Issue with extensions with Chrome 138.xx

[dornech]

I have an issue with loading extensions again. I guess it is linked to the most recent Chrome.
When loading an extension as before I get an timeout when calling OpenBrowser thereafter.
It is definitely caused by adding an extension as without adding an extension this everything works fine.

Do not know if somebody else already discovered this issue ?

Is it probably linked to this issue here:
SeleniumHQ/selenium#15788
This would mean the issue occured with Chrome 137.xx alread but I discovered with 138.

[GCuser99]

Thanks for reporting this @dornech. I can reproduce the issue. I tested the temporary work-around referred to in that issue link that you shared and it worked for both packed (caps.AddExtensions "path-to-crx-file") and unpacked (caps.AddArguments "--load-extension=path-to-unpacked-extension-folder"):

caps.AddArguments "--disable-features=DisableLoadExtensionCommandLineSwitch"

From what I read, the only permanent solution appears to be to switch to the Chrome-for-Testing binary.

[hanamichi77777]

I tried it with WebDriver BiDi.

  "{""id"":1,""method"":""webExtension.install"",""params"":{""extensionData"":{""type"":""path"",""path"":""" & extensionPath & """}}}"

However, it didn't work.
Gemini's answer is below.
WebDriver BiDi does not seem to be fully functional

The fact that the WebDriver BiDi command webExtension.install is failing with a "Method not available" error in the latest versions of Chrome is an ongoing reported issue, and it is likely continuing in Chrome 141 as well. This seems to be a challenge specific to Chrome in the effort to migrate extension automation to BiDi.

For webExtension.install to work you need to add the following code:

caps.AddArguments "--remote-debugging-pipe"
caps.AddArguments "--enable-unsafe-extension-debugging"

[dornech]

I have the issue again that extension is not installed again. Does anybody know a solution?

[hanamichi77777]

For testing purposes, I used WebDriver Bidi to support extensions.
The extensionPath must be changed.
If there is a better way, I would recommend it.
The password 123 is set to avoid false positives from Defender.

SeleniumVBA6.9_BiDi_test(extensions)123.xlsm

[dornech]

Oh thanks for the feedback. I guess it might be helpful to work on the translation of the BiDi modules :-)
Is it planned to include the BiDi support in the standard SeleniumVBA ?

[dornech]

In the meantime I developped an workaround installing an extension vom the Chrome WebStore. This is pretty straightforward if you know this fjehgejrkleghkj...-extension ID - however it is not possible to avoid a manual interaction to confirm the installation (this is the special Chrome security feature)

[hanamichi77777]

I asked Gemini3.0 to translate WebDriver BiDi's VBA code into English and improve its robustness.
AI is evolving quickly, so implementing BiDi in SeleniumVBA may not be far off.
https://github.com/hanamichi77777/WebDriverBiDi-via-VBA-test