This is a pretty general question with a couple examples. I'm fairly new to writing chrome extensions and I seem to keep running into cases that are impossible to test without deploying to the webstore (which takes ~60m each time). This is an impossible workflow. Am I missing something?
Case 1 inline installation
Trying to set up inline installation from my site to a chrome extension. When I run the site locally i get the following.
Error downloading extension: Inline installs can only be initiated for Chrome Web Store items that have one or more verified sites.
But I cannot seem to add localhost website property in chrome's developer dashboard. What is the recommended way to do this in a dev environment. I tried using local.mywebsite.com and adding a local alias for localhost, but now chrome cannot find the verification file you are required to serve...
Case 2 Chrome Extension OAuth
Attempting to use chrome.identity.launchWebAuthFlow to setup user credentials in my extension for my website, but of course the callback url provided https://<ext-id>.chromium.org/provider-cb does not redirect to my local deploy of the extension.
Is there no way to test these things??
Regarding your error "Inline installs can only be initiated for Chrome Web Store items that have one or more verified sites.", you may follow the instructions given in this page.
You need to:
Go to the Webmaster Tools.
Add the site to your sites.
Obtain and embed a verification code into your site.
Complete verification in Webmaster Tools.
Go to your Developer Dashboard (must be under the same Google account) and edit your Web Store item.
Select your site in "Verify that this is an official item for a website you own:"
Here are some references which might help in testing extensions:
Testing browser extensions
How to test chrome extensions?
Related
This has been a bit hard to find, given Chrome has changed its API a lot so have found outdated suggestions. And what's not outdated is from the POV of writing an extension
Our js app is having trouble when some users have a specific chrome Extension installed. We want to warn users of potential issues if it sees that extension is present in the users browser.
This extension loads a single content-script and runs in the background. It doesn't have an open connection, exposure variables to the clients window or anything advanced.
Is there a way the client can ping or check for this script?
For instance, I tried using fetch of the chrome-extension:// manifest - same via a script tag loading the extensions main.js but those don't work, chrome complaining it can't load the asset (presumably a permissions issue)
Is it even possible?
I had to develop a Chrome Extension for a website i'm working for. I finished developing it just fine. But Chrome automatically turns it off after browser restarts, with following reason:
This extension is not listed in the Chrome Web Store and may have been added without your knowledge.
My question: Is it possible to have a "Trusted" extension without publishing it to the Chrome Web Store. I don't want to publish it because it wouldn't make much sense, because it is for a very restricted number of "corporative" users.
The chrome web store allows you to hide your extension from public listings. It also allows you do inline installation. This would allows users to install the chrome extension in their browser without ever having to leave your website. So it would be hosted in the chrome web store, trusted, but only installable from your own website.
I'm looking for a way to open the WebKit “developer tools” from a script attached to a web-page. I need solutions for both Google Chrome and Safari, that will open the developer-tools pane if it's not already open, and (hopefully, if you can figure out how) also switch to a particular tab/section of said pane upon opening.
(Use-case, if anyone's interested: I want to open the console.log output-window if there's been an error and a developer is looking at the page; this particular page will be the output of some JavaScript unit-tests.)
I'm setting a bounty on this question because it's obviously one that hasn't been answered to anyone's satisfaction before, and the answer is a hairy one. Please don't answer it unless you have a real answer that both: 1) works in both browsers, and 2) doesn't require private extension APIs that won't work from a static web-page.
See (related, but specific to Chrome, and extensions): Can I programmatically open the devtools from a Google Chrome extension?
Simply: You can't.
The Dev Tools are not sandboxed (unlike any web page), thus granting sandboxed environments the power to open and control an unsandboxed environment is a major security design flaw.
I hope this answers your question :-)
You cannot directly use the Chrome's Dev Tools from your web pages. It is bundled with the browser.
But you can use it like a regular web application. Go to Chrome Developer Tools, then go to Contributing. You will find help on using Dev Tools for your app.
