Options/Popups

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This page provides options for Popups. Note that configuration changes will apply automatically to new tabs and new pages. However, any currently loaded pages must be reloaded to pick up the new configuration change.

You can also test your configuration changes by hovering over this link: XOWA Main Page.

For more infomation, visit the Popups help page


General

Enabled: [1]

Content (basic)

Number of words to show at start: [2]
Number of words to show for "more": [3]

Content (advanced)

Automatically show "all" if page is less than: [4]
Read forward til header: [5]
Read backward til header: [6]
Stop if header is found after: [7]

Window

Number of milliseconds before showing popup: [8]
Number of milliseconds before hiding popup: [9]
Maximum width of window: [10]
Maximum height of window: [11]
Maximum width of window when "show all": [12]
Show popup when link is focused: [13]

Performance

Template token max: [14]
Template keeplist: [15]

Advanced

Allowed namespaces: [16]
Ignore HTML elements with the following ids: [17]
Number of bytes to read each pass: [18]
Maximum number of bytes to read: [19]
Popup HTML format default: [20]

Notes

  1. ^ Controls popup functionality (default is checked)
    • checked to show popups when hovering over links
    • unchecked to not show popups when hovering over links
  2. ^ Number of words to show in popup (default is 128)
    • For slower machines, decrease the number of words to 32. Note that the number must be greater than 0.
    • For faster machines, increase the number of words as per your liking.
  3. ^ Number of additional words to show when "show more" is clicked (default is 192)
    • For slower machines, decrease the number of words to 32. Note that the number must be greater than 0.
    • For faster machines, increase the number of words as per your liking.
  4. ^ Automatically show the entire article if article is less than these number of bytes (default is -1) (recommended is 4096)
    This feature is intended for small articles whose entire text...
    • Will always be parsed quickly
    • Will generally show in one window without a horizontal scroll bar.
    It allows a complete preview of small articles without having to click "more" or "all"
    To deactivate this feature, set the number to -1
  5. ^ Number of extra words to read forward to look for a header (default is 32)
    This option tries to stop the popup text right before a header.
    • the advantage is that the popup will not stop a few words short of the header
    • the disadvantage is that the size of the popup is irregular. i.e.: sometimes it returns 128 words, sometimes 140, sometimes 150, etc
    To deactivate this option, set it to -1.
    Technical details follow.
    The approach works in the following manner:
    • Reads forward an additional # of words
    • If a header is found within the # of words, it extends the popup text to the last word before the header
    • If a header is not found, it returns the original # of words
    For example:
    • An article contains 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 ==08== 09
    • Show-init is set to 5
    • Read-fwd is set to 4
    • The initial number of words is read and collects 5 words: 01 02 03 04 05
    • The parser then reads forward 4 more words: 06 07 ==08== 09
    • It finds a header at ==08==
    • It then extends the selction to the word just before the header: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07
    • Note that if ==08== was just 08, then it would just have returned the original: 01 02 03 04 05
  6. ^ Number of words to read backward to remove header at end (default is 16)
    This option tries to stop a header from appearing at the end of the popup text.
    • the advantage is that a popup will not end at a header with just a few words after it.
    • the disadvantage is that sometimes the number of words returned will be less originally requested. i.e.: 128 was requested, but only 112 is returned
    To deactivate this option, set it to -1
    Technical details follow.
    The approach works in the following manner:
    • Reads backwards a # of words from the end of the popup
    • If a header is found within the # of words, it truncates the output to the text before the header
    • If a header is not found, it returns the original # of words
    For example:
    • An article contains 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 ==08== 09
    • Show-init is set to 9
    • Read-bwd is set to 4
    • The initial number of words is read and collects 9 words: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 ==08== 09
