CODEWITHSUNDEEP
firefox-addon-webextensions
AlJo
AlJo

Reputation: 171

Need workaround for calling alert() from background script

Calling alert() from the background script is allowed in Google's Chrome, but not in Firefox (WebExtensions) which I am porting my Chrome extension to.

So, I need a workaround to get an alert dialog up. I'm not asking for anything else other than THE alert dialog.

Sending a message to a content script to call alert() will not suffice since no content scripts may be loaded at the time the alert call is needed.

Upvotes: 6

Views: 2749

Answers (2)

Husky
Husky

Reputation: 6196

Background scripts and pages in Firefox unfortunately do not support the prompt(), alert() and confirm() functions of the DOM window object (source). However, a pretty good replacement for the alert() function is the browser.notifications API.

To create a drop-in replacement, add the notifications permission to your manifest.json:

  "permissions": [
      "notifications"
  ]

And add a function like this to your background script:

function alert(msg) {
    browser.notifications.create({
        type : 'basic',
        message : msg,
        title : 'Extension alert'
    });
}

Now, whenever you call alert() in your extensions background script it will show a notification.

Upvotes: 1

GrafZahl
GrafZahl

Reputation: 59

My workaround is to save the alert code in a string like:

var alertWindow = 'alert(message)';

and let the background script inject that code like:

browser.tabs.executeScript({code : alertWindow});

Upvotes: 5

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