--- title: webRequest.onBeforeRequest slug: Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/webRequest/onBeforeRequest translation_of: Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/webRequest/onBeforeRequest ---
This event is triggered when a request is about to be made, and before headers are available. This is a good place to listen if you want to cancel or redirect the request.
To cancel or redirect the request, first include "blocking"
in the extraInfoSpec
array argument to addListener()
. Then, in the listener function, return a {{WebExtAPIRef("webRequest.BlockingResponse", "BlockingResponse")}} object, setting the appropriate property:
cancel
with the value true
.redirectUrl
with the value set to the URL to which you want to redirect.From Firefox 52 onwards, instead of returning BlockingResponse
, the listener can return a Promise
which is resolved with a BlockingResponse
. This enables the listener to process the request asynchronously.
If you use "blocking"
, you must have the "webRequestBlocking" API permission in your manifest.json.
browser.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener( listener, // function filter, // object extraInfoSpec // optional array of strings ) browser.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.removeListener(listener) browser.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.hasListener(listener)
Events have three functions:
addListener(callback, filter, extraInfoSpec)
removeListener(listener)
listener
argument is the listener to remove.hasListener(listener)
listener
is registered for this event. Returns true
if it is listening, false
otherwise.callback
Function that will be called when this event occurs. The function will be passed the following arguments:
details
object
. Details about the request. See details
below.Returns: {{WebExtAPIRef('webRequest.BlockingResponse')}}. If "blocking"
is specified in the extraInfoSpec
parameter, the event listener should return a BlockingResponse
object, and can set either its cancel
or its redirectUrl
properties. From Firefox 52 onwards, instead of returning BlockingResponse
, the listener can return a Promise
which is resolved with a BlockingResponse
. This enables the listener to process the request asynchronously.
filter
extraInfoSpec
{{optional_inline}}array
of string
. Extra options for the event. You can pass any of the following values:"blocking"
: make the request synchronous, so you can cancel or redirect the request"requestBody"
: include requestBody
in the details
object passed to the listenerrequestId
string
. The ID of the request. Request IDs are unique within a browser session, so you can use them to relate different events associated with the same request.url
string
. Target of the request.method
string
. Standard HTTP method: for example, "GET" or "POST".frameId
integer
. Zero if the request happens in the main frame; a positive value is the ID of a subframe in which the request happens. If the document of a (sub-)frame is loaded (type
is main_frame
or sub_frame
), frameId
indicates the ID of this frame, not the ID of the outer frame. Frame IDs are unique within a tab.parentFrameId
integer
. ID of the frame that contains the frame which sent the request. Set to -1 if no parent frame exists.requestBody
{{optional_inline}}object
. Contains the HTTP request body data. Only provided if extraInfoSpec
contains "requestBody"
.error
{{optional_inline}}string
. This is set if any errors were encountered when obtaining request body data.formData
{{optional_inline}}object
. This object is present if the request method is POST and the body is a sequence of key-value pairs encoded in UTF-8 as either "multipart/form-data" or "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".{'key': ['value1', 'value2']}
. If the data is of another media type, or if it is malformed, the object is not present.raw
{{optional_inline}}array
of {{WebExtAPIRef('webRequest.UploadData')}}
. If the request method is PUT or POST, and the body is not already parsed in formData
, then this array contains the unparsed request body elements.tabId
integer
. ID of the tab in which the request takes place. Set to -1 if the request isn't related to a tab.type
timeStamp
number
. The time when this event fired, in milliseconds since the epoch.originUrl
string
. URL of the resource that triggered this request. Note that this may not be the same as the URL of the page into which the requested resource will be loaded. For example, if a document triggers a load in a different window through the target attribute of a link, or a CSS document includes an image using the url()
functional notation, then this will be the URL of the original document or of the CSS document, respectively.{{Compat("webextensions.api.webRequest.onBeforeRequest", 10)}}
This code logs the URL for every resource requested which matches the <all_urls> pattern:
function logURL(requestDetails) { console.log("Loading: " + requestDetails.url); } browser.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener( logURL, {urls: ["<all_urls>"]} );
This code cancels requests for images that are made to URLs under "https://mdn.mozillademos.org/" (to see the effect, visit any page on MDN that contains images, such as Firefox Developer Edition):
// match pattern for the URLs to redirect var pattern = "https://mdn.mozillademos.org/*"; // cancel function returns an object // which contains a property `cancel` set to `true` function cancel(requestDetails) { console.log("Canceling: " + requestDetails.url); return {cancel: true}; } // add the listener, // passing the filter argument and "blocking" browser.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener( cancel, {urls: [pattern], types: ["image"]}, ["blocking"] );
This code replaces, by redirection, all network requests for images that are made to URLs under "https://mdn.mozillademos.org/" (to see the effect, visit any page on MDN that contains images, such as Firefox Developer Edition):
// match pattern for the URLs to redirect var pattern = "https://mdn.mozillademos.org/*"; // redirect function // returns an object with a property `redirectURL` // set to the new URL function redirect(requestDetails) { console.log("Redirecting: " + requestDetails.url); return { redirectUrl: "https://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldbj01lZiP1qe0eclo1_500.gif" }; } // add the listener, // passing the filter argument and "blocking" browser.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener( redirect, {urls:[pattern], types:["image"]}, ["blocking"] );
This code is exactly like the previous example, except that the listener handles the request asynchronously. It returns a Promise
that sets a timer, and resolves with the redirect URL when the timer expires:
// match pattern for the URLs to redirect var pattern = "https://mdn.mozillademos.org/*"; // URL we will redirect to var redirectUrl = "https://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldbj01lZiP1qe0eclo1_500.gif"; // redirect function returns a Promise // which is resolved with the redirect URL when a timer expires function redirectAsync(requestDetails) { console.log("Redirecting async: " + requestDetails.url); var asyncCancel = new Promise((resolve, reject) => { window.setTimeout(() => { resolve({redirectUrl}); }, 2000); }); return asyncCancel; } // add the listener, // passing the filter argument and "blocking" browser.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener( redirectAsync, {urls: [pattern], types: ["image"]}, ["blocking"] );
{{WebExtExamples}}
This API is based on Chromium's chrome.webRequest
API. This documentation is derived from web_request.json
in the Chromium code.
Microsoft Edge compatibility data is supplied by Microsoft Corporation and is included here under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
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