Web-eID WebExtension

The Web eID extension for the Chrome, Edge and Firefox web browsers is built using the WebExtensions API, a cross-browser system for developing extensions. The extension communicates with the Web eID native application using Native messaging. Native messaging enables an extension to exchange messages with a native application installed on the user's computer to enable the extension to access resources that are not accessible through WebExtension APIs, like the smart card subsystem.

The Web eID extension for Safari is built as a Safari web extension. The source code of the Safari extension is in the web-eid-app GitHub repository, in the src/mac subdirectory, as it uses native code written in Objective-C that links with web-eid-app code. The JavaScript layer of the Web eID Safari extension comes from the current WebExtension repository though. See the Safari extension overview in the web-eid-app README for more details.

Setup (for developers/testers)

1. Install the latest LTS version of Node.js - https://nodejs.org

2. Clone the project

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/web-eid/web-eid-webextension.git

3. Install dependencies

   cd web-eid-webextension
   npm install

4. Build the project with zip packages

   npm run clean build package

   For reproducible builds, set the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable.
   See https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/source-date-epoch for details.

   SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=$(git log -1 --pretty=%ct) npm run clean build package

   Alternatively, for reproducible builds, the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH value can be taken from the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH file of a previous build.

   SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=$(cat ../previous-build/dist/firefox/SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH) npm run clean build package

   For backwards compatibility with TokenSigning API, set the TOKEN_SIGNING_BACKWARDS_COMPATIBILITY environment variable to true.

   TOKEN_SIGNING_BACKWARDS_COMPATIBILITY=true npm run clean build package

   During development, for additional logging, set the DEBUG environment variable to true.

   DEBUG=true npm run clean build package

5. Load in Firefox as a Temporary Extension

   1. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
   2. Click "Load temporary Add-on..." and open /web-eid-webextension/dist/manifest.json

Configuration

Make sure the NATIVE_APP_NAME value in src/config.ts matches the one in the Web-eID native application manifest file.