cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/2012318

Links:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Edge - v1.2.3 is still being approved, you can grab the release from Github if you are eager
• Opera: Still under review, please download from Chrome webstore or Github release.

For questions / support: [email protected] (alternate: https://lemmy.ca/c/instance_assistant)

What's new?

(read on the wiki)

• You can now customize the instance list to match which instances you actually use. This should be helpful for those that have accounts on different instances.
• Added a settings page so that you can turn off features that you don't want active
• Added buttons for helpful tools that let you explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Added a sidebar for those that prefer it (works on Firefox, Chrome & Opera; Edge doesn't have sidebars yet but the code is there)
• Fix for issues with the search trigger on the community not found page (thank-you to whqwert!)
• Various bugfixes, small theme changes, and improved wording

What's coming up?

(read on the wiki)

• Working with the amazing /u/[email protected] to bring over features from the LemmyTools Userscript^1^
• Integrating lemmyverse.net and search-lemmy.com so you can do everything right on your community page^2^
• Adding icons and simplifying the design, as the UI is getting wordy
• Adding support for alternative home instances (ex. Alexandrite - Issue 14)
• Ability to have multiple 'home instances', so you can open it in any without having to change your home instance each time.
• Finishing the setup so that people can contribute translations / other languages to the extension.
• Getting the extension on Opera (no immediate plans, but this would be good to have)

More details:

1. /u/[email protected] has created a really useful userscript that you can find here: https://thesimplecorner.org/c/lemmytools. We're going to be working together to bring those features into Instance Assistant, so that you can have all the features in one place.

2. Right now there are buttons to explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com). Both of these take you to the respective webpages. Instead, it might be nicer to have a lightweight version right on the Lemmy/Kbin community page (or in the extension popup/sidebar). This should be possible using their APIs/data access, and I have a little working proof of concept already (see GitHub)

I'm new, what is this?

Instance Assistant is a browser extension that started out as a way to quickly jump from one community to the version on your home instance, so that you could subscribe/participate immediately. Since then, a few other features have been implemented:

Features

• Redirect to your home instance:
  • Buttons will be added to the sidebar of any Lemmy or Kbin community you visit, which will let you open the same community on your home instance.
• Open links in home instance:
  • Right click context menu will allow you to open any links in your home instance
• Improved Error Pages:
  • 'Community not found' pages now have better information, a button to trigger a fetch, a button to open a community in the source instance, and more.
• Customizable popup & sidebar menus:
  • Customizable list of instances to let you quickly switch home instances. This is great for if you have multiple accounts on different instances.
  • There are also buttons for helpful tools that let you search for communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Settings:
  • You can change the default behaviour of the extension, customize the popup & sidebar menus, and turn off features you don't want to use.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/2012318

Links:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Edge - v1.2.3 is still being approved, you can grab the release from Github if you are eager
• Opera: Still under review, please download from Chrome webstore or Github release.

For questions / support: [email protected] (alternate: https://lemmy.ca/c/instance_assistant)

What's new?

(read on the wiki)

• You can now customize the instance list to match which instances you actually use. This should be helpful for those that have accounts on different instances.
• Added a settings page so that you can turn off features that you don't want active
• Added buttons for helpful tools that let you explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Added a sidebar for those that prefer it (works on Firefox, Chrome & Opera; Edge doesn't have sidebars yet but the code is there)
• Fix for issues with the search trigger on the community not found page (thank-you to whqwert!)
• Various bugfixes, small theme changes, and improved wording

What's coming up?

(read on the wiki)

• Working with the amazing /u/[email protected] to bring over features from the LemmyTools Userscript^1^
• Integrating lemmyverse.net and search-lemmy.com so you can do everything right on your community page^2^
• Adding icons and simplifying the design, as the UI is getting wordy
• Adding support for alternative home instances (ex. Alexandrite - Issue 14)
• Ability to have multiple 'home instances', so you can open it in any without having to change your home instance each time.
• Finishing the setup so that people can contribute translations / other languages to the extension.
• Getting the extension on Opera (no immediate plans, but this would be good to have)

More details:

1. /u/[email protected] has created a really useful userscript that you can find here: https://thesimplecorner.org/c/lemmytools. We're going to be working together to bring those features into Instance Assistant, so that you can have all the features in one place.

