Okay, this here gadget is something I've been wanting for a long time. Instead of waiting for The Powers That Be to modernize this place's interface, I decided to do it myself. See, awhile back they added user polls, and there's discussion elsewhere of other new features — with corresponding nodelets — as well. I decided that I was sick of having a list about three times longer than the content of most nodes on the right-hand side of my screen, so I decided to do something about it myself.
But when occasional whinging in the catbox didn't help, and a post on Apatrix's forum-thingy didn't cause edev to instantly swoop into action and remake the site in my own image, I realized that I had failed. So I embarked upon an even more painful course.
I learned javascript. I know it's apparently much simpler than most programming languages. But my prior knowledge of such things was limited to HTML and writing crappy games on my graphing calculator when I was bored during high school. Nevertheless, I gave myself a crash course in order to bring you all this tool.
E2 Nodelet Collapser
Stick this sucker in your notelet nodelet, and you can set it to automatically collapse some or all of the nodelets on your screen. When they're collapsed, only the title is visible; clicking on that will either expand or collapse each nodelet. You can configure which nodelets are collapsed and which are open by default by changing a value in your notelet editor.
So how's it work?
Probably not very well. Did you notice the part where I taught myself javascript last night? It's probably buggy as all hell at the moment. Some superdocs or weird nodes might somehow cause it not to work right. But it's not like it's gonna crash your computer or something. Give it a shot, you goddamn cynical bastard.
What do I need to run it?
You need a modern web browser. I've tested it in Firefox 1.04, 1.5, and 2.0 and Internet Explorer 6. I suspect it'll probably work in most flavors of Mozilla; I don't have any of the silly little browsers some of you guys use on hand, but if you would care to try it out, I'd love some reports on whether it works, especially if you know anything about javascript and can help your humble pal Excalibre out by looking the script over.
You also need to be running ekw theme. It's possible that maybe it could be configured to work in jukka theme or zen theme; if there's sufficient demand, I'll give it a look.
What do I do?
Add the following to your notelet nodelet:
<script src="http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1786409"></script>
When you first load a page after that, all of the nodelets will be collapsed; their state is remembered in a cookie so whichever nodelets you leave open will be open when you load subsequent pages.
How can you help good ol' Excalibre out?
Give it a try. If it works for you, let me know. If it doesn't, let me know that too. If you have any javascript expertise, look over the script, especially if you're having a problem. If possible, if you have a mysterious bug, /msg ex or send me an email at excalibre@gmail.com, tell me the browser and operating system you were using, and ideally save the web page you're looking at and send it my way as well.
If you have any ideas for improvements, lemme know. Also, if you have webspace where you'd like to host the script, I'd be grateful, as all I have at the moment is my university space and I'd prefer not to keep it there.
Big thanks to themanwho who was busy but helped me anyway when I had the script finished but it suddenly stopped doing anything at all.