Submitted Chrome extension: "manifest is invalid" on download

Question

I recently submitted a chrome extension, but when I try to download the extension it says that the manifest file is invalid. Not sure why.

Here is my manifest :

{
    "name": "My chrome extension",
    "version": "0.2",
    "description": "My chrome extension description.",
    "permissions": [ "activeTab", "tabs", "contextMenus" ],
    "background": {
        "persistent": false
    },
    "browser_action": {
        "default_icon": "favicon.png",
        "default_popup": "index.html"
},
 "manifest_version": 2
}

Is there a tool online where I can validate a Chrome extension manifest file?

Answer 1

You are missing scripts in your background item.

{
    ...
    "permissions": [ "activeTab", "tabs", "contextMenus" ],
    "background": {
        "scripts": [
           "path/to/js/script",
         ], 
        "persistent": false
    },
    "browser_action": {
        "default_icon": "favicon.png",
        "default_popup": "index.html"
    },
    ...
}

OR just remove the background item from your manifest if you are not planning on using it.

{
        ...
        "permissions": [ "activeTab", "tabs", "contextMenus" ],
        "browser_action": {
            "default_icon": "favicon.png",
            "default_popup": "index.html"
        },
        ...
    }

--

You don't need tools to test the manifest, go to the chrome://extensions page, enable developer mode on the top right and load your extension, it will tell you the error and how to solve it.