@aparajita/capacitor-native-decorator

capacitor-native-decorator

This package adds a @​​native decorator to TypeScript, which fundamentally changes the way we write and call Capacitor plugins.

NOTE: This package has only been tested with Capacitor 2.

Motivation
Features
Installation
Usage
Caveats
Example

Motivation

Have you ever wished you could receive a value from a plugin without needing to deconstruct and object?

Have you ever wished your plugins could leverage the full power of TypeScript code when running native?

Have you ever wished you could manage state and add TypeScript convenience methods in your plugin classes without having it disappear when running native?

Have you ever wished you didn't have to maintain the ios/Plugin/Plugin.m file manually?

The mysterious platforms array

By default, a newly created plugin contains a single value in the platforms array passed to the superclass constructor: 'web'. This tells Capacitor that all of the code in the plugin class will completely disappear on native platforms. On a native platform, calls to any instance methods that exist in both the TypeScript plugin class and the native plugin will automatically be routed to the native code. Calls to any other instance methods will silently disappear into the void — which wasn’t quite what I expected.

Haven’t you ever wished you could keep some code and state in the TypeScript class and some in the native plugin? You may think that the solution is to add the other platforms to the platforms array. So you set the platforms array to ['web', 'ios', 'android'], and run your code on iOS or Android... and none of your native code gets called. That's because the TypeScript code is kept, but no automatic mapping of TypeScript methods to native methods happens.

What many developers may not know is that Capacitor does provide a way to call a plugin method from TypeScript: Capacitor.toNative(). So it is technically possible to keep your TypeScript code and call native methods, but practically speaking it almost isn’t, because the interface of toNative() is cumbersome to say the least, and requires huge amounts of boilerplate code.

@​native solves all these problems, and much more.

Features

@​native is a TypeScript method decorator. It’s quite simple to use. You just add it before an instance method declaration, like this:

import { native } from '@aparajita/capacitor-native-decorator';

export type DataType = string | number | boolean | Array<any> | Object | null | Date;

export class MyPlugin
  extends WebPlugin
  implements WSBiometricAuthPlugin {
  
  private _storageCount = 0;
  
  constructor() {
    super({
      name: 'MyPlugin',
      platforms: ['web', 'ios', 'android']
    });
  }
  
  // This is usable even on native platforms!
  get storageCount() {
    return this._storageCount;
  }
  
  // 👇🏼 Here's where the magic happens. Be sure to include the ().
  @native()
  private setStringItem(options: { key: string, data: string }): Promise<void> {
    // Your web implementation goes here. On native platforms
    // this code won't be used, but the method's interface is the same!
  }
  
  // More magic!
  @native()
  private getStringItem({ key: string }): Promise<string> {
    // Web implementation goes here. Same interface on native platforms.
  }
  
  setItem(key: string, data: DataType): Promise<void> {
    // I'll leave convertToString() up to you :)
    this._storageCount += 1;
    this.setStringItem({ key, data: convertToString(data) });
    return Promise.resolve();
  }
  
  getItem(key: string): Promise<DataType> {
    // I'll leave convertFromString() up to you :)
    return Promise.resolve(convertFromString(this.getStringItem({ key })));
  }
}

// And in a file that uses MyPlugin...
async function storeCount(count: number) {
  await plugin.setItem('count', count);
}

async function retrieveCount(): number {
  // getItem() returns a bare DataType, **not** an object
  const count = await plugin.getItem('count');
  
  // Use a type guard so we can return it as a number
  if (typeof count === 'number') {
    return count;
  }
  
  // Oops, this shouldn't happen...
}

There are quite a number of interesting points to make about this code.

Mix and match TypeScript and native methods When you add the @native decorator to a method, it does all of the hard work of calling Capacitor.toNative() and returning its result for you. Anything marked @native will automatically route to native code when called from the TS/JS world, while still allowing you to keep all of your lovely TypeScript plugin code.

For example, in the above code, the public API to the plugin is pure TypeScript code, which then calls private methods that will execute native code. (NOTE: @native methods do not have to be private, they can just as easily be public.) This is incredibly powerful. Why? Because now the API to your plugin can be changed and extended without having to change the native code.

As in the example above, you can modify the parameters going into the native method and the result coming back. Or you can add or remove to either. Go wild! Anything you can do in TypeScript, you can now do with native plugins.

