webNavigation

Add event listeners for the various stages of a navigation. A navigation consists of a frame in the browser transitioning from one URL to another, usually (but not always) in response to a user action like clicking a link or entering a URL in the location bar.

Compared with the webRequest API: navigations usually result in the browser making web requests, but the webRequest API is concerned with the lower-level view from the HTTP layer, while the webNavigation API is more concerned with the view from the browser UI itself.

Each event corresponds to a particular stage in the navigation. The sequence of events is like this:

Visualization of the primary flow and additional flows described below.

The primary flow is:
Additionally:
- onCreatedNavigationTarget is fired before onBeforeNavigate if the browser needed to create a new tab or window for the navigation (for example, because the user opened a link in a new tab).
- onHistoryStateUpdated is fired if a page uses the history API (2011) to update the URL displayed in the browser's location bar.
- onReferenceFragmentUpdated is fired if the fragment identifier for a page is changed.
- onErrorOccurred can be fired at any point.

Each navigation is a URL transition in a particular browser frame. The browser frame is identified by a tab ID and a frame ID. The frame may be the top-level browsing context in the tab, or may be a nested browsing context implemented as an iframe.

Each event's addListener() call accepts an optional filter parameter. The filter will specify one or more URL patterns, and the event will then only be fired for navigations in which the target URL matches one of the patterns.

The onCommitted event listener is passed two additional properties: a TransitionType indicating the cause of the navigation (for example, because the user clicked a link, or because the user selected a bookmark), and a TransitionQualifier providing further information about the navigation.

To use this API you need to have the "webNavigation" permission.

Types

webNavigation.TransitionType: Cause of the navigation: for example, the user clicked a link, or typed an address, or clicked a bookmark.
webNavigation.TransitionQualifier: Extra information about a transition.

Functions

webNavigation.getFrame(): Retrieves information about a particular frame. A frame may be the top-level frame in a tab or a nested iframe, and is uniquely identified by a tab ID and a frame ID.
webNavigation.getAllFrames(): Given a tab ID, retrieves information about all the frames it contains.

Events

webNavigation.onBeforeNavigate: Fired when the browser is about to start a navigation event.
webNavigation.onCommitted: Fired when a navigation is committed. At least part of the new document has been received from the server and the browser has decided to switch to the new document.
webNavigation.onDOMContentLoaded: Fired when the DOMContentLoaded event is fired in the page.
webNavigation.onCompleted: Fired when a document, including the resources it refers to, is completely loaded and initialized. This is equivalent to the DOM load event.
webNavigation.onErrorOccurred: Fired when an error occurs and the navigation is aborted. This can happen if either a network error occurred, or the user aborted the navigation.
webNavigation.onCreatedNavigationTarget: Fired when a new window, or a new tab in an existing window, is created to host a navigation: for example, if the user opens a link in a new tab.
webNavigation.onReferenceFragmentUpdated: Fired if the fragment identifier for a page is changed.
webNavigation.onTabReplaced: Fired when the contents of the tab is replaced by a different (usually previously pre-rendered) tab.
webNavigation.onHistoryStateUpdated: Fired when the page used the history API (2011) to update the URL displayed in the browser's location bar.

Browser compatibility

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	WebView Android	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet
`TransitionQualifier`	Yes	79	48 'server_redirect' is limited to top-level frames and 'client_redirect' is not supplied when redirections are created by JavaScript.	?	17	No	?	?	48 'server_redirect' is limited to top-level frames and 'client_redirect' is not supplied when redirections are created by JavaScript.	?	No	?
`TransitionType`	Yes	79	48	?	17	No	?	?	48	?	No	?
`getAllFrames`	Yes	14	47 The returned objects do not include the `errorOccurred` property. See bug 1248418.	?	17	14	?	?	48 The returned objects do not include the `errorOccurred` property. See bug 1248418.	?	15	?
`getFrame`	Yes	14	47	?	17	14	?	?	48	?	15	?
`onBeforeNavigate`	Yes If the filter parameter is empty, Chrome matches all URLs.	14 Filtering is not supported.	45 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	17 If the filter parameter is empty, Opera matches all URLs.	14 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?	?	48 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	15 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?
`onCommitted`	Yes If the filter parameter is empty, Chrome matches all URLs.	14 Filtering is not supported.	45 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	17 If the filter parameter is empty, Opera matches all URLs.	14 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?	?	48 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	15 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?
`onCompleted`	Yes If the filter parameter is empty, Chrome matches all URLs.	14 Filtering is not supported.	45 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	17 If the filter parameter is empty, Opera matches all URLs.	14 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?	?	48 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	15 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?
`onCreatedNavigationTarget`	Yes If a blocked popup is unblocked by the user, the event is still not sent.	14	54 ["If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception.", "If a blocked popup is unblocked by the user, the event is then sent."]	?	17 If a blocked popup is unblocked by the user, the event is still not sent.	No	?	?	54 ["If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception.", "If a blocked popup is unblocked by the user, the event is then sent.", "This event is only sent in the 'window.open()' case."]	?	No	?
`onDOMContentLoaded`	Yes If the filter parameter is empty, Chrome matches all URLs.	14 Filtering is not supported.	45 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	17 If the filter parameter is empty, Opera matches all URLs.	14 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?	?	48 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	15 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?
`onErrorOccurred`	Yes If the filter parameter is empty, Chrome matches all URLs.	14 Filtering is not supported	45 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	17 If the filter parameter is empty, Opera matches all URLs.	14 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?	?	48 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	15 If the filter parameter is empty, Safari matches all URLs.	?
`onHistoryStateUpdated`	Yes	14 Filtering is not supported.	47	?	17	No	?	?	48	?	No	?
`onReferenceFragmentUpdated`	Yes If the filter parameter is empty, Chrome matches all URLs.	14 Filtering is not supported.	45 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	17 If the filter parameter is empty, Opera matches all URLs.	No	?	?	48 ["Filtering is supported from version 50.", "If the filter parameter is empty, Firefox raises an exception."]	?	No	?
`onTabReplaced`	Yes	14	45 Although you can add listeners for this event, it will never fire because the underlying functionality is not supported.	?	17	No	?	?	48 Although you can add listeners for this event, it will never fire because the underlying functionality is not supported.	?	No	?

Example extensions

navigation-stats

Note: This API is based on Chromium's chrome.webNavigation API. This documentation is derived from web_navigation.json in the Chromium code.

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/webNavigation

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