App Broker Web Extensions Documentation

[kevin_philpot]

Is there any good (recent) App Broker documentation on using Web Extensions?   What browser versions are supported?  (Chrome/FireFox/Edge)

We are looking at leveraging these if possible.  

Thank you.

[peter_osang · Accepted solution]

Thanks @jdempsey ,

That process looked a little complex and required end user interaction, so I did some research of my own and came up with the follow solution.

The solution is to add the extension to the Extension Install Force List group policy administrative template setting.  This will create a registry key like the following below.  

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\ExtensionInstallForcelist

"1" = "omfdapccbikpkiheohohbohhglmijeeb;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx"

Note that if there is more than one entry under this key then each will have to have a different unique integer name, starting from 1.   

I did try to set this registry value under HKLM, but it didn't work.

This actually works quite well for some customers as they tend to prefer to control extensions using group policy.

For more information, see the following article: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-policies#extensioninstallforcelist

regards,

Peter

[dpiarowski]

At this time we do only have limited documentation on Web Extensions.  There has been a lot of changes by Microsoft and Google on how they handle Web Extensions I believe that is why.  As for what we support,  currently we support Edge (HTML) and Chrome.  As for Edge (Chromium) it is not officially supported with the current Web Extension installer but we do have a workaround that will make Edge (Chromium) work with the App Portal Web Extension. 

I will mention that there is a new build of the App Portal Web Extension Installer that works with newer version of Chrome.  You will have to contact support to get the newest build. 

[peter_osang]

Hi @dpiarowski,

Can you provide the details of the workaround for getting the App Portal Web Extension to work on Edge (Chromium) that you mentioned in your earlier post?

[ount274]

We would also like to see details on this workaround.

[jdempsey]

Here's what I received from @dpiarowski ...

With our current EXE there is no way to get that to make Edge Chromium work. But I did some research and found a Microsoft site with a work around.  Till we get our EXE to include Edge Chromium I feel that this work around should get our web extension working .

The article I found is https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/extensions-chromium/developer-guide/alternate-distribution-options

In this article there is a section called "Using the Windows Registry".  This section talks about an entry you need to create in order for Edge to see the Chrome extension. It appears at this time that this is the only method to get our web extension working. The steps below are Microsoft's steps along with what you need to do to get it working for App Portal

Step 1)

Enable Developer Mode
https://techdows.com/2019/04/chromium-based-microsoft-edge-disable-developer-mode-extensions.html

Step 2)

Enable Edge Chromium to install items from the Chrome Store
https://pureinfotech.com/install-chrome-extension-chromium-edge/

Step 3)

Install App portal Web Extension

Step 4)

Find or create the following key in the registry:
       32-bit Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Edge\Extensions
       64-bit Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Edge\Extensions

Step 5)

Create a new key (folder) under the Extensions key with the same name as the ID of your Extension (for example, aaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbcccccccccc).
The ID for the App Portal web extension is omfdapccbikpkiheohohbohhglmijeeb. 

Step 6)

In your new key, create a string property called, update_url, and set it to the value: https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx.

Step 7)

Launch the browser and go to edge://extensions; There is an "update" option click on update which should bring in App Portal's web extensions to the list.

Step 8 )

Enable the extension

[peter_osang · Accepted solution]

Thanks @jdempsey ,

That process looked a little complex and required end user interaction, so I did some research of my own and came up with the follow solution.

The solution is to add the extension to the Extension Install Force List group policy administrative template setting.  This will create a registry key like the following below.  

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\ExtensionInstallForcelist

"1" = "omfdapccbikpkiheohohbohhglmijeeb;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx"

Note that if there is more than one entry under this key then each will have to have a different unique integer name, starting from 1.   

I did try to set this registry value under HKLM, but it didn't work.

This actually works quite well for some customers as they tend to prefer to control extensions using group policy.

For more information, see the following article: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-policies#extensioninstallforcelist

regards,

Peter

[ount274]

Worked! Thanks!!

[jdempsey · Accepted solution]

In case anyone missed it, we published an update to our Web Extensions installer a couple weeks ago.  This release works on Chrome, Edge Chromium, and Firefox (though Firefox requires some manual fidgeting to enable it thanks to changes they made in their security model to prohibit automatic enabling of extensions).