Yet Another Hints Extension (YAHE)

Yet Another Hints Extension is a browser extension that allows you to click elements without using your mouse.

Usage

1. Press the hint key to activate the hints. The default hint key is ctrl-m.
2. Type the code of the hint you want to activate.
3. Once hint is highlighted, press enter key to simulate a mouse click on the link. You can the key press with modifiers like Ctrl and Shift to simulate a click with modifiers.
4. After activating a hint, the typing buffer is cleared, so you can continue by typing another code.

You can deactivate the hints by pressing the escape key. Pressing the hint key after typing some characters clears the typing buffer, and pressing it again deactivates the hints.

In Chrome, you can customize the hint key and hint characters in the extension's options page.

Installation

You can find YAHE from these official browser add-on pages:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge

Alternatively, you can side-load the extension from a local build. See the hacking section below for further details.

Hacking

All the code for YAHE is located in the yahe.js and yahe-bg.js files. The first file is loaded in each browser tab to show and control hints, and the second one as a background process for opening links in new tabs.

If you want to build the extension packages yourself, you need the following tools installed:

• Git
• Yarn

Use the build command in Yarn to build all components:

$ yarn install
$ yarn run build

The Chrome extension can be loaded from the build output by following these steps:

1. Fire up Chrome/Chromium, and go to the extensions settings.
2. Enable the developer mode from the top-right corner.
3. Click the "Load unpacked" button.
4. Select the output/chrome/ directory from the directory where you cloned this repository to.

The Firefox extension can be loaded from the build output by following these steps:

1. Fire up Firefox, and go to this page: about:debugging.
2. Check the "Enable add-on debugging" box.
3. Click the "Load Temporary Add-on..." button.
4. Select the output/webextension/ directory from the directory where you cloned this repository to.

If you want to change the default settings for the script, change the values in yahe.js source file. Remember to rebuild after changing the values.

You can also check the code for lint errors using Yarn and ESLint:

$ yarn install
$ yarn run lint

Inspiration

I wouldn't have created this extension, if it wasn't for the existing hit-a-hint extensions that were already out there. These are the browsers and extensions that worked as an inspiration for YAHE:

• Hints script in DWB
• Hit-a-Hint for Opera (hint code generation)

License

2-clause BSD license. See LICENSE for more details.