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Why will jQuery not load in Facebook?

Situation : I am writing a chrome extension that works on any page.

Problem Question : I can not load jQuery into Facebook and I would like to understand what is happening.

Hypotheses : Facebook possess some ultra advanced tech that somehow detects both :

  1. When jQuery is loaded via a chrome extension in an ostensibly separate JSVM execution context, the Facebook megamind somehow knows about this ostensibly separate JSVM execution context, and blocks it.
  2. that jQuery is loaded via script.src and blocks it (when I used the Google CDN which serves over HTTPS instead of the jQuery one which doesn't method 2 works, but is not sufficient for answer).

DATA

How do I know jQuery is not loading?

I j to bring up the console in Chrome. When I do :

    > jQuery
    >> ReferenceError : jQuery is not defined.
    > $('body')
    >> Error : Tried to get element "body" but it is not present on the page.

How do I attempt to load jQuery in facebook?

Method 1 (required but fails):

Via the following code in the manifest.json file :

"content_scripts"         :   [
                                  {
                                    "matches"   : ["<all_urls>"],
                                    "js"        : [ 
                                                    "javascript/jq/jquery-1.9.1.min.js",                                            
                                                    "javascript/jq/non-standard.js"
                                                  ],
                                    "all_frames": true // (or false, same failure)
                                  } 
                              ]

Method 2 (works, but insufficent):

Via the method described in this SO answer (load jQuery into console), modified to permit the correct protocol :

    var jq = document.createElement('script');
    jq.src = "//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js";
    document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(jq);
    jQuery.noConflict();

Summary

Hypothesis 1 seems very unlikely, because over-riding the separate execution contexts of a web browser would be a major security vulnerability (break that sandbox), and not likely to be sanctioned. Therefore, I am probably being paranoid and overlooking the obvious, which hopefully one of you will see.

Appendix (other relevant code)

All of non-standard.js :

    $.fn.in_groups_of = function( countPerGroup ) {
        var groups = [], offset = 0, $group;
        while ( ($group = this.slice( offset, (countPerGroup + offset) )).length ) {
            groups.push( $group );
            offset += countPerGroup;
        }
        return groups;
    };

More of manifest.json :

"manifest_version"        :   2,
"permissions"             :   [
                                  "http://*/",
                                  "https://*/",
                                  "tabs",
                                  "storage",
                                  "unlimitedStorage"
                              ],
like image 393
Cris Stringfellow Avatar asked Mar 04 '13 04:03

Cris Stringfellow


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2 Answers

The Chrome console does not appear to have access to the content script's execution context.

Wrong, it does. You need to look at the correct place:

Animation of how-to get access to the execution environment of the Chromne extension

The previous screencast shows that the Console tab of the Chrome developer tools has two dropdown boxes at the bottom, which can be used to change the execution environment for the developer tools' console.
The left side can be used to change the frame context (top frame, so iframe, ...), and the right side can be used to change the script context (page, content script, ...).

like image 83
Rob W Avatar answered Sep 28 '22 23:09

Rob W


The Answer

It seems my 'experimental method' was flawed. The assumption about the Chrome console's omniscience is incorrect. The Chrome console does not appear to have access to the content script's execution context. So although console was reporting that jQuery did not have access to the page, it actually did, from the content script's execution context.

This was verified by adding a content script, test.js, to manifest.json :

"content_scripts"         :   [
                                  {
                                    "matches"   : ["<all_urls>"],
                                    "js"        : [
                                                    "javascript/jq/jquery-1.9.1.min.js",
                                                    "javascript/jq/non-standard.js",
                                                    "javascript/test.js" // <-- add
                                                  ],

The content of test.js is :

    var jtest = $('body');
    alert(jtest);
    alert(jtest.text());

Now whatever page I navigate to, the two alert boxes pop up as expected.

It works!

like image 38
Cris Stringfellow Avatar answered Sep 28 '22 23:09

Cris Stringfellow