7 ms·

Chrome is developing a Sidebar API

115 points by ohaal 11y ago

nathan_f77 11y ago
Funny timing for me, I'm just about to start working on a Chrome extension with a sidebar. Maybe we'll be able to use this when it comes out.
- aarohmankad 11y ago
  I'm currently working on creating a sidebar app similar to Honey's UI [1]. Have you made any progress implementing the sidebar look? It doesn't seem very documented and even Honey seems to do it in a hacky way. [1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpnenekpadlanbbkooimhnj?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpn...
  - nathan_f77 11y ago
    Sorry I haven't used Honey, and the demo video didn't seem to show a sidebar? Also I actually inherited this codebase, but yeah our sidebar looks good. It just injects a container div into the site.
    - aarohmankad 11y ago
      alright thanks! The consensus seems to be injecting a sidebar div into the current page.
paulojreis 11y ago
I haven't read everything in detail, but this reminded me of the API developed for modal dialogs. It ended like this: https://dev.opera.com/blog/showmodaldialog/ https://dev.opera.com/blog/showmodaldialog/ Both the ideas seem good, but it's hard to not think about "Embrace, extend and extinguish".
- pvg 11y ago
  The sidebar API is for chrome extensions, not web pages. They're probably not extending their own API in order to extinguish it.
  - paulojreis 11y ago
    You're right. I haven't noticed that the API was "chrome.sidebar".
Kartificial 11y ago
Important part here: "Does this API expose any functionality to the web?" "No"
collyw 11y ago
I remember all the fuss that was made about a sidebar in Windows (was it in Vista?) At the end of the day its just a souped up menu in a different position.
ohaal 11y ago
In the comments so far, there seems to be some confusion on what this is. The Chrome Sidebar API is an API for Chrome extensions, adding a sidebar surface to Chrome. The proposed API allows Chrome extensions to access and control a sidebar panel - a per-tab split-pane HTML container to the right (to the left in RTL environment) of the main page content with the ability to resize horizontally.[1] In short, it provides extensions an alternative to using popups or injecting HTML directly into web pages in order to display something to the user. With it, you could for instance (re-)implement something like the old Side Tabs feature, which was removed from Chrome because the complexity of a tree-style interface in terms of usage is beyond what most users need or want, and in terms of implementation is more than passes the cost/benefit test for building into Chrome natively as an option.[2] [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/102hfWTM5cMl-95PyfGcn89YHDTffBMMumLUBOnxLp0A/preview?sle=true https://docs.google.com/document/d/102hfWTM5cMl-95PyfGcn89YH... [2]: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=344870#c113 https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=344870#c...
- smurfpandey 11y ago
  We had a sidebar extension on Chrome called Teamgum[1]. But it was removed from store last month because we were using remote iframes. And when we asked for more explanation nothing from their end. And now I see they are developing there own sidebar. [1]: http://www.teamgum.com http://www.teamgum.com
- bhilburn 11y ago
  Awesome explanation. Thanks for sharing. It looks like Mozilla is making a new push with Firefox, as well, to attract devs back: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/big-changes-are-coming-to-firefox-to-win-back-users-and-developers/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/big-ch... If successful, it will be interesting to see how Chrome evolves for developers to compete. (I was reminded of this because the Firefox sidebar was always wildly popular - I know lots of people that continue to use it specifically for that purpose)
eloisant 11y ago
It's funny, in the golden age of Firefox extensions sidebars where very popular, and when Chrome released without one people where complaining. The response was that a popup that appears when you click a toolbar button was enough. It's funny to see they're going to release one now that nobody cares about it.
- ionforce 11y ago
  It's that whole 80/20 thing. Most features of products go unused. So Chrome has finally reached a level of maturity where it can concentrate on rarely used features.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    Could be that some users are keeping and eye on Vivaldi. https://vivaldi.com/ https://vivaldi.com/
- Gys 11y ago
  I use Firefox by default with an add-on 'Vertical Tabs'. This moves all tabs away from the top into a narrow sidebar. Screens are more wide then tall and for me my vertical space is more valuable. Every line that holds only static info (address bar, open tabs) is not strictly needed at all times, so I want them either to popup (like the menu bar in full screen view) or at least move to the sides ('cheaper' space). I am somewhat surprised this is not more common opinion.
  - malnourish 11y ago
    I use Tree Style Tabs as well. As you said, vertical space is a premium. Back in the day (and perhaps still), there were user chrome tweaks you could make to hide the address bar until you hover over it.
