electron-re

electron-re

---

Using electron-re to generate service process and send data from main process to service, from render process to service, and service to service.

Instruction

The service process is a customized render process that works in the background, receiving path, options as arguments:

• path -- the absolute path to a js file
• options -- the same as new BrowserWindow() options

In order to send data from main or other process to a service you need use MesssageChannel, such as: MessageChannel.send('service-name', 'channel', 'params')

Usage

1. service

The service is a customized BrowserWindow instance, it has only method connected() which return a resolved Promise when service is ready, suggest to put some business-related code into a service.

/* main.js */

const { BrowserService  } = require('electron-re');
...

app.whenReady().then(() => {
// after app is ready in main process
  const myService = new BrowserService('app', 'path/to/app.service.js');
  myService.connected().then(() => {
    // use the electron build-in method to send data
    mhyService.webContents.send('channel1', { value: 'test1' });
    ...
  })
});

/* app.service.js */

const { ipcRenderer } = require('electron');

ipcRenderer.on('channel1', (event, result) => {
  // works
  ...
});

1. MessageChannel

A messaging tool expanding some method from electron build-in ipc:

/* main */

const { BrowserService, MessageChannel } = require('electron-re');
...

app.whenReady().then(() => {
// after app is ready in main process
  const myService = new BrowserService('app', 'path/to/app.service.js');
  myService.connected().then(() => {

    // send data to a service - like the build-in ipcMain.send
    MessageChannel.send('app', 'channel1', { value: 'test1' });
    // send data to a service and return a Promise - extension method
    MessageChannel.invoke('app', 'channel2', { value: 'test1' }).then((response) => {
      console.log(response);
    });
    // listen a channel, same as ipcMain.on
    MessageChannel.on('channel3', (event, response) => {
      console.log(response);
    });

    // handle a channel signal, same as ipcMain.handle
    // you can return data directly or return a Promise instance
    MessageChannel.handle('channel4', (event, response) => {
      console.log(response);
      return { res: 'channel4-res' };
    });

  })
});

/* service - app */
const { ipcRenderer } = require('electron');
const { MessageChannel } = rrequire('electron-re');

// listen a channel, same as ipcRenderer.on
MessageChannel.on('channel1', (event, result) => {
  console.log(result);
});

// handle a channel signal, just like ipcMain.handle
MessageChannel.handle('channel2', (event, result) => {
  console.log(result);
  return { response: 'channel2-response' }
});

// send data to another service and return a promise , just like ipcRenderer.invoke
MessageChannel.invoke('app2', 'channel3' (event, result) => {
  console.log(result);
});

// send data to a service - like the build-in ipcRenderer.send
MessageChannel.send('app', 'channel4', { value: 'channel4' });



/* service app2 */

// handle a channel signal, just like ipcMain.handle
MessageChannel.handle('channel3', (event, result) => {
  console.log(result);
  return { response: 'channel3-response' }
});

// listen a channel, same as ipcRenderer.once
MessageChannel.once('channel4', (event, result) => {
  console.log(result);
});

// send data to main process, just like ipcRenderer.send
MessageChannel.send('main', 'channel3', { value: 'channel3' });
// send data to main process and return a Promise, just like ipcRenderer.invoke
MessageChannel.invoke('main', 'channel4', { value: 'channel4' });

/* render process */
const { ipcRenderer } = require('electron');
const { MessageChannel } = rrequire('electron-re');

// send data to a service
MessageChannel.send('app', ....);
MessageChannel.invoke('app', ....);

// send data to main process
MessageChannel.send('main', ....);
MessageChannel.invoke('main', ....);

Example

check the index.test.js and test dir in root, there are some cases, you can run npm run test to see the test result of the library.