I'm not finding a way to do this in the chrome.* API or even the experimental. It doesn't run through wscript so
ActiveXObject("Shell.Application") isn't allowed.
I fear that my only option is to build a dll with NPAPI but I wanted to see if there was a simpler way.
To update this for a fellow wary lonesome traveler, even NPAPI is deprecated and being phased out. One of the alternatives mentioned in the NPAPI decprecation blog post that looks suitable for this type of problem (and pretty nifty really) is the Native Messaging API.
If you want to do anything Natively, you need to use NPAPI. That allows you to run code outside the sandbox for your extensions.
http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/npapi.html
Alternatively, you might want to have two applications:
a "client" that works within a chrome extension and
a "local server" where the actual command is executed.
Whenever the extension needs to execute a command, it can connect to the local server via tcp connection.
Related
First of all, I haven't started the implementation of the system I'm about to describe, as I didn't want to commit on implementing something I did not know if was possible.
So, what I'm trying to achieve is to build a chrome-app to download the audio from certain websites (e.g. youtube and soundcloud) using youtube-dl, post process it using ffmpeg and then upload it to a cloud service via some api. The reason I want to do it via a chrome-app is because I could do all the work on the client side (no need for servers) and I'd have the ability to insert javascript into the pages using content scripts, which would make the app pretty simple to use (I could create buttons such as 'download song' and stuff like that).
Although I have already read the documentation explaining the NaCl Technical Overview and some of the Application Structure, I still am not sure as to whether I would be able to make these calls via some C/C++ module or if I would get denied due to security reasons.
To summarize: considering that the user has the needed dependencies in his system (youtube-dl, python, ffmpeg and etc.), is it possible to make calls to third party APIs such as the ones described before via a chrome-app using NaCl ?
Thank you all in advance,
Chrome apps are normally sandboxed.
Less so than extensions - they can reach much more system resources via app APIs.
But still, what you mention is executing libraries / utilities out of browser, and it's not normally allowed.
(P)NaCl is tightly sandboxed in this regard. See this old question, it still applies: you can only use 3rd-party code that compiles into NaCl along with your app, not just link to a library. There are some library ports to NaCl, but it's not automatic.
Normally, a few years back you would use a mechanism like NPAPI to reach out and use a library out of browser. It's deprecated, and won't work anymore. In its place, Chrome offers a pipe-like (through stdio) connection to an external program called Native Messaging. You could use it to perform operations with system-level libraries and tools, but the downside is that you can't bundle the native host with your app, you'll need a separate installer.
I'm writing a small chrome extension for personal use and I would like to run an executable via the context menu and pass certain information as arguments to said executable.
What the simplest and/or cleanest way to achieve this? To me it seems that it is impossible due to chrome's sandboxing.
This can be accomplished via NPAPI Plugins.
Code running in an NPAPI plugin has the full permissions of the
current user and is not sandboxed or shielded from malicious input by
Google Chrome in any way. You should be especially cautious when
processing input from untrusted sources, such as when working with
content scripts or XMLHttpRequest.
However, I should also include their warning.
Warning
NPAPI is being phased out. Consider using alternatives.
NPAPI is a really big hammer that should only be used when no other
approach will work.
via Start an external application from a Google Chrome Extension?
Alternatives to NPAPI
There are several alternatives to NPAPI. In cases where standard web
technologies are not yet sufficient, developers and administrators can
use NaCl, Apps, Native Messaging API, and Legacy Browser Support to
transition from NPAPI. Moving forward, our goal is to evolve the
standards-based web platform to cover the use cases once served by
NPAPI.
via http://blog.chromium.org/2013/09/saying-goodbye-to-our-old-friend-npapi.html
Another way, suggested here, is with Java.
Java applets: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/applet/
Implementing Policy: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/security/userperm/policy.html
Use sendNativeMessage:
There is chrome.runtime.sendNativeMessage which can be used to send a
message to a native application and chrome.runtime.connectNative which
allows for a more persistent connection.
So, you can't directly execute a command, but you can have a native
app do it for you.
