path: root/chrome/common/extensions/docs/static/overview.html

<div id="pageData-name" class="pageData">Overview</div>
<div id="pageData-showTOC" class="pageData">true</div>

<p>
Once you've finished this page
and the
<a href="getstarted.html">Getting Started</a> tutorial,
you'll be all set to start writing extensions and packaged apps.
</p>

<p class="caution">
<strong>Note:</strong>
<em>Packaged apps</em> are implemented as extensions,
so unless otherwise stated,
everything in this page applies to packaged apps.
</p>

<h2 id="what">The basics</h2>

<p>
An extension is a zipped bundle of files&mdash;HTML,
CSS, JavaScript, images, and anything else you need&mdash;that
adds functionality to the Google Chrome browser.
Extensions are essentially web pages,
and they can use all the
<a href="api_other.html">APIs that the browser provides to web pages</a>,
from XMLHttpRequest to JSON to HTML5.
</p>

<p>
Extensions can interact with web pages or servers using
<a href="content_scripts.html">content scripts</a> or
<a href="xhr.html">cross-origin XMLHttpRequests</a>.
Extensions can also interact programmatically
with browser features such as
<a href="bookmarks.html">bookmarks</a>
and <a href="tabs.html">tabs</a>.
</p>

<h3 id="extension-ui">Extension UIs</h3>

<p>
Many extensions&mdash;but not packaged apps&mdash;add
UI to Google Chrome in the form of
<a href="browserAction.html">browser actions</a>
or <a href="pageAction.html">page actions</a>.
Each extension can have at most one browser action or page action.
Choose a <b>browser action</b> when the extension is relevant to most pages.
Choose a <b>page action</b> when the extension's icon
should appear or disappear,
depending on the page.
</p>

<table class="columns">
<tr>
  <td>
    <img src="images/index/gmail.png"
      width="150" height="79"
      alt="screenshot" />
  </td>
  <td>
    <img src="images/index/news.png"
      width="150" height="79"
      alt="screenshot" />
  </td>
  <td>
    <img src="images/index/rss.png"
      width="150" height="79"
      alt="screenshot" />
  </td>
</tr>

<tr>
  <td>
    This <a href="samples.html#gmail">mail extension</a>
    uses a <em>browser action</em>
    (icon in the toolbar).
  </td>
  <td>
    This <a href="samples.html#news">news reader extension</a>
    features a browser action that,
    when clicked,
    shows a <em>popup</em>.
  </td>
  <td>
    This <a href="samples.html#mappy">map extension</a>
    uses a <em>page action</em>
    (icon in the address bar)
    and <em>content script</em>
    (code injected into a web page).
  </td>
</tr>
</table>

<p>
Extensions (and packaged apps) can also present a UI in other ways,
such as adding to the Chrome context menu,
providing an options page,
or using a content script that changes how pages look.
See the <a href="devguide.html">Developer's Guide</a>
for a complete list of extension features,
with links to implementation details
for each one.
</p>


<h3 id="packagedapp-ui">Packaged app UIs</h3>

<p>
A packaged app usually presents its main functionality using
an HTML page that's bundled into the app.
For example, the following packaged app
displays a Flash file within an HTML page.
</p>

<img src="images/index/flashapp.png"
  width="372" height="300"
  alt="screenshot" />

<p>
For more information,
see <a href="apps.html">Packaged Apps</a>.
</p>

<h2 id="files">Files</h2>
<p>
Each extension has the following files:
<!-- PENDING: This could use a picture -->
</p>

<ul>
  <li>A <b>manifest file</b></li>
  <li>One or more <b>HTML files</b> (unless the extension is a theme)</li>
  <li><em>Optional:</em> One or more <b>JavaScript files</b></li>
  <li><em>Optional:</em> Any other files your extension needs&mdash;for
  example, image files</li>
</ul>

<p>
While you're working on your extension,
you put all these files into a single folder.
When you distribute your extension,
the contents of the folder are packaged into a special ZIP file
that has a <code>.crx</code> suffix.
If you upload your extension using the
<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/developer/dashboard">Chrome Developer Dashboard</a>,
the <code>.crx</code> file is created for you.
For details on distributing extensions,
see <a href="hosting.html">Hosting</a>.
</p>