2. Right now there are buttons to explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com). Both of these take you to the respective webpages. Instead, it might be nicer to have a lightweight version right on the Lemmy/Kbin community page (or in the extension popup/sidebar). This should be possible using their APIs/data access, and I have a little working proof of concept already (see GitHub)

I'm new, what is this?

Instance Assistant is a browser extension that started out as a way to quickly jump from one community to the version on your home instance, so that you could subscribe/participate immediately. Since then, a few other features have been implemented:

Features

• Redirect to your home instance:
  • Buttons will be added to the sidebar of any Lemmy or Kbin community you visit, which will let you open the same community on your home instance.
• Open links in home instance:
  • Right click context menu will allow you to open any links in your home instance
• Improved Error Pages:
  • 'Community not found' pages now have better information, a button to trigger a fetch, a button to open a community in the source instance, and more.
• Customizable popup & sidebar menus:
  • Customizable list of instances to let you quickly switch home instances. This is great for if you have multiple accounts on different instances.
  • There are also buttons for helpful tools that let you search for communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Settings:
  • You can change the default behaviour of the extension, customize the popup & sidebar menus, and turn off features you don't want to use.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/2012318

Links:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Edge - v1.2.3 is still being approved, you can grab the release from Github if you are eager
• Opera: Still under review, please download from Chrome webstore or Github release.

For questions / support: [email protected] (alternate: https://lemmy.ca/c/instance_assistant)

What's new?

(read on the wiki)

• You can now customize the instance list to match which instances you actually use. This should be helpful for those that have accounts on different instances.
• Added a settings page so that you can turn off features that you don't want active
• Added buttons for helpful tools that let you explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Added a sidebar for those that prefer it (works on Firefox, Chrome & Opera; Edge doesn't have sidebars yet but the code is there)
• Fix for issues with the search trigger on the community not found page (thank-you to whqwert!)
• Various bugfixes, small theme changes, and improved wording

What's coming up?

(read on the wiki)

• Working with the amazing /u/[email protected] to bring over features from the LemmyTools Userscript^1^
• Integrating lemmyverse.net and search-lemmy.com so you can do everything right on your community page^2^
• Adding icons and simplifying the design, as the UI is getting wordy
• Adding support for alternative home instances (ex. Alexandrite - Issue 14)
• Ability to have multiple 'home instances', so you can open it in any without having to change your home instance each time.
• Finishing the setup so that people can contribute translations / other languages to the extension.
• Getting the extension on Opera (no immediate plans, but this would be good to have)

More details:

1. /u/[email protected] has created a really useful userscript that you can find here: https://thesimplecorner.org/c/lemmytools. We're going to be working together to bring those features into Instance Assistant, so that you can have all the features in one place.

2. Right now there are buttons to explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com). Both of these take you to the respective webpages. Instead, it might be nicer to have a lightweight version right on the Lemmy/Kbin community page (or in the extension popup/sidebar). This should be possible using their APIs/data access, and I have a little working proof of concept already (see GitHub)

I'm new, what is this?

Instance Assistant is a browser extension that started out as a way to quickly jump from one community to the version on your home instance, so that you could subscribe/participate immediately. Since then, a few other features have been implemented:

Features

• Redirect to your home instance:
  • Buttons will be added to the sidebar of any Lemmy or Kbin community you visit, which will let you open the same community on your home instance.
• Open links in home instance:
  • Right click context menu will allow you to open any links in your home instance
• Improved Error Pages:
  • 'Community not found' pages now have better information, a button to trigger a fetch, a button to open a community in the source instance, and more.
• Customizable popup & sidebar menus:
  • Customizable list of instances to let you quickly switch home instances. This is great for if you have multiple accounts on different instances.
  • There are also buttons for helpful tools that let you search for communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Settings:
  • You can change the default behaviour of the extension, customize the popup & sidebar menus, and turn off features you don't want to use.

Why YSK:

• Instance Assistant is a free and open source browser extension that we are working on to make Lemmy and Kbin easier to use. It allows you to jump to your home instance, fetch communities when you're the first one to access them, and redirect links. This post specifically lists out a few new changes and potential future improvements that you can give feedback on. Thank you!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/2012318

Links:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Edge - v1.2.3 is still being approved, you can grab the release from Github if you are eager
• Opera: Still under review, please download from Chrome webstore or Github release.

