CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-chromegoogle-chrome-extensioncross-browserfirefox-addon
Jonovono
Jonovono

Reputation: 3425

Development of browser extension questions

I am looking to develop a cross browser extension (plugin) and am having troubles getting answers to a few questions. So just looking for some simple answers if what I would like to do is possible. Thanks. I am currently looking at using Crossrider but would use whatever.

  1. How do some extensions add a menu to the right click button. For example, when I right click in Chrome I see Evernote Web Clipper and Adblock options in the dropdown). How do they do that?

  2. Could I embed a youtube player, for example. So when it's closed the audio still plays but when clicked you can see the video and what not?

  3. For sites like Grooveshark. Could they have a plugin that when clicked you could change the song or stop the music, etc. So basically communicate with a website in your tab from the plugin?

Thanks. I just found Crossrider and it looks like some may be possible but havn't explored it too in depth yet. Kind of wondering if anyone has tried doing these things and if possible.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 465

Answers (1)

Jordan M.
Jordan M.

Reputation: 310

Google has a specific API for adding context menus. You can read about it here. Just be sure to request permissions for context menus in the manifest.json file and then you can add everything else to your background JavaScript file.

I don't think it's exactly possible to embed a YouTube player into the extension directly. Google Chrome will not allow for running inline scripts, which are clearly required to run YouTube within a popup page (or anything else, for that matter).

As for your third question, you would have to check into the individual APIs for any sites that you want to run the extension with. Every site is going to be a little bit different and my first instinct is that most sites are not going to allow for directly adding their player to the extension.

I would strongly suggest checking out the information about developing Google Chrome extensions available on Google Code. They provide a great tutorial and reference for the basics of developing extensions.

Upvotes: 1

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