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Plugins – version 8.0

What’s New – TL;DR;

This update brings new UI with plugins manager directly in the popup, much better functionality added to the manager itself, and brand new “history” feature.

1/ New UI: Manage Plugins Directly in the Popup!

I’ve completely redesigned the user interface to save one unneeded click. It is, after all, a plugins manager, so I think it was a mistake to leave it behind 1 aditional click. The old
menu links are still there, but as icons on the bottom of the UI, and you can still turn these on/off

2/ Much Better Plugin Manager: Search, Bulk Actions, Presets & More!

The are now few features giving you much more more control: Search, Bulk Actions (select, enable, disable), Presets (for quick switch between packages of plugins)

3/ Plugins Event History

The extension now keeps track of all plugin-related events, including installations,
removals, enabling, and disabling. This should be helpful if you need to investigate strange browser behavior or something like that…

4/ Special Offer

You probably know I am promoting Guardio (one of my only 2 affiliate links) and this time I got a 30% off offer for you. If you try it and decide to upgrade to their paid version, use the link below for 30% off your first payment

Try Guardio*

There are a lot of other, minor changes (bugfixes and UI improvements) – listed below – but those are the 3 important news for this version.

Thanks and May the Force be with you 😉

Vlad,
thePluginsGuy


Full Changelog Below:

New Features

  • History:
    • Comprehensive Logging: Tracks all plugin events and errors, providing a detailed chronological record of activities.
    • Organized Views: View history chronologically or grouped by individual extension for easier analysis.
    • IndexedDB Statistics: Monitor IndexedDB usage, including database name, version, object stores, record counts, and estimated storage size.
    • Data Management:
      • Clear History: Option to delete all recorded plugin events and errors.
      • Export Options: Export history data in JSON, TXT, or CSV formats for external analysis or backup.
      • Full Scan: Perform a full scan of all installed extensions to log their current enabled/disabled states.
  • Settings:
    • Added preview for custom icon selection.
    • Added debug logs and improved settings UI update.
    • Enabled more context menu options by default.
    • Added table layout for popup menu items configuration.
    • Added option to open popup in new tab.
    • Added a “Restore Defaults” button to the “More Options” section for better organization and visibility.
    • Added “show history” setting and ensured default settings are loaded on extension installation.
  • Context Menu:
    • Added settings and handlers for context menu items.
    • Implemented a message listener in the background script to handle dynamic context menu updates.
  • Icon:
    • Added support for custom icon via data URL.
  • Extensions:
    • Added custom tooltip for extension descriptions.
    • Added extension management UI for presets.
    • Added duplicate preset name validation.
    • Added two-column layout for preset management.
    • Improved preset management UI with extension list display.
    • Added enable/disable all functionality to presets dropdown.
    • Added preset functionality for managing extension states.
    • Added preset functionality for managing extension groups.
    • Improved toolbar visibility and settings handling.
    • Added listeners for extension enable/disable events.
    • Added disabled state for deselectAll button.
    • Added bulk selection management and improved accordion behavior.
    • Added deselect all button and improved selection handling.
    • Added bulk actions for managing extensions.
    • Added highlighting for search matches in extension names.
    • Added search functionality to extensions list.
  • Popup:
    • Added dynamic visibility control for bottom icons.
  • Assets:
    • Added multiple image assets and documentation files.

Improvements

  • Context Menu:
    • Reordered context menu items for better organization.
    • Simplified context menu creation and handling by consolidating items into a single configuration object and adding dynamic creation based on settings.
    • Context menu now supports opening links in the same tab or a new tab based on settings.
  • Improved Tab Styling: Enhanced visual consistency for tabs with adjusted colors, borders, and spacing.
  • Better Link Opening Logic: Refactored how links are opened to consistently respect settings, simplifying the logic.
  • Enhanced Plugins Manager UI: Moved “Open in new tab” option inline and added visibility toggles for better organization.
  • Dynamic Menu Visibility: Menu items now dynamically adjust visibility based on settings and permissions.
  • Improved Popup Behavior: Added a message when no menu items are selected and improved link handling for settings.
  • Responsive Design and Dark Mode for Extensions: Adjusted font sizes, padding, and element dimensions for better readability on larger screens, and enhanced dark mode colors.
  • Transparent Icons and Images: Icons and images now blend better with different backgrounds by having transparent backgrounds.
  • Updated Guardio Promotion: The Guardio promotion text and affiliate link have been updated on the assessment and update pages.

