Unchecked runtime.lastError while running tabs.executeScript?

Question

I managed to build Ripple Emulator open source (https://github.com/apache/incubator-ripple).

I built it per the instructions (Jake build), which create the Chrome Extension Target that allows me to test my web apps via a chrome extension of my built, as per https://github.com/apache/incubator-ripple/blob/master/doc/chrome_extension.md.

I successfully loaded the unpacked extension onto chrome, but when I enable it nothing happens, though the page reloads the extension does not work, instead I get 2 errors:

1. Uncaught ReferenceError: webkitNotifications is not defined

   webkitNotifications.createHTMLNotification('/views/update.html').show();
   

2. Unchecked runtime.lastError while running tabs.executeScript: Cannot access a chrome:// URL

   chrome.tabs.executeScript(tabId, {
   

How do I solve this problem?

---

Full background.js:

if (!window.tinyHippos) {
window.tinyHippos = {};
}

tinyHippos.Background = (function () {
var _wasJustInstalled = false,
    _self;

function isLocalRequest(uri) {
    return !!uri.match(/^https?:\/\/(127\.0\.0\.1|localhost)|^file:\/\//);
}

function initialize() {
    // check version info for showing welcome/update views
    var version = window.localStorage["ripple-version"],
        xhr = new window.XMLHttpRequest(),
        userAgent,
        requestUri = chrome.extension.getURL("manifest.json");

    _self.bindContextMenu();

    xhr.onreadystatechange = function () {
        if (xhr.readyState === 4) {
            var manifest = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText),
                currentVersion = manifest.version;

            if (!version) {
                _wasJustInstalled = true;
            }

            if (version !== currentVersion) {
                webkitNotifications.createHTMLNotification('/views/update.html').show();
            }

            window.localStorage["ripple-version"] = currentVersion;
        }
    };

    xhr.open("GET", requestUri, true);

    xhr.send();

    chrome.extension.onRequest.addListener(function (request, sender, sendResponse) {
        switch (request.action) {
        case "isEnabled":
            console.log("isEnabled? ==> " + request.tabURL);
            sendResponse({"enabled": tinyHippos.Background.isEnabled(request.tabURL)});
            break;
        case "enable":
            console.log("enabling ==> " + request.tabURL);
            tinyHippos.Background.enable();
            sendResponse();
            break;
        case "version":
            sendResponse({"version": version});
            break;
        case "xhr":
            var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(),
                postData = new FormData(),
                data = JSON.parse(request.data);

            console.log("xhr ==> " + data.url);

            $.ajax({
                type: data.method,
                url: data.url,
                async: true,
                data: data.data,
                success: function (data, status) {
                    sendResponse({
                        code: 200,
                        data: data
                    });
                },
                error: function (xhr, status, errorMessage) {
                    sendResponse({
                        code: xhr.status,
                        data: status
                    });
                }
            });
            break;
        case "userAgent":
        case "lag":
        case "network":
            // methods to be implemented at a later date
            break;
        default:
            throw {name: "MethodNotImplemented", message: "Requested action is not supported!"};
            break;
        };
    });

    chrome.tabs.onUpdated.addListener(function (tabId, changeInfo, tab) {
        if (tinyHippos.Background.isEnabled(tab.url)) {
            chrome.tabs.executeScript(tabId, {
                code: "rippleExtensionId = '" + chrome.extension.getURL('') + "';",
                allFrames: false
            }, function () {
                chrome.tabs.executeScript(tabId, {
                    file: "bootstrap.js",
                    allFrames: false
                });
            });
        }
    });
}

function _getEnabledURIs() {
    var parsed = localStorage["tinyhippos-enabled-uri"];
    return parsed ? JSON.parse(parsed) : {};
}

function _persistEnabled(url) {
    var jsonObject = _getEnabledURIs();
    jsonObject[url.replace(/.[^\/]*$/, "")] = "widget";
    localStorage["tinyhippos-enabled-uri"] = JSON.stringify(jsonObject);
}

_self = {
    metaData: function () {
        return {
            justInstalled: _wasJustInstalled,
            version: window.localStorage["ripple-version"]
        };
    },

    bindContextMenu: function () {
        var id = chrome.contextMenus.create({
            "type": "normal",
            "title": "Emulator"
        });

