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gitgoogle-chromegoogle-chrome-extensiongoogle-cloud-shell

Run chrome extension from Google Cloud Shell


i just started a chrome extension project. We want to use Google Cloud Source for our git Repository and Goggle Cloud Shell for programming.

Before i added the extension simply by adding the local source folder of my extension from my desktop.

Now I have it all in Google Cloud Source and not locally anymore. How would i select the extension in chrome://extensions/ in order to run the extension or how could I run the extension from Google Cloud Shell directly?

As it is all in git online and I have no local repository I have no folder to select..

Does anyone know how to do that?


Solution

  • As you fully realize, Chrome is a rich UI application that shows a GUI interface that implements a browser. This means that wherever you actually run Chrome, there must be a way to present a rich UI to the user. The Cloud Shell provides a small virtual machine through which you are presented with a "shell". This is sufficient for terminal interaction and submitting Linux commands. The way one interacts with Cloud Shell is through a browser. It is not possible to run commands which themselves expect to provide rich UI through a graphics driver. This includes Chrome.

    If your end goal is to perform remote development and want a GUI platform, you can create a Compute Engine instance. This can also be as small as you like including the micro versions. Once the Compute Engine environment is running, you will find that you also have an external IP address you can use as a target over the Internet. Now you can use VNC to connect from your desktop or chrome browser to a VNC server that you can install on the Compute Engine and this will give you a desktop UI to your remote machine. You can now install Chrome and you have everything you need to run Chrome on the remote machine as well as see the GUI of your chrome environment.