Files
flipper/docs/tutorial/javascript.mdx
Kevin Strider ce83f2c01b javascript.mdx (Creating Plugins - Building an javaScript (browser) Plugin)
Summary: Restyle of page, including changes to spelling, grammar, links, and structure (where relevant)

Reviewed By: nikoant

Differential Revision: D36410938

fbshipit-source-id: b1b4d7753c16d2d2a3b9a7aa779f196247f10579
2022-05-17 01:36:39 -07:00

56 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext

---
id: javascript
title: Building a JavaScript (Browser) Plugin
---
import useBaseUrl from '@docusaurus/useBaseUrl';
import Link from '@docusaurus/Link';
:::caution
This tutorial requires a browser that supports [WebSockets](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebSocket).
:::
This section of the tutorial goes through the three steps required to build a JavaScript plugin.
## Step 1 - install Flipper JavaScript SDK
Add the Flipper client to your web application. Run `npm install js-flipper` (`yarn add js-flipper`)
## Step 2 - start the Flipper client
:::warning
Do not start the Flipper client in production! Preferably, do not even include Flipper in your production builds!
:::
Use the following to start the Flipper client:
```tsx file=js/react-flipper-example/src/FlipperTicTacToe.tsx start=DOCS_START_CLIENT_START end=DOCS_START_CLIENT_END
```
## Step 3 - call `addPlugin` to add your plugin
To register a new plugin with Flipper, call `flipperClient.addPlugin` and pass your plugin as an object.
Your plugin must conform to the following interface:
```ts file=js/js-flipper/src/plugin.ts start=DOCS_FLIPPER_PLUGIN_START end=DOCS_FLIPPER_PLUGIN_END
```
The `onConnect` and `onDisconnect` events, featured in the above snippet, are triggered every time the plugin becomes (in)active in the Flipper desktop application.
If the plugin is a <Link to={useBaseUrl("/docs/extending/create-plugin#background-plugins")}>background plugin</Link>, these events are triggered typically only once (they might be triggered never if the Desktop user didn't enable the plugin, or multiple times if they enabled or disabled the plugin a few times).
The `onConnect` callback receive a `connection` which can be used to communicate with the backend:
```tsx file=js/react-flipper-example/src/FlipperTicTacToe.tsx start=DOCS_ADD_PLUGIN_START end=DOCS_ADD_PLUGIN_END
```
You might want to store the connection somewhere to be able to send more events as long as `onDisconnect` event hasn't been fired.
The `connection` object can also be used to listen to messages coming from the Desktop plugin. See <Link to={useBaseUrl("/docs/extending/create-plugin")}>Client Plugin API</Link> for details.
## Live demo
An example plugin to play a little Tic-Tac-Toe between the Flipper Desktop and a React app can be found inside this repository as well (run `yarn && yarn start` in `js/react-flipper-example` to start the test project):
* The React plugin implementation - [FlipperTicTacToe.tsx](https://github.com/facebook/flipper/tree/main/js/react-flipper-example/src/FlipperTicTacToe.tsx)
* The Flipper Desktop plugin implementation - [rn-tic-tac-toe/index.tsx](https://github.com/facebook/flipper/blob/main/desktop/plugins/public/rn-tic-tac-toe/index.tsx)