I have put this post in the Developer News category because I want developers to know about this new API in Chrome. But this post is not technical, so others also won’t be disappointed.

So the news is an API that allows extensions to manage download in Chrome. And that means, better download managers for Chrome and Chrome OS.

The chrome.downloads API has finally been promoted to Stable for M30. And what is better than a full-fledged Chrome Extension to demonstrate all the cool features of this API? reports François Beaufort along with a sample extension that you can try out.

Try The “Modern Download Manager” for Chrome

The Chromium Team has built the Modern Download Manager available here (no longer available). Here is how you can try it out.

1. Download the .zip file and extract
2. Open chrome://extensions
3. Check “Developer Mode” from the top right corner
4. Click Load an unpacked extension
5. Upload the zip
6. Done!

This is a sample of what this extension can do. Here is a quick list of features:

• Pause/resume/open/erase Downloads
• Search your downloads
• Check the danger attribute of each Download

That’s not a lot. But I think it is ok to be excited about the API itself because we have a lot of fabulous developers around here who can bring in more interesting stuff to the table.

The chrome.downloads API

Here is the official intro:

Description:	Use the chrome.downloads API to programmatically initiate, monitor, manipulate, and search for downloads.
Availability:	Beta and Dev channels only.
Permissions:	“downloads”