chrome extension to access content of downloaded files

Question

I'm working on a Chrome extension and I'd like to have the extension:

1. Click on a link to initiate a file download
2. Once the download is complete, open and read the contents of the downloaded file
3. Do something with the contents of the file in JavaScript

I see that the chrome.downloads API allows me to initiate the download and open the file, but is it possible for me to read the contents of the file (without writing native code)?

Answer 1

I'm copying the answer I gave here.

You just need to add a permission to file://*in your manifest file and once you have your file's path in the system (with chrome.downloads.search in the filename property), make a GET XMLHttpRequest to the url file://{filepath}.