Setting up
Install Chrome Canary on Mac OS / Windows or download the latest Chromium build from the Chromium continuous builds archive on Linux
Clone Blink git repo from https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/blink.git
Set up a local web server that would serve files from WebKit/Source/WebCore/inspector on some port (8090)
Running
Run one copy of Chrome Canary with the following command line flags: --remote-debugging-port=9222 --user-data-dir=blink/chromeServerProfile --remote-debugging-frontend="http://localhost:8090/front_end/inspector.html". These flags cause Chrome to allow websocket connections into localhost:9222 and to serve the front-end UI from your local git repo. (Adjust the path to chromeServerProfile to be some writable directory in your system).
Open a sample page (eg www.chromium.org).
Run a second copy of Chrome Canary with the command line flag: --user-data-dir=/work/chromeClientProfile. Open http://localhost:9222. Among the thumbnails you will see the sample page from the other browser instance. Click on it to start remote debugging your sample page.
The DevTools web page that opens is served from the remote-debugging-frontend in the first browser instance, which serves from the git repo your local filesystem. Debug this Devtools Web page and edit its source like any other web app.
I hope this is what you need.
There's no way to control the web developer tool from an in-page script, other than through the Console API which provides mostly logging facilities. Letting scripts control more than that would be a serious security issue, since it would allow a web page to control parts of the browser.
The only API remotely related to what you're trying to do is the debugger command, which switches to the script pane only if the developer tools were already open.
But who are you trying to develop this feature for?
If it's for developers working on the site, then it's better to just use the existing developer tools manually, by setting breakpoints, or the pause on exceptions toggle.
If it's for end users, don't. Unless your site is supposed to be used by highly technical web developers, you're only going to scare away users if the developer tools suddenly pop up with errors.
If you really want to show errors you can implement your own logging framework and the UI for error reporting, which works with basic JS and doesn't depend on a specific browser environment.
here's another answer that proposes a solution to your mentioned use case/objective (detecting errors, getting & displaying console logs) and not the not possible objective in the title.
you can make and use a console wrapper and use it in your code
and/or you can monkey patch the console functions if you use/import external js, but you need to apply it before loading them.
No, Any secure Browser will not allow a script to open an extension, as it leads to insecurity.
But, You may design an Add-On/extension OR Console API's to do the same.. for specific site.
Create an Add-On like this to achieve that requirement.
You can try sending keys 'CTRL' + SHIFT' + 'I'
that may work for Chrome any FireFox (in I.E you need to use 'F12'
I am using it when required as few utils in this add-on use to work better then the built-in.
EDIT:
Now a days Chrome is advanced with many new advancements source.
I hope this helps!
Hate to answer such an old question, but was surprised to not see this as an answer, so I thought I'd add it in case it can help someone in the future.
Assuming you have access to the source code, you can place an alert("open devtools"); statement immediately before the first line you're interested in debugging. This alert will give you an opportunity to open DevTools and set a breakpoint on that first line before clearing the alert thus allowing the code to continue and hitting the breakpoint.
I am about to finish my Google Chrome extension. If I'm not mistaking all Chrome apps come with a capability of auto-updating. If so, is there a way for me to test it before I submit my app to the Chrome Web Store?
PS. Also do I need to account for any special conditions in my extension?
To test the updating procedure, it's best to submit your extension to the Web Store in a non-public fashion.
As you publish an item, you have a choice of Public, Unlisted, and Trusted Testers publication.
Public means that the extension will be searchable and everyone can install
Unlisted means everyone can install, but they need the direct link to the extension listing; it will not be searchable in the Web Store and not indexable by search engines.
Trusted Testers is the same as above, but also restricts installs to a whitelist of Google Accounts.
Go with any non-Public option and you can test it as it would actually behave (including the unfortunate delay of automatic review checks).
The method described by kadaj is no longer valid for Windows, as Chrome will reject any CRX not hosted by the Web Store.
But previously, yes, you could test this with setting up your own hosting (i.e. Dropbox Public folder) of the CRX and its associated update XML, as described in the guide. This still works for non-Windows platforms, as well as Dev/Canary builds on Windows.
All you need is to increment version number in your manifest file and the chrome app will automatically update itself. If you want to test this you can host your own extension and specify a update_url. Follow the guide at https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/autoupdate
I'm looking for a way to open the WebKit “developer tools” from a script attached to a web-page. I need solutions for both Google Chrome and Safari, that will open the developer-tools pane if it's not already open, and (hopefully, if you can figure out how) also switch to a particular tab/section of said pane upon opening.
