Chrome Native Messaging implementation for .NET and .NET Core. Allows easy communication with a Chrome extension using Chrome Native Messaging protocol.
Get it on NuGet: PM> Install-Package Lyre
using var host = new NativeMessagingHost();
try
{
while (true)
{
var response = await host.Read<dynamic>();
// Echo response
await host.Write(new { value = $"You said {response.value} at {response.dateTime}", dateTime = DateTime.Now });
}
}
catch (EndOfStreamException)
{
// Disconnected
}
See https://github.com/alexwiese/Lyre/tree/master/src/Lyre.ConsoleTest for an example of a Chrome extension communicating with a Native Messaging Host.
The NativeMessagingHost uses JSON.NET for serialization. This can be customized by passing in a JsonSerializerSettings object.
The Encoding and Stream objects used for communications can also be passed into the constructor.
var host = new NativeMessagingHost(Console.OpenStandardInput(), Console.OpenStandardOutput(), Encoding.UTF8, new JsonSerializerSettings{ Formatting = Formatting.None});
// Using cancellation tokens for timeout support
using var cts = new CancellationTokenSource(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));
var message = await host.Read<dynamic>(cts.Token);
await host.Write(response, cts.Token);
// Proper disposal pattern
using var host = new NativeMessagingHost(inputStream, outputStream, encoding, settings, ownsStreams: true);
This library fully complies with the Chrome Native Messaging protocol:
- Message Size Limits: Enforces the 1MB message size limit as required by Chrome
- Proper Error Handling: Validates message formats and sizes
- Resource Management: Implements proper disposal patterns for stream cleanup
- Async Support: Full cancellation token support for timeout handling
By default Chrome Native Messaging uses stdin and stdout to communicate. If any other code writes to the Console, for example by calling Console.WriteLine(string), then this would cause the Chrome Native Messaging pipe to fail due to unexpected output. Helper methods are provided by the NativeMessagingEnvironment class to supress or redirect the Console output.
// Redirects any calls to Console.Write() or Console.WriteLine() to TextWriter.Null
NativeMessagingEnvironment.SupressConsoleOutput();
// This will redirect calls to Console.Write() and Console.WriteLine() to stderr
NativeMessagingEnvironment.RedirectConsoleOutputToErrorOutput();
// Redirects any calls to Console.Write() or Console.WriteLine() to the Debug output
NativeMessagingEnvironment.RedirectConsoleOutputToDebugStream();
// This will redirect calls to Console.Write() and Console.WriteLine() to a file
var writer = new StreamWriter(File.OpenWrite("console.out")) { AutoFlush = true };
NativeMessagingEnvironment.RedirectConsoleOutput(writer);
