InformAction Forums

Hello. I have a couple of general questions about NoScript's status bar. I'm not certain that it should be called the NoScript status bar (perhaps message bar is a better term), but it appears along the bottom of the browser window just above the browser's status bar. When it advises me that, say, 3 of 4 scripts were allowed, and shows me what was allowed, where can I find out what was "not" allowed? As I am in the scrutinize mode with this program while learning it, I would like to understand what it blocked also.

Also, when I see these clues, for instance: <SCRIPT>: 11 | <OBJECT>: 0, what should I infer from them exactly?

Incidentally, is there any way for me to make use of a larger set of these little smiley icons?

jw72253 wrote:Hello. I have a couple of general questions about NoScript's status bar. I'm not certain that it should be called the NoScript status bar (perhaps message bar is a better term), but it appears along the bottom of the browser window just above the browser's status bar. When it advises me that, say, 3 of 4 scripts were allowed, and shows me what was allowed, where can I find out what was "not" allowed? As I am in the scrutinize mode with this program while learning it, I would like to understand what it blocked also.

The Quick Start Guide is a good starting point and will help with this. In a nutshell: hover over the NoScript icon to see the menu.

jw72253 wrote: Also, when I see these clues, for instance: <SCRIPT>: 11 | <OBJECT>: 0, what should I infer from them exactly?

They represent the number of SCRIPT and OBJECT tags that are trying to run scripts on the page.

jw72253 wrote: Incidentally, is there any way for me to make use of a larger set of these little smiley icons?

You can use img tags to import images from other sites. Tom T. often uses:

jw72253 wrote:Also, when I see these clues, for instance: <SCRIPT>: 11 | <OBJECT>: 0, what should I infer from them exactly?

If my good friend Thrawn will forgive me for elaborating a bit more, one script source can run many scripts. An excellent example is Yahoo Mail, which I use. Presently, if I enable the "status bar label", it shows

Scripts partially allowed,

which tells me that some scripts on the page have been allowed, and some disallowed. This information is available at a glance from the NS Icon. See NoScript "Features" Page for the color-coding of the NS icon.

Then it says,

| <SCRIPT>: 116 | <OBJECT>: 1

Those things inside the angle brackets (or "greater than", less than" signs) are the "tags" to which Thrawn referred.
116 scripts are running, with my permission, of course.

If I go to NS Options > Notifications, and check "Show message about blocked scripts", then there is an additional bar. It adds this info to the previous:

2/4 (mail.yimg.com, mail.yahoo.com)

This means that out of four *sources* (site names) of scripts, two have been allowed -- the two above.
And two have been disallowed. As Thrawn said, the disallowed ones show in the NS Menu. If they have been marked as Untrusted, they will show only if you point to Untrusted in the NS Menu. Which shortens the main menu.

None of this is information I really need. The NS menu gives me the list of allowed and disallowed *sources* (sites), which is all I really care about, and the icon tells me the status of whether anything is being blocked. I need Yahoo Mail's scripting, so the number they run *from that trusted domain (site)* is actually irrelevant. (Except for the entertainment value of how high it can go. Record so far is 123. ).

So I disable both, and use the menu and the icon color. Why have TMI? (too much information)

Incidentally, is there any way for me to make use of a larger set of these little smiley icons?

In addition to Thrawn's, I like this tinfoil-hat one: You can use any, (keep it clean ) but be aware that icons, like any images from other sources, may not be seen by all readers.
I use the RequestPolicy add-on also, and once you feel very comfortable with NoScript, I strongly recommend it as the next step. So does NS developer Giorigo Maone, who recommended it to me in the first place.

So if your site for icons, screenshots, or whatever, is not in a particular user's RP whitelist, they'll have to allow or temp-allow it. Usually, they get a blocked-logo from RP. Same cautions apply to whitelisting sites in this add-on, so please don't use icons or images hosted in China.