For questions / support: [email protected] (alternate: https://lemmy.ca/c/instance_assistant)

What's new?

(read on the wiki)

• You can now customize the instance list to match which instances you actually use. This should be helpful for those that have accounts on different instances.
• Added a settings page so that you can turn off features that you don't want active
• Added buttons for helpful tools that let you explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Added a sidebar for those that prefer it (works on Firefox, Chrome & Opera; Edge doesn't have sidebars yet but the code is there)
• Fix for issues with the search trigger on the community not found page (thank-you to whqwert!)
• Various bugfixes, small theme changes, and improved wording

What's coming up?

(read on the wiki)

• Working with the amazing /u/[email protected] to bring over features from the LemmyTools Userscript^1^
• Integrating lemmyverse.net and search-lemmy.com so you can do everything right on your community page^2^
• Adding icons and simplifying the design, as the UI is getting wordy
• Adding support for alternative home instances (ex. Alexandrite - Issue 14)
• Ability to have multiple 'home instances', so you can open it in any without having to change your home instance each time.
• Finishing the setup so that people can contribute translations / other languages to the extension.
• Getting the extension on Opera (no immediate plans, but this would be good to have)

More details:

1. /u/[email protected] has created a really useful userscript that you can find here: https://thesimplecorner.org/c/lemmytools. We're going to be working together to bring those features into Instance Assistant, so that you can have all the features in one place.

2. Right now there are buttons to explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com). Both of these take you to the respective webpages. Instead, it might be nicer to have a lightweight version right on the Lemmy/Kbin community page (or in the extension popup/sidebar). This should be possible using their APIs/data access, and I have a little working proof of concept already (see GitHub)

I'm new, what is this?

Instance Assistant is a browser extension that started out as a way to quickly jump from one community to the version on your home instance, so that you could subscribe/participate immediately. Since then, a few other features have been implemented:

Features

• Redirect to your home instance:
  • Buttons will be added to the sidebar of any Lemmy or Kbin community you visit, which will let you open the same community on your home instance.
• Open links in home instance:
  • Right click context menu will allow you to open any links in your home instance
• Improved Error Pages:
  • 'Community not found' pages now have better information, a button to trigger a fetch, a button to open a community in the source instance, and more.
• Customizable popup & sidebar menus:
  • Customizable list of instances to let you quickly switch home instances. This is great for if you have multiple accounts on different instances.
  • There are also buttons for helpful tools that let you search for communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Settings:
  • You can change the default behaviour of the extension, customize the popup & sidebar menus, and turn off features you don't want to use.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/2012318

Instance Assistant v1.2.3 is now available on Chrome & Firefox + New Features

Links:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Edge - v1.2.3 is still being approved, you can grab the release from Github if you are eager
• Opera: Still under review, please download from Chrome webstore or Github release.

For questions / support: [email protected]

What's new?

(read on the wiki)

• You can now customize the instance list to match which instances you actually use. This should be helpful for those that have accounts on different instances.
• Added a settings page so that you can turn off features that you don't want active
• Added buttons for helpful tools that let you explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Added a sidebar for those that prefer it (works on Firefox, Chrome & Opera; Edge doesn't have sidebars yet but the code is there)
• Fix for issues with the search trigger on the community not found page (thank-you to whqwert!)
• Various bugfixes, small theme changes, and improved wording

What's coming up?

(read on the wiki)

• Working with the amazing /u/[email protected] to bring over features from the LemmyTools Userscript^1^
• Integrating lemmyverse.net and search-lemmy.com so you can do everything right on your community page^2^
• Adding icons and simplifying the design, as the UI is getting wordy
• Adding support for alternative home instances (ex. Alexandrite - Issue 14)
• Ability to have multiple 'home instances', so you can open it in any without having to change your home instance each time.
• Finishing the setup so that people can contribute translations / other languages to the extension.
• Getting the extension on Opera (no immediate plans, but this would be good to have)

More details:

1. /u/[email protected] has created a really useful userscript that you can find here: [email protected]. We're going to be working together to bring those features into Instance Assistant, so that you can have all the features in one place.

2. Right now there are buttons to explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com). Both of these take you to the respective webpages. Instead, it might be nicer to have a lightweight version right on the Lemmy/Kbin community page (or in the extension popup/sidebar). This should be possible using their APIs/data access, and I have a little working proof of concept already (see GitHub)

I'm new, what is this?

