Channel API (Legacy)

Deprecated: The Channel API is deprecated in favor of TuffTransport. While it continues to work, we recommend migrating to TuffTransport for new development. See the Migration Guide.

The Channel SDK provides IPC communication between plugins and the main process.

Quick Start

import { useChannel, usePluginRendererChannel } from '@talex-touch/utils/plugin/sdk'

// Method 1: Get raw channel object
const channel = useChannel()
const result = await channel.send('some-event', { data: 'value' })

// Method 2: Use wrapped Plugin Channel
const pluginChannel = usePluginRendererChannel()
await pluginChannel.send('my-plugin:action', { payload: 'data' })

API Reference

useChannel()

Get the underlying IPC channel instance.

import { useChannel } from '@talex-touch/utils/plugin/sdk'

const channel = useChannel()

// Send message
const response = await channel.send('event-name', { key: 'value' })

// Register listener
const unsubscribe = channel.regChannel('event-name', (data) => {
  console.log('Received:', data)
})

// Unsubscribe
unsubscribe()

usePluginRendererChannel()

Get plugin-specific channel instance with a friendlier API.

import { usePluginRendererChannel } from '@talex-touch/utils/plugin/sdk'

const channel = usePluginRendererChannel()

`send(eventName, payload)`

Async send message and wait for response.

const result = await channel.send('clipboard:get-latest')

`on(eventName, handler)`

const dispose = channel.on('core-box:input-change', (data) => {
  console.log('Input changed:', data.input)
})

// Stop listening
dispose()

`once(eventName, handler)`

channel.once('plugin:ready', () => {
  console.log('Plugin ready')
})

Built-in Events

Event	Description	Data
`core-box:input-change`	Search input changed	`{ input: string }`
`core-box:key-event`	Keyboard event forwarded	`ForwardedKeyEvent`
`core-box:clipboard-change`	Clipboard changed	`{ item: ClipboardItem }`

Plugin Storage

Event	Description	Data
`plugin:storage:update`	Storage update broadcast	`{ name: string, fileName?: string }`

Best Practices

Namespacing: Use pluginName:action format to avoid conflicts
Cleanup: Call dispose() when component unmounts
Error handling: Always wrap send calls with try-catch
Type safety: Define TypeScript interfaces for requests and responses

Type Definitions

interface IPluginRendererChannel {
  send(eventName: string, payload?: any): Promise<any>
  sendSync(eventName: string, payload?: any): any
  on(eventName: string, handler: PluginChannelHandler): () => void
  once(eventName: string, handler: PluginChannelHandler): () => void
  raw: ITouchClientChannel
}

type PluginChannelHandler = (event: any) => void