menus API
The menus API first appeared in Thunderbird 66. It is basically the same as the Firefox menus API, but modified to suit Thunderbird. Note that Thunderbird does not include the contextMenus alias for this API.
The menus API allows to add items to Thunderbirds menus. You can choose what types of objects your context menu additions apply to, such as images, hyperlinks, and pages.
Permissions
menus
menus.overrideContext
Note
The permission menus is required to use messenger.menus.*.
Functions
getTargetElement(targetElementId)
Retrieve the element that was associated with a recent contextmenu event.
Parameters
Required permissions
menus
create(createProperties, [callback])
Creates a new context menu item. Note that if an error occurs during creation, you may not find out until the creation callback fires (the details will be in runtime.lastError).
Parameters
createProperties
(object)
[checked]
(boolean)
The initial state of a checkbox or radio item: true for selected and false for unselected. Only one radio item can be selected at a time in a given group of radio items.
[command]
(string)
Specifies a command to issue for the context click. Currently supports internal commands _execute_browser_action, _execute_compose_action and _execute_message_display_action.
List of contexts this menu item will appear in. Defaults to [‘page’] if not specified.
[documentUrlPatterns]
(array of string)
Lets you restrict the item to apply only to documents whose URL matches one of the given patterns. (This applies to frames as well.) For details on the format of a pattern, see Match Patterns.
[enabled]
(boolean)
Whether this context menu item is enabled or disabled. Defaults to true.
Custom icons to display next to the menu item. Custom icons can only be set for items appearing in submenus.
[id]
(string)
The unique ID to assign to this item. Mandatory for event pages. Cannot be the same as another ID for this extension.
[onclick]
(function)
A function that will be called back when the menu item is clicked. Event pages cannot use this.
[parentId]
(integer or string)
The ID of a parent menu item; this makes the item a child of a previously added item.
[targetUrlPatterns]
(array of string)
Similar to documentUrlPatterns, but lets you filter based on the src attribute of img/audio/video tags and the href of anchor tags.
[title]
(string)
The text to be displayed in the item; this is required unless type is separator. When the context is selection, you can use %s within the string to show the selected text. For example, if this parameter’s value is Translate ‘%s’ to Latin and the user selects the word cool, the context menu item for the selection is Translate ‘cool’ to Latin. To specify an access key for the new menu entry, include a & before the desired letter in the title. For example &Help.
The type of menu item. Defaults to normal if not specified.
List of view types where the menu item will be shown. Defaults to any view, including those without a viewType.
[visible]
(boolean)
Whether the item is visible in the menu.
[callback]
(function)
Called when the item has been created in the browser. If there were any problems creating the item, details will be available in runtime.lastError.
Return type (Promise)
integer or string
The ID of the newly created item.
Required permissions
menus
update(id, updateProperties)
Updates a previously created context menu item.
Parameters
id
(integer or string)
The ID of the item to update.
updateProperties
(object)
The properties to update. Accepts the same values as the create function.
[checked]
(boolean)
[documentUrlPatterns]
(array of string)
[enabled]
(boolean)
[onclick]
(function)
[parentId]
(integer or string)
Note: You cannot change an item to be a child of one of its own descendants.
[targetUrlPatterns]
(array of string)
[title]
(string)
[visible]
(boolean)
Whether the item is visible in the menu.
Required permissions
menus
remove(menuItemId)
Removes a context menu item.
Parameters
menuItemId
(integer or string)
The ID of the context menu item to remove.
Required permissions
menus
removeAll()
Removes all context menu items added by this extension.
Required permissions
menus
overrideContext(contextOptions)
Show the matching menu items from this extension instead of the default menu. This should be called during a contextmenu event handler, and only applies to the menu that opens after this event.
Parameters
contextOptions
(object)
[context]
(string)
ContextType to override, to allow menu items from other extensions in the menu. Currently only tab is supported. contextOptions.showDefaults cannot be used with this option.
Supported values:
tab
[showDefaults]
(boolean)
Whether to also include default menu items in the menu.
[tabId]
(integer)
Required when context is tab. Requires the tabs permission.
Required permissions
menus
menus.overrideContext
refresh()
Updates the extension items in the shown menu, including changes that have been made since the menu was shown. Has no effect if the menu is hidden. Rebuilding a shown menu is an expensive operation, only invoke this method when necessary.
Required permissions
menus
Events
onClicked
Fired when a context menu item is clicked. This is a user input event handler. For asynchronous listeners some restrictions apply.
Parameters for onClicked.addListener(listener)
listener(info, tab)
A function that will be called when this event occurs.
Parameters passed to the listener function
Information about the item clicked and the context where the click happened.
The details of the tab where the click took place. If the click did not take place in a tab, this parameter will be missing.
Required permissions
menus
onShown
Fired when a menu is shown. The extension can add, modify or remove menu items and call refresh() to update the menu.
Parameters for onShown.addListener(listener)
listener(info, tab)
A function that will be called when this event occurs.
Parameters passed to the listener function
Information about the context of the menu action and the created menu items.
The details of the tab where the menu was opened.
Required permissions
menus
onHidden
Fired when a menu is hidden. This event is only fired if onShown has fired before.
Parameters for onHidden.addListener(listener)
listener()
A function that will be called when this event occurs.
