Using chrome extension apis in typescript

I'm building a chrome extension written in TypeScript. I'm using WebStorm and I added the chrome-DefiniteltyTyped library in my project.

However, when I write this in my typescript code : chrome.extension.getURL I got an error : cannot find name 'chrome'.

Because of this, my javascript file is not generated and I cannot use it in my extension.

Do you guys have any solution?

As of typescript 2 (or 2.x, not sure), you should import the chrome types from @types.

in package.json:

"devDependencies": {
    ...
	"@types/chrome": "0.0.35", // or just npm install --save-dev @types/chrome

And in tsconfig:

	"types": [
		//(various types, e.g. jquery, core-js),
		"chrome"
	]

That should work fine : https://github.com/DefinitelyTyped/DefinitelyTyped/blob/master/types/chrome/index.d.ts

TIP: make sure you have a reference tag added:

/// <reference path="pathTo/chrome.d.ts"/>

Types Across Chrome and Firefox

Since the extension API is basically the same across Chrome and Firefox now, you can use @types/chrome for both situations.

1. install

yarn add @types/chrome --dev

2. update tsconfig

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    ....
    "types": ["chrome"]
  }
}

3. Get browser api function

export function getBrowserInstance(): typeof chrome {
  // Get extension api Chrome or Firefox
  const browserInstance = window.chrome || (window as any)['browser'];
  return browserInstance;
}

You just need to install Type definition to make it work, let's install it:

yarn add @types/chrome --dev

or NPM

npm install @types/chrome --save-dev

now use free of error!

I just ran into the below error when trying to develop a Chrome extension using TypeScript in VS Code and all I had to do was simply run:

npm install --save-dev @types/chrome

This will enter "@types/chrome": "0.0.120" under "devDependencies" in your package.json file.

Fixed error:

[tsl] ERROR in C:\Users\my_user\Documents\my_chrome_extension\src\content.ts(28,3) TS2304: Cannot find name 'chrome'.

What did work:

Have typescript ignore the offending code by adding a comment like this above it.

// @ts-ignore: saying 'chrome' is not found

What didn't work:

• I had @types/chrome installed when I ran into this issue.
• In the tsconfig.json, adding "chrome" under types and specifying the typesroot.
• Adding a reference path comment and all sorts of ways to import "chrome".

try these before you add the @ts-ignore comment.

Background:

I am working on a chrome extension using Angular 11. I need to access chrome.runtime.sendMessage to send information to a background worker.