<h3 id="relative-urls">Referring to files</h3>

<p>
You can put any file you like into an extension,
but how do you use it?
Usually,
you can refer to the file using a relative URL,
just as you would in an ordinary HTML page.
Here's an example of referring to
a file named <code>myimage.png</code>
that's in a subfolder named <code>images</code>.
</p>

<pre>
&lt;img <b>src="images/myimage.png"</b>>
</pre>

<p>
As you might notice while you use the Google Chrome debugger,
every file in an extension is also accessible by an absolute URL like this:
</p>

<blockquote>
<b>chrome-extension://</b><em>&lt;extensionID></em><b>/</b><em>&lt;pathToFile></em>
</blockquote>

<p>
In that URL, the <em>&lt;extensionID></em> is a unique identifier
that the extension system generates for each extension.
You can see the IDs for all your loaded extensions
by going to the URL <b>chrome://extensions</b>.
The <em>&lt;pathToFile></em> is the location of the file
under the extension's top folder;
it's the same as the relative URL.
</p>

<!-- [PENDING: Should mention/reflect/link to <a href="http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensions/i18n">internationalization</a> when it's ready.] -->


<h3>The manifest file</h3>

<p>
The manifest file, called <code>manifest.json</code>,
gives information about the extension,
such as the most important files
and the capabilities that the extension might use.
Here's a typical manifest file for a browser action
that uses information from google.com:
</p>

<pre>
{
  "name": "My Extension",
  "version": "2.1",
  "description": "Gets information from Google.",
  "icons": { "128": "icon_128.png" },
  "background_page": "bg.html",
  "permissions": ["http://*.google.com/", "https://*.google.com/"],
  "browser_action": {
    "default_title": "",
    "default_icon": "icon_19.png",
    "default_popup": "popup.html"
  }
}</pre>

<p>
For details, see
<a href="manifest.html">Manifest Files</a>.
</p>

<h2 id="arch">Architecture</h2>

<p>
Most extensions have a
<a href="background_pages.html">background page</a>,
an invisible page
that holds the main logic of the extension.
</p>

<img src="images/arch-1.gif"
 width="232" height="168"
 alt="Two windows and a box representing a background page (background.html). One window has a yellow icon; the other has both a yellow icon and a blue icon. The yellow icons are connected to the background page." />

<p>
The preceding figure shows a browser
that has at least two extensions installed:
a browser action (yellow icon)
and a page action (blue icon).
The browser action's background page,
which is defined by an HTML file
(<code>background.html</code>),
has JavaScript code that controls
the behavior of the browser action in both windows.
</p>


<h3 id="pages">Pages</h3>

<p>
The background page isn't the only HTML page
that an extension can have.
For example, a browser action can have a popup,
which is implemented by an HTML file.
Extensions can also
use <a href="tabs.html#Method-create"><code>chrome.tabs.create()</code></a>
or <code>window.open()</code>
to display HTML files that are in the extension.
</p>

<p>
The HTML pages inside an extension
have complete access to each other's DOMs,
and they can invoke functions on each other.
</p>

<p>
The following figure shows the architecture
of a browser action's popup.
The popup's contents are a web page
defined by an HTML file
(<code>popup.html</code>).
The popup doesn't need to duplicate code
that's in the background page
(<code>background.html</code>)
because the popup can invoke functions on the background page.
</p>

<img src="images/arch-2.gif"
 width="256" height="168"
 alt="A browser window containing a browser action that's displaying a popup. The popup's HTML file (popup.html) can communicate with the extension's background page (background.html)." />

<p>
See the <a href="browserAction.html">Browser Actions</a> page and
the <a href="#pageComm">Communication between pages</a> section
for more details.
</p>


<h3 id="contentScripts">Content scripts</h3>

<p>
If your extension needs to interact with web pages,
then it needs a <em>content script</em>.
A content script is some JavaScript
that executes in the context of a page
that's been loaded into the browser.
Think of a content script as part of that loaded page,
not as part of the extension it was packaged with
(its <em>parent extension</em>).
</p>

