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Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

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Re: Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

#11

Currently using Parcel with its support for manifest.json as an entrypoint[0], could you explain what your framework does beyond that? [0]: https://parceljs.org/recipes/web-extension/

We use Parcel under the hood and are huge fans! Our framework has opinionated abstractions on top of it that we think help improve the extension development experience considerably.

Features we've built so far:

- manifest.json is generated automatically. If you want to create a content script, you name a file content.ts, and it'll auto-gen the right manifest key-value pair for it. Same with backround.ts. [1]

- Mounting a React component to the popup or options page is similar. You create a popup.tsx or options.tsx file, export a default React component, and it'll automatically associate it in the manifest and mount the component automatically for you.

- We support environment variables with .env files [2]

- We just released support to automatically inject a shadow DOM into a webpage and mount a React component from a content script [3]

- We have remote code bundling that automatically fetches URL based imports (like Google Analytics) in build time to mitigate issues with MV3 not allowing remote code [4]

[1]: https://docs.plasmo.com/#where-is-the-manifestjson-file

[2]: https://docs.plasmo.com/workflows/env

[3]: https://github.com/PlasmoHQ/examples/tree/57791e70549441e391...

[4]: https://docs.plasmo.com/workflows/remote-code

Re: Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

#12
> System Requirements

> Node.js 16.x or later

Plasmo's "users" will already be working under the constraint of developing for a target platform where NodeJS will not be available to them, but is nonetheless meant for running JS: Chrome. Why is NodeJS necessary?

Re: Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

#13
post #10

Love this. Chrome extensions are the most underrated platform to spit out 7+ figure recurring revenue businesses on. Mac App Store close second. I'm hesitant to even mention because it's such a good secret.

Can you point to one extension that is making 7 figures?

Re: Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

#14
post #12

> System Requirements > Node.js 16.x or later Plasmo's "users" will already be working under the constraint of developing for a target platform where NodeJS will not be available to them, but is nonetheless meant for running JS: Chrome. Why is NodeJS necessary?

Our tooling is written in Node.js. So developers must have Node installed on their machines to utilize our tooling.

When they use our CLI to watch the file system for changes for live-reload or to build their extension, etc., that's a Node.js program.

The build target is browser Javascript, though.

Re: Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

#15
post #10

Love this. Chrome extensions are the most underrated platform to spit out 7+ figure recurring revenue businesses on. Mac App Store close second. I'm hesitant to even mention because it's such a good secret.

How do extensions make money? Subscriptions or selling data?

Re: Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

#16
post #13
post #10

Love this. Chrome extensions are the most underrated platform to spit out 7+ figure recurring revenue businesses on. Mac App Store close second. I'm hesitant to even mention because it's such a good secret.

Can you point to one extension that is making 7 figures?

I imagine Grammarly is. And then they spend all that revenue on YouTube ads...

https://www.grammarly.com/browser/chrome

Re: Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

#17
post #15
post #10

Love this. Chrome extensions are the most underrated platform to spit out 7+ figure recurring revenue businesses on. Mac App Store close second. I'm hesitant to even mention because it's such a good secret.

How do extensions make money? Subscriptions or selling data?

Yes.

Re: Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

#18
post #12

> System Requirements > Node.js 16.x or later Plasmo's "users" will already be working under the constraint of developing for a target platform where NodeJS will not be available to them, but is nonetheless meant for running JS: Chrome. Why is NodeJS necessary?

Our tooling is written in Node.js. So developers must have Node installed on their machines to utilize our tooling. When they use our CLI to watch the file system for changes for live-reload or to build their extension, etc., that's a Node.js program. The build target is browser Javascript, though.

> Our tooling is written in Node.js.

Sure. My question is why.

Re: Show HN: Plasmo – a framework for building modern Chrome extensions

#20
post #10

Love this. Chrome extensions are the most underrated platform to spit out 7+ figure recurring revenue businesses on. Mac App Store close second. I'm hesitant to even mention because it's such a good secret.

What's your basis for these statements?
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