Greasemonkey & global variables

Question

Hello everyone!

I'm noob with JavaScript and Greasemonkey and I'd like to write a simple script.

I know that Greasemonkey wraps your code with an anonymous function so your variables won't exist after leaving the current page. However, I need a global variable. I tried to use the unsafeWindow and window objects something like this:

if (window.myVar == undefined) {
   window.myVar = "myVar";
}

If I refresh the page the condition's value is always true.

Is there a way to use global variables with Greasemonkey?

Thank you for your replies.

Answer 1

You are using a global variable, but global variables only last as long as the page does so when you refresh you are clearing all global variables. The only way to save data past a page refresh is with a cookie, upload to the a server, or the HTML5 storage API. With greasemonkey probably you would want to use a cookie. If your are looking for a cross domain solution this probably will help http://diveintogreasemonkey.org/api/gm_getvalue.html

Answer 2

You have to use unsafeWindow in order to create a global variable that is available to the page's javascript scope.

if (unsafeWindow.myVar == undefined) {
   unsafeWindow.myVar = "myVar";
}

But you can't expect this variable to exist when you refresh the page, because normal javascript does not work that way. If you want to save some data across page loads then I suggest that you use GM_setValue & GM_getValue

Answer 3

If you're trying to maintain a variable through multiple page refreshes, you will need to store it in a cookie.

However if you simply want a global variable within the scope of a single page:

var imGlobal;
(function(){ // Greasemonkey crap...
...
imGlobal = "Totally";
})();
alert(imGlobal) // Alerts "Totally"