Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Changes to the Adblock Plus release process (or why the new version isn't available on addons.mozilla.org) · 2011-02-16 15:08 by Wladimir Palant
A while ago there was an announcement that AMO would try to reduce the number of “trusted” add-ons (meaning: add-ons where an update would immediately become available without review). The old approach was to mark add-ons as “trusted” if they are popular and go through a thorough testing process before each release. The new approach is to grant this status only if absolutely needed. Obviously, Adblock Plus and Element Hiding Helper no longer match the definition of a “trusted” add-on and so this status has been revoked now.
While I understand the reasons for that decision, last thing that I want is sitting around idly waiting for AMO to approve an update. So I decided to take it out of the loop — new releases will now be published and announced on adblockplus.org immediately. Once the release becomes available on AMO as well the download link will change automatically and point to their download servers.
There was one more policy change: there is now a limit to how long an add-on is allowed to go without review. This affects Diagnostics for Adblock Plus which has been intentionally left unreviewed so that one had to accept a warning to install it. The new policy doesn’t allow this so I’ll now have this add-on hosted on adblockplus.org only. The nice side-effect is that you will now get update notifications (need to install Diagnostics 1.1.4 first).
Comment [9]
Commenting is closed for this article.
Ryan Goldstein · 2011-02-16 15:58 · #
Should we do anything (or is there anything we can do) to make sure we get the updates as soon as you publish them, as opposed to waiting for AMO approval?
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
No. I guess that the reviews won’t take longer than a day (at least that was my experience before Adblock Plus became “trusted”).
NiColaoS · 2011-02-17 21:05 · #
When I’ll get the update through Add-ons Manager (Check For Updates) ?
When you will release new version here or when that version will come
after that will become trustedon mozilla.addons?Btw the last dev. version has a bug… On a page I disabled ABP ( entirely ) and then I wasn’t able to enable it again… All 3 new context-menu options disappeared…
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
Update checks normally go to addons.mozilla.org, so the extension needs to be approved there before you will get an update notification. Only development builds get updated through adblockplus.org, and now also Diagnostics releases.
Thank you for reporting the development build issue, I fixed it now: https://hg.adblockplus.org/adblockplus/rev/fe2dd617f051. There will be a new development build in ~20 minutes.
NiColaoS · 2011-02-17 21:09 · #
Well… That was real stupid question… Certainly when will come finally on mozilla.addons.
NiColaoS · 2011-02-18 14:59 · #
I came back to dev. build! Nice, thank you! I don’t know how to do advanced check, but, seems everything working perfectly!
Sataris · 2011-02-19 14:56 · #
I’m surprised there was no dialogue between authors and mozilla before mozilla made this change in policy.
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
There was. And there are good reasons why they did.
rental elf · 2011-02-19 16:42 · #
Nice article, thanks for the information.
dominique · 2011-02-22 01:07 · #
I know it’s probably not the right place to ask but… how come ADP does not block the Linkedin Ads?
https://www.linkedin.com/ads/start?src=en-all-ad-li-ads_by_li&trk=ads_by_li&utm_medium=ad&utm_source=li&utm_campaign=ads_by_li
Thanks
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
Right, the forum is a better place – and you don’t need to register to ask a question. See https://adblockplus.org/en/getting_started#subscription – what is blocked and what isn’t depends on your filters. Without knowing which filter subscription you are using I don’t have any answer for you.
Kris Maglione · 2011-02-28 10:03 · #
Why don’t you just opt for Preliminary Review for Diagnostics? That way you still get a warning, automatic updates, and a listing on AMO. And, for that matter, if you’re interested in a warning, you can always specify an EULA.
qwerty · 2011-03-02 18:09 · #
Can’t you release new version on beta channel? AFAIK they desn’t need review.