CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptgoogle-chrome-extensiondownloadtabs
Robert
Robert

Reputation: 178

Unable to receive message in popup once popup closes on tab change

I've made a chrome extension that downloads some stuff from a certain site. Basically, it goes around through all links I'm interested in, stores them in an array and then downloads it one by one. The thing is, the storing is done in a separate file called download.js. Then, I proceed to send a message to popup.js using chrome.extension.sendRequest. I pick it up in popup.js with chrome.extension.onRequest.addListener. It works perfectly when I don't switch my tab, but I'd like it to work while I'm browsing some other stuff in the meantime. I can see the code reaching the point to send the request to popup.js through a console log, but I can't see what's going on in popup.js because when I switch my tab the popup console immediately closes.

download.js:

// logic behind link gathering and storing that works
...
gatherLinks().then(function() {
  // logs is defined, don't worry
  chrome.extension.sendRequest(logs);
)};

popup.js:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
  var downloadButton = document.getElementById('download');
  downloadButton.addEventListener('click', downloadStuff);
});

function downloadStuff() {
  chrome.tabs.executeScript({
    file: 'jquery-3.1.1.min.js'
  });
  chrome.tabs.executeScript({
    file: 'download.js'
});

chrome.extension.onRequest.addListener(function(message_logs) {
  message_logs.forEach(function(log) {
    chrome.downloads.download({
      url: log.link,
      filename: log.filename
    });
  }
}

manifest.json:

{
  ...   

  "permissions": [
    "tabs",
    "activeTab",
    "downloads"
  ],

  "background": {
    "scripts": ["download.js"]
  }
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 38

Answers (1)

Xan
Xan

Reputation: 77531

When you switch away, the popup window closes.

It does not hide the popup, the popup is properly closed, as you would close a tab. Therefore, its code is no longer executing and there's nothing to listen for your messages.

This is a job for background (or better, event) pages. They exist, invisibly, independent of what you're doing with the browser. Therefore, such a page should be the one to receive commands when the popup may not exist.

Also,

BIG SCARY WARNING!

If your content script and your background script are the same, there is a 99% probability you're doing something wrong. Do not try to reuse code in both, unless it's some auxilliary library - main logic should never be the same in those very different contexts.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions