WebStorm’s Live Edit Chrome workaround

So recently Chrome broke WebStorm’s Live Edit (an awesome extension any php/ror/css/html dev should use) by blocking self-hosted extensions in an attempt to reduce malware.

Noble goal and all but it bit me hard last night at 3am while furiously tweaking some css and mistakenly deciding to update Chrome to the latest version hoping for a css3 transform bugfix.

Anyway, here is the work-around for this problem with a little extra detail on top of what lsdriscoll posted earlier.

1. Download the latest build of the plugin.

2. Extract the .JAR file (7-Zip can extract it just fine)

3. Inside the newly created folder make a file called manifest.json and fill it with this:

{
  "name": "Live Edit by WebStorm (local)",
  "description": "Live Edit temp workaround",
  "version": "0.0.0.1",
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "app": {
   "urls": [
      "http://localhost/"
    ],
    "launch": {
      "web_url": "http://localhost"
    }
  }
}

4. Restart chrome with the command-line parameter “–enable-easy-off-store-extension-install”
To do this find your chrome.exe and make a shortcut or run it from command line like this:

chrome.exe --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install

5. Almost there! Just need to load the extension! (if the manifest is kosher, it should load just fine)

1. Open up the extensions panel by navigating chrome to chrome://extensions
2. Enable the Developer Mode box on the right side.
3. Click Load Unpacked Extension and navigate to the extracted LiveEdit folder with the manifest.json file in it.
4. Click OK and you are done :)

Happy days are here again!