tabs.update()

Navigate the tab to a new URL, or modify other properties of the tab.

To use this function, pass the ID of the tab to update, and an updateProperties object containing the properties you want to update. Properties that are not specified in updateProperties are not modified.

This is an asynchronous function that returns a Promise.

Syntax

var updating = browser.tabs.update(
  tabId,              // optional integer
  updateProperties    // object
)

Parameters

tabIdOptional

integer. Defaults to the selected tab of the current window.

updateProperties

object. The set of properties to update for this tab. To learn more about these properties, see the tabs.Tab documentation.

activeOptional

boolean. Whether the tab should be active. Does not affect whether the window is focused (see windows.update).

autoDiscardableOptional

boolean. Whether the tab should be discarded automatically by the browser when resources are low.

highlightedOptional

boolean. Adds or removes the tab from the current selection.

mutedOptional

boolean. Whether the tab should be muted.

openerTabIdOptional

integer. The ID of the tab that opened this tab. If specified, the opener tab must be in the same window as this tab.

pinnedOptional

boolean. Whether the tab should be pinned.

selected Optional

boolean. Whether the tab should be selected.

urlOptional

string. A URL to navigate the tab to. 

For security reasons, in Firefox, this may not be a privileged URL. So passing any of the following URLs will fail, with runtime.lastError being set to an error message:

• chrome: URLs
• javascript: URLs
• data: URLs
• privileged about: URLs (for example, about:config, about:addons, about:debugging) . Non-privileged URLs (about:home, about:newtab, about:blank) are allowed.

Return value

A Promise that will be fulfilled with a tabs.Tab object containing details about the updated tab. The tabs.Tab object doesn't contain url, title and favIconUrl unless the "tabs" permission has been requested. If the tab could not be found or some other error occurs, the promise will be rejected with an error message.

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

Navigate the active tab in the current window to https://developer.mozilla.org:

function onUpdated(tab) {
  console.log(`Updated tab: ${tab.id}`);
}
function onError(error) {
  console.log(`Error: ${error}`);
}
var updating = browser.tabs.update({url: "https://developer.mozilla.org"});
updating.then(onUpdated, onError);

Activate the first tab in the current window, and navigate it to https://developer.mozilla.org:

function onUpdated(tab) {
  console.log(`Updated tab: ${tab.id}`);
}
function onError(error) {
  console.log(`Error: ${error}`);
}
function updateFirstTab(tabs) {
  var updating = browser.tabs.update(tabs[0].id, {
    active: true,
    url: "https://developer.mozilla.org"
  });
  updating.then(onUpdated, onError);
}
var querying = browser.tabs.query({currentWindow:true});
querying.then(updateFirstTab, onError);

Example extensions

• chill-out
• firefox-code-search

// Copyright 2015 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
//
// Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
// modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
// met:
//
//    * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
// notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
//    * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
// copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer
// in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
// distribution.
//    * Neither the name of Google Inc. nor the names of its
// contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
// this software without specific prior written permission.
//
// THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
// "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
// LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
// A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
// OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
// SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
// LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
// DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
// THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
// (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
// OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.