User:Kim/Special Issue 26/Inspector Extensions: Difference between revisions

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* publish (see outlook) print, git, moz extension store?
* publish (see outlook) print, git, moz extension store?


need tech help with:
'''need tech help with:'''
* website age Whois request / API
* website age Whois request / API
* bringing extensions together
* bringing extensions together
'''class questions:'''
* how much explanation should there be about what is happening, what this is examining? (source code comments etc are not widely known)


== Elements ==
== Elements ==

Revision as of 08:27, 3 March 2025

Concept

keys

  • website is not a sealed off, pure surface current web interfaces and focus on 'user experience' hide programmability of the system, to minimize and channel user interacting with it: creates the illusion that there is nothing behind (the user interface)
  • Layers
  • Visibility (transparency, permeability)
  • Browsers (crucial, performative) role as interpreter
  • inspection + making structure visible + contamination (on browser level) inspection also suggests looking at something that is initially hidden, its intimate and intruding at times

Metaphors / Analogies

  • looking glass or microscope (with different lenses)
  • what if inspection was less visual and more tactile ? (haptik – surface feel)
    • they have a tactility to them: stickyness, maserung holz
    • 'see trough' cameras or scans – let us look behind surfaces (like infra red, x ray or MRI scan (which makes head/ brain visible)) --> play with transparencies
  • looking underneath (like flipping it on its back side)
  • Topography emphasizes web as environment/ spacial, layers "is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces" -> extensions inspect websites on 'surface' level (Graphical interface) to extract information about underlying structure, environment and involved entities [1] [2] [3] [4]


contamination --> infectious interfaces --> malware [5] --> website extension ...

General Tasks

  • look into browser API's (JavaScript can do more on browser level than on website level!)
    • history API allows to see how many times you visited a website (--wear and tear of a website)
  • read MDN Docs
  • bring individual extensions together in a bundle
    • interface that allows to navigate between 4 extensions
      • what does this look like?
      • What functions does it need?
    • Extension Meta Info: Title(s), Icons ...
  • publish (see outlook) print, git, moz extension store?

need tech help with:

  • website age Whois request / API
  • bringing extensions together

class questions:

  • how much explanation should there be about what is happening, what this is examining? (source code comments etc are not widely known)

Elements

Comments

a websites HTML (example for html comments [6]) -- html works but only on some levels yet (not on comments in document head) + CSS + JS Comments visible through browser extension (in three columns)

Do:

  • needs better html parsing (treewalker: [7] [8])
  • append container only when there are comments? (or: add message no comments found)
  • pop up buttons into checkmarks? radio buttons or toggles?

Website Age

This extension asks for the registration date of a websites Domain - and per year the website is old adds a border to every website element (while shrinking the inner content, growing outwards)

Do:

  • find solution for Whois Api: at the moment it has restricted TLD support (see below) *
  • rebuild extension so it also works on request (button) not automatically on every page visited
  • refine functionality: maybe rings can build up one after another, maybe there is a way to not let it destroy the interface this much? should the age be displayed somewhere as number?

* is it possible to use a python script for that? specifically to connect .py with browser extension? apparently this works see [9] or [10] this later one recommends creating my own api with python script and call api inside you javascript file or writing Pyscript

Empty Elements

this extension comes in two steps:

  1. it allows to log all :empty html elements (with name and attributes) into the inspector console
  2. makes all empty elements visible in the websites interface and creates an inspector cursor which shows :empty elements name on hover

Do:

  • styling
    • how empty elements appear on the page (darker bg color to create empty as 'cut-outs') + console.logs + browser pop up

< head >

reveals meta, script and link tags in the head of a websites source code

Do:
needs: visual appearance (?) styling other than low key techy dark mode * styling idea: everything color bg (like comments, but focussed transparency)

  • tabindex navigation works but should/ can I prevent it from navigating the whole website?
  • Maybe the fact that a head is attached to the top of something could give interesting layout or positioning ideas

this is the etherpad css url: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/css-show-meta

Outlook

I would like to have a way of publishing them other than (just) in the extension store -- could this be a printed zine that contains all the code annotated?