Web IPC

A TypeScript library for IPC (Inter-Process Communication) between different contexts (e.g. chrome extension's content.js and background.js) in web. It provides a native-like calling experience between different contexts.

Features

• Native-like method invocation between different contexts
• Full TypeScript support ensuring type safety
• Promise-based async method call support
• Context-based service registration and invocation

Installation

npm install web-ipc

Usage

1. define an interface

export interface BackgroundNotificationInterface {
    // must return a Promise
    notify(title: string, message: string): Promise<string>
}

2. implement the interface in background script and register it

class BackgroundNotification implements BackgroundNotificationInterface {
    async notify(title: string, message: string): Promise<string> {
        let notificationId = `notification-${Date.now()}`;
        chrome.notifications.create(notificationId, {
            type: 'basic',
            title: title,
            message: message
        });
        return notificationId;
    }
}

import {chromeRuntimeMessageIpcProviderRegister} from "web-ipc";
chromeRuntimeMessageIpcProviderRegister("BackgroundNotificationInterface", new BackgroundNotification())

3. call the interface in content script or popup script by creating a proxy

import {chromeRuntimeIpcInvoker} from "web-ipc";
const backgroundNotification = chromeRuntimeIpcInvoker.createProxy<BackgroundNotificationInterface>("BackgroundNotificationInterface")

let notificationId = await backgroundNotification.notify("hello", "this is a notification from content script")
console.log(notificationId)

The examples above use chrome.runtime for communication

For communication via window.postMessage, use windowMessageIpcProviderRegister and windowMessageIpcInvoker.

Advanced Usage

Access Raw Communication Info with $rawInfos

You can access the raw communication information (such as sender info in Chrome extensions) by adding a parameter named $rawInfos to your method. This parameter will be automatically injected with the underlying communication details.

export interface BackgroundNotificationInterface {
    notify(title: string, message: string, $rawInfos?: any): Promise<string>
}

class BackgroundNotification implements BackgroundNotificationInterface {
    async notify(title: string, message: string, $rawInfos?: any): Promise<string> {
        // For chrome.runtime, $rawInfos contains the sender object
        console.log('Sender tab ID:', $rawInfos?.sender?.tab?.id);
        console.log('Sender URL:', $rawInfos?.sender?.url);
        
        let notificationId = `notification-${Date.now()}`;
        chrome.notifications.create(notificationId, {
            type: 'basic',
            title: title,
            message: message
        });
        return notificationId;
    }
}

Note: The $rawInfos parameter is optional and will be automatically injected by the framework. You don't need to pass it when calling the method from the client side.

License

MIT