Question

I’m writing an extension which surfaces links to gmail messages. As the UI loads right in Gmail, I should be able to click on one of these links and have Gmail load it (without refreshing). I have “x-gm-msgid” available and theoretically, I should just be able to navigate to “https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/%5Bx-gm-msgid%5D”.

I’ve tried using

location.hash = "#inbox/[x-gm-msgid]"

I’ve tried using

history.pushState(null, null, "/mail/u/0/#inbox/[x-gm-msgid]")

Neither of which works. Gmail just thwarts any attempt to change the URL (unless it is done via user interaction)

Any thoughts on how to get around this restriction?

Answer 1

chrome.tabs.update should work.

Modifies the properties of a tab. Properties that are not specified in updateProperties are not modified. Note: This function can be used without requesting the ‘tabs’ permission in the manifest.