TypeScript / React / Webpack / Chrome Extension Boilerplate
You can use this boilerplate code to start developing a Chrome extension using TypeScript/JS, React for the frontend, and Webpack as the build system.
At Duo Labs, we found ourselves creating Chrome extensions with this stack frequently enough that we thought it would be nice to have a consistent starting point. Getting all the individual pieces configured from scratch can be a pain.
Get started
Clone this repository, and then, in this directory:
npm install
npx webpack
Your unpacked Chrome extension will be compiled into dist/
. You can load it into Chrome by enabling developer mode on the "Extensions" page, hitting "Load unpacked", and selecting the dist/
folder. You can pack the extension into a .crx
by using the "Pack extension" button on the same page.
Use npx webpack
to recompile after editing.
Source layout
The default source layout looks like this:
src
βββ app
βΒ Β βββ background.ts
βΒ Β βββ content.ts
βββ styles
βΒ Β βββ popup.css
βββ ui
βββ popup.tsx
background.ts
will get loaded as the extension background script, and will run persistently in the backgroundcontent.ts
will be injected into the URLs matched bydist/manifest.json
'smatches
entry (see Match Patterns documentation)popup.tsx
will become the extension's "browser action" popup- NOTE:
popup.tsx
compiles intodist/js/popup.js
. It is loaded intodist/popup.html
by an explicit<script>
tag on that page.dist/popup.html
is static and is not automatically generated by the build process.
- NOTE:
popup.css
contains styles for the popup. These styles are loaded withstyle-loader
via theimport
line at the top ofpopup.tsx
(and directly injected into the popup via JavaScript)
Dist layout
dist
βββ _locales
βΒ Β βββ en
βΒ Β βββ messages.json
βββ icons
βΒ Β βββ icon128.png
βΒ Β βββ icon16.png
βΒ Β βββ icon19.png
βΒ Β βββ icon48.png
βββ js
βΒ Β βββ background.js
βΒ Β βββ content.js
βΒ Β βββ popup.js
βββ manifest.json
βββ popup.html
dist
contains the Chrome extension. You can delete js/*
, as its contents will be regenerated by webpack
, but the rest of the contents of dist
will not.
Why these choices?
We wanted a boilerplate from which we could be productive immediately, without including components we wouldn't immediately need.
- TypeScript: We chose TypeScript because it grants us the safety of a type system while still being accessible to developers who are only familiar with JavaScript. TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript, so all valid JavaScript is also valid TypeScript. You can use TypeScript's extra functionality only when you want to.
- React: Writing UI state transitions can be buggy and tedious. We like that React allows us to declaratively describe our UI without being overly bulky.
- Webpack: Webpack allows us to define a build pipeline that can be easily extended in the future.
Acknowledgments
This work is inspired by Extensionizr, and the icons in dist/icons
remain under the Extensionizr license.