Firefox extension addon tab using background script

Question

I have a firefox extension that opens up a tab with a html file that is located in my data folder. The main.js does this:

 function handleClick(state) {
   tabs.open("login.html");
  }

In main.js I require() a bunch of scripts to run as background scripts. This html file acts as the "login" for the extension. How can this html page have access to the background scripts?

willlma willlma · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-15T17:38:01

It can't. You'll need to attach a content script to your login page and to send variables to it the standard way using port.

Also, does your code work? Don't you need to require(sdk/self).data to get access to login.html?

Here's an example of what you can do.

main.js

const { data } = require('sdk/self');

function handleClick(state) {
  tabs.open({
    url: data.url('login.html'),
    onOpen: function(tab) {
      var worker = tab.attach({
        contentScriptFile: data.url('login.js')
      });
      worker.port.emit('foo', foo);
      worker.port.on('bar', handleBar);
    }
  });
}

function handleBar(bar) {
  // do something with bar;
}

login.js

self.port.on('foo', function(foo) {
  // do something with foo
});

self.port.emit('bar', bar);

Firefox extension addon tab using background script

1 Answers