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.
Related
When submitting updates for our extension, we receive the following message with rejection from the Chrome store:
"To have your item reinstated, please ensure:
The purpose of the extension is clear to users; and
The extension either limits its functionality to a narrow focus area of subject matter or to a narrow browser function.
To serve multiple purposes with your extensions, please package each purpose as a separate extension."
Does anyone know the criteria used when determining if the purpose is clear or if the extension is trying to do too much? Our extension is used to demonstrate metrics more conveniently that our clients would normally go to our webpage to see, so it shows a few different but very related items (all of which fit the central theme of showing connected metrics).
Check the Chrome Extension Quality Guideline:
Extensions Quality Guidelines
An extension must have a single purpose that is narrow and
easy-to-understand. Do not create an extension that requires users to
accept bundles of unrelated functionality, such as an email notifier
and a news headline aggregator, or downloads a local executable. If
two pieces of functionality are clearly separate, they should be put
into two different extensions, and users should have the ability to
install and uninstall them separately. For example, functionality that
displays product ratings and reviews, but also injects ads into web
pages, should not be bundled into a single extension. Similarly,
toolbars that provide a broad array of functionality or entry points
into services are better delivered as separate extensions, so that
users can select the services they want.
This is further explained in the FAQS page answering these questions:
Why did Google launch a “single purpose” Chrome extensions policy?
Where can I find the “single purpose” policy?
What does “single purpose” actually mean?
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 may be a bit of paranoid when it comes to installing chrome extension that request access to all my tabs and data. While a extension may be safe for the moment, a simple auto background update can make it a malicious virus and you won't even get notified about updates.
I would like to specifically whitelist all my extension to access the content pear webpages bases. Is there any such tool out there already (natively perhaps) before i start hacking my own extension to control it on my own.
That would leave me to my next question. Extension can be a bit secured running sandboxed environment and have no access to the "real" filesystem (not the virtual sandboxed filesystem) but could i write a NaCl plugin and have have full access and change the manifest file to change the content_scripts settings? if so, could you point me in the right direction?
I'm not sure to understand clearly your question, but let's calrify some things about extensions and how they can be dangerous:
First: If an extension updates and want to have new authorisations, Chrome will warn you and you can choose if you want it to be updated
Second: Chrome sandboxes extensions running on your computer
Third: The only authorisation that may represent a real danger for your computer are the ones requesting authorisation to "Access all data on your computer"
.
.
.
If you are really worried that some extensions may represent a danger for you (and I understand you), you can restrict them to run on specific webpages by doing the following:
1. Go to the extensions folders [C:\Users(YOUR USERNAME)\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions(APPID)] and open the manifest.json file with any text editor
2. In "content_scripts" declaration, in "matches", specify sites where the extension will ONLY work on [ex:*://google.com/* will make extension be active ONLY for google.com]
You can even be more precise and set specific URLs/HTML pages (see more: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/match_patterns)
Hope it helps!
If it doesn't, please clarify your question again.
I'm working a lot with the chrome developer tools to develop web applications. Currenty in one big project we have an application which features its own JSON-format for requests to the server. The JSON objects sent contain various information about the type of the request and its data and so on.
Is there an opportunity to extend chromes developer tools (especially the network view) with a special view which displays the data from the request in a way that makes it more readable for developers working with the project?
I tried to find out about extending the tools but i don't know really where to start. I found some information how i can add tabs and pages to the developer tools but nothing about how i can get the request / response information to display them.
There is no standard API to extend the network view of the developer tools. If you're happy with using a custom devtools tab, use the chrome.devtools.network API to filter and format responses, and render it in your tab.
If you're adventurous, you can use the next approach to directly modify the content of the network view.
First, you need to know how to debug the devtools.
Open the developer tools (F12).
If it's docked, undock it.
Press F12 to open the devtools of the devtools.
Then, you need to use your debugging/coding skills to find out which methods are responsible for rendering the network panel (tip: use DOM breakpoints to quickly discover where to start).
Write code which transforms the network tab to the desired format (either by monkey-patching, or by hooking up on the event you've found at the previous step).
At this point, you know how to change the lay-out of the network tab. Now, you need to permanently activate the code for your developer tools. I've explained two of such methods at How to inject javascript into Chrome DevTools itself.
You could download a copy of Google Chrome's source code and play with it; it's written in C++.
/trunk/src/chrome/browser/devtools looks to be the correct dir to look at.
You can make use of chrome.devtools.network.onRequestFinished. For more control and advanced information you can use chrome.webRequest api.
As the question says, can an extension save files to a user-set location for all future downloads (that differs from the download location set in preferences)?
If so, how would this be done?
Thanks
See this issue for a lengthy discussion on the matter. Per the last qualitative entry on 8.10.2012:
The downloads ui is a very sensitive part of chrome from a security
perspective, so it is unlikely that we will ever be able to allow
extensions to completely replace chrome's downloads ui. We have plans
to allow extensions to extend chrome://downloads in a limited and
safe way, and extensions may add browser action buttons, but
replacing the downloads ui entirely is not likely in the foreseeable
future. Witness the search engine hijacking security issues. With the
--disable-downloads-shelf flag, extensions could suggest that users set that flag.
Please also feel free to write a download manager extension as a
browser action to demonstrate a better ui. If a download manager
extension gains sufficient popularity, we may consider adopting
something like it as chrome's native downloads ui. That's a more
likely way that extensions could replace the ui, but slower and safer.
My guess is that you can't. It would be a security issue if plugins had such abilities.