How can I get the URL of the current tab from a Google Chrome extension?

Question

I'm having fun with Google Chrome extension, and I just want to know how can I store the URL of the current tab in a variable?

Answer 1

Update: The chrome.tabs.getSelected() method is now deprecated.

The recommended way of getting the URL of the current tab is to use chrome.tabs.query().

An example usage:

chrome.tabs.query({'active': true, 'lastFocusedWindow': true}, function (tabs) {
    var url = tabs[0].url;
});

This requires that you request access to the chrome.tabs API in your extension manifest:

"permissions": [ ...
   "tabs"
]

It's important to note that the definition of your "current tab" may differ depending on your extension's needs.

Setting lastFocusedWindow: true in the query is appropriate when you want to access the current tab in the user's focused window (typically the topmost window).

Setting currentWindow: true allows you to get the current tab in the window where your extension's code is currently executing. For example, this might be useful if your extension creates a new window / popup (changing focus), but still wants to access tab information from the window where the extension was run.

I chose to use lastFocusedWindow: true in this example, because Google calls out cases in which currentWindow may not always be present.

You are free to further refine your tab query using any of the properties defined here: chrome.tabs.query

Answer 2

A friend answers to my question.

First, you've to set the permissions for the tab API :

"permissions": [
    "tabs"
]

And to store the URL :

chrome.tabs.getSelected(null,function(tab) {
    var tablink = tab.url;
});

Answer 3

Other answers assume you want to know it from a popup or background script.

In case you want to know the current URL from a content script, the standard JS way applies:

window.location.toString()

You can use properties of window.location to access individual parts of the URL, such as host, protocol or path.

Answer 4

The problem is that chrome.tabs.getSelected is asynchronous. This code below will generally not work as expected. The value of 'tablink' will still be undefined when it is written to the console because getSelected has not yet invoked the callback that resets the value:

var tablink;
chrome.tabs.getSelected(null,function(tab) {
    tablink = tab.url;
});
console.log(tablink);

The solution is to wrap the code where you will be using the value in a function and have that invoked by getSelected. In this way you are guaranteed to always have a value set, because your code will have to wait for the value to be provided before it is executed.

Try something like:

chrome.tabs.getSelected(null, function(tab) {
    myFunction(tab.url);
});

function myFunction(tablink) {
  // do stuff here
  console.log(tablink);
}

Answer 5

Hi here is an Google Chrome Sample which emails the current Site to an friend. The Basic idea behind is what you want...first of all it fetches the content of the page (not interessting for you)...afterwards it gets the URL (<-- good part)

Additionally it is a nice working code example, which i prefer motstly over reading Documents.

Can be found here: Email this page

Answer 6

For those using the context menu api, the docs are not immediately clear on how to obtain tab information.

  chrome.contextMenus.onClicked.addListener(function(info, tab) {
    console.log(info);
    return console.log(tab);
  });

https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/contextMenus

Answer 7

You have to check on this.

HTML

<button id="saveActionId"> Save </button>

manifest.json

  "permissions": [
    "activeTab",
    "tabs"
   ]

JavaScript
The below code will save all the urls of active window into JSON object as part of button click.

var saveActionButton = document.getElementById('saveActionId');
saveActionButton.addEventListener('click', function() {
    myArray = [];
    chrome.tabs.query({"currentWindow": true},  //{"windowId": targetWindow.id, "index": tabPosition});
    function (array_of_Tabs) {  //Tab tab
        arrayLength = array_of_Tabs.length;
        //alert(arrayLength);
        for (var i = 0; i < arrayLength; i++) {
            myArray.push(array_of_Tabs[i].url);
        }
        obj = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(myArray));
    });
}, false);