With the latest version of the Caffeine Chrome extension, you can run Caffeine in a Chrome DevTools panel, with access to all the Chrome debugging APIs. I’ve been using it to explore the Netflix video player, for an app I’m writing that enables the viewer to edit narratives by rearranging scenes.
From a quick look at the DOM element tree for the player, it’s apparent that it’s a React app. By following a reference chain from a user interface element (like the skip-forward button), through the bound “this” object of its click-event listener, I found the internal React properties for all the player’s UI elements, and all the player functions they use (for example, for seeking forward in a video).
With those functions in hand, I made a Netflix player class in Smalltalk, which can manipulate the Netflix player React app interactively from Smalltalk code. Other objects I made representing show elements (like scenes, episodes, seasons, and series) can use my player to compile analytic information about shows, and present them in different ways. For example, you could watch an episode of Better Call Saul consisting only of scenes that include a certain character, or that take place at a certain location, or with flashbacks placed in chronological order. This is for a webapp I’m writing called Arc.
I’m eager to see what else you explore using the Caffeine extension in the DevTools!
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