Wikipedia:SiteDelta tutorial

SiteDelta is a watchlist add-on for Firefox (a free internet browser). Like Wikipedia's watchlist, SiteDelta can keep track of changes to any page on the web including emails, blogs, etc. This is extremely useful for Wikipedia because our watchlisting system cannot watch pages in Special namespace whereas SiteDelta can. It is also useful because some users could really benefit from two watchlists for organization and efficiency where they could be allocated to pages concerning a topic of interest or a Wikiproject.

How to install SiteDelta

While using Firefox, click on the following link to install...

...the latest tested version of SiteDelta.

Set up SiteDelta to watch Wikipedia pages

1. On Firefox's menu, click on Tools > Add-ons > SiteDelta > Options > Scan settings
2. check-mark the JavaScript for site watch box (if it isn't checked already -- this eliminates the false positives caused by the MediaWiki's table of contents)
3. Click "OK"
4. Click on Options > Scan schedule
5. check-mark the Site watch box - this makes SiteDelta automatically alert you whenever a watched page gets changed (optional)

How to use SiteDelta

Once SiteDelta is set up (see above), SiteDelta's triangle icon will be displayed on the status bar in the bottom right corner of Firefox.

To add a page to your SiteDelta watchlist

Click on the triangle.

To view your SiteDelta watchlist

Ctrl-click the triangle.

Or rightclick on the triangle, and then click on "SiteDelta Sidebar" from the menu that pops up.

To modify which parts SiteDelta scans

Rightclick on the triangle, select "Regions", and choose from the drop down menu. Follow the instructions that appear at the top of the page.

Here are the choices available from the "Regions" menu:

"Ignore"

Let's say you're watching a blog and watching a specific post for updates but don't want to be notified when there are new comments posted below. By right-clicking the SiteDelta triangle and going to "Regions" > "+Ignore region" and hovering the mouse and clicking the comments section would make SiteDelta ignore that region.

"Watch"

This is sort of misleading, everything on the page is being watched regardless. "+Watch" is more like a 'mass ignore' that ignores everything except the region(s) you click on. Let's say for example, this page, http://userscripts.org/ you want to only watch the section "Web browser news". Clicking on it with the "+watch" would ignore everything except that section.

Remove regions

If you've +ignored or +watched a region and want to undo your action, right click the SiteDelta icon and go to regions and click on the region from the menu you'd like to undo.

To modify when and how SiteDelta scans...

...on all the pages in your watchlist

To modify when and how SiteDelta scans all your pages, open the SiteDelta sidebar and click the "Pages" dropdown menu and select "SiteDelta settings" (also accessible through the add-ons window). From here you can make global changes to SiteDelta.

recommendations

To prevent false positives and best experience, it is recommended that all of the following is enabled: "Check for deleted text" (see below), "Scan known pages on visit", "Enable JavaScript for site watch", "Enable site watch", and "automatically". It is also recommended that "Check image addresses" (see below) are disabled.

...on an individual page

To change the behavior on a particular page, go to "Page properties". This can be accessed through the SiteDelta sidebar and rightclicking on the page's title you'd like to modify. From this menu, you can set when and what SiteDelta will scan and optionally save those settings as a preset that can be easily applied to multiple pages.

Tips

• If you have Site watch enabled (this automatically scans for changes while the browser is open and notifies you) the default setting is set to auto. Auto means that SiteDelta will scan a page very infrequently at first (a few days) and gradually scan more frequently if the page changes a lot. In a few days a lot can happen. The best way to over come this is to manually make SiteDelta scan all the pages in your watchlist. It may be helpful to do this every computer session if desired. ("Pages">"Check all for changes"). Another way is to manually make SiteDelta scan at explicit time intervals that can be set on the page properties or presets.
• If you have a javascript clock enabled for your Wikipedia account, it can sometimes cause SiteDelta to think there was a change when not. Ignoring the clock can help this problem.
  • If you have multiple Wikipedia pages and want to apply this setting to all of them you can do so in "Presets". Access it through the SiteDelta sidebar > "Pages" > "Manage presets".
• Some blogs, forums, and other sites change images on their pages very frequently. (Such as: "this user is online/offline" images, images generated from signatures, CAPTCHA, edit toolbars etc. Any of these may change just if you are accessing the site or not and will cause false positives. For most cases it is recommended that the "Check image addresses" is turned off for all pages unless it is needed.
• Another misconception is the Check for deleted text feature in the Page properties or presets dialog. Unchecking this does not make SiteDelta not check and notify for deleted text, it mearly shows deleted text in the diff as scissors icons. It is recommended to leave this feature on for Wikipedia pages as it does not affect anything except visibility (does not help or hurt false positives).