Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Removing Do-Not-Track support from Adblock Plus · 2012-10-27 01:10 by Wladimir Palant
I still believe that the Do-Not-Track proposal is the most promising idea to let users opt out of tracking, it offers some value even to the people using Adblock Plus with the EasyPrivacy filter list. The proposal gained a lot of traction already and will continue to gain speed. Adblock Plus was one of the first implementors, and yet I decided that this feature is no longer worth keeping.
Adblock Plus 1.3 for Google Chrome™ released · 2012-10-27 00:38 by Wladimir Palant
Install Adblock Plus for Google Chrome™
Major changes
- Adblock Plus for Chrome is now officially out of beta, its functionality and stability are comparable to Adblock Plus for Firefox. The user interface is still lacking, we are working on that.
- Some acceptable ads are now allowed by default (Adblock Plus for Firefox had this for almost a year already, easy to disable, see full explanation).
- Added a first-run page (only shows up once for each user – either on new install or after update to Adblock Plus 1.3 from an older version).
- Better performance now that we rely exclusively on the webRequest API (Chrome 17 and below are no longer supported).
- Added support for element hiding exceptions.
- Made use of new security features in new Google Chrome versions.
- Worked around Chrome issue 49001 (some websites breaking due to our element hiding).
- Fixed a data corruption bug that would sometimes corrupt the filters.
- Removed sending of the Do-Not-Track header now that Chrome is capable of doing it itself.
- Source code license is the GNU General Public License v3.0 instead of the Mozilla Public License now.
Major platform update for Adblock Plus/Chrome · 2012-08-28 16:27 by Wladimir Palant
Adblock Plus 1.2.0.812 for Chrome got a huge update that brought its code in line with current Adblock Plus for Firefox state as well as prepared it for upcoming Chrome changes. More changes will be implemented now (including ones that will actually be visible), in the meantime please test this build and report back if something is broken.
Important note: Unfortunately, Chrome developers decided that extension installations from third-party websites should be complicated. Please read the Chrome installation notes on the page linked above. Yes, I feel your pain :-(
Customizations 1.0.3 for Adblock Plus released · 2012-08-22 13:56 by Wladimir Palant
This is the first localized release of Customizations, a bunch of translations have been added already. This is our pilot project using Crowdin for translations, feel free to register there and suggest improvements to existing translations. Other extensions will use this translation platform as well in future.
Adblock Plus 2.1.2 released · 2012-07-20 00:19 by Wladimir Palant
Changes
- Some startup time and memory use improvements
Modularization in a restartless extension · 2012-07-12 17:21 by Wladimir Palant
A simple restartless extension can probably keep all its code in the bootstrap.js file. However, it gets crowded there very soon. Plus there is some code that is really only boilerplate and should probably kept separate from your actual code.
This sounds like a job for JavaScript code modules. It is mostly a matter of taste (I prefer CommonJS module syntax) but there is one really big disadvantage of JavaScript code modules: they have to be unloaded explicitly when your extension is shut down. Which means that you either have to keep a list of modules to unload in your bootstrap.js file or add cleanup code each time you load a module. I find neither approach very compelling.
Why you should make your next add-on restartless · 2012-07-12 14:18 by Wladimir Palant
Note: This article is not about extensions based on the Add-on SDK (Jetpack). You don’t have to use the SDK to create a restartless extension. Just wanted to point this out explicitly to avoid confusion.
An extension that will install without requiring a Firefox restart? This was a nightmare to develop not too long ago. Fortunately, things changed and the last showstopper bug was fixed in Firefox 8. Effort to create a restartless (or bootstrapped as it is called officially) extension is acceptable now. In fact, I have converted all my extensions and removed support for classic non-restartless extensions from my build tools — I am certain that I am not going back.
Adblock Plus 2.1.1 released · 2012-07-03 14:50 by Wladimir Palant
Changes
- Improved startup performance.
- Filter preferences: improved display in right-to-left locales.
- Fixed: Adblock Plus might break extensions like IE Tab using NPAPI plugins.
- Fixed: Filter subscriptions are no longer being updated automatically.
- Fixed: Firefox Sync support isn’t working.
Customizations 1.0.1 for Adblock Plus released · 2012-06-28 22:20 by Wladimir Palant
Changes
- Updated for Adblock Plus 2.1
- Added option to change display of “Non-intrusive ads” filter list
- Removed “Remove Enabled checkbox label” option, Adblock Plus no longer displays that label
Adblock Plus 2.1 released · 2012-06-28 17:53 by Wladimir Palant
- Adblock Plus can be installed without restarting the browser now.
- Added support for Firefox Mobile 14.
- Improved Thunderbird integration.
- Updated for upcoming Firefox releases (especially Firefox 15).