#67 - Sync extension settings between browsers

sprightly commented on Jul 22, 2022

Hello. Thank you very much for the great extension! Awesome work! Will be good to save settings in https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/storage, to be able to have configured extension in new browser with help of Chrome sync.

shridhar-tl commented on Sep 04, 2019

Hi @sprightly , This is something I am planning for in near future. Will keep you posted once I have a timelines. I also think of a way to share it across multiple browsers like Firefox, chrome, etc. Any suggestions for that is also welcome.

shridhar-tl commented on Jul 11, 2021

Hi All, Chrome's sync storage limits are too low and it is not possible for this extension to use the Chrome's inbuilt option available. See the docs for limit: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/storage/#property-sync.

That being said, it becomes necessary for me to look into other third party options to store this data. This involves various other concerns like Chrome Webstore's Privacy Policy guidelines, availability of free services, and most importantly, if users and their company are happy with it.

When it comes to free thirdparty services, one of the free options available is Google Drive itself. But unfortunately, in most of the companies, access to google drive's API's are restricted. Hence this is not a widely acceptable option.

Any suggestions on secured and reliyable pluse free options are welcome.

shridhar-tl commented on Jul 22, 2022

Hi All As part of #221 I am working on a major refactoring. Once this refactoring is done, I would be working on Backup feature first and then Sync feature.

Backup feature would be raw JSON export as of now and would enhance it in future based on popularity.

For sync feature I was looking for an option which meets all the following needs:

1. Should be able to access the data through API call from all the browsers.
2. Should be able to compare and sync only differential data.
3. Control of data should remain with users itself and developers should not have any control / responsibility of securing the data.
4. Should be a free option so that no additional expenses incur for the developers or users.

Options found:

• Dexie cloud storage - https://dexie.org/cloud/docs/consistency
  • Pros: Free for ever (1 user), easy integration with JA
  • Cons: Not yet live, unsure if individuals can create account and use it by them self. Need more analysis.
• Using JSONBin.io (10K requests free): https://jsonbin.io/login
  • Pros: Individual users can signup and they can manage their account.
  • Cons: In average around 600 sync can be done with this 10K requests as multiple requests would be required for each sync. Only 10K requests are free, after which user will have to either pay or as a workaround create new account and shift to it.
• Using GDrive:
  • Pros: Free, No limitations (that JA can exhaust) on storage and almost all the users should already have a Gmail account. Hence this may not need any newsignup from users.
  • Cons: Users may not be willing to integrate GDrive with JA as they may be conserned about privacy. Some of the organizations might have blocked access to GDrive and so users may not be able to choose this option. This is built for file storage and so its a tedious work for developers to implement sync feature.
• Using other storage options like OneDrive, DropBox, etc.
  • Pros and Cons are same as GDrive.