Firefox Addon - Accessing pre-loaded content script from ActionButton - firefox

Question

I am attaching content script to every tab on my firefox add-on.
And if user clicks on ActionButton (top right icon on browser) I am trying to access content script handler function, but it does not work.
I am using walkthroughs from Content Scripts but still could not make it work.
Am I doing something wrong?
Please see code below the TODO marked areas are not working;
// main.js
tabs.on('ready', function (tab) {
var worker = tab.attach({
include: "*",
//contentScript: 'window.alert("Page matches ruleset");',
contentStyleFile: [data.url("scripts/myTestContent1.js")]
});
worker.port.on('listener1', function (params) {
// I will listen some messages coming from myTestContent1.js
});
console.log("main.js: tab is ready!");
});
// browser icon typically at top right
var button = buttons.ActionButton({
id: "myActionButton",
label: "My pretty add-on",
icon: {
"16": "./icon-16.png",
"32": "./icon-32.png",
"64": "./icon-64.png"
},
onClick: handleClick
});
// when top right browser icon button is clicked
function handleClick(state) {
var myWorker = tabs.activeTab.attach({
//contentScriptFile: // I do not want to attach anything, just get Active tab!
});
// TODO this code is not handled by active tab's content script
// should be handled by myTestContent1.js but does not work
myWorker.port.emit("initialize", "Message from the add-on");
}
myWorker.port.emit is not calling handler function on my content script.
// myTestContent1.js
// TODO this code is not calling :(
self.port.on("initialize", function () {
alert('self.port.on("initialize")');
});

Answer 1

I fixed the problem by keep tracking tab-worker pairs, so
var TabWorkerPair = function (tabid, worker) {
this.tabid = tabid;
this.worker = worker;
};
tabs.on('close', function (tab) {
for (var i = 0; i < TabWorkerPairList.length; i++) {
var pair = TabWorkerPairList[i];
if (pair.tabid == tab.id) {
// remove object from list
TabWorkerPairList.splice(i, 1);
break;
}
}
console.log("main.js > tabs.on('close') > TabWorkerPairList count: " + TabWorkerPairList.length);
});
tabs.on('ready', function (tab) {
var worker = tab.attach({
include: "*",
contentScriptFile: [data.url("scripts/myTestContent1.js")]
});
// queue workers for tab
var pair = new TabWorkerPair(tab.id, worker);
TabWorkerPairList.push(pair);
console.log("main.js: tab is ready!");
});
and finally I can now emit worker function;
// when top right browser icon button is clicked
function handleClick(state) {
for (var i = 0; i < TabWorkerPairList.length; i++) {
var pair = TabWorkerPairList[i];
if (pair.tabid == tabs.activeTab.id) {
pair.worker.port.emit("initialize", pair.tabid);
break;
}
}
}
main reason: a tab can have multiple workers. So you should manually access the worker you are interested in.