Pimp my browser.

September 3, 2009 12:59 PM

I'm trying to get extensions to work with the chrome beta browser. My first candidate is AdBlock and I looked here.

However, I can't seem to get it to work. I created a manifest.json file but when I saved it as plain text, chrome complained that it had to be in utf-8. So I saved it as "unicode" (in wordpad) but I still have the same error.

Have any of you tried to do a chrome extension and succeeded? Do any of you know how to convert a text file to utf-8?

posted by Obscure Reference to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Your link for AB is broken, but maybe you mean this one?

Did you use the command line switch to enable extensions? Did you create the User Scripts directory? Are you certain you are using the most current beta of Chrome? Maybe provide what you have done so far...
posted by tdischino at 1:47 PM on September 3, 2009

Try a different text editor - pretty sure Notepad++ will save as UTF-8 if you ask it to.
posted by caution live frogs at 2:57 PM on September 3, 2009

Response by poster: I took your (tdischino's) word that my link was broken--proof that I can't make technical things work--but I just tried it and it was fine. Without the command line switch and the user scripts directory, it wouldn't attempt and fail at loading my manifest.json file. Downloading notepad++ now.
posted by Obscure Reference at 4:29 PM on September 3, 2009

Response by poster: notepad++ has no save as utf-8 capability.
posted by Obscure Reference at 6:01 PM on September 3, 2009

well, I'm not sure what's not working for you. I did not have to do any file format conversions, just downloaded some existing scripts, saved them to the User Scripts folder, and restarted chrome. My extensions work fine, although I am not using AB.
posted by tdischino at 12:50 AM on September 4, 2009

I thought Notepad++ was UTF8 clean by default. If not, a plugin like Popeye should do the job.
posted by bonehead at 8:13 AM on September 4, 2009

Response by poster: Here's what worked (so far) : I downloaded vim and used :set fenc utf-8 and saved the file. This got it accepted.

Here's what doesn't work: It's not blocking lots of ads. It seems to respond to ALT-B (the command to block) sometimes but often not. Since no one else seems to be complaining about this on the internets, I'm at a loss.

Which extensions do you (tdschino) have working?
posted by Obscure Reference at 9:49 AM on September 4, 2009

I'm using the following 'better gmail' scripts successfully:

better_gmail__for_chrome-add_row_highlights.user.js
better_gmail__for_chrome-attachment_icons.user.js
better_gmail__for_chrome-folders4gmail.user.js
better_gmail__for_chrome-hide_chat.user.js
better_gmail__for_chrome-hide_invites.user.js
better_gmail__for_chrome-show_details.user.js
better_gmail__for_chrome-spam_count_hide.user.js

I've installed the version of AB at the link I posted, and it works for me. Alt+B works as well.

So, you say not LOTS of ads... but some? IIRC from my days using Mozilla, AB relies on a whitelist either at a URL or hosted locally. My guess is that the URLs for the ads getting through are not blacklisted. Or are you seeing some ads from the same URL being blocked and others not?
posted by tdischino at 11:43 AM on September 8, 2009

Response by poster: I was running 2 types of adblocks at once. The extension "adsweep" and the greasemonkey version. I turned off adsweep and now I'm trying to debug the greasemonky adblock which doesn't seem to be working. Alt-B does nothing.
posted by Obscure Reference at 2:05 PM on September 15, 2009