WW Points -- Kinda Sorta Back?

I'll be the first to admit that I've never used the WW points feature on FatSecret BUT I am a huge geek as well as a computer programmer. So I took a few hours today and put together a Greasemonkey script that adds the WW points back to the food diary.

What's Greasemonkey? Well, it's an addon for Firefox that let's users (like you and me) make changes to the way websites we're visiting look. When you install a Greasemonkey script, it only affects your computer (i.e. it only looks different for you.)

With that all in mind, if you'd like to use my script to add WW points back to your FatSecret diary, you're going to need to do the following:

1) Use Firefox (Available for download here: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/)
2) Install the Greasemonkey plugin (From https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748)
3) Install my script (From http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/75800)
4) Make sure you are tracking Calories, Fat and Fiber via FatSecret (You can track other things too but these three are required: http://www.fatsecret.com/Default.aspx?pa=mpro#fjpref)


Example Screenshot

I've only tested the script on my particular setup (Windows Vista, Firefox 3.6.3 and Greasemonky 0.8.20100408.6) If you run in to any issues, I'll try to be as helpful as I can but can't promise to resolve any particular bugs or problems you may have.

FAQ

Q: I still can't see WW points in my Android/iPhone/Blackberry app, what gives?
A: Sadly, the script only works for the website (and, even then, only in Firefox). Apps for phones are built in a different way and I don't know of any way for users to modify copy-protected apps like the FatSecret one.

Q: Help! This was working and then suddenly stopped working
A: This script depends on how FatSecret currently formats their content. If FatSecret changes things (by adding new features, spiffy colors, etc.) then I'll need to release a new version of the script to handle the changes.

Q: Do you support the different Weight Watchers points structures?
A: Since version 0.6.1, the new Weight Watchers Points Plus calculations are used. If you want to use the old Weight Watcher Points, visit this page and click "Install" next to the May 13, 2010 02:38 version. In future versions, I hope to allow the formula to be editable by the user.

Q: The Points Plus system excludes most fruit & vegetables. How can I achieve this?
A: A planned future feature is to allow the user to mark any one food item as skipped so that it counts as zero points.

Nerds are cool.

Wow that's awesome! Thanks a lot!!! I was copying and pasting to a spreadsheet and thought that was cool. I must admit, I am a little nervous about downloading anything to my computer. I might wait a couple of days and see what other people experience. Now that I am in my 50's I am not as trusting as I used to be.

Healsdata, you're a life-saver! Thank you so much for the work you've done on this. Very thoughtful of you indeed. I did have to fumble around to get it to show up because I'm new to Firefox & Greasemonkey but for others new to this like me, you will need to right-click on the monkey icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and select "Manage user-scripts"... Thanks again!

*Raises a 1 point beer in Healsdata's honour!* Cheers!

p.s. I already pay my $40 a month for WW so please, no flames about stealing!

p.p.s. I'm running Windows 7 and it works fine...

Hi
I am trying to create a ww point calculator but fat friendly instead of carbs.
That is instead of having fat in the point equation to have the carb grams. If you know the calculation instead of dividing fat into 12 you divide carbs into 24. can you help?

Wow! you da bomb!

I'm not tracking points, and I'm not starting now. But, you are da bomb!

Tried it...WORKS GREAT!

I'm glad everyone is having success using this!

That's a good stance to take! I don't use a Greasemonkey script until it has good reviews or a friend recommends it.
Yeah, it's a shame this only works in Firefox. I don't know of anything comparable for Internet Explorer which would make this available to more people.
I may be able to make a version that will allow you to change the calculation on your computer. Will be a little trickier but I'll toy with it this week.

I SERIOUSLY cannot thank you enough.

I was really upset to have the points go away. This really works.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much! I already pay them enough to go to meetings, I don't think its fair they want us to double-pay for the online tools, which is why I'm here, this will make my life much easier (I already pay so having the formula here isn't stealing, it just saves me from writing down math, its saving trees!) hehehe

FYI, seems to work great both on my laptop with Windows7 and my iMac running Snow Leopard!

Genius!

Funny, I thought to do the exact same thing. Thanks for doing it!

One nit: Because of the fiber in my breakfast this morning, I had a 6-point item and a 3-point item. The total came to 10 points instead of 9.

--Mark

Thank you! How kind of you to create it and share it with us!

I am not on WW but I think that it is so wonderful that you took the time so that WW can have their points back. Now thats truly a nice thing to do...bravo!

I installed the script in my Firefox, and in my Fatsecret food diary it only shows the WW points on the totals for the day and in the Breakfast section, it does not show the points in the Lunch, Dinner, or Snack sections of the page.

Actually I'm noticing this as well, I thought it was because I already had foods entered when I installed it but I added a snack after wards and the total updated by the individual item line didn't show the points like it does on breakfast items.

Hey Healsdata, I got my columns ready to roll like you suggest, any way you can fix the thing for these problems.

You may become a hero to the masses!!

I was curious about that -- sometimes the total calories/fat/fiber for a meal give different points than adding up the individual items. Is the proper way to count to add up the individual items?


Huh, that's odd. When I look at your calendar for yesterday, the only items without points are carrots and garlic -- both which come up as zero points when I do the math. Does the WW cookie row not have a point value on your screen?

I'll definitely work on a new version of the script after work today to try and solve both of these issues based on additional feedback!