The Chrome extension is a popular tool that lets you add functionality to the Chrome browser. It allows you to customize your browsing experience by adding new features and functions that you can use while surfing the internet.
The Chrome extension is a popular tool that lets you add functionality to the Chrome browser. It allows you to customize your browsing experience by adding new features and functions that you can use while surfing the internet.
You can find many extensions in different categories, such as social media, productivity, entertainment and games, etc. The following list provides some of the best free extensions for Google Chrome:
Publish Chrome Extension For Free
Before that, Please read my part 1 article [6 steps to create a Chrome Extension using Angular] if you haven’t read. Part 1 article covers about creating a chrome extension (browser-notes chrome extension) & testing it locally.
Before publishing our extension, I’m going to add a new feature to the chrome extension which we’ve developed in the previous article & then we can publish our extension.
Adding “Export to HTML” Feature for our browser notes extension.
I’m adding the project’s github repo link here. You can refer notes-editor component in this project.
In this component I’ve added Export to HTML button.
You can refer to this path in my repo browser-notes-extension/src/app/notes-editor.
When a user clicks Export to HTML button, extension is going to download their copied/typed content in the form of html file.
Also, what ever you type or paste in our extension, It’s going to save in user’s browser local storage.
This extension will use your browser’s local storage to store content.
Now let’s go publishing our chrome extension into the chrome web store.
Here are the 6 steps to publish your Chrome extension successfully in to the chrome webstore.
Step 1 : Register for a Google developer account
A Developer account is a normal google account that is used for publishing extensions or apps on Play Store or Web Store.
We need this account to publish our extension in to the chrome webstore. It’s easy to create a developer account, You need to spend 5$ as one time signup fee. Then you will be able to publish up to 20 different extensions.
Step 2 : Creating New Item
Once you are an owner of Google developers account, you can go to your developer’s dashboard. Here’s how it looks
To publish our extension, click on new Item. It’s going to ask the zip file of your chrome extension project.
In our Angular application case, we’ve already built our extension in dist directory by running this command & zipped it. You can refer the step 5 of part 1 article.
ng build --prod
After generating the build of our extension, you can go to dist directory & zip the browser-notes folder. Drag & drop that zip file in Add new item dialog in developers dashboard.
Step 3 : Store Listing
When you’ve successfully added your zip file in step 2. It’s going to take you to store listing page. By default this page is going to read the values like Title, version..etc from the manifest.json file (which is in your zip file).
My extension was rejected when my description was too short & it contains excessive & irrelevant keywords. So I got a mail like this
For successful approval of your extension, please note these points,
1. Need to write a long explanatory description, which was approved for the very next day.
2. We need to have store icon of 128×128 pixels.
3. Need to provide at least 1 screenshot whose size should be 1280×800 or 600×400. You can provide a maximum of 5 screenshots.
4. Need to provide 1 small promo tile of 440×280 size & Large promo tile of size 920×680 & Marquee promo tile of size 1400×560.
Step 4: Privacy practices
After filling form in your store listing page, you’ll be redirected to Privacy practices page. Here you need to provide the following information.
1. Single purpose : An extension must have a single purpose that is narrow and easy-to-understand.
2. Permission justification : Are you using the remote code, if Yes then provide the justification. In our case No.
3. Data usage : What user data do you plan to collect from users now or in the future ? In our case, we collect only website content like text, images, hyperlinks..etc.
Finally you need to check these disclosures in Privacy practices
Step 5 : Payments & Distribution
Here in this step, you need to setup your payment, if you want to monetize your extension. Right now, I’m publishing this extension for free.
You can select the visibility of your extension to Public, Private or Unlisted. Distribution, Here if you want to make your extension available to All Regions, you can do that or you can select the countries listed.
Step 6 : Submit for review
This is the final step to submit your chrome extension for review. Here All apps go through an automated review process and in some cases, an app will be published without further manual review. There may be some instances in which a manual review will be required before the app is published based on chrome extension program policies. In some cases, where sensitive permissions are requested, review times and/or approval times may be longer.
Before hitting submit for review button, I suggest hit Save draft button first.
Once your application is submitted & their review is done & approved, you will get an email like this from chrome webstore.
Finally you can see your extension in chrome webstore, when you hit the Link to published item.
Here’s our Browser notes extension published in chrome webstore. & Here’s the link.
Yayy!! I already had 5 users & 2 reviews.
Come on!! Don’t feel shy to try our extension too 😉
Conclusion
Here in this article, we’ve seen how to publish our extension successfully in chrome webstore. Building & publishing chrome extension is easy, Use your creativity & publish your own extension in the web store.
Hope, this article helped you to begin your journey to successfully publish your extension.
chrome web store extensions
You can customize Chrome on your desktop by adding extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
Install an extension
Important: You can’t add extensions when you browse in Incognito mode or as a guest.
Open the Chrome Web Store.
Find and select the extension you want.
Click Add to Chrome.
Some extensions will let you know if they need certain permissions or data. To approve, click Add extension.
Important: Make sure you only approve extensions that you trust.
To use the extension, click the icon to the right of the address bar.
If you’re using a computer through your work or school, your organization might block some extensions.
Install on your phone
Install with a Windows or Mac application
Install with Enhanced Safe Browsing
Manage your extensions
On your computer, open Chrome.
At the top right, click More More and then More tools and then Extensions.
Make your changes:
Turn on/off: Turn the extension on or off.
Allow incognito: On the extension, click Details. Turn on Allow in incognito.
Fix corruptions: Find a corrupted extension and click Repair. Confirm by clicking Repair extension.
Allow site access: On the extension, click Details. Next to “Allow this extension to read and change all your data on websites you visit,” change the extension’s site access to On click, On specific sites, or On all sites.
Remove possible malware
Let extensions read and change site data
Some extensions need permission to read and change site data. You can change your extensions’ permissions anytime.
On your computer, open Chrome .
At the top right, click Extensions .
Click More Organize and then point to “This can read and change site data.”
Decide which permission to give the extension:
When you click the extension: This setting only allows the extension to access the current site in the open tab or window when you click the extension. If you close the tab or window, you’ll have to click the extension to turn it on again.
On [current site]: Allow the extension to automatically read and change data on the current site.
On all sites: Allow the extension to automatically read and change data on all sites.
Add or remove access to a specific site
On your computer, open Chrome.
At the top right, click More More and then More tools and then Extensions.
On the extension, click Details.
Under “Permissions,” add or remove a site:
Add: To the right of “Allowed sites,” click Add.
If you don’t see this option, change “Allow this extension to read and change all your data on websites you visit” to On specific sites.
Remove: To the right of the site, tap More More and then Remove.
Uninstall an extension
To the right of your address bar, look for the extension’s icon. Right-click the icon and select Remove from Chrome.
If you don’t see the extension’s icon:
On your computer, open Chrome.
At the top right, click More More and then More tools and then Extensions.
On to the extension you want to remove, click Remove.
Confirm by clicking Remove.
Conclusion
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