Scripting ELinks with ECMAScript
Prev? | ? | ?

## Scripting ELinks with ECMAScript

As a user of ELinks, you can control its behaviour by writing scripts in ECMAScript. Unlike scripts in SCRIPT elements of HTML, these user scripts run with all the permissions of your user account, the same as with Lua. The object model is very different too.

Support for ECMAScript user scripts was first added in ELinks 0.11.0. The `configure` script enables it by default if the required SpiderMonkey library has been installed, but you can disable it with `configure --disable-sm-scripting` or by editing features.conf.

### Warning

ECMAScript scripting is still a bit experimental: there seem to be ways to crash ELinks with it, and the object model may change. However, if you don't have a `hooks.js` file, there is not much risk in enabling the feature at compile time.

When ELinks starts up, it evaluates the ECMAScript file `hooks.js` in your ELinks configuration directory (thus normally `~/.config/elinks/hooks.js` on Unix-like systems), or if the file does not exist there, then in the system-wide ELinks configuration directory (the location depends on how ELinks was built, but `/etc/elinks/hooks.js` is typical).

In the ELinks source tree, the `contrib/smjs` directory contains some examples about scripting ELinks with ECMAScript. Please see the `README` file in that directory for details.

### Global Object

The global object provided to ECMAScript user scripts contains the standard ECMAScript classes, as well as the following:

#### Global Object Methods

do_file(path)

  Load and evaluate the file with the given path (string). For example:

      do_file("/home/me/.config/elinks/hooks.js");

  will reload your hooks file.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0

#### Global Object Properties

elinks (elinks)

  A reference to the ELinks object.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0

### ELinks Object

The global elinks property refers to this object.

#### ELinks Object Methods

elinks.alert(message)

  Display the given message (string) in a message box. For example:

      elinks.alert("Hello, world!");

  will display a friendly greeting.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0

elinks.execute(command)

  Execute the given command (string) on the current terminal. For example:

      var quoted_uri = "'" + elinks.location.replace(/'/g, "'\\''") + "'";
      elinks.execute("firefox " + quoted_uri);

  will run Firefox with the URI of the current document.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.12pre1

  ### Warning

  One must be very careful with elinks.execute, because depending on the OS, the command may be subject to interpretation by a command shell language. When constructing the command string, be sure to quote any dubious parts (such as the URI of the current document, as above).

elinks.load_uri(uri, callback)

  Load the given URI (string). When the URI completes loading, ELinks calls the given callback (function). The callback is passed the cache object that corresponds to the URI. For example:

      elinks.load_uri("http://www.eldar.org/cgi-bin/fortune.pl?text_format=yes",
                      function (cached) { elinks.alert(cached.content); });

  displays a fortune.

  The cache object will not expire until after the callback returns.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.12pre1

#### ELinks Object Properties

elinks.home (string)

  ELinks's ?home? directory, where it stores its configuration files. Read-only. For example,

      do_file(elinks.home + "hooks.js");

  will reload your hooks file.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0

elinks.location (string)

  The URI of the currently open document. This can be read to get a string with the URI or set to load a different document. For example,

      elinks.location = elinks.location + "/..";

  will go up a directory (if the URI doesn't end in a file).

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0

elinks.bookmarks (hash)

  This is a hash, the elements of which correspond to the bookmarks. One can delve into the bookmarks hierarchy in a reasonably nifty fashion, just by using standard ECMAScript syntax:

      elinks.bookmarks.x.children.y.children.z.children.foo.title

  gets the title of the bookmark titled ?foo? under the folder ?z?, which is a subfolder of ?y?, which is a subfolder of ?x?.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0

  A bookmark object has these properties:

  item.title (string)
    This is the title of the bookmark. It can be read and set.
  item.url (string)
    This is the URI of the bookmark. It can be read and set.
  item.children (hash)
    This is a hash, the elements of which are the bookmarks that are children to the item. It is read-only.
elinks.globhist (hash)

  This is a hash, the elements of which correspond to entries in ELinks's global history. The hash is indexed by URI. For example,

      elinks.globhist["file:///"]

  will get you the history item for your root directory.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.12pre1

  A history item has these properties:

  item.title (string)
    This is the title of the history item. It can be read and set.
  item.url (string)
    This is the URI of the history item. It can be read and set.
  item.last_visit (number)
    This is the UNIX time of the last visit time for the item. UNIX time is the number of seconds that have passed between the UNIX epoch (which is 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC) and the represented time. Note that this is seconds since the epoch, whereas ECMAScript likes to use milliseconds since the epoch. This property can be set or read.
elinks.action (hash)

