As Firefox continues to grow in popularity, it is inevitable that more and more users will install plugins such as Adblock and Adblock Plus. As we know, such extensions work by filtering site contents through a list of predefined wildcard directives and other rules. Users may also customize the block-list by right-clicking on unwanted images or even subscribing to an automated filterset updater. Apparently, a significant number of Firefox users employ these extensions to help control the relentless flood of unwanted advertising around the Internet. This concept works great when advertisements are blocked, but what happens when users are unwittingly denied access to legitimate content?

The Two Adblock Extensions

As many are not aware, there are currently two suspiciously similar Adblock extensions for Firefox. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, Firefox users may install either “Adblock” or “Adblock Plus”, both of which are freely available via the Firefox Add-on pages. For many months now, I have been using Adblock Plus. If I remember correctly, I had replaced Adblock with Adblock Plus several months ago while resolving a conflict with some other extension (I should be keeping a log for such changes!). Since installing Adblock Plus, I have been noticing missing content from a significant number of visited sites. While not having the time (until today) to explore the situation in greater depth, I decided to snap a few screenshots along the way, capturing the Firefox view of any sites that seemed to present with missing content. Here are few of the more popular ones:

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Last week, I finally got around to upgrading to Mint 2.14. The new version is quite impressive, and well worth the time (and cash) spent upgrading. In the process, however, one of my favorite, most heavily used bookmarklet things ceased to work.

Before the upgrade, I had been enjoying the highly useful Refresh-All bookmarklet by Jonathan Snook. Snook’s Mint-refresh bookmarklet made it super-easy to update all Mint data panels without having to refresh the entire page. Using the bookmarklet is much faster that reloading the browser, and there is even an alternate version that will refresh panels automatically at user-specified intervals.

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In the Beginning..

Over a year ago, I posted an article recommending over fifty “essential Firefox extensions.” Excited to have discovered the miraculous joys of extending Firefox with such amazing functionality, I loaded my primary copy of Firefox with just about every potentially useful extension that I could find. Several weeks were spent playing with new features, customizing preferences, and configuring options to gel together in an orchestrated chorus of blissful browser harmony. After experiencing the functional firepower of my newly equipped technological terror, I was completely convinced that I had assembled the ultimate collection of Firefox extensions. And, as the power went straight to my head, I was determined to enlighten the masses by publishing a complete, unedited list of 51 “essential” Firefox extensions.

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Mint As many statistics freaks already know, Mint is an excellent way to keep a close eye on your site’s visitors, referrers, most requested resources, and much more. Even better, Mint’s functionality is easily enhanced via a growing collection of free extensions referred to as "Peppers". Peppers provide Mint functionality for a wide range of statistical operations, including everything from geographical IP information to nice, graphical summaries of collected data.

While we have not tried every Pepper available today, we have managed to incorporate an extremely powerful arsenal of statistical weaponry that keeps us well-informed about our site’s online activity. For Mint users, the following list of Pepper extensions is essential for complete statistical analysis..

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Firefox extensions enable users to customize Firefox with additional features. Generally, Firefox extensions are free, open-source, and easily downloaded as .xpi files. This article explains how to hack Firefox extensions of the .xpi variety. There are many reasons why someone would want to hack a Firefox extension — examples include: editing code, debugging errors, and learning extensions. This hack method requires a web browser, zip utility, and text editor.

Step 1: Secure an extension

By default, the Firefox browser will cache and attempt to install any "extension.xpi" file it encounters. Once Firefox installs the plugin, it becomes much more complicated to hack. Therefore, it is best to save an offline copy of the extension. This is easily accomplished with a browser such as IE that does not automatically install the extension, but rather provides an option to save a copy. With IE, simply right-click the extension.xpi link and "Save Target As..". Regardless of the method, the point here is to secure a local copy of the extension.xpi file. Remember to make a backup copy.

Step 2: Initial extraction

Once you have a willing extension.xpi file, open it with a zip utility and extract the files into some directory, say, "/xpicontents/". Within the /xpicontents/ directory there should be at least a "chrome" folder, an "install.rdf" file, and a "licence.txt" file. Certain extensions may include additional and/or different files or folders. If anything looks too unfamiliar, extrapolate the method or find a different extension to use as you follow along.

