Creating installer packages for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox

The Windows version of the installer package for Google Chrome has the EXE format.

The installation package must include:

  • Add-in file
  • Add-in adapter file

  • Manifest file (in JSON format)

Use the following manifest file template:

{
"name": "com.YourCompanyName.YourAddInName",
"description": "Description of add-in for Chrome and Firefox",
"path": "AddInChr.exe",
"type": "stdio",
"allowed_origins": [
"chrome-extension://pbhelknnhilelbnhfpcjlcabhmfangik/"
]
}

Change the following template sections: 

Section

Description

name

Add-in name

description

Displayed add-in description

path

Full path to the add-in adapter file

Do not change the rest of the attributes.

During the installation, the package must copy the files to the hard disk and register the add-in as a browser plug-in in the following system register branch: HKCU\Software\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.YourCompanyName.com.YourAddInName (replace YourCompanyName and YourAddInName with the actual values). In this branch, create a single parameter with a default String type that stores the full path to the manifest file. The value in the name section of the manifest file must match the register branch name.

The package must be signed with the digital signature of the developer (SHA1 + SHA256).

The example\AddInChromeSetup directory contains a NSIS project for building the installer package for the add-in example. You will need NSIS for compiling the project. For each add-in, set a unique value in the AddInChromeSetup.nsh file.

The Linux version of the Chrome and Firefox installer package is provided as a self-extracting archive, which includes binary add-in and adapter modules and the manifest file. You can use the makeself utility to create the archive. The archive script must copy the manifest to the ~/.config/google-chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/ directory and copy the executable files to some other directory.

Next page: Add-ins for Safari. Creating adapters

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