Regular readers know that I would make the switch from Firefox to either Google Chrome or Opera if those web browsers would support NoScript functionality and Last Pass.
NoScript is a security add-on for Firefox that blocks scripts from being loaded when the website loads. While that means more work on your part to enable scripts selectively when needed, it blocks many attack forms on the Internet outright.
LastPass is an online password manager on the other hand.
So far only Last Pass has made its way to the Google Chrome browser. Daxpit, a reader of my blog, recently mentioned that the BlockIt userscript offers NoScript like functionality when run in Opera.
A userscript in Opera is an external script that can be loaded in the web browser. Much like add-ons but more complicated to setup in my opinion.
BlockIt
BlockIt is compatible with the latest versions of Opera up to Opera 10.50 which is the version I have tested the script on.
It displays a small icon in the lower right corner of the screen. A click on that icon displays a menu that shows the scripts on the page, the number of scripts that have been blocked, a pulldown menu listing all script names, and controls to unblock scripts on the page.
All scripts that are executed normally on the page are disabled by default just like they are in NoScript.
BlockIt divides the elements on the page into categories like scripts, images or embeds with the option to unblock those elements individually or completely. This is one of the differences between both scripts. NoScript ignores images as they are not scripts whereas BlockIt blocks them as well in the beginning.
The following controls are available:
- Block: This is a button that toggles between “Unblock” and “Block”, and adds the selected element to the whitelist if “unblock” is clicked, and removed if “Block” is clicked, also when this button is clicked anything that is viewable on the page will show up(red outline) and be blocked on the spot, same if “Unblock” is clicked(but orange outline and scrolled to)
- All: This is a button that unblocks or blocks all elements of that type, only use this if the site needs all of the elements for the page to work regularly,otherwise its good for quickly blocking/unblocking most elements quickly.
- T-Unblock: This is a button that allows toggling this script off temporarily for the whole tab, so if you are only visiting this site temporarily and want to view it properly in its entirety, this button is for you.
- Server: This is a button that blocks/unblocks all elements of the type based on the server name, say if you wanted all scripts from one site to be loaded but others not to be, this button does what it says on the tin.
- Preview: This is basically a button that allows you to preview the element in a new tab, this is especially good for scripts that cannot be previewed the normal way.
BlockIt remembers the configuration changes made by the user so that elements that have been unblocked remain unblocked in future sessions. The information are stored in cookies which means that cookies need to be enabled for the settings to be saved by the script.
Tips
- Holding shift and clicking on the “Unblock”/”Block” button is a quick shortcut for blocking all elements of the same type on the page(like clicking on the “All” button), holding ctrl is a shortcut for blocking elements based on the same servername as itself(like clicking the “Server” button).
- Holding ctrl while clicking the “Server” button actually stores the servername for all element types, this is useful for youtube as sometimes it holds all scripts and images on similar servers
- Holding shift while clicking the “T-unblock” button will actually only unblock everything for that url only, need to turn blocking back on again? Here is a bookmarklet that will do so. Drag this to a toolbar or bookmark it for future use. BlockIt toggle
- BlockIt adjusts to your screen size, the user interface will shrink its font and total width accordingly, if BlockIt cannot fit, it will tell you, but this script is mainly designed to work on screens with width 300px and above.
- By default, BlockIt will appear in the bottom right position, if you’d like to change the position, change “cornerposition” to either 1(top-left),2(top-right),3(bottom-left) or keep it as it is as 4(bottom-right)
BlockIt is a great NoScript alternative for the Opera web browser. This ties the score between Google Chrome (which got Last Pass) and Opera (which got NoScript).
BlockIt can be downloaded from the forum page over at the Opera forum where the developer announced the script.
Update: The switch to Chromium brought many changes to the Opera web browser. One of them was a reset of the Opera forum taking all old posts with it. This means that BlockIt is no longer available. Even if it would be, it would no longer be compatible with recent versions of Opera.
You may want to check out the NotScripts extension for the new Opera browser which offers similar functionality.