history.search()

{{AddonSidebar}} 

Searches the browser’s history for {{WebExtAPIRef("history.HistoryItem")}}  objects matching the given criteria.

This is an asynchronous function that returns a Promise.

Syntax

let searching = browser.history.search(
  query                  // object
)

Parameters

• query

  • : An object which indicates what to look for in the browser’s history. This object has the following fields:

    • text

      • : string. Search history items by URL and title. The string is split up into separate search terms at space boundaries. Each search term is matched case-insensitively against the history item’s URL and title. The history item will be returned if all search terms match.

        For example, consider this item:

        URL: "http://example.org"

        Title: "Example Domain"

        "http"              -> matches
        "domain"            -> matches
        "MAIN ample"        -> matches
        "main tt"           -> matches
        "main https"        -> does not match
        

        Specify an empty string ("") to retrieve all {{WebExtAPIRef("history.HistoryItem")}}  objects that meet all the other criteria.

    • startTime {{optional_inline}} 

      • : number or string or object. A value indicating a date and time. This can be represented as: a Date object, an ISO 8601 date string, or the number of milliseconds since the epoch. If it is supplied, this option excludes results whose lastVisitTime is earlier than this time. If it is omitted, the search is limited to the last 24 hours.

    • endTime {{optional_inline}} 

      • : number or string or object. A value indicating a date and time. This can be represented as: a Date object, an ISO 8601 date string, or the number of milliseconds since the epoch. If it is supplied, this option limits results to those visited before this date. If it is omitted, then all entries are considered from the start time onwards.

    • maxResults {{optional_inline}} 

      • : number. The maximum number of results to retrieve. Defaults to 100, with a minimum value of 1. The function will throw an error if you pass it a maxResults value less than 1.

Return value

A Promise will be fulfilled with an array of objects of type {{WebExtAPIRef("history.HistoryItem")}} , each describing a single matching history item. Items are sorted in reverse chronological order.

Examples

Logs the URL and last visit time for all history items visited in the last 24 hours:

function onGot(historyItems) {
  for (const item of historyItems) {
    console.log(item.url);
    console.log(new Date(item.lastVisitTime));
  }
}

browser.history.search({ text: "" }).then(onGot);

Logs the URL and last visit time for all history items ever visited:

function onGot(historyItems) {
  for (const item of historyItems) {
    console.log(item.url);
    console.log(new Date(item.lastVisitTime));
  }
}

browser.history
  .search({
    text: "",
    startTime: 0,
  })
  .then(onGot);

Logs the URL and last visit time of the most recent visit to a page that contain the string “mozilla”:

function onGot(historyItems) {
  for (const item of historyItems) {
    console.log(item.url);
    console.log(new Date(item.lastVisitTime));
  }
}

browser.history
  .search({
    text: "mozilla",
    startTime: 0,
    maxResults: 1,
  })
  .then(onGot);

{{WebExtExamples}} 

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}} 

[!NOTE] This API is based on Chromium’s chrome.history API. This documentation is derived from history.json in the Chromium code.