OSX: Deploy Chrome extensions

This might be the easiest method. Just tell chrome what extensions you want installed, and let it install them from marketplace at next launch.

How to deploy system-wide Chrome extensions from the Marketplace.

At a glance

  1. Create /Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/External\ Extensions with correct owner, group and permissions
  2. put a .json for each extension you need in this directory 

Note: Tested with Google Chrome 42. Go to external_extensions for updated information, or how to deploy on Linux and Windows. Single-user deployment is also discussed there.

In details

Create the system-wide External Extensions folder

First, let's set the directory that will contain the configuration files.

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/External\ Extensions
sudo chown -R root:admin /Library/Application\ Support/Google/
sudo chmod -R 555 /Library/Application\ Support/Google/

In this directory, we'll put a JSON file for each extension we want to deploy. JSON (suffix .json) is a data interchange format, kind of like XML.

Put JSON files in the directory

First, go to the extensions store and chose the extension you want. On the address bar, you will find the extension ID at the end, that you need. eg. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/esna-ilink-for-webex/jdioafpkpgfnbnlikaocffanjeajajob -> Extension ID is "jdioafpkpgfnbnlikaocffanjeajajob"

Create a file in called /Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/External\ Extensions with the Extension_ID.json (e.g. /Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/External\ Extensions/jdioafpkpgfnbnlikaocffanjeajajob.json)

in this file, write:

{
"external_update_url": "https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx"
}

When restarting Chrome, you should get the extension up and running !

With Filewave


  1. Create an empty Fileset
  2. Create the directory structure
  3. Click on "Google" folder and hit Get Info
  4. Permissions > Mode -> Select all R and X, deselect W, Apply to enclosed
  5. Permissions > Ownership -> Set root, admin, Apply to enclosed
  6. Click on aaaabbbcccdd.json and hit Get Info
  7. Verification -> Select "Self Healing"
  8. Update Model