Webstore Manager usage

There are two basic modes of function:

  • Command mode

    A single “target” of the manager is executed. Automatization involving multiple steps needs to be handled by an external script (i.e. bash).

  • Script mode

    Targets of the manager tool are specified in a script file. This may involve several steps, variable assignment and more.

    The upside of this mode is no presence of sensitive information (auth details) in the terminal history, as all such information may be passed along using environment variables.

Installing Webstore Manager creates an executable script, webstoremgr. It serves as a shortcut, it is functionally identical to running python -m webstore_manager. Through the documentation, webstoremgr is used.

Generic arguments

The following arguments are applicable for all running modes:

  • -v - verbose
    Increases the level of verbosity. By default only warn and more critical messages are logged. This parameter may be repeated (-vv) to achieve even more detailed output. See Logging for details.

Logging

Logs are printed to standard output and to a file. The location is platform- and distribution-dependent.
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\melkamar\webstore_manager\Logs\
  • Linux: Depending on distribution. Examples:
    • /var/tmp/webstore_manager
    • /user/.cache/webstore_manager/log

You can find the log location by enabling the verbose output.

Command mode

Commands are invoked on the command line, such as: webstoremgr chrome create <arguments>.

List of commands differs based on the target browser. See the platform-specific documentation here.

Script mode

Webstore Manager’s scripting mode consumes a single script file that defines its function. The general invocation syntax is

webstoremgr script <filename>

where filename is the script to execute.

Syntax

  • One command per line.

  • Empty lines and lines starting with a hashtag (#) are ignored.

  • Variable assignment: ab = cd assigns value ‘cd’ into variable ‘ab’. Whitespaces around = are mandatory, maximum of one = sign per line.

  • Variable expansion: ${ab} is expanded with the value of ab. From the previous example, ${ab} would equal cd when executing the script.

  • Environment variables: ${env.xyz} is replaced with the environment variable xyz. Example: ${env.PATH} is resolved to the contents of $PATH.

  • Command execution: some.func ab cd ef executes function some.func with positional parameters ab, cd and ef. For the list of commands, see below.

  • Example: this script sets three variables and call two functions with them as parameters.

    id = ${env.clientid}
secret = ${env.secret}
ref = ${env.reftoken}
chrome.init ${id} ${secret} ${ref}
chrome.setapp abcdef

Generic functions

This is a list of generic functions, not directly tied to any platform. For the list of platform-specific functions, see Supported platforms.

  • cd path
    Changes current working dir to path.
  • pushd path
    Changes current working dir to path and saves previous path to internal stack.
  • popd
    Return to a dir previously set by pushd.
  • zip folder filename
    Zips the contents of folder and saves the archive as a filename in the current working directory.