Subscriptions page

[Hubird]

Supplemental subscriptions on the ABP Subscriptions page should state in no uncertain terms the subscription they are intended to supplement. I realise they are indented in a sort of tree view but this is not clear enough for everyone to make the connection.

Maybe ABP could also warn the user in some way if the master subscription was not present, although I'm not sure how feasible this part is.

[Wladimir Palant]

Subscription page has been changed, the text now states again that a subscription is only a supplement for another one.

As to a warning in Adblock Plus - right now I don't see how this can be implemented in a good/consistent way.

[Michael]

I believe that Adblock Plus can detect the Filterset.G subscription and notify the user of potential problems. Could there not be a similar implementation to detect the primary and supplementary subscriptions that a user has?

[Wladimir Palant]

Filterset.G warning is being shown in the "Add filter subscription" dialog - most prominently on first run. I don't think the user will go back there after adding an "incomplete" filter subscription.

[Michael]

What about an alert after a supplementary subscription has been added without the primary one?

[Wladimir Palant]

An alert isn't helpful unless you give people a way to subscribe immediately. Which is turning into a non-trivial feature - not sure it is worth it.

[Hubird]

It looks like you are moving away from the user being taken to http://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions and instead showing that info inside ABP. I noticed that the changes you made to the subscription page (regarding if they are a supplement or not) do not show up using the new ABP show all subscriptions dialogue box.

Here is what it looks like for user who are not using a dev build:



And for those using a dev build:



You can see there is not mention of if it is a supplemental subscription or not.

[Wladimir Palant]

Yes, the webpage and the extension use different presentations (in particular, different sorting - and the extension shows fewer subscriptions). I didn't add "supplement" text to the extension yet. I am also considering whether implementing Michael's suggestion in that dialog would make sense - e.g. if the user selects a subscription without having the one it is supplementing it would offer subscribing to the main subscription as well.

[Hubird]

Maybe ABP could also warn the user in some way if the master subscription was not present, although I'm not sure how feasible this part is.

Maybe it could be done as simply as the filter subscription author adding an extra line into the file with the url of the parent subscription in it. If ABP detects this it warns the user and offers to add it (preferably in the language of the complimentary subscription as well as English).

[Wladimir Palant]

Sorry about mistaking Michael for the author of this suggestion

Nope, that won't work. Downloading the subscription takes time, it won't happen until after you added it. This is bound to get a very awkward user experience. Also, what is Adblock Plus supposed to do if that line appears in the subscription in some subsequent update? Show an alert box because of an action the user didn't trigger? So I think we are limited to that dialog, it has the info already.

[Wladimir Palant]

I've added a warning and "add main subscription as well" checkbox for the case that the user adds a supplemental subscription from "Add filter subscription": https://hg.adblockplus.org/adblockplus/rev/c2ce55ef9d77

Now I should probably add some parameters to abp:subscribe?... links to allow a similar message to appear there.

[alberto]

I've added a warning and "add main subscription as well" checkbox for the case that the user adds a supplemental subscription from "Add filter subscription": https://hg.adblockplus.org/adblockplus/rev/c2ce55ef9d77

Does this check if the main subscription was already in place based on the subscription URL? If so, will this still work fine with lists that support load balancing (many servers but still same URL?).

What's the recommended approach going forward for managing and promoting subscriptions: combined (main + supplement), or supplement with ABP suggesting adding main?

[Wladimir Palant]

Alberto: yes and yes. Sure, this warning won't show up if you already have the subscription. And it isn't affected by load balancing - there main location of a list is always the same, regardless of load balancing.

It is still better to add a combined subscription and recommendations will continue to offer combined subscriptions only. But there are many subscriptions where a combination isn't available (e.g. Fanboy's regional lists).

[Wladimir Palant]

All done, abp:subscribe links will be able to suggest a main subscription starting with the next development build: https://hg.adblockplus.org/adblockplus/rev/dad7fbfba9f5 (en/subscriptions already uses this feature). I should have en/abp_linkfactory updated soon.

[fanboy]

All done, abp:subscribe links will be able to suggest a main subscription starting with the next development build: https://hg.adblockplus.org/adblockplus/rev/dad7fbfba9f5 (en/subscriptions already uses this feature). I should have en/abp_linkfactory updated soon.

So what shows up when someone is using an older 1.0.x or 1.1.x build? when using the newer adp links?