Create-react-ext NPM

About package

CRE allows to generate new Chrome extension and use TypeScript and React

Usage

Create React project (using create-react-app for example)
Install packages: npm i create-react-ext @types/chrome
Start project. Make sure localhost:3000 is available
Generate extension: cd node_modules/create-react-ext && npm start (it'll add ext folder)
Load the extension in Chrome from ext folder
Now you can make changes in React code or in ext/background.js, ext/manifest.json. Changes will regenerate the extension in ext and auto-reload using chrome.runtime.reload or window.location.reload if extension is opened (see demo above)

Go to index.tsx entry point and define for example this component:

import {FC} from 'react'

const HiComponent = FC<{}> = () => {
  const style = {padding: '20px'}
  return (
    <div style={style}>Hi</div>
  )
}

export default HiComponent

Now we can open Chrome popup-window and we will see Hi. Let's change index.tsx:

const HiComponent = FC<{}> = () => {
  const style = {padding: '5px'}
  return (
    <div style={style}>Welcome <b>Dear Visitor</b></div>
  )
}

We will see Welcome Dear Visitor text. This is because CRE updates extension on any change. Now let's communicate with background.js using chrome.runtime.sendMessage/onMessage methods. And also update Badge using chrome.action.setBadgeText method. In ext/background.js we will add background logic:

chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener((request, sender, sendResponse) => {
  if (request.type === 'data') {
    // return simple object for simplicity
    sendResponse({
      content: 'hello from background.js',
      badge: '123'
    })
    return true
  }
})

And also update index.tsx:

import {useEffect, useState, FC} from 'react'

interface HiComponentStateType = {
  content: string
  badge: string
}

const HiComponent = FC<{}> = () => {
  const [state, setState] = useState<HiComponentStateType>({
    content: 'hello',
    badge: 0
  })
  useEffect(() => {
    chrome.runtime.sendMessage({type: 'data'}, (response) => {
      if (response) {
        const {content, badge} = response
        setState({content, badge})
        chrome.action.setBadgeText({text: badge})
      }
      else document.write('Cannot fetch data from background.js')
    })
  }, [])
  return (
    <div>{state.content}</div>
  )
}

In Chrome popup-window we will see hello from background.js text and badge set to 123

Conclusion

CRE is a simple tool that gives ability to: Create default extension in ext folder Use React/TypeScript Automatically update extension in ext folder on any chandes in code Simply load the extension in Google Chrome from ext folder