Instance Assistant is a browser extension that started out as a way to quickly jump from one community to the version on your home instance, so that you could subscribe/participate immediately. Since then, a few other features have been implemented:

Features

• Redirect to your home instance:
  • Buttons will be added to the sidebar of any Lemmy or Kbin community you visit, which will let you open the same community on your home instance.
• Open links in home instance:
  • Right click context menu will allow you to open any links in your home instance
• Improved Error Pages:
  • 'Community not found' pages now have better information, a button to trigger a fetch, a button to open a community in the source instance, and more.
• Customizable popup & sidebar menus:
  • Customizable list of instances to let you quickly switch home instances. This is great for if you have multiple accounts on different instances.
  • There are also buttons for helpful tools that let you search for communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Settings:
  • You can change the default behaviour of the extension, customize the popup & sidebar menus, and turn off features you don't want to use.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/2012318

Links:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Edge - v1.2.3 is still being approved, you can grab the release from Github if you are eager
• Opera: Still under review, please download from Chrome webstore or Github release.

For questions / support: [email protected]

What's new?

(read on the wiki)

• You can now customize the instance list to match which instances you actually use. This should be helpful for those that have accounts on different instances.
• Added a settings page so that you can turn off features that you don't want active
• Added buttons for helpful tools that let you explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Added a sidebar for those that prefer it (works on Firefox, Chrome & Opera; Edge doesn't have sidebars yet but the code is there)
• Fix for issues with the search trigger on the community not found page (thank-you to whqwert!)
• Various bugfixes, small theme changes, and improved wording

What's coming up?

(read on the wiki)

• Working with the amazing /u/[email protected] to bring over features from the LemmyTools Userscript^1^
• Integrating lemmyverse.net and search-lemmy.com so you can do everything right on your community page^2^
• Adding icons and simplifying the design, as the UI is getting wordy
• Adding support for alternative home instances (ex. Alexandrite - Issue 14)
• Ability to have multiple 'home instances', so you can open it in any without having to change your home instance each time.
• Finishing the setup so that people can contribute translations / other languages to the extension.
• Getting the extension on Opera (no immediate plans, but this would be good to have)

More details:

1. /u/[email protected] has created a really useful userscript that you can find here: [email protected] (alternate: https://thesimplecorner.org/c/lemmytools). We're going to be working together to bring those features into Instance Assistant, so that you can have all the features in one place.

2. Right now there are buttons to explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com). Both of these take you to the respective webpages. Instead, it might be nicer to have a lightweight version right on the Lemmy/Kbin community page (or in the extension popup/sidebar). This should be possible using their APIs/data access, and I have a little working proof of concept already (see GitHub)

I'm new, what is this?

Instance Assistant is a browser extension that started out as a way to quickly jump from one community to the version on your home instance, so that you could subscribe/participate immediately. Since then, a few other features have been implemented:

Features

• Redirect to your home instance:
  • Buttons will be added to the sidebar of any Lemmy or Kbin community you visit, which will let you open the same community on your home instance.
• Open links in home instance:
  • Right click context menu will allow you to open any links in your home instance
• Improved Error Pages:
  • 'Community not found' pages now have better information, a button to trigger a fetch, a button to open a community in the source instance, and more.
• Customizable popup & sidebar menus:
  • Customizable list of instances to let you quickly switch home instances. This is great for if you have multiple accounts on different instances.
  • There are also buttons for helpful tools that let you search for communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Settings:
  • You can change the default behaviour of the extension, customize the popup & sidebar menus, and turn off features you don't want to use.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/2012318

Links:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Edge - v1.2.3 is still being approved, you can grab the release from Github if you are eager
• Opera: Still under review, please download from Chrome webstore or Github release.

For questions / support: [email protected]

What's new?

(read on the wiki)

• You can now customize the instance list to match which instances you actually use. This should be helpful for those that have accounts on different instances.
• Added a settings page so that you can turn off features that you don't want active
• Added buttons for helpful tools that let you explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Added a sidebar for those that prefer it (works on Firefox, Chrome & Opera; Edge doesn't have sidebars yet but the code is there)
• Fix for issues with the search trigger on the community not found page (thank-you to whqwert!)
• Various bugfixes, small theme changes, and improved wording

What's coming up?

