onclick or inline script isn't working in extension
This seems to be the easiest thing to do, but it's just not working. In a normal browser the .html and .js files works perfectly, but in the Chrome/Firefox extension the onClick function is not performing what it's supposed to do.
.js file:
function hellYeah(text) {
document.getElementById("text-holder").innerHTML = text;
}
.html file:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>
Getting Started Extension's Popup
</title>
<script src="popup.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="text-holder">
ha
</div>
<br />
<a onClick=hellYeah("xxx")>
hyhy
</a>
</body>
</html>
So basically once the user clicks "hyhy", "ha" should change into "xxx". And again - it works perfectly in the browser but does not work in the extension. Do you know why? Just in case I'm attaching the manifest.json below as well.
manifest.json:
{
"name": "My First Extension",
"version": "1.0",
"manifest_version": 2,
"description": "The first extension that I made.",
"browser_action": {
"default_icon": "icon.png",
"default_popup": "popup.html"
},
"permissions": [
"http://api.flickr.com/"
]
}
Solution 1:
Chrome Extensions don't allow you to have inline JavaScript (documentation).
The same goes for Firefox WebExtensions (documentation).
You are going to have to do something similar to this:
Assign an ID to the link (<a onClick=hellYeah("xxx")> becomes <a id="link">), and use addEventListener to bind the event. Put the following in your popup.js file:
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
var link = document.getElementById('link');
// onClick's logic below:
link.addEventListener('click', function() {
hellYeah('xxx');
});
});
popup.js should be loaded as a separate script file:
<script src="popup.js"></script>
Solution 2:
Reason
This does not work, because Chrome forbids any kind of inline code in extensions via Content Security Policy.
Inline JavaScript will not be executed. This restriction bans both inline
<script>blocks and inline event handlers (e.g.<button onclick="...">).
How to detect
If this is indeed the problem, Chrome would produce the following error in the console:
Refused to execute inline script because it violates the following Content Security Policy directive: "script-src 'self' chrome-extension-resource:". Either the 'unsafe-inline' keyword, a hash ('sha256-...'), or a nonce ('nonce-...') is required to enable inline execution.
To access a popup's JavaScript console (which is useful for debug in general), right-click your extension's button and select "Inspect popup" from the context menu.
More information on debugging a popup is available here.
How to fix
One needs to remove all inline JavaScript. There is a guide in Chrome documentation.
Suppose the original looks like:
<a onclick="handler()">Click this</a> <!-- Bad -->
One needs to remove the onclick attribute and give the element a unique id:
<a id="click-this">Click this</a> <!-- Fixed -->
And then attach the listener from a script (which must be in a .js file, suppose popup.js):
// Pure JS:
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
document.getElementById("click-this").addEventListener("click", handler);
});
// The handler also must go in a .js file
function handler() {
/* ... */
}
Note the wrapping in a DOMContentLoaded event. This ensures that the element exists at the time of execution. Now add the script tag, for instance in the <head> of the document:
<script src="popup.js"></script>
Alternative if you're using jQuery:
// jQuery
$(document).ready(function() {
$("#click-this").click(handler);
});
Relaxing the policy
Q: The error mentions ways to allow inline code. I don't want to / can't change my code, how do I enable inline scripts?
A: Despite what the error says, you cannot enable inline script:
There is no mechanism for relaxing the restriction against executing inline JavaScript. In particular, setting a script policy that includes
'unsafe-inline'will have no effect.
Update: Since Chrome 46, it's possible to whitelist specific inline code blocks:
As of Chrome 46, inline scripts can be whitelisted by specifying the base64-encoded hash of the source code in the policy. This hash must be prefixed by the used hash algorithm (sha256, sha384 or sha512). See Hash usage for
<script>elements for an example.
However, I do not readily see a reason to use this, and it will not enable inline attributes like onclick="code".