What’s New in Social Fixer 7.0

Social Fixer 7.0 fixes some problems introduced by Facebook’s recent code changes and includes a number of improvements and bug fixes. Please read this post, as it contains important info!

Install the update by going to SocialFixer.com

Before installing the update, it is recommended that you back up your preferences. Some users may have their options reset after updating. Unfortunately, this is an unavoidable side-effect of some of the changes required in this release. For instructions on how to backup and restore prefs, see this question in the FAQ.
Also, some users may find that after updating, you have two versions of Social Fixer listed in your extensions. In this case, please delete the older version.

Changes In This Release

• Users of Chrome, Safari, and Opera were having problems with their preferences being reset frequently. This was actually a result of code inserted by Facebook that wiped out the storage area that Social Fixer and other extensions use (malicious on their part? I’m not sure!). Changes were made to the code in each of these browsers to use the native Extension API’s in each, so the preferences should no longer be vulnerable to other applications or scripts which over-write them. Also, some of the preference loading and saving code has been improved and made more robust.
  • Themes and the Setup Wizard work again in Chrome, Safari, and Opera.

    • The style of the news feed tabs and control panel have been updated to blend in better to the Facebook interface and be more visually pleasing:
      The code that controls the tabs and filters has been greatly improved, which should make things run faster and avoid quirky problems like duplicate posts in the feed. Also, a “more” link has been added to the right side of the control panel to get access to the “status” details and quick toggle switches for filtering, etc.

      • Improved hiding of Trending Articles/Videos.
        • Added new apps and games to the auto-tab list (SongPop, Instagram, etc).
          • A new option for filtering has been added, under the “Other” column of filters, called “Matching Selector”. This is where you can add any CSS rule, and it will be tested against the structure of each post. This allows for powerful filtering based on HTML structure, rather than just keywords in the posts. More information can be found in the feed filter documentation.
            • Added auto-update functionality to Opera extension and Greasemonkey script.</ul>

              Other Changes

            • Removed the “alternate display mode” option which just reduced the size of the read posts, due to incompatibility with other changes and infrequency of use by users.

              Known Issues

            • Social Fixer does not work correctly with the Firefox Nightly builds. They have broken the evalInSandbox function that my extension framework uses. I will look into this ASAP.
              • The new storage fixes in Chrome will only work in version 19 or higher. If you are still using Chromium 18, you may still find that your prefs are wiped out by Facebook once in a while. This is unavoidable, and Facebook is to blame.</ul>

                Donations

              I try not to make a big deal out of donations, because Social Fixer is a FREE app and always will be. Donations are always optional. But, I have spent many hours working on this update and getting the Social Fixer code into a much better place, so I can build from it and improve how it works. And… I am trying to move my family into a new home! We live in a nice but modest house now, which only has 1 bathroom. With me and 3 females in one house, we really needed something a bit bigger . So, while we are facing a bit of a financial challenge to move and sell our old house, I am trying to put extra time into Social Fixer (almost like a second job) and hope that my generous users will help me make the move for my family.

              So…. **donations are always welcome **and appreciated. To those who contribute, I offer a very sincere Thank You!
              (In case the links above weren’t obvious, click here to donate. If every user donated just $1, I could pay cash for a new house and furnish it! I don’t expect that, but it never hurts to dream )

              – Matt Kruse, author of Social Fixer