Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Adblock Plus 1.2 for Chrome release candidate available · 2012-01-09 14:56 by Wladimir Palant
The current development build (Adblock Plus 1.1.4.757 for Google Chrome, the non-experimental version) is a release candidate for Adblock Plus 1.2. It got a bunch of changes over the last few days, mostly polishing:
- Options: Fixed displayed subscription download time after a filter update.
- Fixed content script functionality in Chrome 18.
- Fixed: Two “Add filter” dialogs might get opened at a time, in that case the first dialog becomes dysfunctional.
- Fixed third-party checks when not using webRequest API.
- Removed work-around for WebKit’s image loading bug (fixed in Chrome 16).
- Updated user interface translations from Adblock Plus/Firefox.
- Updated to current versions of code modules from Adblock Plus/Firefox.
- Updated to current jQuery and jQuery UI versions.
The bigger (and older) changes in this version:
- Better blocking thanks to webRequest API (only in Chrome 17 or with the experimental builds).
- Changed user interface for filter subscription management (an intermediate step towards porting our Firefox user interface).
- Improved “Add filter” dialog, safe from being manipulated by the web page and with filter editing.
- Filter data is being stored using File System API, file format identical to Firefox.
- Using the same algorithm for filter subscription updates as in Firefox (proper handling of expiration intervals, download mirrors etc).
- Proper handling of $third-party filter options, top-level domains like co.uk are now being considered.
- No longer putting all our element hiding rules into the document’s DOM.
There will be a release shortly, please report any issues you notice.
Raymond Chen quote of the day · 2012-01-05 19:59 by Wladimir Palant
I regularly use a program that doesn’t follow this rule. The program allocates a lot of memory during the course of its life, and when I exit the program, it just sits there for several minutes, sometimes spinning at 100% CPU, sometimes churning the hard drive (sometimes both). When I break in with the debugger to see what’s going on, I discover that the program isn’t doing anything productive. It’s just methodically freeing every last byte of memory it had allocated during its lifetime.
Diagnostics 1.2 for Adblock Plus released · 2012-01-05 10:51 by Wladimir Palant
Install Diagnostics 1.2 for Adblock Plus
- Made Diagnostics install/uninstall without requiring a browser restart.
- Added context menu to copy item’s address and filter.
- Dropped support for old application versions (at least Firefox 8, Thunderbird 8 or SeaMonkey 2.5 required now).
Adblock Plus 2.0.3 released · 2012-01-05 09:54 by Wladimir Palant
- Added a way to disable automatic filter subscription updates by means of a hidden preference.
- Fixed: Blocking from context menu sometimes doesn’t work if the context menu has a submenu.
- Fixed: Tabs on Flash and Java sometimes disappear before they can be clicked.
- Filter Preferences: Fixed the default width of the “Enabled” column.
- Blockable items: Fixed “Disable filter on site” feature.
Element Hiding Helper: the restartless edition · 2012-01-04 14:00 by Wladimir Palant
Starting with Element Hiding Helper 1.2a.361 the Element Hiding Helper extension installs and uninstalls without a browser restart as well. You can also enable or disable Element Hiding Helper immediately in the Add-ons Manager. However, you will still need to restart your browser when updating from an older extension version because this older version cannot shut down while the browser is running. As with the Diagnostics extension, a reasonably new application version is required (at least Firefox 8, Thunderbird 8, SeaMonkey 2.5), old versions are no longer supported.
Another important change: Element Hiding Helper will no longer warn you if Adblock Plus isn’t installed, we will instead rely on AMO to communicate this to users. One reason for removing this check is that Adblock Plus should also become restartless in future which will make checking for its presence a lot more complicated.
Measuring the memory use of an SDK (Jetpack) based add-on · 2012-01-04 11:37 by Wladimir Palant
Add-on SDK 1.2.1 added a nifty feature: starting with Firefox 9 the memory usage of add-ons built with the SDK is visible in about:memory. However, if you actually try to use this feature you get lost in the sheer amount of compartments. Each module gets its own compartment and the SDK has lots and lots of them. This even prompted a user to report “zombie compartments” caused by my only SDK-based add-on so far.
Diagnostics for Adblock Plus: the restartless edition · 2012-01-02 10:51 by Wladimir Palant
Creating extensions that can be installed, uninstalled and updated without a browser restart used to be very painful but got a whole lot easier with Firefox 8. I am now making all my add-ons restartless, Diagnostics for Adblock Plus is the first try. The current development build (Diagnostics 1.2b.156) should work exactly like the previous versions but e.g. disable immediately if you click the corresponding button in the Add-ons Manager. Reasonably new browser versions are required (at least Firefox 8, Thunderbird 8, SeaMonkey 2.5), old versions are no longer supported.
Customizations 1.0 for Adblock Plus released · 2011-12-27 18:40 by Wladimir Palant
This is the first Customizations for Adblock Plus release. This extension provides a collection of semi-supported user interface tweaks for Adblock Plus. It can be installed without restarting the browser — easy to try. More information
First Customizations for Adblock Plus development builds · 2011-12-22 18:51 by Wladimir Palant
Customizations for Adblock Plus is a new extension providing some advanced semi-supported customization options. The goal is to make the customizations such as the ones described in the FAQ more comfortable and easier to try. The extension installs without requiring a browser restart, clicking the Options button in the Add-ons Manager shows the available options. Right now we have:
- Vertical layout for Filter Preferences (filters below subscriptions)
- Some more options for Filter Preferences to save space
- Toolbar icon display configuration (text and/or icon)
- Removing Adblock Plus from all browser menus
- Two hidden Adblock Plus options (left-click action for the toolbar icon and default selection for the Filter Composer)
Adblock Plus 2.0.2 released · 2011-12-21 17:52 by Wladimir Palant
- Improved texts describing “non-intrusive ads” feature.
- Made toolbar icon properly customizable in Thunderbird.
- Fixed: Filter editing is broken in Firefox 3.6.
- Firefox Mobile: Fixed user interface to handle “non-intrusive ads” feature properly.