<!-- [PENDING: Consider explaining that the reason content scripts are separated from the extension is due to chrome's multiprocess design.  Something like:

Each extension runs in its own process.
To have rich interaction with a web page, however,
the extension must be able to
run some code in the web page's process.
Extensions accomplish this with content scripts.]
-->

<p>
Content scripts can read details of the web pages the browser visits,
and they can make changes to the pages.
In the following figure,
the content script
can read and modify
the DOM for the displayed web page.
It cannot, however, modify the DOM of its parent extension's background page.
</p>

<img src="images/arch-3.gif"
 width="238" height="169"
 alt="A browser window with a browser action (controlled by background.html) and a content script (controlled by contentscript.js)." />

<p>
Content scripts aren't completely cut off from their parent extensions.
A content script can exchange messages with its parent extension,
as the arrows in the following figure show.
For example, a content script might send a message
whenever it finds an RSS feed in a browser page.
Or a background page might send a message
asking a content script to change the appearance of its browser page.
</p>

<img src="images/arch-cs.gif"
 width="238" height="194"
 alt="Like the previous figure, but showing more of the parent extension's files, as well as a communication path between the content script and the parent extension." />

<!-- [PENDING: Add overview of message passing.] -->

<p>
For more information,
see <a href="content_scripts.html">Content Scripts</a>.
</p>


<h2 id="pageComm">Communication between pages </h2>

<p>
The HTML pages within an extension often need to communicate.
<!-- [PENDING: For example, ...] -->
Because all of an extension's pages
execute in same process on the same thread,
the pages can make direct function calls to each other.
</p>

<p>
To find pages in the extension, use
<a href="extension.html"><code>chrome.extension</code></a>
methods such as
<code>getViews()</code> and
<code>getBackgroundPage()</code>.
Once a page has a reference to other pages within the extension,
the first page can invoke functions on the other pages,
and it can manipulate their DOMs.
</p>

<!-- [PENDING: Here's an example of communication between xyz and the background page.  (code example goes here)] -->


<h2 id="incognito"> Saving data and incognito mode </h2>

<p>
Extensions can save data using
the HTML5 <a href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/webstorage/">web storage API</a>
(such as <code>localStorage</code>)
or by making server requests that result in saving data.
Whenever you want to save something,
first consider whether it's
from a window that's in incognito mode.
By default, extensions don't run in incognito windows,
and packaged apps <em>do</em>.
You need to consider what a user expects
from your extension or packaged app
when the browser is incognito.
</p>

<p>
<em>Incognito mode</em> promises that the window will leave no tracks.
When dealing with data from incognito windows,
do your best to honor this promise.
For example, if your extension normally
saves browsing history to the cloud,
don't save history from incognito windows.
On the other hand, you can store
your extension's settings from any window,
incognito or not.
</p>

<p class="note">
<b>Rule of thumb:</b>
If a piece of data might show where a user
has been on the web or what the user has done,
don't store it if it's from an incognito window.
</p>

<p>
To detect whether a window is in incognito mode,
check the <code>incognito</code> property of the relevant
<a href="tabs.html#type-Tab">Tab</a> or
<a href="windows.html#type-Window">Window</a> object.
For example:
</p>

<pre>
var bgPage = chrome.extension.getBackgroundPage();

function saveTabData(tab, data) {
  if (tab.incognito) {
    bgPage[tab.url] = data;       // Persist data ONLY in memory
  } else {
    localStorage[tab.url] = data; // OK to store data
}
</pre>


<h2 id="now-what"> Now what? </h2>

<p>
Now that you've been introduced to extensions,
you should be ready to write your own.
Here are some ideas for where to go next:
</p>

<ul>
  <li> <a href="getstarted.html">Tutorial: Getting Started</a> </li>
  <li> <a href="tut_debugging.html">Tutorial: Debugging</a> </li>
  <li> <a href="devguide.html">Developer's Guide</a> </li>
  <li> <a href="http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensions/samples">Samples</a> </li>
  <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CA101D6A85FE9D4B">Videos</a>,
    such as
    <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4M_a7xejYI&feature=PlayList&p=CA101D6A85FE9D4B&index=6">Extension Message Passing</a>
    </li>
</ul>