Google Chrome Plugins and Themes

Hello everyone !

Here is my first Chrome Extension, CustomNewTab !

This little extension will allow you to customize Chrome's default new tab.

Features :

• Display/Hide the most visited speed dial.
• Display/Hide the quick searches boxes.
• Display/Hide the recent bookmarks box.
• Display/Hide the recently closed tabs box.
• Use a whole other page instead of the default new tab.
• Insert another page as a frame inside your New Tab page.

Here is a screen shot of that last feature

Installation information :

Since extensions are still working only with Chrome 2.0+, you will need use the latest dev version of Chrome.
To change channel, see here.

Then, you need to download CustomNewTab.zip and extract it to any folder you like. Let's say C:\ChromeExtension.

Create a shortcut to chrome.exe.
Right click on that shortcut, go to properties.
Under "target", make sure you have

"YOUR_CHROME_EXE_PATH" --enable-extensions --load-extension="C:\ChromeExtension"

Of course, replace "C:\ChromeExtension" with the folder where you extracted the manifest.json and the custom_new_tab.js.

You can verify if everything is correctly installed by restarting Chrome.. then,
navigate to chrome-ui://extensions/ (simply paste it in your address bar) and you should see CustomNewTab there.

Now for the fun part !

Customizing your New Tab :

Right now, if everything is working as planned, your plugin is installed.. but your new tab will still be the same !
That is simply because you haven't customized it yet.

To do this, you need to go to your "C:\ChromeExtension" folder (or any other folder where you extracted the extension) and open with any text editor "custom_new_tab.js".

In there, there is a section with different variables which you can change.
More detailed instructions are offered inside the file.

Let's say you want to remove the Most Visited section of the new tab and use http://www.google.com inside a frame in your new tab.

You simply have to follow these (very) simple steps :

1. find the "HIDE_MOST_VISITED" option.
2. Modify it's value from false to true.
3. Find the "DISPLAY_ANOTHER_PAGE_INSTEAD" variable.
4. Modify it's value from 0 to 2.
5. Find the "PAGE_TO_DISPLAY_URL" variable.
6. Change it's value to "http://www.google.com/".
7. Save.
8. Open a new tab ! (no need to restart Chrome)

If you have any question or would like to see some new features, feel free to request them here or send me an email at " GuiSim@Gmail.com ".

Also, if there are any bugs, please tell me and I will do my best to fix them !

The code is released under GPL.


Thanks / Comments / Flames appreciated !

EDIT : Also, this extension could easily be a user script. If someone feels like doing a little conversion, feel free to do so.
I might do it myself if someone asks.

EDIT 2 : Version 0.3 -> Modified the option variables.

Perhaps its just me (and not wanting to put a downer on what has obviously been a lot of work)...

But the majority of posts about the New Tab have all been about not displaying it with the Most Visited displayed, in particular a blank page was the expressed preference ...

So I guess what I'm asking is, where is the mileage in this extension

Here are some more screenshots :





These are some of the configurations that you can have with customNewTab.

No problem ! It's my first extension after all

CustomNewTab can do that, you can easily set a blank page ( as you can see in the screenshots i posted ).

You can also set a totally different web page. If you want your igoogle, your own safari speed dial, your google finance page..
Any web page you can simply get it, either as a whole page when you create a new tab, or as a frame inside your customized new tab.

I hope that helps you see a little more uses for this extension .

Please if you have any suggestions of things you'd like to see, post them .

Wow, I'm supprised the custom new tab worked and the NospeedDial and the adsweep didn't work. But it works great, so you deserve a pat on the back

There is a new version out Chrome Dev 2.0.174.0 which allows you to edit the thumbnails in "New Tab"

I like the features that the extension provides! Unbelievable for your first extension!

__________________

The new version of Chrome only allows you to delete thumbnails, actually it's pretty c***

Just a thought ...

Could you write a little batch program like Waha did for Extension manager

http://www.chromeplugins.org/google/....html#post8374

Would save having to manually edit and save ...

Just to make sure i understand what you need..

You'd like me to create a .bat that would allow you to modify the JS via a simple command interface ?

Instead of double clicking on the .JS, double click on the .BAT and go through a DOS menu ?