index.md

---

title: bookmarks.search()
slug: Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/bookmarks/search
page-type: webextension-api-function
tags:
  - API
  - Add-ons
  - Bookmarks
  - Extensions
  - Method
  - Non-standard
  - Reference
  - Search
  - WebExtensions
browser-compat: webextensions.api.bookmarks.search

---

{{AddonSidebar()}}

The bookmarks.search() function searches for bookmark tree nodes matching the given query.

This function throws an exception if any of the input parameters are invalid or are not of an appropriate type; look in the console for the error message. The exceptions don't have error IDs, and the messages themselves may change, so don't write code that tries to interpret them.

This is an asynchronous function that returns a Promise.

Syntax

let searching = browser.bookmarks.search(
  query                  // string or object
)

Parameters

• query

  • : A {{jsxref("string")}} or {{jsxref("object")}} describing the query to perform.

    If query is a string, it consists of zero or more space-delimited search terms. Each search term matches if it is a substring in the bookmark's URL or title. Matching is case-insensitive. For a bookmark to match the query, all the query's search terms must be matched.

    If query is an object, it consists of zero or more of 3 properties: query, title, and url, which are described below. For a bookmark to match the query, all the properties' terms must be matched.

    • query {{optional_inline}}

      • : A {{jsxref("string")}} specifying one or more terms to match against; the format is identical to the string form of the query parameter. If this isn't a string, an exception is thrown.

    • url {{optional_inline}}

      • : A {{jsxref("string")}} that must exactly match the bookmark's URL. Matching is case-insensitive, and trailing slashes are ignored.

        If you pass an invalid URL, the function will throw an exception.

    • title {{optional_inline}}

      • : A {{jsxref("string")}} that must exactly match the bookmark tree node's title. Matching is case-sensitive.

Return value

A Promise that will be fulfilled with an array of {{WebExtAPIRef('bookmarks.BookmarkTreeNode')}} objects, each representing a single matching bookmark tree node. Results are returned in the order that the nodes were created. The array is empty if no results were found.

The BookmarkTreeNodes—even nodes of the "folder" type—returned by bookmarks.search() are missing the children property. To get a complete BookmarkTreeNode use bookmarks.getSubTree().

Example

This example logs the IDs of all bookmarks:

function onFulfilled(bookmarkItems) {
  for (const item of bookmarkItems) {
    console.log(item.id);
  }
}

function onRejected(error) {
  console.log(`An error: ${error}`);
}

browser.bookmarks.search({}).then(onFulfilled, onRejected);

This example looks to see if the currently active tab is bookmarked:

function onFulfilled(bookmarkItems) {
  if (bookmarkItems.length) {
    console.log("active tab is bookmarked");
  } else {
    console.log("active tab is not bookmarked");
  }
}

function onRejected(error) {
  console.log(`An error: ${error}`);
}

function checkActiveTab(tab) {
  browser.bookmarks.search({ url: tab.url }).then(onFulfilled, onRejected);
}

browser.browserAction.onClicked.addListener(checkActiveTab);

{{WebExtExamples}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

Note: This API is based on Chromium's chrome.bookmarks API. This documentation is derived from bookmarks.json in the Chromium code.