firefox extension to record http request urls for each tab

Question

I'm trying to develop a firefox extension to record all resource loading urls for each browser tab/window. I searched for hours but couldn't find a way to associate each intercepted http request to its originating tab. Here is what I have so far.

Components.classes["@mozilla.org/observer-service;1"]
  .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIObserverService)
  .addObserver({
    observe: function(aSubject, aTopic, aData) {
       if ("http-on-modify-request" == aTopic) {
         var url = aSubject
              .QueryInterface(Components.interfaces.nsIHttpChannel)
              .originalURI.spec;
         alert(url);
       }
    }
}, "http-on-modify-request", false);

I can get the url of the http request, but I don't know there is way to link it to a browser window/tab.

I read through MDN's documentation but it didn't mention it. (https://developer.mozilla.org/en/XUL_School/Intercepting_Page_Loads)

Any suggestions?

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 30 '12 at 19:07

If you wish to build your extension, not only for Firefox but also for Chrome, IE & Safari with only 1 (javascript) code, I would suggest you to use Crossrider.

You can achieve very easily what you are looking for. You can listen to all out-going requests using their onRequest API:

appAPI.onRequest(function(resourceUrl, tabUrl) {
  // Where:
  //   * resourceUrl contains the URL of the requested resource
  //   * tabUrl contains the URL of the tab requesting the resource

  // Block the loading of js scripts
  if (resourceUrl.match(/.*/) {
    // Do what ever you need with the specific resource
    // For example - save it in the extension database using appAPI.db.set()
  }
});

The goes into the background.js of the extension and will allow you to do any action you want on each one of the loaded resource of every page / tab.

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:43

My answer to Is it possible to know the target DOMWindow for an HTTPRequest will almost get you there. You get the window associated with the request but it might be a frame in the tab. Once you have it you can get window.top - this will be the top window in the browser tab. If you need the actual browser tab element, you can use my answer in Finding the tab associated with a DOM window for that.

firefox extension to record http request urls for each tab

2 Answers2