Filter composer should allow more control over which elements are hidden/blocked

[mapx]

Environment

Windows 10, Chrome 66, Adblock Plus dev build 3.0.2.1983

How to reproduce

1. Navigate to http://axistrivia.altervista.org/_test1.html
2. Click the ABP icon, select "block element"
3. Select the third element on the page (select the entire row - otherwise a blocking filter will be suggested)

Observed behaviour

A hiding filter is suggested, which hides all the elements on the page: axistrivia.altervista.org##.column

Expected behaviour

A more specific hiding filter could be suggested, e.g. axistrivia.altervista.org##.column:nth-of-type(3).

Alternatively the "Block element" tool could provide a way to make the suggested filter more or less specific.

[kzar]

I think this is another example of why the "block element" tool needs to provide a way for the user to make the suggested filter more or less specific. I'm not exactly how the UI should look here, in some situations the user might want to select the parent / child element but in other situations (like this one) things get more complicated.

[greiner]

Replying to kzar:

I think this is another example of why the "block element" tool needs to provide a way for the user to make the suggested filter more or less specific. I'm not exactly how the UI should look here, in some situations the user might want to select the parent / child element but in other situations (like this one) things get more complicated.

I agree that we need to be careful not to make filters we suggest too specific as long as there's no easy way for users to modify them.

On the other hand, removing parts of a filter is easier than adding new parts so it may be sufficient for now to make sure that we highlight all matching elements whenever the filters change.
I think ​spec#140 may provide a good foundation for that since it mentions "Live preview of changes - give feedback in real time when the suggested filter is edited by the user so they know which element would be hidden/blocked."

[mapx]

see the attached image what is suggesting uBo:

• first pic ==> when the image is selected a blocking filter and cosmetic (hiding) filters are suggested

• second pic ==> when the entire row (with the image) is selected ==> only a hiding filter is suggested

So, you could see how uBo is managing such feature

(sure, is suggesting the correct positional filter and the preview feature is doing its job)

[greiner]

Moving this ticket to Platform because that's where the logic for suggesting filters is located.

[greiner]

Regarding the suggested UI changes to more precisely select an element on the page, I've created #7049 so that we can focus on the filter suggestion changes in this ticket.

[kzar]

But I think the two are closely related, hiding elements by a class might be desirable on one page but not another. The only way we can make this work IMO is to provide a UI which allows the user to block/hide more or less.

[greiner]

I agree that they're closely related. At least my impression was that suggesting filters through the element picker and correcting filters through the filter composer were separate tasks.

So you don't think there's a way we can either make more accurate predictions on what filters the user expects or make improvements to the element picker to achieve that? Because if that's the case we may indeed need to fall back to the filter composer for correcting suggested filters.

[sebastian]

Sorry, but we switched to GitLab. If this issue is still relevant, please file it again in the ​new issue tracker.