ClickToFlash for Safari
Posted January 23rd, 2009 @ 07:54pm by Erik J. Barzeski
I'd like to thank Steven Frank for posting the link to ClickToFlash ClickToFlash, a Safari plugin that prevents the loading of Flash content until you click it.
I shared this plugin's location with John Gruber and he noted that he was seeing low single-percentage CPU usage with 30 Safari tabs open. In my own tests, Safari took up 4% CPU when looking at a YouTube page prior to loading the Flash video. After loading it (by clicking the grey gradient that replaces the video), CPU usage rose to 40 to 50%.
It works, and it's pretty great.
Update (2009-01-28): Updated link to the current fork.
Donate Life
Posted 24 Jan 2009 at 10:03am #
Interesting to see that it's not an InputManager. Thanks for the heads-up, this looks pretty cool.
(of course, this raises some interesting points about Flash on the iPhone, but Daring Fireball has already covered that ground)
Posted 24 Jan 2009 at 4:35pm #
Sounds like an excellent companion to FlashBlock. Does it allow you to whitelist certain domains? I couldn't tell from the website. If it does, I might start using Safari more again.
Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 8:17pm #
[quote comment="52422"]Interesting to see that it's not an InputManager.[/quote]
I'm glad, too. I'm trying to keep the number of InputManagers down to a minimum.
[quote comment="52427"]Does it allow you to whitelist certain domains?[/quote]
No, though I'm certain you could probably easily build in that functionality in (hard coded would be easiest, but it'd take five more minutes to just read from an XML file somewhere) yourself. The code's provided.
Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 8:48pm #
I'd love to see a whitelist. If I see Flash on YouTube and Google Maps, it's probably because I wanted to.
That, and a placeholder graphic would be nice. Sometimes, I can't tell what I'm looking at is a Flash element that requires me to click.
Functions great otherwise, though.
Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 11:41pm #
Hey, it's open source. Maybe we should contribute. Of course, we'd have to find the time, but it might annoy me enough to want to do it.
I kind of like having to click on YouTube. I can load videos and it won't slow my browser down. I can then watch the video when I want… And Google Maps isn't really Flash.
Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 11:55pm #
[quote comment="52450"]Hey, it's open source. Maybe we should contribute. Of course, we'd have to find the time, but it might annoy me enough to want to do it.[/quote]
Yeah, time can be a problem. I can't really code, or else I'd probably do it myself.
Looks like the bug tracker is getting some attention, though - hard to believe this has been around since August and nobody's noticed until now.
Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 7:39am #
Bummer. Link is dead, well, forbidden! Good find everyone.
Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 9:22am #
Yeah, as of recently, you're right. Not sure what's up with that.
Fortunately there's already a fork and it's improved some features.
Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 1:47pm #
Awesome -- thx.
Posted 28 Jan 2009 at 2:23am #
I really want ClickToFlash to work for me, but can't seem to install it.
Double-clicking the installer app does nothing except generate a file in the "/library/logs/crash reporter" folder.
=========================
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000000
=========================
Does it require a certain version of OS X or Safari?
(I'm on 10.4.11 (G4 PPC), Safari 3.0.4)
Is there something I'm missing here?
Please help if you can.
Thank you,
-LG
Posted 30 Jan 2009 at 5:47am #
[quote comment="52477"]Does it require a certain version of OS X or Safari?
(I'm on 10.4.11 (G4 PPC), Safari 3.0.4)[/quote]
It's Leopard Only
Posted 30 Jan 2009 at 7:14am #
The current version at rentzsch's github site is for Mac OS X 10.5 and up only, but I've tweaked the code to make it work for 10.4, and we're looking at merging the support in. If you have Xcode installed, the 10.4 code is here: http://github.com/mbaltaks/clicktoflash
Posted 02 Feb 2009 at 3:17am #
Thank you so much for the 10.4 versioning.
I've installed it, it works, and I'm loving it already.
I hope I didn't appear to be too much of a n00b, not realizing it was 10.5 only.
I honestly did research my problem and did not previously see any reference to OS version limits.
I see that a note has now been added to the original download page that it is for 10.5
Thank you, again, for the 10.4 version.
In the fight against bloated Flash-ladened web pages causing me to stare a the Spinning Pinwheel of Death, you are my hero.
-LG
Posted 11 Feb 2009 at 6:42pm #
Clicktoflash works great expect for abc.com content. With Clicktoflash installed none of the tv show episodes will play. Even when they're put on the white list.