Aftermath of the fixes for Chrome v137+ extensions

[mdmintz]

Aftermath of the fixes for Chrome v137+ extensions

In case anyone missed the news of https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7679408?sjid=11437610768047552203-NA#chromeBrsrE137, Chrome 137 removed the --load-extension command-line flag for regular Chrome (non-Chromium) builds. This led to #3771, which was mostly resolved in SB 4.39.1 - https://github.com/seleniumbase/SeleniumBase/releases/tag/v4.39.1. The chart below shows the current situation:

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Using extensions on the Official Google Chrome with various SeleniumBase modes.

Extension with Mode	Before Chrome 137	Chrome 137 Arrives	After 4.39.1 Patch
Auth Proxy extension (Regular SB)	✅	❌	✅
Auth Proxy extension (Pure CDP)	✅	❌	✅ - (w/o extension)
Auth Proxy extension (UC + CDP)	✅	❌	✅
All Other extensions (Regular SB)	✅	❌	✅
All Other extensions (Pure CDP)	✅	❌	❌
All Other extensions (UC + CDP)	✅	❌	✅

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The same solution that worked for Regular SB and UC Mode (or UC Mode + CDP Mode) didn't work for Pure CDP Mode. That solution involved using --disable-features=DisableLoadExtensionCommandLineSwitch to prevent the removal of the --load-extension switch. However, I was able to figure out how to do auth proxy with pure CDP without an extension. Since auth proxy is the most-used feature, that should handle most people's situations.

Long story short, there were a few days of "chaos", but we're mostly back to normal. Since there were multiple workarounds over those three days (as listed in #3771 (comment)), there was probably less "chaos" than most people realize. Most of those workarounds will probably work for the Pure CDP Mode extension users who want more than just auth proxy. However, the situation is resolved for most users. (See the chart above.)