For the past several months now, I’ve been using an extension to Mozilla (and Firebird) called “Flash Click To View”. What this does is replace any Flash animation with a box that has a link saying “flash [[Click to play]]”. If you click on it then the animation starts – otherwise it stays as it is.

Why is this useful? Because a lot of sites use Flash animation to display annoying ads mixed in with text that you’re viewing. While having a box in the middle of what you’re reading is still annoying – it’s a lot less annoying than seeing the actual animated ad.

However. This extension, as put out by the author, has a bug in it. In theory, once you install it it’s supposed to keep on working despite any upgrades you might make to your browser (like installing a newer version) – but it doesn’t actually work that way. When a new version of the browser is released (personally, I normally upgrade to the latest “nightly” build every day or two), and you install it, this extension stops working. Now, when you visit a site that has Flash animation on it, you just get an empty box without anything to click on to play the animation. (If the site happens to have nothing on it but animation, then you’ll end up with a completely blank page.)

There is, however, an easy fix.

• Don’t install the extension but download it instead. The filename is “flashblock.xpi”.
• Rename the file to “flashblock.zip”.
• Unzip this file. You’ll end up with 3 difference files.
• Edit the file “install.js”.
• Make the following replacement:

  registerChrome(CONTENT | DELAYED_CHROME, jar, APP_CONTENT_FOLDER);

  ---

  registerChrome(CONTENT | PROFILE_CHROME, jar, APP_CONTENT_FOLDER);
   

• Zip the 3 files back into “flashblock.zip”.
• Rename “flashblock.zip” to “flashblock.xpi”.

This modified version will work properly, and the extension will keep working even after you’ve installed newer versions of your browser. If you don’t want to go through the trouble of making these modifications yourself, you can install (or download) the fixed version of the extension from me here.

Thanks for this fix go to a posting by clav at MozillaZine.