@egoist/tipc

Typed IPC communication for Electron Apps.

Install

npm i @egoist/tipc

Calling main from renderer

Create a TIPC router:

// main/tipc.ts
import { tipc } from "@egoist/tipc/main"

const t = tipc.create()

export const router = {
  sum: t.procedure
    .input<{ a: number; b: number }>()
    .action(async ({ input }) => {
      return input.a + input.b
    }),
}

export type Router = typeof router

In Electron main process:

// main/index.ts
import { registerIpcMain } from "@egoist/tipc/main"
import { router } from "./tipc"

registerIpcMain(router)

This will register all the TIPC router methods as IPC handlers using Electron's ipcMain.handle.

In Electron renderer, create a TIPC client:

// renderer/client.ts
import { createClient } from "@egoist/tipc/renderer"
import { Router } from "../main/tipc"

export const client = createClient<Router>({
  // pass ipcRenderer.invoke function to the client
  // you can expose it from preload.js in BrowserWindow
  ipcInvoke: window.ipcRenderer.invoke,
})

Now you can call the TIPC methods in renderer process directly:

client.sum({ a: 1, b: 2 }).then(console.log)
// 3

With React Query

Replace the renderer/client.ts with the following code:

//renderer/client.ts
import { createClient } from "@egoist/tipc/react-query"
import { Router } from "../main/tipc"

export const client = createClient<Router>({
  ipcInvoke: window.ipcRenderer.invoke,
})

Now you can use React Query methods:

const sumMutation = client.sum.useMutation()

sumMutation.mutate({ a: 1, b: 2 })

It's up to you to whether use the TIPC method as a query or mutation, you can use call useQuery:

const sumQuery = client.sum.useQuery({ a: 1, b: 2 })

sumQuery.data // 3 or undefined
sumQuery.isLoading // boolean

Access sender in TIPC methods

export const router = {
  hello: t.procedure.action(async ({ context }) => {
    // sender is a WebContents instance that is calling this method
    context.sender.send("some-event")
    return `Hello, ${input.name}`
  }),
}

Calling renderer from main

Define event handlers type for the renderer:

// main/renderer-handlers.ts
export type RendererHandlers = {
  helloFromMain: (message: string) => void
}

Send events from main to renderer:

// main/index.ts
import { getRendererHandlers } from "@egoist/tipc/main"
import { RendererHandlers } from "./renderer-handlers"

const window = new BrowserWindow({})

const handlers = getRendererHandlers<RendererHandlers>(window.webContents)

handlers.helloFromMain.send("Hello from main!")

But you also need to listen to events in renderer:

// renderer/tipc.ts
import { createEventHandlers } from "@egoist/tipc/renderer"
import { RendererHandlers } from "../main/renderer-handlers"

export const handlers = createEventHandlers<RendererHandlers>({
  // when using electron's ipcRenderer directly
  on: (channel, callback) => {
    window.ipcRenderer.on(channel, callback)
    return () => {
      window.ipcRenderer.off(channel, callback)
    }
  },

  // otherwise if using @electron-toolkit/preload or electron-vite
  // which expose a custom `on` method that does the above for you
  // on: window.electron.ipcRenderer.on,

  send: window.ipcRenderer.send,
})

Let's say you're using React, you can now listen to events in your component:

//renderer/app.tsx
import { handlers } from "./tipc"

useEffect(() => {
  const unlisten = handlers.helloFromMain.listen((message) => {
    console.log(message)
  })

  return unlisten
}, [])

Get response from renderer

The .send method only send a message to renderer, if you want to get a response from renderer, you can use .invoke method:

// main/index.ts
const handlers = getRendererHandlers<RendererHandlers>(window.webContents)

handlers.calculateInRenderer.invoke(1, 2).then(console.log)

// renderer/app.tsx
useEffect(() => {
  const unlisten = handlers.calculateInRenderer.handle((left, right) => {
    return left + right
  })

  return unlisten
}, [])

License

MIT.