We built a chrome extension recently and we want to use it internally without publishing it to chrome web store.
But in the latest chrome browser versions, this feature is disabled and one cannot use local extensions anymore. We can use it only if it's published to chrome web store.
So, instead of using the .crx file, I am using the unpacked extension. This works fine and doesn't disable the extension. But gives an alert everytime I open the browser, which I need to cancel.
Are there any settings that can be changed to avoid this alert. Thanks.
I'm writing an extension.
A part of this extension contains an html page.
I'd call that page, also as a Google Apps,
inserting an icon between applications of chrome.
It's possible create a manifest file to integrate the chrome app with chrome extension?
No. You'd create both an app an an extension, then encourage the user to install both if you detected that one wasn't installed.
There is an outstanding feature request to allow bundled installations of multiple apps/extensions.
i need my chrome extension to be downloaded and installed automatically, when user access my website from Google chrome.
my extension is stored in my web-server, should i need to store the extension in google web store for the above purpose.
is it possible to provide a shortcut to my extension in desktop also.
i am able to manually install the extension, but need to installed automatically using java-script or any other method
i have found some similar post using registry editing etc, but this will not meet my requirement.
Security restrictions prevent an extension from being installed from a web site other than the Chrome Web Store. You cannot bypass this restriction without control of the end-user machine.
The Web Store does not provide any mechanism for automatic extension installation. (This is a very good thing.)
On a standard Chrome installation, the only way to install an extension outside of the Web Store is by dragging a crx file onto the Extensions preferences page (chrome://extensions).
If you have administrative control of the target computers that the extension is to be instaled on, you can write a script that installs the extension.
We have a Chrome Extension application that we have developed and would like to distribute it only a limited number of internal users.
This would be a private app, but to install it, users now have to follow the manual steps of going to Settings -> Extensions -> clicking on Developer mode -> drop the .crx in there.
I would like to know if there is a way to just have private App Store to privately distribute this app and not have it on Chrome Web Store for anyone to see/download/use.
Thanks for your help in advance ---
You use the Chrome Web Store. 2 options are available:
Share an unlisted Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store (anyone with the link will be able to install it)
Chrome customers using G Suite or Education can use the Chrome Web Store to host private apps restricted only to their users on the same domain.
See https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/2663860
Update 2016-05-20: From https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/2663860?hl=en
Chrome customers using Google Apps for Work or Education can use the Chrome Web Store to host private apps restricted only to their users or people who you share a direct link to the app with. Users from the same Chrome domain will see their organization's private apps in a private collection in the Chrome Web Store.
Update 2015-10-27: Google has updated installation policies in attempt to curb malicious extension activity on Windows. On the chrome extension hosting page:
Warning: As of Chrome 33, Windows users can only download extensions
hosted in the Chrome Web store, except for installs via enterprise
policy or developer mode (see Protecting Windows users from malicious
extensions). As of Chrome 44, no external installs are allowed from a
path to a local .crx on Mac (see Continuing to protect Chrome users
from malicious extensions).
With the latest versions of Google Chrome, users are no longer going to be able to just click a download link and have it install with the correct HTTP headers. This leaves you with 4 possible options:
user downloads extension and then drags the file into the extension management page (This no longer works on Windows per update note)
change registry settings on users computers
user downloads extension source folder and loads extension from source in the extension management page
Re-enable extension installs with command-line flag as suggested by Rob W
I have created and distributed several different Google Chrome extensions privately within my company and went with the first option. It is an extra step for the users but it wasn't a big deal. The users did not have to have developer mode enabled in their Chrome browser for this to work.
Yes, you can. You need to create the crx file through the google chrome "Extensions" page (visit: chrome://extensions/ NOTE: You cannot click the link you have to manually copy and paste it, chrome does not allow you to visit the link from href)
On the Extensions page, check the box "developer mode", choose "pack extension".
Now you get the following popup. Click "browse" for the Extension root directory and navigate to the folder containing your extension (the folder containing manifest.json).
The first time you do this, ignore private key file. It will generate one for you automatically and save it to the same folder.
When you release a new version of the extension, use the generated private key file. This way for someone to update the extension, it won't ask for permissions again.
TO INSTALL
To install the extension, just get each user to manually drag the newly created extension crx into the Extensions page (chrome://extensions/).
The first time it will ask for permissions just like when installing from the Chrome Web Store.
For each new version, as long as you used the same private key file for each new version, users just drag the new version into the Extensions page the same way except they won't be asked for permissions again. It will just update the extension.
WARNINGS:
Beware the way you distribute the extension crx file. When user downloads the extension .crx file in Google Chrome, it will think you're trying to install the extension from that page, and come up a warning "couldn't be installed from this site". You need to make sure that users know to ignore the error, and check their downloads folder for the extension to manually install it.
Whenever you download the .crx file, Chrome will give the user a warning saying it might contain a virus. There is no way around this. Even if you zip up the file, Chrome will read the contents and give the same warning. Some users won't install because of this. A workaround is to rename the .crx to something else, like .RENAME_TO_CRX, but this is a hassle and a lot of users either won't want to or won't be able to figure it out.
You can't update the extension automatically. It's just not possible because Chrome manually blocked this capability.
NOTE: Another way would be to release it on the Chrome Store, but only for certain users (not public). Only people with the link could install, OR you could make it only certain people can install and even if you had the link but weren't part of the group, they couldn't view the extension. Only problem here is if you don't want Google to see the extension.
If you use Google Apps, it appears there's now a way to publish apps and extensions to the Chrome Web Store, but only make it visible to users of that domain.
https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/2663860?hl=en
Since its internal, could you change registry settings on their computers?
Because if so, you can use them to allow easy install of extensions from outside the web store or force install extensions on their machine.
Look here....
http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-templates
http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#ExtensionInstallSources
http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#ExtensionInstallForcelist
I'm making an extension for Google Chrome and I use code for autoupdating. This is because the extension isn't yet in Google Chrome webstore. But in a few days I will upload it to the Webstore and Google says you can use the Webstores autoupdating. But if I don't want to use that, will my app still update by my own server, like the way it does now?
Thanks in advance!!
I agree that docs are not very clear about this:
If you publish your extension using the Chrome Developer Dashboard,
you can ignore this page. You can use the dashboard to release updated
versions of your extension to users, as well as to the Chrome Web
Store.
But, I've tested it myself and your update_url setting in manifest.json will be overridden when you publish your extension via Chrome Web Store (CWS). In other words, publishing to CWS means that you can't use self hosted autoupdating anymore.
The reasons for that, that I could think of, may be as follows:
CWS wants to keep track of each extension stats (i.e. number of users using each extension)
privacy concerns (people don't want you to track them when they update extension)
security concerns (each extension update must go through CWS verification process)
If you want to track people (please don't) use Google Analytics on i.e. background page of your extension.