Tutorial:Developing for Chrome

Google Chrome is the world's most popular web browser. Many people would argue that it has better features than any other web browser out there, and among those best features are both apps and extensions. This feature allows for developers to create applications and extensions to run on Chrome. This feature has created some amazing results, and helped Chrome to become the most popular browser ever. In addition to all these users, all apps also run on Chrome OS. Actually, they're the only thing that runs on Chrome OS. With the browser being the most popular one ever, and the operating system becoming increasingly popular, it can be very profitable and helpful to develop for Chrome. This page will start you off with teaching you how to do it.

Keep in mind that you will already have to know HTML, CSS, JSON, and either JavaScript or Dart. If you do not know these, then you will have a really difficult time making it through this tutorial, and even if you do, you won't know what to do after that. Please make sure you have proficiency in all these languages, or at least a basic knowledge.

Dart?
If you are planning on writing your application or extension in Dart, then you'll have to make sure to download it first from dartlang.org. Even if you are not planning on using it, Dart is compatible with all other internet languages, and can greatly help your efficiency when developing your app.

Manifest.json
All Chrome apps and extensions require a manifest.json file. This is a simple file that describes to the browser all the basic details about your app. This includes version, description, name, and all the different icons you will use to represent your app or extension. See the tutorial on manifest.json for information on how to create this file.

Extensions
All of the following sections will be on what to do if you are creating an extension. If you want to create an app instead, then skip ahead to the application section.

Applications
All of the following sections are on what to do if you are creating an application. Instructions on what to do for extensions are above.