How to update Chrome Extension without alerting the users? For example I have a extension and I must change everyday info in it and I don't want to update the app version or to upload it again when I need to change some info in it.. so how can I make to change info in my chrome extension I mean to modify the .html file without updating the version? I can use a external web page to show up in my extension and to update the info from my website everytime I need updates? this is a option too.. but I don't know if the guys from google extensions accept this. Please help me.
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I created a browser extension for my coworkers that enhances the system we use daily but can't modify it.
So far we've been using it locally. Everyone has a copy of the files on their own machine and everytime there's an update I have to notify everyone to manually update it.
I'd like to publish it on the chrome and firefox stores but I would rather not make it public.
Is there a way to publish it privately, so only the people with a link could access and download it ?
With recent news of adblock being sold to some unknown company, first thing i want to do is disable any possible update for that extension.
I've found number of questions but they are outdated. So chrome pros please tell how do we disable a specific plugin? and please take into consideration that there are many instances which synchronize it is important that the change gets synchronized to other computers, if it is not how do we do that?.
And a secondary question : where do we find sources of already installed extension? so that we could later pack and run it?
Chrome does not offer a way of disabling an update for a specific extension.
If you want to make sure that you run some specific version of an extension, you could try any of the following options:
Read-only extension folder
Go to the directory containing the extension, and mark the directory as read-only. To find that directory, visit chrome://version and look at the path at "Profile Path". The extension will then be at [value of Profile path]/Extensions/[32-character extension id].
Download the source code
Download the source code of the extension, and load it as an unpacked extension (or upload it to the Chrome Web store, and then install it).
There are several ways to get the source code (including just copying it from the directory as I mentioned at the previous step).
If you want to download a Chrome extension without installing it (e.g. because the new version contains unwanted "features" that you want to remove), then you could use my Chrome extension source viewer to download the code.
Some extensions expect to be run with a specific extension ID. You can forge this extension ID if you load the extension in unpacked mode (but you cannot upload the extension to the CWS if you do that). For instructions on fixing the extension ID, see How to change chrome packaged app id Or Why do we need key field in the manifest.json?.
I noticed that in chrome://extensions you can see a "Not from Chrome Web Store" message under extensions that were installed through, e.g. drag and drop into the extensions page. Screenshot of what I am talking about:
I was wondering if there is any way of getting that information from an extension API? I have played with the chrome.extensions.management API, but the only information that gives is the installType field, which is 'normal' for both Web Store and drag and drop installs. - https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/management#type-ExtensionInfo
Am I missing something, or will we just have to wait for an update to the management API?
Could you simply check if the updateUrl property is equal to https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx? I believe extensions in the Chrome Web Store must have that update URL, but I'm not sure about the other way around.
Either you install by drag-and-drop or you install form web store, both are called normal install type. Ultimately, you are trying to install the .CRX file, so it means it's a normal install type. Here is the help article. Search for "installType" and read description for "normal" in mentioned article.
I am building an extension for Chrome which gives the user a basic API. I would like for other developers to have the ability to add functions of their own to my API. For example, some developers offer a new "plugin" (which is only JavaScript code), and I want users to be able to download that plugin into their extension.
The main problem I'm facing is this:
How do you load new code into an extension permanently?
Ideally I would like to add code into the extension's JavaScript, but I have no way to write to the file; I am under the impression that I am restricted by JavaScript - is this true?
While I could perhaps load new code dynamically (by downloading some script), that code will only hold for the current run, and is not added permanently. Rather, it is gone once the user reloads the extension.
The only solution I can see so far is to create a login system where I save each user's downloaded plugins and give him the mandatory option to load them every time he opens the extension.
This method is very messy and impractical, because I don't want to make a user login every time. In fact, I would very much like to refrain from using any login system whatsoever.
What I desire is something similar to what the GreaseMonkey extension does, which is the ability to let users write scripts and allow other users to be able to download them.
I'm obviously looking to create an extension which is much smaller and simpler than GreaseMonkey, but something like GreaseMonkey is more or less what I am looking for.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
All of the "plugins" will be independent chrome extensions. You can then use Message Passing to send a message to every installed extension and the ones that are plugins should have code that goes something like:
if recieve "some identifying key"
then respond "information about this plugin"
Now your main extension knows what plugins are installed and can load their JS files using chrome-extension://[extensionID]/file.js".
That should get you started :)
I am creating an HTML5 offline web app for use on iOS and Android.
Is there a mechanism for notifying the user that an update is available - e.g., a red dot on the application's shortcut icon? If there isn't, would I be able to achieve this maybe with push notifications or some other way?
I understand that I can use the manifest file to declare which files the app should attempt to update from the server - but my client is asking if the app would be able to visually notify to the user of the need to update.
No, None of the app's code will run unless you launch the app, at which point it will automatically update based on the manifest if you are online. If you are off line then there is no way for the app to check if it needs to be updated.