Links:
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Edge - v1.2.3 is still being approved, you can grab the release from Github if you are eager
- Opera: Still under review, please download from Chrome webstore or Github release.
For questions / support: !instance_assistant@lemmy.ca (alternate: https://lemmy.ca/c/instance_assistant)
What's new?
- You can now customize the instance list to match which instances you actually use. This should be helpful for those that have accounts on different instances.
- Added a settings page so that you can turn off features that you don't want active
- Added buttons for helpful tools that let you explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
- Added a sidebar for those that prefer it (works on Firefox, Chrome & Opera; Edge doesn't have sidebars yet but the code is there)
- Fix for issues with the search trigger on the community not found page (thank-you to whqwert!)
- Various bugfixes, small theme changes, and improved wording
What's coming up?
- Working with the amazing /u/howdy@thesimplecorner.org to bring over features from the LemmyTools Userscript^1^
- Integrating lemmyverse.net and search-lemmy.com so you can do everything right on your community page^2^
- Adding icons and simplifying the design, as the UI is getting wordy
- Adding support for alternative home instances (ex. Alexandrite - Issue 14)
- Ability to have multiple 'home instances', so you can open it in any without having to change your home instance each time.
- Finishing the setup so that people can contribute translations / other languages to the extension.
- Getting the extension on Opera (no immediate plans, but this would be good to have)
More details:
-
/u/howdy@thesimplecorner.org has created a really useful userscript that you can find here: !lemmytools@thesimplecorner.org (alternate: https://thesimplecorner.org/c/lemmytools). We're going to be working together to bring those features into Instance Assistant, so that you can have all the features in one place.
-
Right now there are buttons to explore Lemmy/Kbin communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com). Both of these take you to the respective webpages. Instead, it might be nicer to have a lightweight version right on the Lemmy/Kbin community page (or in the extension popup/sidebar). This should be possible using their APIs/data access, and I have a little working proof of concept already (see GitHub)
I'm new, what is this?
Instance Assistant is a browser extension that started out as a way to quickly jump from one community to the version on your home instance, so that you could subscribe/participate immediately. Since then, a few other features have been implemented:
Features
- Redirect to your home instance:
- Buttons will be added to the sidebar of any Lemmy or Kbin community you visit, which will let you open the same community on your home instance.
- Open links in home instance:
- Right click context menu will allow you to open any links in your home instance
- Improved Error Pages:
- 'Community not found' pages now have better information, a button to trigger a fetch, a button to open a community in the source instance, and more.
- Customizable popup & sidebar menus:
- Customizable list of instances to let you quickly switch home instances. This is great for if you have multiple accounts on different instances.
- There are also buttons for helpful tools that let you search for communities (with lemmyverse.net), and search across Lemmy sites (with search-lemmy.com).
- Settings:
- You can change the default behaviour of the extension, customize the popup & sidebar menus, and turn off features you don't want to use.