Add-ons

runtime.onMessage

Use this event to listen for messages from another part of your extension. For example, you can use it:
 
  • in a content script, to listen for messages from a background script
  • in a background script, to listen for messages from a content script
  • in an options page or popup script, to listen for messages from a background script
  • in an background script, to listen for messages from a options page or popup script.

To send a message which will be received by the onMessage listener, use runtime.sendMessage() or (to send a message to a content script) tabs.sendMessage().

Along with the message itself, the listener is passed:

  • a sender object giving details about the message sender
  • a sendResponse function which it can use to send a response back to the sender.

You can send a synchronous response to the message by calling the sendResponse function inside your listener. See an example.

To send an asynchronous response, there are two options:

  • return true from the event listener. This keeps the sendResponse function valid after the listener returns, so you can call it later. See an example.
  • return a Promise from the event listener, and resolve when you have the response (or reject it in case of an error). See an example.

In Firefox versions prior to version 51, the runtime.onMessage listener will be called for messages sent from the same script (e.g. messages sent by the background script will also be received by the background script). In those versions of Firefox, if you unconditionally call runtime.sendMessage() from within a runtime.onMessage listener, you will set up an infinite loop which will max-out the CPU and lock-up Firefox. If you need to call runtime.sendMessage() from within a runtime.onMessage, you will need to check the sender.url property to verify you are not sending a message in response to a message which was sent from the same script. This bug was resolved as of Firefox 51.

Syntax

browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(listener)
browser.runtime.onMessage.removeListener(listener)
browser.runtime.onMessage.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 listener 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 onMessage 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.

The listener function can return either a Boolean or a Promise.

Browser compatibility

ChromeEdgeFirefoxFirefox for AndroidOpera
Basic support26Yes454815

Examples

Simple example

This content script listens for click events in the web page. If the click was on a link, it messages the background page with the target URL:

// content-script.js
window.addEventListener("click", notifyExtension);
function notifyExtension(e) {
  if (e.target.tagName != "A") {
    return;
  }
  browser.runtime.sendMessage({"url": e.target.href});
}

The background script listens for these messages and displays a notification using the notifications API:

// background-script.js
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(notify);
function notify(message) {
  browser.notifications.create({
    "type": "basic",
    "iconUrl": browser.extension.getURL("link.png"),
    "title": "You clicked a link!",
    "message": message.url
  });
}

Sending a synchronous response

This content script sends a message to the background script when the user clicks in the page. It also logs any response sent by the background script:

// content-script.js
function handleResponse(message) {
  console.log(`background script sent a response: ${message.response}`);
}
function handleError(error) {
  console.log(`Error: ${error}`);
}
function sendMessage(e) {
  var sending = browser.runtime.sendMessage({content: "message from the content script"});
  sending.then(handleResponse, handleError);  
}
window.addEventListener("click", sendMessage);

Here's one version of the corresponding background script, that sends a response synchronously, from inside in the listener:

// background-script.js
function handleMessage(request, sender, sendResponse) {
  console.log(`content script sent a message: ${request.content}`);
  sendResponse({response: "response from background script"});
}
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(handleMessage);

Sending an asynchronous response using sendResponse

Here's an alternative version of the background script from the previous example. It sends a response asynchronously, after the listener has returned. Note return true; in the listener: this tells the browser that you intend to use the sendResponse argument after the listener has returned.

// background-script.js
function handleMessage(request, sender, sendResponse) {  
  console.log(`content script sent a message: ${request.content}`);
  setTimeout(() => {
    sendResponse({response: "async response from background script"});
  }, 1000);  
  return true;
}
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(handleMessage);

Sending an asynchronous response using a Promise

Here's a content script that gets the first <a> link in the page, and sends a message asking if the link's location is bookmarked. It expects to get a Boolean response: true if the location is bookmarked, false otherwise:

// content-script.js
const firstLink = document.querySelector("a");
function handleResponse(isBookmarked) {
  if (isBookmarked) {
    firstLink.classList.add("bookmarked");
  }
}
browser.runtime.sendMessage({
  url: firstLink.href
}).then(handleResponse);

Here's the background script. It uses bookmarks.search() to see if the link is bookmarked, which returns a Promise:

// background-script.js
function isBookmarked(message, sender, response) {
  return browser.bookmarks.search({
    url: message.url
  }).then(function(results) {
    return results.length > 0;
  });
}
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(isBookmarked);

If the asynchronous handler doesn't return a promise, you can explicitly construct a promise. This rather contrived example sends a response after a 1 second delay, using Window.setTimeout():

// background-script.js
function handleMessage(request, sender, sendResponse) {
  return new Promise(resolve => {
    setTimeout(() => {
      resolve({response: "async response from background script"});
    }, 1000);
  });
}
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(handleMessage);

Example extensions

Acknowledgements

This API is based on Chromium's chrome.runtime API. This documentation is derived from runtime.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

Tags: 
 Contributors to this page: andrewtruongmoz, wbamberg, lemnis, Makyen, chrisdavidmills
 Last updated by: andrewtruongmoz,