Greasemonkey 0.9.15 Release

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.15 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, but it's available on the all versions page immediately.

If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to log an issue or let us know at greasemonkey-dev (and be clear that it's with this version).

This release was hurried, to resolve a few serious bugs introduced in 0.9.14. A few other bugs were also fixed.

Bug fixes:

• Editing an installed script to change any remote dependency (@icon, @require, @resource) could cause one or many scripts to be deleted. (#1466, #1502)
• Certain @requires can break a script, due to javascript semicolon insertion rules.  (#1491)
• Toggling the enabled state of a script via the main (Tools > Greasemonkey) menu failed on Mac.  (#1496)
• Installing a script from local disk failed in 0.9.14.  (#1501)

Greasemonkey 0.9.14 Release

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.14 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, but it's available on the all versions page immediately.

If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to log an issue or let us know at greasemonkey-dev (and be clear that it's with this version).

Enhancements:

• For new script installs, and installed scripts' updates (still not enabled by default) there is a progress meter for the download. (#1419)

Bug fixes:

• Revert the changes to GM_xmlhttpRequest() in 0.9.13 (which were supposed to have no effect, but created a subtle bug). (#1472)
• Guarantee that we do not create a specific kind of memory leak.  (#1482)

Greasemonkey 0.9.13 Release

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.13 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, but it's available on the all versions page immediately.

If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to log an issue or let us know at greasemonkey-dev (and be clear that it's with this version).

Enhancements:

• Script updates install automatically. (#1442)
  In 0.9.12 we added update checking.  In 0.9.13 updates install automatically, but there's still some discussion over how to handle this best (#1455), so checking is still not enabled by default.  We hope to figure this out by the 0.9.14 release.  Some other update related work was done, mostly to make Firefox 3 work better.  (#1421, #1422, #1423)
• Provide an Options item in the Monkey Menu. (#1447)
• Add a Cancel button to the Options window. (#1454)

Bug fixes:

• GM_getResourceText() was broken. (#1438)
• You can properly select an application (bundle) for the editor on Mac OS X.  (#1439)
• Fix GM_openInTab() for Firefox 3. (#1444)
• Fix when pages reassign the location during page load. (#1445)

Greasemonkey Usage by Firefox Version, Oct 2011

Just like August's post, here's a graph of what versions of Firefox people use Greasemonkey with.



You can open the spreadsheet for the raw data and a larger graph.

Takeaways seem to be not a lot has changed, besides some up-and-down for each rapid release version since then (6 came and went, with 7 replacing it).  Firefox 3.6 users are still just shy of three quarters of a million.  Firefox versions too old for the newest version of Greasemonkey are still hanging in at almost a quarter million, and just shy of 50,000 users are running a too-new version of Firefox, probably with Add-on Compatibility Reporter.

Greasemonkey 0.9.13 beta1

Greasemonkey release 0.9.13 should include complete automatic in-the-backgroudn updating of user scripts.  As yet there are no docs for script authors but the short version is: put an @version in your metadata, and increase it when there is an update.

Greasemonkey 0.9.13 beta1 is now available for testing.  It's in the Mozilla Add-ons beta channel. Open the "Development Channel" drop down at the bottom of the page, and click the "Add to Firefox" button.

Please report an issue or find us at the mailing list to provide feedback on beta versions.

Greasemonkey 0.9.12 Release

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.12 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, but it's available on the all versions page immediately.

If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to log an issue or let us know at greasemonkey-dev (and be clear that it's with this version).