    • The parser then reads backwards 4 words: 06 07 ==08== 09
    • It finds a header at ==08==
    • It then truncates the popup to the word just before the header: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07
    • Note that if ==08== was just 08, then it would just have returned the original: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09
  7. ^ Stops reading if a header is found after # of words (default is 96)
    This option will stop reading if a header is found after the # of words. It is useful for increasing the probability that a popup will end at a header.
    • the advantage is that a popup can be made to stop at a header. If you never want the popup to show a header, set the value to 1.
    • the disadvantage is that sometimes the number of words returned will be less originally requested. i.e.: 128 was requested, but only 96 is returned
    To deactivate this option, set it to -1. This will always show as much content as possible
    Technical details follow.
    The following is a simplified example:
    • An article contains 01 02 03 04 05 ==06== 07 08 09 ==10== 11 12 13 14 15 16
    • Show-init is set to 16
    • Stop-hdr is set to 8
    • The parser starts reading words
    • Once it finds a header, it checks if it is greater than stop-hdr
      • ==06== is found, but it is less than 8. The parser continues.
      • ==10== is found, and it is greater than 8. The parser stops there and returns 01 02 03 04 05 ==06== 07 08 09
    Note the following variations:
    • If stop-hdr was set to 1, then it would have stopped at ==06== and returned 01 02 03 04 05
    • If stop-hdr was set to 14, then it would have returned the entire text: 01 02 03 04 05 ==06== 07 08 09 ==10== 11 12 13 14 15 16
    Note that the the read-bwd setting is still applied after the stop-hdr setting.
  8. ^ Number of milliseconds to wait before showing popup (default is 600)
    • A higher number prevents accidental hovers over links while moving the mouse / scrolling the page
    • A lower number allows faster popup display
    Note that popup data will only be retrieved after the popup starts showing. For example:
    • If the show delay is set to 2 seconds
    • and a popup takes 1 second to retrieve the html
    • then the total time till the popup is visible is 3 seconds, not 2 (2 seconds to wait before showing + 1 second to retrieve data)
  9. ^ Number of milliseconds to wait before hiding popup (default is 600)
    • A higher number allows the popup to linger longer on the screen before disappearing.
    • A lower number hides the popup faster
  10. ^ Maximum width of popup in pixels (default is -1)
    • -1 indicates no maximum width
  11. ^ Maximum height of popup in pixels (default is -1)
    • -1 indicates no maximum height
  12. ^ Maximum width of popup in pixels when show all is clicked (default is -1) (recommended is 800)
    This option was added because:
    • The normal popup window is generally smaller (500 pixels)
    • Show all often returns a lot of article text which looks constrained within a 500 pixel window
    • A "Show all" maxiumum width allows for automatic switching to a wider window for the larger article content
    Note that -1 indicates no maximum width, which defaults to about 500 pixels
  13. ^ Shows popup when link receives focus (tabbed into) (default is false)
    This option allows keyboard users to use popups whenever a link is focused. Specifically:
    • A link can be focused by pressing tab on the keyboard until a dotted focus box surrounds the desired link.
    • A link can be focused by finding and then selecting:
      • Find a word on the page. For example, press Ctrl + F and type "r i b". This will highlight the Scribunto link
      • Press Ctrl + G and then Ctrl + G again. This will focus the Scribunto link and show the popup for it.
  14. ^ Maximum length of template token (in bytes) to evaluate (default is 8192)
    This option allows faster popups, but at the cost of accuracy:
    • Fast but sometimes inaccurate: For slow machines or wikis that use templates heavily, decrease the number. Note that setting the number to 0 means "never evaluate templates". If popups are slow, try setting the number to 0, and see if the results are satisfactory.
    • Slow but always accurate: For fast machines or wikis that do not use templates heavily, increase the number. Note that setting the number to 2,147,483,647 means "always evaluate templates". You can also use "-1" as a shortcut for "2,147,483,647". If popups have garbled text or are missing words, try setting the number to -1.
    A more detailed explanation follows:

