runtime.onMessageExternal

This API can't be used in a content script.

Syntax

browser.runtime.onMessageExternal.addListener()
browser.runtime.onMessageExternal.removeListener(listener)
browser.runtime.onMessageExternal.hasListener(listener)

Events have three functions:

addListener(callback)

Adds a listener to this event.

removeListener(listener)

Stop listening to this event. The listener argument is the listener to remove.

hasListener(listener)

Checks whether a listener is registered for this event. Returns true if it is listening, false otherwise.

addListener syntax

Parameters

function

A callback function that will be called when this event occurs. The function will be passed the following arguments:

message

object. The message itself. This is a JSON-ifiable object.

sender

A runtime.MessageSender object representing the sender of the message.

sendResponse

A function to call, at most once, to send a response to the message. The function takes a single argument, which may be any JSON-ifiable object. This argument is passed back to the message sender.

If you have more than one onMessageExternal listener in the same document, then only one may send a response.

To send a response synchronously, call sendResponse before the listener function returns. To send a response asynchronously:

• either keep a reference to the sendResponse argument and return true from the listener function. You will then be able to call sendResponse after the listener function has returned.
• or return a Promise from the listener function and resolve the promise when the response is ready.

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Examples

In this example the extension "blue@mozilla.org" sends a message to the extension "red@mozilla.org":

// sender: browser.runtime.id == "blue@mozilla.org" 
// Send a message to the extension whose ID is "red@mozilla.org"
browser.runtime.sendMessage(
    "red@mozilla.org",
    "my message"
  );

// recipient: browser.runtime.id == "red@mozilla.org"
function handleMessage(message, sender) {
  // check that the message is from "blue@mozilla.org"
  if (sender.id === "blue@mozilla.org") {
    // process message
  }
}
browser.runtime.onMessageExternal.addListener(handleMessage);

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