User:Dhu-en/wikieditpuffer

= WikiEditPuffer = WikiEditPuffer is an add-on for Mozilla-Firefox making the editing of contributions safer by maintaining local copies of editors content in a widely inappreciable manner.

Work Flow Triggers
The add-on becomes active every time the "edit this page"-button of a Wikipedia article page has been hit. The state of activity is reported by showing up the WEP-sign at the status bar.

By the first change to editors text field two keepers begin with countdown: Additionally event handlers are added to the "Save page", "Show Preview", and "Show changes" buttons:
 * a timer, which will save modified content every n seconds (default: 60)
 * a keystroke counter, which will save modified content every n keystrokes(default: 100)
 * modified content will be stored every time one of this buttons is hit.

Storing places
The modified content of the Wikipedia editor text box is stored into a unique text file. The filename for the file consists of Thus the name for the current file related to this article is: "UserDhuenwikieditpuffer_0044-01.wep".
 * the stripped name of the article
 * the revision counter, counting 0001, 0002 and so on
 * the unique number if necessary
 * the file extension: ".wep"

Notice: Only "UserDhuenwikieditpuffer_0044.wep" is shown at the status bar. The unique number extension is used internally for quick restoring purposes. In case of recovery using the file picker dialog, files ordered by name are easy to distinguish concerning the revision history.

By default a common temporary directory is used for storing all wep-files (i.e. "c:\tmp").

Using the configuration dialog another directory may be chosen. For each article a unique one - if desired.
 * by clicking left on the WEP sign,
 * activating the context menu of the same gadget,
 * under the context menu of the wikieditpuffer entry of the add-ons configuration dialog (tools->add-ons)

Recovery action
Once your contribution has been lost, damaged or destroyed, there is the need of restoring the content of the Wikiepedia editor text box by picking up one of the wep-files.

Using the "restore last backup" entry in the WEP sign context menu (status bar while editing some wikipedia contributions) the last saved file will be read and put into the editors text box, overwriting any further modifications.

The "restore ..." entry of the same menu strip shows up a file picker dialog. The chosen file will become content of the Wikipedia editor text box. There's no limitation to wep-files, every text file goes.

Intended Improvements
Any suggestions are welcomed.
 * error management has to be established
 * the context menu of the wikipedia editor text box has to be enriched by wep-entries concerning storing and restoring
 * WEP sign and configuration dialog should be provided with meaningful tool tips.

License
WikiEditPuffer is free and licensed under the terms of creative commons 3.0.

Weblinks

 * http://www.wikieditpuffer.net Homepage of the Wikieditpuffers project