Writing your first UserScript, Template as a beginner's tutorial

UserScripts are fun, useful and often productive. A lot of sites have small improvements you think could add a lot of value. And just because you are not the author of the site, you need not give up. With some basic javascript skills, you could write a userscript, install it on your browser, and make the site behave.

Step 1. Build a script from the template

Start with the following template and modify what you want

// ==UserScript==
//
//Displayable Name of your script 
// @name           My First Script 
//
// brief description
// @description    Alerts Hello   
//
//URI (preferably your own site, so browser can avert naming collisions
// @namespace      http://www.sarathonline.com/dyn/userscripts/hello/
//
// Your name, userscript userid link (optional)   
// @author         sarathonline (http://userscripts.org/users/****) 
//
// If you want to license out
// @license        GNU GPL v3 (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html) 
//
//(optional) may be used by browsers to display an about link
// @homepage       http://www.sarathonline.com/dyn/userscripts/hello/ 
//
//Version Number
// @version        1.0
//
// Urls process this user script on
// @include        http://*
//
// Add any library dependencies here, so they are loaded before your script is loaded.
//
// @require        https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js
//
// @history        1.0 first version
// @history        1.0b first beta version, who knew!!
//
// ==/UserScript==


//And of course your code!!
$(function(){
window.alert("Hello.. My Extension processed you..");
});

Thats it, You have your first userscript. By convention user scripts are

Step 2. Host your UserScript on web.

You have by now authored yourscript.user.js file. Now you need to distribute this as an extension. To do that you need to find a home for this file on the web. If can host a js file, on your own website. You could. However, if you do that on www.userscripts.org, your script is instantly available to a much larger audience. userscripts.org is a free user script hosting site, that also doubles as a market place. userscripts.org also provides an easier way to edit the code online, in case you need to update.

Step 3. Share and Install (coming)