    - Retra 11y ago
      Vertical space is not really at a premium when it comes to viewing static documents under access to a scroll wheel. Why does the developer console open on the bottom, constraining your vertical space? Because there is such a dearth of horizontal space that that it would be uncomfortable to do otherwise. The reason things keep eating up vertical space is because that's the only space that's not at a premium.
jebblue 11y ago
It'a good idea, it reminds me of IE Bands, one of the few things I liked about IE: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc144099(v=vs.85).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc1...
vyrotek 11y ago
Finally! Our customers have been begging us to provide this for years. We build "Employee Engagement" (aka gamification) tools that extend various CRMs. Not all of them support a way to extend the UI but a sidebar would be perfect.
- iolothebard 11y ago
  Build an application.
  - vyrotek 11y ago
    We currently have a free-floating chrome application which looks like a detached sidebar. The problem is our customers want to see it all the time and don't want it to go behind or on top of the browser. As far as I know, there's no good way to "dock" it to the side of a screen and prevent other applications from using that space.
  - Wizzard666 11y ago
    h3 14ckz da zki11z
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
username3 11y ago
Is this going to make Sublime Text mini maps possible for webpages?
- kuschku 11y ago
  Yes. While they have been possible in Firefox since forever, they should now be possible in Chrome, too. Another idea is vertical tabs.
  - degenerate 11y ago
    Is this the best one out there? https://github.com/diox/firefox-minimap-scroller https://github.com/diox/firefox-minimap-scroller
7952 11y ago
This would be great for messaging clients which are painful to use in tabs.
wooger 11y ago
Looks good, now they need a way to hide the existing tabs (and perhaps the addressbar too) and we can move to a nice slick side-tabs extension for Chrome.
ksk 11y ago
Relax guys, nobody is going to abuse this API!
nathanathan 11y ago
I've been working on a graphical command-line for manipulating webpages with natural language queries (https://contextscript.com https://contextscript.com). So far I've been using a bookmarklet, which has the benefit of working across browsers, but it has a lot of drawbacks too. If I go the browser extension route, this looks like it would be very useful for developing the UI.
curiousjorge 11y ago
thank god. I've been asking for this a long time and its finally making
dragthor 11y ago
Sounds like a mechanism for ads. (unfortunately)
- ytdht 11y ago
  nothing adblock plus can't handle, but that is what first came to my mind too.
- jessaustin 11y ago
  If the user installs an extension that delivers ads, then perhaps it is the user's intention to receive ads? Barring some kind of exploit, this won't be something that a website can do to you.
aarohmankad 11y ago
Does anyone know how Honey [1] implemented a sidebar like UI in their chrome extension? It seems pretty solid and I wonder how they got around the current limitations against Sidebars in chrome extensions. [1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpnenekpadlanbbkooimhnj?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpn...
- highwind 11y ago
  I think they just inject iframe into the actual DOM. It's not an UI element that's part of the browser.
  - aarohmankad 11y ago
    alright thanks! The consensus seems to be injecting a sidebar div into the current page.
amk_ 11y ago
Opera recently sidebar extensions back in for the first time since the re-architecturing of a few years ago. That was a month ago and there are already quite a few extensions available: https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/?tag=sidebar&order=popular https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/?tag=sidebar&order=po.... Vivaldi, basically a modernized Opera 11/12, has supported some sidebar elements from the beginning. Since Opera and Vivaldi are both Chromium-based, it's not surprising to see sidebars getting into upstream.
ThomPete 11y ago
Finally! I have been waiting for this for a long long time.
reamworks 11y ago
tet
shwetank 11y ago
Opera already has support for Sidebar extensions, you can check it out here https://dev.opera.com/extensions/tut_sidebar_actions.html https://dev.opera.com/extensions/tut_sidebar_actions.html
iansilber 11y ago
Awesome. I built Intab (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/intab-beta/bfaekmalldododidalckpccilpcdefme?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/intab-beta/bfaekma...) but it's admittedly a bit hacky. Hoping this API will support the same use case in a much more stable way.
spdustin 11y ago
In reminded of : target="_search" Sure was a handy way to get a sidebar opened with a "mini" web app
ushi 11y ago
This could make the octotree[0] extension even more awesome. Let's see. [0] https://github.com/buunguyen/octotree https://github.com/buunguyen/octotree
- hmhrex 11y ago
  Never heard of this. Looks like a really cool project.

