UserChrome.js/General

This page contains sample userChrome.js scripts that work in most or all Mozilla applications. Unless otherwise stated, they are self-contained so that you can copy any script from here and paste it in your userChrome.js file, and it will work without modification.

Copy user-interface text

This userChrome.js script copies text from a Mozilla application's user interface to the clipboard when you click the text. It will capture text from most user-interface elements, including menu items, labels, text fields, buttons, checkboxes, popups and alerts.

As supplied here, the script works on mouse button 2 ("right-click"). The copied text flashes yellow.

If you hold down the Shift key while you click, the copied text accumulates. For example, to accumulate the string "Advanced – General – Config Editor...", click once on "Advanced" then Shift+Click twice to accumulate the other parts.

If you copy a menu item, the script automatically climbs the menus to the top and accumulates all the choices. For example, if you click the menu item "Release Notes", you automatically get "Help – Release Notes".

Trees have only limited support: there is no color flash, and only the first column of the row you click is copied.

Configuration:

mouseButton	The mouse button to activate the copy: 0, 1 or 2
ctrlKey	Whether to require the Ctrl key to activate the copy
separator	The separator for accumulated strings (\u2013 is an en-dash)
flashColor	The flash color (any CSS color)
flashTime	The flash time in milliseconds

When you copy the script from this web page, make sure that you scroll to get all of it:

UICopy = {

  // configure...
  mouseButton: 2,
  ctrlKey: false,
  separator: " \u2013 ",
  flashColor: "yellow",
  flashTime: 200,

  // private:
  sofar: "",

  click: function (event) {
    if (event.button != UICopy.mouseButton) return
    if (UICopy.ctrlKey && !event.ctrlKey) return

    var elem = event.target
    var pcl = elem.ownerDocument.location.protocol
    if (pcl == "mailbox:" || pcl == "view-source:") return

    var text = UICopy.extract(elem)
    if (!text) {
      elem = event.originalTarget
      text = UICopy.extract(elem)
      }
    if (!text) return

    if (event.shiftKey) {
      if (UICopy.sofar) UICopy.sofar += UICopy.separator
      UICopy.sofar += text
      text = UICopy.sofar
      }
    else {
      if (elem.localName == "menuitem" || elem.localName == "menu") {
        var menu = elem.parentNode.parentNode
        while (menu.localName == "menu") {
          text = menu.getAttribute("label") + UICopy.separator + text
          menu = menu.parentNode.parentNode
          }
        }
      UICopy.sofar = text
      }

    Components
      .classes["@mozilla.org/widget/clipboardhelper;1"]
      .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIClipboardHelper)
      .copyString(text)

    if (elem.localName == "treechildren") return

    var nodes = elem.ownerDocument.getAnonymousNodes(elem)
    for each (var node in nodes) {
       if (node.localName == "label") {
        elem = node
        break
        }
      }

    var was = elem.style.color
    elem.style.color = UICopy.flashColor
    setTimeout(UICopy.clear, UICopy.flashTime, elem, was)
    },

  clear: function (elem, was) {
    elem.style.color = was
    },

  extract: function (elem) {
    var tag = elem.localName
    if (tag == "prefwindow" || tag == "wizard" || tag == "dialog") return ""
    if ((elem.localName == "label" || elem.localName == "description")
      && elem.textContent) return elem.textContent
    if (elem.firstChild && elem.firstChild.nodeType == 3)
      return elem.firstChild.nodeValue
    if (elem.hasAttribute("label")) return elem.getAttribute("label")
    if (elem.hasAttribute("value")) return elem.getAttribute("value")
    if (elem.hasAttribute("title")) return elem.getAttribute("title")
    if (elem.localName == "treechildren") {
      var min = {}, tree = elem.parentNode
      tree.view.selection.getRangeAt(0, min, {});
      return tree.view.getCellText(min.value, tree.columns[0])
      }
    return ""
    },

  load: function (win) {
    win.addEventListener("click", UICopy.click, true)
    },

  observe: function (win, act) {
    if (act = "domwindowopened")
      win.QueryInterface(Components.interfaces.nsIDOMEventTarget)
        .addEventListener(
          "load",
          function () {UICopy.load(
            win.QueryInterface(Components.interfaces.nsIDOMWindow))},
          false
          )
    }

  }


UICopy.load(self)

Components
  .classes["@mozilla.org/embedcomp/window-watcher;1"]
  .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIWindowWatcher)
  .registerNotification(UICopy)