runtime

This module provides information about your add-on and the environment it's running in. It also provides messaging APIs enabling you to: communicate between different parts of your add-on, communicate with other add-ons, and communicate with native applications.

Types

runtime.Port

Provides a dedicated messaging channel between two specific endpoints.

runtime.MessageSender

Contains information about the sender of a message or connection request.

runtime.PlatformOs

Identifies the browser's operating system.

runtime.PlatformArch

Identifies the browser's processor architecture.

runtime.PlatformInfo

Contains information about the platform the browser is running on.

runtime.RequestUpdateCheckStatus

Result of a call to runtime.requestUpdateCheck().

runtime.OnInstalledReason

The reason that the runtime.onInstalled event is being dispatched.

runtime.OnRestartRequiredReason

The reason that the runtime.onRestartRequired event is being dispatched.

Properties

runtime.lastError

This value is set when an asynchronous function has an error condition that it needs to report to its caller.

runtime.id

The ID of the add-on.

Functions

runtime.getBackgroundPage()

Retrieves the Window object for the background page running inside the current add-on.

runtime.openOptionsPage()

Open your add-ons's options page.

runtime.getManifest()

Get the complete manifest.json file, serialized to an object.

runtime.getURL()

Given a relative path from the manifest.json to a resource packaged with the add-on, return a fully-qualified URL.

runtime.setUninstallURL()

Sets the URL to be visited upon uninstallation. This may be used to clean up server-side data, do analytics, and implement surveys. Maximum 255 characters.

runtime.reload()

Reloads the add-on.

runtime.requestUpdateCheck()

Requests an update check for this add-on.

runtime.restart()

Restart the device when the app runs in kiosk mode. Otherwise, it's no-op.

runtime.connect()

Attempts to connect listeners within an add-on (such as the background page), or other extensions. Use this to connect a content script to the main add-on process, or to connect to other add-ons. Note that this does not connect to any listeners in a content script. Extensions may connect to content scripts embedded in tabs via tabs.connect.

runtime.connectNative()

Connects to a native application in the host machine.

runtime.sendMessage()

Sends a single message to event listeners within your extension/app or a different extension/app. Similar to runtime.connect but only sends a single message, with an optional response. If sending to your extension, the runtime.onMessage event will be fired in each page, or runtime.onMessageExternal, if a different extension. Note that extensions cannot send messages to content scripts using this method. To send messages to content scripts, use tabs.sendMessage.

runtime.sendNativeMessage()

Send a single message to a native application.

runtime.getPlatformInfo()

Returns information about the current platform.

runtime.getPackageDirectoryEntry()

Returns a DirectoryEntry for the package directory.

Events

runtime.onStartup

Fired when a profile that has this extension installed first starts up. This event is not fired when an incognito profile is started, even if this extension is operating in 'split' incognito mode.

runtime.onInstalled

Fired when the extension is first installed, when the extension is updated to a new version, and when the browser is updated to a new version.

runtime.onSuspend

Sent to the event page just before it is unloaded. This gives the extension opportunity to do some clean up. Note that since the page is unloading, any asynchronous operations started while handling this event are not guaranteed to complete. If more activity for the event page occurs before it gets unloaded the onSuspendCanceled event will be sent and the page won't be unloaded.

runtime.onSuspendCanceled

Sent after onSuspend to indicate that the app won't be unloaded after all.

runtime.onUpdateAvailable

Fired when an update is available, but isn't installed immediately because the app is currently running. If you do nothing, the update will be installed the next time the background page gets unloaded, if you want it to be installed sooner you can explicitly call runtime.reload. If your extension is using a persistent background page, the background page of course never gets unloaded, so unless you call runtime.reload manually in response to this event the update will not get installed until the next time the browser itself restarts. If no handlers are listening for this event, and your extension has a persistent background page, it behaves as if runtime.reload is called in response to this event.

runtime.onBrowserUpdateAvailable

Fired when an update for the browser is available, but isn't installed immediately because a browser restart is required.

runtime.onConnect

Fired when a connection is made from either an extension process or a content script.

runtime.onConnectExternal

Fired when a connection is made from another extension.

runtime.onMessage

Fired when a message is sent from either an extension process or a content script.

runtime.onMessageExternal

Fired when a message is sent from another extension/app. Cannot be used in a content script.

runtime.onRestartRequired

Fired when an app or the device that it runs on needs to be restarted. The app should close all its windows at its earliest convenient time to let the restart to happen. If the app does nothing, a restart will be enforced after a 24-hour grace period has passed. Currently, this event is only fired for Chrome OS kiosk apps.

Browser compatibility

1. Firefox does not support nacl_arch.
2. Firefox does not support nacl_arch.

Chrome incompatibilities

• Firefox does not support:
  • connectNative()
  • getPackageDirectoryEntry()
  • openOptionsPage()
  • reload()
  • requestUpdateCheck()
  • restart()
  • sendNativeMessage()
  • onBrowserUpdateAvailable
  • onConnectExternal
  • onInstalled
  • onMessageExternal
  • onRestartRequired
  • onStartup
  • onSuspend
  • onSuspendCanceled
  • onUpdateAvailable

Example add-ons

• beastify
• inpage-toolbar-ui
• notify-link-clicks-i18n

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