User:Kim/Special Issue 26/Inspector Extensions

From XPUB & Lens-Based wiki

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 (ofc)
  • 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


contamination --> infectious interfaces --> malware [1] --> website extension ...

  • Malware Museum 1

  • Malware Museum 2

  • Website Age WiP 1

  • Website Age WiP 2

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 ...

Elements

Comments

a websites HTML (example for html comments [2]) -- 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: [3] [4])
  • 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 [5] or [6] this later one recommends creating my own api with python script and call api inside you javascript file or writing Pyscript

Empty Elements

logging all :empty html elements into the console (eventl have multiple steps and make them visible in interface and then also inspectable in interface, animate how they appear...)

Do:

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

< head >

reveal meta, script and link tags in the head (or footer) of a website and hide original content
needs: visual appearance (?) styling other than low key techy dark mode

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?

Retrieved from "https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mw-mediadesign/index.php?title=User:Kim/Special_Issue_26/Inspector_Extensions&oldid=289786"