sendMessage from extension background or popup to content script doesn't work

I know that question has been repeatedly asked in different ways, but I tried to go through all the answers (hopefully I didn't miss anyone) and none of them worked for me.

Here is my extension's code:

manifest:

{
"name": "test",
"version": "1.1",
"background": 
{ 
	"scripts": ["contextMenus.js"]
},

"permissions": ["tabs", "<all_urls>", "contextMenus"],

"content_scripts" : [
	{
		"matches" : [ "http://*/*" ],
		"js": ["jquery-1.8.3.js", "jquery-ui.js"],
		"css": [ "jquery-ui.css" ],
		"js": ["openDialog.js"]
	}
],

"manifest_version": 2
}

contextMenus.js

function onClickHandler(info, tab) {
    if (info.menuItemId == "line1"){

  	  alert("You have selected: " + info.selectionText);

	  chrome.extension.sendMessage({action:'open_dialog_box'}, function(){});

	  alert("Req sent?");
	
   	}
}

chrome.contextMenus.onClicked.addListener(onClickHandler);

chrome.runtime.onInstalled.addListener(function() {

  chrome.contextMenus.create({"id": "line1", "type": "normal", "title": "I'm line 1",     "contexts":["selection"]});

});

openDialog.js

chrome.extension.onMessage.addListener(function(msg, sender, sendResponse) {

  if (msg.action == 'open_dialog_box') {
	alert("Message recieved!");
  }
});

The two alerts of the background page work, while the one of the content_script doesn't.

console log's message: Port error: Could not establish connection. Receiving end does not exist.

Where is my fault?

In your background page you should call

chrome.tabs.query({active: true, currentWindow: true}, function(tabs){
    chrome.tabs.sendMessage(tabs[0].id, {action: "open_dialog_box"}, function(response) {});  
});

instead of using chrome.extension.sendMessage as you currently do.

The chrome.tabs variant sends messages to content scripts, whereas the chrome.extension function sends messages to all other extension components.

@apsillers is correct. Also don't forget to return true in your content-script listener or it might close too early.

chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener((message, sender, sendResponse) => {
    console.log(message)
    return true
});

Here's an example of a background script that sends a message to the content-script file.

background.js

chrome.tabs.sendMessage(tabs[0].id,"your message"); 

content-script/content.js

chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener(function (response, sendResponse) {
          console.log(response);
});

The problem with the provided solutions is that they raise other errors (Which break my Google Chrome)

@apsillers solution works but the callback raises errors!

How it should look like

// Background.js

chrome.tabs.query({active: true, currentWindow: true}, function(tabs){
chrome.tabs.sendMessage(tabs[0].id, {action: "open_dialog_box"});  
});

Now in Content scripts as provided by @Ronan Ca which builds upon @apsillers solution. It is Not ideal to return since we removed the callback from the background script.

// ContentScripts.js

chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener((message, sender, sendResponse) => {
console.log(message)
// return true <- this and the callback in background.js are what caused a crash in extensions page of my Google chrome
});

The background console won't open If I try to do it with callbacks. (It's that bad of a crash)

My use-case required sending a message to the background script from a webpage. I used chrome.runtime.onMessageExternal to catch this message.

Inside of this listener I was basically forwarding the message over to my content script so it could do its thing, but I could not figure out why my content script onMessage listener wouldn't catch the message.

Turns out by waiting for 1 second before sending the message from the webpage (I was basically doing it on load) I was able to see the message hitting my content script.