How to use it on Windows Chrome

First to thank you for this great tool. It’s Awesome!!

I managed to use it on Windows-Chrome.

That’s are the changes i’ve done.

Change SIGPIPE

On windows there’s no SIGPIPE signal. I’ve seen on the python docs that they advise to catch the exception BrokenPipeError:

From https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/signal.html#note-on-sigpipe

Changes on main function of brotab_mediator.py def main(): #signal.signal(signal.SIGPIPE, signal_pipe) monkeypatch_socket_bind() disable_click_echo()

global actual_port
for port in range(DEFAULT_MIN_HTTP_PORT, DEFAULT_MAX_HTTP_PORT):
    logger.info('Starting mediator on %s:%s...',
                DEFAULT_HTTP_IFACE, port)
    actual_port = port
    try:
        app.run(DEFAULT_HTTP_IFACE, port, debug=False, threaded=False)
        logger.info('Exiting mediator...')
        break
    except OSError as e:
        logger.info('Cannot bind on port %s: %s', port, e)
    except BrokenPipeError:
        signal_pipe

else:
    logger.error(
        'No TCP ports available for bind in range from %s to %s',
        DEFAULT_MIN_HTTP_PORT, DEFAULT_MAX_HTTP_PORT)

I think this way is compatible with all OS.

How to Configure for Chrome on Windows

A) Changes on brotab_mediator.json: Path entry must have double \

Example: "path": "D:\\Python-3.7.6.0\\Envs\\BroTab\\Scripts\\bt_mediator.EXE",

B) Create a Registry Key

From https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/nativeMessaging#native-messaging-host-location

On Windows, the manifest file can be located anywhere in the file system. The application installer must create registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.my_company.my_application or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.my_company.my_application, and set default value of that key to the full path to the manifest file. For example, using the following command: REG ADD “HKCU\Software\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.my_company.my_application” /ve /t REG_SZ /d “C:\path\to\nmh-manifest.json” /for using the following .reg file: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.my_company.my_application] @=“C:\path\to\nmh-manifest.json”

In this case i’ve used : Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\brotab_mediator] @=“[PathWhereManifestFileIs]\brotab_mediator.json”

Enable Logging on Chrome

Just a quick note if you want to see what’s happenning on Chrome side…

From https://www.chromium.org/for-testers/enable-logging

To enable logging, launch Chrome with these command line flags:

–enable-logging=stderr --v=1 # Linux (newer instructions for Linux: here) –enable-logging --v=1 # Windows –enable-logging=stderr --v=1 > log.txt 2>&1 # Windows, seems to capture more output

Hope to get time to make it work on FF.

Edit : I cannot get any response from query command, in any of its variations. Always returns b’[]’

2020-02-12 17:40:00,818 19656 INFO       getting browser name
2020-02-12 17:40:00,818 19656 INFO       SENDING: {'name': 'get_browser'}
2020-02-12 17:40:00,819 19656 INFO       RECEIVED: b'"chrome/chromium"'
2020-02-12 17:40:03,751 19656 INFO       query info: eyJ1cmwiOiBbIio6Ly8qLmdvb2dsZS5jb20vKiJdfQ==
2020-02-12 17:40:03,752 19656 INFO       SENDING: {'name': 'query_tabs', 'query_info': 'eyJ1cmwiOiBbIio6Ly8qLmdvb2dsZS5jb20vKiJdfQ=='}
2020-02-12 17:40:03,755 19656 INFO       RECEIVED: b'[]'
2020-02-12 17:42:04,148 19656 INFO       getting browser name
2020-02-12 17:42:04,149 19656 INFO       SENDING: {'name': 'get_browser'}
2020-02-12 17:42:04,150 19656 INFO       RECEIVED: b'"chrome/chromium"'
2020-02-12 17:42:07,076 19656 INFO       query info: eyJ1cmwiOiBbIioiXX0=
2020-02-12 17:42:07,076 19656 INFO       SENDING: {'name': 'query_tabs', 'query_info': 'eyJ1cmwiOiBbIioiXX0='}
2020-02-12 17:42:07,077 19656 INFO       RECEIVED: b'[]'
2020-02-12 17:42:50,217 19656 INFO       getting browser name
2020-02-12 17:42:50,217 19656 INFO       SENDING: {'name': 'get_browser'}
2020-02-12 17:42:50,218 19656 INFO       RECEIVED: b'"chrome/chromium"'
2020-02-12 17:43:51,644 19656 INFO       getting browser name
2020-02-12 17:43:51,645 19656 INFO       SENDING: {'name': 'get_browser'}
2020-02-12 17:43:51,647 19656 INFO       RECEIVED: b'"chrome/chromium"'
2020-02-12 17:43:54,571 19656 INFO       query info: eyJ0aXRsZSI6ICIqIn0=
2020-02-12 17:43:54,572 19656 INFO       SENDING: {'name': 'query_tabs', 'query_info': 'eyJ0aXRsZSI6ICIqIn0='}
2020-02-12 17:43:54,575 19656 INFO       RECEIVED: b'[]'

Any clue?

[balta2ar]

Thanks for the great and detailed write up! Your suggestions definitely need to be merged when I have a bit more time.

To enable logging, launch Chrome with these command line flags

That was and is a huge pain point for me. It was so inconvenient to check extension’s logs in a browser given that I work mostly in command-line. I’ll try that and I wish there were simple and reliable way to do the same in Firefox.

[balta2ar]

It lacks the changes on brotab_mediator.json (Path to bt_mediator.EXE entry must have double ) and the creation of the Registry Key.

Added all your changes from the pull request and also implemented these two. Now Windows support should be much better.