Simply put background scripts are service workers JavaScript files that handle the extensions main events. They operate independent of a webpage and/or the extension popup. Setting Up Background Scripts Here is code on how you declare a background script in the manifest.json file. { … “background”: { “service_worker”: “background.js”, “type”: “module” }, …} The JavaScript file background.js can be named anything…

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In this article we are going to looking at declaring permissions for chrome extensions. Permissions are declared in the manifest.json file to give the extensions access to variety of extension’s APIs and features. There are four types of permissions that can be declared in the manifest.json; “permissions”, “optional_permissions”, “host_permissions” and “optional_permissions”. Here is an example of how that would…

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Web Accessible Resources are files within your chrome extension that web pages and other external extensions can have access it to. By default webpages and other external extensions do NOT have access to these file, so the developer needs to declare in the manifest.json the extension files should certain webpages have access to. This feature is typical used…

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Building a Chrome extension involves several key components. Here are the main ones: Popup UI (web): Think of it as a mini website running within the extension’s popup. The popup runs an HTML file, so you can use frameworks like React, Solid, and Vue to build the UI for the popup, and simply use index.html as the…

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When diving into the world of Chrome extensions, the manifest.json file is your essential roadmap. It’s the cornerstone that defines your extension’s identity, capabilities, and permissions. Think of it as the DNA of your extension, detailing everything from its name and version to the specific permissions it needs to function. Understanding this file is crucial for any…

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Content scripts are a powerful feature of Chrome extensions that allow you to run JavaScript code in the context of web pages. This enables your extension to interact with web pages directly, modifying content, listening for events, and enhancing the browsing experience. Content scripts are specified in the manifest.json file and can be programmed to run on…

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The chrome.alarms API is an API use to schedule code to execute at a preset time and/or periodically. See the Chrome Alarms API documentation for more info. How is Chrome Alarms API different from setInterval or setTimeout? setInterval and setTimeout are functions that are used to schedule code to run in the future and periodically as well. However the difference become apparent when we start…

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The chrome notifications API is responsible for displaying different types of what is called rich notifications in your users’ system tray. Chrome Notifications API works well with the Web-push Notifications (Google Cloud Message) but more on that in our next article about Understanding Chrome Extensions GCM. Although we can choose what kind of template of…

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The chrome.gcm API to enable the extensions to send and receive messages via Firebase’s Cloud Messaging (FCM). Official Documentation here: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/gcm What is GCM or FCM? https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FsioEY4tWmLI%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DsioEY4tWmLI&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FsioEY4tWmLI%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube Well the first, Google Cloud Messaging and Firebase Cloud Messaging are the same thing, so let’s get that out the way. FCM is an improvement of GCM. According the Firebase Team, FCM is a reliable no-cost way…

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The chrome.cookies API enables extensions to create, retrieve, edit and remove cookies from a specific and/or all domains. You can see Google Chrome Documentation on it: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/cookies What are Internet Cookies 🍪 ? Simply put internet cookies are small files save on your browser that usually hold data specific to your computer. They are linked to a particular domain/website. Cookies…

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