What’s new in WebData Control 2023.2

Avanite are pleased to announce the general availability of WebData Control 2023.2.

We’ve taken the decision to align to the year.quarter release naming conventions that have been adopted by many software vendors to help with easy identification of releases.

With that said, let’s take a quick look at the updates and improvements in this release.

Enhanced Resource Blocking capabilities

Following customer feedback, we have added the ability to disable Ad Blocking on a per page/domain/site basis.  Some websites do not behave correctly with the default blocking rules enabled, so WebData Control now provides a simple mechanism to configure exclusions where Ad Blocking will not be applied.  This applies to both standard blocking rules and CSS based rules that alter the visual aspects of a web page.

WebData Control has also added the ability to define custom rules to block or allow web resources in accordance with the DeclarativeNetRequest framework.  Using a defined schema, rules can be created and added to the configuration to take control over all aspects of the browser to allow/block web pages and elements as required.  This provides for additional controls over internal web resources as well as SaaS/Web Applications and internet web sites.

We’ve also added a method of understanding what block and allow rules are being matched on a web page.  This allows for easy identification of the various rules that have been applied, providing a mechanism to customize the behaviour as desired.

Improved Browser Extension update mechanisms

The Resource Blocking and Browser Redirector features in WebData Control require browser extensions to be installed to provide the desired functionality.  In this release we have introduced a new and improved browser extension update mechanism that provides a simplified and streamlined method to provide updates to the browser extensions.

If required, customers can now configure WebData Control to update the required Avanite browser extensions across an entire estate with minimal administrative intervention.

Automatic Update Improvements

With WebData Control 2023.2 we’ve added the capability to consume automatic updates for WebData Management definition files and Ad Blocking rule updates from an internal web server.  In previous releases all endpoints were responsible for downloading updates directly from our Microsoft Azure hosted CDN.  With this release we have introduced the ability to download these updates from an internally hosted web server removing the need for endpoints to have direct internet access.

WebData Control 2023.2 is available to download now from the Avanite website.  Also, if you’d like to learn more about the value we can offer please feel to get in touch with us at info@avanite.com.