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Building Browser Extensions

Create Modern Extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Matt Frisbie

    1. California, USA

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  • Understand the best way to build and deploy a modern browser extension

  • How to build a browser extension using modern web development tools

  • Fast-track understanding of browser extensions

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxxii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. What Are Browser Extensions?

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 1-15

  3. Fundamental Elements of Browser Extensions

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 17-42

  4. Browser Extension Crash Course

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 43-73

  5. Browser Extension Architecture

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 75-96

  6. The Extension Manifest

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 97-166

  7. Understanding the Implications of Manifest V3

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 167-185

  8. Background Scripts

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 187-224

  9. Popup and Options Pages

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 225-243

  10. Content Scripts

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 245-268

  11. Devtools Pages

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 269-299

  12. Extension and Browser APIs

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 301-344

  13. Permissions

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 345-384

  14. Networking

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 385-427

  15. Extension Development and Deployment

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 429-458

  16. Cross-Browser Extensions

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 459-508

  17. Tooling and Frameworks

    • Matt Frisbie
    Pages 509-532

  18. Back Matter

    Pages 533-538
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Keywords

About this book

Almost all web developers today have plenty of experience with building regular web page apps, but a lot of that knowledge doesn't transfer over when it comes to creating browser extensions. This book provides a complete reference for how to build modern browser extensions. 

Creating and deploying a browser extension is more like building a mobile app than a website. When you start building an extension you'll often find there are a large number of new concepts and idiosyncrasies to wrangle with. This book reveals how to successfully navigate around these obstacles and how to take advantage of the limited resources available.  

You'll see how a browser extensions work, their component pieces, and how to build and deploy them. Additionally, you'll review all the tricky bits of extension development that most developers have to learn through trial and error. The current transition from manifest v2 to v3 is of special interest, and an entire chapter will be dedicated to this subject. By the end of this book, you will have a rich understanding of what browser extensions are, how they work, all the pitfalls to avoid, and the most efficient ways of building them.

What You’ll Learn
  • Examine the different components of browser extensions and how they behave
  • Review common pitfalls developers encounter when building browser extensions and how to avoid them
  • Develop, deploy, and manage a published browser extension
  • Build a browser extension using modern JavaScript frameworks
Who This Book Is For

Developers tasked with building a supplementary browser extension to go alongside their existing product. This book also targets people that have at least a basic understanding of the fundamentals of web development and wish to quickly understand how they can roll out a browser extension.




Authors and Affiliations

  • California, USA

    Matt Frisbie

About the author

Matt Frisbie has worked in web development for over a decade. During that time, he's been a startup co-founder, an engineer at a Big Four tech company, and the first engineer at a Y Combinator startup that would eventually become a billion-dollar company. As a Google software engineer, Matt worked on both the AdSense and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) platforms; his code contributions run on most of the planet's web browsing devices. Prior to this, Matt was the first engineer at DoorDash, where he helped lay the foundation for a company that has become the leader in online food delivery. Matt has written three books, "Professional JavaScript for Web Developers", "Angular 2 Cookbook", and "AngularJS Web Application Development Cookbook", and recorded two video series, "Introduction to Modern Client-Side Programming" and "Learning AngularJS". He speaks at frontend meetups and webcasts, and is a level 1 sommelier. He majored in Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Matt's Twitter handle is @mattfriz.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Building Browser Extensions

  • Book Subtitle: Create Modern Extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge

  • Authors: Matt Frisbie

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-8725-5

  • Publisher: Apress Berkeley, CA

  • eBook Packages: Professional and Applied Computing, Professional and Applied Computing (R0), Apress Access Books

  • Copyright Information: Matt Frisbie 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4842-8724-8Published: 23 November 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4842-8725-5Published: 22 November 2022

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXXII, 538

  • Number of Illustrations: 165 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Web Development

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