Tabs Intercom

Call a function with params across multiple browser tabs. Forget about emitting and listening to events — just register a function and call as usual function!

Demo

Installation

# npm
npm install @simplemented/tabs-intercom

# yarn
yarn add @simplemented/tabs-intercom

# pnpm
pnpm add @simplemented/tabs-intercom

Usage

Before using, please read the docs carefully, especially Caveats section.

// 0. Import `TabsIntercom`
import TabsIntercom from '@simplemented/tabs-intercom'

// 1. Define a function
function greet(name: string) {
  alert(`Hello, ${name}!`)
}

// 2. Create an instance of `TabsIntercom`
const tabsIntercom = new TabsIntercom()

// 3. Register function
const greetEverywhere = tabsIntercom.register(greet)

// 4. Call returned function wherever you want
greetEverywhere(prompt())
greetButton.addEventListener('click', () => greetEverywhere(nameInput.value))

// 🎉 Voila! The function is called in all tabs 🎉

// (Optionally) 5. Unregister function if no longer needed
tabsIntercom.unregister('greet')

Caveats

1. Registered function name must be unique

   function greet() { /* … */ }
   tabsIntercom.register(greet)
   
   // ❌ wrong
   tabsIntercom.register(greet)
   // ✅ correct
   tabsIntercom.register(greet, 'greetings')

2. Registered function name must be present

   const smile = () => ':-)'
   
   // ❌ wrong
   tabsIntercom.register(smile)
   // ✅ correct
   tabsIntercom.register(smile, 'smile')
   tabsIntercom.register(smile, 'any name, actually')
   
   // ❌ wrong
   tabsIntercom.register(function() { /* … */ })
   // ✅ correct
   tabsIntercom.register(
     function() { /* … */ },
     'same as in case of arrow function ☝️'
   )

   Please notice that functions defined with function keyword have defined name property by default.

   const smile = () => ':-)'
   smile.name = 'smiley'
   // ✅ correct
   tabsIntercom.register(smile)

3. Registered function can only take serializable parameters

   function doMagic(
     callback: () => void,
     // any other non-fully-serialiable object
   ) { /* … */ }
   const doMagicEverywhere = tabsIntercom.register(doMagic)
   // ❌ wrong
   doMagicEverywhere(() => alert('🪄'))
      
   function doStuff(
     b: boolean,
     n: number,
     s: string,
     o: object,
     // any other serializable object
   ) { /* … */ }
   
   const doStuffEverywhere = tabsIntercom.register(doStuff)
   // ✅ correct
   doStuffEverywhere(true, 42, 'hi', { name: 'John' })

Development

pnpm start # or yarn start

This builds to /dist and runs the project in watch mode so any edits you save inside src causes a rebuild to /dist.

To do a one-off build, use pnpm build or yarn build.

To run tests, use pnpm test or yarn test.

License

MIT License

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