Plugins

When designing a multi app project, sometimes you may need to execute initial system logic - initialize data providers, register methods, or even modify the behavior of the @glue42/web-platform library (see Interception). In a desktop app this is usually handled by auto starting hidden apps. In a web project, however, it isn't possible to create a hidden browser window to execute this logic. The solution to this problem is to use the Glue42 Plugins.

A "Plugin" in the context of Glue42 Core is a user-defined function that will be executed upon startup of the Main app. You can also specify whether the initialization of the @glue42/web-platform library must wait for the Plugin to be executed. The Plugin receives a fully initialized glue object as a first argument, which allows you to perform Glue42 operations before the Main app or any of the Web Client apps has been initialized. As a second argument, the Plugin receives a user-defined configuration object, and as a third - a platform object that can be used for finer system control (see Interception).

Use the plugins property of the configuration object when initializing the Glue42 @glue42/web-platform library in the Main app to define Plugins:

import GlueWebPlatform from "@glue42/web-platform";

const myPlugin = async (glue, config) => {
    let meaning;

    if (config.glue === 42) {
        meaning = config.glue;
    } else {
        meaning = undefined;
    };

    await glue.interop.register("MyMethod", () => `Currently, the meaning of life is ${meaning}.`);
};

const config = {
    plugins: {
        // Plugin definitions.
        definitions: [
            {
                name: "my-plugin",
                config: { glue: 42 },
                start: myPlugin,
                critical: true
            }
        ]
    }
};

const { glue } = await GlueWebPlatform(config);

The Plugin definition object has the following properties: