fdc3-web-portal

Reference implementation of an FDC3 provider pattern and the Connectifi interop service

Provider Pattern

This is a pattern for enabling apps to use a single library for FDC3 regardless of what the actual FDC3 implementation is. It also allows micro apps in a single page to interact with each other "locally" as well as with the "external" real FDC3 implementation.

Applications/components import and create their FDC3 apis via the createWebAgentAPI call . This returns an FDC3 API which uses postMessage to communicate with the WebAgent which ultimately binds to the real FDC3 implementation. In this example, the WebAgent is binding to the Connectifi agent for interop outside of the web page.

Notes

• The API/WebAgent combo should work for apps implemented in iFrames or components existing in the same DOM using module scope. The included test harness page uses iframes.
• the createWebAgentAPI function provides apps and/or components with a FDC3 2.0 API
• the WebAgent allows the top level page to bind to the real FDC3 implementation and communicate with all the WebAgentAPIs in the page

WebAgent Pattern

In this example, the FDC3Provider is the WebAgent which implements a local bus for FDC3 interop within the page while connecting to a wider FDC3 implementation enabling FDC3 interop outside of the page. The WebAgent setup looks like this:

 const localAgent: WebAgent = new WebAgent();
 // bind the web agent to the main FDC3 implementation
 localAgent.bind(fdc3);

Notes

• the WebAgent can support any number of FDC3 providers.
• the WebAgent allows apps to broadcast to each other via FDC3 within scope of the web page
• the local apps have channel membership independent of the page they are running on

Project setup

• clone
• npm i
• npm run dev
• open http://localhost:5173/

Development

The project currently has the following parts:

• demo/index.html & demo/app1.html - test harness UIs
• demo/agent.ts - this is the harness app code, instantiates the WebAgent and connects to the Connectifi service
• src/common - contains the types and topics used in the postMessage wire protocol between the api and web agent
• src/webAgent - the WebAgent implementation (top level page)
• src/webAgentAPI - the FDC3 API implementation (sub apps/components)

Next Steps

(in no certain order)

• add 2.0 intent data support
• add module / non-iframe example
• test against desktop containers