Enhancements:

• Script update checking (limited!). (#1053)
  We have started to build script update checking.  In 0.9.12, it is never automatic in the background.  You may choose to check one script (right click and choose "Find updates") or all scripts ("Check for updates" in the tool menu near the top of the Add-ons Manager).  If updates are found they will then be displayed.  Please use this feature and let us know if it works well, or if it breaks somehow.  Once we're confident that it works, we'll turn it on by default (automatically checking in the background) in a future release.
• Scripts run with the latest available version of Javascript. (#1403)

Bug fixes:

• Shared window object. (#1278)
  Before 0.9.0, it was possible to set properties on the window object, and other scripts would be able to read those properties.  This behavior was never supported, but as the compatibility fix that broke it is no longer necessary, it has been reverted.  It is still not suggested that you leverage this quirk, it is not a fully supported feature and may break again in the future.
• Right-clicking a script in the Monkey Menu works, even when no editor is configured.  (#1405)
• Fix launching the editor.  (#1409)
• Scripts with @match could break loading all other scripts.  (#1414)
• When browsing local files, menu commands for all scripts (on all tabs) no longer display.  (#1424)
• Fix GM_openInTab(). (#1428)

Try the Greasemonkey 0.9.12 beta!

We've fixed a few bugs and started working on auto-updates for scripts. Please, if you have a chance, download the beta release and test things out.

It's available in the Mozilla Add-ons beta channel. Open the "Development Channel" drop down at the bottom of the page, and click the "Add to Firefox" button.

Please report an issue or find us at the mailing list to provide feedback on beta versions.

Greasemonkey 0.9.11 Release

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.11 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, but it's available on the all versions page immediately.

If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to either let us know at greasemonkey-dev or log an issue (and be clear that it's with this version).

Bug fixes:

• Work around for a problem Tab Mix Plus causes when opening links in new tabs. (#1406)
  

Greasemonkey 0.9.10 Release

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.10 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, but it's available on the all versions page immediately.

If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to either let us know at greasemonkey-dev or log an issue (and be clear that it's with this version).

Bug fixes:

• You will be prompted to pick a new editor if the existing setting is an invalid path. (#1386)
  
• Changing views within the Add-ons Manager could cause the user script sort order to be wrong. (#1394)
  

Enhancements:

• When a script causes an unhandled error, the display in the Error Console will be a bit easier to read. (#1396)
• When Growl is not installed, Greasemonkey's notifications are less obtrusive. (#1397)
• A range of internal code clean ups. (#1395, #1398, #1399, #1400, #1401)
  

Greasemonkey 0.9.9 Release

Update: Mozilla did not pass this version for review. Since 0.9.10 was already underway, their requested changes were made there. This version never really hit a public release.

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.9 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, but it's available on the all versions page immediately.

If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to either let us know at greasemonkey-dev or log an issue (and be clear that it's with this version).

Bug fixes:

• Pressing 'back' could rarely cause a script to run twice on the same page. (#1083)
• Extended characters would get corrupted in new scripts. (#1236, #1315)
  
• A full disk could cause loss of data (especially config.xml). (#1301)
• (Affecting 0.9.8) Scripts would not install (all scripts in Firefox 3: #1389, always for certain scripts: #1391)
  

Enhancements:

• GM_xmlhttpRequest() provides progress events. (#1081)
• GM_xmlhttpRequset() provides a synchronous mode. (#1269)
• By popular demand: a UI for editing @includes and @excludes. (#1362)
  

Greasemonkey Usage by Firefox Version, August 2011

I'm revisiting the Greasemonkey usage topic. A short while back, we decided to drop support for Firefox 3.0 from new versions of Greasemonkey, somewhat based on the similar work I did back then. But I realize that last graph wasn't very well done, it didn't reveal the 3.x usage clearly. So here's an interactive trend graph that makes it much more obvious:


(Access the raw data and a larger graph at Google Docs.)

It turns out that Firefox 3.5 is even less used than 3.0, both well under 5%. On the other hand, as mentioned, 3.6 is still 25% of usage. It may well mean that we drop 3.5 support and take advantage of some of the behind-the-scenes things available only in 3.6 and higher very soon.

P.S. There's also some graphs, by major version, and minor version within 0.9, of Greasemonkey usage.

