Addon problem #4: Cannot obtain manifest object from browser

Add-ons Development
1

The following code in a popup window loaded by “browser.windows.create({url:url, type: “popup”/, height: 600, width: 600/});” fails to obtain the manifest object because “browser” is undefined. Why is browser undefined in this update popup and how do I define it? Is there a magic global .js file that I am supposed to include in the HTML file?

var manifest=browser.runtime.getManifest();

Note: with “browser” undefined in the update popup js file, many other useful operations also cannot be done, like sending messages.

2

What url do you load in this window? WebExtension APIs are only available for extension pages.

3

The/a browser global variable should be defined in every window context of your extension (i.e. the background page, all views (tabs, popups, panels, sidebars, iframes unless sandboxed) that have a HTML file loaded that was bundled in your extension) and in content scripts (but with fewer APIs available).
You do not need to load it from a script (in Firefox, in Chrome it has to be polyfilled).

4

Thank you. I’m not sure why “browser” is sometimes defined and sometimes not defined, but I will post the solution I found at Problem #5.