Remove anti-adblock notification
Background / User story
In February 2014 we introduced the anti-adblock notification which is a desktop notification that shows up when the user visits a site which is known to show messages targeted to ad blocker users. It'll then allow the user to enable the preinstalled "Adblock Warning Removal List" filter list to hide such messages.
Previously, those filters have been part of the EasyList filter list so this notification was introduced as a direct response to EasyList moving those filters from its primary filter list.
Since its introduction we've identified various issues with it:
- We're spending development resources on fixing it. For example:
- Notification not shown (trac#2592)
- Notification shown for pages which don't have such messages (trac#3238)
- Filter list is not added by default (trac#3772, trac#5019)
- No buttons in notification on Opera (trac#5354)
- Notification text truncated (trac#6093)
- No buttons in notification on macOS (trac#6415)
- Edge doesn't support
window.confirm()
(trac#7408)
- The following notification features are only used by this notification and could be removed:
The ability to add notifications by the extension itself- The ability to ask a Yes/No question.
- The ability to trigger a notification based on a list of URLs
Therefore we'd like to remove this notification. However, the following points are still unclear and need to be resolved beforehand:
-
How much value does this feature provide to users? Potentially, it could already be more annoying to them than helpful. -
Does Data depend on the "Adblock Warning Removal List" filter list to be installed by default? No (see comment). -
Do we need any of the aforementioned notification features for future notifications? Various ideas require the extension to be able to add notifications locally so we'll keep that part in.
What to change
- Design: N/A
- Research: None.
- Spec: eyeo/specs/spec!305
-
Development:
- Remove lib/antiadblockInit.js
- Remove locale/en_US/antiadblockInit.json
Hints for testers
- Anti-adblock notification should no longer be shown upon visiting a website known for showing anti-adblock messages.
- Notifications should show up in the bubble UI, depending on the notification type.
- Notifications of type "question" should be treated the same way as a notification with an unknown type.
Hints for translators
antiadblockInit.json file has been removed.
Integration notes
- Stop using adblockplusui/lib/antiadblockInit.js.
- Stop importing translations from adblockplusui/locale/*/antiadblockInit.json.
- "Adblock Warning Removal List" filter list no longer needs to be installed during first-run because we no longer use it.
- "subscriptions_antiadblockurl" preference can be removed because it's no longer being used.
- Support for "question" notification type can be removed because it's no longer being used.
- Support for "urlFilters" notification targeting option can be removed because it's no longer being used.