How can I get the url of every opened Google Chrome tab using python?

Question

I need to get all urls from all open Google Chrome tabs using python 3 without intefering with the user. My operating system is Windows 10 and I use Microsoft Visual Studio Python3.

I have tried the following things:

Opening the tabs directly using open(path_to_current_tabs). This doesn't work because I don't have permission to read the file. I think that it's locked because chrome is actively writing to it.

Current_Tabs_Source = open(r"C:\Users\Beni\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Current Tabs", "r")
Current_Tabs_Raw = Current_Tabs_Source.read()
print(Current_Tabs_Raw) #just for checking

The resulting error:

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied

Opening using the history SQlite3 database also doesn't work because it's locked. But I can't find a password anywhere. I have also tried to open the History for the urls, but that didn't work either.

import sqlite3
from os import path

data_path = path.expanduser('~') + r"\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User 
Data\Default"
files = listdir(data_path)
history_db = path.join(data_path, 'history')

c = sqlite3.connect(history_db)
cursor = c.cursor()
select_statement = "SELECT urls.url, urls.visit_count FROM urls, visits 
WHERE urls.id = visits.url;"
cursor.execute(select_statement)

results = cursor.fetchall()

print(results) #just for checking

This results in the following error:

sqlite3.OperationalError: database is locked

Using selenium and a third party chrome extension to copy all urls to the clipboard didn't work either, because these extensions only work in the active selenium window. So the links of the tabs that I want don't get copied.

I have considered hacking together a chrome extension that copies the urls every 30 sec to a temp file, but my javascript knowledge is minimal, so that thing is driving me mad.

Does anyone know a way to do this in Python? Any other solution would be greatly appreciated.

I can't think of any possible way this can be accomplished in Python.. I don't even know how you attempted this with SQLite, a database language... Your best bet would indeed be something more front-end, like JavaScript. — Mangohero1
– Mangohero1, Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 17:19
It would be helpful if you can share the code you've worked with up til now so we can better understand your approach — Hamman Samuel
– Hamman Samuel, Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 17:24
Have you tried running it as an administrator? That might give you a different error from 'PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied' — tww0003
– tww0003, Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 19:26
@tww0003 Just checked if this works. I opened Visual Studio as Admin and ran my code but it still gives me the exact same error. — Beni G
– Beni G, Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 19:31

Stephen Rauch · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-08 02:11:24Z

1

If you want to access the database, you should close all browsers.

(Source)

edited Mar 8, 2018 at 2:11

Stephen Rauch♦

50.1k32 gold badges118 silver badges143 bronze badges

answered Mar 8, 2018 at 1:45

Dedenne_Cute

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Syed Habeeb Ullah Quadri · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-16 11:31:05Z

1

When we're accessing the SQLite database of any browser, we have to close that particular browser first.

Moreover, the SQL command being used here will fetch all the duplicate rows.

Need to change `select_statement'

select_statement = "SELECT distinct urls.url, urls.visit_count FROM urls, visits WHERE urls.id = visits.url;"

Further, we need to add a loop to print all the 'urls' from history database of chrome.

for url, count in results:
    print(url)  # print urls line by line

However, this will give us the whole history of the Chrome browser but not the required URLs of all the presently opened tabs.

answered Feb 16, 2021 at 11:31

Syed Habeeb Ullah Quadri

1,10812 silver badges16 bronze badges

Comments

Konstantin · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-09 10:32:27Z

0

You can use windows shadow copy service to make copy of locked sqlite database. And then read it normally.

There is python module for that https://github.com/sblosser/pyshadowcopy

answered Jun 9, 2022 at 10:32

Konstantin

1

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