Skip Chrome Web Store Review With Remote Config

Publishing updates to our browser plugins without waiting for the chrome web store to review them. Part 1: Remote configuration.

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Publishing updates to our browser plugins without waiting for the chrome web store to review them.

Part 1: Remote configuration.

Let's say that we have a Gmail chrome extension that highlights emails most likely to be Spam.

More specifically, it changes the styles of each row of the Gmail view.

Our add-on needs to know the css selector behind that row to find it.

If we hard-code that selector inside of the chrome extension package, and Gmail changes in the future - we will have to re-submit our extension for review.

Even if the change is a few lines of code - it still may take several days for them to approve it.

But, if we store this configuration file on a remote server, even something as simple as Firebase hosting, or a google cloud bucket - then we can update that file whenever Gmail changes.

Our extension will fetch the new configuration and the issue will be fixed immediately, without having to wait for web store approval.

You can learn more about this technique from the official Google Chrome Extnesion Development Docs: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/develop/migrate/improve-security#configuration-drive