Force Paster

Force Paster is a browser extension that lets you paste text into any input field or text area — even on sites that have deliberately blocked pasting. One click enables it; one click turns it back off.

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Features

• Force paste anywhere — overrides paste-blocking on any website for <input> and <textarea> elements
• One-click toggle — click the extension icon to enable or disable; the toolbar badge shows the current state (on / off)
• Keyboard shortcut — toggle with Alt+Shift+P (remappable per browser)
• Right-click context menu — toggle, open the dashboard, manage shortcuts, rate the extension, or report a bug directly from the toolbar icon
• Dashboard — a tabbed settings page (Settings / What's new / More); open it via the context menu or chrome://extensions → Details → Extension options
• Dark & light icons — the toolbar icon automatically follows your system theme
• Cross-browser — works on Chrome, Firefox (121+), and Edge

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Installation

From the browser store

Browser	Link
Chrome / Edge	Chrome Web Store
Firefox	Firefox Add-ons

Load unpacked (development)

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/prvashisht/force-paster.git

2. Chrome / Edge — navigate to chrome://extensions/, enable Developer mode, click Load unpacked, and select the cloned folder.
3. Firefox — navigate to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox, click Load Temporary Add-on, and select manifest.json inside the cloned folder.

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How it works

User clicks icon / presses Alt+Shift+P / uses context menu
        │
        ▼
service_worker.js  ←─ action.onClicked / _execute_action command / contextMenus.onClicked
  • toggles isPasteEnabled in storage.local
  • updates badge text ("on" / "off") and badge colour
  • syncs the "Enable Force Paste" checkbox in the context menu
  • dispatches analytics events (fp_toggle, fp_menu_click, etc.)
        │
        ▼  storage.onChanged
content.js  (injected into every page)
  • listens on document.body.onpaste
  • when isPasteEnabled, intercepts the paste event, reads clipboard
    text, and writes it directly into the focused <input>/<textarea>
  • reports paste completion back to the service worker via runtime messages
  • watches prefers-color-scheme and notifies the service worker so the
    correct toolbar icon variant (light/dark) is displayed
        │
        ▼  (options page)
options.html / options.js
  • standalone dashboard — reads state from storage.local
  • toggle sends a "setenabled" message to the service worker
  • shows paste count, toggle count, and current keyboard shortcut
  • sends analytics events (fp_options_open, fp_options_click) via messages

Browser compatibility

All Chrome/Firefox API differences are centralised in webext.js. The service worker and options page use webext.* throughout; content.js and analytics.js use the chrome namespace, which Firefox MV3 also exposes in those contexts.

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Project structure

File	Description
manifest.json	Extension manifest (MV3) — permissions, icons, content script registration, keyboard command, options page
webext.js	Browser adapter — detects Chrome/Edge vs Firefox at runtime, re-exports APIs under a unified webext object, and adds helpers like openShortcutsPage() and action.getUserSettings()
content.js	Content script injected into every page — intercepts paste events and forwards theme-change messages to the service worker
service_worker.js	Background service worker — manages toggle state, badge, context menu, options page, and all analytics calls
options.html	Dashboard markup — tabbed UI with Settings, What's new, and More panels
options.js	Dashboard logic — reads/writes storage, reflects live state changes, loads release notes, sends analytics via service worker messages
release-notes.json	Current version's release notes — bundled with the extension and displayed in the What's new tab
analytics.js	Analytics helper — proxies GA4 events through a Cloud Functions endpoint with client-ID and session management

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Analytics events

Events are sent anonymously via a Cloud Functions proxy. The following events are tracked:

Event	When	Key params
extension_installed	Install or update	reason, platform info, locale
fp_toggle	Enable/disable toggled	enabled, source (action_icon / context_menu / options_page)
fp_paste	Paste completed	tag (element type), domain
fp_menu_click	Context menu item clicked (non-toggle)	item (shortcuts / options / rate / bug)
fp_options_open	Dashboard page opened	—
fp_options_click	Link clicked on dashboard	item (rate / bug / github / bmc / app_* / footer_author)
fp_rating_prompt	User responded to the rating toast	choice (rate / later / never)

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Development guide

Prerequisites

• Node.js is not required — the extension is plain JavaScript with no build step.

Workflow

1. Make your changes to the source files.
2. In Chrome, go to chrome://extensions/ and click the reload icon on the Force Paster card to pick up changes.
3. In Firefox, go to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox and click Reload next to Force Paster.
4. Test on a site that blocks pasting (e.g. many banking or exam portals).

Keyboard shortcut remap

• Chrome / Edge — chrome://extensions/shortcuts
• Firefox — about:addons → Extensions → Force Paster → Manage

Releasing a new version

1. Bump "version" in manifest.json.
2. Update "version" and "notes" in release-notes.json to match — the build will fail if they differ.
3. Merge to main. The release.yml workflow triggers automatically, builds both zips, creates a GitHub release with auto-generated notes, and attaches the zips as assets. This in turn triggers store-deploy.yml, which publishes automatically to the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons.
4. Edge — upload force-paster-chrome-v*.zip from the GitHub release manually at Microsoft Partner Center. The Chrome zip is Edge-compatible (same Chromium base; Firefox-only manifest fields are stripped by the build script).

Checklist every release:

• manifest.json version bumped
• release-notes.json version and notes updated
• README features/structure updated if new things were added
• Edge Add-ons updated manually via Partner Center

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md and follow the Code of Conduct before opening a pull request.