115 points by ohaal 11y ago

Funny timing for me, I'm just about to start working on a Chrome extension with a sidebar. Maybe we'll be able to use this when it comes out.

aarohmankad 11y ago
I'm currently working on creating a sidebar app similar to Honey's UI [1]. Have you made any progress implementing the sidebar look? It doesn't seem very documented and even Honey seems to do it in a hacky way. [1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpnenekpadlanbbkooimhnj?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpn...
- nathan_f77 11y ago
  Sorry I haven't used Honey, and the demo video didn't seem to show a sidebar? Also I actually inherited this codebase, but yeah our sidebar looks good. It just injects a container div into the site.
  - aarohmankad 11y ago
    alright thanks! The consensus seems to be injecting a sidebar div into the current page.

paulojreis 11y ago

I haven't read everything in detail, but this reminded me of the API developed for modal dialogs. It ended like this: https://dev.opera.com/blog/showmodaldialog/ https://dev.opera.com/blog/showmodaldialog/ Both the ideas seem good, but it's hard to not think about "Embrace, extend and extinguish".

pvg 11y ago
The sidebar API is for chrome extensions, not web pages. They're probably not extending their own API in order to extinguish it.
- paulojreis 11y ago
  You're right. I haven't noticed that the API was "chrome.sidebar".

Kartificial 11y ago

Important part here: "Does this API expose any functionality to the web?" "No"

collyw 11y ago

I remember all the fuss that was made about a sidebar in Windows (was it in Vista?) At the end of the day its just a souped up menu in a different position.

ohaal 11y ago

In the comments so far, there seems to be some confusion on what this is. The Chrome Sidebar API is an API for Chrome extensions, adding a sidebar surface to Chrome. The proposed API allows Chrome extensions to access and control a sidebar panel - a per-tab split-pane HTML container to the right (to the left in RTL environment) of the main page content with the ability to resize horizontally.[1] In short, it provides extensions an alternative to using popups or injecting HTML directly into web pages in order to display something to the user. With it, you could for instance (re-)implement something like the old Side Tabs feature, which was removed from Chrome because the complexity of a tree-style interface in terms of usage is beyond what most users need or want, and in terms of implementation is more than passes the cost/benefit test for building into Chrome natively as an option.[2] [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/102hfWTM5cMl-95PyfGcn89YHDTffBMMumLUBOnxLp0A/preview?sle=true https://docs.google.com/document/d/102hfWTM5cMl-95PyfGcn89YH... [2]: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=344870#c113 https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=344870#c...

smurfpandey 11y ago
We had a sidebar extension on Chrome called Teamgum[1]. But it was removed from store last month because we were using remote iframes. And when we asked for more explanation nothing from their end. And now I see they are developing there own sidebar. [1]: http://www.teamgum.com http://www.teamgum.com
bhilburn 11y ago
Awesome explanation. Thanks for sharing. It looks like Mozilla is making a new push with Firefox, as well, to attract devs back: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/big-changes-are-coming-to-firefox-to-win-back-users-and-developers/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/big-ch... If successful, it will be interesting to see how Chrome evolves for developers to compete. (I was reminded of this because the Firefox sidebar was always wildly popular - I know lots of people that continue to use it specifically for that purpose)

eloisant 11y ago

It's funny, in the golden age of Firefox extensions sidebars where very popular, and when Chrome released without one people where complaining. The response was that a popup that appears when you click a toolbar button was enough. It's funny to see they're going to release one now that nobody cares about it.

ionforce 11y ago
It's that whole 80/20 thing. Most features of products go unused. So Chrome has finally reached a level of maturity where it can concentrate on rarely used features.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  Could be that some users are keeping and eye on Vivaldi. https://vivaldi.com/ https://vivaldi.com/
Gys 11y ago
I use Firefox by default with an add-on 'Vertical Tabs'. This moves all tabs away from the top into a narrow sidebar. Screens are more wide then tall and for me my vertical space is more valuable. Every line that holds only static info (address bar, open tabs) is not strictly needed at all times, so I want them either to popup (like the menu bar in full screen view) or at least move to the sides ('cheaper' space). I am somewhat surprised this is not more common opinion.
- malnourish 11y ago
  I use Tree Style Tabs as well. As you said, vertical space is a premium. Back in the day (and perhaps still), there were user chrome tweaks you could make to hide the address bar until you hover over it.
  - Retra 11y ago
    Vertical space is not really at a premium when it comes to viewing static documents under access to a scroll wheel. Why does the developer console open on the bottom, constraining your vertical space? Because there is such a dearth of horizontal space that that it would be uncomfortable to do otherwise. The reason things keep eating up vertical space is because that's the only space that's not at a premium.

