electron-window-redux

Use redux in electron, and control the action flow between main and browser process.

This project origins from electron-redux. Before using this package, reading the original project is highly recommended.

Features

• A action fired by main-process can be consumed by one or several specific renderer-processes.

• The stores of each process are individually created by redux. Main-process holds some universal state.

One of the Three Redux Codes is Single source of truth, but javascript apps may have multi process, each process DO NOT share memory & resource, even with ipc, only serializable objects(eg json object) can be sent back and forth. Additionally, main process has no UI to render, so it is a better option use several stores, and inside each process, Single Source of Truth is still ought to be obeyed.

• windowManager in main-process will use name and windowID property to identify windows with the same name or identify exact one window with windowID.

Install

npm install --save electron-window-redux

electron-window-redux comes as redux middleware that is really easy to apply:

// main store.js
import {
  forwardToRenderer
} from 'electron-window-redux';
import { createStore, applyMiddleware } from 'redux';
import rootReducer from './reducers';

// make sure store is singleton in the whole main-process.
const store = createStore(rootReducer, applyMiddleware(
  forwardToRenderer
));


export default store;

//==========

// main.js
import { app } from 'electron';
import { replayActionMain } from 'electron-window-redux';
import mainStore from './main/store';

app.on('ready', () => {
  // responce to actions from renderer-processes
  replayActionMain(mainStore);
}

// in the renderer store
import {
  forwardToMain,
  replayActionRenderer,
} from 'electron-redux';

const rootReducer = combineReducers(reducers);

const store = createStore(
  rootReducer,
  initialState,
  applyMiddleware(
    forwardToMain, // IMPORTANT! This goes first
    ...otherMiddleware,
  )
);

replayActionRenderer(store);

Actions

Actions fired HAVE TO be FSA-compliant, i.e. have a type and payload property. Any actions not passing this test will be ignored and simply passed through to the next middleware.

NB: redux-thunk is not FSA-compliant out of the box, but can still produce compatible actions once the async action fires.

Local actions(renderer process)

By default, all actions are being broadcast from the renderer processes to the main processes. However, some state should only live in the renderer (e.g. isPanelOpen). electron-redux introduces the concept of action scopes.

To stop an action from propagating from renderer to main store, simply set the scope to local:

function myLocalActionCreator() {
  return {
    type: 'MY_ACTION',
    payload: 123,
    meta: {
      scope: 'local',
    },
  };
}

Lifecycle of action with local scope:

Renderer: store.dispatch-> Action -> store.reducers

Specified actions(renderer process & main process)

electron-window-redux use name and windowID to identify browserWindow. (reminding that this windowID is generated by Symbol not the internal one created by electron).

eg: Set scope to dialog the action will be sent to browserWindows with name dialog, no matter the action is created in main process or renderer process.

actions scope with windowID go the same way, except the only browserWindow with the same windowID will receive the action.

API

forwardToRenderer

Used as a redux middleware in MAIN process, filter actions dispatched by main store, send actions to renderer processes in accordance with attribute action.meta.scope.

// main process
applyMiddleware(forwardToRenderer,...otherMiddlewares)

replayActionMain

Dispatch actions received from renderers in MAIN process.

// main process
app.on('ready', () => {
  // responce to actions from renderer-processes
  replayActionMain(mainStore);
}

forwardToMain

Same function with forwardToRenderer, except using in RENDERER process and take actions from renderer to main.

// renderer process
applyMiddleware(forwardToRenderer,...otherMiddlewares)

replayActionRenderer

Same function with replayActionMain, except using in RENDERER process and dispatching actions to renderer process reducers.

Since middlewares or listeners above use Electron IPC module to communicate, so do not emit or listen any ipc events with redux-action tag.

windowManager

• windowManager.add(window,name,onContentloaded)

  create a unique refrence to the input window, make the window under windowManager's control.

  Add window before load url.

  const stemWin = new BrowserWindow(WindowConfigs.stem);
  windowManager.add(stemWin, 'stem');
  stemWin.loadURL(STEM_INDEX_PATH);

  Return

  Symbol(name), indicate the one and the only reference to window

  Parameters

  • window: BrowserWindow, a window instance
  • name: String, the name or category of the window, windows can have the same name.
  • onContentloaded： called when window content loaded （optional）

• windowManager.close(windowID)

  close corresponding window, delete reference

  Parameters

  • windowID: window id, it has to be the one returned by windowManager.add

• windowManager.get(windowID)

  get window instance by id

  Parameters

  • windowID: window id, it has to be the one returned by windowManager.add

• windowManager.getByInternalID(internalID)

  get window instance by internal id

  Parameters

  • internalID: the origin property of BrowserWindow instace. window.id

• windowManager.getAll(name)

  get all window instances with the same name

  Parameters

  • name: the name passed in as parameter in windowManager.add.

• windowManager.subscribeWindowLoadedListener(fn)

  subscrible a listener to 'did-finish-load' events of BrowserWindow.webContents.

  Return

  function, an unsubscrible function

  Parameters

  • fn: a listener will be called with fn(windowId,name)

• windowManager.subscribeWindowLoadedListener(fn)

  subscrible a listener to 'closed' events of BrowserWindow.

  Return

  function, an unsubscrible function

  Parameters

  • fn: a listener will be called with fn(windowId,name)