(read on the wiki)

• Working with the amazing /u/[email protected] to bring over features from the LemmyTools Userscript^1^
• Integrating lemmyverse.net and search-lemmy.com so you can do everything right on your community page^2^
• Adding icons and simplifying the design, as the UI is getting wordy
• Adding support for alternative home instances (ex. Alexandrite - Issue 14)
• Ability to have multiple 'home instances', so you can open it in any without having to change your home instance each time.
• Finishing the setup so that people can contribute translations / other languages to the extension.
• Getting the extension on Opera (no immediate plans, but this would be good to have)

More details:

1. /u/[email protected] has created a really useful userscript that you can find here: https://thesimplecorner.org/c/lemmytools. We're going to be working together to bring those features into Instance Assistant, so that you can have all the features in one place.

2. Right now there are buttons to explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com). Both of these take you to the respective webpages. Instead, it might be nicer to have a lightweight version right on the Lemmy/Kbin community page (or in the extension popup/sidebar). This should be possible using their APIs/data access, and I have a little working proof of concept already (see GitHub)

I'm new, what is this?

Instance Assistant is a browser extension that started out as a way to quickly jump from one community to the version on your home instance, so that you could subscribe/participate immediately. Since then, a few other features have been implemented:

Features

• Redirect to your home instance:
  • Buttons will be added to the sidebar of any Lemmy or Kbin community you visit, which will let you open the same community on your home instance.
• Open links in home instance:
  • Right click context menu will allow you to open any links in your home instance
• Improved Error Pages:
  • 'Community not found' pages now have better information, a button to trigger a fetch, a button to open a community in the source instance, and more.
• Customizable popup & sidebar menus:
  • Customizable list of instances to let you quickly switch home instances. This is great for if you have multiple accounts on different instances.
  • There are also buttons for helpful tools that let you search for communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Settings:
  • You can change the default behaviour of the extension, customize the popup & sidebar menus, and turn off features you don't want to use.

Links:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Edge - v1.2.3 is still being approved, you can grab the release from Github if you are eager
• Opera: Still under review, please download from Chrome webstore or Github release.

For questions / support: [email protected] (alternate: https://lemmy.ca/c/instance_assistant)

What's new?

(read on the wiki)

• You can now customize the instance list to match which instances you actually use. This should be helpful for those that have accounts on different instances.
• Added a settings page so that you can turn off features that you don't want active
• Added buttons for helpful tools that let you explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Added a sidebar for those that prefer it (works on Firefox, Chrome & Opera; Edge doesn't have sidebars yet but the code is there)
• Fix for issues with the search trigger on the community not found page (thank-you to whqwert!)
• Various bugfixes, small theme changes, and improved wording

What's coming up?

(read on the wiki)

• Working with the amazing /u/[email protected] to bring over features from the LemmyTools Userscript^1^
• Integrating lemmyverse.net and search-lemmy.com so you can do everything right on your community page^2^
• Adding icons and simplifying the design, as the UI is getting wordy
• Adding support for alternative home instances (ex. Alexandrite - Issue 14)
• Ability to have multiple 'home instances', so you can open it in any without having to change your home instance each time.
• Finishing the setup so that people can contribute translations / other languages to the extension.
• Getting the extension on Opera (no immediate plans, but this would be good to have)

More details:

1. /u/[email protected] has created a really useful userscript that you can find here: [email protected] (alternate: https://thesimplecorner.org/c/lemmytools). We're going to be working together to bring those features into Instance Assistant, so that you can have all the features in one place.

2. Right now there are buttons to explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com). Both of these take you to the respective webpages. Instead, it might be nicer to have a lightweight version right on the Lemmy/Kbin community page (or in the extension popup/sidebar). This should be possible using their APIs/data access, and I have a little working proof of concept already (see GitHub)

I'm new, what is this?

Instance Assistant is a browser extension that started out as a way to quickly jump from one community to the version on your home instance, so that you could subscribe/participate immediately. Since then, a few other features have been implemented:

Features

• Redirect to your home instance:
  • Buttons will be added to the sidebar of any Lemmy or Kbin community you visit, which will let you open the same community on your home instance.
• Open links in home instance:
  • Right click context menu will allow you to open any links in your home instance
• Improved Error Pages:
  • 'Community not found' pages now have better information, a button to trigger a fetch, a button to open a community in the source instance, and more.
• Customizable popup & sidebar menus:
  • Customizable list of instances to let you quickly switch home instances. This is great for if you have multiple accounts on different instances.
  • There are also buttons for helpful tools that let you search for communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
• Settings:
  • You can change the default behaviour of the extension, customize the popup & sidebar menus, and turn off features you don't want to use.