Step 3: Editing the .rdf file

At this point, you have everything needed to edit the install.rdf file. Simply open the file in a text editor, make/save changes, zip the contents of /xpicontents/ into a new file, and change the file extension from .zip to .xpi. On the other hand, editing virtually any other aspect of the extension — JavaScript, CSS, (X)HTML — requires further digging.

Step 4: Hacking the .jar file

Located within the chrome folder, the "something.jar" file contains a variety of files, including JavaScript, CSS, (X)HTML, etc. Most extension editing will ultimately find its way to one of the files contained within the extension’s .jar file. So, to begin, rename the something.jar file to "something.jar.zip". Then, using a zip utility, open the something.jar.zip file and extract its contents into a unique directory, say, "/jarcontents/". Within the /jarcontents/ directory there should be at least two folders, "content" and "skin". Now, dive into the contents folder (or the skin folder, if needed) and edit, hack, and tweak the files to your heart’s content.

Step 5: Repacking the extension

After the necessary edits have been made, it is time to put humpty back together again. The first step is to replace the original contents of the something.jar.zip file with the freshly edited contents. To do this, select both content and skin folders (or whichever contains the edited material), right-click and add the selected folders to the something.jar.zip file located within the /jarcontents/ directory. Then, rename something.jar.zip back to something.jar.

At this point, you are ready to (re)package the chrome folder, install.rdf file, and license.txt file into a new .zip file, which we will call "hacked-extension.zip". To do this, simply select all three items and zip them into a new file named hacked-extension.zip. Finally, rename hacked-extension.zip to match exactly the name of the original extension, extension.xpi.

Step 6: Installation and testing

Once the necessary edits have been made, it is time to install the extension. Open Firefox, drag-and-drop the extension, and click OK to install. Restart Firefox, activate the extension, and check its functionality. Lather, rinse, repeat. It may be a good idea to test the hacked extension under a variety of different user conditions. Or not. Whatever. At this point, it’s entirely up to you. You may also want to save a copy of the original extension together with your hacked extension along with a few notes, just in case.

Well that’s it for now — thank you for your gracious attention. God bless.

References

• Hacking Firefox Extensions Book
• GUID Generator Web Service

Firefox users, lend me your ears! As you know, Firefox is like the most excellent, versatile, reliable, and secure browser available today. Extensions are just one of the features that make Firefox so versatile and efficient. Extensions enable Fx users to customize their browsing experience by adding tools that help with security, searching, and multimedia. Here is a list of our favorite — nay, essential — Firefox extensions:

• Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.3.0.4
• Adblock Plus 0.7.1.2
• All-In-One Sidebar 0.6.4
• Bookmark Backup 0.4
• Broadband Speed Test and Diagnostics 1.0.1
• ChatZilla 0.9.75
• Clear Cache Button 0.3
• Colorful Tabs 1.4
• ColorZilla 0.8.3.1
• Copy All Urls 0.6.2
• Copy as HTML Link 1.0
• CustomizeGoogle 0.50
• del.icio.us 1.1
• Document Map 0.5
• Download Statusbar 0.9.4.1
• Extended Statusbar 1.2.4
• Fasterfox 1.0.3
• Firefox Extension Backup Extension (FEBE) 3.0
• FireFTP 0.94.3
• FlashGot 0.5.96.060823
• Furl Tools 0.6
• Google Pagerank Status 0.9.6
• Html Validator 0.7.9.3
• IE Tab 1.0.9.5
• IE View 1.3.0
• Image Zoom 0.2.6
• InfoLister 0.9e
• LinkChecker 0.4.5
• ListZilla 0.8
• MeasureIt 0.3.5
• Menu Editor 1.2.2
• Noia 2.0 (eXtreme) 3.12
• Ook? Video Ook! 0.5.1
• Orbit Grey Custom 0.7.0
• Resize Search Box 0.0.7
• Restart Firefox 0.3
• Screen grab! 0.8
• SearchWith 0.2
• SEOpen 0.7
• ShowIP 0.8.02
• Small Screen Renderer 1.2
• SpiderZilla 1.5.3
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.0.5
• Tab Sidebar 1.0.3
• Torrent-Search Toolbar 1.0.1.21
• UnPlug 1.4.1
• User Agent Switcher 0.6.8
• VideoDownloader 1.1
• Web Developer 1.0.2
• Wizz RSS News Reader 2.1.5
• X-Ray 0.8