Gadgets

Gadgets provide a way for users to pick JavaScript or CSS based "gadgets" that other wiki users provide (For more technical details: mw:Extension:Gadgets). Many gadgets and scripts have been created by volunteers across Wikimedia projects, which add various useful features (such as improved editing experience, easy mass category modifications etc).

The purpose of this page is to provide cross project statistics for gadgets and to improve gadgets sharing between projects.

Gadgets used across wikis

Statistics for gadgets used across projects, based on user preferences (including the ones enabled on a wiki by default) :

Wikipedia (default)	Wikibooks (default)	Wiktionary (default)	Wikiquote (default)
Wikinews (default)	Wikisource (default)	Wikivoyage (default)	Wikiversity (default)

Gadgets popular on wikis

Gadgets in this category meet the criteria listed below:

• Used on more than 50 Wikimedia wikis.
• Widely tested, proven useful and reliable.
• Well-documented and maintained.
• Help to carry out valuable tasks related to editing, browsing, fighting vandalism, etc.

Note: The table below was last updated on 2022-10-12.

Category	Gadget name	Description	Number of Wikimedia wikis used on
Editing	HotCat	Helps registered users easily change and add categories to Wikipedia pages	423
	RefToolbar	Help editors add citation templates to articles. For use in combination with WikiEditor.	104
	Cat-a-lot	Helps with moving files (or subcategories) between categories or adding categories to search results	80
	CharInsert	Editing tool that allows the insertion of various characters and symbols that may be difficult to add from the keyboard	80
	ProveIt	Makes it easy to find, edit, add and cite references when editing articles. For use in combination with WikiEditor, as VisualEditor provides a citation tool itself.	67
	DotsSyntaxHighlighter	An alternative to the default coloring of wiki syntax in the edit box. Note: This gadget is unneeded when the CodeMirror extension is available unless you are on an RTL wiki, where this extension is currently not supported.	64
	CleanDeleteReasons	Removes the automatic deletion reasons to keep the delete logs cleaner	60
Appearance	UTCLiveClock	Adds a clock to the personal toolbar that displays the current time in UTC and provides a link to purge the current page	205
	Edittop	Add an [edit] link for the introduction section of a page	143
	markblocked	Pulls user accounts and IPs from the history page and strikes out the users who are currently blocked	59
	removeAccessKeys	Deactivates access keys in the web browser	54
Reading	Navigation popups	Offers access to page previews (in all namespaces), and dozens of related-links such as history pages. It appears as a popup window when you hover over links. It is primarily used by power-editors. This gadget has some overlap with the Page Previews extension which just shows article previews and is enabled by default on all Wikipedias. See some of the differences between the gadget and the extension.	154
	purgetab	Adds a tab that lets you purge the page's cache, so you do not have to manually load the page via the action=purge URL parameter	144
	Reference tooltips	Displays notes when you hover over on a footnote link. This gadget is unneeded when the Reference Previews extension is available. See Topic:V9ygqcn5s9d1eld4 for the differences between the gadget and the extension.	126
	Twinkle	Gives auto-confirmed registered users many extra options to assist them in common Wikipedia maintenance tasks and to help them deal with acts of vandalism or unconstructive edits	81
	Exlinks	Opens external links in a new tab or window	81
Patrolling	RTRC	Helps patrol recent changes in real-time	70
	ContribsRange	Find user edits in the IP range you want	67

Guidelines for gadgets

• For wiki admins:
  • Use the above statistics to find interesting gadgets your project is missing and other projects have.
  • If you want to enable a gadget on your wiki and this gadget already exists on another wiki:
    • If the gadget requires further code changes to meet the community's specific needs:
      • Follow Deploying or enabling a gadget or,
      • If you have special permissions (such as editing system messages or uploading files), you can export a gadget from the source project using [[Special:Gadgets/export/gadgetName]] (replace "gadgetName" with the correct name) and import it to the target project.
    • If the gadget doesn't require further code changes, follow Load an existing user script.
    • Note: It is recommended not to copy and paste the gadget's code from one wiki to another unless further code changes are needed. It is to avoid leaving a different copy of a gadget on the destination wiki, likely in an unmaintained state, and out of sync with the code changes at the source wiki.

• For users:
  • If you find a gadget on another wiki and the gadget would be useful on your home wiki, ask an interface administrator on your home wiki to enable it.
• For developers:
  • If you want to develop a gadget yourself, follow Developing user scripts and gadgets.

See also

• w:en:Wikipedia:User_scripts/List for a list of available scripts on the English Wikipedia.
  • w:en:Wikipedia:User scripts/Most imported scripts
• mw:Gadget kitchen for more information on writing gadgets.
• mw:VisualEditor/Gadgets for more information on writing gadgets that can interact with the Visual Editor.
• Special:GadgetUsage to view a list of gadgets and number of users who have enabled them on each wiki.