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I just finished (at 3am) the most releasable version of StackStalker, the new Chrome Extension that allows you to easily monitor any question you like, regardless of your membership status with StackOverflow!

I tried to make it simple, intuitive, and powerful, but mostly I wanted to create something that I would use. Hopefully it's useful for others out there too.

See the link for more details, and please give me some feedback, as this is my first Chrome Extension (and foray into the StackOverflow API)!

Thanks :)

UPDATE

Screenshot / Code Snippet

About

I always disliked having to sit there and refresh a question on any of the Stack Exchange sites waiting for something to update. I would rather ask a question, go do something else, and wait to be notified of an update. StackStalker is a Google Chrome extension created exactly for this purpose. It doesn't care who you are or what your personal stats are. You don't even have to have a Stack Exchange account to use it! Simply find a question you want to monitor the progress of, open the extension, click the "Add This Question" button, and go do something else! StackStalker will let you know when something is updated.

StackStalker is currently hooked up to all five participating Stack Exchange sites, but is constructed to very easily handle new ones. To monitor a question, you must be on that question's page to have the button appear. If you wish to stop monitoring any question (but want to keep it on your list), simply click the eye. To remove a question, click the red X.

Updates are defined by an update of score, answer count, accepted answer status, question comment count, and answer count. If any of these change, StalkStalker will let you know.

License

Free! Get it here

Download

Get it here from the Google Chrome Extension Gallery.

Platform

This extension is for Google Chrome only.

Contact

Created by me, Jason Edelman. If you want to contact me, my info is on the website listed in my profile, or you can just leave a comment here (I'll be monitoring this thread :)

Code

This was written entirely in HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript + jQuery. The code can be found by installing the app and locating it in your extensions folder.

share|improve this question
If you made me a version for Super User, you'd have an instant user – Ivo Flipse Jun 3 '10 at 12:15
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Please don't use URL shortening services. They are completely unnecessary. This is not Twitter. – Dennis Williamson Jun 3 '10 at 15:25
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@dennis - ha, sorry, i was posting it around and just had that on my clipboard – Jason Jun 3 '10 at 15:27
@ivo i will try to make it cross-SE compatible. that's always been the idea, i just don't know how without hard-coding each site: stackapps.com/questions/499/… – Jason Jun 3 '10 at 15:44
Jason, please follow the [app] announcement template. stackapps.com/questions/7/… – Kevin Montrose♦ Jun 3 '10 at 22:07
ah, thanks kevin. i will update this soon. – Jason Jun 3 '10 at 23:37
+1 for the 3am :) – systempuntoout Jun 8 '10 at 10:53
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@ivo - (and everyone else) i have updated it now to run all stack exchange sites :) i haven't had time to update the documentation yet, but i'm getting there! – Jason Jun 14 '10 at 17:05
@kevin documentation updated! – Jason Jun 15 '10 at 0:42
Awesome @Jason! Going to try it out again RIGHT NOW – Ivo Flipse Jun 16 '10 at 19:58
@ivo let me know what you think! it's still in development so there may be some bugs, but i think in general it does the job :) – Jason Jun 16 '10 at 20:47
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+1 - very nice. Simple, but effective. – Kevin Montrose♦ Jun 18 '10 at 18:23
@kevin thanks :) see how quickly i was able to respond? wonder why? :D – Jason Jun 18 '10 at 18:25
@Jason: it does his job well, though I'd love to have it note me on moderator flags and stuff as well... But those aren't include in the API are they? – Ivo Flipse Jun 22 '10 at 9:55
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This extension rocks. – Dusty Campbell Jun 22 '10 at 21:46
show 21 more comments

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

Update v2.2

  • Fixed a bug that showed "undefined" on the add button in some instances
  • If you have a question that you're following already open in a tab, clicking the link in StackStalker now navigates to that tab and refreshes the page instead of creating a new tab
  • If Chrome crashes and jQuery doesn't load for some reason, now it is dynamically loaded so the extension can continue
  • Minor rendering bugs, error handling improvements

These enhancements came at the behest of users. If you have any further feedback, let me know!

Update v2.2.1

  • Added temporary support for API update handling. If the API isn't working, the app will attempt to increment the API value once. If it still doesn't work it will default to 1.0. This should buy time until I am able to manually update the version in the app and push it back out.

