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Accepted
Mike Hagstrom
Asked: 2012-01-29 12:09:20 +0800 CST

Where Do I Find The Update URL For Google Chrome Extensions?

  • 772

I'm trying to setup group policy for Google Chrome (http://support.google.com/installer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=146164) particularily I'm working on setting up the Configuring the list of force-installed extensions. I can find the extension ID by looking in tools-extensions in Google Chrome but I cannot find the update URL for extensions like Adblock or Google Mail Checker, where would I find these?

group-policy google-chrome

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I can't help you with group-policy, but each extension includes its update URL in manifest.json.

    So, for the current version of adblock (id: gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom):

    %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom\2.5.14_0\manifest.json

    Contains:

    "update_url": "http://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx"

    The extension will query that URL for updates, as per the documentation.

    We can therefore construct a URL that will return the update XML from the above URL (just change the ID as needed) - for adblock:

    http://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx?response=updatecheck&x=id%3Dgighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom%26uc

    The XML that is returned reads:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<gupdate xmlns="http://www.google.com/update2/response" protocol="2.0" server="prod">
    <daystart elapsed_seconds="49387"/>
    <app appid="gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom" status="ok">
        <updatecheck codebase="http://clients2.googleusercontent.com/crx/download/OAAAAFpzXu4buuGNADfzIKiz34SLARZdBLiXQ2zo50sAlzoBpEz77foH-XT3yHpPureXtHcQSYU2z4ZNstiuKJi-LD8AxlKa5VgufvySdIb5b9U333P0upRk1YPb/extension_2_5_14.crx" hash="" size="529317" status="ok" version="2.5.14"/>
    </app>
</gupdate>

    We are interested in the codebase attribute of updatecheck, which provides us the direct URL to the latest CRX file.

    • 10

  2. The accepted answer is right. To save you the hassle of searching on Linux, the folder is at

    ~/.config/chromium/Default/Extensions/
    • 2