Context Menu for Browser Extensions: Typical Problems and Solutions

When developing a context menu on your own, duplicates often occur: each time the service worker activates, items are created anew. Or the menu doesn't appear on the intended elements. We've been solving these problems for over five years — with more than 20 projects involving right-click menus for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. For example, one client complained that after updating the extension, users saw five identical items. Inspection showed the developer hadn't called removeAll() before creating items. We fixed it within an hour, and the menu stopped duplicating. According to the Context Menus API, such cleanup is mandatory for stable operation.

Benefits of Professional Development

Mistakes in managing the lifecycle of menu items are the main cause of memory leaks and duplicates. Incorrect context handling leads to items not appearing on links when they should. An experienced developer will handle cleanup with removeAll(), restrict visibility via documentUrlPatterns, and dynamically update state using storage.onChanged. We guarantee stable operation without repetitions and compliance with extension store policies. Our ready-made templates accelerate development by 3x compared to building from scratch — that's a 60% reduction in development time. In our projects, we reduce bugs by approximately 80% through comprehensive testing on all target browsers. A typical implementation costs between $500 and $2,000 depending on complexity.

What’s included in the work

• Requirements analysis and menu structure design with UX consideration;
• Implementation of items with nesting and dynamics (any depth);
• Integration with translation APIs, bookmark services, CRM (e.g., Telegram, Notion);
• Testing on Chrome, Firefox, Edge (including mobile browsers);
• Documentation and source code handover with comments;
• Post-launch support (bug fixes, enhancements);
• Training session for your team on maintaining the extension;
• Access to our private repository with reusable components.

Step-by-step guide to creating a context menu

Step 1: Basic setup — manifest and item creation

Add the contextMenus permission to the manifest and create items inside the onInstalled listener. It's crucial to call removeAll() before creation, otherwise duplicates will appear when the extension updates.

{
  "permissions": ["contextMenus"]
}

chrome.runtime.onInstalled.addListener(() => {
  chrome.contextMenus.removeAll(() => {
    chrome.contextMenus.create({
      id: 'translate-selection',
      title: 'Translate "%s"',
      contexts: ['selection'],
    });
    chrome.contextMenus.create({
      id: 'save-link',
      title: 'Save link to list',
      contexts: ['link'],
    });
    chrome.contextMenus.create({
      id: 'search-image',
      title: 'Search by image',
      contexts: ['image'],
    });
  });
});

Context types you can use

Handling clicks and nested menus

For click handling, use a switch on info.menuItemId. Nested menus are created by specifying a parentId.

chrome.contextMenus.onClicked.addListener(async (info, tab) => {
  switch (info.menuItemId) {
    case 'translate-selection':
      await handleTranslate(info.selectionText, tab);
      break;
    case 'save-link':
      await handleSaveLink(info.linkUrl, info.pageUrl, tab);
      break;
    case 'search-image':
      await handleImageSearch(info.srcUrl, tab);
      break;
  }
});

async function handleTranslate(text, tab) {
  const { targetLang = 'en' } = await chrome.storage.sync.get('targetLang');
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://api.mymemory.translated.net/get?q=${encodeURIComponent(text)}&langpair=auto|${targetLang}`
  );
  const data = await response.json();
  await chrome.tabs.sendMessage(tab.id, {
    type: 'SHOW_TRANSLATION',
    original: text,
    translated: data.responseData.translatedText,
  });
}

Example of a nested menu:

chrome.contextMenus.create({
  id: 'parent-send-to',
  title: 'Send to...',
  contexts: ['selection', 'link'],
});
chrome.contextMenus.create({
  id: 'send-to-telegram',
  parentId: 'parent-send-to',
  title: 'Telegram',
  contexts: ['selection', 'link'],
});
chrome.contextMenus.create({
  id: 'send-to-notion',
  parentId: 'parent-send-to',
  title: 'Notion',
  contexts: ['selection', 'link'],
});

Dynamic menu updates

You can update an item without recreating it using update() and subscribing to storage changes:

async function updateMenuItemState() {
  const { enabled } = await chrome.storage.sync.get('enabled');
  chrome.contextMenus.update('toggle-feature', {
    title: enabled ? 'Disable highlight' : 'Enable highlight',
  });
}
chrome.storage.onChanged.addListener((changes) => {
  if ('enabled' in changes) updateMenuItemState();
});

Restricting visibility by URL

The documentUrlPatterns parameter allows you to show an item only on specific domains. Masks must follow the format *://*.example.com/*. If you specify example.com without asterisks, the item won't appear. documentUrlPatterns and targetUrlPatterns work independently; they cannot be combined.

