Possible Chrome Extension Dev with Sinatra? - ruby

I am trying to make a Chrome extension that shows information on the screen when a new tab is added, like Momentum and loads of other extensions. I was wondering if it was possible to run a Ruby Sinatra app in that window or if I would have to use JavaScript or some other language.

A chrome extension can only run javascript, but you could write a sinatra app and have the javascript access it.

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Can I use Firefox developer toolbar commands in my addon?

I am developing a Firefox addon for making fullpage screenshots of web pages. I know that several good addons that do this are already available, but we have some specific needs so I thought I would try to make my own.
I read that I can do screenshot --fullpage in the Firefox Developer Toolbar. This seems to works well. Can I also call this command from within my addon? If so, how would I go about that?

Firefox extension app hosted on server

I managed to create a Chrome extension pretty easy and the main application is hosted on my server allowing me to provide updates to the app itself without having to update the whole extension. I like the idea and I just want to know if it's possible to create a similar extension for Firefox where the main application is hosted on a live server.
In creating my Chrome extension, I followed a tutorial. The code for Chrome is included on the linked page.
It's possible to create a simple extension that loads a web app either in a panel or a tab. You should read up on the Addon SDK documentation, including the panel, tabs and getting started docs.
There is nothing wrong with this, as the web app would not have direct access to internal Firefox APIs. If you read the Addon guidelines closely that #makyen links to above, none of it covers this implementation detail. In their defence, they seem to have misinterpreted what you want to do. It looks to me like you just want to integrate / launch your web app from the browser UI?
Web application:
After finding the tutorial (please provide a link next time) I surmise you are referring to in your question, I suspect that what you are actually attempting to convey is different than how I initially interpreted your question. I have edited the question to make this more clear to people reading it in the future.
That tutorial is explaining how to place a link to a web application into the Chrome user interface. Such is, to a large extent, just a bookmark that is able to be placed within other areas of the user interface than the bookmarks bar.
If that is what you are wanting to do, then, yes, you can easily do so in Firefox. Given that the extension is not running external content in the security context of an extension (you are effectively just navigating to and displaying a website), then that should be fine as a Firefox extension. Note that you need to be sure that you are not granting elevated permissions when you launch the web application.
If running a web application is what you are wanting to do, then I suggest you might want to use different semantics to refer to what you are doing. The above is not a "Firefox extension app hosted on server". Saying it that way strongly implies that you are hosting the actual extension code on your own server. The rest of your question implies that the extension dynamically loads external code and runs it. I would suggest that you refer to it as something like: a web application that is launched (navigated to) by a Firefox extension allowing the web application to be started from an icon in the toolbar.
Extension running web sourced code:
However, if what you are wanting to do is have external content running as a Firefox extension, then implementing that functionality is a large security hole for anyone installing the extension. Even assuming that your intentions are totally benign, there is a huge security hole for anyone who is intercepting your traffic, or gains control of your server to inject code into Firefox that runs at the level of an extension (i.e. the malware can have full control of the browser and then of the computer).
Yes, it is currently possible for you to write this for Firefox.
However, given that the extension pulls code from something not packaged within the extension, the extension will never be permitted to be hosted on AMO.
In addition, the plan is that later this year there will be mandatory signing of Firefox extensions through Mozilla. I doubt that an extension like this will be permitted at that time.
You can read a set of Add-on guidelines on MDN.

Is it possible to create an iOS 8 sharing extension that opens the website in its app?

I'm building an app, and I was curious if there's a way to open the app when you're on the website through the iOS Safari extension. So, if I'm on a post I'd tap the app icon in the share sheet and I'd pass that to the app to load the post in the app.
I know the Bing app can translate the current website and inject directly into the DOM, so I was wondering what custom logic you can implement.
There's really no way to open the app from this kind of extension. Extensions can't access [UIApplication sharedApplication], so they can't call openURL:. There's an openURL:completionHandler: method on NSExtensionContext, but it only works in "today" extensions. Share extensions can display a fully custom UI and can save data that's available to their containing app, but they can't actually open that app.

Debugging tools/methods for phonegap blackberry app

Are there any tools/methods for debugging phonegap Blackberry(5,6,7) app . Presently am using Alert for debugging which is very tedious .
Since you are using PhoneGap, its always better to view/debug you app on a webkit browser like Chrome/Safari. Also try Ripple emulator from BlackBerry which is the best web emulator for mobile devices: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ripple-emulator-beta/geelfhphabnejjhdalkjhgipohgpdnoc?hl=en
Since you are developing a web app, and as far as I know there's no "official" IDE for BlackBerry Webworks, this question is not BB or Phonegap specific. You are just asking how to debug JavaScript. There are a lot of questions in SO about this, just run a search. I'll give you my two cents:
As the JavaScript code runs in a browser, you need to debug in the browser. Most browsers have built-in debugger or extensions. For Firefox I'd reccomend Firebug extension, in Chrome the built-in debugger is pretty good. I can't tell about IE but I think there's something similar.
If you need to debug on device, then use console instead of alert.
Finally, have a look at WebStorm. Probably the best IDE for JavaScript right now, but you need to purchase a license. It allows you to attach to the browser debugger and debug in the IDE.

Run Google Chrome or Firefox Windowless from the Command Line

I need to automate a task to pull down a set of web pages and process the HTML. Before someone suggests using wget or curl, I need some JS to execute to change the DOM.
I'd like to script Chrome or Firefox to fetch the HTML and render the JS without actually spawning a visual interface. I haven't been able to figure out how to do this.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Use Selenium RC.
Selenium Remote Control (RC) is a test tool that allows you to write
automated web application UI tests in any programming language against
any HTTP website using any mainstream JavaScript-enabled browser.

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