Related issue:
- https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/763
Changes:
From now on, uBO will allow click-to-subscribe on only
a few select domains, currently:
- https://filterlists.com/
- https://github.com/
- https://github.io/
More domains can be added if and only the demonstration
is made that more than a marginal number of filter lists
can be subscribed from those domains.
The browser alert box is no longer used to confirm
subscription to a filter list. Instead, the asset
viewer has been expanded to serve that purpose. This
way, users can peruse at the content of a filter list
before subscribing to it.
The old "classic" popup panel will still be used
when at least one of the following is true:
- advanced setting `uiFlavor` is set to `classic`; or
- the browser is Chromium 65 or older; or
- the browser is Firefox 67 or older
The default configuration of the new popup panel
at installation time is to show the power button,
statistics and the basic tool icons, i.e. access
to dashboard, logger, pickers.
For existing installations, the new popup panel
will be configured by respecting the existing
configuration of the classic one.
The new popup panel is currently already in use
on Firefox for Android, and the visual redesign
was made according to suggestions and feedback
from <https://github.com/brampitoyo> to be
optimal for Firefox for Android.
The new popup panel will allow closing the following
pending issues:
- https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/255
- https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/178
Related issue:
- https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/780
New webext permission added: `dns`, which purpose is
to allow an extension to fetch the DNS record of
specific hostnames, reference documentation:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/dns
The webext API `dns` is available in Firefox 60+ only.
The new API will enable uBO to "uncloak" the actual
hostname used in network requests. The ability is
currently disabled by default for now -- this is only
a first commit related to the above issue to allow
advanced users to immediately use the new ability.
Four advanced settings have been created to control the
uncloaking of actual hostnames:
cnameAliasList: a space-separated list of hostnames.
Default value: unset => empty list.
Special value: * => all hostnames.
A space-separated list of hostnames => this tells uBO
to "uncloak" the hostnames in the list will.
cnameIgnoreList: a space-separated list of hostnames.
Default value: unset => empty list.
Special value: * => all hostnames.
A space-separated list of hostnames => this tells uBO
to NOT re-run the network request through uBO's
filtering engine with the CNAME hostname. This is
useful to exclude commonly used actual hostnames
from being re-run through uBO's filtering engine, so
as to avoid pointless overhead.
cnameIgnore1stParty: boolean.
Default value: true.
Whether uBO should ignore to re-run a network request
through the filtering engine when the CNAME hostname
is 1st-party to the alias hostname.
cnameMaxTTL: number of minutes.
Default value: 120.
This tells uBO to clear its CNAME cache after the
specified time. For efficiency purpose, uBO will
cache alias=>CNAME associations for reuse so as
to reduce calls to `browser.dns.resolve`. All the
associations will be cleared after the specified time
to ensure the map does not grow too large and too
ensure uBO uses up to date CNAME information.
Related issue:
- https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/416
The Chromium version of uBO has declared `unlimitedStorage` since the
extension was first published in 2014. Declaring this permission in
Firefox brings uBO inline with the Chromium version. I suspect some
reported errors could be caused by IndexedDB eviction due to the lack
of `unlimitedStorage` permission.
Additionally, a timeout has been added when uBO tries to access its
indexedDB storage. It's unclear whether this will help with the
mentioned related issue though, the root cause is still to be
identified.
Performance-related work: the logger data has been decoupled
from the DOM -- inspired from CodeMirror's way of efficiently
handling large amout of text data.
This decoupling now makes the logger highly efficient CPU- and
memory-wise, and open the way to more possibilities.
Ability to configure some aspect of the logger behavior and
visuals:
- The hard-coded limit of 5000 entries has been
removed and is now replaced with a variety of
user-configurable settings to enforce the discarding of
logger entries.
- Some columns in the logger output can now be hidden.
The filter list look-up feature has been merged into the
existing overlay dialog used to create URL rules or static
filters, as an entry in a new "Details" pane.
Other issues addressed during refactoring:
- https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/280
- https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/1999
The minimum version supported on Firefox has been bumped
up to 55.0.
When using paths, platform implementations of setIcon typically
will fetch the resource then convert to image data internally.
It is preferable for uBO to do this conversion itself as it can
be done only once at launch time.
With chromium-based browsers, using image data eliminate the
incessant network traffic to fetch browser icons as reported
in the extension's dev tool, meaning a good chunk of overhead
is eliminated.
Also, use optimal icon sizes, as of now both chromium and firefox
prefers 16px instead of 19px, and 32px instead of 38px.
Raymond Hill