<!DOCTYPE html><!-- This page is a placeholder for generated extensions api doc. Note:
1) The <head> information in this page is significant, should be uniform
across api docs and should be edited only with knowledge of the
templating mechanism.
3) All <body>.innerHTML is genereated as an rendering step. If viewed in a
browser, it will be re-generated from the template, json schema and
authored overview content.
4) The <body>.innerHTML is also generated by an offline step so that this
page may easily be indexed by search engines.
--><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<link href="css/ApiRefStyles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="css/print.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print">
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../../third_party/jstemplate/jstemplate_compiled.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/api_page_generator.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/bootstrap.js"></script>
<title>Tutorial: Getting Started (Hello, World!) - Google Chrome Extensions - Google Code</title></head><body> <div id="gc-container" class="labs">
<!-- SUBTEMPLATES: DO NOT MOVE FROM THIS LOCATION -->
<!-- In particular, sub-templates that recurse, must be used by allowing
jstemplate to make a copy of the template in this section which
are not operated on by way of the jsskip="true" -->
<div style="display:none">
<!-- VALUE -->
<div id="valueTemplate">
<dt>
<var>paramName</var>
<em>
<!-- TYPE -->
<div style="display:inline">
(
<span class="optional">optional</span>
<span id="typeTemplate">
<span>
<a> Type</a>
</span>
<span>
<span>
array of <span><span></span></span>
</span>
<span>paramType</span>
</span>
</span>
)
</div>
</em>
</dt>
<dd class="todo">
Undocumented.
</dd>
<dd>
Description of this parameter from the json schema.
</dd>
<!-- OBJECT PROPERTIES -->
<dd>
<dl>
<div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</dl>
</dd>
</div> <!-- /VALUE -->
</div> <!-- /SUBTEMPLATES -->
<a id="top"></a>
<div id="skipto">
<a href="#gc-pagecontent">Skip to page content</a>
<a href="#gc-toc">Skip to main navigation</a>
</div>
<!-- API HEADER -->
<table id="header" width="100%" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="middle"><a href="http://code.google.com/"><img src="images/code_labs_logo.gif" height="43" width="161" alt="Google Code Labs" style="border:0; margin:0;"></a></td>
<td valign="middle" width="100%" style="padding-left:0.6em;">
<form action="http://www.google.com/cse" id="cse" style="margin-top:0.5em">
<div id="gsc-search-box">
<input type="hidden" name="cx" value="002967670403910741006:61_cvzfqtno">
<input type="hidden" name="ie" value="UTF-8">
<input type="text" name="q" value="" size="55">
<input class="gsc-search-button" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search">
<br>
<span class="greytext">e.g. "page action" or "tabs"</span>
</div>
</form>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">google.load("elements", "1", {packages: "transliteration"});</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/coop/cse/t13n?form=cse&t13n_langs=en"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/coop/cse/brand?form=cse&lang=en"></script>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div id="codesiteContent" class="">
<a id="gc-topnav-anchor"></a>
<div id="gc-topnav">
<h1>Google Chrome Extensions (<a href="http://code.google.com/labs/">Labs</a>)</h1>
<ul id="home" class="gc-topnav-tabs">
<li id="home_link">
<a href="index.html" title="Google Chrome Extensions home page">Home</a>
</li>
<li id="docs_link">
<a href="docs.html" title="Official Google Chrome Extensions documentation">Docs</a>
</li>
<li id="faq_link">
<a href="faq.html" title="Answers to frequently asked questions about Google Chrome Extensions">FAQ</a>
</li>
<li id="samples_link">
<a href="samples.html" title="Sample extensions (with source code)">Samples</a>
</li>
<li id="group_link">
<a href="http://groups.google.com/group/chromium-extensions" title="Google Chrome Extensions developer forum">Group</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div> <!-- end gc-topnav -->
<div class="g-section g-tpl-170">
<!-- SIDENAV -->
