imdj/hnrelevant

A browser extension that shows relevant submissions on Hacker News

hnrelevant's Issues

Use Manifest v3 for Firefox

One hiccup in adapting manifest v3 to Firefox is host_permissions. Chrome and Firefox handle thing differently in this case, Chrome before installation will prompt the user for confirmation to 'Add extension' with a summary of what it can access, while Firefox treats these permissions as opt-in where the user is expected after installation to manually visit the extensions page and grants its permissions [0]

[0] https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2022/11/17/unified-extensions-button-and-how-to-handle-permissions-in-manifest-v3/

MV3 treats host permissions (listed in the extension manifest) as opt-in.

Safari support

For reference check: https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=qiz0arxc

Show domain for results if the submission is a URL

Ability to control search keywords to improve search

So you can exclude irrelevant keywords from search and add custom one to help when needed
Implementation: We can use a customize button that reveal a menu of options and checkboxes

Add search type `Verbatim` and `Similar`

• Verbatim: Literal results using query parameter. More precise, Useful for previous discussions or mentions.
• Similar: Perform a more generic/exploratory search for related submissions using similarQuery (default)

Avoid running on a comment page

Submissions and comments on Hacker News share the same URL format:

• Submissions: /item?id=38309611
• Comments: /item?id=38310213

Right now, the extension relies solely on the manifest's content_scripts key and runs on any page it's allowed on, i.e: pages that matches *://news.ycombinator.com/item*
We have to implement some safety rail to detect submission pages and further limit execution

Add a tooltip with hints on how to improve search

Add a tooltip to the query customization field with a collection of hints on how to improve the quality of results.

Example:

1. Remove years and numbers if they're irrelevant
2. Omit non-essential details to help reduce noise
3. Choose keywords that capture the essence of the topic

Changing the number of results triggers search in manual mode

Selecting different options from "number of results" dropdown is supposed to regenerate search results for instant feedback. At the moment, in manual mode, the results are fetched even if the user hasn't requested a search already

Expected behavior: Not fetching results in manual mode other than when a user explicitly clicks submit

Attach timestamp information for the results

Right now time is displayed in relative format as string eg: 3 years ago, 10 months ago, etc

To improve accessibility and UX we can follow similar structure to Hacker News

<span class="age" title="2024-01-24T18:14:17">
    <a href="item?id=">6 hours ago</a>
</span>

but replace <a> with the more semantically appropriate <time>

Firefox version

This extension is insanely useful. Would love to see a Firefox version, opening this issue to explore the possibility.

Avoid failure when HN has simple changes in its DOM structure

Need more robustness regarding DOM structure
For example: When the death bar is added, the extension fails to display because the set node structure is no longer valid

Small screens support

Consider converting the sidebar to more compact form that integrate better with vertical layout on small screens

The year appended to the title e.g: (2016) can alone completely wreck the results.

User preferences

Add persistent preferences with options to:

1. Manual mode: Disable fetching results automatically on page load (enhancing privacy)
2. Set default number of results in the sidebar

Handle special characters in submission title

Example: To Build a Top Performing Team, Ask for 85% Effort where the API request currently returns a bad request (status code: 400) due to the Percent sign % passed as part of the query

Support different number of results using a dropdown