How to reload a chrome extension automatically? [duplicate]

Answer 1

I have to reveal this because it is little bit more boiled down for dummies (->miself) than gkalpak's solution but is based on that. This uses a plain bookmark to reload Chrome extension. As prerequisite an Apache is running at port 80.

1. Create a bookmark at bookmark bar with real functioning localhost url: 'http://localhost/subdir/reload_dummy.php'. That php file was empty. You can change the url to be any valid url on the web to match your need.

2. Add webRequest permission item to manifest.json:

   "permissions":[ "webRequest","tabs"],

Then copy some code to background.js:

var reloadURL = 'http://localhost/subdir/reload_dummy.php';
var cbBeforeRequest = function (info) {

    if (info.url === reloadURL) {
          chrome.runtime.reload();
           alert("HiiHaa!:" + info.url);
    }

}
var filters = {urls: [reloadURL]};
chrome.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener(cbBeforeRequest, filters);