async-ipc API proposal

readme.md

async-ipc API

API consists of 2 parts: EventEmitter-like events passing with .on/.emit and request/response with .request/.respondTo.

EventEmitter one is quite obvious - EventEmitter over the wire/processes.

Request/Response one allows to register a request handler for a particular request type instead of using events to implement same functionality.

Result should be anything else but undefined (print warning otherwise) - Promises are awaited to be resolved and plain values are sent as is. There is one constraint - value should be serializable via JSON.stringify.

Open questions so far:

• is that a good idea?
• is that worth doing the way described here?
• how to handle binary data while keeping ergonomics nice?
• should we handle binary data at all?

main.js

const ipc = require('async-ipc'); // symmetrical in both main and renderer
const SomeAPI = require('some-api');

// events:
ipc.on('create-new-window', (...args) => {
  // create new BrowserWindow(...args);
});

ipc.emit('ready', 'some-important-string', 'other-important-arg');

// request/(response)
ipc.respondTo('request-type-string', request => {
  return SomeAPI.fetchResult(request);
});

renderer.js

const ipc = require('async-ipc'); // symmetrical in both main and renderer

// events:
ipc.on('ready', (...args) => {  
  SomeOtherAPI.doStuff(...args).then(res => {
    ipc.emit('create-new-window', res);
  });
});

// (request)/response
const fetchDataFromMain = async () => {
  const requestData = {
    importantArgument: 42,
    otherStuff: [1,2,3]
  };
  
  const result = await ipc.request('request-type-string', requestData);
  doSomethingWith(result);
};

ipc.request('unkown-request-type', { ... }) // throws or rejects ?