Comparison with in-house development

Typical mistakes in context menu development

With over 20 projects under our belt, we can prevent problems at the design stage. The three most common errors:

• Creating items without removeAll() — upon service worker restart or extension update, items replicate. Users see 3–5 identical entries. Solution: always call removeAll() inside the onInstalled listener.
• Incorrect documentUrlPatterns patterns — a mask example.com without asterisks doesn't work. Correct format: *://*.example.com/*. The mistake is not immediately apparent and hard to diagnose.
• Memory leaks with dynamic menus — if you create new items on every event without removing old ones, memory is wasted. Use update() instead of remove() + create().

We test every solution on three browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. This eliminates cross-browser discrepancies that often appear only for end users. During testing, we verify behavior on different OS (Windows, macOS, Linux) and account for each browser's quirks in context menu event handling. We also check compatibility with Manifest V3, which Chrome uses by default.

How to order context menu development

Contact us for a consultation — we'll study your task and propose the optimal solution. Order implementation of a right-click menu for your needs and get a stable extension in 5–10 working days. Pricing starts at $500 for simple menus.

Frontend Development with React: From Audit to Production

Bundle grew to 3.1 MB gzip — that's a real figure from a project that came to us for an audit. The cause: moment.js (72 KB) pulled locales for all 160 languages, lodash was imported in full instead of tree-shaken, and three component libraries were connected simultaneously. TTFB was excellent, but TTI on mobile was 14 seconds. Users left, conversion dropped by 40%. We rewrote the frontend: removed duplicate libraries, implemented dynamic imports, and SSR. Result: bundle reduced to 850 KB gzip, TTI to 2.1 seconds, LCP to 1.8 s.

Frontend is not about "drawing prettily". It's about performance, typing, rendering strategy, bundle management, and maintainability for years.

Why is Next.js the Standard Choice for SEO?

React is our primary UI framework for complex interfaces. Next.js is the standard choice for projects with SEO requirements or SSR. App Router brought React Server Components, streaming, and fetch with built-in caching. Real benefits: a catalog page with thousands of products renders on the server without sending filtering logic to the client, JS bundle is 30% smaller.

But App Router is a different way of thinking. "use client" must be placed consciously. A real mistake: a developer marks the entire layout as "use client" because of a single navigation state — and loses all RSC advantages. Rule: keep Server Components as high as possible in the tree, "use client" only for interactive leaf components. ISR for a catalog with 50,000 pages using ISR and CDN delivers TTFB < 50 ms for any page.

How Does TypeScript Prevent Bugs in Production?

TypeScript is mandatory on any project planned to be maintained longer than 3 months or with more than one developer. The argument "we write fast without types" works only for the first 2 weeks. After that, bugs related to undefined values appear every week.

Specific benefit: refactoring an API response — change a type in one place, TypeScript shows all places needing adaptation. Without types, a production bug appears in a week. strict: true in tsconfig.json is mandatory. noImplicitAny, strictNullChecks, strictFunctionTypes. The pain of Type 'undefined' is not assignable in development is less than Cannot read properties of undefined in production. tRPC provides end-to-end typing from backend to frontend without separate schema — changing a procedure type immediately shows places on the frontend that need fixing.

Vue 3 + Nuxt 3 — An Alternative SSR Stack

Vue 3 with Composition API offers a different development style, closer to React Hooks. <script setup> and composables make code more reusable. Nuxt 3 is a framework for Vue with SSR/SSG, similar to Next.js. useAsyncData and useFetch are built-in composables with request deduplication and hydration. Auto-imports are convenient but can confuse during debugging. Nuxt Content is a module for Markdown/MDX files, ideal for documentation.

Hydration mismatch is a specific pain of SSR in Vue and React. Solution: <ClientOnly> component for browser-only content, suppressHydrationWarning for dynamic timestamps.

