Making Your Own Opera Browser Extension: A Beginner's Guide

If you're already familiar with creating Google Chrome extensions, then you'll feel right at home developing for Opera as well. This is because Opera uses the Chromium extension architecture, albeit with some minor differences. With this familiarity, making an Opera browser extension becomes a relatively easy task.

One such extension that demonstrates this ease is the Mailto button add-on. As its name suggests, this extension allows you to send web pages via email using your default email client or service. The extension is no longer available for download, but the source code can be obtained from GitHub under a permissive MIT License.

For those interested in updating the extension in the future, the source code is freely available on GitHub. However, it's worth noting that the author of the extension has lost interest in maintaining it due to limitations within Opera's extension framework.

The Mailto button add-on can be used in conjunction with other email-related extensions, such as Gmail Compose, to send web pages via webmail services like Yahoo! Mail or Google Mail. Like many of my other extensions, the source code for the Mailto button is also available on GitHub.

To customize the extension's behavior, users can access its settings through the Extension manager. Here, they can choose to hide the toolbar button from view or adjust other preferences. Additionally, users can right-click on a web page and select 'Email page' to send the current page via email using their default email client or service.

In conclusion, making an Opera browser extension is a straightforward process that requires minimal expertise. With its similarity to Google Chrome extensions and the availability of resources like GitHub, developers can easily create their own add-ons for the Opera browser. The Mailto button extension serves as a prime example of this ease, offering users a convenient way to send web pages via email using their default email client or service.