    Templates are wikitext of the form {{Name|Arg_1|Arg_2|...}}. They are used throughout a wiki to perform functions ranging from unit conversion (like converting kilometers to miles), or generating large pieces of HTML (like rendering entire InfoBoxes). However, these templates are the "slowest" pieces of wikitext to parse, particularly if they call other templates or Scribunto

    Ideally, popups should skip templates that produce structural html (like infoboxes), while still trying to render templates that do smaller functions (like converting units). This option attempts a heuristic that says "if the template is long, assume it's an infobox and should be skipped". It counts the total number of bytes in a template, and skips it if it's greater than the max. For example, {{Name|Arg_1}} has a length of 10, and will be skipped if the max length is set to 8. If the max length is set to 16, then the template won't be skipped.

    This option is imperfect, but should work well enough on most cases. Note that Navigation Popups does something similar by skipping template text, but without any configuration. (always set to 0).

  15. ^ Specifies templates to be shown in popup (default is see below)
    This is a performance optimization for English Wikipedia. It only evaluates listed templates.
    The format is as follows
    • Each rule is in a separate line
    • Each rule has three parts
      • Wiki domain: Wiki which will be affected by rule
      • Keep-names: Names of templates which will be shown in popup. Note that these names:
        • Are semi-colon separated (;)
        • Match any case of the title. For example, "NAme", matches "NAME", "name", "naME", etc.
        • Match space or underscore. For example, "two_words" matches "two_words" and "two words"
        • Have one of the following three match patterns
          • Exact name: For example, "name" matches only "name", and all lowercase/uppercase variants
          • Name at start: For example, "name*" will match anything starting with "name" such as "Names"
          • Name at end: For example, "*name" will match anything ending with "name" such as "Fullname"
      • Unless-names: Names of templates which should not be included, even if the keep-name is matched. For example, en.wikipedia.org|name*|name_to_always_skip will match any template that starts with "name" unless the template is named "name_to_always_skip". Note that unless-names have the same rules as keep-names (semi-colon separator; wildcards)
    To disable this option, replaces the keep-names with a *. For example: en.wikipedia.org|*|
    Default option 
    en.wikipedia.org|formatnum;age_in_days;as_of;gregorian_serial_date;currentminute;currentsecond;dmca;spaced_ndash;trim;month*;convert*;worldpop*;ipa*;lang*;nowrap*;h:*;vgy;iso_639_name;transl;translate;linktext;zh;nihongo;japanese_name;ko-hhrm;|
  16. ^ Restrict popups to certain namespaces (default is  )
    This option allows popups to be suppressed for namespaces that would ordinarily generate no content. For example, Portal pages are often contained in a table / div, whereas Module pages are code.
    Note the following:
    • Only namespace names are valid. See the table below for examples of valid names
    • Multiple names must be separated with the pipe character (|). For example, (Main)|Help
    • Namespaces names are the canonical English names of the namespace, except for "(Main)"
    • Non-English names will work, but are not supported. For example, Aide would only allow the Help namespace in French wikis, wheras Help will allow the Help namespace across all wikis.
    • Invalid names are ignored
    • Deactivate this feature by blanking the field
    Title
    (Main)
    User
    Project
    File
    MediaWiki
    Template
    Help
    Category
    Special
  17. ^ Ignore html elements that have the following ids (default is coordinates)
    This feature is intended for English Wikipedia which has a {{Coordinates}} tag at the top of most geographical articles (for example, North Pole)
    Without this option, a Coordinates span would be visible in the top right of the popup, which....
    • Counts against the popup's number of words
    • Does not provide significant summary information for the article
    Usage notes:
    • Any HTML element with a listed id will not be shown in the popup. For example, <span id='coordinates'>0 N 90 E</span> will not show b/c the html element (span) has a listed id (coordinates)
    • To add multiple ids, separate ids with the | character. For example, coordinates|some_other_id.
    • Listed ids are case-insensitive if ASCII, but case-sensitive otherwise. There is no difference between coordinates and Coordinates. There is a difference between é and É
    • To deactivate this feature, set the value to   (empty)
  18. ^ Number of bytes to read for each pass (default is 1024)
    This number represents the number of bytes the popup parser reads at a time. For example, it will read the first 1024 bytes of the article, and if it doesn't find 64 words, it continues to read sections of 1024 bytes until it does.
    • Lower numbers may be better for slower machines. Note that the number must be greater than 0.
    • Higher numbers may be better for faster machines. Experiment as necessary.
  19. ^ Maximum number of bytes to read (default is 32768)

    This number represents the maximum number of bytes the popup parser reads before it gives up. Note that if the parser gives up, then no text will be returned for the preview.

    This setting should only apply to badly formatted articles. For example consider a page that has a comment with 100,000 5 letter words (<!-- 100,000 5 letter words -->). This page will be considered to have 0 words, even though it has a page length of 500,000. Rather than read the entire 500,000 bytes, the popup parser will stop after 32,768.

    • Lower numbers may be better for slower machines, but it would have a higher chance of returning empty popups. Note that the number must be greater than 0.
    • Higher numbers may be better for faster machines. To force the popup parser to read the entire page until it finds the minimum number of words, set the value to a high number like 2,147,483,647
  20. ^ Set the HTML format of the popup window. (default is See HTML format default )
    This controls the actual HTML that is generated in the popup window. Note the following:
    • The format is basically text substitution, with anything between ~{ and } substituted for the current page values.
    • This is only provided for experimental / testing purposes. The format may change in future versions.
    • To modify this value do the following:
      • Backup your xowa_user_cfg.gfs: /xowa/user/anonymous/app/data/cfg/xowa_user_cfg.gfs
      • Edit this page
      • Find the commented table rows / cells and uncomment them
      • Save the page. You will now see an editable textarea with the format
      • Make any changes to the editable textarea and click Save. Hover over a link to view the results.

    When you're done, you should restore your original copy of xowa_user_cfg.gfs. If you don't restore your copy, you will end up keeping your custom change, and will never pick up any future fixes / changes to the format.

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