@webextension-toolbox/webextension-toolbox NPM

WebExtension Toolbox

Small cli toolbox for creating cross-browser WebExtensions.

If you want to get started quickly check out the yeoman generator for this project.

Browser Support

Official

These browsers are tested through github actions

Edge (edge)
Firefox (firefox)
Chrome (chrome)
Safari (safari)
Opera (opera)

Unofficial

These browsers will compile but are not tested

Internet Explorer (ie)
iOS Safari (ios_saf)
Opera Mini (op_mini)
Android Browser (android)
Blackberry Browser (bb)
Opera Mobile (op_mob)
Chrome for Android (and_chr)
Firefox for Android (and_ff)
Internet Explorer Mobile (ie_mob)
UC Browser (and_uc)
Samsung Internet (samsung)
QQ Browser (and_qq)
Baidu Browser (baidu)
KaiOS (kaios)

Features

Packing

The build task creates specific bundles for:

Firefox (.xpi)
Opera (.crx)

all other bundles are .zip files

Manifest validation

Validates your manifest.json while compiling.

You can skip this by adding --validateManifest to your build or dev command.

Manifest defaults

Uses default fields (name, version, description) from your package.json

Typescript Support

Native typescript support (but not enforced!) (see section How do I use Typescript?)

Manifest vendor keys

Allows you to define vendor specific manifest keys.

Example

manifest.json

"name": "my-extension",
"__chrome__key": "yourchromekey",
"__chrome|opera__key2": "yourblinkkey"

If the vendor is chrome it compiles to:

"name": "my-extension",
"key": "yourchromekey",
"key2": "yourblinkkey"

If the vendor is opera it compiles to:

"name": "my-extension",
"key2": "yourblinkkey"

else it compiles to:

"name": "my-extension"

Polyfill

The WebExtension specification is currently supported on Chrome, Firefox, Edge (Chromium) and Safari (Safari Web Extension’s Browser Compatibility).

This toolbox no longer provides any polyfills for cross-browser support. If you need polyfills e.g. between 'browser' and 'chrome', we recommend detecting the browser during the build time using process.env.VENDOR.

This toolbox comes with babel-preset-env. Feel free add custom configuration if you need any custom polyfills.

Usage

Install

Globally

$ npm install -g @webextension-toolbox/webextension-toolbox

Locally

$ npm install -D @webextension-toolbox/webextension-toolbox

Development

Compiles the extension via webpack to dist/<vendor>.
Watches all extension files and recompiles on demand.
Reloads extension or extension page as soon something changed.
Sets process.env.NODE_ENV to development.
Sets process.env.VENDOR to the current vendor.

Syntax

$ webextension-toolbox dev <vendor> [..options]

Examples

$ webextension-toolbox dev --help
$ webextension-toolbox dev chrome
$ webextension-toolbox dev firefox
$ webextension-toolbox dev edge
$ webextension-toolbox dev safari

Build

Compile extension via webpack to dist/<vendor>.
Minifies extension Code.
Sets process.env.NODE_ENV to production.
Sets process.env.VENDOR to the current vendor.
Packs extension to packages.

Syntax

Building

Usage: build [options] <vendor>

Compiles extension for production

Options:
  --swc                                Use SWC instead of Babel
  -c, --config [config]                specify config file path
  -s, --src [src]                      specify source directory (default: "app")
  -t, --target [target]                specify target directory (default: "dist/[vendor]")
  -d, --devtool [string | false]       controls if and how source maps are generated (default: "cheap-source-map")
  --vendor-version [vendorVersion]     last supported vendor (default: current)
  --copy-ignore [copyIgnore...]        Do not copy the files in this list, glob pattern
  --compile-ignore [compileIgnore...]  Do not compile the files in this list, glob pattern
  --no-manifest-validation             Skip Manifest Validation
  --save                               Save config to .webextensiontoolboxrc
  --verbose                            print messages at the beginning and end of incremental build
  --no-minimize                        disables code minification
  -h, --help                           display help for command

Developing

Usage: dev [options] <vendor>

Compiles extension in devmode

Arguments:
  vendor                                The Vendor to compile

Options:
  --swc                                Use SWC instead of Babel
  -c, --config [config]                specify config file path
  -s, --src [src]                      specify source directory (default: "app")
  -t, --target [target]                specify target directory (default: "dist/[vendor]")
  -d, --devtool [string | false]       controls if and how source maps are generated (default: "cheap-source-map")
  --vendor-version [vendorVersion]     last supported vendor (default: current)
  --copy-ignore [copyIgnore...]        Do not copy the files in this list, glob pattern
  --compile-ignore [compileIgnore...]  Do not compile the files in this list, glob pattern
  --no-manifest-validation             Skip Manifest Validation
  --save                               Save config to .webextensiontoolboxrc
  --verbose                            print messages at the beginning and end of incremental build
  --no-auto-reload                     Do not inject auto reload scripts into background pages or service workers
  -p, --port [port]                    Define the port for the websocket development server (default: "35729")
  --dev-server [devServer]             use webpack dev server to serve bundled files (default: false)
  -h, --help                           display help for command

.webextensiontoolboxrc

This file is used to configure the WebExtension Toolbox without cli options. You can generate it by running webextension-toolbox <options> --save command. This will take your current cli options and save them to .webextensiontoolboxrc. You can then run webextension-toolbox without any options

Customizing webpack config

In order to extend the usage of webpack, you can define a function that extends its config through a file you define through the usage of the -c option in your project root.

module.exports = {
  webpack: (config, { dev, vendor }) => {
    // Perform customizations to webpack config

    // Important: return the modified config
    return config;
  },
};

As WebExtension Toolbox uses webpack’s devtool feature under the hood, you can also customize the desired devtool with the --devtool argument.

For example, if you have problems with source maps on Firefox, you can try the following command:

webextension-toolbox build firefox --devtool=inline-cheap-source-map

Please see Issue #58 for more information on this

FAQ

What is the difference to web-ext?

If want to develop browser extensions for Firefox only web-ext might be a better fit for you, since it supports extension signing, better manifest validation and auto mounting.

Nevertheless if you want to develop cross browser extensions using

the same development experience in every browser
a single codebase
custom webpack configuration

webextension-toolbox might be your tool of choice.

How do I use React?

npm install @babel/preset-react --save-dev
Create a .babelrc file next to your package.json file and insert the following contents:

{
  "presets": [
    "@babel/preset-react"
  ]
}

How do I use Typescript?

npm install typescript --save-dev
Run tsc --init or manually add a tsconfig.json file to your project root

What is SWC?

SWC (stands for Speedy Web Compiler) is a super-fast TypeScript / JavaScript compiler written in Rust. It's an alternative to Babel. For more informaiton see: https://github.com/swc-project/swc