Writing Safari Extensions

JimInSanDiego

I am interested in trying my hand at writing some Safari extensions to add features like are available for Firefox.  I have found many websites with directions on writing extensions and even have followed some of them.    I learn by example or rather by dissecting other people's work.  I want to add some commands to the Safari Context Menu but cannot find any examples of how to do it.  Does anyone know:

Q1:  Do I have to be a registered Apple developer in order to play around with writing extensions just for my personal use?

I have read there are free developer registrations for people like me who want to dabble a bit but I can only find the page where I have to register for $99 a year.  That's too much for me to just "dabble around."

Q2:  Can anyone point me to the page where I can register free of charge?

Q3:  Does anyone know of any Safari and/or Safari Extension User Groups or a website with samples I could dissect or a website by a Safari Guru?

Thanks all,

James

tallest skil

I'm almost certain that you can build anything you want for yourself for free. Here's your starting point for the development of extensions.

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/NetworkingInternetWeb/Conceptual/SafariAppExtension_PG/index.html

Marvin

JimInSanDiego said:

I am interested in trying my hand at writing some Safari extensions to add features like are available for Firefox.  I have found many websites with directions on writing extensions and even have followed some of them.    I learn by example or rather by dissecting other people's work.  I want to add some commands to the Safari Context Menu but cannot find any examples of how to do it.  Does anyone know:

Q1:  Do I have to be a registered Apple developer in order to play around with writing extensions just for my personal use?

I have read there are free developer registrations for people like me who want to dabble a bit but I can only find the page where I have to register for $99 a year.  That's too much for me to just "dabble around."

You don't have to pay to develop and test the extensions but Safari will remove the extension when quit if it's not signed and you have to install it again. From looking around online, it seems Apple used to give out certificates for free until they merged it into the main developer program sometime in 2015 so you'd need to pay $99/year to keep the extension from being removed on quitting Safari ( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/10/apple_charges_safari_extension_devs_for_adp/ ). If you leave the browser open you won't have to keep reinstalling the extension.

The guide for contextual menu support is here:

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Tools/Conceptual/SafariExtensionGuide/AddingContextualMenuItems/AddingContextualMenuItems.html

There's a tutorial for creating a basic extension here (this is an older tutorial where they say signing up is free):

https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-safari-extension-from-scratch--net-15050

Here's another extension with source code on the github site:

http://pratikabu.users.sourceforge.net/extensions/scrolltotop/