consider replacing with native-messaging-hosts?

[koo5]

the protocol seems well developed: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Native_messaging

a "client" installs wiith a single command: https://github.com/andy-portmen/native-client/releases

and it works: https://add0n.com/open-in.html

The way this seems to work is, the "client installer" puts a file like this:

{
    "name": "com.add0n.node",
    "description": "Node Host for Native Messaging",
    "path": "/home/koom/.config/com.add0n.node/run.sh",
    "type": "stdio",
    "allowed_extensions": ["{b8fa78dd-dae1-4839-9d0e-ce5e213083ce}","{5610edea-88c1-4370.....
    }

into ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/com.add0n.node.json where the browser picks it up.

and /home/koom/.config/com.add0n.node/run.sh is your code (or andy-portmen's code) that runs whatever it's told to.

[koo5]

koom@dev ~/Downloads/ch> ./install.sh 
/tmp/fnm_multishell_28582_1614021112428/bin/node
NodeJS status = 0
Installer is using your system NodeJS.

 -> Root directory is /home/koom/.config
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.config/google-chrome/NativeMessagingHosts
 -> Chrome Browser is supported
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.config/chromium/NativeMessagingHosts
 -> Chromium Browser is supported
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.config/vivaldi/NativeMessagingHosts
 -> Vivaldi Browser is supported
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/NativeMessagingHosts
 -> Brave Browser is supported
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.config/microsoftedge/NativeMessagingHosts
 -> Microsoft Edge Browser is supported
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts
 -> Firefox Browser is supported
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.waterfox/native-messaging-hosts
 -> Waterfox Browser is supported
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.tor-browser/app/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts
 -> Tor Browser is supported
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.thunderbird/native-messaging-hosts
 -> Thunderbird Email Client is supported
 -> Creating a directory at /home/koom/.config/com.add0n.node
 => Native Host is installed in /home/koom/.config/com.add0n.node

>>> host is ready <<<

[karlicoss]

Hmm? So what's the difference with mime handler? For some reason I was under the impression that it needs an always running backend or something. In fact I thought of using it for Promnesia (instead of rest API), but encountered a few anecdotes claiming it's not well documented and doesn't really work well.. Have you played with it, what are the main benefits?

[koo5]

i see how it can give the impression that there has to be a local server running, but fwiw, it seems to just work simply by putting the script into the appropriate path.

comparison:

• mime handler has to serialize the "command" into an URI, while this lets you pass arbitrary json.
• we discussed giving more power to the js side before. For example, users dont want to fork this repo just to enable their editor of choice. They could just specify a full command line (as a template string) in the js settings gui. Giving that same kind of power to the js side through the mime handler would require some auth scheme i think (otherwise any website could link to "exec://rm -rf /".
• mime handler is triggered through browser navigation (either right-click to open new window or left-click (which i had some issue with but don't remember what exactly)), while native host is triggered from js.
• As on clear benifits, idk what's the status with your tool, but the native thingy seems to be supported across mac,linux and windows. The downside is that the installer has to know where each browser stores its data, so exotic browsers may be unsupported (see https://github.com/andy-portmen/native-client/blob/master/windows/install.bat )
• possible downside of the native thingy is that it feels like an attack vector, the only thing standing between any random extension and your script is the extension UUID whitelist. ... but i think i could live with that.
• like i said, it seems to work, but idk

All in all, i'm not arguing for or against it at this point, just wanted to note the option for future.

[karlicoss]

Agree, all makes sense, thanks for the summary! Yeah also mime handler can be tedious... e.g. here I've gone some serious rabbithole trying to figure out something as simple as "why firefox isn't opening sqlite database link in sqlitebrowser"... Guess in some sense it's much easier to put an arbitrary command to be executed by a native message.