Whitelisted ad on google.com gets broken link with ABP for Safari iOS

[philll]

Environment

Iphone 6 Plus
iOS 9.0 (13A4325c)
Adblock Plus for Safari iOS 1.0
Acceptable ads enabled

How to reproduce

1. Using Safari, open ​http://google.com
2. Enter "hotels cologne" into the search field
3. Press the search button
4. Tap the booking.com ad on top of the search results

Observed behaviour

An empty, blank tab without any URL shown is opened.

Expected behaviour

The booking.com website should open.

Notes

The problem is being caused by this content blocking rule:

{
  "trigger": {
    "url-filter": "^https?://.*&adurl=",
    "resource-type": [
      "image",
      "style-sheet",
      "script",
      "font",
      "media",
      "raw",
      "document"
    ]
  },
  "action": {
    "type": "block"
  }
}

[fhd]

Added a temporary workaround for this, but not changing the status to codereview - we really have to fix this properly.

[fhd]

Workaround pushed: ​https://hg.adblockplus.org/adblockplussafariios/rev/b1a2a1e7b9c4

Reducing priority to P2 but otherwise keeping this open - now we can fix it properly.

[fhd]

Actually, it makes more sense to close this one and create a follow-up. Did that: #3063.

[fhd]

That fix actually broke the whole list... Reverted it: ​https://hg.adblockplus.org/adblockplussafariios/rev/ec90a26b6f83

[philll]

Added newly available platform value.

[kzar]

Realised I didn't need a device with iOS to test this, instead I made ​a simple Safari extension to test with the ​content blocker list that is ​used by the iOS app.

Was able to reproduce the problem as described and tried my fix, which then fixed the problem. Was able to then click text ads and have them work. (Also tested a couple of websites with adverts to make sure they're still getting blocked.)

Matze / Wladimir: Any idea how we can get this patch applied to ​https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/easylist+exceptionrules_content_blocker.json quickly? (If it's more convenient ​the diff is also on GitHub.

[kzar]

(As Sebastian points out this quick-fix is not a long term solution. I've added some steps for fixing this more properly and will take a look at that next week.)

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 3050 - Ensure Google text ads work with AA

[Ross]

I've now tried this on a 5S and adverts on search results pages are displayed/click-able/work as expected. Turning AA off/on works as expected. (Assuming the update at 31 July 22:00 was the fix?)

ABP 1.1.0
iPhone 5S / iOS 9.2

[scheer]

I am currently looking into the fixed list. The fix has now resolved the issue where selecting an Ad link would load you into a blank page. Now, selecting Ad links loads you correctly into the advertised page.

During this testing, I did notice two issues from about 40 Ad links selected. These were:

1. Visit www.google.de and search 'Samsung Galaxy S7'
2. Select the Ad with the URL 'www.base.de/galaxy-s7'

Observed Behaviour: That the error message - 'Safari cannot open the page
'The Error was. 'The URL can't be shown'. is displayed.

Expected Behaviour: That the Advertised page loads correctly.

(Directly inputting the link loads the page just fine).

1. Visit www.google.co.uk and search 'buy car'
2. Select the Ad with the URL 'www.nissan.co.uk/cars'

Observed Behaviour: That the error message - 'Safari cannot open the page
'The Error was. 'The URL can't be shown'. is displayed.

Expected Behaviour: That the Advertised page loads correctly.

(Directly inputting the link loads the page just fine).

[kzar]

I can't reproduce that using my Safari for Mac OS X extension, sounds like it's more likely a problem with Safari for iOS. Whatever the cause this is a separate issue IMO, certainly not a regression caused by whitelisting the googleadservices.com domains.

[kzar]

Ah, I mispoke :( I just managed to reproduce it.

"Safari can't open the page "​https://www.google.co.uk/aclick?..." because the page's address isn't valid".

This isn't a regression with the recent change, but I'm now undecided if this is the same or separate issue.

[kzar]

New problem Scott noticed.

[kzar]

This could even be a Safari bug, I'm not sure. I can reproduce consistently now:

1. Browse to this URL: ​https://www.google.co.uk/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjC6rqt5p_OAhVGuBsKHUoeAG8YABAA&sig=AOD64_2kAoVInCmwfi5kot9P5h-jb1GQ7Q&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjA-bet5p_OAhVlBcAKHVU4CDMQ0QwIIQ&adurl=

When my content blocking extension is enabled Safari considers the URL invalid. When content blocking extension is disabled Safari handles the URL properly and redirect to the advert page successfully.

I tested before and after the recent hotfix and the issue happened either way. I also tested with a nearly empty blocking list but then the problem went away.

Please could you open a new issue for this Scott? Good catch anyway!

[scheer]

@kzar - issue #4280.

[kzar]

I have just tested generating a fresh content blocking rule file using the latest easylist.txt, exceptionrules.txt and abp2blocklist tool and this issue no longer occurred. (However I did have to manually whitelist google.co.uk in order for the text ads to be displayed in the first place...)

I think no further action on this issue is necessary, but we will have to be extremely careful before updating the easylist+exceptionrules_content_blocker.json in the future. Content blocking rules are fundamentally different from Adblock Plus filters and do not translate perfectly. I think thorough QA is our only option going forward, at least for now.

(Also if anyone is interested I have identified the rule that caused the problem, I've added it to the issue description.)

[mario]

Batch-adjusted milestone for upcoming release of ABP for iOS.