how do I activate a function in my chrome extension each time its tab becomes active

Question

My background script is collecting data. I want it to update a table on the main page whenever it is in view. Is this possible?

See here, this seems to be close to what you want: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1060008/is-there-a-way-to-detect-if-a-browser-window-is-not-currently-active — Nick Louloudakis, Aug 17 '13 at 12:23

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 17 '13 at 12:46

You will need permission to access the tab data.

manifest.json:

{
  "name": "My extension",
  ...
  "permissions": [
    "tabs"
  ],
  ...
}

Then you can use the onActivated event.

chrome.tabs.onActivated.addListener(callback)

1 Answers1