title: List a local directory with chrome extension
body: <p>I'm trying to create a chrome extension which scans a local directory for new files ...
  However, if I add the file://* permission to the manifest I can access the internal file browser of chrome with</p>
  
  <p><code>xmlhttp.open("GET","file://C:/Users/username/Desktop/",false);
  xmlhttp.send();
  console.log(xmlhttp.response);</code></p>
  
  <p>From the response I could extract the file URLs and use them in my extension.</p>
  
  <p>My question is now: Are there other approaches? The above way seems more like a workaround and easily breaks if chrome's file browser is changed ...</p>