Add-ons using the techniques described in this document are considered a legacy technology in Firefox. Don't use these techniques to develop new add-ons. Use WebExtensions instead. If you maintain an add-on which uses the techniques described here, consider migrating it to use WebExtensions.
From Firefox 53 onwards, no new legacy add-ons will be accepted on addons.mozilla.org (AMO).
From Firefox 57 onwards, WebExtensions will be the only supported extension type, and Firefox will not load other types.
Even before Firefox 57, changes coming up in the Firefox platform will break many legacy extensions. These changes include multiprocess Firefox (e10s), sandboxing, and multiple content processes. Legacy extensions that are affected by these changes should migrate to WebExtensions if they can. See the "Compatibility Milestones" document for more.
A wiki page containing resources, migration paths, office hours, and more, is available to help developers transition to the new technologies.
Stable
Set one-off and periodic timers.
Globals
Constructors
Functions
setTimeout(callback, ms)
Schedules callback to be called in ms milliseconds. Any additional arguments are passed straight through to the callback.
Parameters
callback : function
Function to be called.
ms : integer
Interval in milliseconds after which the function will be called.
Returns
integer : An ID that can later be used to undo this scheduling, if callback hasn't yet been called.
Example
var { setTimeout } = require("sdk/timers");
setTimeout(function() {
// do something in 0 ms
}, 0)
clearTimeout(ID)
Given an ID returned from setTimeout(), prevents the callback with the ID from being called (if it hasn't yet been called).
Parameters
ID : integer
An ID returned from setTimeout().
Example
var { setTimeout, clearTimeout } = require("sdk/timers");
var id = setTimeout(function() {
// do something in 1 sec
}, 1000);
// to stop/cancel this timeout
clearTimeout(id);
setInterval(callback, ms)
Schedules callback to be called repeatedly every ms milliseconds. Any additional arguments are passed straight through to the callback.
Parameters
callback : function
Function to be called.
ms : integer
Interval in milliseconds at which the function will be called.
Returns
integer : An ID that can later be used to unschedule the callback.
Example
var { setInterval } = require("sdk/timers");
setInterval(function() {
// do something every 1 sec
}, 1000)
clearInterval(ID)
Given an ID returned from setInterval(), prevents the callback with the ID from being called again.
Parameters
ID : integer
An ID returned from setInterval().
Example
var { setInterval, clearInterval } = require("sdk/timers");
var id = setInterval(function() {
// do something every 1 sec
// to stop/cancel this interval
clearInterval(id);
}, 1000);