wext-manifest-transformer

Transformer module for Webextension manifest.json

🙋‍♂️ Made by @abhijithvijayan

Donate: PayPal, Patreon

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Generate browser tailored manifest.json content for Web Extensions that you specify properties to appear only in specific browsers.

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Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• FAQs
• Issues
  • 🐛 Bugs
• LICENSE

This loader will take a definition input for the manifest, and return you content for the specified browser.

Looking for Web Extension starter

Checkout web-extension-starter that uses this package with the help of vite-plugin-wext-manifest plugin.

Installation

Ensure you have Node.js 18 or later installed. Then run the following:

# via npm
npm install wext-manifest-transformer

# or yarn
yarn add wext-manifest-transformer

Usage

You can easily use this module together with the vite-plugin-wext-manifest to output the manifest.json as part of your build process with auto rebundling on file change. This also lets you build v2 manifest & v3 manifest for different browsers from the same manifest.json.

Sample manifest with vendor prefixed keys

https://github.com/abhijithvijayan/web-extension-starter/blob/react-typescript/source/manifest.json

import { transformer } from 'wext-manifest-transformer';
// Or using CommonJS
// const { transformer } = require('wext-manifest-transformer');

// 1. Define your manifest with vendor-prefixed keys
const manifest = {
	"name": "My Awesome Extension",
	"version": "1.0",
	"__chrome|opera__manifest_version": 3,
	"__firefox__manifest_version": 2,
	"__dev__name": "My Awesome Extension (Dev)",
	"options_ui": {
		"page": "options.html",
		"__chrome__open_in_tab": true,
		"__firefox__browser_style": true
	},
	"__chrome|prod__host_permissions": [
		"https://*.google.com/"
	],
	"__firefox|prod__host_permissions": [
		"https://*.mozilla.org/"
	]
};

// 2. Transform the manifest for a specific target

// Example for Chrome in a development environment
const chromeDevManifest = transformer(manifest, 'chrome', 'development');
console.log(chromeDevManifest);
/*
Output:
{
  "name": "My Awesome Extension (Dev)",
  "version": "1.0",
  "manifest_version": 3,
  "options_ui": {
    "page": "options.html",
    "open_in_tab": true
  }
}
*/

// Example for Firefox in a production environment
const firefoxProdManifest = transformer(manifest, 'firefox', 'production');
console.log(firefoxProdManifest);
/*
Output:
{
  "name": "My Awesome Extension",
  "version": "1.0",
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "options_ui": {
    "page": "options.html",
    "browser_style": true
  },
  "host_permissions": [
    "https://*.mozilla.org/"
  ]
}
*/

---

FAQs

1.What are vendor prefixed manifest keys

Vendor prefixed manifest keys allow you to write one manifest.json for multiple vendors.

{
  "__chrome__name": "AwesomeChrome",
  "__firefox__name": "AwesomeFirefox",
  "__edge__name": "AwesomeEdge",
  "__opera__name": "AwesomeOpera"
}

if the TARGET_BROWSER is chrome this compiles to:

{
  "name": "AwesomeChrome",
}

---

Add keys to multiple vendors by seperating them with | in the prefix

{
  __chrome|opera__name: "AwesomeExtension"
}

if the vendor is chrome or opera, this compiles to:

{
  "name": "AwesomeExtension"
}

2. How can I conditionally set keys based on environment

{
  "__dev__name": "NameInDevelopment",
  "__prod__name": "NameInProduction",
  "__chrome|firefox|dev__description": "DescriptionInDevelopmentForSetOfBrowsers",
  "__chrome|firefox|prod__description": "DescriptionInProductionForSetOfBrowsers"
}

if the NODE_ENV is production and the TARGET_BROWSER is chrome this compiles to:

{
  "name": "NameInProduction",
  "description": "DescriptionInProductionForSetOfBrowsers"
}

else

{
  "name": "NameInDevelopment",
  "description": "DescriptionInDevelopmentForSetOfBrowsers"
}

Issues

Looking to contribute? Look for the Good First Issue label.

🐛 Bugs

Please file an issue here for bugs, missing documentation, or unexpected behavior.

See Bugs

Linting & TypeScript Config

• Shared Eslint & Prettier Configuration - @abhijithvijayan/eslint-config
• Shared TypeScript Configuration - @abhijithvijayan/tsconfig

License

MIT © Abhijith Vijayan