Because you have free access to TypeScript when running native, you can let your native code focus on things only it can do, or on things it does best. Lets face it — it's way easier to do most stuff in TypeScript than in Swift or Java. And anything native code does has to be duplicated across iOS and Android in two different languages and SDKs. So having the ability to move code out of native and into TypeScript is a huge win.

Natural calling syntax Looking at the code above, you may have noticed that non-object parameters are being returned from a method that is marked native. You may be scratching your head and thinking, “Wait, how is that possible? I thought we have to return an object, even for a single value.”

The @native decorator makes this possible. If the object returned by a native method contains a single property, the call to the method resolves to the bare value of that property. In any other case, the call resolves to the returned object.

For example:

// If the native implementation of a @native method returns this...
{ value: "foobar" }  // The property name is irrelevant, it can be anything

// a call to that method would resolve to the bare string:
"foobar"

Plugin.m generation When you install this package, a make-ios-plugin binary is installed. Executing that binary parses the dist/plugin.js file generated by tsc and automatically generates the ios/Plugin/Plugin.m file necessary to make your native iOS methods callable. Whenever you add, remove or rename @native methods, Plugin.m will stay in sync, which means one less thing to maintain (and get wrong). Woo hoo! 🎉

Installation

pnpm install @aparajita/capacitor-native-decorator tslib # 'pnpm add' also works
npm install @aparajita/capacitor-native-decorator tslib
yarn add @aparajita/capacitor-native-decorator tslib

tslib contains the code that implements decorators. It is tree shaken by rollup during the build, so adds very little code.

Not using pnpm? You owe it to yourself to give it a try. It’s faster, better with monorepos, and uses way, way less disk space than the alternatives.

Usage

Once you have installed the packages, there are a few steps you need to take to wire @native into your plugin.

1. Modify platforms

Change the constructor of your plugin to look like this (where MyPlugin is your plugin’s name):

constructor() {
  super({
    name: 'MyPlugin',
    platforms: ['web', 'ios', 'android']
  });
  
  // Your custom code here
}

2. Modify tsconfig.js

Add the following to your tsconfig.js if they are not already there:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "importHelpers": true
  }
}

3. Modify rollup.config.js

Your rollup.config.js should look something like this:

import commonjs from '@rollup/plugin-commonjs';
import nodeResolve from '@rollup/plugin-node-resolve';

export default {
  input: 'dist/esm/index.js',
  output: {
    file: 'dist/plugin.js',
    format: 'iife',
    name: 'MyGreatPlugin',
    globals: {
      '@capacitor/core': 'capacitorExports',
    },
    sourcemap: true,
  },
  plugins: [
    nodeResolve({
      // allowlist of dependencies to bundle in
      // @see https://github.com/rollup/plugins/tree/master/packages/node-resolve#resolveonly
      resolveOnly: [
        'tslib',
        '@aparajita/capacitor-native-decorator'
      ],
    }),
    commonjs(),
  ],
};

The important thing is to include 'tslib' and '@aparajita/capacitor-native-decorator' in the resolveOnly array.

4. Call make-ios-plugin in the build script

Add && make-ios-plugin to the build script in package.json. It will look something like this:

"build": "npm run clean && tsc && rollup -c rollup.config.js && make-ios-plugin"

5. Add @native() to your native methods

Import the native decorator function:

import { native } from '@aparajita/capacitor-native-decorator'

Now you can add the @native() decorator above the TypeScript implementation of any methods that have a native implementation, and you’re all set!

Caveats

There are several issues related to usage of @native that you should be aware of before deciding if it’s right for you.

• Decorators are experimental, and at some point their current implementation will be replaced with an official decorator implementation in ECMAScript. However, that does not mean decorators are a dead end. Even if decorators are completely dropped from TypeScript or their syntax changes dramatically when they are officially adopted, a custom compiler can be used to support the current syntax.

• On inexpensive phones with limited memory and CPU, every extra byte of JavaScript incurs a cost that is greater than the equivalent native code. If you are targeting such phones, you may want to think twice before using @native.

Example

A complete working example of @native can be found in the capacitor-secure-storage plugin. There you can find all of the features of @native used:

• Returning non-object values
• Public and private native API
• Wrapping native calls with TypeScript code
• Keeping state in the Typescript class

I hope you find it useful.

Changelog

1.1.1 (2021-03-26)

Maintenance

• commit .idea to repo (6844aa2)
• lint (910da19)
• move to @capacitor-community (cb810f0)
• rename package (6228df5)
• update deps (eccbcc4)