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For your next side project, make a browser extension

geoffreylitt.com

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Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#21

Post by nickjj »

If someone is looking for ideas, I'd love an extension that shows if a png image is really transparent instead of being a png or jpg with literal checker box patterns on the image.

I tweeted about this once a while back[0], it gained some traction but never materialized.

This would save a lot of time trying to find transparent images that turn out to be fake. These types of sites are worse than the "fake" github issue tracker sites.

[0]: https://twitter.com/nickjanetakis/status/1545876124865101826

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#22

Post by AlbertCory »

cldellow wrote: post #14
AlbertCory wrote: post #12

This is a plug for an extension I didn't write, and have no stake in: https://free.law/recap it's a browser extension that defeats the Pacer monopoly on (many) legal filings. If you do have Pacer and download something, it automatically uploads it to a free server. Thus, it becomes free to everyone else. I think some Big Law firms must use it, because a surprisingly large number of docs are available free. Legalities…

> Legalities of this? They seem to be getting away with it. The US government runs PACER itself, they don't contract it to a profit-motivated third-party. [1] As a result, they're pretty lenient. At one point, their website said: "The information gathered from the PACER system is a matter of public record and may be reproduced without permission". So it's totally legal. The RECAP people also make it _really_ easy to…

Thanks, didn't know all that.

I put in the "legalities" part mainly because I was thinking of a similar extension to defeat Elsevier & other vultures of scientific publication. Those people might be more litigious.

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#24

Post by duncan-donuts »

iambateman wrote: post #20

To extend the idea a bit…iOS shortcuts should be considered “extensions” by the same token. They’re incredibly easy to make and can create a lot of value, plus they’re shareable. As an example…I built https://SimplifyRecipe.com/shortcut in a couple hours and it’s been extremely useful for getting rid of the life story on recipe pages. Lots of people connected with that concept, so now I’m working on building a full-f…

I just forwarded this off to my wife because we joke about how bad most recipes are with elaborate backstories. This is a product that I really want while also solving a problem that doesn’t quite meet the threshold for me to actually do something about it. Stumbling upon it randomly was a good way for me to adopt it tho so there’s that.

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#25

Post by bariumbitmap »

Browser extensions are useful. I've made some simple ones and published a few:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/14310707/

But it's also worth considering where the browser gives priority. For example, while browser extensions can add custom keyboard shortcuts, they can't override the keybindings a website uses. Want to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-1 for a browser extension while a Google Docs page is focused? Nope, sorry, can't be done.

https://github.com/gsomoza/firefox-easy-container-shortcuts/...

It's pretty clear that while a browser extension can access browser APIs that a web app can't, the extension is still a second-class citizen in other respects.

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#26

Post by satvikpendem »

PSA: If you're making a browser extension, please support Firefox as well, not just Chrome. Firefox makes it easy since they support the `chrome` namespace for functions [0].

You can also use React/Next.js or another frontend library too if you prefer. I had created an extension a while ago out of pure HTML, CSS, and TypeScript but I found that was quite annoying to add more complex features with lots of state. I switched to Next.js and it's now on par with regular web DX [1].

[0] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...

[1] https://css-tricks.com/nextjs-chrome-extension-starter/

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#28

Post by Animats »

No, don't.

They're not that hard to code, but both Google and Mozilla keep making changes and then bitching at you through their app stores to change your thing. I recently dropped Chrome support on an add-on because 90% of the users were on Firefox. Since it blocked some ads, I figured Google would continue to whine, and it wasn't worth the hassle.

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#29

Post by satvikpendem »

fswd wrote: post #23

Any suggestions for a good stack to develop extensions? I'm coming from nodejs/react, and would like to stay close to that. Is there an up-to-date stack I can clone, copy, and deploy with something like 'yarn run build' and start hacking?

I've used NextJS for browser extensions, works well. There are templates on GitHub but to be honest it isn't that hard to package into a browser extension.

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#30

Post by satvikpendem »

Animats wrote: post #28

No, don't. They're not that hard to code, but both Google and Mozilla keep making changes and then bitching at you through their app stores to change your thing. I recently dropped Chrome support on an add-on because 90% of the users were on Firefox. Since it blocked some ads, I figured Google would continue to whine, and it wasn't worth the hassle.

Interesting, based on browser share I'd have expected 90% to be on Chrome instead. What's the extension (or rather, why are most on Firefox)?
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