<div class="g-unit g-first" id="gc-toc">
<ul>
<li class="leftNavSelected">Getting Started</li>
<li><a href="overview.html">Overview</a></li>
<li><h2><a href="devguide.html">Developer's Guide</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>Browser UI
<ul>
<li><a href="browserAction.html">Browser Actions</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html">Options Pages</a></li>
<li><a href="override.html">Override Pages</a></li>
<li><a href="pageAction.html">Page Actions</a></li>
<li><a href="themes.html">Themes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Browser Interaction
<ul>
<li><a href="bookmarks.html">Bookmarks</a></li>
<li><a href="events.html">Events</a></li>
<li><a href="tabs.html">Tabs</a></li>
<li><a href="windows.html">Windows</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Implementation
<ul>
<li><a href="background_pages.html">Background Pages</a></li>
<li><a href="content_scripts.html">Content Scripts</a></li>
<li><a href="xhr.html">Cross-Origin XHR</a></li>
<li><a href="i18n.html">Internationalization</a></li>
<li><a href="messaging.html">Message Passing</a></li>
<li><a href="npapi.html">NPAPI Plugins</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Finishing
<ul>
<li><a href="autoupdate.html">Autoupdating</a></li>
<li><a href="packaging.html">Packaging</a></li>
<li><a href="external_extensions.html">External Extensions</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><h2><a href="tutorials.html">Tutorials</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="tut_debugging.html">Debugging</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><h2>Reference</h2>
<ul>
<li>Formats
<ul>
<li><a href="manifest.html">Manifest Files</a></li>
<li><a href="match_patterns.html">Match Patterns</a></li>
<!-- <li>Packages (.crx)</li> -->
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="api_index.html">chrome.* APIs</a></li>
<li><a href="api_other.html">Other APIs</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><h2><a href="samples.html">Samples</a></h2></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="g-unit" id="gc-pagecontent">
<div id="pageTitle">
<h1 class="page_title">Tutorial: Getting Started (Hello, World!)</h1>
</div>
<!-- TABLE OF CONTENTS -->
<div id="toc">
<h2>Contents</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<a href="#browser">Get your browser ready</a>
<ol>
<li style="display: none; ">
<a>h3Name</a>
</li>
</ol>
</li><li>
<a href="#load">Create and load an extension</a>
<ol>
<li style="display: none; ">
<a>h3Name</a>
</li>
</ol>
</li><li>
<a href="#code">Add code to the extension</a>
<ol>
<li style="display: none; ">
<a>h3Name</a>
</li>
</ol>
</li><li>
<a href="#summary">Now what?</a>
<ol>
<li style="display: none; ">
<a>h3Name</a>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li style="display: none; ">
<a href="#apiReference">API reference</a>
<ol>
<li>
<a href="#properties">Properties</a>
<ol>
<li>
<a href="#property-anchor">propertyName</a>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#methods">Methods</a>
<ol>
<li>
<a href="#method-anchor">methodName</a>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#events">Events</a>
<ol>
<li>
<a href="#event-anchor">eventName</a>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#types">Types</a>
<ol>
<li>
<a href="#id-anchor">id</a>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<!-- /TABLE OF CONTENTS -->
<!-- STATIC CONTENT PLACEHOLDER -->
<div id="static"><div id="pageData-name" class="pageData">Tutorial: Getting Started (Hello, World!)</div>
<div id="pageData-showTOC" class="pageData">true</div>
<p>
This tutorial walks you through creating a simple extension.
You'll add an icon to Google Chrome
that, when clicked, displays an automatically generated page.
The icon and page will look something like this:
</p>
<img src="images/hello-world-small.png" width="300" height="221" alt="a window with a grid of images related to HELLO WORLD">
<h2 id="browser">Get your browser ready</h2>
<p>
Extensions are supported on the normal,
"stable channel" release of Google Chrome for Windows.
To develop extensions on Linux or Mac,
you need to get on an early access release channel of Google Chrome.
