WebExtension makes **go-ipfs** full ipfs core api (interface-core-api) available in the browser

[flyingzumwalt]

depends on #11

Web extension makes go-ipfs protocol (interface-core-api) available in the browser through window.ipfs

• uses js-ipfs-api to talk with the node
• using the core api vs relying on the gateway should be disabled/enabled by toggling a "Redirect-URLs" option true or false
• disable by default

[haadcode]

Started looking into this with the idea that js-ipfs-api is packaged with the extension and exposed to window.ipfs.

• Including it in the extension is trivial, just npm install ipfs-api and add the dist build to the manifest.json's background.scripts field
• We currently build js-ipfs-api to attach to window.IpfsApi. This should be easy to fix/workaround.
• The next step is where I hit a blocker: try to talk to the go-ipfs node via js-ipfs-api is blocked by Content Security Policy.
  • https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/manifest.json/content_security_policy
  • https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Content_Security_Policy
  • "The only permitted schemes for sources are: blob:, filesystem:, moz-extension:, and https:." and "Firefox does not support: "http://127.0.0.1" or "http://localhost" as script sources: they must be served over HTTPS."

What I take from this is that we can't make js-ipfs-api work from the webextension using http://localhost:5001 to communicate with the go-ipfs node like we normally do. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Next: I'll try other ways to include it.

[victorb]

@haadcode I think @whyrusleeping started with using what we discussed in the last call, Native Messaging via stdin/stdout. We would have a layer in between the daemon and the extension that would pass json of some sort via stdin/stdout. https://github.com/whyrusleeping/ipfs-webext

[haadcode]

We might be able to apply the same structure here to expose js-ipfs-api as @victorbjelkholm did in #42 (comment). We'd need that layer in-between, perhaps we could even replace the fetch request in js-ipfs-api with the stdin/out request.

[flyingzumwalt]

@haadcode @victorbjelkholm have we made any progress on this? will we be able to close it out tomorrow and demo on Monday?

[lidel]

Delivered in ipfs/ipfs-companion#330 👍