[Feature Request] PDF highlighting

[ator-dev]

PDF highlighting is something I've seen highly requested for highlighter extensions, including current users of Mark My Search. While it is impossible to do this in any browser's native PDF viewer for security reasons, it is relatively easy to do so in a custom viewer implementation. There are two main options for doing this in an extension:

• Add methods (e.g. toolbar button, shortcut, right-click menu option) to open the current PDF/link in a trustworthy and lightweight PDF viewer website
  • Easy to support, little development tax, possible to use a more feature-rich viewer
  • User must be connected to the internet and the viewer will be slower than the default (even if the viewer has an excellent PWA implementation, they must at least be connected on first run)
• Add methods to open the current PDF/link in an integrated offline PDF viewer
  • Full trust, fast, lightweight, offline
  • Additional development burden, need of using potentially large dedicated libraries, must include a copy of MMS's highlighting script (plus dependencies) due to extension page restrictions
  • Unclear whether or not this can work in Chrome, since for some absurd reason extensions cannot interact with their own pages unlike in Firefox - is another offline method possible?

I propose that a dedicated MMS PDF plug-in be created which implements at least the first of these options. If at all feasible, it should integrate a PDF viewer library as per the second option, as that has the potential to be optimal for the user experience, even if only available in Firefox for now.

Edit 2023-04-01: Still planned, but for-plugin implies being actioned. I will be able to start work on these in approximately 3 months.