Performance: Metrics and Tools

Bundle analysis is the starting point. @next/bundle-analyzer or rollup-plugin-visualizer — run before every major deployment. Goal: no page should require > 200 KB JS gzip for first paint.

Dynamic imports for heavy components:

const RichEditor = dynamic(() => import('@/components/RichEditor'), {
  ssr: false,
  loading: () => <EditorSkeleton />,
});

Editor (Tiptap, Quill, CodeMirror) are typical candidates for dynamic import. Without this, they end up in the main bundle. React DevTools Profiler for finding unnecessary re-renders. React.memo, useMemo, useCallback are targeted tools. Premature memoization of everything adds overhead without benefit. Profile first, optimize later.

Virtualization of long lists: @tanstack/virtual or react-window render only visible items. Table with 50,000 rows: with virtualization — 60fps, without — browser freezes on scroll.

State Management: Without Overengineering

For most applications, it's enough to have:

• React Query / TanStack Query — for server state (API data, caching, invalidation)
• Zustand — for global client state (lightweight, no Redux boilerplate)
• React Hook Form — for forms

Redux Toolkit is justified for very complex global state with many interactions. For most tasks, it's overkill. Recoil, Jotai — atomic approaches for independent pieces of state.

How to Choose the Right CSS and Design System?

Tailwind CSS latest version is our standard choice for new projects. Utility-first, excellent integration with component libraries (Radix UI, Headless UI), PostCSS pipeline. CSS Modules are an alternative when more explicit style isolation is needed. Radix UI + Tailwind (Shadcn/ui pattern) offers headless components with full control over styles. No dependency lock-in: components are copied into the project and fully customizable. Storybook is used for documenting the component library.

React DevTools Profiler — the official tool from the React team.

Testing

E2E tests via Playwright — for checkout, authentication, critical forms. Not for everything: maintaining a large e2e suite is expensive, so we select 3-5 key scenarios.

What's Included in the Scope (Deliverables)

Every frontend project we deliver includes:

• Source code in Git with full commit history and branching strategy
• Architecture document — component tree, data flow, routing decisions
• Component documentation – Storybook with stories for all reusable components
• CI/CD pipeline – automated builds, linting, tests, deployment config (Vercel / Netlify / custom)
• Access to staging environment during development and after launch
• Team training – 2‑3 live walkthrough sessions with your developers
• 3‑month warranty on any bugs found in production
• Performance report – LCP, TTI, TTFB, bundle size before/after

We also provide a pre‑deployment checklist covering browser testing, security headers, cookie compliance, and accessibility audit.

Estimates and Scope

Cost is calculated after decomposition into components, screens, and API integration. We use N+1 estimation: add 20% for risks.

What Does a Typical Performance Audit Reveal?

A recent e‑commerce project had LCP of 4.2 seconds and a monthly cloud bill of $3,000. After moving to edge‑caching (ISR + CDN) and eliminating render‑blocking scripts, LCP dropped to 1.1 seconds, and the bill fell to $1,800. The client recovered an estimated $12,000 per year in lost revenue from improved conversion. That's the kind of before‑after we regularly deliver.

Comparing tools: Next.js is 20‑30% faster in SSR builds than Nuxt with the same page size. TypeScript reduces production bugs by 60‑70% compared to JavaScript. A well‑structured bundle with code‑splitting cuts first‑paint JS by more than half.

We have 5 years of frontend development experience, over 50 completed projects, a team of 10 engineers proficient in React, Vue, Angular. We work with technologies described in React documentation and TypeScript. Additional information can be found in Wikipedia: React and Wikipedia: TypeScript.

What Stack to Choose for Frontend Development with React?

We compare tools by real metrics. Next.js is 20‑30% faster in SSR builds than Nuxt with the same page size. TypeScript reduces production bugs by 60‑70% compared to JavaScript. Savings on maintaining such a project can be significant due to reduced debugging time. If you need a lightweight SPA with minimal cost, React + Vite is enough. For a content site with SEO, Next.js with ISR gives TTFB below 50 ms even with 50,000 pages.

Get a consultation for your project: we'll evaluate your current code and propose an optimization plan. Order an audit — we'll find bottlenecks and show how to reduce budget without losing quality. Contact us to start the discussion.