chrome-track-activity
v1.0.0
Published
Utility function to track browsing activity in a Chrome extension
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chrome-track-activity
Utility function to track browsing activity in a Chrome extension.
Usage
This package exports a single function startTrackingActivity
which can be used to track a user's browsing activity.
The following example demonstates its usage:
function onSessionStart(session) {
console.log("START", session.startTime, session.url);
}
function onSessionEnd(session) {
console.log("END", session.endTime, session.url);
}
var stopTracking = startTrackingActivity(onSessionStart, onSessionEnd);
startTrackingActivity
accepts two arguments:
onSessionStart
: Invoked each time the user loads a new page in the foreground tab or navigates to an existing page. The argumentsession
contains theurl
,startTime
andtabId
for the new page.onSessionEnd
: Invoked each time the user loads a new page in the foreground tab, changes the tab or window, closes the foreground tab, or leaves the browser window. The argumentsession
contains theurl
,startTime
,tabId
andendTime
for the page that was closed/changed.
The return value of startTrackingActivity
is another function, which can called to discontinue tracking when it is no longer required.
Installation
IMPORTANT NOTE: To use startTrackingAcvitity
, you need to declare the "tabs" permission in your extension's manifest file.
Method 1: Copy-paste
The easiest way to add the utility startTrackingActivity
is to copy-paste the code from tracking.js
into your background script/page. It's only 70 lines!
Method 2: <script>
tag
First download the the file into your extension directory using the following command:
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aakashns/chrome-track-activity/master/tracking.js
Then include it in your background page using a script tag:
<head>
<script src="tracking.js"></script>
</head>
Check out the example for an example of this approach.
Method 3: Install from npm
Install the package from npm by running:
npm install chrome-track-activity --save
Then include it in your script using require
:
var startTrackingActivity = require('chrome-track-activity');
Running the Example
The example
directory contains and example extension which uses startTrackingActivity
to log the browsing activity of the user.
First, clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/aakashns/chrome-track-activity.git
Then, follow the instructions on this page to load the extension into your browser.
Then, visit chrome://extensions and inspect the background page:
Open the 'Console' tab, leave the inspector window, and continue using the browser normally. You should see a log of the browsing activity as you enter and leave pages, like this:
The logic for the extension lives is background.js.