I've made a few chrome apps and published them to the chrome store and when I install them then appear in my chrome://chrome/extensions/ page. When I package an app into a crx file and install in manually, my app works fine and shows up on the new tab page but not the chrome://chrome/extensions/ page. Am I missing something in my manifest file or will only store apps show up on the extensions page?
The correct way to have apps which are under development show up in the extensions page is to load them as an "load uppacked extension" from the extensions page. You just point it to the parent directory of your app, then as you make changes, you just save and refresh your app. When you are ready to publish, just zip it up and upload it to the store.
There's no need to manual package your app unless you are distributing the app outside the chrome web store.
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I am trying to install App using App Manager in Firefox OS device. But my problem is I am unable to push any of the apps which are published on MarketPlace. It show that
The webapp manifest isn't a valid JSON file: SyntaxError: JSON.parse:
unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data at:
https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/pacman-canvas can't be opened
So can anyone suggest some way to push the app to my device using App Manager only?
It's pretty easy. On the Marketplace page (in Firefox desktop) open the marketplace page for the app. Then open Devtools and select the Debugger. In the debugger, break in file iframe-installer.html, on this line:
installPackage(e);
Now click the 'Free' button, the debugger will break on this line. In the console you now type:
e.data.data.product.manifest_url
This will give you a URL. If the URL is located at someone else's webserver (like Pacman), e.g. http://pacman.platzh1rsch.ch/pacman-canvas.webapp, you can (in the App Manager) click 'Add hosted app' and paste the URL. However you will need internet on the phone the first time you use the app (because its hosted app).
If the URL is a Mozilla URL (https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/etc.), you can open the link in your browser. Open the file. You now have a JSON file in which you need to look for the package_path key. F.e. for Recorder it's
"package_path": "https://marketplace.firefox.com/downloads/file/258677/recorder-1.1.zip"
You can now download this ZIP file, unzip it in a folder, and add the folder as a Packaged app.
For apps in the marketplace, you best solution for getting them on the phone is to just use the marketplace app. That said if you own the app in the marketplace you should be able to look at the manifest url of the app using the edit listing marketplace button. If this is a hosted app you can you use this manifest url in the add hosted app entry box within the app manager to add it and then push it to phone. On another note you can debug the system apps by using the procedure described here:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Using_the_App_Manager#Debugging_Certified_Apps
I have made many CRX files for Google Chrome, and I was wondering if there was a way for someone to download the CRX file from my website and have it automatically installed (like it does for the Chrome Webstore)?
There's a special API from Google to install applications and extensions inline from your website. However, it is still hosted in the Chrome Web Store. The advantage is that user doesn't have to leave your website. It is called chrome.webstore API.
Nice read about API itself:
https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/webstore.html
More about inline installation:
https://developers.google.com/chrome/web-store/docs/inline_installation.
I have a packaged app, but I want to distribute it through my own website - outside of the Google Chrome Web Store. So when user lands on my website, they receive the dialogue box to 'install' my app, and can install it, independently of the Chrome Web Store.
Is it at all possible?
Thanks in advance -
There is a way to do it without --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install -- it's just a little bit trickier for users. You will have to tell your users to do the following:
Download the .crx file from your website.
Navigate to chrome://extensions.
Drag the .crx file from the file explorer onto the extensions page.
This will install the packaged app into Chrome completely independently of the Web Store.
We have an app that integrates with google drive SDK, and open/new URLs are configured in the API console, working well on the desktop. The "Mobile Browser Support" checkbox is ticked. Still, when I open the Google Drive web page from a mobile browser (Ipad), clicking on a file link downloads the file instead of opening our application in the browser. Any idea if this is a config problem or a bug in the mobile Drive UI?
From what I've tried, on the mobile Google Drive website, a file is opened with your application instead of being downloaded only if the file has the mime-type of your application. This mime type looks like the following:
application/vnd.google-apps.drive-sdk.nnnnnnnnnn
You can find it by requesting information about your app using the API [1].
[1] https://developers.google.com/drive/v2/reference/apps/list
I am trying to write a Google Drive App, following instructions here:
https://developers.google.com/drive/listing
I have created a Chrome extension (with a manifest.json and some icon images). My manifest.json has the following attributes set:
"container" : "GOOGLE_DRIVE",
"api_console_project_id" : "XXXXXXXXXXXX",
where all the X's are the twelve-digit ID I get from http://code.google.com/apis/console.
I install my extension using the "Load Unpacked Extension" button on the build-in Chrome extensions page for my browser (chrome://chrome/extensions).
But I can't get the app to show up in any of the drop-down menus in Google Drive. Do all Google-Drive-enabled apps have to be installed from the Chrome Web Store, or should I be able to install one from local files as described above?
The app must be installed from the Chrome Web Store but you can publish it to test accounts only: https://developers.google.com/drive/listing#publish_to_test_accounts