Chrome Extension how to send data from content script to popup.html

Sumair Baloch picture Sumair Baloch · Nov 16, 2013 · Viewed 88.1k times · Source

I know this this has been asked in numerous posts but honestly I don't get them. I am new to JavaScript, Chrome Extensions and everything and I have this class assignment. So I need to make a plugin that would count DOM objects on any given page using Cross Domain Requests. I've been able to achieve this so far using Chrome Extension API's. Now the problem is I need to show the data on my popup.html page from the contentScript.js file. I don't know how to do that I've tried reading the documentation but messaging in chrome I just can't understand what to do.

following is the code so far.

manifest.json

{
"manifest_version":2,

"name":"Dom Reader",
"description":"Counts Dom Objects",
"version":"1.0",

"page_action": {
    "default_icon":"icon.png",
    "default_title":"Dom Reader",
    "default_popup":"popup.html"
},

"background":{
    "scripts":["eventPage.js"],
    "persistent":false
},

"content_scripts":[
    {
        "matches":["http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/*", "http://pluralsight.com/training/Authors/Details/*",                                          "https://www.youtube.com/user/*", "https://sites.google.com/site/*", "http://127.0.0.1:3667/popup.html"],
        "js":["domReader_cs.js","jquery-1.10.2.js"]
        //"css":["pluralsight_cs.css"]
    }
],

"permissions":[
    "tabs",
    "http://pluralsight.com/*",
    "http://youtube.com/*",
    "https://sites.google.com/*",
    "http://127.0.0.1:3667/*"
]

popup.html

<!doctype html>
<html>

    <title> Dom Reader </title>    
    <script src="jquery-1.10.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="popup.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<body>
    <H1> Dom Reader </H1>
    <input type="submit" id="readDom" value="Read DOM Objects" />

   <div id="domInfo">

    </div>
</body>
</html>

eventPage.js

var value1,value2,value3;

chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener(function (request, sender, sendResponse) {
if (request.action == "show") {
    chrome.tabs.query({ active: true, currentWindow: true }, function (tabs) {
        chrome.pageAction.show(tabs[0].id);
    });
}

value1 = request.tElements;
});

popup.js

$(function (){
$('#readDom').click(function(){
chrome.tabs.query({active: true, currentWindow: true}, function (tabs){
    chrome.tabs.sendMessage(tabs[0].id, {action: "readDom"});

 });
});
});

contentScript

var totalElements;
var inputFields;
var buttonElement;

chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener(function (request, sender, sendResponse){
if(request.action == "readDom"){

    totalElements = $("*").length;
    inputFields = $("input").length;
    buttonElement = $("button").length;


}
})

chrome.runtime.sendMessage({ 
action: "show", 
tElements: totalElements, 
Ifields: inputFields, 
bElements: buttonElement 

});

Any help would be appreciated and please avoid any noobness I did :)

Answer

gkalpak picture gkalpak · Nov 16, 2013

Although you are definitely in the right direction (and actually pretty close to the end), there are several (imo) bad practises in your code (e.g. injecting a whole library (jquery) for such a trivial task, declaring unnecessary permissions, making superflous calls to API methods etc).
I did not test your code myself, but from a quick overview I believe that correcting the following could result in a working solution (although not very close to optimal):

  1. In manifest.json: Change the order of the content scripts, putting jquery first. According to the relevant docs:

    "js" [...] The list of JavaScript files to be injected into matching pages. These are injected in the order they appear in this array.

    (emphasis mine)

  2. In contentscript.js: Move the chrome.runtime.sendMessage({...}) block inside the onMessage listener callback.


That said, here is my proposed approach:

Control flow:

  1. A content script is injected into each page matching some criteria.
  2. Once injected, the content scripts send a message to the event page (a.k.a. non-persistent background page) and the event page attaches a page-action to the tab.
  3. As soon as the page-action popup is loaded, it sends a message to the content script, asking for the info it needs.
  4. The content script processes the request, and responds so the page-action popup can display the info.

Directory structure:

          root-directory/
           |_____img
                 |_____icon19.png
                 |_____icon38.png
           |_____manifest.json
           |_____background.js
           |_____content.js
           |_____popup.js
           |_____popup.html

manifest.json:

{
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "name": "Test Extension",
  "version": "0.0",
  "offline_enabled": true,

  "background": {
    "persistent": false,
    "scripts": ["background.js"]
  },

  "content_scripts": [{
    "matches": ["*://*.stackoverflow.com/*"],
    "js": ["content.js"],
    "run_at": "document_idle",
    "all_frames": false
  }],

  "page_action": {
    "default_title": "Test Extension",
    //"default_icon": {
    //  "19": "img/icon19.png",
    //  "38": "img/icon38.png"
    //},
    "default_popup": "popup.html"
  }

  // No special permissions required...
  //"permissions": []
}

background.js:

chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener((msg, sender) => {
  // First, validate the message's structure.
  if ((msg.from === 'content') && (msg.subject === 'showPageAction')) {
    // Enable the page-action for the requesting tab.
    chrome.pageAction.show(sender.tab.id);
  }
});

content.js:

// Inform the background page that 
// this tab should have a page-action.
chrome.runtime.sendMessage({
  from: 'content',
  subject: 'showPageAction',
});

// Listen for messages from the popup.
chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener((msg, sender, response) => {
  // First, validate the message's structure.
  if ((msg.from === 'popup') && (msg.subject === 'DOMInfo')) {
    // Collect the necessary data. 
    // (For your specific requirements `document.querySelectorAll(...)`
    //  should be equivalent to jquery's `$(...)`.)
    var domInfo = {
      total: document.querySelectorAll('*').length,
      inputs: document.querySelectorAll('input').length,
      buttons: document.querySelectorAll('button').length,
    };

    // Directly respond to the sender (popup), 
    // through the specified callback.
    response(domInfo);
  }
});

popup.js:

// Update the relevant fields with the new data.
const setDOMInfo = info => {
  document.getElementById('total').textContent = info.total;
  document.getElementById('inputs').textContent = info.inputs;
  document.getElementById('buttons').textContent = info.buttons;
};

// Once the DOM is ready...
window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
  // ...query for the active tab...
  chrome.tabs.query({
    active: true,
    currentWindow: true
  }, tabs => {
    // ...and send a request for the DOM info...
    chrome.tabs.sendMessage(
        tabs[0].id,
        {from: 'popup', subject: 'DOMInfo'},
        // ...also specifying a callback to be called 
        //    from the receiving end (content script).
        setDOMInfo);
  });
});

popup.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="popup.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h3 style="font-weight:bold; text-align:center;">DOM Info</h3>
    <table border="1" cellpadding="3" style="border-collapse:collapse;">
      <tr>
        <td nowrap>Total number of elements:</td>
        <td align="right"><span id="total">N/A</span></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td nowrap>Number of input elements:</td>
        <td align="right"><span id="inputs">N/A</span></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td nowrap>Number of button elements:</td>
        <td align="right"><span id="buttons">N/A</span></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
  </body>
</html>