jebblue 11y ago

It'a good idea, it reminds me of IE Bands, one of the few things I liked about IE: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc144099(v=vs.85).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc1...

vyrotek 11y ago

Finally! Our customers have been begging us to provide this for years. We build "Employee Engagement" (aka gamification) tools that extend various CRMs. Not all of them support a way to extend the UI but a sidebar would be perfect.

iolothebard 11y ago
Build an application.
- vyrotek 11y ago
  We currently have a free-floating chrome application which looks like a detached sidebar. The problem is our customers want to see it all the time and don't want it to go behind or on top of the browser. As far as I know, there's no good way to "dock" it to the side of a screen and prevent other applications from using that space.
- Wizzard666 11y ago
  h3 14ckz da zki11z
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

username3 11y ago

Is this going to make Sublime Text mini maps possible for webpages?

kuschku 11y ago
Yes. While they have been possible in Firefox since forever, they should now be possible in Chrome, too. Another idea is vertical tabs.
- degenerate 11y ago
  Is this the best one out there? https://github.com/diox/firefox-minimap-scroller https://github.com/diox/firefox-minimap-scroller

7952 11y ago

This would be great for messaging clients which are painful to use in tabs.

wooger 11y ago

Looks good, now they need a way to hide the existing tabs (and perhaps the addressbar too) and we can move to a nice slick side-tabs extension for Chrome.

ksk 11y ago

Relax guys, nobody is going to abuse this API!

nathanathan 11y ago

I've been working on a graphical command-line for manipulating webpages with natural language queries (https://contextscript.com https://contextscript.com). So far I've been using a bookmarklet, which has the benefit of working across browsers, but it has a lot of drawbacks too. If I go the browser extension route, this looks like it would be very useful for developing the UI.

curiousjorge 11y ago

thank god. I've been asking for this a long time and its finally making

dragthor 11y ago

Sounds like a mechanism for ads. (unfortunately)

ytdht 11y ago
nothing adblock plus can't handle, but that is what first came to my mind too.
jessaustin 11y ago
If the user installs an extension that delivers ads, then perhaps it is the user's intention to receive ads? Barring some kind of exploit, this won't be something that a website can do to you.

aarohmankad 11y ago

Does anyone know how Honey [1] implemented a sidebar like UI in their chrome extension? It seems pretty solid and I wonder how they got around the current limitations against Sidebars in chrome extensions. [1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpnenekpadlanbbkooimhnj?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpn...

highwind 11y ago
I think they just inject iframe into the actual DOM. It's not an UI element that's part of the browser.
- aarohmankad 11y ago
  alright thanks! The consensus seems to be injecting a sidebar div into the current page.

amk_ 11y ago

Opera recently sidebar extensions back in for the first time since the re-architecturing of a few years ago. That was a month ago and there are already quite a few extensions available: https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/?tag=sidebar&order=popular https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/?tag=sidebar&order=po.... Vivaldi, basically a modernized Opera 11/12, has supported some sidebar elements from the beginning. Since Opera and Vivaldi are both Chromium-based, it's not surprising to see sidebars getting into upstream.

ThomPete 11y ago

Finally! I have been waiting for this for a long long time.

reamworks 11y ago

tet

shwetank 11y ago

Opera already has support for Sidebar extensions, you can check it out here https://dev.opera.com/extensions/tut_sidebar_actions.html https://dev.opera.com/extensions/tut_sidebar_actions.html

iansilber 11y ago

Awesome. I built Intab (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/intab-beta/bfaekmalldododidalckpccilpcdefme?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/intab-beta/bfaekma...) but it's admittedly a bit hacky. Hoping this API will support the same use case in a much more stable way.

spdustin 11y ago

In reminded of : target="_search" Sure was a handy way to get a sidebar opened with a "mini" web app

ushi 11y ago

This could make the octotree[0] extension even more awesome. Let's see. [0] https://github.com/buunguyen/octotree https://github.com/buunguyen/octotree

hmhrex 11y ago
Never heard of this. Looks like a really cool project.