Email Notifications Chrome Webstore Support - google-chrome-extension

Is it possible to receive email notification for new comments on the Support page of a Chrome extension in the webstore?
On the support page of a Chrome extension I can add a new question, suggestion or bug report but I don't receive any notification about responses.

I had the same problem. I have several apps in the Chrome Web Store and I found it tedious to be constantly checking. I found an extension that claimed to have this functionality, though I found it periodically lost my list of extensions and wasn't able to actually fetch reviews consistently. You can try the extension here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/my-extensions/igejgfmbjjjjplnnlgnbejpkpdajkblm?hl=en. It is also open source, so it could be improved.
I ended up writing some of my own scripts to periodically check and send me an email when there is a new review or support request. I made it available to use as a hosted service (currently free, though I plan on asking for a little money to defray the hosting costs as well as some coffee money). Check out the hosted service at https://www.chromebeat.com. It has a full list of the Chrome webstore apps and extensions and can send you notifications on a new support issue or review. Right now it only checks hourly and sends on the hour.
Also, when you respond to a support request, the user who reported it doesn't get any kind of notification. The best way around that I've found is to actually message that person's Google+ profile, either by adding them to a circle (e.g. App users) posting publicly and mentioning them in the post, or for some users it's possible to message directly with hangouts.
[update: Oct 2015. It's now possible to "Reply" to reviews in the web store, so that's probably the best way to respond to user reviews directly]

As far as I know, there is no such option. You will have to periodically check it.
Which makes using the built-in Feedback quite useless - you're better off using something like a public bug tracker as your "Support" link and disabling Feedback.
Existing feature request: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=295837
As of 2015-03-23, it is untriaged.

No, that has not been implemented, even approaching a decade later.
New Solution:
The two options in the current answer are no longer working, so I made a small utility app to solve this problem.
You can submit your extension's id and your email address and Webstore Watch will notify you within 1 minute of a new support request.
https://gmanicus.github.io/WebstoreWatch/
Let me know if this goes down or if you experience problems. I can't guarantee 100% reliability, but I will do my best to maintain it.

Related

Is it still possible to create a paid extension

In the Web Store Developer Dashboard, I see no way to set the price for an extension I am uploading. Am I missing something? Or is it no longer possible to create a paid extension? I saw an article saying they were removing paid extensions in January but there are still paid extensions on the store.
I got an email yesterday from chromewebstore-dev-support#google.com that included this info:
Chrome Web Store payments - We are disabling the ability to create new paid items or add payments to existing items. This includes extensions, themes, apps, and in-app purchases.
Here is the full text of the email:
Dear Developer,
We want to tell you about impending changes to the Chrome Web Store as
a result of the COVID-19 situation.
Given adjusted work schedules due to these unprecedented times, there
may be some temporary limitations and delays in support in some cases:
Delay in publishing - New versions submitted to the Store will take longer to be reviewed and published.
Delay in responses to appeals - If you appeal an item rejection or removal, or appeal an account suspension, expect the response to be
delayed. However, we will respond to every appeal request and we will
get back to you as soon as we can.
Delay in developer account transfers - If you are transferring your extension to a different account, expect a significant increase
in the time taken to complete the transfer.
Delay in general support - If you are trying to reach out to our support team for issues related to your account(s) or extension(s),
expect a delayed response from our team. We will get back to you as
soon as we can.
Chrome Web Store payments - We are disabling the ability to create new paid items or add payments to existing items. This includes
extensions, themes, apps, and in-app purchases.
You can help by making sure that your extensions comply with the
Developer program policies before you submit them. Refer to these
resources for more information:
Help center articles
chromium-extensions Google Group
StackOverflow
Chrome support forum
We understand that these changes may cause inconvenience, and we
apologize for any interruption of service. Thank you for your support
during this challenging time and for your participation in the Chrome
extension ecosystem.
The Google Chrome Web Store team
Sorry about the formatting.

Is it possible to perform a partial roll out in the Chrome web store?

This comment mentions a partial roll out in Chrome Web Store. Where can I find that feature? My extension has more than 8,000 users but I don't see any partial roll out feature and I'm afraid to send the next version to all users at the same time.
I don't think it's documented anywhere. And I was wrong!
Documentation link: Control how fast your app reaches users.
In CWS lingo this is called "Controlled Rollout".
If you don’t see the max deploy percentage control, it may be because of the following:
You have less than 10,000 users. Currently the “controlled rollout” feature is only available for items with at least 10,000 users.
You need to upload a newer (higher) version of a package to use the “controlled rollout” feature. We can’t apply a controlled rollout to an already published package, because it may have already reached 100% of users.
It should show on the Edit page after you upload a new version that's not published yet. Here's a mention of it and how it should look:
Also, I've never actually tried using it.
Update: In the new Webstore Dashboard it's called "Partial Rollout" and has the same 10k users requirement.

How to automatically set gmail filter via chrome extension?

