Is there any way how to access the Chrome's extension API directly? What I mean is e.g. something like the Developer's Console for JavaScript, or even javascript: in the URL.
I ask because creating an extension sounds like A LOT of additional work, given that I have never created any. (especially once more advanced permissions [Tabs] get involved).
Related
I just wrote a chrome extension which adds a tab to devtools that generates CSS selectors from sample elements on any page. I have set the "<all_urls>" permissions since I'll inject JS using content scripts in whatever page the user wants to select sample elements. I just paid $5 to Google and as I was in the process of publishing the extension to the chrome extensions store, Google warned me it may take several weeks for my extension to be approved because permissions are too broad.
According to Google, I may not need to declare any host permission if I declare the activeTab permission. Not sure if that applies to my case, but most importantly, I have no idea whether I may actually need additional permissions since no warnings will be shown when my extension is unpacked (I understand that to mean no warnings will be shown and the extension will be allowed to run any code regardless of any missing permissions), which is how I'm testing it.
Google then suggests packing the installed extension in order to see the warnings, but then I won't see any warning because the extension won't run. So I don't seem to have any way to know whether I actually need the "<all_urls>" permission or whether I need any additional permission other than testing my luck by publishing it and waiting several weeks to see what happens, and repeat this process until I come up with the minimum required permissions, so I wonder if anyone knows a better alternative.
Permission warnings are shown by the browser before an extension is installed. They list the API and host permissions. These warnings don't influence the functionality of the extension.
To view these warnings you can run the following in devtools console opened on any of your extension pages (i.e. not in content scripts):
fetch('/manifest.json').then(_ => _.text()).then(_ => chrome.management.getPermissionWarningsByManifest(_, console.log))
To view the permissions of any installed extension, unpacked or from the store, open chrome://extensions page and click the details button on that extension's card.
The circled part is for API permissions. Site access below lists the host permissions, which are displayed in simplified form when an extension is installed in the web store e.g. <all_urls> would be "Read and change all your data on the websites you visit".
The exact text of each permission warning is also listed in the documentation.
Your extension uses <all_urls> which means broad access and the slow manual review queue. As suggested, you can try to use activeTab permission instead of <all_urls>. In case it won't work, open a new report on https://crbug.com because the old one was abandoned. Also, try using chrome.devtools.inspectedWindow API that provides eval method that is similar to chrome.tabs.executeScript and might work with activeTab. Note, it's not related to JavaScript eval.
I want to build a task-specific web browser. For example, when the user uses that browser, the program should give options like these:
What is your interest today? Please select from the following:
computer science
data science
web development
psychology
biology
social media
etc.
After the user selects their interest, the browser should allow the user to search or study only those selected content types, so the user cannot get diverted from their task. The purpose of this browser is to avoid time-wasting. Because whenever someone tries to study or do some professional work, they get diverted by opening social media tabs and movies.
Which programming language will be suitable for making this browser?
You could do this by making a custom version of an existing browser, as guest271314 suggested, but that would require far more effort than necessary. All you need to make is a browser extension, such as a Firefox Add-on or a Chrome Extension. Browser extensions are usually written with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Each browser needs to have an extension made individually, but you can usually share a lot of the code between them. Read the linked documentation for help creating an extension for each browser.
There are already existing browser extensions like you describe that prevent you from visiting sites that you put on a list ahead of time, such as StayFocusd and WasteNoTime. Maybe you just want to use one of those extensions instead of writing a new one.
I'm trying to make an extension that is able to find a specific resource loaded by the page, filtering by name and downloading it. The reason I want to do this is because I usually go to the network tab in the developer tools, filter the requests/responses, for example, looking for one with the word "foobar" in its name, and open the link in a new tab so I can download it (it's an xml file).
I was wondering if this could be automated with an extension, even if the word used to filter is hardcoded.
I don't have any experience with chrome extensions, so I wondered if this could be done or if it's just not possible with the devtools api. In case it could be done, if you could give me some guidelines on how to make it I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!
There are several ways to access the information you need in an extension.
You can write a Dev Tools extension. In that case, you have access to chrome.devtools.network API which will provide you that information.
This requires you to open Dev Tools and interact with your own UI there (such as an extra tab in Dev Tools).
You can go low-level and use chrome.debugger API to attach to a page like Dev Tools would. It's a complex topic, I'm just pointing you in that direction.
Since you rely only on filtering by name, not response itself, you can use chrome.webRequest API to intercept network requests and log those that interest you for processing. This is probably simplest to do.
I'm trying to make a google chrome extension that I want to work on all sites, but I can't figure out how to configure the permissions to do this.
Well, there's a helpful page in the docs called "Match Patterns".
You need "<all_urls>" (literally as written) to request access to every site. It is actually required for some APIs like tab capture.
Is it possible to retrieve the computer name when developing a Chrome Extension, for example "Jenny-PC"?
At first glance I did not find the API, but maybe I missed something.
If you are quite the daredevil, you could try to extract that info from a NPAPI plugin. This is quite dangerous, as you can read more about on the chrome extension site
No directly, for security reasons extensions can't access OS services.
But, hacker way, you may find some odd way to get what you're looking for.
If your extension has file:// permission, it can read system configuration files.
If you can get the user drop some file containing the name you want on some receiver in your extension's page, you can read it with HTML5 FileReader object.
If you can get the user download and execute some script you wrote (for example a .bat in Windows), it can grab that name and send to the extensions in various ways:
- writing it in a file the extension can read
- executing something like
"c:\chrome install folder\chrome.exe" chrome://extensions/yourextensionkey/receiver.html?name=thenameyourellokingfor
About file:// permission
Chrome Web Store doesn't allow uploading nor publishing extensions with such permission. But the extension works if you install it as a developer, or as .crx .
I'm not sure, but I think you can upload it to Chrome web store modifying it, in order to ask for permission.