Engine Core

This is the core library used to create a new plugin engine.

Use this library if you want to create an engine for a new environment.

If you want to create an engine for an existing envrionment, use the specific library. For example :

Engine on the web : @remixproject/engine-web
Engine on node : @remixproject/engine-node
Engine on vscode : @remixproject/engine-vscode

Tutorial

API

Connector

The plugin connector is the main component of @remixproject/engine, it defines how an external plugin can connect to the engine. Checkout the documentation.

Getting started

npm install @remixproject/engine

The engine works a with two classes :

PluginManager: manage activation/deactivation
Engine: manage registration & communication

import { PluginManager, Engine, Plugin } from '@remixproject/engine'

const manager = new PluginManager()
const engine = new Engine()
const plugin = new Plugin({ name: 'plugin-name' })

// Wait for the manager to be loaded
await engine.onload()

// Register plugins
engine.register([manager, plugin])

// Activate plugins
manager.activatePlugin('plugin-name')

Registration

The registration makes the plugin available for activation in the engine.

To register a plugin you need:

Profile: The ID card of your plugin.
Plugin: A class that expose the logic of the plugin.

const profile = {
  name: 'console',
  methods: ['print']
}

class Console extends Plugin {
  constructor() {
    super(profile)
  }
  print(msg: string) {
    console.log(msg)
  }
}
const consolePlugin = new Console()

// Register plugins
engine.register(consolePlugin)

In the future, this part will be manage by a Marketplace plugin.

Activation

The activation process is managed by the PluginManager.

Activating a plugin makes it visible to other plugins. Now they can communicate.

manager.activatePlugin('console')

The PluginManager is a plugin itself.

Communication

Plugin exposes a simple interface for communicate between plugins :

call: Call a method exposed by another plugin (This returns always a Promise).
on: Listen on event emitted by another plugin.
emit: Emit an event broadcasted to all listeners.

This code will call the method print from the plugin console with the parameter 'My message'.

plugin.call('console', 'print', 'My message')

Full code example

import { PluginManager, Engine, Plugin } from '@remixproject/engine'
const profile = {
  name: 'console',
  methods: ['print']
}

class Console extends Plugin {
  constructor() {
    super(profile)
  }
  print(msg: string) {
    console.log(msg)
  }
}

const manager = new PluginManager()
const engine = new Engine()
const emptyPlugin = new Plugin({ name: 'empty' })
const consolePlugin = new Console()

// Register plugins
engine.register([manager, plugin, consolePlugin])

// Activate plugins
manager.activatePlugin(['empty', 'console'])

// Plugin communication
emptyPlugin.call('console', 'print', 'My message')