Open Browser Action's Popup with keyboard shortcut

Question

I'm developing a Google Chrome extension with a Browser Action Popup. When the user clicks on the icon, the popup appears.

Is there a way to open this popup with a keyboard shortcut like CTRL+something?

Answer 1

You need to add a "commands" object to your manifest.json, as shown at https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/commands. If your extension's popup is a "browser_action" popup (indicated by a "browser_action" key in your manifest.json), you'll need the "_execute_browser_action" command; for a "page_action" popup, you'll need the "_execute_page_action" command. An example manifest.json using the former looks like this:

{
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "name": "Example Extension",
  "description": "La la la",
  "version": "1.0",
  "browser_action": {
    "default_icon": "icon.png",
    "default_popup": "popup.html"
  },
  "commands": {
    "_execute_browser_action": {
      "suggested_key": {
        "default": "Ctrl+Shift+E",
        "linux": "Ctrl+Shift+K",
        "windows": "Alt+Shift+P",
        "mac": "Alt+Shift+P"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note that, per the docs:

Certain Chrome shortcuts (e.g. window management) always take priority over Extension Command shortcuts and can not be overwritten.

As far as I know, there's no canonical list of what these commands are; you just have to experiment with different possible suggested shortcuts until you find one that actually works.

Answer 2

The chrome.commands api enables the user to bind hotkeys (with your suggestion for the hotkey) that will trigger commands such as opening the browser action.