eric60
commented
6 months ago Hey @mholtstrom that's great what you're trying to do for your kid!
Unfortunately don't have time to update this except getting to manifest v3 which is due soon by June. Any updates currently might be for naught until its updated to v3 first since chrome will stop working on v3 after june deadline, hope to have time to release by end of april.
yea that whitelist extension looks perfect except for its over privileged settings.
You can try this if you have time and think its worth it, please share with me if you get it working, thanks
- setup this chrome extension from chrome extension store and get it working
- fork and setup this extension locally. Disable the extension from the store and use the extension you set up locally, you can reuse the api key you previously set up.
- now time to add your custom code
- just for barebones, you don't have to update the UI, just need to update the script logic
- just update content.js
- e.g. add a hardcoded whitelist of channels like
const allowedChannelIds = ['a', 'b'] - since extension is already calling youtube data api v3, you can just get the channel id like this:
channelId = response.items[0].snippet.channelId; - you might need to update the api request to get that channelId data though
- finally update content.js again to block the video if the currentChannelId is not in the allowedChannelIds list
- As you know, you can't prevent your kid from deleting any extension since they can just right click on the extension in the chrome menu bar and click "remove from chrome", but I'm thinking you can tell them that you'll be able to tell that they deleted it since they won't be able to add your custom extension back. You can do this by blocking
chrome://extensions/which is necessary to add back your custom extension from your files. They can't just redownload the extension from the chrome store since yours is a custom local one. Thinking you can block the site from your router or use a computer website blocker with password + uninstall protection (you may already have one) like coldturkey blocker or focusme (I use this, very difficult to break and has uninstall protections) - if your kid is somehow able to figure out how to access the extension code and update the whitelisted channelIds from chrome or your files, then maybe they deserve it and you will be pleasantly surprised! 😆
- Note that with focusme, you can also block file paths / applications to block your kid from accessing the extension code in your files
- good luck to you and your family!
sample code i found from another extension
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(),
id = this.getParam(location.href.slice(location.href.indexOf("?") + 1), "v");
xhr.open("GET", "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet&id=" + id + "&key=" + key, false);
xhr.send();
if (xhr.readyState === xhr.DONE && xhr.status === 200) {
var response = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText);
id = response.items[0].snippet.channelId;
```
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHOW CHANNEL VIDEOS COUNT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
ImprovedTube.channelVideosCount = function () {
if (this.storage.channel_videos_count === true && this.elements.yt_channel_link) {
var key = this.storage["google-api-key"] || ImprovedTube.defaultApiKey;
if (this.elements.yt_channel_link.href.indexOf("/channel/") == -1) {
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(),
id = this.getParam(location.href.slice(location.href.indexOf("?") + 1), "v");
xhr.open("GET", "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet&id=" + id + "&key=" + key, false);
xhr.send();
if (xhr.readyState === xhr.DONE && xhr.status === 200) {
var response = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText);
id = response.items[0].snippet.channelId;
}
} else {
id = this.elements.yt_channel_link.href.slice(this.elements.yt_channel_link.href.indexOf("/channel/") + "/channel/".length);
if (id.indexOf("/") !== -1) {
id = id.match(/.+?(?=\/)/)[0];
}
}
xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.addEventListener("load", function () {
var response = JSON.parse(this.responseText),
parent = document.querySelector("#meta ytd-channel-name + yt-formatted-string"),
element = ImprovedTube.elements.channel_videos_count || document.createElement("div");
ImprovedTube.empty(element);
if (response.error) {
element.appendChild(document.createTextNode("• Error: " + response.error.code));
} else {
element.appendChild(document.createTextNode("• " + response.items[0].statistics.videoCount + " videos"));
}
element.className = "it-channel-videos-count";
ImprovedTube.elements.channel_videos_count = element;
parent.appendChild(element);
ImprovedTube.elements.channel_videos_count = element;
});
xhr.open("GET", "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=statistics&id=" + id + "&key=" + key, true);
xhr.send();
}
};
```
mholtstrom
@eric60 I'm a developer who wants to configure his 7-year-old's ChromeBook (that is controlled via FamilyLink) to only be able to browse and play videos based on a whitelist of channels (like TedEd). From my investigation so far, this isn't supported by Google/Chromebook/FamilyLink/YouTube. A chrome extension seems like my best bet. My full analysis is at https://holtstrom.com/michael/blog/post/735/Internet-for-Kids.html And you can reach me at [chromeapps at holtstrom.com] Would you consider adding this to your extension? If you have any advice for me in building my own version, I'd appreciate it.