chrome.webNavigation (original) (raw)

Description

Use the chrome.webNavigation API to receive notifications about the status of navigation requests in-flight.

Permissions

webNavigation

All chrome.webNavigation methods and events require you to declare the "webNavigation" permission in the extension manifest. For example:

{
  "name": "My extension",
  ...
  "permissions": [
    "webNavigation"
  ],
  ...
}

Concepts and usage

Event order

For a navigation that is successfully completed, events are fired in the following order:

onBeforeNavigate -> onCommitted -> [onDOMContentLoaded] -> onCompleted

Any error that occurs during the process results in an onErrorOccurred event. For a specific navigation, there are no further events fired after onErrorOccurred.

If a navigating frame contains subframes, its onCommitted is fired before any of its children'sonBeforeNavigate; while onCompleted is fired after all of its children's onCompleted.

If the reference fragment of a frame is changed, a onReferenceFragmentUpdated event is fired. This event can fire any time after onDOMContentLoaded, even after onCompleted.

If the history API is used to modify the state of a frame (e.g. using history.pushState(), aonHistoryStateUpdated event is fired. This event can fire any time after onDOMContentLoaded.

If a navigation restored a page from the Back Forward Cache, the onDOMContentLoaded event won't fire. The event is not fired because the content has already completed load when the page was first visited.

If a navigation was triggered using Chrome Instant or Instant Pages, a completely loaded page is swapped into the current tab. In that case, an onTabReplaced event is fired.

Relation to webRequest events

There is no defined ordering between events of the webRequest API and the events of the webNavigation API. It is possible that webRequest events are still received for frames that already started a new navigation, or that a navigation only proceeds after the network resources are already fully loaded.

In general, the webNavigation events are closely related to the navigation state that is displayed in the UI, while the webRequest events correspond to the state of the network stack which is generally opaque to the user.

Tab IDs

Not all navigating tabs correspond to actual tabs in Chrome's UI, for example, a tab that is being pre-rendered. Such tabs are not accessible using the tabs API nor can you request information about them by calling webNavigation.getFrame() or webNavigation.getAllFrames(). Once such a tab is swapped in, an onTabReplaced event is fired and they become accessible through these APIs.

Timestamps

It's important to note that some technical oddities in the OS's handling of distinct Chrome processes can cause the clock to be skewed between the browser itself and extension processes. That means that the timeStamp property of the WebNavigation event timeStamp property is only guaranteed to be internally consistent. Comparing one event to another event will give you the correct offset between them, but comparing them to the current time inside the extension (using (new Date()).getTime(), for instance) might give unexpected results.

Frame IDs

Frames within a tab can be identified by a frame ID. The frame ID of the main frame is always 0, the ID of child frames is a positive number. Once a document is constructed in a frame, its frame ID remains constant during the lifetime of the document. As of Chrome 49, this ID is also constant for the lifetime of the frame (across multiple navigations).

Due to the multi-process nature of Chrome, a tab might use different processes to render the source and destination of a web page. Therefore, if a navigation takes place in a new process, you might receive events both from the new and the old page until the new navigation is committed (i.e. theonCommitted event is sent for the new main frame). In other words, it is possible to have more than one pending sequence of webNavigation events with the same frameId. The sequences can be distinguished by the processId key.

Also note that during a provisional load the process might be switched several times. This happens when the load is redirected to a different site. In this case, you will receive repeatedonBeforeNavigate and onErrorOccurred events, until you receive the final onCommitted event.

Another concept that is problematic with extensions is the lifecycle of the frame. A frame hosts a document (which is associated with a committed URL). The document can change (say by navigating) but the frameId won't, and so it is difficult to associate that something happened in a specific document with just frameIds. We are introducing a concept of a documentIdwhich is a unique identifier per document. If a frame is navigated and opens a new document the identifier will change. This field is useful for determining when pages change their lifecycle state (between prerender/active/cached) because it remains the same.

Transition types and qualifiers

The webNavigation onCommitted event has a transitionType and a transitionQualifiersproperty. The transition type is the same as used in the history API describing how the browser navigated to this particular URL. In addition, several transition qualifiers can be returned that further define the navigation.

The following transition qualifiers exist:

Examples

To try this API, install the webNavigation API example from the chrome-extension-samplesrepository.

Types

TransitionQualifier

Enum

"client_redirect"

"server_redirect"

"forward_back"

"from_address_bar"

TransitionType

Cause of the navigation. The same transition types as defined in the history API are used. These are the same transition types as defined in the history API except with "start_page" in place of "auto_toplevel" (for backwards compatibility).

Enum

"link"

"typed"

"auto_bookmark"

"auto_subframe"

"manual_subframe"

"generated"

"start_page"

"form_submit"

"reload"

"keyword"

"keyword_generated"

Methods

getAllFrames()

chrome.webNavigation.getAllFrames(
  details: object,
): Promise<object[] | undefined>

Retrieves information about all frames of a given tab.

