browser-extension-template

Cross-browser extension boilerplate - barebones template with Parcel 2, options handler and auto-publishing.

Screenshot of extension options:

Features

Use npm dependencies thanks to Parcel 2.
Use modern promise-based browser.* APIs webextension-polyfill.
Auto-syncing options.
Auto-publishing with auto-versioning and support for manual releases.
Extensive configuration documentation.

Getting started

Create your own copy

Click Use this template to make a copy of your own. 😉

Build locally

Checkout the copied repository to your local machine eg. with git clone https://github.com/my-username/my-awesome-extension/
run npm install to install all required dependencies
run npm run build

The build step will create the distribution folder, this folder will contain the generated extension.

Run the extension

Using web-ext is recommened for automatic reloading and running in a dedicated browser instance. Alternatively you can load the extension manually (see below).

run npm run watch to watch for file changes and build continuously
run npm install --global web-ext (only only for the first time)
in another terminal, run web-ext run for Firefox or web-ext run -t chromium
Check that the extension is loaded by opening the extension options (in Firefox or in Chrome).

Manually

You can also load the extension manually in Chrome or Firefox.

Make the first change

For example, edit source\manifest.json to "name": "My Awesome Extension",
Go back to your browser, reload and see the change take effect

Note: Firefox will automatically reload content scripts when the extension is updated, Chrome requires you to reload the page to reload the content scripts.

Configuration

The extension doesn't target any specific ECMAScript environment or provide any transpiling by default. The extensions output will be the same ECMAScript you write. This allows us to always target the latest browser version, which is a good practice you should be following.

Parcel 2

Being based on Parcel 2 and its WebExtension transformer, you get all the good parts:

Browserlist-based code transpiling (which defaults to just the latest Chrome and Firefox versions)
Automatically picks up any new file specified in manifest.json
Adding TypeScript support is as easy as renaming your files to .ts; sindresorhus/tsconfig is also advised in that case.

Auto-syncing options

Options are managed by fregante/webext-options-sync, which auto-saves and auto-restores the options form, applies defaults and runs migrations.

Publishing

It's possible to automatically publish to both the Chrome Web Store and Mozilla Addons at once by adding these secrets on GitHub Actions:

CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_SECRET, and REFRESH_TOKEN from Google APIs.
WEB_EXT_API_KEY, and WEB_EXT_API_SECRET from AMO.

Also include EXTENSION_ID in the secrets (how to find it) and add Mozilla’s gecko.id to manifest.json.

The GitHub Actions workflow will:

Build the extension
Create a version number based on the current UTC date time, like 19.6.16 and sets it in the manifest.json
Deploy it to both stores

Auto-publishing

Thanks to the included GitHub Action Workflows, if you set up those secrets in the repo's Settings, the deployment will automatically happen:

on a schedule, by default every week (but only if there are any new commits in the last tag)
manually, by clicking "Run workflow" in the Actions tab.

Credits

Extension icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC 3.0 BY.

Extensions created using this template

notlmn/copy-as-markdown - Browser extension to copy hyperlinks, images, and selected text as Markdown.

License

This browser extension template is released under CC0 and mentioned below. There is no license file included in here, but when you clone this template, you should include your own license file for the specific license you choose to use.

e-jigsaw/reblr