I'm trying to use the webrequest api and I'm having trouble using it to block a website.

manifest.json

{
  "manifest_version": 2,

  "name": "blocktwitter",
  "description": "block twitter",
  "version": "1.0",

  "permissions": [
  "/",
  "activeTab",
  "storage",
  "webRequest",
  "webRequestBlocking"
  ],

"background": {
"scripts": ["background.js"],
"persistent": true
  }
}

background.js:

chrome.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener(
    function(details) { return {cancel: true}; },
    {urls: [""]},
    ["blocking"]);

I copied the copy + pasted the url from twitter, and copied the code from the docs, but it's still not working. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Help would be appreciated.

I'm trying to use the webrequest api and I'm having trouble using it to block a website.

manifest.json

{
  "manifest_version": 2,

  "name": "blocktwitter",
  "description": "block twitter",
  "version": "1.0",

  "permissions": [
  "https://ajax.googleapis./",
  "activeTab",
  "storage",
  "webRequest",
  "webRequestBlocking"
  ],

"background": {
"scripts": ["background.js"],
"persistent": true
  }
}

background.js:

chrome.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener(
    function(details) { return {cancel: true}; },
    {urls: ["https://twitter."]},
    ["blocking"]);

I copied the copy + pasted the url from twitter, and copied the code from the docs, but it's still not working. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Help would be appreciated.

• javascript
• google-chrome
• google-chrome-extension

1 Answer 1

You have two problems.

Problem #1: Invalid match pattern

The first problem is that the URL you are passing to chrome.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener() is not a valid match pattern. Match patterns require a path ponent. If you had looked at the console for your background page/script you would have seen the following error:

_generated_background_page.html:1 Unchecked runtime.lastError while running webRequestInternal.addEventListener: 'https://twitter.' is not a valid URL pattern.

Your background.js should be something like:

chrome.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener(
    function(details) {
        console.log('In webRequest');
        return {cancel: true};
    }, {
        urls: ["https://*.twitter./*"]
    }, ["blocking"]
);

Problem #2: No host permission for twitter.

You need to have permission for the host that you are blocking. You have to declare the host in your permissions array in manifest.json. Something like:

{
  "manifest_version": 2,

  "name": "blocktwitter",
  "description": "block twitter",
  "version": "1.0",

  "permissions": [
    "https://ajax.googleapis./*",
    "https://*.twitter./*",
    "activeTab",
    "storage",
    "webRequest",
    "webRequestBlocking"
  ],

  "background": {
    "scripts": ["background.js"],
    "persistent": true
  }
}