</p>
<ul>
<li> <b>Windows</b>: Use any release of Google Chrome </li>
<li> <b>Linux</b>: Subscribe to the <a href="http://www.google.com/landing/chrome/beta/">Beta channel</a> </li>
<li> <b>Mac</b>: Subscribe to the <a href="http://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel#TOC-Mac">Dev channel</a> </li>
</ul>
<h2 id="load">Create and load an extension</h2>
<p>
In this section, you'll write an extension
that adds a <em>browser action</em>
to the toolbar of Google Chrome.
</p>
<ol>
<li>
Create a folder somewhere on your computer to contain your extension's code.
</li>
<li>
Inside your extension's folder,
create a text file called <strong><code>manifest.json</code></strong>,
and put this in it:
<pre>{
"name": "My First Extension",
"version": "1.0",
"description": "The first extension that I made.",
"browser_action": {
"default_icon": "icon.png"
},
"permissions": [
"http://api.flickr.com/"
]
}</pre>
</li>
<li>
Copy this icon to the same folder:<br>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border:0">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="text-align:center; border:0;"><a href="examples/tutorials/getstarted/icon.png"><img src="examples/tutorials/getstarted/icon.png" width="19" height="19" border="0"></a><br>
<a href="examples/tutorials/getstarted/icon.png">Download icon.png</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li id="load-ext"> Load the extension.
<ol type="a">
<li>
Bring up the extensions management page
by clicking the Tools menu
<img src="images/toolsmenu.gif" width="43" height="34" alt="" align="absmiddle" style="margin:0; padding:0">and
choosing <b>Extensions</b>.
</li>
<li>
If <b>Developer mode</b> has a + by it,
click the + to add developer information to the page.
The + changes to a -,
and more buttons and information appear.
</li>
<li>
Click the <b>Load unpacked extension</b> button.
A file dialog appears.
</li>
<li>
In the file dialog,
navigate to your extension's folder
and click <b>OK</b>.
</li>
</ol> </li>
</ol>
<p>
If your extension is valid,
its icon appears next to the address bar,
and information about the extension
appears in the extensions page,
as the following screenshot shows.
</p>
<p>
<a href="images/load_after.png"><img src="images/load_after_small.png" width="300" height="132"></a>
</p>
<h2 id="code">Add code to the extension</h2>
<p> In this step, you'll make your extension <em>do</em> something besides just look good. </p>
<ol>
<li>
<p> Edit <code>manifest.json</code> to add the following line:</p>
<pre> ...
"browser_action": {
"default_icon": "icon.png"<b>,
"popup": "popup.html"</b>
},
...
</pre>
<p> Inside your extension's folder,
create a text file called <strong><code>popup.html</code></strong>,
and add the following code to it:</p>
<blockquote> <a href="http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/common/extensions/docs/examples/tutorials/getstarted/popup.html?content-type=text/plain" target="_blank">CSS
and JavaScript code for hello_world</a></blockquote>
</li>
<li>
Return to the extensions management page,
and click the <b>Reload</b> button
to load the new version of the extension.</li>
<li>Click the extension's icon.
A popup should appear that displays the contents of
<code>popup.html</code>. </li>
</ol>
<p> It should look something like this:</p>
<img src="images/hello-world.png" width="500" height="369" alt="a popup with a grid of images related to HELLO WORLD">
<p> If you don't see the popup,
try the instructions again,
following them exactly.
