Viewing the code of Google Chrome extension written by others

Very boring. Want to do something…. After thinking for long time, decided to create extension for Google Chrome browser. But how to create an extension?? Very easy.. Google It. After skimming through their developers website I found that it is not much to do with programming. Just JSON and HTML (including JavaScript). In this post I’m not going to tell how to create an extension because already many tutorials are available  in the web. I’m going to tell now to view the extensions written by others.

Task : Viewing the code of Google Chrome extension written by others

OS : Windows 7 Home Premium

Google Chrome browser version: 23.0.1271.97 m

Step 1: Set your folder options so that you can see hidden folders.

Step 2: Navigate to

C:\Users\{User name}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions

Note : There may be some minor change in the location of the folder in other OS of  Windows. Have no idea for Mac and Linux.

Step 3: There you can see many folders(if you have installed extensions). Each folder represents an extension. The extension ID is used as the folder name.

Step 4: In Google Chrome go to the settings page. In the side bar, select “Extensions”. It displays the list of installed extensions. Now check the “Developer Mode” option to view the ID of each extension.

Step 5: That’s it!! Now using the ID of the extension for which you want to view the code, you can select the folder.

Its always better to learn from others coding.