runtime

This module provides information about your extension and the environment it's running in.

It also provides messaging APIs enabling you to:

Communicate between different parts of your extension. For advice on choosing between the messaging options, see Choosing between one-off messages and connection-based messaging.
Communicate with other extensions.
Communicate with native applications.

Types

runtime.Port: Represents one end of a connection between two specific contexts, which can be used to exchange messages.
runtime.MessageSender: Contains information about the sender of a message or connection request.
runtime.PlatformOs: Identifies the browser's operating system.
runtime.PlatformArch: Identifies the browser's processor architecture.
runtime.PlatformInfo: Contains information about the platform the browser is running on.
runtime.RequestUpdateCheckStatus: Result of a call to runtime.requestUpdateCheck().
runtime.OnInstalledReason: The reason that the runtime.onInstalled event is being dispatched.
runtime.OnRestartRequiredReason: The reason that the runtime.onRestartRequired event is being dispatched.

Properties

runtime.lastError: This value is set when an asynchronous function has an error condition that it needs to report to its caller.
runtime.id: The ID of the extension.

Functions

runtime.getBackgroundPage(): Retrieves the Window object for the background page running inside the current extension.
runtime.openOptionsPage(): Opens your extension's options page.
runtime.getFrameId(): Gets the frame ID of any window global or frame element.
runtime.getManifest(): Gets the complete manifest.json file, serialized as an object.
runtime.getURL(): Given a relative path from the manifest.json to a resource packaged with the extension, returns a fully-qualified URL.
runtime.setUninstallURL(): Sets a URL to be visited when the extension is uninstalled.
runtime.reload(): Reloads the extension.
runtime.requestUpdateCheck(): Checks for updates to this extension.
runtime.connect(): Establishes a connection from a content script to the main extension process, or from one extension to a different extension.
runtime.connectNative(): Connects the extension to a native application on the user's computer.
runtime.sendMessage(): Sends a single message to event listeners within your extension or a different extension. Similar to runtime.connect but only sends a single message, with an optional response.
runtime.sendNativeMessage(): Sends a single message from an extension to a native application.
runtime.getPlatformInfo(): Returns information about the current platform.
runtime.getBrowserInfo(): Returns information about the browser in which this extension is installed.
runtime.getPackageDirectoryEntry(): Returns a DirectoryEntry for the package directory.

Events

runtime.onStartup: Fired when a profile that has this extension installed first starts up. This event is not fired when an incognito profile is started.
runtime.onInstalled: Fired when the extension is first installed, when the extension is updated to a new version, and when the browser is updated to a new version.
runtime.onSuspend: Sent to the event page just before the extension is unloaded. This gives the extension an opportunity to do some cleanup.
runtime.onSuspendCanceled: Sent after runtime.onSuspend to indicate that the extension won't be unloaded after all.
runtime.onUpdateAvailable: Fired when an update is available, but isn't installed immediately because the extension is currently running.
runtime.onBrowserUpdateAvailable Deprecated: Fired when an update for the browser is available, but isn't installed immediately because a browser restart is required.
runtime.onConnect: Fired when a connection is made with either an extension process or a content script.
runtime.onConnectExternal: Fired when a connection is made with another extension.
runtime.onMessage: Fired when a message is sent from either an extension process or a content script.
runtime.onMessageExternal: Fired when a message is sent from another extension. Cannot be used in a content script.
runtime.onRestartRequired: Fired when the device needs to be restarted.

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

Example extensions

Note: This API is based on Chromium's chrome.runtime API. This documentation is derived from runtime.json in the Chromium code.