Confused about starting the browser

[stevebeauge]

I'd like to start the Microsoft Edge Chromium when running pnpm run dev.

The page https://vite-plugin-web-extension.aklinker1.io/guide/configure-browser-startup.html is quite obscure. There's no details regarding the options, and the linked page which targets the source code of webext does not help much.

How should I setup a webextrc.json file to start ms edge?

FYI, I tried using webextrc.json like this:

{
    "target" : "chromium",
    "chromium-binary": "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge\\Application\\msedge.exe",
    "args" : "--profile-directory=\"Profile 2\""
}

But when I run pnpm run dev it fails with:

message: 'No Chrome installations found.',
code: 'ERR_LAUNCHER_NOT_INSTALLED'

Thanks

[stevebeauge]

A bit of progress:

1. The filename is .webextrc.json and not webextrc.json
2. the option chromium-binary is incorrect and should be chromiumBinary
3. args should be an array, not a string

The fixed file is:

{
    "target": "chromium",
    "chromiumBinary": "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge\\Application\\msedge.exe",
    "args": [
        "--profile-directory=\"Profile 2\""
    ]
}

However, it's still not working. Edge is launching, but an error is throw (cannot load profile)

[aklinker1]

web-ext doesn't provide any docs for their JS API, and I'm not going to maintain a separate list. Right now, the webExtConfig docs has a link to the options, but you're right, I don't ellaborate on how to find them.

The best thing I've found is to look at the CLI flags available for web-ext run, and convert them from kebab-case to camelCase.

In your case:

1. You're not escaping the C:\\ correctly, it should be C:\\\\ to result in two forward slashes. Personally, I prefer YAML (.webextrc.yml) to avoid these mistakes
2. Target defaults to chromium, so you can remove that.
3. There's a separate CLI flag for selecting a profile. Use that instead of args.

{
  "chromiumBinary": "C:\\\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge\\Application\\msedge.exe",
  "chromiumProfile": "C:\\\\full\\path\\to\\Profile 2",
}

Or in YAML:

chromiumBinary: C:\\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe
chromiumProfile: C:\\full\path\to\Profile 2

I'll update the docs!

[aklinker1]

New docs:

• PR: docs: Clearify the browser startup guide #110
• Preview: https://vite-plugin-web-extension-docs-1scmnez75-aklinker1.vercel.app/guide/configure-browser-startup.html

@stevebeauge Let me know if you have any feedback, or I'll merge the PR in the next few days.

[stevebeauge]

Thanks !

The update clarifies a lot how to construct the file.