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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

#41

Post by mrbombastic »

nickjj wrote: post #21

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 issu…

Hmmm the checkered background actually seems distinct enough that it wouldn’t be too difficult to automate its removal and just create a png with a transparent background.

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

#42

Post by Adraghast »

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…

How will you differentiate it from existing apps like Paprika or Mela?

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

#43

Post by redeux »

2h wrote: post #36
redeux wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hating on JS and suggesting people write servers aren’t very constructive suggestions. A browser extension is just a client, you can back it with the “full power” of a server if you want.

[flagged]

Please keep Hacker News Guidelines[1] in mind when making your comments. Ad hominem attacks don’t bolster your argument and make this forum a worse place to have open discussions.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#44

Post by 2h »

redeux wrote: post #43
2h wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Please keep Hacker News Guidelines[1] in mind when making your comments. Ad hominem attacks don’t bolster your argument and make this forum a worse place to have open discussions. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

You might want to read them yourself before throwing the link around.

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

#46

Post by iambateman »

redeux wrote: post #37
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…

This is really useful shortcut, thanks for sharing! Do you have any good resources for getting started with iOS shortcut apps like this?

Thanks! I’m happy to answer questions if you have any: Stephen at bate-man.com.

It’s a bit of a Wild West right now so there are very few resources. I just started building a couple tools using the shortcuts app (it comes with a builder GUI).

The system is more powerful than it looks. You can pull HTML from pages, grab all the links, do for each loops, if statements, variables, etc.

the biggest drawbacks are (1) the UI in the shortcuts app is targeted at non-developers and (2) not all features are supported on older devices and (3) you can’t issue “updates”, so once you share a shortcut it’s just out there and (4) people don’t usually have context for what a shortcut is.

But in exchange you get instant, one-click install without an approval process. It’s pretty cool!

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

#47

Post by 2h »

alphabet9000 wrote: post #33
satvikpendem wrote: post #26

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 swi…

firefox/mozilla doesn't really make it easy (compared to chrome) mozilla now requires "add-on signing" [0]; extensions now have to be "signed" (By mozilla) before you can permanently side-load your own private extension onto regular firefox. they also require you to use 2FA [1] when setting up a firefox.com account (which is required in order for you to upload extensions so they can be signed). at least with chrome y…

Yep. Firefox is my browser, but their add-on story is garbage.

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

#48

Post by iambateman »

Adraghast wrote: post #42
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…

How will you differentiate it from existing apps like Paprika or Mela?

There’s room enough for the both of us. :) but seriously thanks for the question.

The short answer is by being web-first and absurdly fast. SimplifyRecipe is for people who used Pinterest for a couple years but got annoyed by the cruft in that ecosystem.

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

#49

Post by iambateman »

duncan-donuts wrote: post #24
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.

Right on, thanks!

I hope it works well for her. There’s still lots more work to do to get it fully working but we will get there! Really appreciate it.

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

#50

Post by FractalHQ »

satvikpendem wrote: post #26

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 swi…

Svelte / Sveltekit also works great and is a bit more lightweight / performant while being easier / faster to develop with.

I have an implementation on GitHub for my personal hybrid bookmark-manager / hackernews-reader newtab extension[0]. Its still a wip but i use the website version[1] daily as it doesn’t need to be installed and can still be set as my newtab page (warning as I’ve never opened it on mobile).

[0] https://github.com/fractalhq/nutab [1] https://nutab.vercel.app

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