Add runtime.getContexts() proposal (#358)

* Original PR from justinlulejian * Update proposal * Minor edits and polish * Update per Simeon's feedback * Update runtime.getContexts() proposal * Change links to avoid http://go/. * Add more details on the `ContextFilter` behavior. * Add SIDE_PANEL context type and a section for future devtools contexts --------- Co-authored-by: Devlin Cronin <[email protected]>
w3c · Mar 29, 2023 · 6183ce7 · 6183ce7
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+# New API: runtime.getContexts()
+
+## Background
+
+Chromium currently has the
+[`extension.getViews()`](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/extension/#method-getViews)
+API method that allows an extension to get information about the "views" that
+are active for the extension. A "view" in this context is any HTML frame in the
+extension's process that commits to the extension origin; this may not be all
+the extension owns, such as in the case of incognito-mode frames. The returned
+values are a set of `HTMLWindow` objects, which the extension has permission to
+reach directly into (as they are same-origin).
+
+Some common reasons for calling this method are: determining if a toolbar
+popup, tab, or options page is open; directly interacting with those pages by
+reaching into their `HTMLWindow`; etc.
+
+Chromium's implementation of Manifest V2 (MV2) allows for
+[background pages](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv2/background_pages/)
+to call this API. This is possible because these pages are themselves an
+extension frame (albeit one that isn't visibly rendered) and run on the main
+thread of the renderer; this allows them easy access to the JavaScript
+[`Window`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window#instance_properties)
+objects provided by `extension.getViews()`.
+
+## Problem
+
+With the migration to Manifest V3 (MV3), background pages
+[no longer exist](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/migrating_to_service_workers/);
+instead, an extension's background context is
+[service worker](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/workbox/service-worker-overview/)-based.
+For technical reasons<sup>[1](#footnotes)</sup>, service workers cannot access
+the [`Window`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window#instance_properties)
+objects that `extension.getViews()` provides and it is not feasible to
+implement that with our browser design. Due to this, we cannot provide access
+to the JavaScript context for these views, but we can allow an extension to
+query for them (determining if they exist) and target them for messaging
+purposes.
+
+## Solution
+
+Considering the above situation, we'd like to propose a new extension API
+method, `runtime.getContexts()`, to asynchronously provide metadata about
+associated contexts that is still useful for an extension. A "context" here is
+considered an environment running the extension's code; the contexts we will
+consider are described in more detail in later sections. This will allow
+extension background scripts to identify the active contexts in the extension.
+For example, this can be used to target messages to send using
+[`runtime.sendMessage()`](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/runtime/#method-sendMessage),
+etc.). Introducing this API will allow an easier migration from MV2.
+
+This also obviates the need for introducing multiple one-off APIs, such as
+separate APIs to query for the extension popup, offscreen documents, etc.
+
+## API Proposal
+
+This method will return an array of matching contexts, represented by a new
+`ExtensionContext` type. This will be defined as:
+
+```js
+runtime.ExtensionContext = {
+  // Context type -- tab, popup, etc.
+  contextType: ContextType,
+  // A unique identifier for this context.
+  contextId: string,
+  // ID of the tab for this context, or -1 if this context is not hosted in a
+  // tab.
+  tabId: int,
+  // ID of the window for this context, or -1 if this context is not hosted in a
+  // window.
+  windowId: int,
+  // ID of the DOM document for this context, or undefined if this context is
+  // not associated with a document.
+  documentId?: string,
+  // ID of the frame for this context, or -1 if this context is not hosted in a
+  // frame.
+  frameId: int,
+  // The current URL of the document, or undefined if this context is not
+  // hosted in a document.
+  documentUrl?: string,
+  // The current origin of the document, or undefined if this context is not
+  // hosted in a document.
+  documentOrigin?: string,
+  // Whether the context is for an incognito profile.
+  incognito: boolean,
+}
+```
+
+`ContextType` will indicate the type of context retrieved. It is an enum
+defined as:
+
+```js
+extension.ContextType = {
+  // Tabs the extension is running in.
+  TAB: 'TAB',
+  // Toolbar popups created by the extension.
+  // TODO: Should this be `TOOLBAR_POPUP` to avoid ambiguity with web popup
+  // windows? Or perhaps `ACTION_POPUP` to avoid tying it to a particular UI
+  // surface?
