Launch a Chrome app from command line

Question

I can't find how to launch a chrome app from a bash ?

I'm trying to achieve this with Postman.

From google-chrome -h, I tried (unfortunately) those ones :

$ google-chrome --app="Postman"
$ google-chrome --extension="postman"

The result is that a new blank window is opened.

My first guess is the app is stored on my machine and I need to open a specific file (the app index) to launch it.

Is it possible to achieve this ?

And if it's possible, how to do ?

Solution 1

Answered thanks to @JacobVlijm .

To run a chrome app from command-line, use the following :

google-chrome --app-id=[app_id]

Assuming the path of google-chrome is /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome.

To retrieve the app id, search the first occurrence of the application name in /home/$USER/.local/share/applications .

Solution 2

After all the stuff I have executed following command, worked for me and open postman

google-chrome --app-id=fhbjgbiflinjbdggehcddcbncdddomop

Assume default configurations

Pattern: google-chrome --app-id=<extensionID>

To get the extension ID:

• open chrome://extensions/ in your chrome browser
• click "Details" button of Postman extension
• view address on address bar, where url in format of chrome://extensions/?id=<extensionID> Copy extensionID from url and use it in command

In same way you can use any extension of google chrome

Comments

[Jacob Vlijm]

Probably if you open the corresponding .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications (drag it over an opened gedit window) you can see the correct command in the Exec= line.

[chalasr]

Perfect, thank you @JacobVlijm . The command use the --app-id=[id] I assume this id is permanent so I will create an alias, but do you know a way to launch it by its name ?

[d a i s y]

@JacobVlijm Why the question is not duplicate of What command should I type to run Chrome from the terminal?

[chalasr]

@daisy because that's not the same question. This is about how to launch a chrome application, not chrome itself.

[Jacob Vlijm]

Perfect, didn't have time to post an answer, but still wanted to help out :)

[BarathVutukuri]

You can even get the app id from the Chrome Store URL for the particular application. Of course this works only if you have access to the internet :)

[Vidar S. Ramdal]

If you have multiple Chrome profiles, you need to add the profile directory to the command line, too: google-chrome --profile-directory=Default --app-id=[app-id]

[yosefrow]

You can get an app id by 1. xprop WM_CLASS | sed -E 's/^.*crx_([a-z]+)".*$/\1/g') 2. click the app