In April 2025 my new book will be published titled “Chrome Extension Development – A full-stack approach“.
Unlike other books on the topic of Chrome extension development, this book focuses on developing custom extensions that interact with the complete technology stack including custom API servers, browser API calls, and data storage solutions.
This book aims to:
- Introduce the learner to the basics of Chrome extension development including: extension structure, required files, service workers, background scripts, content scripts, and extension manifests.
- Help the reader understand the complete life-cycle of a browser extension and the services it interacts with.
- Understand the fundamentals of API server development and integration into extensions using JavaScript and Express.js.
- Understand the capabilities of extensions through unique extension API calls.
- Showcase a variety of extension use cases including user authentication, working with files, capturing content, recording interactions, managing sessions, and implementing a variety of extension-specific data storage solutions.
Some chapters from this book will be available online in the future along with a link to the GitHub repository containing the example code used in each chapter.
Below outlines each of the individual chapters of the book:
Chapter 1: Introduction – The reader is introduced to the area of extension development and outlines what tools are required to get started.
Chapter 2: The full-stack: – A complete outline of the dividing lines between an extension and the full-stack.
Chapter 3: Chrome extension basic functionality – The reader is introduced to extension fundamentals and the core functionality available to extensions.
Chapter 4: Saving extension data – Various methods are described for storing data when developing an extension. This includes local browser and external storage solutions.
Chapter 5: [Extension] – To-do list – A simple extension is described allowing the user to add items to a to-do list.
Chapter 6: [Extension] – Text snippet manager – This chapter describes an extension to allow the user to save, retrieve, and view text snippets.
Chapter 7: [Extension] – Time tracking and graphing – This chapter describes an extension that allows the user to log work hours which are then visualised on custom graphs.
Chapter 8: [Extension] – Browser activity logging – A simple extension to record browsing activity using background scripts.
Chapter 9: [Extension] – Screen recording and capture – This chapter describes the APIs available to extensions to record and capture content.
Chapter 10: [Extension] – User authentication – A complete user authentication process is described including authorisation tokens and external databases.
Chapter 11: [Extension] – A.I integration – This chapter describes the process of integrating one of the many A.I solutions to enhance the functionality of an extension.
Chapter 12: Security – This chapter reviews the security considerations when developing Chrome extensions and API servers.
Chapter 13: Packaging and Deployment – This chapter describes how Chrome extensions can be packaged for deployment and how custom extension API servers can be deployed on a cloud-based hosting service.