A Firefox extension that implements the Chromecast API and exposes it to web apps to enable cast support. Communication with receiver devices is handled by a companion application (bridge).

Install the Firefox extension (from within Firefox) and bridge application via the installer packages. These are two separate downloads that can be found on the website or in the GitHub releases section.

The bridge application is currently supported on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Important: On Linux platforms such as Arch, it may be necessary to configure local hostname resolution¹.

Note: These packages are maintained by third parties and support likely will not be provided for any issues specific to these packages.

• Arch Linux (AUR)
  • fx_cast — https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fx_cast
  • fx_cast-bin — https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fx_cast-bin

See documentation on the daemon wiki page.

Clicking on the toolbar button or Cast... menu item in the page context menu will open a popup that shows a list of receiver devices will allow you to start casting the currently detected app² or media.

The extension provides a whitelist for ensuring only trusted sites are allowed to load the cast API and communicate with receiver devices.

Sites may be added to the whitelist, either by clicking one of the whitelist options in the toolbar button context menu whilst visiting the site, or by manually entering a valid match pattern on the options page.

Whitelisted sites should then display a cast button as in Chrome, provided they're compatible with the extension/Firefox.

• Node.js v16.x.x
• Native build tools (see here)
• Bonjour/Avahi (on Windows/Linux respectively)

• Bonjour SDK for Windows
• NSIS

$ sudo apt install libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev dpkg rpm

Runtime packages: avahi-daemon.

$ sudo dnf install avahi-compat-libdns_sd-devel dpkg rpm-build

Runtime packages: avahi, nss-mdns.

$ sudo pacman -S avahi dpkg rpm-tools

$ git clone https://github.com/hensm/fx_cast.git
$ cd fx_cast
$ npm install
$ npm run build

# Install manifest for dist/ build. Installs to
# user-specific location and overrides a system-wide
# install. Call `remove-manifest` to restore previous state.
$ npm run install-manifest
$ npm run remove-manifest

This will build the ext and app, outputting to dist/:

• dist/app/
  ... contains the built bridge with launcher script and manifest (with the path pointing that script). The install-manifest npm script copies this manifest to the proper location (or adds its current location to the registry on Windows).
• dist/ext/
  ... contains the unpacked extension.

Watching ext changes:

$ npm run watch:ext

Launch Firefox with built extension (run in separate terminal):

$ npm run start:ext

Building a 32-bit version is only supported for Windows. If you're building from a 64-bit system, you'll also need to rebuild any native dependencies as 32-bit.

$ npm clean-install --prefix ./app --arch=ia32  # If on a 64-bit system

# If building without packaging
$ npm run build:app -- -- --arch=x86 --use-pkg

# If packaging
$ npm run package:app -- -- --arch=x86

Extension build script (build:ext) arguments:

• --watch
  Rebuild on changes. Incompatible with --package.
• --package
  Package with web-ext.
• --mode "development", "production"
  Sets build mode. Defaults to development unless packaging.

Bridge build script (build:app) arguments:

• --package
  Builds and creates installer packages for distribution.

• --package-type "deb", "rpm"
  Linux installer package type.

• --use-pkg
  Create single binary with pkg.

• --arch "x64", "x86", "arm64"
  Select platform arch to build for. Defaults to current arch.

  Platform	Supported Architectures
  Windows	x86, x64
  macOS	x64, arm64
  Linux	x64

Build and package extension and bridge application for current platform:

$ npm run package

• dist/app/
  ... contains the installer package: fx_cast_bridge-<version>-<arch>.(pkg|deb|rpm|exe)
• dist/ext/
  ... contains the built extension archive: fx_cast-<version>.xpi.

Packaging examples:

$ npm run package:ext # Packaging extension
$ npm run package:app # Packaging bridge application

# Linux platforms
$ npm run package:app -- -- --package-type=deb
$ npm run package:app -- -- --package-type=rpm

Testing requires geckodriver (or chromedriver for Chrome parity testing). See selenium-webdriver installation instructions (ignore npm install).

The test script expects a compatible installed bridge version and a packaged extension archive at dist/ext/.

Test results will be displayed in the terminal and within the opened browser tab. Chrome may take some time to initialize the media router component before the cast API is available for testing.

$ npm run build:app
$ npm run install-manifest
$ npm run package:ext
$ npm test

# Or if testing in Chrome
$ SELENIUM_BROWSER=chrome npm test

These are somewhat outdated now, but show the basic function of the extension:

• electron-chromecast³
• Icons by icons8:
  • ext/src/ui/options/assets/icons8-cancel-120.png
  • ext/src/ui/options/assets/icons8-ok-120.png
  • ext/src/ui/options/assets/icons8-warn-120.png