Nerd alert: To make this graph, I started with the AMO statistics, and passed it through a python script to clean up and combine the (patch level) versions. By hand, I rearranged the data into a 7-day moving average for the versions I was interested in: 3.0 and higher.

Greasemonkey 0.9.8 Release

Bug fixes:

• User scripts cannot run in any about: pages besides about:blank. (Security enhancement; #1375)
  

Enhancements:

• Global, user specified, @exclude rules. (#1002)
• New @run-at metadata imperative, which supports value document-start, as well as the standard document-end behavior. Please see the documentation. (#1103)
• Support for @match metadata imperative, as implemented by Google Chrome. Thanks to Scriptish for original implementation. (#1377)
• Support for full regular expression syntax in @include/@exclude rules. Please see the documentation. (#1378)
  

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.8 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, but it's available on the all versions page immediately.

If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to either let us know at greasemonkey-dev or log an issue (and be clear that it's with this version).

Greasemonkey 0.9.7 Release

Bug fixes:

• Scripts with broken @icons will install, just with no icon. (#1214)
• Editing the @icon line of a script will take effect immediately. (#1215)
  
• Remote resources (@require, @resource, @icon) that redirect to other URLs will now work. (#1222)
  

Enhancements:

• Compatibility with Firefox 6 and 7. (#1357)
• GM_openInTab() will respect the insertRelatedAfterCurrent preference. (#1370)
  

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.7 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, but it's available on the all versions page immediately.

If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to either let us know at greasemonkey-dev or log an issue (and be clear that it's with this version).

Greasemonkey Usage by Firefox Version, July 2011

I wrote a very similar post three months ago, but there's been a lot of real motion along Mozilla's fast release track since then. It's worth revisiting these numbers:Click for a larger image, or browse the data in Google Docs, with a larger view and a line chart as well.

This stacked area chart makes a few of trends obvious: Firefox 4 became very popular over its short life, and Firefox 5 is quickly replacing it. But also: Firefox 3.6 is definitely still kicking, at the second most common browser over the past week. Here's some data; the average daily usage for each version over the past week:

• 5.0 1,589,647
• 3.6 798,062
• 4.0 461,349
• 3.0 150,314
• 3.5 117,740
• 2.0 13,144
• 6.0 2,596
• 7.0 1,990
• 1.5 392

Or: Version 3.x (1,066,116) is still one third of total usage (3,135,233). And even if 4.0 is dropping quickly, right now it's still almost a quarter of the total post-3 users.

Greasemonkey 0.9.6 Release

Bug fixes:

• GM_openInTab() fails in Firefox 3. (#1361)
• Firefox 5: Error in Add-ons Manager. (#1367)

Enhancements:

• Add "get user scripts" link to the Add-ons Manager. (#1213)
• Pass site cookies when downloading scripts. (#1359)

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.6 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, and it's available on the all versions page. If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to either let us know at greasemonkey-dev or log an issue (and be clear that it's with this version).

Greasemonkey 0.9.5 Release

Primarily because a serious issue was found in the not-yet-reviewed 0.9.4, version 0.9.5 has been hurried out.

Bug fixes:

• Installing and uninstalling the same script many times does not work properly. (#1353)
• GM_xmlhttpRequest() does not work in Firefox 5 betas. (#1354)
• (Introduced in 0.9.4:) Cannot enable nor disable scripts. (#1355)
• Installing the first user script while the user scripts pane of the add-ons manager is open leaves the "no user scripts" warning. (#1356)

Enhancements:

• The installation dialog shows the script version, if provided with @version. (#1349)

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.5 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, and it's available on the all versions page. If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to either let us know at greasemonkey-dev or log an issue (and be clear that it's with this version).

Greasemonkey 0.9.4 Release

Bug fixes:

• The GM_openInTab() API again returns a handle to the window object. (#1298)
• Using alert() will not break setTimeout() nor GM_xmlhttpRequest(). (#1318)
  NOTE: we currently only have a work-around in place, watch mozilla bug 647727 for a real fix.
  

