Watch, pause or take over a run in Chrome
Open the Blowhorn side panel to see what Blowhorn is doing in Chrome, pause or stop it, and take over for a sign-in or a check.
When Blowhorn works in your Google Chrome through the extension, the Blowhorn side panel shows what it is doing and lets you stop it, pause it, or take the tab over for a sign-in or an are-you-human check. Nothing is added to the pages Blowhorn works on: the panel is part of Chrome, beside the page.
Open the panel
Click the Blowhorn button in Chrome's toolbar. The side panel opens on the right of the window. If you do not see the button, open the extensions menu (the puzzle piece) and pin Blowhorn.
With nothing running the panel shows Idle. Below the run, This Chrome profile shows whether this profile is linked and ready, as the toolbar button did before (see Install the Chrome extension).
Watch a run
While a run works, the panel shows:
- the task, such as Post the queue;
- the address of the Blowhorn tab, which names the site;
- each step as a short line: done, in progress, or failed. Typing is one line; the panel never shows what was typed.
Pause and resume
Click Pause. Blowhorn finishes the step it is on, then does nothing at all, in any tab, until you click Resume. A paused run is not timed out and is not counted as a failure.
Stop a run
Click Stop. Blowhorn finishes recording the post it is on, then does nothing more in any tab and lets go of the tab. The run is recorded as stopped by you, never as failed or as a crash; a scheduled activity that was not yet posted goes back to the queue for its next turn.
If Blowhorn had already clicked Post, it records that post as clicked but not confirmed and does not post it again. Check the profile on the site before you retry it. Stop between steps when you can.
Known limit: the panel does not remember its state when Chrome restarts the extension's background worker.
When Blowhorn needs you
When a site asks for a sign-in, a two-step code or an are-you-human check, Blowhorn waits. The Blowhorn button shows !, the Blowhorn tab group turns red and reads Blowhorn needs you, and the panel says what is needed.
- Click Take over. Chrome brings the Blowhorn tab and its window to the front. Blowhorn does nothing while you have the tab.
- Sign in or finish the check in that tab.
- Click Give back. Blowhorn carries on from the page you leave it on; it reads the page again rather than repeating what it did.
You can also sign in in the red tab without opening the panel, as before: Blowhorn notices when you are done.
You can take over at any time, not only when Blowhorn asks, and give back the same way.
Related
- Chrome extension permissions - what the side panel permission allows.
- Fix the Chrome extension connection