Use tag names in cosmetic filter candidates where it makes sense

[gorhill]

Description

Source post on Reddit:

u/gorhill4 would it be maybe possible to let picker suggest unique/non-common element names (so either make an inclusion list, such as :is(header, footer) or an exclusion one :not(:is(div, span, a, img, p))) over id/class?
Or if not circumvent the attributes, just suggest the element name in the prefix e.g. footer._2i5Ko.t6659, which could help users make a correct choice?

So essentially make use of the tag name when it makes sense, maybe when it involves tag names with a very specific semantic (as opposed to div for example).

[peace2000]

In addition to this, it would probably be a good idea to make element picker also suggest all possible attributes it can find in an element.

E.g Google ads in this link
https://www.google.fi/search?q=mug+blue&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiP1pmhxbf6AhWDxIsKHdlDAX4Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=mug+blue&sclient=img&hl=fi

Are handled via:
www.google.fi##div[data-crl="true"][data-id^="CarouselPLA-"]

But the issue is that element picker would never suggest to make filters via attributes such as [data-crl] or [data-id]. Sometimes other attributes than classes/id's/href could also be used to craft good filters. Especially as class name randomizing has gained popularity, other attributes have become more important as they are not usually randomized.

[I-I-IT]

Just to add, here is a list of commonly used variables :

Aria

aria-label
aria-labelledby
aria-role
aria-roledescription

Data

data-id
data-testid
data-recirc-id
data-dtm-region
data-module-name
data-component-name
data-optimizely
data-inset_type
data-block

[u-RraaLL]

Considering uBO Lite provides both the tag names and attributes for all elements, how feasible would be porting this functionality into uBO?

I think it would make it very convenient to craft filters on mobile, especially if the right slider also allowed copying values.

[gorhill]

When I wrote the picker for uBOL I started from scratch while minding all reported issues and feedback such as the one here. Starting from scratch ensured I wouldn't be bog down by legacy code. Unfortunately this also means that importing uBOL's picker code into uBO's picker code is not trivial. But ultimately I guess I will have to do this to solve issues such as the one here.

[u-RraaLL]

I'm kind of curious why it's now* possible to get "custom" element names suggested by picker on YouTube, but it doesn't seem to happen elsewhere.

* I seem to recall not being able to get ytd-rich-item-renderer, etc. in the list or by moving sliders in the past and usually grabbing the class name in the descendant and removing the dot for "easy tag grabbing".

At first, I thought made some work was done towards this issue in uBO too and wasn't tagged by mistake, so I decided to try other sites. I don't remember many websites with custom element names, so I tested on (sh)reddit - the few custom names that aren't inside shadow root do not get suggested though. So I guess that wasn't the reason.

Do you know why picker is able to suggest custom element names on YT?

[gorhill]

Do you know why picker is able to suggest custom element names on YT?

The picker reports all tag names. If this doesn't happen somewhere, please tell me how to reproduce with exact URL etc.

[u-RraaLL]

uBO Lite's does, uBO's always relied on id attributes and classes over tag names. If I;m not mistaken, it'd show tag names only when same id/class existed with other tag names, but they were otherwise always hidden. Isn't that why this issue here exist?

As an example, pick any post on shreddit, e.g. uBO's:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1938b4d7-4f31-4d46-ac95-8f6218f8b356

article and one div show up on the list. Other tag names are hidden, even the custom shreddit-post (child of the article).

[gorhill]

I thought you were reporting an issue with uBOL. You are reporting an issue with uBO? If so, I will one day be able to address the issue here, so all should be taken care of.

[u-RraaLL]

uBO, yes. Not really "reporting an issue", just providing an update that somehow custom tag names somehow now get suggested on youtube alone, which I just found surprising.

[gorhill]

In uBO the heuristic to use tag name depends on whether no other selector were found or whether :nth-of-type needs to be used:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/blob/19db28c810e0ae6dff7d2d207f4ceee10e9ac392/src/js/scriptlets/epicker.js#L485-L490