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New experimental APIs for Chrome extensions

32 points by abraham 16y ago

losvedir 16y ago
This is nice, but Chrome extensions still seem pretty limited to me (or I might just be missing something). I generally browse with cookies, javascript, and plug-ins turned off, and looked into writing a Chrome extension to give myself a toolbar button to turn them on briefly for a given site. But all I could find were ways to interact with page content, and not the browser itself.
- zzleeper 16y ago
  This is exactly the problem that these extensions intend to address: http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensions/apiwishlist http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensio...
  - losvedir 16y ago
    Ah, indeed. The Settings API mentioned on there is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm glad it's on their radar; hopefully, it can be implemented soon.
    - zzleeper 16y ago
      Maybe this is what you looking for: http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/trunk/contextMenus.html http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/trunk/contextMenus.... =)
  - Groxx 16y ago
    Why is "Storage" in there? It does come for free via HTML5 APIs. It has for quite a while. Each extension has its own local storage, cookies (I think), and WebSQL database at its fingertips, even up to a few hundred megs if you request as much. Same with "Read-write user scripts" - those are content scripts, and I've used them in a couple extensions I've hacked out. The Chrome developers-wiki-thing is at times extremely out-dated (there were incorrect install instructions on one of the main dev-build pages for over a year), and I fear is mostly ignored. Don't trust everything on it.
    - zzleeper 16y ago
      You are right. I linked only to the _wishlist_ which is something not usually kept up-to-date. In the other page, there seems to be slightly more current information: http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensions http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensio...
- traskjd 16y ago
  I don't intend this to sound rude, but do you really think they should be focusing attention on users who disable cookies and javascript? That sounds like they'd be optimising for the 0.01% of users rather than the other 99.99%.
  - russell_h 16y ago
    I agree with you that if what he was asking for was specific to users who disable cookies and javascript it wouldn't make much sense for the chrome team to spend a lot of time on it. That being said, it seems like the APIs for this (that is, ones for modifying browser settings instead of interacting with site content) would have a ton of uses beyond just disabling cookies and javascript. Although as someone mentioned below, it looks like they're at least on the "Wish List".
spullara 16y ago
So, grabbing all your internet traffic is now as simple as getting you to install a chrome plugin? That seems like a rather low bar to jump over for such a big effect.
- brg 16y ago
  One would also need to instantiate Chrome with the command line flag --enable-experimental-extension-apis. I think I should have picked a shorter flag name.

32 points by abraham 16y ago

This is nice, but Chrome extensions still seem pretty limited to me (or I might just be missing something). I generally browse with cookies, javascript, and plug-ins turned off, and looked into writing a Chrome extension to give myself a toolbar button to turn them on briefly for a given site. But all I could find were ways to interact with page content, and not the browser itself.

zzleeper 16y ago
This is exactly the problem that these extensions intend to address: http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensions/apiwishlist http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensio...
- losvedir 16y ago
  Ah, indeed. The Settings API mentioned on there is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm glad it's on their radar; hopefully, it can be implemented soon.
  - zzleeper 16y ago
    Maybe this is what you looking for: http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/trunk/contextMenus.html http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/trunk/contextMenus.... =)
- Groxx 16y ago
  Why is "Storage" in there? It does come for free via HTML5 APIs. It has for quite a while. Each extension has its own local storage, cookies (I think), and WebSQL database at its fingertips, even up to a few hundred megs if you request as much. Same with "Read-write user scripts" - those are content scripts, and I've used them in a couple extensions I've hacked out. The Chrome developers-wiki-thing is at times extremely out-dated (there were incorrect install instructions on one of the main dev-build pages for over a year), and I fear is mostly ignored. Don't trust everything on it.
  - zzleeper 16y ago
    You are right. I linked only to the _wishlist_ which is something not usually kept up-to-date. In the other page, there seems to be slightly more current information: http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensions http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensio...
traskjd 16y ago
I don't intend this to sound rude, but do you really think they should be focusing attention on users who disable cookies and javascript? That sounds like they'd be optimising for the 0.01% of users rather than the other 99.99%.
- russell_h 16y ago
  I agree with you that if what he was asking for was specific to users who disable cookies and javascript it wouldn't make much sense for the chrome team to spend a lot of time on it. That being said, it seems like the APIs for this (that is, ones for modifying browser settings instead of interacting with site content) would have a ton of uses beyond just disabling cookies and javascript. Although as someone mentioned below, it looks like they're at least on the "Wish List".

spullara 16y ago

So, grabbing all your internet traffic is now as simple as getting you to install a chrome plugin? That seems like a rather low bar to jump over for such a big effect.

brg 16y ago
One would also need to instantiate Chrome with the command line flag --enable-experimental-extension-apis. I think I should have picked a shorter flag name.