Electron IPC Wrapper V2

It is a rxjs based electron ipc wrapper V2, check out Quick Start

Notes

• it is in very early stages(Please do suggest improvements over github).
• I am going to maintain it in two branches(v1 and v2), with different design approaches.
• I have added a quick start guid at the end basing on electron one.

Installation

npm i electron-reactive-ipc #for npm
yarn add electron-reactive-ipc #for yarn

Usage

Setup

It has to be initialized in both processes(main and renderer),

main

The window object is required for it to initialize

import { ElectronIPC } from 'electron-reactive-ipc'

/*
  rest of the code
*/

function createWindow () {
    const win = new BrowserWindow({
        width: 800,
        height: 600,
        webPreferences: {
            preload: path.join(__dirname, 'preload.js')
        }
    })

    win.loadFile('index.html')
    const ipc = ElectronIPC.initialize(win);
}

renderer

this has to be called from preload script(unless node integration is enabled).

import { ElectronIPC } from 'electron-reactive-ipc'

/*
  rest of the code
*/

const ipc = ElectronIPC.initialize();

Sample Code

Its part of the main repository, check out https://github.com/muhammad-usman-anwar/electron-ipc/tree/main/electron

Documentation

It is for v2 Added multi window support, uses webContents.id to reference/index channels

• BehaviorSubject are used to wrap araound the electron's ipc events.
• Each instance mantain a list of both incoming and outgoing data subjects.
• Each new channel generates a new subject on both processes and can be subscribed to from both processes.
• To create a new channel, ipc.addChanel('testing', 'anything');
  • Now this subject can be subscribed from the other end of the ipc by one of the following(all of them will return the same subject if exists),
    • ipc.get<string>('testing').
    • ipc.channels?.testing
  • if you set value for outgoing ones testing.set('new'), there state will be updated accross the processes
• Following methods are available to send and recieve data,
  • send(data:any)
  • listen, observable for incoming data

class: ElectronIPC

static method: initialize(win?: BrowserWindow)

Initializes/provides with instance of the class, win param is required for main process. If instance already exists, it will set the win as the default window.

static member: initialize

Refers to the instance of the class.

method: addChanel<T>(name: string, data: T, win?: BrowserWindow)

Adds a full duplex chanel for communication, win param is only valid for main process. It used to associate the channel with the given window(if omitted, will use the default window)

method: getChannelsForWindow(id?: number)

Gets all the available channels for the provided WebContents.id

method: get<T>(channelName: string, id?:number)

gets an available chanel by its name/title, null if not present. id param is only valid for main process. It refers to BrowserWindow.webContents.id, to fetch the respective window's channel(if omitted then default win's id is used)

member: deaultWindow //setter only

used to set default browserWIndow later on.

member: channels

Object contatining all the available channels (for main, returns default win's channels)

{
  [index:string]:DuplexChannel;
}

Above index is the chanelName

class: DuplexChannel<U>

U is the type of data for transmission

member: listen

Objservable, outputs incoming data on the channel.

method: send(data: U)

send data to other end of IPC channel

method: close()

closes the ipc channel observers

Quick Start

This quick start guid is the same as the one provided by electron team, with few additions.

main.ts

// Modules to control application life and create native browser window
import { app, BrowserWindow } from 'electron'
import * as path from 'path'
import { ElectronIPC } from 'electron-reactive-ipc'

function createWindow () {
    // Create the browser window.
    const mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
        width: 800,
        height: 600,
        webPreferences: {
        preload: path.join(__dirname, 'preload.js')
        }
    })

    // and load the index.html of the app.
    mainWindow.loadFile('index.html')

    // Open the DevTools.
    // mainWindow.webContents.openDevTools()

    //FOLLOWING IS THE CODE FOR INTEGRATION
    // ELectronIPC is a singleton class for now
    const ipc = ElectronIPC.initialize(mainWindow)
    const channel = ipc.addChanel('testing', { message: 'done' });
    channel.listen?.subscribe(val => {
        console.log(val);
    });
}

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
// Some APIs can only be used after this event occurs.
app.whenReady().then(() => {
  createWindow()

  app.on('activate', function () {
    // On macOS it's common to re-create a window in the app when the
    // dock icon is clicked and there are no other windows open.
    if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) createWindow()
  })
})

// Quit when all windows are closed, except on macOS. There, it's common
// for applications and their menu bar to stay active until the user quits
// explicitly with Cmd + Q.
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
  if (process.platform !== 'darwin') app.quit()
})

// In this file you can include the rest of your app's specific main process
// code. You can also put them in separate files and require them here.

preload.ts

import { ElectronIPC } from 'electron-reactive-ipc'

const ipc = ElectronIPC.initialize();
(window as any).ipc = ipc;
setTimeout(() => {
    const channel = ipc.get<{ message: string }>('testing');
    channel?.listen.subscribe(val => {
        console.log(val);
    });
}, 5000);


window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
  const replaceText = (selector, text) => {
    const element = document.getElementById(selector)
    if (element) element.innerText = text
  }

  for (const dependency of ['chrome', 'node', 'electron']) {
    replaceText(`${dependency}-version`, process.versions[dependency])
  }
})

index.html

<!--index.html-->

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <!-- https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CSP -->
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'">
    <meta http-equiv="X-Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'">
    <title>Hello World!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello World!</h1>
    We are using Node.js <span id="node-version"></span>,
    Chromium <span id="chrome-version"></span>,
    and Electron <span id="electron-version"></span>.

    <!-- You can also require other files to run in this process -->
    <script src="./renderer.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>