IPC workflow

Please read Introduction To Ipc to understand the basic concept of IPC.

We've introduce the Entry Point and the Extends Panel in previous session. In this session we will show you how to communication between them.

All the API mentioned in this session can be found in Editor.Ipc Main Process API and Editor.Ipc Renderer Process API.

Sending Messages

Sending message from main process to panel

In main process, we mainly use Editor.Ipc.sendToPanel('panelID', 'message' [, ...args, callback, timeout]) method to send message to panel, the parameters:

panelID panel ID
message the IPC message name
Optional args, one or more arguments
Optional callback, the respond function from renderer.
Optional timeout, the timeout of the respond function. Default is 5000ms.

Sending message from panel to main process

Editor.Ipc.sendToMain('message', [, ...args, callback, timeout])

Compare to sendToPanel, it won't need user send the panel ID.

Other methods

We also have the following methods to operate IPC:

any process to main process: Editor.Ipc.sendToMain
any process to panel: Editor.Ipc.sendToPanel
any process to main window: Editor.Ipc.sendToMainWin
any process to all windows: Editor.Ipc.sendToWins
any process to all: Editor.Ipc.sendToAll

Note: because communication is based on the underlying IPC implementation of Electron, remember that the transmitted data cannot contain native objects, otherwise it can cause process crashes or memory explosion. It is recommended to only transfer pure JSON objects.

Receive Message

To receive ipc message in main or renderer process, the easiest way is define the messages field:

Listening message in panel

//packages/foobar/panel/index.js
Editor.Panel.extends({
    //...
    messages: {
        'my-message': function (event, ...args) {
            //do some work
        }
    }
});

Listening message in main process

//packages/foobar/main.js
module.exports = {
    //...
    messages: {
        'my-message': function (event, ...args) {
            //do some work
        }
    }
}

We use short name my-message here to listening messages, actually its full name is foobar:my-message, when we sending message, remember we must use the full name for it:

Editor.Ipc.sendToPanel('foobar:my-message'), Editor.Ipc.sendToMain('foobar:my-messages').

Other way to listening messages

Besides the messages field, we also can use the Ipc method in Electron to listening messages:

In renderer process:

require('electron').ipcRenderer.on('foobar:message', function(event, args) {});

In main process:

require('electron').ipcMain.on('foobar:message', function(event, args) {});

For more about Electron's IPC methods, read Electron API: ipcMain and ipcRenderer.

Add reply method

Suppose we send a message from main process:

//packages/foobar/main.js
Editor.Ipc.sendToPanel('foobar', 'greeting', 'How are you?', function (error, answer) {
    Editor.log(answer);
});

In the message field in panel, we can call event.reply to reply the message:

//packages/foobar/panel/index.js
Editor.Panel.extends({
    //...
    messages: {
        'greeting': function (event, question) {
            console.log(question); //How are you?
            if (event.reply) {
                //if no error, the first argument should be null
                event.reply(null, 'Fine, thank you!');
            }
        }
    }
});

NOTE: the first argument of event.reply is an Error, if nothing happened, just send null here. Except that, we recommend you check if event.reply exists, this will help us remember sending the reply.

Handling Timeout

The last argument for send IPC message methods is the timeout, calculated by milliseconds, default is 5000ms.

If you don't want timeout to process, send -1. In this case, you must make sure the reply will be invoked, otherwise it will cause a memory leak.

When timeout triggered, a timeout error will reply:

Editor.Ipc.sendToMain('foobar:greeting', function (error, answer) {
  if ( error && error.code === 'ETIMEOUT' ) { //check the error code to confirm a timeout
    Editor.error('Timeout for ipc message foobar:greeting');
    return;
  }
  Editor.log(answer);
});

IPC Workflow