Stack Exchange deleted post user script

README.md

Stack Exchange Deleted Question Viewer

Screenshot

About

Stack Exchange Deleted Question Viewer is a user script which allows any users with at least 500 reputation to see most deleted posts, if they have a link to them. It will display the post's title, content, vote counts and comments. If the post has been edited at least once, it will also display the author and editor.

You can try this out with a deleted question and answer of mine on meta.stackoverflow.com, then consider taking a look at the Popular Deleted Questions list on meta.

Caveats

You will only be able to see answers when you use their permalink, or you voted on them answer before they were deleted. This will fail for locked questions, but should work for all others.

This script relies on certain bugs and design features that are likely to be changed at some point. I'll accommodate these changes if it's possible, but it may not be.

License

Released under the MIT Open Source License.

Installation

Click here to install Stack Exchange Deleted Question Viewer.

Platforms

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox + Greasemonkey

Contact

Stack Exchange Deleted Question Viewer was written me, Jeremy Banks. You can just leave feedback in the comments, but if you would like to email me my address is in my profile.

Code

Stack Exchange Deleted Question Viewer was written in CoffeeScript. The source file is available here.

Oh, and...

...if any Stack Exchange folks would prefer that this be deleted, I won't object.

deleted-trunk.user.coffee

#!/usr/bin/env coffee --compile --bare
`// ==UserScript==
// @name        Stack Exchange Deleted Question Viewer (Developer Trunk)
// @version     1.1
// @description (Intended for developer use only.)
// @namespace   http://jeremybanks.ca/
// @include     http://stackoverflow.com/*
// @include     http://*.stackoverflow.com/*
// @include     http://superuser.com/*
// @include     http://*.superuser.com/*
// @include     http://serverfault.com/*
// @include     http://*.serverfault.com/*
// @include     http://stackexchange.com/*
// @include     http://*.stackexchange.com/*
// ==/UserScript==
`

load = (url, success, failure) ->
    # Loads a script specified by a URL into the document.
    
    e = document.createElement "script"
    e.setAttribute "src", url
    
    if success? then e.addEventListener "load", success
    if failure? then e.addEventListener "error", failure
    
    document.body.appendChild e
    
    return e

inject = (f) ->
    # Injects a function into the document and evaluates it.
    # 
    # It is injected as source code, so it loses its current
    # scope and gains a new one under the global scope.
    
    e = document.createElement "script"
    e.textContent = "(#{f})();"
    
    document.body.appendChild e
    
    return e

url = "https://raw.github.com/gist/1361876/deleted.user.js"

load url, null, -> console.error "Unable to load deleted question viewer trunk!"

deleted-trunk.user.js

// ==UserScript==
// @name        Stack Exchange Deleted Question Viewer (Developer Trunk)
// @version     1.1
// @description (Intended for developer use only.)
// @namespace   http://jeremybanks.ca/
// @include     http://stackoverflow.com/*
// @include     http://*.stackoverflow.com/*
// @include     http://superuser.com/*
// @include     http://*.superuser.com/*
// @include     http://serverfault.com/*
// @include     http://*.serverfault.com/*
// @include     http://stackexchange.com/*
// @include     http://*.stackexchange.com/*
// ==/UserScript==
;

var inject, load, url;

load = function(url, success, failure) {
  var e;
  e = document.createElement("script");
  e.setAttribute("src", url);
  if (success != null) e.addEventListener("load", success);
  if (failure != null) e.addEventListener("error", failure);
  document.body.appendChild(e);
  return e;
};

inject = function(f) {
  var e;
  e = document.createElement("script");
  e.textContent = "(" + f + ")();";
  document.body.appendChild(e);
  return e;
};

url = "https://raw.github.com/gist/1361876/deleted.user.js";

load(url, null, function() {
  return console.error("Unable to load deleted question viewer trunk!");
});

deleted.user.coffee

#!/usr/bin/env coffee --compile --bare
`// ==UserScript==
// @name        Stack Exchange Deleted Question Viewer
// @version     1.3.65535.0
// @description Allows you to view some deleted questions on Stack Exchange.
// @namespace   http://jeremybanks.ca/
// @include     http://stackoverflow.com/questions/*
// @include     http://*.stackoverflow.com/questions/*
// @include     http://superuser.com/questions/*
// @include     http://*.superuser.com/questions/*
// @include     http://serverfault.com/questions/*
// @include     http://*.serverfault.com/questions/*
// @include     http://stackexchange.com/questions/*
// @include     http://*.stackexchange.com/questions/*
// @include     http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/*
// ==/UserScript==
`

inject = (f) ->
  # runs a function in the document (without user script restrictions and privileges)
  script = document.createElement 'script'
  script.textContent = "(#{f})();"
  document.body.appendChild script

inject ->
  start = ->
    return unless location.pathname.match(/^\/questions\/\d+[\/$]/) and
                  document.title.match(/^Page Not Found - /) and
                  document.querySelector(".revision-comment")
    
    console.log 'Deleted question detected, attempting to retrieve...'
    