Required permissions
menus
Types
ContextType
The different contexts a menu can appear in. Specifying all is equivalent to the combination of all other contexts excluding tab and tools_menu. More information about each context can be found in the Supported UI Elements article on developer.thunderbird.net.
string
Supported values:
all
page
frame
selection
link
editable
password
image
video
audio
browser_action
compose_action
– [Added in TB 89]
message_display_action
– [Added in TB 89]
tab
message_list
folder_pane
compose_attachments
– [Added in TB 83, backported to TB 78.5.0]
message_attachments
all_message_attachments
tools_menu
– [Added in TB 88]
ItemType
The type of menu item.
string
Supported values:
normal
checkbox
radio
separator
OnClickData
Information sent when a context menu item is clicked.
object
editable
(boolean)
A flag indicating whether the element is editable (text input, textarea, etc.).
menuItemId
(integer or string)
The ID of the menu item that was clicked.
modifiers
(array of string)
An array of keyboard modifiers that were held while the menu item was clicked.
Supported values:
Shift
Alt
Command
Ctrl
MacCtrl
The selected attachments. The compose permission is required to return attachments of a message being composed. The messagesRead permission is required to return attachments of displayed messages.
[button]
(integer)
An integer value of button by which menu item was clicked.
[checked]
(boolean)
A flag indicating the state of a checkbox or radio item after it is clicked.
The displayed folder, if the context menu was opened in the message list. The accountsRead permission is required.
[fieldId]
(string)
– [Added in TB 89]
An identifier of the clicked Thunderbird UI element, if any.
Supported values:
composeSubject
composeTo
composeCc
composeBcc
composeReplyTo
composeNewsgroupTo
[frameId]
(integer)
The id of the frame of the element where the context menu was clicked.
[frameUrl]
(string)
The URL of the frame of the element where the context menu was clicked, if it was in a frame.
[linkText]
(string)
If the element is a link, the text of that link.
[linkUrl]
(string)
If the element is a link, the URL it points to.
[mediaType]
(string)
One of image, video, or audio if the context menu was activated on one of these types of elements.
[pageUrl]
(string)
The URL of the page where the menu item was clicked. This property is not set if the click occurred in a context where there is no current page, such as in a launcher context menu.
[parentMenuItemId]
(integer or string)
The parent ID, if any, for the item clicked.
The selected account, if the context menu was opened on an account entry in the folder pane. The accountsRead permission is required.
The selected folder, if the context menu was opened in the folder pane. The accountsRead permission is required.
The selected messages, if the context menu was opened in the message list. The messagesRead permission is required.
[selectionText]
(string)
The text for the context selection, if any.
[srcUrl]
(string)
Will be present for elements with a src URL.
[targetElementId]
(integer)
An identifier of the clicked content element, if any. Use getTargetElement(targetElementId) in the page to find the corresponding element.
The type of view where the menu is clicked. May be unset if the menu is not associated with a view.
[wasChecked]
(boolean)
A flag indicating the state of a checkbox or radio item before it was clicked.
OnShowData
Information sent when a context menu is being shown. Some properties are only included if the extension has host permission for the given context, for example activeTab for content tabs, compose for compose tabs and messagesRead for message display tabs.
object
A list of all contexts that apply to the menu.
editable
(boolean)
A flag indicating whether the element is editable (text input, textarea, etc.).
menuIds
(array of integer or string)
A list of IDs of the menu items that were shown.
The selected attachments. The compose permission is required to return attachments of a message being composed. The messagesRead permission is required to return attachments of displayed messages.
The displayed folder, if the context menu was opened in the message list. The accountsRead permission is required.
[fieldId]
(string)
– [Added in TB 89]
An identifier of the clicked Thunderbird UI element, if any.
Supported values:
composeSubject
composeTo
composeCc
composeBcc
composeReplyTo
composeNewsgroupTo
[frameUrl]
(string)
The URL of the frame of the element where the context menu was clicked, if it was in a frame. Note: Host permission is required.
[linkText]
(string)
If the element is a link, the text of that link. Note: Host permission is required.
[linkUrl]
(string)
If the element is a link, the URL it points to. Note: Host permission is required.
[mediaType]
(string)
One of image, video, or audio if the context menu was activated on one of these types of elements.
[pageUrl]
(string)
The URL of the page where the menu item was clicked. This property is not set if the click occurred in a context where there is no current page, such as in a launcher context menu. Note: Host permission is required.
The selected account, if the context menu was opened on an account entry in the folder pane. The accountsRead permission is required.
The selected folder, if the context menu was opened in the folder pane. The accountsRead permission is required.
The selected messages, if the context menu was opened in the message list. The messagesRead permission is required.
[selectionText]
(string)
The text for the context selection, if any. Note: Host permission is required.
[srcUrl]
(string)
Will be present for elements with a src URL. Note: Host permission is required.
[targetElementId]
(integer)
An identifier of the clicked content element, if any. Use getTargetElement(targetElementId) in the page to find the corresponding element.
The type of view where the menu is shown. May be unset if the menu is not associated with a view.
External Types
The following types are not defined by this API, but by the underlying Mozilla WebExtension code base. They are included here, because there is no other public documentation available.
IconPath
Either a string to specify a relative path of a single icon to be used for all sizes, or a dictionary object to specify paths for multiple icons in different sizes, so the icon does not have to be scaled for a device with a different pixel density. Each entry is a name-value pair with value being a relative path to an icon file, and name its size. Example:
{
"16": "icon16.png",
"32": "icon32.png"
}
See the MDN documentation about choosing icon sizes for more information on this.
Properties
ACTION_MENU_TOP_LEVEL_LIMIT
The maximum number of top level extension items that can be added to an extension action context menu. Any items beyond this limit will be ignored.