Parameters

• Information about the tab to retrieve all frames from.
  • The ID of the tab.

Returns

• Promise<object[] | undefined>

getFrame()

chrome.webNavigation.getFrame(
  details: object,
): Promise<object | undefined>

Retrieves information about the given frame. A frame refers to an or a of a web page and is identified by a tab ID and a frame ID.

Parameters

• Information about the frame to retrieve information about.
  • documentId
    string optional
    The UUID of the document. If the frameId and/or tabId are provided they will be validated to match the document found by provided document ID.
  • The ID of the frame in the given tab.
  • processId
    number optional
    Deprecated since Chrome 49
    Frames are now uniquely identified by their tab ID and frame ID; the process ID is no longer needed and therefore ignored.
    The ID of the process that runs the renderer for this tab.
  • The ID of the tab in which the frame is.

Returns

• Promise<object | undefined>

Events

onBeforeNavigate

chrome.webNavigation.onBeforeNavigate.addListener(
  callback: function,
  filters?: object,
)

Fired when a navigation is about to occur.

Parameters

• The callback parameter looks like:
  (details: object) => void
  • • The lifecycle the document is in.
      • 0 indicates the navigation happens in the tab content window; a positive value indicates navigation in a subframe. Frame IDs are unique for a given tab and process.
      • The type of frame the navigation occurred in.
      • parentDocumentId
        string optional
        A UUID of the parent document owning this frame. This is not set if there is no parent.
      • The ID of the parent frame, or -1 if this is the main frame.
      • Deprecated since Chrome 50
        The processId is no longer set for this event, since the process which will render the resulting document is not known until onCommit.
        The value of -1.
      • The ID of the tab in which the navigation is about to occur.
      • The time when the browser was about to start the navigation, in milliseconds since the epoch.
• • Conditions that the URL being navigated to must satisfy. The 'schemes' and 'ports' fields of UrlFilter are ignored for this event.

onCommitted

chrome.webNavigation.onCommitted.addListener(
  callback: function,
  filters?: object,
)

Fired when a navigation is committed. The document (and the resources it refers to, such as images and subframes) might still be downloading, but at least part of the document has been received from the server and the browser has decided to switch to the new document.

Parameters

• The callback parameter looks like:
  (details: object) => void
  • • A UUID of the document loaded.
      • The lifecycle the document is in.
      • 0 indicates the navigation happens in the tab content window; a positive value indicates navigation in a subframe. Frame IDs are unique within a tab.
      • The type of frame the navigation occurred in.
      • parentDocumentId
        string optional
        A UUID of the parent document owning this frame. This is not set if there is no parent.
      • The ID of the parent frame, or -1 if this is the main frame.
      • The ID of the process that runs the renderer for this frame.
      • The ID of the tab in which the navigation occurs.
      • The time when the navigation was committed, in milliseconds since the epoch.
      • A list of transition qualifiers.
      • Cause of the navigation.
• • Conditions that the URL being navigated to must satisfy. The 'schemes' and 'ports' fields of UrlFilter are ignored for this event.

onCompleted

chrome.webNavigation.onCompleted.addListener(
  callback: function,
  filters?: object,
)

Fired when a document, including the resources it refers to, is completely loaded and initialized.

Parameters

• The callback parameter looks like:
  (details: object) => void
  • • A UUID of the document loaded.
      • The lifecycle the document is in.
      • 0 indicates the navigation happens in the tab content window; a positive value indicates navigation in a subframe. Frame IDs are unique within a tab.
      • The type of frame the navigation occurred in.
      • parentDocumentId
        string optional
        A UUID of the parent document owning this frame. This is not set if there is no parent.
      • The ID of the parent frame, or -1 if this is the main frame.
      • The ID of the process that runs the renderer for this frame.
      • The ID of the tab in which the navigation occurs.
      • The time when the document finished loading, in milliseconds since the epoch.
• • Conditions that the URL being navigated to must satisfy. The 'schemes' and 'ports' fields of UrlFilter are ignored for this event.

onCreatedNavigationTarget

chrome.webNavigation.onCreatedNavigationTarget.addListener(
  callback: function,
  filters?: object,
)

Fired when a new window, or a new tab in an existing window, is created to host a navigation.

Parameters

• The callback parameter looks like:
  (details: object) => void
  • • The ID of the frame with sourceTabId in which the navigation is triggered. 0 indicates the main frame.
      • The ID of the process that runs the renderer for the source frame.
      • The ID of the tab in which the navigation is triggered.
      • The ID of the tab in which the url is opened
      • The time when the browser was about to create a new view, in milliseconds since the epoch.
      • The URL to be opened in the new window.
• • Conditions that the URL being navigated to must satisfy. The 'schemes' and 'ports' fields of UrlFilter are ignored for this event.

onDOMContentLoaded

chrome.webNavigation.onDOMContentLoaded.addListener(
  callback: function,
  filters?: object,
)

Fired when the page's DOM is fully constructed, but the referenced resources may not finish loading.

