QuickOWL

Chrome browser extension to quickly open web links, using custom browser contextmenu defined by the user, with selected text as input.

Where QuickOWL can help:
When we regularly copy text from different articles/pages in browser and paste in [ANOTHER_WEB_PAGE] and perform search.

Here [ANOTHER_WEB_PAGE] can be:
1. Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=)
2. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=)
3. Bug tracking page in work (https://jira..com/jira/browse/)
4. Google Translate (https://translate.google.com/?tl=en&text=)


In order to add custom context menu named "Search with Google Scholar" the user need to add following details in QuickOWL:
[Enter Display Name] -> Search Google Scholar
[URL before selected text] -> https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=

Once added, select a text from any page in Chrome browser and right click, the user can see "QuickOWL -> Search Google Scholar" context menu. If no text is selected QuickOWL context menu won't be displayed. So, the requirement is to select a text to activate QuickOWL custom context menu.


Following sample data can be downloaded, and imported into QuickOWL:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ab5pqjy4vgymDDlM3QgE1bfx7t8W8S2u/view?usp=sharing


Why yet another custom context menu search extension?
1. QuickOWL uses manifest v3 guidelines of Chrome Extension development, which means it has longer shelf life
2. Uses least amount of privileges required:
2.1. storage - required to store the user defined context menu URLs
2.2. unlimitedStorage - to allow cumulative storage for the extension to expand beyond 5MB
2.3. contextMenus - required to add custom user defined URL entries in Chrome's context menu
2.4. downloads - required to export current list of user defined URLs for the extension as .txt file
3. Provides necessary alert messages to user to make it easy for the user to understand what is working and what is not
4. Provides simplified Extension Options page to manage addition/deletion of custom context menu URLs
5. Light weight by design, the Options page of extension uses only the required html & javascript to achieve the tasks. No heavy weight third party library is being imported. It's developed in pure HTML, CSS & Javascript.
6. Features detailed Help page to make it easy to understand about the functionality of the extension


Privacy:
1. Though after installing the Permissions in Extension page says "Read your browsing history", it doesn't actually do any reading of browsing history. The extension focuses on sending the selected text to the user defined context menu URLs. No extra reading, no background activities.
2. Currently the extension supports storage locally (https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/storage/#property-local) in browser, there is no option to sync the data across chrome browsers (using Google account). One of the main intentions behind this is: to keep the user data local, even by mistake the data should not be synced in Google.


Release 0.3.1
1. Fixed bug in validation during save changes
2. Replaced

---

with ################ as separator to avoid javascript error during drag and drop, this occurs because

---

parent element is body itself, which causes problems
3. Added more instructions in help section for Add Separator


Release 0.3.0
1. Fixed issue in missing options.js error causing the breakage of the extension


Release 0.2.9
1. Support for adding separator to easily group options in QuickOWL contextmenu
2. Added little writeup for Add URL & Add Separator in Help section
3. Added basic validation for URL before selected text


Release 0.2.8
1. Updated the .csv based file export & import to use .txt format, because the .csv file exported with separator as pipe symbol | gets updated to use comma , when edited in .csv editors (like Microsoft Excel). Once the .csv file separator gets updated to comma, further import from that .csv file fails. So, now the .txt format has been made as defacto format for export and import.
2. Help section has been updated about the usage of .txt file instead of .csv file
3. An example on sample data of .txt file with separator as pipe | symbol has been added in Import URLs section
4. Font size has been updated to use 1 rem instead of 14px
5. Font family has been updated to use system fonts, based on an article from Hacker News (https://systemfontstack.com/)
6. Extension title summary has been enhanced to refer to multiple web links
7. Added a note on "Save Changes" button usage in case of "Add URL" & "Delete Selected URLs"


Release 0.2.7
1. Changed the order of appearance of help section, to make it easy for users to copy paste sample inputs into the text fields
2. Enhanced the content of help section
3. Fixed unintended CSS styling for regular tables


Release 0.2.6
1. Ironed out font settings across html pages of the extension
2. Disabled logging of outputs in browser console using condition, the reasoning behind this to help develpers who regularly use browser console to diagnose issues. The output from QuickOWL extension may pollute the console.
3. Fixed grammatical mistakes in options page
4. Removed unused host permissions
5. Fixed issue with clearing all URLs
6. Fixed issue with number regex which earlier didn't allow decimal points


Release 0.2.5
1. Improved the content of store listing
2. Improved the extension icon popup content
3. Added sample data URL as part of Webstore listing main content
4. Updated the Screenshots to reflect the new icon


Release 0.2.4
1. Removed background color for help section
2. Reduced the font size little bit to make the content fit within the screen and easy to read
3. Changed the icon for the extension, to make it standout while getting listed in Chrome Webstore


Release 0.2.3
1. Support for importing exported URLs (please note the supported file type is .csv where the separator is vertical bar | instead of comm ,). Users can try importing the following document to understand how import works: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e9D_m7Ob3uSq7VJHSIrsDMXC-0Zd6zXi/view?usp=sharing
2. The help section has been improved with better wording to ease the understanding
3. The font size has been increased to improve the readability
4. The ID calculation logic is fixed to honour the last maximum value


Release 0.2.2
1. Updated the information about extension to better explain about the functionality and permissions
2. Refined the alert messages displayed in extension Options page


Release 0.2.1
1. Major changes in the Extension implementation & features.
2. Now Extension options supports re-ordering/arranging of URLs. This can be achieved by dragging the table row and dropping it in required position.
3. Also, the contents in the Extension Options page table can be updated by just clicking on the content and making the change.
4. Post making a change or re-ordering of URLs, it is mandatory to click on "Save Changes" button to persist the changes.
5. Help section is updated to reflect the new additions. And also section on restrictions to use single & double quotes, vertical bars in the input.
6. Removed tabs permission, from manifest.json, which is not required to use chrome.tabs.create function. So, the extension now uses one less permission.


Release 0.1.2
1. Added help section to make it easier to understand the functionalities offered by this extension
2. Made the input text fields expanded for easy readability of URL being added
3. Allow export of list of URLs to .csv file


Release 0.1.1
Update to ask confirm dialog when user clicks on "Clear All URLs" button. This is to avoid accidental deletion of all the data.


Release 0.1.0
First release, working extension.


Though enough testing has been done, there are chances for few real-time bugs. Requesting users to report the issues as and when they see them.


Thanks:
Special thanks to user @woXXom (https://stackoverflow.com/users/3959875/woxxom) who has helped to resolve some of the blocking issues while developing this extension.