57 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
57 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
# DevTools Extension
|
|
|
|
To make debugging easier, Electron has basic support for the
|
|
[Chrome DevTools Extension][devtools-extension].
|
|
|
|
For most DevTools extensions you can simply download the source code and use
|
|
the `BrowserWindow.addDevToolsExtension` API to load them. The loaded extensions
|
|
will be remembered so you don't need to call the API every time when creating
|
|
a window.
|
|
|
|
For example, to use the [React DevTools Extension](https://github.com/facebook/react-devtools)
|
|
, first you need to download its source code:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
$ cd /some-directory
|
|
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/facebook/react-devtools.git
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Then you can load the extension in Electron by opening DevTools in any window,
|
|
and running the following code in the DevTools console:
|
|
|
|
```javascript
|
|
require('remote').require('browser-window').addDevToolsExtension('/some-directory/react-devtools');
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
To unload the extension, you can call the `BrowserWindow.removeDevToolsExtension`
|
|
API with its name and it will not load the next time you open the DevTools:
|
|
|
|
```javascript
|
|
require('remote').require('browser-window').removeDevToolsExtension('React Developer Tools');
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
## Format of DevTools Extension
|
|
|
|
Ideally all DevTools extensions written for the Chrome browser can be loaded by
|
|
Electron, but they have to be in a plain directory. For those packaged with
|
|
`crx` extensions, there is no way for Electron to load them unless you find a
|
|
way to extract them into a directory.
|
|
|
|
## Background Pages
|
|
|
|
Currently Electron doesn't support the background pages feature in Chrome
|
|
extensions, so some DevTools extensions that rely on this feature may
|
|
not work in Electron.
|
|
|
|
## `chrome.*` APIs
|
|
|
|
Some Chrome extensions may use `chrome.*` APIs for features and while there has
|
|
been some effort to implement those APIs in Electron, not all have been
|
|
implemented.
|
|
|
|
Given that not all `chrome.*` APIs are implemented if the DevTools extension is
|
|
using APIs other than `chrome.devtools.*`, the extension is very likely not to
|
|
work. You can report failing extensions in the issue tracker so that we can add
|
|
support for those APIs.
|
|
|
|
[devtools-extension]: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/devtools
|