Safari 5 Extension: How can I detect when a window

Question

I have a Safari 5 extension that contains a toolbar. Whenever the current tab changes, that toolbar should be updated. I would like to do something like this from my bar's script:

safari.self.browserWindow.addEventListener("activeTab", tabChanged, false);

However, that doesn't seem to work. I have tried a number of other event names as well:

• activeTab
• activeTabChanged
• onActiveTab
• onActiveTabChanged
• tab
• tabChanged
• onTab
• onTabChanged
• selectionChanged
• onSelectionChanged

Does anybody know how to detect when the active tab changes?

Not that this is in any way related, but it looks like I would do this in Chrome with:

 chrome.tabs.onSelectionChanged.addListener(tabChanged);

Answer 1

I found this method works better than focus event, it can be managed in the background page:

safari.application.addEventListener("validate", PopUp.validateCommand, false);

var PopUp = {

    activeTab : null,

    // commands are validated before being excecuted
    validateCommand : function(aEvent) {

        // this is a hack for detecting tab switches, safari does not have a dedicated API like Chrome 
        if(PopUp.activeTab !== null){
            if(PopUp.activeTab !== safari.application.activeBrowserWindow.activeTab){
                $.each(safari.application.browserWindows, function(aIndex, aWindow) {
                    $.each(aWindow.tabs, function(aIndex, aTab) {
                        //  message all tabs about the focus switch event
                        if (aTab !== safari.application.activeBrowserWindow.activeTab && aTab.page) {
                            aTab.page.dispatchMessage("tabUnfocused");
                        }else{
                            aTab.page.dispatchMessage("tabFocused");
                        }
                    });
                });
            }
        }
        // set the new active tab
        PopUp.activeTab = safari.application.activeBrowserWindow.activeTab;
    }
}

Answer 2

I agree with @imiaou 's answer: from looking at Apple's docs there doesn't seem to be a way to do this :(.

Since I needed to detect tab changes for my extension (which I'm porting over from Chrome), I did the following polling-based workaround which seems to be working fine (in my global page):

var prevActiveTab;

setInterval("poorMansOnTabChange()", 1500); //poll every 1.5 sec

function poorMansOnTabChange() {
    var curTab = safari.application.activeBrowserWindow.activeTab;
    if (curTab != prevActiveTab) {
        prevActiveTab= curTab;
        console.log("active tab changed!");
        //do work here
    }
}

I'm unhappy with constantly polling the browser, but I see no other way around this until Apple adds support for these tab-events. If your extension can live with a relatively relaxed tab-switch event trigger latency then this could be a reasonable workaround for now (1.5 sec. max latency is acceptable for my extension, and it doesn't feel like its slowing down the browser).

Answer 3

This code will help to trace the change in URL :- Write this code Inject.js , in side function

function trackURL() {

    alert("beforeNavigate "+safari.application.activeBrowserWindow.activeTab.url);
        setTimeout(function() {
            alert("afterNavigate "+safari.application.activeBrowserWindow.activeTab.url);

            }, 500);
    }
    safari.application.addEventListener("beforeNavigate", trackURL, true);

Answer 4

Safari 5.1 has several new events for extensions, including an "activate" event that fires when a window or tab is focused.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safariextensions/safariactivateevent

Answer 5

It seems Apple doesn't provide much API for us manipulating tabs like Chrome does. Currently, there is no way to detect tab event.

Answer 6

That's the event you are looking for. I'm not sure, but i think is a new addition to the extensions api. You can put in global.html or in the popover.html

safari.application.addEventListener("activate", activateHandler, true);

function activateHandler(event) {
    safari.application.activeBrowserWindow.activeTab.page.dispatchMessage('someId', false);
}