Question

I try to write a Google Chrome extension that simply opens a new tab when I click left-right in a short interval. The JavaScript is no problem but I implemented this as a “content_scripts” script.

In some other threads I read that I can’t access the chrome.* APIs from content_scripts (except the chrome.extension API).

Even if it’s not necessary to access the chrome.tabs API to open a new window (window.open should do the job) it seems I need it though for opening a new tab with the new tab page which obviously isn’t possible via window.open.

So I can’t really figure out what is the best way to do that. I could use a background page which I could call from the content_script but I think there should be a much more simple way to do that, I just don’t get it.

Anyone have an idea?

Answer 1

I think your content script will have to send a message to your background page to invoke chrome.tabs.create – content scripts cannot use the chrome api, nor can they directly communicate with the background page.

Here’s a reference about message passing inside Chrome extensions for further detail, but here’s the example code ( modified from the example in said reference )

// in background
chrome.extension.onMessage.addListener(
  function(request, sender, sendResponse) {
    switch ( request.action) {
       case 'newTab' : {
         //note: passing an empty object opens a new blank tab, 
         //but an object must be passed
         chrome.tabs.create({/*options*/}); 
         // run callback / send response
       } break;
    }
    return true; //required if you want your callback to run, IIRC
  });

// in content script:
chrome.extension.sendMessage({action: "newTab"}, function(response) {
  //optional callback code here.
});