Message isn't passed between background.html and popup.html - google-chrome-extension

Question

I'm trying to pass data that is saved in sessionStorage from background.html to popup.html
background.html:
chrome.extension.onRequest.addListener(function(request, sender, sendResponse) {
data = sessionStorage.getItem(request.tabId);
alert(data);
sendResponse({ data: data });
});
and in popup.html:
chrome.tabs.getSelected(null, function(tab) {
chrome.extension.sendRequest({ tabId: tab.id }, function(response) {
alert(response.data);
});
});
The popup is opened by a pageAction button, when I click the button I get an alert box with "null" on the popup and then an alert box with the data that I stored in sessionStorage on the background!
Any ideas how to fix this?

Answer 1

You don't need to use message/request APIs. I think this response may help you.
You also don't need sessionStorage, just store your data in a global variable of the background page. It will persist until the browser is closed or until the extension is restarted.
So, here is how I would rewrite your code:
background.html:
var data = {}; // Object storing data indexed by tab id
and in popup.html:
chrome.tabs.getSelected(null, function(tab) {
alert(chrome.extension.getBackgroundPage().data[tab.id]);
});
Note that chrome.tabs.getSelected is deprecated since Chrome 16, so popup code should be:
chrome.windows.getCurrent(function(win) {
chrome.tabs.query({'windowId': win.id, 'active': true}, function(tabArray) {
alert(chrome.extension.getBackgroundPage().data[tabArray[0].id]);
});
});

Answer 2

Well, I've done something dumb.
I inspected the background page by opening chrome-extension://[extension-id]/background.html in a tab instead of clicking on "inspect active views: background.html" in the extensions management page. This caused the tab to catch the request and call sendResponse, but the popup expected the REAL background page to call sendResponse (and if I understand Google's documentation regarding message passing, the fact that sendResponse was called twice is root of the problem, because the first call clears the request object)