3.6 KiB
Chrome Extension Support
Electron supports a subset of the Chrome Extensions API, primarily to support DevTools extensions and Chromium-internal extensions, but it also happens to support some other extension capabilities.
Note: Electron does not support arbitrary Chrome extensions from the store, and it is a non-goal of the Electron project to be perfectly compatible with Chrome's implementation of Extensions.
Loading extensions
Electron only supports loading unpacked extensions (i.e., .crx
files do not
work). Extensions are installed per-session
. To load an extension, call
ses.loadExtension
:
const { session } = require('electron')
session.loadExtension('path/to/unpacked/extension').then(({ id }) => {
// ...
})
Loaded extensions will not be automatically remembered across exits; if you do
not call loadExtension
when the app runs, the extension will not be loaded.
Note that loading extensions is only supported in persistent sessions. Attempting to load an extension into an in-memory session will throw an error.
See the session
documentation for more information about
loading, unloading, and querying active extensions.
Supported Extensions APIs
We support the following extensions APIs, with some caveats. Other APIs may additionally be supported, but support for any APIs not listed here is provisional and may be removed.
chrome.devtools.inspectedWindow
All features of this API are supported.
chrome.devtools.network
All features of this API are supported.
chrome.devtools.panels
All features of this API are supported.
chrome.extension
The following properties of chrome.extension
are supported:
chrome.extension.lastError
The following methods of chrome.extension
are supported:
chrome.extension.getURL
chrome.extension.getBackgroundPage
chrome.runtime
The following properties of chrome.runtime
are supported:
chrome.runtime.lastError
chrome.runtime.id
The following methods of chrome.runtime
are supported:
chrome.runtime.getBackgroundPage
chrome.runtime.getManifest
chrome.runtime.getPlatformInfo
chrome.runtime.getURL
chrome.runtime.connect
chrome.runtime.sendMessage
chrome.runtime.reload
The following events of chrome.runtime
are supported:
chrome.runtime.onStartup
chrome.runtime.onInstalled
chrome.runtime.onSuspend
chrome.runtime.onSuspendCanceled
chrome.runtime.onConnect
chrome.runtime.onMessage
chrome.storage
Only chrome.storage.local
is supported; chrome.storage.sync
and
chrome.storage.managed
are not.
chrome.tabs
The following methods of chrome.tabs
are supported:
chrome.tabs.sendMessage
chrome.tabs.executeScript
Note: In Chrome, passing
-1
as a tab ID signifies the "currently active tab". Since Electron has no such concept, passing-1
as a tab ID is not supported and will raise an error.
chrome.management
The following methods of chrome.management
are supported:
chrome.management.getAll
chrome.management.get
chrome.management.getSelf
chrome.management.getPermissionWarningsById
chrome.management.getPermissionWarningsByManifest
chrome.management.onEnabled
chrome.management.onDisabled
chrome.webRequest
All features of this API are supported.
NOTE: Electron's
webRequest
module takes precedence overchrome.webRequest
if there are conflicting handlers.