title: Opening chrome extension in new tab when toolbar icon is clicked
body: <p>I want the extension HTML to open in a new tab rather than in a popup. An existing extension, <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/session-buddy/edacconmaakjimmfgnblocblbcdcpbko?hl=en" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Session Buddy</a>, has the exact behaviour that I'm looking to replicate.</p>
  
  <p>The issue is that Chrome opens new extension tabs nonstop after I click on the toolbar icon, when the desired behaviour is (obviously) to have just one tab open. Strangely, I can get just one tab to open when I use a "web URL" such as <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/">https://stackoverflow.com/</a>.</p>
  
  <p><code>manifest.json</code>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{
      "manifest_version": 2,
      "name": "angular chrome extension boilerplate",
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "background": {
          "scripts": ["background.js"],
          "persistent": true
      },
      "permissions": [
          "activeTab",
          "tabs",
          "background"
      ],
      "content_security_policy": "script-src 'self' 'unsafe-eval'; object-src 'self'"
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><code>background.js</code>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>chrome.tabs.create({ url: chrome.extension.getURL('index.html') });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Several posts on this site have a similar question but none of the suggested solutions worked for me:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2412258/chrome-extension-onclick-extension-icon-open-popup-html-in-new-tab/2413465">Chrome Extension: onclick extension icon, open popup.html in new tab</a>: When I use event pages or add a listener to the <code>onClicked</code> even, nothing happens when I click the extension toolbar icon.</li>
  </ul>