chrome.omnibox

Description: The omnibox API allows you to register a keyword with Google Chrome's address bar, which is also known as the omnibox.
Availability: Since Chrome 35.
Manifest: "omnibox": {...}

A screenshot showing suggestions related to the keyword 'Chromium Search'

When the user enters your extension's keyword, the user starts interacting solely with your extension. Each keystroke is sent to your extension, and you can provide suggestions in response.

The suggestions can be richly formatted in a variety of ways. When the user accepts a suggestion, your extension is notified and can take action.

Manifest

You must include an omnibox keyword field in the manifest to use the omnibox API. You should also specify a 16x16-pixel icon, which will be displayed in the address bar when suggesting that users enter keyword mode.

For example: 

      {
        "name": "Aaron's omnibox extension",
        "version": "1.0",
        "omnibox": { "keyword" : "aaron" },
        "icons": {
          "16": "16-full-color.png"
        },
        "background": {
          "persistent": false,
          "scripts": ["background.js"]
        }
      }

Note: Chrome automatically creates a grayscale version of your 16x16-pixel icon. You should provide a full-color version so that it can also be used in other situations that require color. For example, the context menus API also uses a 16x16-pixel icon, but it is displayed in color.

Examples

You can find samples of this API on the sample page.

Summary

Types
DescriptionStyleType
OnInputEnteredDisposition
SuggestResult
Methods
setDefaultSuggestion − chrome.omnibox.setDefaultSuggestion(object suggestion)
Events
onInputStarted
onInputChanged
onInputEntered
onInputCancelled
onDeleteSuggestion

Types

DescriptionStyleType

The style type.
Enum
"url", "match", or "dim"

OnInputEnteredDisposition

The window disposition for the omnibox query. This is the recommended context to display results. For example, if the omnibox command is to navigate to a certain URL, a disposition of 'newForegroundTab' means the navigation should take place in a new selected tab.
Enum
"currentTab", "newForegroundTab", or "newBackgroundTab"

SuggestResult

A suggest result.
properties
string content

The text that is put into the URL bar, and that is sent to the extension when the user chooses this entry.

string description

The text that is displayed in the URL dropdown. Can contain XML-style markup for styling. The supported tags are 'url' (for a literal URL), 'match' (for highlighting text that matched what the user's query), and 'dim' (for dim helper text). The styles can be nested, eg. dimmed match. You must escape the five predefined entities to display them as text: stackoverflow.com/a/1091953/89484

boolean (optional) deletable

Since Chrome 63.

Whether the suggest result can be deleted by the user.

Methods

setDefaultSuggestion

chrome.omnibox.setDefaultSuggestion(object suggestion)

Sets the description and styling for the default suggestion. The default suggestion is the text that is displayed in the first suggestion row underneath the URL bar.

Parameters
object suggestion

A partial SuggestResult object, without the 'content' parameter.

string description

The text that is displayed in the URL dropdown. Can contain XML-style markup for styling. The supported tags are 'url' (for a literal URL), 'match' (for highlighting text that matched what the user's query), and 'dim' (for dim helper text). The styles can be nested, eg. dimmed match.

Events

onInputStarted

User has started a keyword input session by typing the extension's keyword. This is guaranteed to be sent exactly once per input session, and before any onInputChanged events.

addListener

chrome.omnibox.onInputStarted.addListener(function callback)
Parameters
function callback

The callback parameter should be a function that looks like this:

function() {...};

onInputChanged

User has changed what is typed into the omnibox.

addListener

chrome.omnibox.onInputChanged.addListener(function callback)
Parameters
function callback

The callback parameter should be a function that looks like this:

function(string text, function suggest) {...};
string text
function suggest

A callback passed to the onInputChanged event used for sending suggestions back to the browser.

The suggest parameter should be a function that looks like this:

function(array of SuggestResult suggestResults) {...};
array of SuggestResult suggestResults

Array of suggest results

onInputEntered

User has accepted what is typed into the omnibox.

addListener

chrome.omnibox.onInputEntered.addListener(function callback)
Parameters
function callback

The callback parameter should be a function that looks like this:

function(string text, OnInputEnteredDisposition disposition) {...};
string text
OnInputEnteredDisposition disposition

onInputCancelled

User has ended the keyword input session without accepting the input.

addListener

chrome.omnibox.onInputCancelled.addListener(function callback)
Parameters
function callback

The callback parameter should be a function that looks like this:

function() {...};

onDeleteSuggestion

Since Chrome 63.

User has deleted a suggested result.

addListener

chrome.omnibox.onDeleteSuggestion.addListener(function callback)
Parameters
function callback

The callback parameter should be a function that looks like this:

function(string text) {...};
string text

Text of the deleted suggestion.