browser-bus

Browser bus

This was supposed to give you seamless (offline) communication across a browser instance. Unfortunately it does not work in Safari due to the current security model.

If you just need cross-window/tab communication see browser-bus.

var bus = require('browser-bus')({
	relay: 'https://srcagency.github.com/browser-bus/relay.html',
});

bus.listen(function( m ){
	if (m === 'ping')
		bus.write('pong');

	console.log('Received', m);
});

bus.write('ping');

The techniques used are:

• postMessage for cross-origin

  A limitation of the postMessage API is that you need a reference for the window you are in contact with, meaning it only works with iframes, popups and windows you open from the origin.

• localStorage for cross-window/tab

  Has opposite traits of the postMessage API: does not need a reference to the receiver, as it is domain-wide by default, but has no cross-domain capabilities.

Interface

var bus = new Bus({
	// if you need offline communication, use techniques to make the relay
	// available offline as well
	relay: 'https://srcagency.github.com/browser-bus/relay.html',
});

// write a message to the bus. Any JSON value is supported via JSON.stringify.
bus.write(message);

bus.listen(fn); // `fn(message)` will be called for each received message

Resources

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16226924/is-cross-origin-postmessage-broken-in-ie10
• browser-bus