You can find more info on Native Messaging in the docs.
via https://stackoverflow.com/a/19917672/1085891
I need to develop a Chrome Packaged App that will work as a UI for a console application.
For this I need to find a way to be able to execute that console application inside my Packaged App and read it's outputs.
This is a simple task to do in another platforms such as .NET (which I use nowadays).
I've googled everywhere and searched here on Stackoverflow, but I can't seem to find anything related.
The only interoperability I found is NPAPI, (which is about to be discontinuead). So...
Does anyone have a knowledge about this and could give an example or documentarion on how to achieve it?
Thanks!
There's a feature as part of Chrome extensions that might suit you needs called native messaging.
http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/messaging.html#native-messaging-client
Is it possible to write a Chrome Extension that will interact with a Native Client application?
I use Irssi through the NaCl Secure Shell application, and I would like to write an extension that simply looks for plain URLs and makes them clickable links.
I'm seeing some strange behavior with extensions and NaCl applications, so I wanted to know if this is something that is even possible.
Additionally, if anyone has a more elegant solution to this, please don't hesitate to let me know.
Thanks!
The fact that the NaCl Secure Shell app uses Native Client under the hood shouldn't matter; the page is rendered using standard HTML.
The documentation for Chrome Extensions here says you should be able to inject content scripts into pages with the chrome-extension scheme. I tried it, but it doesn't work. It seems the documentation is incorrect. See http://crbug.com/153245.
As far as I can tell, it is not possible to modify an extension this way. It is possible to communicate with other extensions/apps (see here), but it seems that the application must expose an API to communicate with.
Secure Shell supports clicking links now via Ctrl+Click. it will support OSC+8 in a future release.
My intention is to create a chrome plugin for the windows users. Is that possible to call windows api from Native Client /PPAPI. If possible how?
I am answering my question, as after some study, I found the answer from West a bit not right. I tried calling windows APIs in Pepper(PPAPI) Plugin and it works fine with a command line switch "--register-pepper-plugins" (not the --no-sandbox as specified by West). It seems safer to use this command line attribute as it is only registering a plugin in to the Chrome browser and not removing any sandbox. I thought of adding an answer after finding an actual pepper plugin existing in use, which uses the switch (the NetFlix pepper plugin for chromeos ).
Got more information to add. Chrome API is available which provides the multi-monitor information : chrome.systemInfo.display object provides all the necessary information. The chrome documentation is not updated. Important thing to note is that, the permission "systemInfo.display" is to be added in the manifest to use this object. Two bugs are reported in the functionality of this object.
1. The monitor name is same for all monitors "Generic PnP Monitor", the documentation claims to provide the user friendly name of monitors.
2. There is an event which should get invoked on resolution change of monitors, but the event is never getting invoked.
Currently the implementation is only for Windows OS. Support for other OS are on the way. Documentation says that the API is only available for Chrome App, but I haves tested that and the API is available on Chrome Extensions as well.
Unfortunately, the short answer is 'no'. Native Client is designed to be OS-independent and as safe as JavaScript. Think of Native Client as native code that has the same capabilities and restrictions as JavaScript. A Native Client module that made Windows API calls would break both of those design principles: it wouldn't run on, e.g., a Mac, and it would be a major security risk (imagine browsing to a web page that decides to erase files from your harddrive).
Since you mention Chrome, it may be interesting to you to know that web apps - whether they use JavaScript or Native Client - can request additional permissions as packaged apps in Chrome Web Store. However, native OS calls are still not possible for the reasons listed above.
NPAPI plugins do not have these restrictions, but the future of NPAPI, at least in Chrome, is uncertain (see the last paragraph of http://blog.chromium.org/2012/07/npapi-plug-ins-in-windows-8-metro-mode.html).
For development purposes, it is possible to turn Chrome's outer sandbox off with the command-line flag --no-sandbox and then run PPAPI plugins that make direct OS calls. This is meant for developers and is not a suitable option to be used by end-users.
If you could say a bit more about what you're trying to achieve, there may be ways to do this with Native Client/Pepper.