I would like to implement the following use case as a Chrome extension:
user visits gmail
exension checks current email body for a keyword
if a keyword is present, a gmail filter is added and saved (adding label, archiving, the details are not important here)
The first part sounds easier: there is gmail API to work with and even a gmail.js project that should make it easier.
Adding filter seems to be much harder. There is email settings API doing precisely what I want but I am fairly sure it is usable only by business accounts (custom email domains, won't work for gmail.com). I want the solution to be more universal.
One thing I thought of was to use browser automation - upon seeing the trigger keyword, the script automatically clicks 'Add filter' link, waits for AJAX, sets filter parameters and confirms.
An example of simulated user activity is in this answer
This could happen either on gmail page behind the popup ('Please wait, adjusting filters') or in background tab to keep it from interfering with user's flow. This seems like ugly workaround for me, though.
Is there a more straightforward or simply better approach that I'm missing?
After more experimentation and reviving an older github project I found out that setting the filter for a logged in user can be achieved simply by issuing a specific POST message to gmail from the current session.
I don't fully understand the parameters used in this request (if anyone has better information, please share), but I found a sample code which was greatly helpful.
Second issue, widely discussed in gmail.js community, is that Gmail security policies will prevent you from injecting your own scripts. This is bypassed by method shown in this boilerplate project
I compiled these solutions to solve my particular use case. Here is an example project with my solution, which should work out of the box - and when in doubt, see readme.

Google chat badge not working anymore?

I was using google talk chat badge (chatback - small iframe code that enables remote user to chat with you as anonymous) for some years but now it is not working anymore. The generated code is fine as it seems it opens a new window and all but after a second, it redirects to support.google.com page which of course is not of much use.
I rechecked the code, generated new code, didn't help. Again redirects to support.google.com. The code is generated from http://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/New
Anyone knows what's going on? Have they discontinued it or?
Also, a suggestion - is there any alternative web-presence button like that for other messengers which don't require client on other end. For Skype, Windows Live or some other messenger?
According to KatherineG at Google the chat badge is no longer supported. http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chat/_VpluJc6IfU
We are looking into using Crafty Syntax for a replacement.
http://www.craftysyntax.com/
Yup, been a while now - it was great while it lasted. The personal workaround that I am using is to sign up for a live chat service and hook it up with Gtalk. I am currently using ClickDesk - http://www.clickdesk.com/
Visitors chat using the live chat interface and I use the Gtalk interface.
For a while I used MeeboMe in combination with MeeboMe notifier but then it died as well (company was purchased by Google and the product was killed) I found some good alternatives myself so I am sharing them. Ironically, they are recommended by MeeboMe after they discontinued their service. Both are free.
Zoho Live Support - https://chat.zoho.com/
Yahoo! Pingbox - http://messenger.yahoo.com/pingbox/ (requires Yahoo! account but otherwise is great)
Too bad large companies simply kill useful products. But as far as I am concerned, Yahoo! Pinbox is even better than both Google chat badge and MeeboMe (at least for my needs) and can be customized to great extent.
I recommend ClickDesk - http://www.clickdesk.com too if you like to use Google Talk or Skype.
However, if you want to code - you can use xmpp protocol and hook it up with Pidgin notifications. Google Appengine also has notifications which I believe is what ClickDesk uses.

"Hello world" as a Gmail plugin?

I am trying to find out what the tech is like to create a Gmail plugin that accesses my attachments. Just to get started, what would be "Hello world" as a Gmail plugin? What would be the steps to create it?
Yes, you can creates plugin for Gmail, and two types:
Sidebar
Contextual
Look for Gadgets in gmail. After learning how to use these, you can add them to your gmail or anybody that wants to can do the same, to do so you can have Google host it.
It's easy if you know some HTML, JavaScript, and XML.
Good Luck
Take a look at these links:
https://developers.google.com/google-apps/gmail/contextual_gadgets
https://developers.google.com/gadgets/docs/basic
You cannot create Gmail plugins.
(Unless you work for Google)
Doing some quick research it looks like Google now supports a GMail api to build gadgets and/or plugins. I haven't done it myself, however it seems like they want it to work.
https://developers.google.com/google-apps/gmail/
I think you can do that. (You will find Hello World program too)
http://code.google.com/apis/gmail/gadgets/contextual/
Last year, Google released a GMail API and it allows you to perform the actions you want, but perhaps not with the UX you're looking for embedded directly inside of GMail. You can find it here:
https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/
Depending on exactly how you need it to work, you might be able to use either Contextual Gadgets (https://developers.google.com/gmail/contextual_gadgets) or a Google Chrome Extension to do what you need.
Google has recently introduced add-ons for Gmail (probably on Oct, 24 2017). It can be developed with Google Apps Script. Google's documentation says
What Gmail add-ons can do ?
Displaying additional information for the user in the Gmail UI.
Connecting to non-Google services, to retrieve information or take other actions.
Providing an interactive interface to allow the user to control the add-on or send information to another service.
I am not pretty sure (will go deep into it in coming days) whether you can deal with attachments. But I logically feel you can do that as well, because GAS supports handling attachments.
As of now, Google is not allowing to publish new add-ons however they will allow it in future.
While a few add-ons have been made available in the G Suite
Marketplace for users to install, it is not currently possible to
publish your own add-on to the Marketplace.
How can you publish your own add-on ?
As of now (26th Oct, 2017), they consider it on request basis. If you have a cool idea, fill this form to let them know about it. You will get notified once they accept your listing.
Here is how the add-on interface looks like inside Gmail
It is not possible to create plugins for Gmail. There is no developer API as such - only access to send/retrieve emails using standard SMTP/IMAP protocols.
See http://code.google.com/apis/gmail/oauth/

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