On some websites most elements are not selectable by block element

[Ross]

Environment

ABP 3.4.3.2253
Firefox 65.0.1 / 51 / Windows 10
Chrome 72.0.3626.109 / 49.0.2623.75 / Windows 10

NOT a regression from 3.4.3.

How to reproduce

1. Navigate to ​https://www.bestbuy.com/?intl=nosplash
2. Select [ABP Icon] > [Block element]

Observed behaviour

Nearly all non-image elements are unselectable.

Expected behaviour

The user to be able to select any element for blocking/hiding.

[Ross]

I noticed this when testing #5938.

[greiner]

AFAIK this is by design:

• ​lib/filterComposer.js: Only show our context menu item when right-clicking on a media element
• ​composer.postload.js: Only highlight "blockable" elements

Please also note that the UI doesn't provide users a way to adjust their selection (see also ​ui#12) so allowing them to select any element on the page would likely lead to a worse UX.

[Ross]

Ah, I thought it might be something like that. Out of interest, do you know why I can't select most elements on the site above? I'm guessing getFiltersForElement() doesn't return any filters, but what about the elements causes that, compared to other sites?

[greiner]

That's due to the filter @@||bestbuy.com^$elemhide in the Acceptable Ads list which disables element hiding on this particular domain.

That means that the only selectable elements are those which can be blocked without the use of element hiding filters. Some of the images on the page aren't easily recognizable as such though because they're set as a background image on DIVs or other generic elements so that's probably why you're only able to select some but not all images.

Note that selecting elements does work again as expected after disabling Acceptable Ads.

[sebastian]

As Thomas explained, everything seems to work as expected here.

[sathyaprabha]

spam