        // TODO: hack for now (since opened tab is assumed to be page context was called from
        // eventually will be able to pass in data.pageUrl to enable/disable when persistence     refactor is done
        chrome.contextMenus.create({
            "type": "normal",
            "title": "Enable",
            "contexts": ["page"],
            "parentId": id,
            "onclick": function (data) {
                    _self.enable();
                }
        });

        chrome.contextMenus.create({
            "type": "normal",
            "title": "Disable",
            "contexts": ["page"],
            "parentId": id,
            "onclick": function (data) {
                    _self.disable();
                }
        });
    },

    enable: function () {
        chrome.tabs.getSelected(null, function (tab) {
            console.log("enable ==> " + tab.url);
            _persistEnabled(tab.url);
            chrome.tabs.sendRequest(tab.id, {"action": "enable", "mode": "widget", "tabURL": tab.url });
        });
    },

    disable: function () {
        chrome.tabs.getSelected(null, function (tab) {
            console.log("disable ==> " + tab.url);

            var jsonObject = _getEnabledURIs(),
                url = tab.url;

            while (url && url.length > 0) {
                url = url.replace(/.[^\/]*$/, "");
                if (jsonObject[url]) {
                    delete jsonObject[url];
                    break;
                }
            }

            localStorage["tinyhippos-enabled-uri"] = JSON.stringify(jsonObject);

            chrome.tabs.sendRequest(tab.id, {"action": "disable", "tabURL": tab.url });
        });
    },

    isEnabled: function (url, enabledURIs) {
        if (url.match(/enableripple=/i)) {
            _persistEnabled(url);
            return true;
        }

            // HACK: I'm sure there's a WAY better way to do this regex
        if ((url.match(/^file:\/\/\//) && url.match(/\/+$/)) || url.match(/(.*?)\.        (jpg|jpeg|png|gif|css|js)$/)) {
            return false;
        }

        enabledURIs = enabledURIs || _getEnabledURIs();

        if (url.length === 0) {
            return false;
        }
        else if (enabledURIs[url]) {
            return true;
        }

          return tinyHippos.Background.isEnabled(url.replace(/.[^\/]*$/, ""), enabledURIs);
    }
   };

    initialize();

    return _self;
}());

Full manifest.json:

{
"version": "1",
"manifest_version": 2,
"name": "Ripple Emulator (Beta)",
"background": {
    "page": "views/background.html"
},
"web_accessible_resources": [],
"icons":{
    "16":"images/Icon_16x16.png",
    "128":"images/Icon_128x128.png",
    "48":"images/Icon_48x48.png"
},
"browser_action":{
    "default_popup":"views/popup.html",
    "default_icon":"images/Icon_48x48.png",
    "default_title":"Ripple"
},
"content_scripts":[{
    "run_at": "document_start",
    "js": ["controllers/Insertion.js"],
    "matches": ["http://*/*","https://*/*","file://*"]
},
{
    "run_at": "document_start",
    "js": ["controllers/frame.js"],
    "matches": ["http://*/*","https://*/*","file://*"],
    "all_frames": true
}],
"permissions": ["tabs", "unlimitedStorage", "notifications", "contextMenus", "webRequest", "<all_urls>"],
"description": "A browser based html5 mobile application development and testing tool"
}

Answer 1

"Check" runtime.lastError by "reading" it in the callback.

---

Code

chrome.tabs.executeScript(tabId, {
  //..
}, _=>chrome.runtime.lastError /* "check" error */)

---

Eg

Show it via..

chrome.tabs.executeScript(tabId, {
  //..
}, _=>{
  let e = chrome.runtime.lastError;
  if(e !== undefined){
    console.log(tabId, _, e);
  }
});

Answer 2

Both of these errors explain the problem well:

"webkitNotifications is not defined" - this is because webkitNotifications has been removed. I found Chrome webkitNotification not found : api missing which explains what is going on.

"Cannot access a chrome:// URL" - you must be trying to execute the script on a chrome:// URL (like chrome://settings, chrome://extensions) which is illegal. To avoid the error printing like that, you can either - check chrome.runtime.lastError - make sure not to inject onto chrome:// pages.