(Use-case, if anyone's interested: I want to open the console.log output-window if there's been an error and a developer is looking at the page; this particular page will be the output of some JavaScript unit-tests.)
I'm setting a bounty on this question because it's obviously one that hasn't been answered to anyone's satisfaction before, and the answer is a hairy one. Please don't answer it unless you have a real answer that both: 1) works in both browsers, and 2) doesn't require private extension APIs that won't work from a static web-page.
See (related, but specific to Chrome, and extensions): Can I programmatically open the devtools from a Google Chrome extension?
Simply: You can't.
The Dev Tools are not sandboxed (unlike any web page), thus granting sandboxed environments the power to open and control an unsandboxed environment is a major security design flaw.
I hope this answers your question :-)
You cannot directly use the Chrome's Dev Tools from your web pages. It is bundled with the browser.
But you can use it like a regular web application. Go to Chrome Developer Tools, then go to Contributing. You will find help on using Dev Tools for your app.
Setting up
Install Chrome Canary on Mac OS / Windows or download the latest Chromium build from the Chromium continuous builds archive on Linux
Clone Blink git repo from https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/blink.git
Set up a local web server that would serve files from WebKit/Source/WebCore/inspector on some port (8090)
Running
Run one copy of Chrome Canary with the following command line flags: --remote-debugging-port=9222 --user-data-dir=blink/chromeServerProfile --remote-debugging-frontend="http://localhost:8090/front_end/inspector.html". These flags cause Chrome to allow websocket connections into localhost:9222 and to serve the front-end UI from your local git repo. (Adjust the path to chromeServerProfile to be some writable directory in your system).
Open a sample page (eg www.chromium.org).
Run a second copy of Chrome Canary with the command line flag: --user-data-dir=/work/chromeClientProfile. Open http://localhost:9222. Among the thumbnails you will see the sample page from the other browser instance. Click on it to start remote debugging your sample page.
The DevTools web page that opens is served from the remote-debugging-frontend in the first browser instance, which serves from the git repo your local filesystem. Debug this Devtools Web page and edit its source like any other web app.
I hope this is what you need.
There's no way to control the web developer tool from an in-page script, other than through the Console API which provides mostly logging facilities. Letting scripts control more than that would be a serious security issue, since it would allow a web page to control parts of the browser.
The only API remotely related to what you're trying to do is the debugger command, which switches to the script pane only if the developer tools were already open.
But who are you trying to develop this feature for?
If it's for developers working on the site, then it's better to just use the existing developer tools manually, by setting breakpoints, or the pause on exceptions toggle.
If it's for end users, don't. Unless your site is supposed to be used by highly technical web developers, you're only going to scare away users if the developer tools suddenly pop up with errors.
If you really want to show errors you can implement your own logging framework and the UI for error reporting, which works with basic JS and doesn't depend on a specific browser environment.
here's another answer that proposes a solution to your mentioned use case/objective (detecting errors, getting & displaying console logs) and not the not possible objective in the title.
you can make and use a console wrapper and use it in your code
and/or you can monkey patch the console functions if you use/import external js, but you need to apply it before loading them.
No, Any secure Browser will not allow a script to open an extension, as it leads to insecurity.
But, You may design an Add-On/extension OR Console API's to do the same.. for specific site.
Create an Add-On like this to achieve that requirement.
You can try sending keys 'CTRL' + SHIFT' + 'I'
that may work for Chrome any FireFox (in I.E you need to use 'F12'
I am using it when required as few utils in this add-on use to work better then the built-in.
EDIT:
Now a days Chrome is advanced with many new advancements source.
I hope this helps!
Hate to answer such an old question, but was surprised to not see this as an answer, so I thought I'd add it in case it can help someone in the future.
Assuming you have access to the source code, you can place an alert("open devtools"); statement immediately before the first line you're interested in debugging. This alert will give you an opportunity to open DevTools and set a breakpoint on that first line before clearing the alert thus allowing the code to continue and hitting the breakpoint.