bookmarklets. One solution was Firefox-only, and the other was more reliable in IE. Here we present a solution that is a little more elegant and should work in either browser.

For those using Google Maps, they have now added UK maps. The scripts had to be updated to accomodate the -d.dddddd longitudes.

approach

To support IE the bookmarklets must be implemented using the ‘script injection’ technique. This involves rewriting the head of the HTML page to add a reference to an external script. Firefox has additional security restrictions that prevent injected scripts from doing certain actions, like opening new windows. This version avoids this restriction by writing the GPX file to a DIV block in the current page.

implementation

The new bookmarklets simply contain the code necessary to inject the external script into the page. Just right-click or drag them to add to your favorites/bookmarks. To use them visit the appropriate page and select the bookmark.

Here is the new MSN GPX RIP bookmarklet, and the code:

javascript:
(function(){
var script=document.createElement('script');
script.src='http://badsegue.org/samples/msngpxripdiv.js';
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);
}
)()

Here is the new Google GPX RIP bookmarklet, and the code:

javascript:
(function(){
var script=document.createElement('script');
script.src='http://badsegue.org/samples/googgpxripdiv.js';
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);
}
)()

The Thumbnail Image Grabber is now available, at version 0.50. View the program’s page for more details.

update – April 22, 2009

This script hadn’t worked properly for a while. Its been tweaked so give it a try. It should work if you have drag-n-drop enabled or not, and works in both the normal and the instant queues.

background

A Netflix queue tends to show some clustering of movie types, due to the way people add one movie then add a similar suggested movie. If you want to restore some variety it can be tedious to move things around. Here’s a little tool to randomly re-order your Netflix queue.

approach

This is another task well suited for a bookmarklet. The page layout is straightforward, and only needs to manipulate the values of input fields. The code can be implemented in a few hundred bytes, so only one version is required to support IE and Firefox, without resorting to script injection.

implementation

The queue items are in a form. There are 3x+2 input fields in the form; the first and last are the submit buttons. The other fields are triplet groups with the position field, original position (hidden), and the remove checkbox. Here is the code:

javascript:
(function(){
  var items=document.forms[1].getElementsByTagName('input');
  var os=[];
  for(i=0;i<items.length;i++){
    if(items[i].className=='o'){
      os.push(items[i]);
    }
  }
  var total=os.length;
  for(var i=0;i<total;i++){
    os[i].value=Math.floor(Math.random()*total);
  }
  alert(total+'%20shuffled.%20%20Update%20Your%20Queue%20to%20save.');
}
)()

Here is the bookmarklet link:
Netflix Shuffler

Add this to your bookmarks/favorites by right-clicking or dragging it to the toolbar. To use it just navigate to your Netflix queue page and select the bookmarklet. The queue will be shuffled, then just click Update Your Queue to commit the changes.

bonus

Here is a slightly modified version that simply reverses the queue order. This might be useful if all the new releases are at the end and you want to see those first.

javascript:
(function(){
  var items=document.forms[1].getElementsByTagName('input');
  var os=[];
  for(i=0;i<items.length;i++){
    if(items[i].className=='o'){
      os.push(items[i]);
    }
  }
  var total=os.length;
  for(var i=0;i<total;i++){
    os[i].value=total-i;
  }
  alert(total+' reversed.  Update Your Queue to save.');
}
)()

Here is the bookmarklet link:
Netflix Reverser

background

Previously we showed how to pull GPS waypoints from MSN Yellow Pages and Google Maps results using a Firefox bookmarklet. Now this can be done with Internet Explorer as well. The original solution was inadequate because of the IE limit on the length of bookmarks.

approach

To support IE the bookmarklets must be implemented using the ‘script injection’ technique. This involves rewriting the head of the HTML page to add a reference to an external script. The external script can be as long as needed. The drawback is that the external script must be fetched before the bookmarklet can do its job. This adds a small delay, and a dependency on the site hosting the script. So for Firefox users the standalone bookmark is probably preferable.

implementation

The new bookmarklets simply contain the code necessary to inject the external script into the page. Just right-click or drag them to add to your favorites/bookmarks. To use them visit the appropriate page and select the bookmark.

Here is the new MSN bookmarklet, and the code:

javascript:
(function(){
  var script=document.createElement('script');
  script.src='http://badsegue.org/samples/msngpxrip.js';
  document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);
}
)()

Here is the new Google bookmarklet, and the code:

javascript:
(function(){
  var script=document.createElement('script');
  script.src='http://badsegue.org/samples/googgpxrip.js';
  document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);
}
)()

The code of the actual extractor has changed a little bit. The Google extractor has to account for DOM differences to get to the data. Notice that the function is invoked at the end of the script, and not in the bookmarklet. This ensures that the function is defined by the time it is called.

function googrip(){
  var t;
  if (document.vp && (t=document.vp.document.scripts[0].text))
  {} else if (document.getElementById('vp') && (t=document.getElementById('vp').
contentDocument.getElementsByTagName('SCRIPT').item(0).text))
  {} else { alert ("Nothing found here.  Are you at maps.google.com? You are at
" + document.location); return(0); }
  var pts=t.match(//g);
  if (pts) {
  ... extraction code removed.  see previous articles...
  } else { alert ("Nothing found here.") }
}
googrip();

caveats

These bookmarklets may or may not work with Firefox. It does work for me when I use Firefox from home, but not at work. Theoretically these particular scripts shouldn’t work, because they attempt to open a new browser window. According to the Mozilla documentation, scripts or pages loaded from one domain can’t manipulate pages loaded from another domain. So if you encounter problems using these scripts, just use the ones shown in the earlier articles.