Facebook is pretty awesome, but it is far from perfect. More than once, I’ve heard complaints about some of Facebook’s technical aspects. Sadly, Facebook isn’t open-sourced, so users can’t change anything themselves – or can they?
By using simple pieces of Javascript code, or by applying Firefox Greasemonkey userscripts, users can change the appearance and workings of Facebook themselves.
Facebook Account Javascript Tricks
In these following tricks we’ll be using basic Javascript to toy around with Facebook. Note that we’re not going to h@ck into Facebook accounts, or anything of the like. Most of these ‘h@cks’ are temporary and will disappear once you refresh the page. They also won’t be visible to users on other computers. So why are we doing it? – Because it’s fun!
These Javascript snippets, which we’ll supply below, simply need to be pasted into the address bar. Hit enter, et voila!
Changing Profile Colour
This will change the colour of your Facebook bar to a color of choice.
Just paste the following code in your address bar and hit enter. You can replace ‘red’ with any color you want – black, white, green or even orrange. If you want to reverse the effect, press Ctrl+F5 for a hard reload of the page.
javascript:void(document.getElementById('fb_menubar').style.background='red');View Chat History with Offline Friends
Unfortunately, you can’t normally view the chat history of online friends. If you’re trying to remember something that was said, waiting for them to come back online is one hell of a bother. Instead, you can just use this – pretty useful – Javascript trick.
First of all, we need to get your friend’s Facebook ID. When you visit his page indirectly (through your friends list or by using the search engine), you’ll be able to see it as a number in the address bar.
Another way to retrieve someone’s ID is by going to the Friends widget on their page, and right-clicking See All. Then you’ll have to copy the link location and paste it in your address bar.
Once you’ve got someone’s ID, simply paste the following code in your address bar, replacing 1122334455 with the relevant number.
javascript:buddyList.itemOnClick(1122334455);
Other Javascript Tricks
The preceding two tricks are without doubt the most impressive or useful ones. Below are some of the other tricks you can pull off by using Javascript. We’re not going to deep on this because they’re all things you can do manually as well.
Change chat status to invisible:
javascript:statusControl.sendVisibility(false);
Change chat status to visible:
javascript:statusControl.sendVisibility(true);
Close all chat windows with person 1122334455:
javascript:chatDisplay.tabs[1122334455].tabXOnClick();
Open application tab:
javascript:applicationDock.toggleTab();
Bring up notifications:
javascript:presence.toggleTab('chat_status_control','chat_status_control_tab');
Bring up friends list:
javascript:buddyList.toggleTab();
