I wrote a Chrome Extension (Gitpod Window). Here is what I learned.
Gitpod is an online IDE for GitHub and GitLab, it is great and makes my life easier when there is not enough resource in my laptop. But as a VIM user it is pretty annoying when I hit Ctrl+w (which is commonly used to navigate between different VIM window), the whole Gitpod tab just close and I have to reopen it again.
That’s why I start to work on a Chrome Extension (Gitpod Window) to make the overall experience of using Gitpod even better. The requirements I listed are:
- When user click the extension icon on a GitHub or GitLab page, opens Gitpod workspace in a popup Chrome window
- Disable Chrome shortcuts
As I have almost no experience in building a Chrome Extension, I wrote this story to record the process and hope it can help newbies like me. 😃
Get Started with Chrome Extension
Google provides a good official tutorial here: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/getstarted
Quick summary for key components:
- manifest.json: Provides important information
- Background Script: Extensions monitor events in their background script, then react with specified instructions