Parameters

• The callback parameter looks like:
  (details: object) => void
  • • A UUID of the document loaded.
      • The lifecycle the document is in.
      • 0 indicates the navigation happens in the tab content window; a positive value indicates navigation in a subframe. Frame IDs are unique within a tab.
      • The type of frame the navigation occurred in.
      • parentDocumentId
        string optional
        A UUID of the parent document owning this frame. This is not set if there is no parent.
      • The ID of the parent frame, or -1 if this is the main frame.
      • The ID of the process that runs the renderer for this frame.
      • The ID of the tab in which the navigation occurs.
      • The time when the page's DOM was fully constructed, in milliseconds since the epoch.
• • Conditions that the URL being navigated to must satisfy. The 'schemes' and 'ports' fields of UrlFilter are ignored for this event.

onErrorOccurred

chrome.webNavigation.onErrorOccurred.addListener(
  callback: function,
  filters?: object,
)

Fired when an error occurs and the navigation is aborted. This can happen if either a network error occurred, or the user aborted the navigation.

Parameters

• The callback parameter looks like:
  (details: object) => void
  • • A UUID of the document loaded.
      • The lifecycle the document is in.
      • The error description.
      • 0 indicates the navigation happens in the tab content window; a positive value indicates navigation in a subframe. Frame IDs are unique within a tab.
      • The type of frame the navigation occurred in.
      • parentDocumentId
        string optional
        A UUID of the parent document owning this frame. This is not set if there is no parent.
      • The ID of the parent frame, or -1 if this is the main frame.
      • Deprecated since Chrome 50
        The processId is no longer set for this event.
        The value of -1.
      • The ID of the tab in which the navigation occurs.
      • The time when the error occurred, in milliseconds since the epoch.
• • Conditions that the URL being navigated to must satisfy. The 'schemes' and 'ports' fields of UrlFilter are ignored for this event.

onHistoryStateUpdated

chrome.webNavigation.onHistoryStateUpdated.addListener(
  callback: function,
  filters?: object,
)

Fired when the frame's history was updated to a new URL. All future events for that frame will use the updated URL.

Parameters

• The callback parameter looks like:
  (details: object) => void
  • • A UUID of the document loaded.
      • The lifecycle the document is in.
      • 0 indicates the navigation happens in the tab content window; a positive value indicates navigation in a subframe. Frame IDs are unique within a tab.
      • The type of frame the navigation occurred in.
      • parentDocumentId
        string optional
        A UUID of the parent document owning this frame. This is not set if there is no parent.
      • The ID of the parent frame, or -1 if this is the main frame.
      • The ID of the process that runs the renderer for this frame.
      • The ID of the tab in which the navigation occurs.
      • The time when the navigation was committed, in milliseconds since the epoch.
      • A list of transition qualifiers.
      • Cause of the navigation.
• • Conditions that the URL being navigated to must satisfy. The 'schemes' and 'ports' fields of UrlFilter are ignored for this event.

onReferenceFragmentUpdated

chrome.webNavigation.onReferenceFragmentUpdated.addListener(
  callback: function,
  filters?: object,
)

Fired when the reference fragment of a frame was updated. All future events for that frame will use the updated URL.

Parameters

• The callback parameter looks like:
  (details: object) => void
  • • A UUID of the document loaded.
      • The lifecycle the document is in.
      • 0 indicates the navigation happens in the tab content window; a positive value indicates navigation in a subframe. Frame IDs are unique within a tab.
      • The type of frame the navigation occurred in.
      • parentDocumentId
        string optional
        A UUID of the parent document owning this frame. This is not set if there is no parent.
      • The ID of the parent frame, or -1 if this is the main frame.
      • The ID of the process that runs the renderer for this frame.
      • The ID of the tab in which the navigation occurs.
      • The time when the navigation was committed, in milliseconds since the epoch.
      • A list of transition qualifiers.
      • Cause of the navigation.
• • Conditions that the URL being navigated to must satisfy. The 'schemes' and 'ports' fields of UrlFilter are ignored for this event.

onTabReplaced

chrome.webNavigation.onTabReplaced.addListener(
  callback: function,
)

Fired when the contents of the tab is replaced by a different (usually previously pre-rendered) tab.

Parameters

• The callback parameter looks like:
  (details: object) => void
  • • The ID of the tab that was replaced.
      • The ID of the tab that replaced the old tab.
      • The time when the replacement happened, in milliseconds since the epoch.