runtime.onMessage
- in a content script, to listen for messages from a background script.
- in a background script, to listen for messages from a content script.
- in an options page or popup script, to listen for messages from a background script.
- in a background script, to listen for messages from an options page or popup script.
To send a message that is received by the onMessage
listener, use runtime.sendMessage()
or (to send a message to a content script) tabs.sendMessage()
.
备注: Avoid creating multiple onMessage
listeners for the same type of message, as the order in which multiple listeners will fire is not guaranteed. Where you want to guarantee the delivery of a message to a specific end point, use the connection-based approach to exchange messages.
Along with the message itself, the listener is passed:
- a
sender
object giving details about the message sender. - a
sendResponse
function that can be used to send a response back to the sender.
You can send a synchronous response to the message by calling the sendResponse
function inside your listener. See an example.
To send an asynchronous response, there are two options:
- return
true
from the event listener. This keeps thesendResponse
function valid after the listener returns, so you can call it later. See an example. - return a
Promise
from the event listener, and resolve when you have the response (or reject it in case of an error). See an example.
警告: Returning a Promise
is now preferred as sendResponse
will be removed from the W3C spec. The popular webextension-polyfill library has already removed the sendResponse
function from its implementation.
备注: You can also use a connection-based approach to exchange messages.
Syntax
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(listener)
browser.runtime.onMessage.removeListener(listener)
browser.runtime.onMessage.hasListener(listener)
Events have three functions:
addListener(callback)
-
Adds a listener to this event.
removeListener(listener)
-
Stop listening to this event. The
listener
argument is the listener to remove. hasListener(listener)
-
Checks whether a
listener
is registered for this event. Returnstrue
if it is listening,false
otherwise.
addListener syntax
Parameters
function
-
A listener function that will be called when this event occurs. The function will be passed the following arguments:
message
-
object
. The message itself. This is a JSON-ifiable object. sender
-
A
runtime.MessageSender
(en-US) object representing the sender of the message. sendResponse
-
A function to call, at most once, to send a response to the message. The function takes a single argument, which may be any JSON-ifiable object. This argument is passed back to the message sender.
If you have more than one
onMessage
listener in the same document, then only one may send a response.To send a response synchronously, call
sendResponse
before the listener function returns. To send a response asynchronously:- either keep a reference to the
sendResponse
argument and returntrue
from the listener function. You will then be able to callsendResponse
after the listener function has returned. - or return a
Promise
from the listener function and resolve the promise when the response is ready. This is a preferred way.
- either keep a reference to the
The listener function can return either a Boolean or a
Promise
.警告: Do not call
addListener
using theasync
function, as in:browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(async (data, sender) => { if (data.type === 'handle_me') return 'done'; });
as the listener will consume every message it receives, effectively blocking all other listeners from receiving and processing messages.
If you want to take an asynchronous approach, use a promise instead, as in:
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(data, sender) => { if (data.type === 'handle_me') return Promise.resolve('done'); });
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
Examples
Simple example
This content script listens for click events on the web page. If the click was on a link, it messages the background page with the target URL:
// content-script.js
window.addEventListener("click", notifyExtension);
function notifyExtension(e) {
if (e.target.tagName != "A") {
return;
}
browser.runtime.sendMessage({"url": e.target.href});
}
The background script listens for these messages and displays a notification using the notifications
(en-US) API:
// background-script.js
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(notify);
function notify(message) {
browser.notifications.create({
"type": "basic",
"iconUrl": browser.extension.getURL("link.png"),
"title": "You clicked a link!",
"message": message.url
});
}
Sending a synchronous response
This content script sends a message to the background script when the user clicks on the page. It also logs any response sent by the background script:
// content-script.js
function handleResponse(message) {
console.log(`background script sent a response: ${message.response}`);
}
function handleError(error) {
console.log(`Error: ${error}`);
}
function sendMessage(e) {
var sending = browser.runtime.sendMessage({content: "message from the content script"});
sending.then(handleResponse, handleError);
}
window.addEventListener("click", sendMessage);
Here is a version of the corresponding background script, that sends a response synchronously, from inside in the listener:
// background-script.js
function handleMessage(request, sender, sendResponse) {
console.log(`content script sent a message: ${request.content}`);
sendResponse({response: "response from background script"});
}
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(handleMessage);
And here is another version, that uses Promise.resolve():
// background-script.js
function handleMessage(request, sender, sendResponse) {
console.log(`content script sent a message: ${request.content}`);
return Promise.resolve({response: "response from background script"});
}
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(handleMessage);
Sending an asynchronous response using sendResponse
Here is an alternative version of the background script from the previous example. It sends a response asynchronously after the listener has returned. Note return true;
in the listener: this tells the browser that you intend to use the sendResponse
argument after the listener has returned.
// background-script.js
function handleMessage(request, sender, sendResponse) {
console.log(`content script sent a message: ${request.content}`);
setTimeout(() => {
sendResponse({response: "async response from background script"});
}, 1000);
return true;
}
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(handleMessage);
Sending an asynchronous response using a Promise
This content script gets the first <a> link on the page and sends a message asking if the link's location is bookmarked. It expects to get a Boolean response: true
if the location is bookmarked, false
otherwise:
// content-script.js
const firstLink = document.querySelector("a");
function handleResponse(isBookmarked) {
if (isBookmarked) {
firstLink.classList.add("bookmarked");
}
}
browser.runtime.sendMessage({
url: firstLink.href
}).then(handleResponse);
Here is the background script. It uses
to see if the link is bookmarked, which returns a bookmarks.search()
(en-US)Promise
:
// background-script.js
function isBookmarked(message, sender, response) {
return browser.bookmarks.search({
url: message.url
}).then(function(results) {
return results.length > 0;
});
}
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(isBookmarked);
If the asynchronous handler doesn't return a promise, you can explicitly construct a promise. This rather contrived example sends a response after a 1-second delay, using Window.setTimeout()
:
// background-script.js
function handleMessage(request, sender, sendResponse) {
return new Promise(resolve => {
setTimeout(() => {
resolve({response: "async response from background script"});
}, 1000);
});
}
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(handleMessage);
Example extensions
- beastify
- content-script-register
- cookie-bg-picker
- devtools-panels
- export-helpers
- find-across-tabs
- imagify
- mocha-client-tests
- notify-link-clicks-i18n
- store-collected-images
- user-script-register
- webpack-modules
备注: This API is based on Chromium's chrome.runtime
API. This documentation is derived from runtime.json
in the Chromium code.
Microsoft Edge compatibility data is supplied by Microsoft Corporation and is included here under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.