Don't try loading an HTML file that isn't in the extension's folder —
it won't work! </p>
<h2 id="summary">Now what?</h2>
<!-- [PENDING: Summarize what we did, what it means, what else we would've done if this were a real extension (e.g. package/zip it), and where to find more information.] -->
<p>
Here are some suggestions for what to do next:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
Read the <a href="overview.html">Overview</a>
</li>
<li>
Learn how to debug extensions by following the
<a href="tut_debugging.html">debugging tutorial</a>
</li>
<li>
Keep up to date with the latest news by subscribing to
<a href="http://groups.google.com/group/chromium-extensions/subscribe">chromium-extensions</a>
</li>
<li>
Look at some
<a href="samples.html">sample extensions</a>
</li>
<li>
Watch some
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CA101D6A85FE9D4B">videos</a>, such as
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3McMaHvlBY&feature=PlayList&p=CA101D6A85FE9D4B&index=3">How to build an extension</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<!-- API PAGE -->
<div class="apiPage" style="display: none; ">
<a name="apiReference"></a>
<h2>API reference: chrome.apiname </h2>
<!-- PROPERTIES -->
<div class="apiGroup">
<a name="properties"></a>
<h3 id="properties">Properties</h3>
<div>
<a></a>
<h4>getLastError</h4>
<div class="summary">
<!-- Note: intentionally longer 80 columns -->
<span>chrome.extension</span><span>lastError</span>
</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div> <!-- /apiGroup -->
<!-- METHODS -->
<div class="apiGroup" id="methods">
<a name="methods"></a>
<h3>Methods</h3>
<!-- iterates over all functions -->
<div class="apiItem">
<a></a> <!-- method-anchor -->
<h4>method name</h4>
<div class="summary"><span>void</span>
<!-- Note: intentionally longer 80 columns -->
<span>chrome.module.methodName</span>(<span><span>, </span><span></span>
<var><span></span></var></span>)</div>
<div class="description">
<p class="todo">Undocumented.</p>
<p>
A description from the json schema def of the function goes here.
</p>
<!-- PARAMETERS -->
<h4>Parameters</h4>
<dl>
<div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</dl>
<!-- RETURNS -->
<h4>Returns</h4>
<dl>
<div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</dl>
<!-- CALLBACK -->
<div>
<div>
<h4>Callback function</h4>
<p>
The callback <em>parameter</em> should specify a function
that looks like this:
</p>
<p>
If you specify the <em>callback</em> parameter, it should
specify a function that looks like this:
</p>
<!-- Note: intentionally longer 80 columns -->
<pre>function(<span>Type param1, Type param2</span>) <span class="subdued">{...}</span>);</pre>
<dl>
<div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div> <!-- /description -->
</div> <!-- /apiItem -->
</div> <!-- /apiGroup -->
<!-- EVENTS -->
<div class="apiGroup">
<a name="events"></a>
<h3 id="events">Events</h3>
<!-- iterates over all events -->
<div class="apiItem">
<a></a>
<h4>event name</h4>
<div class="summary">
<!-- Note: intentionally longer 80 columns -->
<span class="subdued">chrome.bookmarks</span><span>onEvent</span><span class="subdued">.addListener</span>(function(<span>Type param1, Type param2</span>) <span class="subdued">{...}</span>);
</div>
<div class="description">
<p class="todo">Undocumented.</p>
<p>
A description from the json schema def of the event goes here.
</p>
<!-- PARAMETERS -->
<h4>Parameters</h4>
<dl>
<div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</dl>
</div> <!-- /decription -->
</div> <!-- /apiItem -->
</div> <!-- /apiGroup -->
<!-- TYPES -->
<div class="apiGroup">
<a name="types.sort(sortByName)"></a>
<h3 id="types">Types</h3>
<!-- iterates over all types -->
<div class="apiItem">
<a></a>
<h4>type name</h4>
<div>
</div>
</div> <!-- /apiItem -->
</div> <!-- /apiGroup -->
</div> <!-- /apiPage -->
</div> <!-- /gc-pagecontent -->
</div> <!-- /g-section -->
</div> <!-- /codesiteContent -->
<div id="gc-footer" --="">
<div class="text">
<p>
Except as otherwise <a href="http://code.google.com/policies.html#restrictions">noted</a>,
the content of this page is licensed under the <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 License</a>, and code samples are licensed under the
<a rel="license" href="http://code.google.com/google_bsd_license.html">BSD License</a>.
</p>
<p>
©2009 Google
</p>
<!-- begin analytics -->
<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// chrome doc tracking
try {
var engdocs = _gat._getTracker("YT-10763712-2");
engdocs._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
// code.google.com site-wide tracking
try {
_uacct="UA-18071-1";
_uanchor=1;
_uff=0;
urchinTracker();
}
catch(e) {/* urchinTracker not available. */}
</script>
<!-- end analytics -->
</div>
</div> <!-- /gc-footer -->
</div> <!-- /gc-container -->
</body></html>