  This hash lets you call the built-in actions of ELinks. For example, you can call `elinks.action.auth_manager()` to open the authentication manager. The names of the actions are the same as in elinks.conf or in the keybinding manager, except they have underscores instead of dashes in order to make them valid ECMAScript identifiers.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.12pre1

  ### Note

  When you read an action function from this hash, ELinks binds it to the current tab; any later calls to the function throw errors if that tab no longer has the focus (in its terminal). This may be changed in a future version. It is safest to call the function right away, rather than save it in a variable and call it later.

elinks.keymaps (hash)

  This is a hash, the elements of which correspond to ELinks's keymaps. Currently, there are three: elinks.keymaps.main, elinks.keymaps.edit, and elinks.keymaps.menu. These elements are also hashes, the elements of which correspond to bindings. For example, `elinks.keymaps.main["q"]` is the binding to the ?q? key in the main map. These bindings can be read, to get the name of the action to which the key is bound, or set to one of:

  - A string with the name of the ELinks action.
  - A function, which will thenceforth be called when the key is pressed.
  - The string `"none"`, to unbind the key. You can also use the `null` value for this purpose, but that crashes ELinks 0.11.4 and 0.12pre1 (bug 1027), so it may be best to use the string for now.

  For example,

      elinks.keymaps.main["!"] = function () { elinks.alert("Hello!"); }

  binds the ?!? key in the main map to a function that displays a friendly alert.

      elinks.keymaps.main["/"] = "search-typeahead-text";

  changes the ?/? key to use the nice typeahead search function instead of opening that ugly old search dialogue box.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0, unless you use `null`.

  ### Note

  Do not read a function from elinks.action, e.g. `elinks.action.search_typeahead_text`, and place it in a keymap. ELinks binds such functions to the current tab when the script reads them from elinks.action, so they will not work right in other tabs. Use the name of the action instead.

elinks.vs (view_state)

  This property refers to the view-state object for the current document, if any.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.12pre1

#### ELinks Object Hooks

These are actually properties, but a special case: one assigns functions to them, which functions are called at certain events.

In the ELinks source tree, `contrib/smjs/hooks.js` provides a mechanism with which multiple scripts can add their functions to the same hooks. Please see `contrib/smjs/README` for details.

elinks.preformat_html(cached, vs)

  This function is called every time a document is loaded, before the document is actually rendered, to give scripts the opportunity to modify it. The first parameter is the cache object and the second is the view-state object.

  The cache object will not expire until after this function returns.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.1 as described. ELinks 0.11.0 did not provide the vs argument.

elinks.goto_url_hook(url)

  This function is called every time the user enters something in the Go to URL box. The url (string) can be modified or not, and the returned string is substituted for what the user entered. If the value `false` is returned, the URL is not changed and further hooks in ELinks are not run.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0

elinks.follow_url_hook(url)

  This function is called every time the user tries to load a document, whether by following a link, by entering a URI in the Go to URL box, by setting elinks.location, or whatever. It behaves the same as elinks.goto_url_hook above.

  Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0

### Cache Object

The cache object mentioned in the descriptions of elinks.load_uri and elinks.preformat_html is a wrapper for the internal ELinks cache object. ELinks passes the ECMAScript cache object as an argument to your ECMAScript function, and keeps the corresponding document in the cache until the function returns. After that, ELinks may remove the document from the cache, even if the function has saved the cache object to some global variable. Such an expired cache object does not work but it does not crash ELinks either.

Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.0

#### Cache Object Properties

cached.content (string)
  This is the content received from the server. It can be read and set.
cached.type (string)
  This is the MIME type of the cache entry. It can be read and set.
cached.length (number)
  This is the length of cached.content. It is read-only.
cached.head (string)
  This is the header received from the server. It can be read and set.
cached.uri (string)
  This is the URI of the cache entry. It is read-only.

### View-state Object

The view-state object mentioned in the descriptions of elinks.preformat_html and elinks.vs is a wrapper for the internal ELinks view_state object. The view state holds information on how the current document is being displayed.

Compatibility: ELinks 0.11.1

#### View-state Object Properties

vs.plain (boolean)
  Whether the current document is rendered as HTML or displayed as plaintext. This can be read and set.
vs.uri (string)
  This is the URI of the current document. It is read-only.

Prev? | ? | ?
Scripting ELinks with Lua? | Home | ?