A Chrome/Firefox extension that simplifies following and post interactions on other Mastodon instances than your own by redirecting you to your instance and utilizing the APIs to resolve the requested content. If enabled, the extension also automatically performs the desired action (follow, boost, favourite) for you.
Should work for all updated Chromium browsers, updated Firefox, as well as Kiwi browser and Firefox Nightly on Android. Currently only Mastodon 3 + 4 in different flavours are supported as far as I tested. Support for other Fediverse software and additional flavours might be added in the future. Feel free to create pull requests / issues. This is my first proper browser extension so please bear with my awful JS skills.
[<imgsrc="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alrra/browser-logos/90fdf03c/src/chrome/chrome.svg"width="48"alt="Chrome"valign="middle">][link-chrome] [<imgvalign="middle"src="https://img.shields.io/chrome-web-store/v/lmpcajpkjcclkjbliapfjfolocffednm.svg?label=%20">][link-chrome] and other Chromium browsers
[<imgsrc="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alrra/browser-logos/90fdf03c/src/firefox/firefox.svg"width="48"alt="Firefox"valign="middle">][link-firefox] [<imgvalign="middle"src="https://img.shields.io/amo/v/fedifollow.svg?label=%20">][link-firefox] including Firefox for Android
Since a while, Firefox on Android only allows a [curated list](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/search/?promoted=recommended&sort=random&type=extension) of addons to install, preventing installation of anything else. The following explanation will guide you how to install it from the webstore anyways.
I included all of the default add-ons in the custom collection, so you will not miss out on any of those. Of course, you can create [your own collection](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-use-collections-addonsmozillaorg) as well.
1. Currently supports external Mastodon instances v3 + v4
- I have not tested if Mastodon v3 works as home instance! In general, Mastodon v4 support is the main objective.
2. The whitelist mode can be useful if you do not want the extension to run basic checks on every site (since it needs to determine if it is a Mastodon site). Not sure if the blacklist feature is good for anything but I still included it.
3. It can have several reasons why a redirection/instance might not work:
- You are not logged in to your home instance (can't fix, log in)
- There are instances that use custom layouts/flavours (additional identifiers need to be added to extension)
- Instance chose to hide the follow button when not logged in (not supported yet)
- It's not a Mastodon instance (not supported yet)
- Element identifiers might change over time (extension needs to be updated)
- Your home instance is blocked by the external instance (can't fix, obviously)
4. There is a known bug that sometimes, when following a user and having auto-action enabled, the follow results in a follow request even though the account is unlocked (so it should instantly accept). I suppose this is a bug with Mastodon / network issue. The followed user will in fact receive the request. If you notice it, you can unfollow and follow again, this will work as usual.
5. There can be a short delay before you are redirected since an API call to the respective external instance must be made. In general, performance of this addon depends on the performance of the external instance and your home instance.
- Using the search API gives best compatibility for resolving content (for ex. Toot IDs differ on instances for the same toot)
### Follow interactions
- Addon uses a list of DOM identifiers of follow buttons (for different views / flavors)
- All default actions for clicking the button are prevented
- Addon extracts the handle and handle domain from the profile view
- The handle domain is then searched for with the external instance's search API endpoint (without resolving, so no authorization needed)
- This is to ensure we grab the correct instance URL for this user, since it can differ from the domain handle (also, the domain handle does not always resolve)
- If all worked out, we build our search string and redirect to your home instance with the value as URL parameter then continue as explained in "General"
### Post interactions
- Addon uses a list of allowed URLs and DOM identifiers for interaction buttons
- It then grabs the Toot ID using different methods, depending on the Mastodon version / flavor
- The Toot ID is then searched for using the external instance's status API
- This gives us the actual URL of the post on its home instance for using as the search string (even if the post is from another external instance than the external instance it is viewed on)
- If all worked out, we build our search string and redirect to your home instance with the value as URL parameter then continue as explained in "General"
- Fix some rare cases where an instance runs on a subdomain but the handle uses the domain without subdomain (need to get the handle directly from the profile instead of URL + domain name) (DONE)
- Add feature to indicate if you are already following a user when browsing his profile on another instance (this requires calls to the home instance, will look into it soon)
