1<div id="pageData-name" class="pageData">Windows</div> 2 3<!-- BEGIN AUTHORED CONTENT --> 4<p id="classSummary"> 5Use the <code>chrome.windows</code> module 6to interact with browser windows. 7You can use this module to 8create, modify, and rearrange windows in the browser. 9</p> 10 11<img src="images/windows.png" 12 width="256" height="76" alt="Two windows, each with one tab" /> 13 14<h2 id="manifest">Manifest</h2> 15<p> 16To use the windows API, 17you must declare the "tabs" permission 18in <a href="manifest.html">manifest.json</a>. 19(No, that isn't a typo — 20the window and tabs modules interact so closely we 21decided to just share one permission between them.) 22For example: 23</p> 24 25<pre>{ 26 "name": "My extension", 27 ... 28 <b>"permissions": ["tabs"]</b>, 29 ... 30}</pre> 31 32<h2 id="current-window">The current window</h2> 33 34<p>Many functions in the extension system 35take an optional <var>windowId</var> parameter, 36which defaults to the current window. 37</p> 38 39<p>The <em>current window</em> is the window that 40contains the code that is currently executing. 41It's important to realize that this can be 42different from the topmost or focused window. 43</p> 44 45<p>For example, say an extension 46creates a few tabs or windows from a single HTML file, 47and that the HTML file 48contains a call to 49<a href="tabs.html#method-getSelected">chrome.tabs.getSelected</a>. 50The current window is the window that contains the page that made 51the call, no matter what the topmost window is. 52</p> 53 54<p>In the case of the <a href="background_pages.html">background page</a>, 55the value of the current window falls back to the last active window. Under some 56circumstances, there may be no current window for background pages. 57</p> 58 59<h2 id="examples"> Examples </h2> 60 61<p> 62You can find simple examples of using the windows module in the 63<a href="http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/common/extensions/docs/examples/api/windows/">examples/api/windows</a> 64directory. 65Another example is in the 66<a href="http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/common/extensions/docs/examples/api/tabs/inspector/tabs_api.html?content-type=text/plain">tabs_api.html</a> file 67of the 68<a href="http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/common/extensions/docs/examples/api/tabs/inspector/">inspector</a> 69example. 70For other examples and for help in viewing the source code, see 71<a href="samples.html">Samples</a>. 72</p> 73 74<!-- END AUTHORED CONTENT --> 75
