How to use regex to exclude specific URLs from extension script

Question

I want to run the chrome extension script for a URL that matches a specific Regex pattern, for example /https:\/\/(?!en).*\.wikipedia\.org\/wiki/ which should match all wikipedia URLs that are not in English. However using the regex in my filter results in an error when loading the extension:

Service worker registration failed

Uncaught TypeError: Could not add listener

Here is the code I am using:

const filter = { url: [ { urlMatches: "https://(?!en).*\.wikipedia\.org/wiki" } ] } chrome.webNavigation.onBeforeNavigate.addListener((details) => { console.info("test"); }, filter);

Manifest.json:

{ "name": "Test", "description": "", "version": "1.0", "manifest_version": 3, "background": { "service_worker": "script.js" }, "permissions": [ "webNavigation" ] }

I think there is something wrong with my regex (I do not get any error when providing a full URL), but I am not sure what.

How do I get this to work?

Maybe you need to anchor the regex? "^https://(?!en).*\.wikipedia\.org/wiki.*$". The example at the doc has anchors: developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/… — Peter Thoeny
– Peter Thoeny, Commented Aug 25, 2022 at 19:56

woxxom · Accepted Answer · 2022-08-25 20:51:39Z

There are several problems: the regexp should start with ^, otherwise it'll match a maliciously crafted page with non-escaped section of a URL, .* should be [^/]* for the same reason, \. should be \\., and most importantly RE2 syntax used by webNavigation API doesn't support look-ahead/behind e.g. ?!, so you can't use them.

You can check the URL inside the listener:

chrome.webNavigation.onBeforeNavigate.addListener(details => { if (details.url.startsWith('https://en.wikipedia.org/')) { return; } console.info('test'); }, { url: [{ hostSuffix: '.wikipedia.org', pathPrefix: '/wiki' }], });

Alternatively, list all the languages explicitly in urlMatches like "^https://(www|fr|be|ja)\\.wikipedia\\.org/wiki/"

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