Enhancements:

• When re-ordering execution of scripts: clicking the first/last item disables sooner/later items, and picking any of these will switch to Execution Order sort (if it is not already selected).
• Removed the detail view for user scripts, which did not contain any more information than the list view.
  

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.4 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, and it's available on the all versions page. If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to either let us know at greasemonkey-dev or log an issue (and be clear that it's with this version).

Greasemonkey 0.9.3 Release

Bug fixes:

• Error message logged ("Redeclaration of const document")/high CPU usage when closing the sidebar. (#1226, #1298)
• Navigating to a .user.js inside a frame works like anywhere else. (#1248)
• The list of user scripts in the Add-ons Manager would sometimes forget its sort order. (#1307)
• Compatibility enhancement with AutoPager (broken in 0.9.2). (#1344)
• Passing a non-function to GM_registerMenuCommand()'s commandFunc broke the entire menu, and items showed up in the wrong order (both broken in 0.9.2). (#1346, #1347)
  

Enhancements:

• Passing the Referer header works, for GM_xmlhttpRequest(). (#1240)
• Accessibility: The sort buttons in the Add-ons Manager work with keyboard input (space/enter). (#1345)

The entire list of bugs handled in this release is also available via the 0.9.3 milestone on GitHub. Note that as always it takes some time for Mozilla to review the new version, and it's available on the all versions page. If you are using it and notice problems, it's best to either let us know at greasemonkey-dev or log an issue (and be clear that it's with this version).

Breaking change: Inject into about:blank?

Back in version 0.8.2 we patched a security/privacy hole by preventing injection into file: and about: scheme URLs. This was August 2009, and at the time we specifically allowed about:blank (while blocking the rest of about:). A carefully crafted web search, [site:userscripts.org/scripts/review/ "about:blank" -"src about:blank"] reveals (among plenty false positives just making frames/windows that start blank) that real scripts are using this feature. Examples include:

• Super Imgur Script

Then there's scripts specifically avoiding about:blank:

• Cookie Zapper On Tab Close
• Content Concealer
• Go to bottom and go to top floating links
• Taggable
  

Yes, I ended up finding only one real script using this feature. In much the way that I imagined it way back when. But I found four specifically trying to avoid it.

We now know of one real, serious bug with this approach. It happens to have an easy workaround, but really brings to light the issue: The about:blank page has a sort of special meaning. In this bug we know about, the browser is using a navigation to about:blank as a sort of clean-up, meaning "this content is gone", much like assigning null as a cleanup activity in some programming languages.

Therefore our current plan is to not inject scripts into about:blank unless the @include rule specifically mentions it. So if you say @include about:blank#mycustomvalue then everything will work as it does. But if you say @include * (or rely on that default) then you will not run on about:blank. Current plans would include this change in the upcoming version 0.9.3.

(As always, please find us on greasemonkey-dev to discuss the development of Greasemonkey itself.)

Greasemonkey 0.9.2 Release

This release primarily fixes some of the problems discovered since 0.9.0.

Bug Fixes:

• Failure on OSX when Growl is installed, but not running. (#1264)
• Incorrect display of Greasemonkey icon in Add-ons window (Firefox 3.6, OS X). (#1284, #1291)
• Provide a sort bar, to control display order of the scripts in the Add-ons manager, for Firefox 4. (#1293)
• Remove "accelerator" keys from GM_registerMenuCommand(). (#1312, previously)
• Work around incompatibility with Personas Plus extension. (#1253)
  

Enhancements:

• Provide a toolbar button, and remove the status bar icon for Firefox 4. (#1227)
• When re-installing a script (e.g. for an update), keep it in the same execution order. (#1267)
• Keep the add-ons manager view up to date when changing (installing/enabling/disabling/etc) user scripts. (#1305)

It should be available soon, pending normal delays for review.