I built a Chrome extension that follows the "Getting Started" tutorial from Google. This extension takes a webpage from developer.chrome.com and changes it to either green, blue, yellow, or red based on the user's setting.

After completing the Getting Started tutorial, I built an extension that counts how many pages are loaded for a specific host URL. The user can choose the host in the extension's options and reset the counter.

I worked on this hack-a-thing alone.

In the Getting Started Tutorial, I learned about the parts the make up a chrome extension an the basics of how to make one. The tutorial and general overview also explained the different ways an extension interacts with the browser and webpages and the core APIs made by Google for extensions.

When building the load counter, I learned more about how Chrome extensions can interact with the sites themselves and what the sites do that users might not always see.

My group is looking into building a Chrome extension that analyzes what data is collected on social media. This tutorial provides me with the basic framework of how a chrome extension works. In this hack-a-thing, I started to look at how I can use chrome extensions to read webpage activity.

I was able to get everyting properly functioning, it did take a lot more reading and debugging than I expected. Google is very specific about exactly what you can and cannot do with a Chrome extension, so I had to make sure my project didn't try to use more than what was provided.

To see the load counter:

• git clone this repo
• follow the guide below to install in Chrome

To see the "Getting Started" tutorial from Google:

• git clone this repo
• git checkout getting-started-tutorial
• follow the guide below to install in Chrome

To install the extension in Chrome (or a Chromium-based browser such as Brave):

• Go to chrome://extensions/ and turn on Developer Mode (top right corner of the page)
• On the top left, click on "Load Unpacked"
• Open the extension folder

• "Getting Started" tutorial from Google
• General overview of a Chrome extension
• Chrome Extension API Documentation
• Chrome Extension Developer Guide
• Medium blog on how to create a Chrome extension
• Article on how to make a Chrome extension