+  POPUP: 'POPUP',
+  // The background context for the extension (in Chromium, the extension
+  // service worker).
+  BACKGROUND: 'BACKGROUND',
+  // Offscreen documents for the extension.
+  OFFSCREEN_DOCUMENT: 'OFFSCREEN_DOCUMENT',
+  // A side panel context. Currently under development in Chromium.
+  SIDE_PANEL,
+};
+```
+
+This enum will be expanded in the future as more context types are added.
+
+The method signature will be defined as:
+
+```js
+runtime.getContexts(
+  filter?: ContextFilter
+): Promise<ExtensionContext[]>;
+```
+
+A `ContextFilter` will be defined as:
+
+```js
+runtime.ContextFilter = {
+  contextTypes?: ContextType[],
+  contextIds?: string[],
+  tabIds?: int[],
+  windowIds?: int[],
+  documentIds?: string[],
+  frameIds?: int[],
+  documentUrls?: string[],
+  documentOrigins?: string[],
+  incognito?: boolean,
+}
+```
+
+This type will be used to query for specific contexts. For each array property,
+a given `ExtensionContext` matches if it matches any properties within the
+array. If a property is undefined, all contexts match; thus, a filter of `{}`
+matches all available contexts. Note that `incognito`, as a boolean, is not an
+array (because to match both `true` and `false`, it is simply omitted).
+
+As examples:
+* `{}` matches all available contexts.
+* `{incognito: false}` matches all non-incognito contexts.
+* `{contextTypes: ['TAB', 'POPUP']}` matches any `ExtensionContext` that is
+  either a tab or a popup.
+* `{contextTypes: ['TAB'], tabIds: [1, 2, 3]}` matches any `ExtensionContext
+  that is a tab where that context is in a tab with the ID `1`, `2`, or `3`.
+* `{contextTypes: ['OFFSCREEN_DOCUMENT'], tabIds: [1, 2, 3]}` would inherently
+  match no contexts, since no offscreen documents are not hosted in tabs and
+  thus cannot match.
+
+### Additional Considerations
+
+#### Context ID
+
+Each extension context will have a unique context ID, represented by a string.
+This is necessary to uniquely identify a context, since other fields may be
+non-unique (such as URL) or absent (such as documentId).
+
+The `contextId` is unique and persistent for the lifetime of a context.  For
+contexts associated with a document, this means `contextId` behaves like
+`documentId`. For service worker contexts, the `contextId` is unique for the
+duration of the service worker context (but will be different across service
+worker restarts).
+
+#### Document Properties
+
+Document-related properties (`documentId`, `documentUrl`, `documentOrigin`)
+refer to the document associated with this context. For extension documents
+(such as tabs, popups, and offscreen documents), these will point to the
+extension (e.g., `chrome-extension://<id>/popup.html`). If/when we add support
+for content scripts, this will be the document the script is injected within.
+For service workers (which have no document), these are undefined.
+
+#### Frames
+
+`ContextType` refers to the overall embedder for a context; for instance,
+`ContextType.TAB` will be used for any context associated with a tab. This
+includes subframes and cached frames. Developers can determine the finer
+grained state of these via other properties, such as `frameId`.
+
+#### Incognito mode
+
+[Split-mode](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/manifest/incognito/#split)
+extensions will _not_ have access to the contexts from their corresponding
+profile. That is, the incognito extension process will not be able to access
+contexts from the non-incognito extension process, and vice versa.
+
+For spanning-mode extensions, most contexts are accessible. Due to differences
+in browser architecture, exact details about whether incognito contexts (such as
+iframes in incognito pages) for spanning mode extensions are left as an exercise
+to the implementor.
+
+#### Sandboxed Pages
+
+Sandboxed pages will not be included in the returned contexts. They are on a
+separate origin (`"null"`) and do not have access to extension APIs.
+
+#### TOCTOU
+
+Time-of-Check vs Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) issues are an unavoidable aspect of this
+API, given its asynchronous nature. An extension may call `getContexts()` and,
+by the time it receives the result, the values (such as available contexts or
+URLs of those contexts) may be different.
