Add-ons

contextMenus.create()

Creates a new context menu item, given an options object defining properties for the item.

Unlike other asynchronous functions, this one does not return a promise, but uses an optional callback to communicate success or failure. This is because its return value is the ID of the new item.

Syntax

browser.contextMenus.create(
  createProperties, // object
  function() {...}  // optional function
)

Parameters

createProperties
object. Properties for the new context menu item.
checkedOptional
boolean. The initial state of a checkbox or radio item: true for selected and false for unselected. Only one radio item can be selected at a time in a given group of radio items.
commandOptional

string. String describing an action that should be taken when the user clicks the item. Possible values are:

  • "_execute_browser_action": simulate a click on the extension's browser action, opening its popup if it has one
  • "_execute_page_action": simulate a click on the extension's page action, opening its popup if it has one
  • "_execute_sidebar_action": open the extension's sidebar

Clicking the item will still trigger the contextMenus.onClicked event, but there's no guarantee of the ordering here: the command may be executed before onClicked fires.

contextsOptional

array of contextMenus.ContextType. Array of contexts in which this menu item will appear. If this option is omitted:

  • if the item's parent has contexts set, then this item will inherit its parent's contexts
  • otherwise, the item is given a context array of ["page"].
documentUrlPatternsOptional
array of string. Lets you restrict the item to apply only to documents whose URL matches one of the given match patterns. This applies to frames as well.
enabledOptional
boolean. Whether this context menu item is enabled or disabled. Defaults to true.
idOptional
string. The unique ID to assign to this item. Mandatory for event pages. Cannot be the same as another ID for this extension.
onclickOptional
function. A function that will be called when the menu item is clicked. Event pages cannot use this: instead, they should register a listener for contextMenus.onClicked.
parentIdOptional
integer or string. The ID of a parent menu item; this makes the item a child of a previously added item.
targetUrlPatternsOptional
array of string. Similar to documentUrlPatterns, but lets you filter based on the src attribute of img/audio/video tags and the href of anchor tags.
titleOptional

string. The text to be displayed in the item. Mandatory unless type is "separator".

You can use "%s" in the string. If you do this, and some text is selected in the page when the context menu is shown, then the selected text will be interpolated into the title. For example, if title is "Translate '%s' to Pig Latin" and the user selects the word "cool", then activates the context menu, then the context menu item's title will be: "Translate 'cool' to Pig Latin".

typeOptional
contextMenus.ItemType. The type of menu item: "normal", "checkbox", "radio", "separator". Defaults to "normal".
callbackOptional
function. Called when the item has been created. If there were any problems creating the item, details will be available in runtime.lastError.

Return value

integer or string. The ID of the newly created item.

Browser compatibility

ChromeEdgeFirefoxFirefox for AndroidOpera
Basic supportYes 1Yes 148 2NoYes 1
commandNoNo55NoNo
1. Items that don't specify 'contexts' do not inherit contexts from their parents.
2. From version 53, items that don't specify 'contexts' will inherit contexts from their parents.

Examples

This example creates a context menu item that's shown when the user has selected some text in the page. It just logs the selected text to the console:

browser.contextMenus.create({
  id: "log-selection",
  title: "Log '%s' to the console",
  contexts: ["selection"]
});
browser.contextMenus.onClicked.addListener(function(info, tab) {
  if (info.menuItemId == "log-selection") {
    console.log(info.selectionText);
  }
});

This example adds two radio items, which you can use to choose whether to apply a green or a blue border to the page. Note that this example will need the activeTab permission.

function onCreated() {
  if (browser.runtime.lastError) {
    console.log("error creating item:" + browser.runtime.lastError);
  } else {
    console.log("item created successfully");
  }
}
browser.contextMenus.create({
  id: "radio-green",
  type: "radio",
  title: "Make it green",
  contexts: ["all"],
  checked: false
}, onCreated);
browser.contextMenus.create({
  id: "radio-blue",
  type: "radio",
  title: "Make it blue",
  contexts: ["all"],
  checked: false
}, onCreated);
var makeItBlue = 'document.body.style.border = "5px solid blue"';
var makeItGreen = 'document.body.style.border = "5px solid green"';
browser.contextMenus.onClicked.addListener(function(info, tab) {
  if (info.menuItemId == "radio-blue") {
    browser.tabs.executeScript(tab.id, {
      code: makeItBlue
    });
  } else if (info.menuItemId == "radio-green") {
    browser.tabs.executeScript(tab.id, {
      code: makeItGreen
    });    
  }
});

Example extensions

Acknowledgements

This API is based on Chromium's chrome.contextMenus API. This documentation is derived from context_menus.json in the Chromium code.

Microsoft Edge compatibility data is supplied by Microsoft Corporation and is included here under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Document Tags and Contributors

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 Contributors to this page: ThiefZero, andrewtruongmoz, wbamberg, Makyen, rolfedh
 Last updated by: ThiefZero,