runtime.onInstalled

Fired when the extension is first installed, when the extension is updated to a new version, and when the browser is updated to a new version.

Note that runtime.onInstalled is not the same as management.onInstalled. The runtime.onInstalled event is fired only for your extension. The browser.management.onInstalled event is fired for any extensions.

Syntax

browser.runtime.onInstalled.addListener(listener)
browser.runtime.onInstalled.removeListener(listener)
browser.runtime.onInstalled.hasListener(listener)

Events have three functions:

addListener(callback)

Adds a listener to this event.

removeListener(listener)

Stop listening to this event. The listener argument is the listener to remove.

hasListener(listener)

Checks whether a listener is registered for this event. Returns true if it is listening, false otherwise.

addListener syntax

Parameters

function

The callback function called when this event occurs. The function will be passed the following arguments:

details

An object with the following properties:

idOptional

string. The ID of the imported shared module extension that updated. This is present only if the reason value is shared_module_update.

previousVersionOptional

string. The previous version of the extension just updated. This is only present if the reason value is update.

reason

An runtime.OnInstalledReason value, stating the reason that this event is being dispatched.

temporary

boolean. True if the add-on was installed temporarily. For example, using the "about:debugging" page in Firefox or using web-ext run. False otherwise.

Browser compatibility

Examples

When the extension is installed, log the install reason and open https://example.com:

function handleInstalled(details) {
  console.log(details.reason);
  browser.tabs.create({
    url: "https://example.com"
  });
}

browser.runtime.onInstalled.addListener(handleInstalled);

Example extensions

• runtime-examples