Browser Extensions

AliasVault has browser extensions for Chrome (with Firefox support coming soon). In order to locally build and debug the extension, you can follow the steps below.

Chrome Extension

The Chrome extension is built with React as framework and Vite as build tool.

Install dependencies

Make sure you have Node.js installed on your host machine. Then install the dependencies by running the following command.

cd browser-extensions/chrome
npm install

Build the extension 

npm run build

Add the extension to Chrome

  1. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/.
  2. Enable “Developer mode” in the top right corner.
  3. Click “Load unpacked” and select the dist folder in the ./browser-extensions/chrome directory.
  4. The extension should now be loaded and ready to use.

Auto-build on changes

When developing the extension, you can use the npm run dev command. This will automatically build the extension when you make changes to the code which will then automatically reload the extension in Chrome. This means you can make changes and see the results immediately.

Automatic tests

The extension has a suite of automatic tests that are run on every pull request. These tests are located in the __tests__ directories scattered throughout the browser extension codebase.

Run the tests

To run the tests locally, you can use the npm run test command. This will run all tests.

npm run test

Manual tests

In order to test for client side issues, here is a list of public websites that have caused issues in the past and can be used to test whether the extension is (still) working correctly.

Websites that have caused issues

The following websites have been known to cause issues in the past (but should be fixed now). After making changes to the extension, you can test whether the extension is (still) working correctly by using the websites below.

Website Reason
https://www.paprika-shopping.nl/nieuwsbrief/newsletter-register-landing.html Popup CSS style conflicts
https://bloshing.com/inschrijven-nieuwsbrief Popup CSS style conflicts
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/user Popup buttons not working
https://news.ycombinator.com/login?goto=news Popup and client favicon not showing due to SVG format