V2 manifest code installing - CameronD73/529renew GitHub Wiki

It is no longer possible to supply a manifest V2 extension to the Chrome store.

This is the only way I am aware of - installing an extension in developer mode. In doing so you are installing code directly from here, with no vetting by the Chrome Store.

Download the extension package zip file named 529renew-interim-V2.zip.

Getting Version 2 working copy

The manifest version 2 code is a minimal change from the original 529andYou extension. It includes:

  • modifications to the original code that was released in the public domain.
  • a copy from 2013 of the 3rd party FileSaver.js code under an MIT licence.
  • new image logos in png format, as the original logos were explicitly excluded from the public domain licence.

modifications from original

The code was unpacked from the 529andYou extension, version 3.3.0, and then modified somewhat.

  • The image/icon files did not have a licence permitting reuse, so I created another set, obviously different but not too dissimilar
  • rewrote code to get triangulation segments to introduce a delay between each request
  • base-pair addresses are no longer rounded (you can edit the code to return to previous behaviour of rounding to 1 million)
  • centimorgan values round to 2 decimal places.
  • save to CSV always includes the 23 and me ID code (using shift when you click now makes no difference)

Installation

These notes were developed under Windows-10. I don't know about MacOS.

create a new browser profile

This is_ highly recommended_ - it will isolate the extension completely from all other extensions and your personal data in your normal profile. It will also reduce the chance of any conflicts between this version of the code and the original 529andYou code.

  • click on profile icon and add profile
  • avoid any steps of creating new accounts (Google or Microsoft)
  • choose a colour scheme to make it clear it is not your normal profile.
  • You should rename the profile to something useful, like "529interim", Click on profile icon to customize profile, then in Chrome use the pencil icon to "customize profile"; in Edge ->"manage profile settings" then the 3 dots near "sign in.." to edit settings

install extension

  • unzip the V2 extension into a folder
  • go to settings-> extensions in your browser. fastest way to to just type chrome://extensions/ edge://extensions/ into the address bar.
  • enable "developer mode"
  • find the "load unpacked" button
  • locate the folder you have just unpacked and select it.
  • you should see the alert popup saying it has created a new 529 database.
  • the extension info will report "errors" - clicking on "Errors" should tell you only that manifest V2 is deprecated. Feel free to clear or ignore that error.
  • Note: the info box for the extension will show a random string of letters as the extension's ID. Take a note of this, as it will appear later in the folder name for the database.

copy over old database.

  • the new version has no access to the old database, so you need to locate them and copy over

  • Have both browser profiles open (the one where the original 529andYou extension was installed as well as the new one.)

  • type chrome://version or edge://version in your address bar, and you should see, a few lines down "Profile path"

  • The last folder in this path will be either "Default" or "Profile 1" or some other number. Note that the _number _might be on the following line.

  • Copy and paste the two paths into a text file to use later

  • shut down all copies of your browser to ensure the DB files are not locked.

  • paste the first path into a windows explorer address bar and press enter, for example...

  • from there, browse to a folder named databases and under that look for a folder containing the database. Often there is only one.

  • it is NOT Databases.db (that is a database listing information about all the databases used in this profile.

  • for the original extension the folder will be named chrome-extension_nekcpognkifhchlmgddjajmaiplidfhn_0

  • for the interim copy you have just installed it will be something similar but that last part will be randomly different

  • the database itself will be in that folder and named simply with a number and no extension, quite likely it will be just "1" or "2"

  • the newly created empty database file should be 60kB in size, while your working version is likely to be some to many MB depending how long you have been collecting data.

  • Having identified the old database file, copy it somewhere safe. And make a backup.

  • Now you need to copy the big database file over the top of the newly created one. The database file needs to end up in the new profile and have the same name as the freshly created one, which is almost certainly "1".

After all this, you should be able to browse to 23 and me, relatives page, pick a match, and open the page to export a csv file.

in case of problems

The only critical part is saving your old db file. If something goes wrong with the new one then you can simply remove the extension, restart browser and add it in again to recreate a blank database. (This time it might be named "2").