Electron Adapter

Establish type-safe communication between processes in Electron using the Message Port Adapter.

Main Process

Listen for a port sent from the renderer, then upgrade it:

import { RPCHandler } from '@orpc/server/message-port'
import { onError } from '@orpc/server'

const handler = new RPCHandler(router, {
  interceptors: [onError(e => console.error(e))],
})

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  ipcMain.on('start-orpc-server', async (event) => {
    const [serverPort] = event.ports
    handler.upgrade(serverPort)
    serverPort.start()
  })
})

Preload Process

Forward the port from renderer to main:

window.addEventListener('message', (event) => {
  if (event.data === 'start-orpc-client') {
    const [serverPort] = event.ports
    ipcRenderer.postMessage('start-orpc-server', null, [serverPort])
  }
})

Renderer Process

const { port1: clientPort, port2: serverPort } = new MessageChannel()

window.postMessage('start-orpc-client', '*', [serverPort])

const link = new RPCLink({ port: clientPort })

clientPort.start()