Keep Chrome extension popup open while navigating to a new page

Question

I'm developing a Google Chrome extension with a popup (it's a browser action), and it changes the location of the page, which makes the popup disappear. How can I make it stay between page reloads?

Answer 1

You can't. browserAction popups are closed on any activity outside of the popup. You could potentially use Desktop Notifications though.

Answer 2

You'll need to use Background Page , and pull information from it every time you load the popup. Background pages run whether or your extension is currently being used or not.

Not sure if this helps, but from the FAQ :

Can extensions keep popups open after the user clicks away from them?

No, popups automatically close when the user focuses on some portion of the browser outside of the popup. There is no way to keep the popup open after the user has clicked away.

Answer 3

I had to implement a workaround for this as well. In my case, I was trying to use auth0's loginWithPopup. When the popup closed, it returned focus to the chrome window instead of the extension which caused the extension to close before authorization fully completed. I worked around it by opening a new window which acts as a barrier of sorts to prevent chrome's focus from going back to the window the extension was opened from. Anyway, just wanted to put it out there in case it helps someone in the future.