This is more of an immediate issue, but there are some bots going around sending harmful content to users. Right now, those images show up right in the inbox.

It would be better to have them show up as links so the user can open what they want to see. It's also more compact that way.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/1418762

I've made a number of improvements since the last time I was posting about my extension. The update is now available on both Firefox and Chrome web stores.

For questions / support: [email protected]

TLDR: See the respective download pages on Firefox & Chrome. The screenshots and features list are mostly self-explanatory.

Note on versions:

• Firefox has a more recent 1.2.1 version, because my build script missed some files while uploading v1.2.0. It doesn't look like Chrome had this issue.
• I'm uploading v1.2.2 to both stores today, which will bring the two missing features to Chrome as well. After 1.2.2, all browsers should have the same features. See below for details.

So how is this different from other similar extensions?

You may have noticed the extension's name changed to be more generic (and include Kbin 🥳). I'm trying to make this a more well-rounded extension, and that means I've incorporated some features from the other extensions, in my own way.

Lemmy Links, Kbin Links, and the other forks:

This is a great extension that replaces links on your page with versions that go to your home instance. However, in order for this to work, it needs to recursively check every element on your page whenever DOM content (the stuff the browser is reading) changes. This is somewhat resource intensive, and while testing I ran into lag and freezing issues. As such, I decided to not include this functionality in the same way.

Instead, I've added a right click context menu that does the same thing. This way the user can pick which links they want the extension to convert, and it's a lot more efficient resource wise. While it's an extra click, I felt this was a reasonable compromise. However, I'm open to feedback!

NOTE: The context menu is available on Firefox, and it will be available in Chrome in about a week, depending on when they approve my update.

Lemmy Home Instance Helper

This is another extension which checks if you are logged in to an instance, and it creates a button to the search page if you are not. As my extension creates a button on any foreign instance, the search page is only helpful when a community hasn't been loaded into your home instance yet (ex. because you're the first one to try accessing it).

To deal with this, my extension modifies the "Community not found" pages with more instructions, as well as buttons to trigger the fetch process or to open the community elsewhere. See this screenshot for an example. Again, open to feedback!

As always, I'd love to collaborate with other people while building this. I'm still cleaning up my code, but feel free to look at the GitHub. If this extension gets popular, I will definitely need help for translations and for things like getting the extension on Safari (I don't have a recent Apple device to sign the extension with).

Note on permissions:

• The current versions request "Access to all sites". This is because the extension needs access to any page that contains "/c/", "/m/", or "/post/" in order to create the sidebar buttons. While the extension only looks for those pages, it will show up as "Access to all sites" when installing. Once I have a proper welcome message and settings page, I plan on making this permission optional so you can just use the popup menu if you would like.

Summary of Recent Changes:

• Added support for Kbin
• Fixed issue where button wouldn't load when navigating to a community within Lemmy (available on Firefox, should be on Chrome in a week).
• (NEW) Right-click context menu on Lemmy/Kbin community links to let you open them directly. You can test them out here: https://lemmy.ca/post/1282303 (available on Firefox, should be on Chrome in a week)
• (NEW) Information and buttons added to "Community Not Found" error pages to let you fetch the community or open it elsewhere.
• Updates to sidebar button to state the current selected instance and provide more detailed instructions as a dropdownList
• Refactored the code to remove more unnecessary permissions.
• Another pile of bugfixes, UI improvements, and better wording for instructions.

Future Plans:

• This is complete and will be in v1.2.2. ~~Bringing over the new changes to Google Chrome. Since chrome requires Manifest 3, I still need to iron out some issues with the service workers. The missing features are all related to the background processes that are running on the Firefox version~~
• Pushing to other browsers: Microsoft Edge & Opera are still reviewing v1.2.0. Unfortunately, I don't have any immediate plans for Safari, as I don't have a device that can sign the extension. I am looking into getting help for that.
• Setting up a proper Welcome page, Settings page, and Options menu to allow users to turn off features that they don't like. This will also let me make "access to all sites" optional.
• Finishing the translations' setup so that people can contribute other languages to the extension.
• Adding an option to save your own instances to the popup, for those that have multiple home instances.

https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/instance-assistant-for-le/hnlndgeokcaocdklkbfjbfjplfnedehb

Similar to Chrome, this is v1.2.0, which doesn't have the right click context menu yet. Now that the previous version is approved, I've submitted v1.2.2 to Microsoft Edge as well. Cheers :)

I've made a number of improvements since the last time I was posting about my extension. The update is now available on both Firefox and Chrome web stores.

