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I was tasked with creating a Chromebook app that gathers system information at sign in, e.g., serial number, user name, IP address, etc. This app would be run on all Chromebooks that the company I work for owns. I looked at another question that asks pretty much the same thing and there was only one person who answered. That person suggested to do a few Math.Random calls and store it locally to serve as a unique identifier. That's not going to work for me. I need serial numbers, IP addresses, things like that. Is there any API out there that does this? Or am I dead in the water?

  • What language are you planning to use for this app? – Matthijs Aug 05 '14 at 12:13
  • I was thinking JavaScript, but if there's nothing for JS then I'll use whatever I need to use. –  Aug 05 '14 at 12:30
  • The question would be more easily answerable if you explain how the extension is installed and why you need this kind of information. – Rob W Aug 05 '14 at 13:31
  • It will be installed by the company I work for, and I need this information so we can keep track of our Chromebooks. We need to see who, when and where people log in so that we can keep track of all this information in our database. –  Aug 05 '14 at 13:39
  • Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22223382/can-we-retrieve-our-machine-serial-number-in-our-chrome-extension/22233876#22233876 and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15554299/how-do-you-get-the-device-name-or-hostname-from-a-chrome-extension. The answer is the same: no. – sowbug Aug 05 '14 at 21:37

3 Answers3

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Given your comments following the original question, this probably isn't a coding question suitable for Stack Overflow. If you're interested in tracking your assets, you probably want Chrome for Business and Education for your company's domain. Before giving Chromebooks to your employees, you'll enterprise-enroll them, which gives you access via Admin console to information like Chromebook serial number and timestamp of last policy sync. Here's a page on what that console would look like: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/1698333

Again, this question should probably be deleted because the correct answer isn't related to programming. But that's your answer.

sowbug
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    I don't understand your comment. The OP is asking "Is there any API out there that does this?" That sounds like a programming question to me. – Marc Rochkind Aug 05 '14 at 22:42
  • In later comments, OP clarifies that the problem to be solved is asset tracking. The answer to that isn't related to programming. If it really must be narrowly construed as an API question, then it's a duplicate question as stated in the question's comments. – sowbug Aug 06 '14 at 21:07
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Answering your question under the assumption that when you say "Chromebook app" you mean Chrome App, the answer is no. There is no API that gives you this sort of machine identification.

While I'm less familiar with extensions (which are different from apps), I believe the answer is no for them, too.

Marc Rochkind
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You can call the following API to get the device's IPs from a Chrome app:

chrome.system.network.getNetworkInterfaces(function(interfaces){
    console.log(interfaces);
});

Edit:

The above code is from here: Can I get my IP address in a chrome app without using an external service?

To find out about a Chrome device's MAC address, I retrieve the ipV6 of the Chrome device and then use the algorithm in the link below to get the MAC address:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/100566/understanding-ipv6-eui-64-bit-address

The algorithm appears to work for my Chrome devices. Perhaps someone can confirm if this algorithm also works for their Chrome devices.

Community
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nghi
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