    if $?
      do continueWithjQuery
    else
      script = document.createElement 'script'
      script.src = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.2/jquery.min.js'
      script.addEventListener 'load', continueWithjQuery
      document.body.appendChild script
  
  markdownLoaded = undefined
  answerFrame = null
  
  continueWithjQuery = ->
    submitForm = (url, data, method = 'POST') ->
      form = $('<form>')
             .attr(method: method, action: url)
             .css(display: 'none')
      
      addData = (name, data) ->
        if $.isArray data
           addData("#{name}[]", value) for value in data
        else if typeof value is 'object'
           addData("#{name}[#{key}]", value) for own key, value of data
        else
          form.append $('<input>').attr
            type: 'hidden'
            name: String name
            value: String data
        undefined
      
      addData '', data
      
      form.appendTo('body').submit()
    
    submitForm "/questions/#{location.pathname.match(/^\/questions\/(\d+)[\/$]/)[1]}/answer/submit",
      'post-text': 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.'
      'display-name': 'nobody'
      'm-address': 'example@example.com'
      'home-page': 'http://example.com/'
  
  do start

deleted.user.js

// ==UserScript==
// @name        Stack Exchange Deleted Question Viewer
// @version     1.3.65535.0
// @description Allows you to view some deleted questions on Stack Exchange.
// @namespace   http://jeremybanks.ca/
// @include     http://stackoverflow.com/questions/*
// @include     http://*.stackoverflow.com/questions/*
// @include     http://superuser.com/questions/*
// @include     http://*.superuser.com/questions/*
// @include     http://serverfault.com/questions/*
// @include     http://*.serverfault.com/questions/*
// @include     http://stackexchange.com/questions/*
// @include     http://*.stackexchange.com/questions/*
// @include     http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/*
// ==/UserScript==
;

var inject;
var __hasProp = Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty;

inject = function(f) {
  var script;
  script = document.createElement('script');
  script.textContent = "(" + f + ")();";
  return document.body.appendChild(script);
};

inject(function() {
  var answerFrame, continueWithjQuery, markdownLoaded, start;
  start = function() {
    var script;
    if (!(location.pathname.match(/^\/questions\/\d+[\/$]/) && document.title.match(/^Page Not Found - /) && document.querySelector(".revision-comment"))) {
      return;
    }
    console.log('Deleted question detected, attempting to retrieve...');
    if (typeof $ !== "undefined" && $ !== null) {
      return continueWithjQuery();
    } else {
      script = document.createElement('script');
      script.src = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.2/jquery.min.js';
      script.addEventListener('load', continueWithjQuery);
      return document.body.appendChild(script);
    }
  };
  markdownLoaded = void 0;
  answerFrame = null;
  continueWithjQuery = function() {
    var submitForm;
    submitForm = function(url, data, method) {
      var addData, form;
      if (method == null) method = 'POST';
      form = $('<form>').attr({
        method: method,
        action: url
      }).css({
        display: 'none'
      });
      addData = function(name, data) {
        var key, value, _i, _len;
        if ($.isArray(data)) {
          for (_i = 0, _len = data.length; _i < _len; _i++) {
            value = data[_i];
            addData("" + name + "[]", value);
          }
        } else if (typeof value === 'object') {
          for (key in data) {
            if (!__hasProp.call(data, key)) continue;
            value = data[key];
            addData("" + name + "[" + key + "]", value);
          }
        } else {
          form.append($('<input>').attr({
            type: 'hidden',
            name: String(name),
            value: String(data)
          }));
        }
        return;
      };
      addData('', data);
      return form.appendTo('body').submit();
    };
    return submitForm("/questions/" + (location.pathname.match(/^\/questions\/(\d+)[\/$]/)[1]) + "/answer/submit", {
      'post-text': 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.',
      'display-name': 'nobody',
      'm-address': 'example@example.com',
      'home-page': 'http://example.com/'
    });
  };
  return start();
});

Makefile

all:
	coffee --compile --bare .

MECHANISM.md

Initial post IDs are taken from the URL.

For each known post ID:

• /posts/ID/edit
  • Contains title, body source and tags of post.
  • If the post has been edited, it also contains the names, comments and IDs for each revision.
• /posts/ID/comments
  • Contains the HTML text of the comments.
  • May provide the userid/name of the asker, if he has commented. Use this to get more info from real API.
• /posts/ID/vote-counts
  • Contains the up/down vote counts for the post.
• /posts/ID/votes (only use with the question)
  • Contains all votes/stars the user has cast on this question.
    • This may provide new post IDs to be searched.

Unused:

• OP identification in comments
• Tags at all (should be below post, at least)
  • Get counts via http://meta.stackoverflow.com/tags/TAGNAME/subscriber-info but with a huge throttle, because it's unimportant.
• Infer rough version of title from URL, before full title is known.
• Display real vote score, until it's clicked on.
• Add flagging flaggy button stuff.

Do something in the side bar: maybe display revisions of the post?

Example revision-specific URL: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/posts/73412/edit/edc0a9c8-1ad0-44bf-94b9-608dba80b95d

/questions/QID/stub/AID#AID

work for links to deleted posts, as well.

This doesn't seem to be working. It looks like the /posts/ URLs for deleted questions now return short "The post has been deleted and you can't..." documents.