Can one configure Chrome to offer opening downloads in suitable applications? - google-chrome

I recently made Google Chrome my default browser (mainly due to its bookmark and preferences syncing capabilities across multiple systems).
One thing I find increasingly annoying with it though is, that Chrome does not allow to directly open a downloaded file in an appropriate application!
In IE I was us to, that, when I clicked onto a link pointing to some document, e.g. a spreadsheet, to being asked, whether I wanted to save this document to a local file or to directly open it (in Excel in this example). This worked with all kinds of registered applications but also other formats, e.g. email addresses (mailto:-links) or Calendar entries (.ics-files) which directly opened Outlook's new email dialog with the email-address already filled int or created a new calendar entry from the .ics file, resp.
In Chrome one can only save such docs to a local file and then needs to locate that and has to open it manually. I find this always most cumbersome! Is there some plugin that allows to bring back the convenience I was used to?
And to spare me the usual comments on such feature requests right away: Yes, I am aware, that this is a potential security issue, if one opens docs from dubious sources, etc. I know, that one needs to understand what one is doing in such situations, but I think I do!

Click the little arrow beside the file, which is being downloaded and choose Always open files of this type. That will make it open automatically in the program the file type has been associated with in Windows after it finishes downloading.

Related

What is the internal file format of a .glink file?

I would like to add URL links into a web-based Google Drive folder. Searching online, it appears that this was once possible with files that ended in a .glink extension. I'm looking for documentation on the file format so that I can create them programmatically.
[EDIT] Why do I want to create .glink files? Because I want links (bookmarks, URLs) to be able to appear in my Google Drive web page and to be able to click on them an go to the page. Microsoft OneDrive supports this functionality.
GLINKS Files
The URL link file feature was available due to a workaround with Back Up and Sync before being deprecated with Drive for Desktop. The .glink seems to be patched and no longer available as it was also part of a third party tool no longer available. It seems it now only saves them as .URL and automatically gives it the icon for Google Docs, as it would take it as a simple file with text.
Checking the .url type file of Windows, when uploading to Drive it does not update as it should, even utilizing Drive for Desktop (as an alternative to sync data like back up and sync) the outcome is the one suggested above.
This is the main reason why there is no longer any documentation about the matter, due to this one not being an official feature and being also fully deleted, it can be confirm by the file type available when creating files with the Drive API:
https://developers.google.com/drive/api/guides/ref-export-formats
I would suggest to request a feature to allow this or to provide a new way to store URL links as before or report it to review if possible any references on how it used to work by submitting a feature request or checking the issue tracker about the matter:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/new?component=191650&template=824106
You can also add the details of the previous threads or discussions about the GLINKS.

Is it possible to restore data from browsing session in Google Chrome?

Lets say, one visited a Website, which loaded a js-module.
This module loaded some information into a form and the chrome browser displayed it.
Is it anyhow possible to restore this information (i.e. via the browser cache) and view it?
What I've tried so far:
View Source of Web-Page in Chrome, but i did not record the communication, so no data here
installed "ChromeCacheView v2.21 - Cache viewer for Google Chrome Web browser" and viewed the Files with Dates which correspond to the concerning session time
Regarding the second point: I can only view the js-files unfortunately.
Yes, but it depends on what device you are on. If you are on the computer, go into your google history and find the website you need. Then, you can copy the link and save it somewhere else.
Also, if you don't know how to get into your history, click control h.

How to remember last download location when calling chrome.downloads.download? (Extension Developer)

