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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-06T15:01:10+00:00

I am trying to develop an extension that will work with Awesome New Tab

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I am trying to develop an extension that will work with Awesome New Tab Page. I’ve followed the author’s advice to the letter, but it doesn’t seem like any of the script I add to my background page is being executed at all. Here’s my background page:

<script>
    var info = {
        poke: 1,
        width: 1,
        height: 1,
        path: "widget.html"
    }

    chrome.extension.onRequestExternal.addListener(function(request, sender, sendResponse) {
        if (request === "mgmiemnjjchgkmgbeljfocdjjnpjnmcg-poke") {
            chrome.extension.sendRequest(
                sender.id,
                {
                    head: "mgmiemnjjchgkmgbeljfocdjjnpjnmcg-pokeback",
                    body: info,
                }
            );
        }
    });

    function initSelectedTab() {
        localStorage.setItem("selectedTab", "Something");
    }

    initSelectedTab();
</script>

Here is manifest.json:

{
    "update_url": "http://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx",
    "background_page": "background.html",
    "name": "Test Widget",
    "description": "Test widget for mgmiemnjjchgkmgbeljfocdjjnpjnmcg.",
    "icons": {
        "128": "icon.png"
    },
    "version": "0.0.1"
}

Here is the relevant part of widget.html:

<script>
    var selectedTab = localStorage.getItem("selectedTab");

    document.write(selectedTab);
</script>

Every time, the browser just displays null. The local storage isn’t being set at all, which makes me think the background page is completely disconnected. Do I have something wired up incorrectly?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Obviously, I ditched this project months ago out of frustration. I finally decided to revisit it today, and here’s what I discovered:

    1. The localStorage object is cached (go figure), which explains why the extension would work sometimes and the suddenly not work long after I had made a breaking change to the code. This also explains why the extension would continue not to work long after I had fixed it. For future reference, reloading the extension from Chrome’s extension manager clears the localStorage cache for the extension.
    2. The background page for a Chrome extension (at least in the case of an ANTP extension) MUST be a HTML file. It will not work if it’s a JS file.
    3. I used to be REALLY bad at JavaScript.

    Here’s the updated code, which you can use as a shell for your own Chrome or ANTP extension. I’ve also included the changes required by ANTP for using poke v2.

    background.html:

    <html>
    <body>
        <script>
            (function () {
                "use strict";

                var info = {
                    poke: 2,
                    width: 1,
                    height: 1,
                    path: "widget.html",
                    v2: {
                        resize: false,
                        min_width: 1,
                        max_width: 1,
                        min_height: 1,
                        max_height: 1
                    }
                };

                chrome.extension.onRequestExternal.addListener(function (request, sender, sendResponse) {
                    if (request === "mgmiemnjjchgkmgbeljfocdjjnpjnmcg-poke") {
                        chrome.extension.sendRequest(
                            sender.id,
                            {
                                head: "mgmiemnjjchgkmgbeljfocdjjnpjnmcg-pokeback",
                                body: info
                            }
                        );
                    }
                });

                localStorage.setItem("foo", "bar");
            }());
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

    manifest.json is exactly the same. Here are the relevant parts of widget.html:

    <script>
    (function () {
        "use strict";

        var foo = localStorage.getItem("foo");

        document.write(foo);
    }());
</script>
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