How in the Tech

Userscripts Updater for Greasemonkey

By Adam Myers ⋅ May 28, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Firefox

Greasemonkey is easily one of the best Firefox extensions available and is often the one extension that keeps everyone coming back to Firefox, in my opinion. Greasemonkey provides a mechanism to customize, which usually entails added functionality, a website via javascript components. There are literally thousands of Greasemonkey scripts available that can all sorts of things. Users can find many of javascript snippets at  Userscripts, an online repository that Greasemonkey script developers can upload and share their creations. Unfortunately, and unlike Firefox extensions themselves, Greasemonkey scripts have no ability to update themselves to new versions should the author provide a new release. Taking a step back further, you don’t even know a new version is available without visiting the Userscripts site manually.

As is commonplace on the Internet, someone will see a problem and work towards addressing it. Userscripts Updater is a Greasemonkey script that is designed to search the Userscripts repository for new updates for any installed scripts you may have with the slight caveat that it only maintains updates on scripts installed after it’s initial installation. Meaning, if you have four Greasemonkey scripts installed you must reinstall them after installing the Updater in order for them to be managed correctly. This is only a minor issue to most I feel.

Once installed you can search for updates via the script by visit the Userscripts website. You will see a new option added to the upper right portion of the site aptly titled Update Scripts. Clicking the link will initiate a manual scan for script updates; handy but not ideal. Thankfully, clicking the Options icon to the right will allow you to configure for automated checks anywhere from every hour to every couple of days. Now that is something to be excited about if you are a heavy Greasemonkey junkie!