Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Extension idea: Share Your Adblock List · 2006-09-03 01:59 by Wladimir Palant
I discussed automated publishing of filter lists with Malte Kraus (aka Dr. Evil) a while ago and I got an idea for an extension that might be useful. It should extend Adblock Plus (and maybe Adblock as well) to allow publishing your list of filters with two clicks. Unfortunately I won’t have time to implement it (the extension itself is pretty trivial but the server side will take some time).
How this could work: the extension adds its button to the Adblock Plus preferences. When it is clicked it opens a dialog that lets you tweak a few details — title of your list, your name, some generic comments, whether it should be searchable on the server, what filters should be excluded. All the parameters are optional, you can simply click “Publish” immediately. When the list is submitted the first time the server will generate a URL and a password for your list randomly so that next time you will simply overwrite it.
As to the server, its main function is to display the list nicely, together with submission date, title, publisher and Adblock (Plus) version. Optional sorting and highlighting (whitelisting/element hiding/regexp) would be nice additions. It should also provide a link to the “raw” view that can be used as a subscription. Other than that, the server should allow searching for filters — a nice way of looking up how other people solve their problems with a particular server, also how popular some filter is. Lists that the publisher didn’t want to be searchable should only be accessible via direct link of course. That’s the basic functionality — more features could be added, e.g. a history for filter lists.
Anybody who would be interested in implementing this?
Comment [2]
Commenting is closed for this article.
Master X · 2006-09-05 19:40 · #
You could ask Dr.Evil, he already made a extension ( http://maltekraus.de/Firefox/Search-Engine-Ordering ).
Should there be a central server or should everybody use his own site for hosting?
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
The idea was that there should be a central server – without it this extension is almost useless.
camel filters · 2006-09-13 08:44 · #
great idea!