Building the Tab Deck Chrome extension was an exciting journey that combined collaborative prompts, technical insights, and creative problem-solving with ChatGPT-4o with canvas feature. This showcase blog post dives into the development process, explores the extension’s features, and reflects on how the interaction with ChatGPT made it all possible.
The Making of Tab Deck: Behind the Scenes with ChatGPT-4o and Canvas
The creation of the Tab Deck extension involved numerous prompts over several chat sessions, spanning a total duration of approximately 4 hours. During this extended conversation, the exchange included over 50 individual prompts—ranging from designing user-friendly features to resolving technical challenges within the code.
The types of prompts included:
- Feature Requests: Adding new functionalities such as creating empty tab decks, duplicating tab sets, and implementing right-click actions.
- UI/UX Discussions: Improving user experience by suggesting interface tweaks, button placements, and icon additions.
- Code Development: Writing and modifying JavaScript code to ensure smooth interaction with IndexedDB and Chrome APIs.
- Troubleshooting and Debugging: Identifying and fixing issues in the code, handling corner cases, and suggesting more efficient ways to implement features.
- Icon creation: I asked Dall-E to generate the icon for the extension (only after the major features has been implemented, see below)
- Extension promotion: posts, articles, descriptions all generated by ChatGPT (with diverse levels of adjustements) with the whole context of what I was working on
Using the canvas feature of ChatGPT-4o helped visualize multiple versions of files and maintain a holistic view of the ongoing code development. Each change was tracked, and new additions were carefully reviewed, making the entire workflow streamlined and organized.
In one of the prompts, I even shared a sketch of the popup page UI to help guide the visual design of the interface, which ChatGPT used to create a similar template. This collaborative approach ensured the final design closely matched my initial vision.
Introducing Tab Deck: The Ultimate Tab Management Solution
Tab Deck is a Chrome extension that helps you manage your browser tabs effectively by allowing you to save and organize them into “decks.” It’s designed to enhance productivity by letting users create, modify, and restore groups of tabs, making it easy to switch between different projects or work contexts without overwhelming your browser.
Key Features of Tab Deck
- Save Current Tabs as a Deck – Have a set of tabs open that you want to come back to later? Tab Deck allows you to save all the tabs in your current window as a named deck. This way, you can pick up where you left off whenever you need to, without cluttering your bookmarks.
- Create an Empty Deck – Need a fresh start? You can create an empty deck with the click of a button. This is perfect for planning future research or organizing resources without immediate clutter.
- Search and Filter Decks – As you accumulate saved decks, finding the one you need becomes seamless with the built-in search functionality. Simply type a few characters, and Tab Deck will help you find the right set of tabs instantly.
- Open Deck in Current Window, New Window or Incognito – You can open any saved deck in the current and new window or even in incognito mode. This is especially useful if you’re working on sensitive information or need a distraction-free environment.
- Add Current Page to Deck from the Context Menu – Right-click on any page and add it directly to an existing deck. This feature is perfect for quickly saving useful links as you browse without having to open the popup interface.
- Duplicate and Edit Decks – Want to tweak an existing deck without altering the original? With the “Duplicate” feature, you can make a copy of any saved deck, modify it as needed, and save it under a new name. Editing deck names or URLs within decks is also straightforward, giving you the flexibility to keep your decks up to date.
- Delete Decks or Individual Tabs – Simplify your collection by deleting decks you no longer need or by removing specific tabs within a deck. The extension is built for flexibility, ensuring that your saved tabs remain relevant.
- Visual Deck Overview with Icons – Saved tabs are displayed with their favicons, providing an intuitive visual overview of each deck. This makes it easy to identify tabs at a glance, enhancing usability.
The User Experience: A Quick Tour
Header and Quick Actions: The popup window for Tab Deck features a simple header with an easy-to-use interface. It includes buttons for saving the current tabs, creating an empty deck, and a search bar to locate saved decks.
Deck List with Actions: Each deck is displayed in a list format with various action buttons, including Edit, Delete, Open, Open in Incognito, and Duplicate. These options are readily accessible via small, intuitive icons that keep the interface clean.
Add to Deck Context Menu: One standout feature is the ability to add the current webpage to an existing deck directly from the right-click context menu. This is a game-changer for quickly saving resources without interrupting your workflow.
Challenges and Solutions: The Development Journey
Throughout the development process, several technical challenges arose, particularly around Chrome’s API limits and storage restrictions. Using ChatGPT-4o, we were able to brainstorm solutions, like splitting large datasets into manageable chunks to fit within Chrome Sync Storage limits (feature not implemented yet). Debugging IndexedDB access and implementing incognito mode checks were also collaborative efforts that benefited from prompt discussions.
The canvas feature played a crucial role here, allowing us to iterate on solutions by viewing and adjusting the entire script in one place, making collaboration between prompts more cohesive and efficient.
Conclusion
Tab Deck is the result of combining technical development with user-centric thinking. It offers a simple yet powerful way to organize your browser tabs, making it easier to navigate different projects or tasks without losing track of important resources. The iterative process, facilitated by ChatGPT-4o with canvas, ensured that the extension was built with flexibility, efficiency, and a user-friendly interface in mind.
We hope Tab Deck helps you stay organized, productive, and ready to tackle whatever tasks come your way. Feel free to install the extension, experiment with creating your own tab decks, and experience how it can transform your browsing and workflow management!
Interested in creating your own Chrome extension? Collaborating with ChatGPT can make the process smoother and more enjoyable. The experience of building Tab Deck shows just how valuable it can be to have an AI partner for brainstorming, coding, and troubleshooting.
What’s next? There’s plenty of tools for developers that let you use different LLMs all at once, choosing the best model for the specific usage. But, in my opinion, for personal usage and for the most uses, ChatGPT Plus is enough for most use cases.
