Firefox extension: how can I pass user selected text as variable to Javascript?

Question

Hello,

When writning very simple and basic extension for firefox, what event (I don't know if this is the right word) should I use if I want to process user selected text?

To be more precise: when user selects some text (for example when ALT is pressed), I want to pass this text to function, grab some data from the web (based on selected text) and display results in small balloon like popup window.

Answer 1

See here for getting the current selection: http://www.codetoad.com/javascript_get_selected_text.asp

This document describes how to notice that the user might have selected something: http://www.java2s.com/Code/JavaScript/HTML/CapturingaTextSelection.htm