@rwth-acis/iwc

InterwidgetCommunication

This repository contains JS libraries for interwidget communication and las2peer connectivity. The description below shows usage as in the CAE.

Usage

For a full example, take a look at the example ROLE widgets in this repository. Add iwc.js and las2peerWidgetLibrary.js after y.js and jQuery and before your own scripts.

<!-- import jQuery for AJAX calls -->
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <!-- additional widget specific imports (put your own imports here as well) -->
  <script src=".../bower_components/yjs/y.js"></script>
  <!-- inter widget communication library import -->
  <script type="text/javascript" src=".../js/lib/iwc.js"></script>
  <!-- import the client library -->
  <script type="text/javascript" src=".../js/lib/las2peerWidgetLibrary.js"></script>
  <!-- import application script -->
  <script type="text/javascript" src=".../js/applicationScript.js"></script>

General preparations

Set up y-js, a map named "intents" is neccessary.

Y({
  db: {
    ...
  },
  connector: {
    ...
  },
  sourceDir: ... ,
  share: {
    intents: 'Map'
  }
}).then(function (y) {
  initClient(y);
})

Initialise the iwc client:

...
var initClient = function(y) {
  this.client = new Las2peerWidgetLibrary("", iwcCallback, "http://127.0.0.1:8073", y);
  console.log("Client initialized");
};
...

If you want to react to messages, you have to define a callback function:

...
var iwcCallback = function (intent) {
  // define your reactions on incoming iwc events here 
};
...

Sending messages

You have to decide on an address for messaging. In the examples we use the title of ROLE widgets. An example of sending the content of a textArea locally by using the title of the widget as the address ...

...
var content = document.getElementById('textArea').value;
// Get widget title
var sender = $("head").find("title")[0].text;
//Send locally to widget with title "ReceiveWidget"
client.sendIntent(sender, "ReceiveWidget", "update", content, false);
...

or globally ...

client.sendIntent(sender, "ReceiveWidget", "update", content, true);

Receiving messages

Initialise the client. For global messaging, you have to set up y-js in the same way. Then define your callback and execute further actions, e.g. like this:

var iwcCallback = function (intent) {
  // define your reactions on incoming iwc events here 
  if (intent.action == "update" && intent.receiver == $("head").find("title")[0].text) {
    updateContent(intent.data);
  }
};

var updateContent = function (data) {
  var content = document.getElementById('textArea').value = data;
};

Check the action you want to process and that you set during sending, as well as the address you decided on.

That's it! There is (currently) no difference in receiving local or global intents, as they are unpacked and pre-processed by the library.