CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptgoogle-chromegoogle-chrome-extensionbackground
termux
termux

Reputation: 341

chrome.runtime.onMessage undefined in background script (chrome extension)

I am trying to create a chrome extension, but for some reasons, sometimes, the chrome.runtime object seems incomplete, and a lot of methods are missing (including onMessage, which is the one I want).

It seems sometimes it works, sometimes not. I assumed it may be a time related issue, but I don't understand why I can't simply create a message listener on background?

My background script:

setTimeout(function () {
    console.log("gogo!");
    chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener(
        function(request, sender, sendResponse) {
            console.log(sender.tab ?
                        "from a content script:" + sender.tab.url :
                        "from the extension");
            if (request.type == "tab") {
                console.log("tab!");
                sendResponse({status: "ok"});
            }
        }),
    2
});

Where "chrome.runtime.onMessage" is undefined.

Thanks!

Edit2: I have built a much simpler prototype, and it's failing again. Now I am really confused. Here is what I have:

$tree
.
├── manifest.json
├── src
│   ├── background.html
│   ├── background.js
│   └── test.js
└── vendor
    └── jquery.js

2 directories, 5 files

manifest.json file:

{
    "manifest_version": 2,

    "name": "test",
    "description": "test",
    "version": "1.0",
    "author": "test",

    "homepage_url": "http://www.test.com",

    "content_scripts": [
        {
            "run_at" : "document_idle",
            "matches": ["https://www.google*"],
            "js": ["vendor/jquery.js", "src/test.js"]
        }
    ],

    "background": {
        "page": "src/background.html",
        "persistent": false
    },

    "permissions": [
        "tabs",
        "https://www.google*"
    ]
}

background.html file:

<script src="../vendor/jquery.js"></script>
<script src="background.js"></script>

background.js file:

function run () {
    console.log("gogo!");
    chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener(
        function(request, sender, sendResponse) {
            console.log(sender.tab ?
                        "from a content script:" + sender.tab.url :
                        "from the extension");
            if (request.type == "tab") {
                console.log("tab!");
                sendResponse({status: "ok"});
            }
        });
}

run();

test.js file:

'use strict';

run();

function run() {
    var url = window.location.href;

    // Error if no URI
    if (!url) {
        return 1;
    }

    var uriRe = /https:\/\/www\.google.*/;
    var reParse = uriRe.exec(url);
    if (!reParse) {
        return 2;
    }

    chrome.runtime.sendMessage({type: "tab"}, function(response) {
        console.log(response);
    });
}

I am using Chrome 49.0.2623.112 (64-bit) on OSX.

Edit: Here is a screenshot of what happens the times it fails:

Failure screenshot

I want to precise again that it doesn't fail all the time (maybe 50% of the time?), which makes it even more weird and makes me believe there is a kind of "race" condition somewhere I am not aware of.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 5707

Answers (4)

user1649736
user1649736

Reputation: 1

I just encountered the same problem. Typing "chrome.runtime" on the console and expanding the resulting object by clicking on the little triangle showed that it had only 1 function instead of many. In particular, chrome.runtime.onMessage was undefined.

On the page chrome://extensions I clicked the "Remove" button on the extension I was working on. I then clicked "Load unpacked" near the top of the page and selected the directory with my extension. After that, chrome.runtime was fully populated, and my extension ran correctly. I have no idea why that worked.

Upvotes: 0

强大大
强大大

Reputation: 1

click the top and set the console in extension environmint

enter image description here

the background just run once.you should run more to check the resutl

this is my code it wroks well:

chrome.tabs.onUpdated.addListener(
	function(tabId,info,tab){
		if(info.status=="complete")
			console.log("complete")
		chrome.tabs.sendMessage(tabId, {greeting: "inupdate"}, function(response) {
			console.log(response);
		});
	}
)

Upvotes: 0

termux
termux

Reputation: 341

Problem solved: I had to disable, then re-enable all my other extensions. Seems like a bug from Chrome.

Upvotes: 6

thepiyush13
thepiyush13

Reputation: 1331

I think it has to do with the timeout function you are using, Google already has something called alarms which helps to schedule code to run periodically or at a specified time.

https://developer.chrome.com/apps/alarms

Try that instead of timeout

Upvotes: -1

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