Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Incompatible changes in current builds · 2010-05-02 11:38 by Wladimir Palant
As some already noticed, the current development builds (starting with 1.2.0+.2010050102) no longer work with extensions relying on Adblock Plus such as Element Hiding Helper or Filter Uploader. I should have announced this in advance, sorry about forgetting that. Right now is the rare occasion when Adblock Plus has to break compatibility with such extensions (last time was Adblock Plus 0.7.5.2).
Why are we doing that?
Next Firefox version will allow extensions to be installed without a restart. This isn’t something that will work for all extensions automatically, rather the extension has to explicitly support the new installation mechanism. The first changes to Adblock Plus towards this support landed in the development builds (core code moved from XPCOM component into JavaScript modules), several more are necessary before this work can be declared complete (move application integration code into a module as well and allow disabling modules while the application is running). This new architecture is one reason a new way to attach other extensions is necessary. The other is that the extension dependency mechanism used by Element Hiding Helper & Co. so far is going away, a replacement needs to be found.
How long until other extensions are updated?
The work on Adblock Plus needs to be finished first. Once the new architecture is in place and solid the new way to attach other extensions can be designed. Doing that earlier might mean redoing the same work again if Adblock Plus architecture changes in a way that couldn’t be anticipated. Unfortunately, that means that development builds will be incompatible to Element Hiding Helper for some time.
What if I need to use Element Hiding Helper?
You will have to go back to Adblock Plus 1.2, no other way. Watch the announcements here, I’ll post one once Element Hiding Helper and other extensions have been updated.
Comment [8]
Commenting is closed for this article.
Gary King · 2010-05-04 20:08 · #
Element Hider Helper works for me with this build.
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
It definitely cannot work – are you sure you have Adblock Plus 1.2.0+ development build installed?
Antonio · 2010-05-05 00:08 · #
And what about taking advantage of this re-structuration by adding Element Hiding Helper functions to Adblock+?
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
1) The restructuring is happening in a different part of the code – core, not user interface.
2) There are no plans to integrate Element Hiding Helper in Adblock Plus, I don’t see any advantages in that.
Gary King · 2010-05-05 05:34 · #
I just used it to block out The “How To Geeks” image on http://www.howtogeek.com/. what I am using is below and it does work as designed for images anyway.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b243/TK-1913/adblock.png
Any questions just email me.
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
You don’t need Element Hiding Helper to block images, that’s Adblock Plus functionality. Element Hiding Helper is what you start with Ctrl+Shift+K – it will still work but actually adding the rule won’t.
Fred · 2010-05-10 13:14 · #
Hello,
QUOTE “There are no plans to integrate Element Hiding Helper in Adblock Plus, I don’t see any advantages in that.”
Reducing the size of the folder add-ons is absolutely not negligible (SIC) !
You understand the value of integrating respectfully “Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper” to “Adblock Plus” ?
Several add-ons files “.xpi” increase exponentially the space used on hard drives … without increasing at the same scale the number of available functions.
Now, developers do not take the time to optimize their source code (I’m not saying it should be obfuscated!). Buy, buy good people, hard drives and RAM memory, always more.
Thank you very much to optimize the size of the footprint of yours add-ons on our hard drives in terms of size of files and folders.
Preceding message : https://adblockplus.org/releases/element-hiding-helper-106-released#c003281
Thank you very much. Sorry for my english, i’m french.
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
Size of Adblock Plus on disk: 1,321 kB. Size of Element Hiding Helper on disk: 196 kB. Together: 1,517 kB. Size of the smallest disk still available: 41,943,040 kB (most are significantly larger). Size of a typical MP3 file: 3,000 kB. I hope this gives you an idea of the proportions.
As to RAM, there is no reason whatsoever why Element Hiding Helper should use less memory if it were combined with Adblock Plus. Not that Element Hiding Helper is using any noteworthy amounts of memory to start with (Adblock Plus does however but still not too much if you consider that barely any computer has less than 512 MB of memory these days).
Fred · 2010-05-10 16:31 · #
ReHello,
No, no no, it’s very easy to look only at the size that your add-on uses. The size of my folder C:\Documents and Settings\NAME_USERorACCOUNT\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1234abcd.default\extensions is 59.6 MB (62,580,636 bytes) (but uses 81.6 MB (85,647,360 bytes)) ; the folder contains 3560 files and 1399 folders. Firefox takes a while to start, with a size of folder addon high (for 176 add-ons ! yes.). Thank you.
RAM USE by Firefox on XPSP3 now = 48 000~88 000 Ko
RAM MAX USE by Firefox on XPSP3 now = 250 396 Ko
NOTE : I use add-on Memory Fox 2.4. Works but …?
You can offer two versions … if you really do not use and do not like “Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper”.
Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper is ESSENTIAL to me :-)
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
Are the other 174 add-ons also essential?
Fred · 2010-05-10 17:06 · #
QUOTE “Are the other 174 add-ons also essential?”
Yes, if I have installed, but improvements are certainly necessary for them to be even more essential and useful. Maybe, i do not know how some add-ons can be improved, but on occasion, and if i can, i make requests to developers ;-).
The consolidation of several similar functions, or related by using, in a single xpi file would allow me to reduce the number of add-ons and the question “Are the other 174 add-ons also essential?” should be less important.
Thank you. Sorry for my english, i’m french.
Please · 2010-05-12 08:01 · #
How can there be no advantage to haveing element hiding filter….this is the best aspect of adblock plus imo.
Right click/select element to hide, and BAM! I can block anything I want all day long on any webpage. Some sites I have over 20 elements hidden. how is this “not” easier than dealing with css in firefox or writing custom adblock plus filters? There are plenty of users who do not, if ot most adblock plus users, who do not even know how to write a manual filter, most depend on pre-written filters via subscriptions. Not everybody cares to know either. I am a tech on the side and I can tell from my experiances most folks do not care to learn how to fix,repair or keep clean let alone safe surfing and rather just pay to keep system clean or reinstall windows everytime a virus appears.
Please keep element hiding filter or build this into it. I am sure it is not hard for you….even though you feel it is not needed and a “dumb” funtion, you must not forget your users. Also, most software programmers and scripters should keep think as if every user is a moron unless geared toward specific professionals in the professional communities….this is just my opinion though.
Myself, I can adapt to the change but wish element hiding would stay, it is so much easier to deal with unwanted elements and not time consumeing at all.
Please re-think it, please.
I thank you for listening to my ragged off the track reply, but, am truly upset element hiding filter doesn’t work anymore and I hate to use old stuff to keep a function.
steve
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
Please read carefully. Nobody plans to drop Element Hiding Helper, it is simply not working with the latest development builds yet. I only said above that there is no advantage in integrating it into Adblock Plus, nothing else.
konrad · 2010-07-04 23:03 · #
i’d like to support the plea of steve. it’s very important plugin to me; please reconsider your decision!
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
Reconsider what decision? Current Element Hiding Helper development builds work again – and have been working for quite a while. So, what is this about?