Update v2.2.3

  • Updated to API version 1.0
  • Added *.stackexchange.com permissions
    • NOTE The permissions change will disable your extension temporarily. You must either click the "Re-enable" button when the bar pops up or re-enable from your chrome://extensions page
share|improve this answer
Works great, thanks! – Daniel Schaffer Jul 2 '10 at 18:03
So, you've got the first 1.0 compatible [app] by release -10 hours after 1.0... – Kevin Montrose♦ Jul 9 '10 at 9:18
@kevin - Good programmers prepare :) – Jason Jul 9 '10 at 9:20
@Jason - ::golf clap:: – Kevin Montrose♦ Jul 9 '10 at 9:48
@Jason - I don't suppose you could slap together generic *.stackexchange.com support in 2.3 as well? Would be nice... – Kevin Montrose♦ Jul 10 '10 at 7:29
@kevin - is that the plan for future sites that will be using the API? or will they get *.mynewstacksite.com? if it's the former, it's super easy. if it's the latter, it could be a problem each time a new site is added (permissions and such) – Jason Jul 10 '10 at 8:00
@kevin - updated to include *.stackexchange.com sites. I assume that when they are added to the API I will only have to add them to the list of sites rather than add *.newsite.com to permissions... – Jason Jul 10 '10 at 8:26
@Jason - when a site graduates from public_beta state it will get its own top-level domain. The time scale for site graduation is measured in months, so there's plenty of time to think of workarounds. I'm terribly familiar with Chrome extensions, but in the worst case you could just ask for http://* access... – Kevin Montrose♦ Jul 10 '10 at 10:24
@kevin do you think it's a good idea for stackexchange sites to maintain a stackexchange api? for instance, if xyz.stackexchange.com graduates, could its api be api.xyz.stackexchange.com rather than api.xyz.com? The way Ch Extensions work is you must grant the site TLD permission in the extension's manifest.json. Every time you add a permission (similar to a mobile app) you must request the user to accept the change. This can be annoying to users. if you stay with api.xyz.stackexchange.com, no more future permissions need to be added – Jason Jul 10 '10 at 16:40
@Jason - I did a little experimenting, you can use jsonp in chrome extensions. jQuery's .ajax() method will do all the nasty bits for you, so its not even all that complicated. This will let you dispense with the whole overbearing permissions system Chrome has going. For technical reasons, it is unlikely (granted, it might change in the coming months... but I doubt it) that the api.*.stackexchange.com domains will survive the graduation of their associated sites. – Kevin Montrose♦ Jul 11 '10 at 1:44
This plugin doesn't work for apple.stackexchange.com or wordpress.stackexchange.com. – Mike Wills Feb 14 '11 at 18:18
@mike it doesn't work for any except stackoverflow, stackapps, serverfault, superuser, and meta.stackoverflow. unfortunately i haven't had a chance to update it lately because of paid work! – Jason Feb 14 '11 at 22:04
Okay, thanks for letting me know. I hope at some point you can add the other StackExchange sites. I love not refreshing every couple minutes to see if there is an update. – Mike Wills Feb 15 '11 at 14:34
@Jason Is this an open source project somewhere where others can work on enhancing it? – Mike Wills Jun 15 '11 at 16:15
up vote 3 down vote

UPDATE: v2.1.1

  • Fixed bug that would not update if you were following more than one question on a given site
  • Added "Mark as read" functionality
  • Fixed some minor display bugs
  • Added a switch to easily move between dev and release mode
  • Fixed a bug that would not show the correct updated total on initial load

This extension is pretty much where I want it to be now, unless someone has a request for some additional functionality!

UPDATE: v2.1.2

  • Updated API to v0.9
share|improve this answer
perfect, just as i do a release they change the API version. ha... will get to this tonight – Jason Jun 24 '10 at 17:55
Last version doesn't work on my end (dev channel 6.0.447.0). Can't add questions anymore... – Koen Jun 29 '10 at 13:01
@koen - are you using v2.1.2? If you're on a lower version than that, you're using a version connected to the old (non-working) API and questions won't add. If you are on v2.1.2, try disabling and re-enabling the extension. If none of that works, let me know! – Jason Jun 29 '10 at 16:39

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