README.md

chrome-extension-starter

A starter kit for Chrome extension and theme development.

Google Groups

• Chromium-Extensions-Announce
• Chromium-Apps-Announce
• Other Chromium group links

Official Documentation

This is a directory tree of links to various Chrome developer pages.

• Extensions
  • Learn Basics
    • Overview
    • Hosting Changes
    • Extension Quality Guidelines FAQ
    • Event Pages
    • Content Scripts
    • activeTab Permissions
    • What's New
  • Getting Started Tutorial
  • Sample Extensions
  • Develop Extensions
    • Accessibility
    • Content Security Policy
    • Cross-Origin XHR
    • Debugging
    • Internationalization
    • Message Passing
    • Native Messaging
    • Migrate to Manifest 2
    • OAuth
    • Options
    • Options v2
  • Distribute Extensions
    • Hosting
    • Packaging
    • One-Time Payments
    • Autoupdating
    • Other Deployment Options
    • Analytics
    • Publishing Themes
  • Chrome Platform APIs
    • Javascript APIs
    • Manifest File Format
    • Web APIs
    • Permissions Warnings
    • Optional Permissions
    • Match Patterns
  • Help
    • FAQ
    • Google Groups
    • Stack Overflow

Developing

The official documentation is quite extensive and up to date. Some recommendations:

• The tutorials and docs to guide the learning process for developing extensions is ordered logically in a top down format. Start at the top and drill into details as you move down.
• The Sample Extensions page is a great resource that provides many working extension examples. The main page is a long list so it's best to choose a few of the Chrome APIs you would like to work with and narrow down the search.

Folders

ext-samples

All extension samples (as zip files) are available here. A few that I found useful are included in the ext-samples folder. The API calls used in each sample are noted in parentheses.

• NTP prototyping extension (magic8ball) - A sample for creating New Tab extensions. (topSites)
• Google Mail Checker (gmail) - A sample for Google Mail Checker. (alarms, browserAction, i18n, runtime, tabs, webNavigation, windows)
• My Bookmarks (basic-bookmarks) - A sample using the Bookmarks API. (bookmarks, tabs)
• Sample Extension Commands extension (commands) - A sample to open the browser action popup or send an event (commands)
• Context Menus Sample (basic-context) - A sample for basic features (contextMenus, extension)
• Imageinfo (imageinfo) - A sample to get image info for images, including EXIF data (contextMenus, tabs, windows)

ext-template

General template for Chrome extensions.

• manifest.json
• icon.png
• popup.html
• popup.js

theme-template

Documentation on creating themes is a bit limited so referencing the Chromium (which Chrome is built on) source is helpful https://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/browser/themes/

• manifest.json
• images

Samples

theme-dark-v1

The published Dark Theme - Charcoal is available on the Chrome Web Store.

theme-unicorn-v1

The published Unicorn Theme is available on the Chrome Web Store.

Not Launched

The following themes are not yet on the Chrome Web Store:

• theme-google-pastel
• theme-green-mint-v1
• theme-blue-mint-v1