Manifest V3: webRequestBlocking and ExtensionInstallForcelist

[Don Schmitt]

I'm trying to understand the comment about being allowed to use webRequestBlocking for extensions installed with ExtensionInstallForcelist (here:  https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/migrating_to_manifest_v3#api_checklist ).

Our extension  listing is installed by users directly from the web store AND using the ExtensionInstallForcelist policy.

Does the comment on that page mean:

1) The extension can still request the webRequestBlocking permission but that feature will only work at runtime if the extension is installed with ExtensionInstallForcelist?

- or -

2) An extension requesting webRequestBlocking will fail to install at all if it is not installed with ExtensionInstallForcelist? 

I think pretty clearly number (1) would be preferable.  Because if it's number (2) then we'd have to create and maintain a separate listing and manage communication with users about which one is which (ugh!).

[Aaron Quade]

I think that mapping it directly to the ExtensionInstallForcelist is going to make development and testing painful. It really needs to be mapped to a separate policy or managed in a different way. There are plenty of use cases where the extension needs to work as expected without being force installed. I've created a bug try and get some more traction.

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1032051

[Simeon Vincent]

My understanding is that #1 is correct. "The extension can still request the webRequestBlocking permission but that feature will only work at runtime if the extension is installed with ExtensionInstallForcelist".

I think that mapping it directly to the ExtensionInstallForcelist is going to make development and testing painful.

I believe this is already the case with enterprise-focused APIs such as chrome.enterprise.deviceAttributes. Thanks for the bug. I'm hoping this will get some good conversations started.

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

[KARISHMA SINGH]

By referring the https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/migrating_to_manifest_v3#api_checklist, I believe that #1 (Extension can still request the webRequestBlocking permission) should work if the extension is installed with ExtensionInstallForcelist while using manifest v3. And we should be able to test/validate the manifest v3 changes in Chrome Canary Channel. I have installed the Chrome Canary channel on Chromebook.

To test the webRequest API with manifest v3, I need to publish the extension. So that I can force install the extension to a Chromebook from google's admin console. I am getting an error while publishing the extension with manifest version "3": "Upload Failed. Manifest version 3 is unsupported." 

My question is: How to test/validate the webRequest API with manifest v3 ?