Adblock Plus updates and Safari Extensions Gallery

Everything about using Adblock Plus on Safari
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adblockmac
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2016 5:49 pm

Adblock Plus updates and Safari Extensions Gallery

Post by adblockmac »

Hello everyone,

Last couple of weeks I am waiting for my Adblock Plus installation on OS X El Capitan to get updated tot the latest version available according to the website of Adblock Plus (version 1.11 released on 8 March 2016). However, it seems that the version of Adblock Plus on the Safari Extensions Gallery does not get the latest version of Adblock Plus available, making it impossible for me to update my current Adblock Plus installation (versions 1.10.2).

Simple research concludes that Safari is searching for extension updates, but Adblock Plus is just not listed as an available update (Safari Extensions Gallery points out version 1.10.2 is still the most recent version of Adblock Plus). It is not possible to update manually using the website of Adblock Plus, while extensions installed from the Safari Extensions Gallery are protected against updates from other sources. There should be an easy way to update your Adblock Plus installation when installed using the Safari Extensions Gallery. The only way to have the latest version at this moment is to uninstall Adblock Plus and then install it from the website directly. However this is not convinient while this resets the block counter and all Adblock Plus preferences.

Does anyone know why Adblock Plus does not gets updates from the Safari Extensions Gallery? Could the developers of Adblock Plus please update the version of the Safari Extensions Gallery, in order to facilitate convinent and easy updates for Adblock Plus on Safari? Thanks for your help!
snoack
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:45 pm

Re: Adblock Plus updates and Safari Extensions Gallery

Post by snoack »

Since Safari 9, extensions are updated through the the Extension Gallery. But in order to get your extension updated on the Extension Gallery you have to send an email to Apple. Yes, seriously, this is the official process for Safari Extensions, now. However, we sent them an email to update Adblock Plus, every time we released a new version. But usually it takes several weeks until Apple updates the extension.

If you don't want to wait, you can still re-install Adblock Plus from our website. That will always get you the latest version. But you have to uninstall Adblock Plus first, otherwise Safari will show a rather bogus error message. Also note that after reinstalling Adblock Plus, all your settings will be reset.

Alternatively, just use Google Chrome or Firefox, where you just get extension updates (almost) instantly.
Last edited by snoack on Wed Mar 23, 2016 7:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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mapx
Posts: 21940
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:01 pm

Re: Adblock Plus updates and Safari Extensions Gallery

Post by mapx »

here how to modify the counter info (at least for chrome)
forum/viewtopic.php?p=108091#p108091

Sebastian could say if it's ok also for safari
snoack
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:45 pm

Re: Adblock Plus updates and Safari Extensions Gallery

Post by snoack »

Yes, that works for Safari as well. However, note that this particular post you linked to is outdated, as greiner explained in a more recent post in that thread.

Both, on Safari and Chrome, you can currently set the counter by running following code from the JavaScript console (Cmd + Opt + C) on the options page:

Code: Select all

Prefs.blocked_total = 1337;
adblockmac
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2016 5:49 pm

Re: Adblock Plus updates and Safari Extensions Gallery

Post by adblockmac »

snoack wrote:Since Safari 9, extensions are updated through the the Extension Gallery. But in order to get your extension updated on the Extension Gallery you have to send an email to Apple. Yes, seriously, this is the official process for Safari Extensions, now. However, we sent them an email to update Adblock Plus, every time we released a new version. But usually it takes several weeks until Apple updates the extension.
Thank you for your explanation on the update process of Adblock Plus on the Safari Extension Gallery. Although I understand while this could take a while, I really don't get why the Adblock Plus 10.10.2 update showed up on my Safari only a few days after the release while the Adblock Plus 10.11 update is taking more than 3 weeks to go online on the Safari Extension Gallery. Guess I will have to wait a little longer then... until the update just shows up on Safari.

Manually updating tot Adblock Plus 10.11 is something I don't want to do since you also disable automatic updates for Adblock Plus when installing it from the website. Very sad that the update process for Safari is so complicated, because I think there are a lot of Adblock Plus users out there that depend on the automatic updates installed from the Safari Extension Gallery rather than they are checking the Adblock Plus website for new versions.
kathampy
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:26 pm

Re: Adblock Plus updates and Safari Extensions Gallery

Post by kathampy »

The developer documentation implies that any extension (even those installed from outside the Safari Extensions Gallery) can check a custom URL for update.
https://developer.apple.com/library/con ... sions.html
snoack
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:45 pm

Re: Adblock Plus updates and Safari Extensions Gallery

Post by snoack »

This changed in Safari 9: https://developer.apple.com/library/con ... 05-CH9-SW5
Only Safari Extensions installed from the Safari Extensions Gallery can be updated automatically.
kathampy
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:26 pm

Re: Adblock Plus updates and Safari Extensions Gallery

Post by kathampy »

Why can't you program it to poll for updates and at least notify the user?
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