+
+This is something extension developers already need to worry about with any
+asynchronous API. API calls should handle references to non-existent contexts
+gracefully, and extension developers can leverage concepts like `documentId`
+(which is updated when a frame navigates, allowing extensions to identify if a
+given context is the same as when they queried it).
+
+#### Naming
+
+*   *ContextType*: While there already exist more "Context" references in APIs
+    (such as `ContextType` on the `contextMenus` API), the namespace (`runtime`)
+    helps differentiate these.
+*   *`documentUrl` et al*: We use `documentUrl` on contexts (as opposed to
+    `url`) to indicate the URL is that of the document associated with the
+    context. This is relevant for cases where there may not be a document URL
+    (such as service workers) and allows for potential future expansion where
+    other URLs (such as script URLs) may exist.
+
+#### Default / Absent Values
+
+There is an inconsistency in how we represent a value for a context that doesn't
+have the associated trait, such as a `tabId` or `documentId` for an extension's
+background service worker context (which has neither an associated tab nor
+document). Some of these values -- `tabId`, `windowId`, and `frameId` -- use
+constant values to indicate "no state", such as `-1` for `tabId`. Others --
+`documentId`, `documentUrl`, and `documentOrigin` -- use undefined to indicate
+this.
+
+This is an artifact of existing APIs and precedence. Since many existing APIs
+use the constant integer values, we want to be consistent with those. However,
+for newly-introduced fields, we use the more intuitive `undefined` state.
+
+## Future Work
+
+### Messaging APIs Support `ContextId`s as Target
+
+In practice, many extension messages are meant for a single target, but are
+broadcast to all extension contexts. With the ability to uniquely identify a
+single extension context, we will modify messaging APIs (such as
+`runtime.sendMessage()` and `runtime.connect()`) to allow specifying specific
+targets that should receive a message.
+
+### Multi Page Architecture Fields (`DocumentLifeCycle`, `FrameType`, and `parentDocumentId`, and `parentFrameId`)
+
+[Multi Page Architecture](https://docs.google.com//1NginQ8k0w3znuwTiJ5qjYmBKgZDekvEPC22q0I4swxQ#heading=h.w1qo2n6sr8wn)
+caused
+[multiple changes](https://developer.chrome.com/blog/extension-instantnav/) to
+Chromium's
+[tabs API](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/tabs/),
+[scripting API](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/scripting/),
+and
+[web navigation API](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/webNavigation/).
+
+Among these changes are the additions of `DocumentLifecycle`, `FrameType`, and
+`parentDocumentId`. If there is sufficient demand, we can consider adding these
+fields to the `ExtensionContext` type.
+
+### runtime.getCurrentContext()
+
+We would like to provide an additional API, `runtime.getCurrentContext()`, to
+return the calling context.
+
+### Content Script Contexts
+
+[Content scripts](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/content_scripts/)
+run in a separate
+[Renderer](https://developer.chrome.com/blog/inside-browser-part3/) (and
+process) from the extension process. In this first version of the API, we will
+not include these contexts due to the complexity it entails. However, we would
+like to add these contexts in the future.
+
+With the content script additions, we may add new fields to `ExtensionContext`,
+such as `scriptUrl` (to indicate the content script's source).
+
+### Dev Tools Contexts
+
+Extensions can use the
+[Dev Tools API](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/devtools/] to
+extend the browser's developer tools. When doing so, these extensions can have
+a panel (an extension view) within the developer tools console. These views
+are a little different than others, though -- in Chromium, they commit to a
+different origin (one with a devtools:-scheme). These are also not currently
+returned from `chrome.extension.getViews()`. In the future, we will expand
+`runtime.getContexts()` with devtools context types to accommodate these.
+
+## Footnotes
+
+<sup>1</sup>: Non-main threads in a
+[Renderer](https://developer.chrome.com/blog/inside-browser-part3/) (where
+service workers run in Chromium) cannot access DOM concepts directly (they are
+only accessible from the main renderer thread). Service workers thus cannot
+synchronously access the JavaScript
+[`Window`](http://go/mdn/API/Window#instance_properties) objects provided by
+`extension.getViews()`. Supporting this access would take engineering years to
+change, and is likely undesirable due to the complexity and considerations it
+would introduce (threading and locking, slowing down main thread execution).