browserAction
=============

Adds a button to the browser's toolbar.

A browser action is a button in the browser's toolbar.

You can associate a popup with the button. Like a web page, the popup is specified using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. JavaScript running in the popup gets access to all the same WebExtension APIs as your background scripts, but its global context is the popup, not the current page displayed in the browser. To affect web pages, you need to communicate with them via messages.

If you specify a popup, it is shown — and the content loaded — when the user clicks the icon. If you do not specify a popup, an event is dispatched to your extension when the user clicks the icon.

The button also has a context menu, and you can add items to this menu with the `menus` API using the `browser_action` `menus.ContextType`.

You can define most of a browser action's properties declaratively using the `browser_action` key in the manifest.json.

With the `browserAction` API, you can:

* use `browserAction.onClicked` to listen for clicks on the icon.
* get and set the icon's properties — icon, title, popup, and so on. You can get and set these globally across all tabs or for a tab by passing the tab ID as an additional argument.
Types
-----

`browserAction.ColorArray`

An array of four integers in the range 0-255 defining an RGBA color.

`browserAction.ImageDataType`

Pixel data for an image. Must be an `ImageData` object (for example, from a `<canvas>` element).

Functions
---------

`browserAction.setTitle()`

Sets the browser action's title. This will be displayed in a tooltip.

`browserAction.getTitle()`

Gets the browser action's title.

`browserAction.setIcon()`

Sets the browser action's icon.

`browserAction.setPopup()`

Sets the HTML document to be opened as a popup when the user clicks on the browser action's icon.

`browserAction.getPopup()`

Gets the HTML document set as the browser action's popup.

`browserAction.openPopup()`

Open the browser action's popup.

`browserAction.setBadgeText()`

Sets the browser action's badge text. The badge is displayed on top of the icon.

`browserAction.getBadgeText()`

Gets the browser action's badge text.

`browserAction.setBadgeBackgroundColor()`

Sets the badge's background color.

`browserAction.getBadgeBackgroundColor()`

Gets the badge's background color.

`browserAction.setBadgeTextColor()`

Sets the badge's text color.

`browserAction.getBadgeTextColor()`

Gets the badge's text color.

`browserAction.enable()`

Enables the browser action for a tab. By default, browser actions are enabled for all tabs.

`browserAction.disable()`

Disables the browser action for a tab, meaning that it cannot be clicked when that tab is active.

`browserAction.isEnabled()`

Checks whether the browser action is enabled or not.

Events
------

`browserAction.onClicked`

Fired when a browser action icon is clicked. This event will not fire if the browser action has a popup.

Browser compatibility
---------------------

BCD tables only load in the browser with JavaScript enabled. Enable JavaScript to view data.

Example extensions
------------------

* bookmark-it
* favourite-colour
* find-across-tabs
* forget-it
* google-userinfo
* native-messaging
* open-my-page-button
* permissions
* runtime-examples
* store-collected-images
* tabs-tabs-tabs

**Note:** This API is based on Chromium's `chrome.browserAction` API. This documentation is derived from `browser_action.json` in the Chromium code.