Navigation

Run a workflow when a browser tab is opened, moves to a matching address, or is closed.

What it does

The trigger listens to three tab events. Pick any of them in Events:

• Created: a new tab opens.
• Navigated (the default): a tab’s address changes. It fires as soon as the browser reports the new address, before the page has finished loading.
• Closed: a tab is closed.

For Created and Navigated, the tab’s address must also match one of the URL Patterns. Closed ignores the patterns: a closed tab has no address to check, so every closed tab fires it.

Each matching event runs the workflow once, from this trigger.

When to use it

• Run something whenever you go to a site, without waiting for the page to load.
• Count or log the tabs you open and close.
• Clean up when a tab closes, for example clear a value you stored for it.

If you need the page content, use Page Load instead: it waits until the page has finished loading.

Inputs and settings

Einstellung	Typ	Was es bewirkt
URL Patterns	Tags	Standard: ["<all_urls>"]
Events	Multiple choice	Which tab events fire this trigger. Options: Created, Navigated, Closed. Standard: Navigated

Patterns use the form scheme://host/path with * as a wildcard, for example https://mail.google.com/* or https://*.example.com/*. <all_urls> matches every web page. See Page Load for more examples.

A new tab often opens before it has an address, so Created with a narrow pattern may not fire. Use Navigated to catch the moment the tab reaches the site.

Outputs

• Output

Each output item has these fields:

Field	Typ	What it holds
triggerType	Always "navigation"
triggeredAt	Text
event	Text
url	Text
title	Text
tabId	Number
windowId	Number

Shape of an output item

{
  "triggerType": "navigation",
  "triggeredAt": "…",
  "event": "…",
  "url": "…",
  "title": "…",
  "tabId": 0,
  "windowId": 0
}

event tells you what happened: created, updated (shown as Navigated in the settings) or removed (Closed). url, title and windowId describe the tab; for a closed tab only tabId is set.

Dependencies and credentials

None. This node needs no connection and has no slots for other nodes.

Example workflow

Count how many times a day you open your inbox:

1. Add Navigation with Events set to Navigated and URL Patterns https://mail.google.com/*.
2. Add Data Store with Operation Increment, Key inbox-visits and Increment By 1.
3. Activate the workflow and open your inbox.

Common issues

• It fires several times for one visit. A site that redirects, or changes its address while loading, reports several address changes. Narrow the patterns to the final address, or use Page Load, which fires once per completed load.
• It does not fire when a web app changes view. Some web apps change the visible page without the browser reporting a new address to extensions. Use Element Change to watch the page content instead.
• Closed fires for every tab. That is expected: a closed tab has no address, so patterns cannot filter it. Use an IF node on tabId if you only care about certain tabs.
• Nothing happens. Check that the workflow is activated and that at least one event is selected. This node runs in the browser extension; install it and activate the workflow there.

Related nodes

• Page Load: fire once a matching page has finished loading.
• Element Change: fire when part of a page changes.
• Tab Control: open, focus or close tabs.