For questions / support: [email protected]

TLDR: See the respective download pages on Firefox & Chrome. The screenshots and features list are mostly self-explanatory.

Note on versions:

• Firefox has a more recent 1.2.1 version, because my build script missed some files while uploading v1.2.0. It doesn't look like Chrome had this issue.
• I'm uploading v1.2.2 to both stores today, which will bring the two missing features to Chrome as well. After 1.2.2, all browsers should have the same features. See below for details.

So how is this different from other similar extensions?

You may have noticed the extension's name changed to be more generic (and include Kbin 🥳). I'm trying to make this a more well-rounded extension, and that means I've incorporated some features from the other extensions, in my own way.

Lemmy Links, Kbin Links, and the other forks:

This is a great extension that replaces links on your page with versions that go to your home instance. However, in order for this to work, it needs to recursively check every element on your page whenever DOM content (the stuff the browser is reading) changes. This is somewhat resource intensive, and while testing I ran into lag and freezing issues. As such, I decided to not include this functionality in the same way.

Instead, I've added a right click context menu that does the same thing. This way the user can pick which links they want the extension to convert, and it's a lot more efficient resource wise. While it's an extra click, I felt this was a reasonable compromise. However, I'm open to feedback!

NOTE: The context menu is available on Firefox, and it will be available in Chrome in about a week, depending on when they approve my update.

Lemmy Home Instance Helper

This is another extension which checks if you are logged in to an instance, and it creates a button to the search page if you are not. As my extension creates a button on any foreign instance, the search page is only helpful when a community hasn't been loaded into your home instance yet (ex. because you're the first one to try accessing it).

To deal with this, my extension modifies the "Community not found" pages with more instructions, as well as buttons to trigger the fetch process or to open the community elsewhere. See this screenshot for an example. Again, open to feedback!

As always, I'd love to collaborate with other people while building this. I'm still cleaning up my code, but feel free to look at the GitHub. If this extension gets popular, I will definitely need help for translations and for things like getting the extension on Safari (I don't have a recent Apple device to sign the extension with).

Note on permissions:

• The current versions request "Access to all sites". This is because the extension needs access to any page that contains "/c/", "/m/", or "/post/" in order to create the sidebar buttons. While the extension only looks for those pages, it will show up as "Access to all sites" when installing. Once I have a proper welcome message and settings page, I plan on making this permission optional so you can just use the popup menu if you would like.

Summary of Recent Changes:

• Added support for Kbin
• Fixed issue where button wouldn't load when navigating to a community within Lemmy (available on Firefox, should be on Chrome in a week).
• (NEW) Right-click context menu on Lemmy/Kbin community links to let you open them directly. You can test them out here: https://lemmy.ca/post/1282303 (available on Firefox, should be on Chrome in a week)
• (NEW) Information and buttons added to "Community Not Found" error pages to let you fetch the community or open it elsewhere.
• Updates to sidebar button to state the current selected instance and provide more detailed instructions as a dropdownList
• Refactored the code to remove more unnecessary permissions.
• Another pile of bugfixes, UI improvements, and better wording for instructions.

Future Plans:

• This is complete and will be in v1.2.2. ~~Bringing over the new changes to Google Chrome. Since chrome requires Manifest 3, I still need to iron out some issues with the service workers. The missing features are all related to the background processes that are running on the Firefox version~~
• Pushing to other browsers: Microsoft Edge & Opera are still reviewing v1.2.0. Unfortunately, I don't have any immediate plans for Safari, as I don't have a device that can sign the extension. I am looking into getting help for that.
• Setting up a proper Welcome page, Settings page, and Options menu to allow users to turn off features that they don't like. This will also let me make "access to all sites" optional.
• Finishing the translations' setup so that people can contribute other languages to the extension.
• Adding an option to save your own instances to the popup, for those that have multiple home instances.