Tutorial: How to Build One Browser Extension that works in several Modern Browsers

Earlier today over on SuperSite: Windows I wrote about the 35 browser extensions that are now available in the Windows Store for Microsoft Edge.

When you consider that extension compatibility was added to Microsoft Edge with the release of last year's Anniversary Update for Windows 10 - adding 35 extensions over the course of 10 months is not breaking any records. The lack of extensions could also be a very real reason why Microsoft Edge adoption is not very high despite the fact it is the default web browser in Windows 10.

Right now, as I also wrote about over on SuperSIte: Windows back in December, there is no option for public submission via the Windows Store for Microsoft Edge extensions.

While the addition of 12 new extensions over the last 90 days is a real growth spurt for the collection - the overall average since last July is just 3.5 extensions per month - really slow overall.

However, at some point Microsoft is going to open this process up so that all browser extension developers can submit new ones to the Windows Store so why not get out ahead of things and diversify your portfolio at the same time?

This tutorial over on Smashing Magazine by David Rousset will show you how you can create a browser extension that will work on most modern browsers such as Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Brave, and Vivaldi however, it does not work with Safari.

He also shows how to connect to several Microsoft services and then how to use the shared code of the extension to add browser specific options for each of the different browsers.

It is an extensive tutorial as you might expect considering it covers so many different options for the browsers mentioned above.

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