Run a shell command through a Chrome App

Question

I have Crouton on my Chromebook with Spotify inside an Ubuntu chroot. I can execute Spotify inside an Ubuntu chroot as a single app window via a Crouton command.

I want to create a Chrome OS application that acts as a launcher for Spotify, Skype, etc.

In short: My Chrome OS app should execute a shell command.

I read about NPAPI, but it says it's getting depreciated (since 2013 o.O).

If there's another way (for example executing a bash script that adds a button to the shelf that just executes another shell script to open Spotify), it would also be great.

Thx in advance :)

EDIT:

With Dart this seems to be possible. It says "access File system, USB Devices, shells and much more" with it

Answer 1

Looks like Native Messaging is just the thing you're looking for! However you may need to create an application that can be registered as a Native Messaging Host. This application will then in turn call the shell command/script you intend to run.