The default behavior for chrome.downloads.download is to download to the default download folder. It doesn't remember it if you change the folder. Can we save the download-to location for the next call-out?
References: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/downloads
It's concerning that Chrome actually doesn't provide the ability for an extension to get the last download path. Some say, it's due to security concern and others say, there is no significant need to have the API available to users.
You also cannot store the download path in your extension because Chrome doesn't let you get the selected download folder. I hope Google provides us with the either of these features later.
This is not a supported feature, according to this Chromium discussion.
Summary:
If you specify a filename, it's never possible to save outside of ~/Downloads (this is a bummer, for me)
You should be able to manually implement something (in a subfolder only) using the id returned from Chrome.downloads.download
A few quotes I like (edited for brevity and politeness):
Would like a download option to choose recent download folder. Would be good to remember last download location per website, like you other settings.
Seems reasonable.
Chrome does remember the last chosen directory if no filename is specified to downloads.download with Save As... Given how Save As works without specifying a filename, my intuition would be it would work the same with a filename... but it doesn't.
That one is interesting. So it kind of supports it already. There's no security concern with saving outside of Downloads.
I have just been able to restore the "remember last download location" functionality, which used to work on my previous machine, in a new install by disabling extensions and Chrome apps provided by Google. This is what I have turned off:
Extension: Google Docs Offline
Chrome Apps: Docs, Sheets, Slides
I haven't tried to narrow down which of these have been the culprit, or if any other extensions (I have a bunch) have played a role. So YMMV. Good luck :)
SOLVED. Very simple way: Insert a USB-drive or SD-card. Go to chrome settings, and specify this drive as the default download location.
Remove the drive/SD-card. Download something - the first time you do it, Chrome will offer to save to your user document folder, but instead, you save it to whereever you want.
This location will be remembered next time. Voila. So easy.
In fact, you can save previous the download location.
If you do a clean install, first of everything, change the download settings to "ask every time". It is very important not to click the text box where you can specify one download location (if you click there just once, you need a clean install again).
Chrome will then bring up the download window with your last save location.
Furthermore, you should uncheck the "settings" in the sync preferences because it will break every time you sync your settings to a new browser.

Google Chrome --new-window switch ignores --window-position and --window-size

I'm trying to control the size and position of newly spawned Google Chrome windows via the command line (through C#.)
My command line ends up looking like:
--new-window --window-position=100,100 --window-size=800,600 www.UrlToOpen.com
However, the new window just opens over top of where the last Chrome window was started.
The end result I'm looking for is to be able to start multiple instances of Google Chrome, in separate windows, with a specific location and size. The only way I've been able to do this so far is by specifying that each instance is to have it's own --user-data-dir. However, this is not ideal given how many extensions a user may have installed, and it would not be the best user experience.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
If Chrome is not programmed to allow this, you only have one option.
Create the process and keep the process object.
Use Process.MainWindowHandle to get the newly created window (you might need to use a loop and Process.Refresh, or Process.WaitForInputIdle)
Use the SetWindowPos native function to position the window wherever you want it.
Native hooks could be used to detect creation of the window, but that requires you to create an unmanaged DLL.
I have another idea for you, why not use a chrome extension for handling the positioning.
Background: We had related difficulties. Internal webapp that opens multiple documents in windows, and need to be placed in other monitors.
The javascript does not support this, for security reasons and only a native extension can properly work with the tabs/windows objects.
Therefore, we have created an open source chrome extension for doing exactly that: flexible windows position across multi-monitor setups.
Perhaps more interest to you would be the feature to use predefine templates. The template file is located in any webserver you like and therefore can be easily share across different users.
The chrome extension is called "MultiWindow Positioner" and its complete free. You can get it at the chrome store here
The actual source code you find in github in the project chrome-multiwindow-positioner
Disclaimer: I am the maintainer of the open source (MIT) github project. If there any interesting idea, or comments feel free to share them here.

How would I go about developing a file handler for Chrome and/or Chromium?

I would like to develop a browser plugin/extension (I'm not sure how they differ) for a particular (possibly new) file type. To be very explicit, I would like to visit a file, "foo.org", using my browser in something like Drop Box or Google Drive and have the browser treat the file as Emacs would treat an org-mode file. Eventually I would like to develop a full Emacs plugin/extension and be able to configure the browser to handle files with this plugin/extension based on the file extension or a file grokking heuristic.
Any solution that I develop will allow the editing to take place directly in the browser's tab area, i.e. a seamless solution (as opposed the useful but seamy Edit with Emacs solution referenced below). In the same way that Chrome recognizes a spreadsheet or word document and invokes the appropriate Google Docs tool, I would like to get an Emacs-lite editor handle the foo.org file. Another way to ask the question is: how do Google Docs tools get invoked within Chrome and perform the associated editing task. And are these tools open source?
You should consider building on Ymacs which is an Emacs-like editor in the browser.
For browser extensions, there is an experimental downloads api. However, it doesn't let you monitor downloads at the moment. This is planned for the future:
In the future, you will also be able to monitor and manipulate downloads.
However, you can probably just use some JavaScript and replace all links to *.org files with links that open in a tab running Ymacs. This should have the same effect--clicking a *.org link will open it in a new tab.
Take a look at content scripts and the tab api for documentation on how to inject a script into every page and how to open new tabs.
Take a look at Edit with Emacs , it should help you get (at least) part of the way there.