Creating a Chrome Extension Part I

Prerequisites:

• Basic Javascript Knowledge
• Chrome Browser

Problem Statement:

Sometimes we spend hours trying to search the IMDB ratings, durations and plots of different movies in a list by manually Googling it. And that is a serious issue when

• It is already Sunday, 11 PM.
• You’ve got only 2 Golden hours before you crash in your bed You got to be absolutely sure that you are not wasting your time watching some lame movie.

So what do you do? Install IMDb Ratings on hover extension.

How does the Extension work?

• On navigating to any webpagebackground.js listens to click event on the extension.
• Once clicked,background.js sends a message tocontent.js.
• Thecontent.js then listens tohover event.
• When the user rests a mouse for 250ms(an example) on any text then get the text in that location and make an API call.
• On getting a successful response, form a template(HTML) from it and populate it on the UI.

Well, that's too much info. I know! Let's break it down and see it action. This will be a 2 parts series.

PART-I

Let us get started on the Implementation.

Step 1: Constructing manifest.json

{
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "name": "IMDB Ratings",
  "version": "0.1",
  "content_scripts": [
    {
      "matches": [ "<all_urls>" ],
      "js": ["content.js"]
    }
  ],
  "web_accessible_resources": [
    "styles.css"
  ],
  "background": {
    "scripts": ["background.js", "config.js"]
  },
  "browser_action": {
    "default_icon": "imdb.png"
  },
  "permissions": [
    "contextMenus"
  ],
  "icons": {
    "16": "imdb-16x16.png",
    "128": "imdb-128x128.png"
  }
}

Properties to look out for:

• content_scripts: Executes the scripts specified inside this property whenever the Browser URL matches URLs specified under “matches” [line 7].Since I need this to be available for all URLs I am using <all_urls> as its value.
• web_accessible_resources: To load any Content through the script.
• background script: A script that runs in Browser background whenever the browser is opened.

Step 2: Constructing background.js to listen to Extension click.

/* clicking the addon icon */
chrome.browserAction.onClicked.addListener(buttonClicked);
function buttonClicked(tab) {
  var msg = {
    type: 'clickResponse',
    buttonClicked: true
  }
  chrome.tabs.sendMessage(tab.id, msg);
};

Note: background scripts don't have access to the DOM, so you have to askcontent_scripts for help.

We do not want ourcontent.js script to be active in all tabs where the user navigates to. So, we will wait for the user to indicate that he wants our extension to be active. We do that by listening to click event inbackground.js. Whenever the user clicks on the Extension we send a message tocontent.js saying that the user has clicked it.

Click listener here takes acallback(buttonClicked) with an argument(tab) which gives current tab’s properties. We send back message tocontent.js throughsendMessage API [line 8] and pass tab’s id and message. Message has type which helps to identify the type of message.

Remember: content.js don't have access to browser clicks or tab clicks but the DOM.

Step 3: Listen to the user action (HOVER) through content.js

chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener(hasGotMessage);
function hasGotMessage(response, sender, sendResponse) {
  switch (response.type) {
    case 'clickResponse':
      window.sessionStorage.setItem('_imdbRaterEnabled', "1");
      listenToMouseover();
      break;
  }
}

Add a listener incontent.js for the message frombackground.js

We get a message frombackground.js when the user clicks on the Extension. Find the type that you got from the message. If the type isclickResponse then we start listening to hover event in the DOM throughlistentoMouseover

You canconsole.log() it to see if you can get that message.

Please proceed to Part II here