Bug Fixes

  • Plugins Manager:
    • Updated plugins manager URL to point to popup.html (the new UI)
    • Updated extensions URL to point to popup page.
    • Made toolbar2 visible by default and fixed display style.
    • Cleared selected IDs to prevent re-selection on refresh.
    • Updated checkbox selectors to only target visible items.
    • Improved extensions filter in manager
    • Prevented self-disabling of plugins manager extension.
  • Popup:
    • Updated scanner icon image in popup.html.
  • Extensions Page:
    • Removed back button in extensions page (not needed anymore).
  • Settings:
    • Added null checks for DOM elements in settings handling.
  • Permission Handling for Manager and Scanner: Fixed issues with separate permission buttons and descriptions for the manager and scanner.
  • Management Permission Check: Ensured the extension checks for permission before using the chrome.management API.
  • Correct Enabled/Disabled State Display: Fixed logic for displaying enabled/disabled states of extensions.
  • Tab Handling and Debug Logs: Improved tab switching behavior and removed debug logs from popup.js.
  • Standalone Mode Support: Fixed hiding of the bottom menu in standalone mode for extensions view.

Refactorings

  • Extensions:
    • Removed default preset and simplify button styles.
    • Extracted UI update logic into separate function.
    • Simplified extension enable/disable logic and removed reload messages.
  • Context Menu:
    • Improved context menu creation logic.
    • Reordered context menu items for better organization.
  • Plugins:
    • Removed standalone tab option from plugins manager.
  • Settings:
    • Moved restore defaults button to popup menu section.
  • Background:
    • Reordered context menu items for better organization.

Styling

  • Extensions:
    • Removed scrollbar by hiding overflow in extensions css.
    • Updated button2 styling for consistency.
    • Improved layout for large screens using flexbox.
    • Reduced spacing between tags and items for compact layout.
    • Updated checkbox and bulk action button styles.
    • Removed redundant dark mode styles and consolidate css rules.
    • Improved menu hover and active states styling.
    • Added better css background-color rules.
    • Changed display property from inherit to inline-block.
    • Removed border bottom styles by commenting them out.
    • Ensured transparent background for menu items and icons.
    • Commented out margin-top in bulk-actions.
    • Updated menu item styling and hover states.
    • Improved button labels clarity.
    • Adjusted bulk actions button font size.
  • Popup:
    • Adjusted html and body styles for better layout.
    • Improved bottom icons layout and added text labels.
  • UI:
    • Removed background color from about.html body.
    • Updated background colors and tab styling for better visual consistency.
    • Improved extensions panel styling and dark mode support.

Other Changes

  • Manual fix for second scrollbar.
  • PLUGINS – 8.0 version bump.
  • Removed unused files.
  • Label Text Update: Updated label text from “Extensions Page” to “Plugins Manager” in settings.
  • Updated Installation Guide: The installation guide has been updated with new features and fixes, including new images.
  • Moved Disclaimer Text: Disclaimer text on the install page has been moved to a more prominent position.
  • Tabbed Interface for Quick Start: Implemented tab navigation for the quick start guide.
  • Updated Emoji Display Text: The emoji section in the install page is now more descriptive.
  • Help Info Link: Added visibility for help-info element and updated install/update flows.
  • Two-Column Layout for Settings: Implemented a flexbox-based two-column layout for better organization in settings.
  • Refactored Settings CSS/HTML: Simplified CSS and HTML for better readability and modern styling in settings.
  • Updated Standalone Extensions Label: Changed container element to label for more semantic HTML.

For Real-Time Active Protection

We use a browser plugin called “Guardio” – It will check all installed extensions for malware, adware, and other threats and neutralize them. It will also block all phishing sites in real-time, alert you on malicious extensions before you install them, and on malicious emails and data leaks. Even if you don’t buy their paid plan, you can periodically scan your extensions to find if some bad plugin found its way into your browser.

Try Guardio*

* This is affiliate link. If you find Guardio useful and become their user, we could get compensated.