A Chrome extension that trigers other extension via hotkeys.

For security reasons, extensions in Chrome cannot be triggered programatically, you need to phiscally click on them. This creates a major problem for purposes of web scrapping.

In our specific case, we want to perform a meta-analysis of the scientific literature, and thus want papers to be loaded directly into zotero on any given search. Since we have thousands of keywords to search, doing it manually is a no go.

Here we provide a chrome extension that allows calling an extension via a simulation of pressing the hot hotkeys taht call the given extension. The app loads automatically on any new page.

Download this repository as a Zip file, and unzip it in your computer.

Install Host App

• Go into the folder host_app, and run native_host
• Go into the folder host_app, and double click on install_host
• Go to Chrome and Open the extensions page in your browser: chrome://extensions.
• If you did not do it already, toggle the "developer mode". This is usually a toggle button at the top right of the extensions page.
• Click the button load unpacked extension.
• In the window that pops up, select the folder that contains the HotKey extension , AutoLoadExt, then click ok.
• Upom clicking on the app, you can manually set any hotkeys that trigger other extensions.
• Done! This extension will be called automatically upon loading any future page, and simulate the pressing of hotkeys used to open any other extension.

To modify the hotkeys for the app you want to open, simply press the Hotkey extension, enter the set of keys that trigger the other extension, click save.

Generally, chrome extensions cannot call or access other extensions. Only self-developed extensions can communicate in the form of sending and receiving notifications. To solve this problem, we used an auxiliary program that supports extension. This cannot be realized with only general extension development technology and can be solved only with low-level technics such as operating system, Windows API, and C/C++.

This project was not done by me, owner of this repository, but hire a developer to do it. If in interest for further develop it, contact him directly.

phone number: +381611114128

email: [email protected]