tabs.executeScript()

Injects JavaScript code into a page.

To use this API you must have the permission for the page's URL, either explicitly as a host permission, or using the activeTab permission.

You can only inject code into pages whose URL can be expressed using a match pattern: meaning, its scheme must be one of "http", "https", "file", "ftp". This means that you can't inject code into any of the browser's built-in pages, such as about:debugging, about:addons, or the page that opens when you open a new empty tab.

The scripts you inject are called content scripts. Learn more about content scripts.

Syntax

chrome.tabs.executeScript(
  tabId,                 // optional integer
  details,               // extensionTypes.InjectDetails
  function(result) {...} // optional function
)

This API is also available as browser.tabs.executeScript() in a version that returns a promise.

Parameters

tabIdOptional

integer. The ID of the tab in which to run the script. Defaults to the active tab of the current window.

details

extensionTypes.InjectDetails. Details of the script to run.

Values of this type are objects. They contain the following properties:

allFramesOptional

boolean. If true, the code will be injected into all frames of the current page. If it is false, code is only injected into the top frame. Defaults to false.

codeOptional

string. Code to inject, as a text string.

fileOptional

string. Path to a file containing the code to inject. In Firefox, relative URLs are resolved relative to the current page URL. In Chrome, these URLs are resolved relative to the add-on's base URL. To work cross-browser, you can specify the path as an absolute URL, starting at the add-on's root, like this: "/path/to/script.js".

frameIdOptional

integer. The frame where the code should be injected. Defaults to 0 (the top-level frame).

matchAboutBlankOptional

boolean. If true, the code will be injected into embedded "about:blank" and "about:srcdoc" frames if your add-on has access to their parent document. The code cannot be inserted in top-level about: frames. Defaults to false.

runAtOptional

extensionTypes.RunAt. The soonest that the code will be injected into the tab. Defaults to "document_idle".

callbackOptional Requires Gecko 47

function. Called after all the JavaScript has been executed. The function is passed the following arguments:

resultOptional

array of any. The result of the script in every injected frame.

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.

Compatibility notes

Firefox

• 'matchAboutBlank' is not supported.
• 'allFrames' and 'frameId' both set is not supported.
• Before version 50, Firefox would pass a single result value into its callback rather than an array, unless 'allFrames' had been set.

Examples

This example executes a one-line code snippet in the currently active tab:

var makeItGreen = 'document.body.style.border = "5px solid green"';
chrome.tabs.executeScript({
  code: makeItGreen
});

This example executes a script from a file, packaged with the add-on, called "content-script.js". The script is executed in the currently active tab. The script is executed in subframes as well as the main document:

chrome.tabs.executeScript({
  file: "/content-script.js",
  allFrames: true
});

This example executes a script from a file, packaged with the add-on, called "content-script.js". The script is executed in the tab with an ID of 5:

chrome.tabs.executeScript(
  5, {
    file: "/content-script.js"
});

This example executes a script from a file, packaged with the add-on, called "content-script.js". The script is executed in the currently active tab. When the script has finished, we execute its result in the onExecuted callback.

function onExecuted(result) {
  console.log(result);
}

chrome.tabs.executeScript({
  file: "content-script.js",
}, onExecuted);

Example add-ons

• beastify
• cookie-bg-picker
• context-menu-demo

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