Tauri Plugin deno

This tauri v2 plugin is supposed to make it easy to use Javascript as backend code. It uses Deno as runtime.

A single deno thread is started in the background and uses tokio to call javascript functions asynchronously. Channels are used to exchange data between tauri and deno runtime. By default, the file src-tauri/src-js/main.js is executed on startup. If you want to use typescript, please use some packager to transpile your typescript into main.js first - for example by using rollup.

Status

This plugin is in an early state. It might still have some issues. I currently only tested it on MacOS and did not optimize it yet for release builds. There might be changes later, for example to auto include backend javascript.

Planned changes:

• make sure that ops like writing & reading files work as expected
• try to use all (or nearly all) Deno ops, for example https://github.com/denoland/deno/blob/main/ext/fs/ops.rs
• try to use tauri permissions for ops
• make sure that windows & linux production binaries are working fine
• try to compile backend js into production binary without additional resource
• try to also call fronted functions from backend
• check if Android and iOS support can be added easily
• implement tests & github workflows

Usage

• run npm run tauri add deno
• add src-tauri/src-js/main.js and modify it according to your needs, for example add

# src-tauri/src-js/main.js
_tauri_plugin_functions = ["greet_js"] # make "greet_js" callable from UI
def greet_js(rust_var)
    return str(rust_var) + " from javascript"

• add "bundle": {"resources": [ "src-js/**/*"], to tauri.conf.json so that javascript files are bundled with your application
• add the plugin in your client-side javascript:
  • add import { callFunction } from 'tauri-plugin-deno-api'
  • add window.document.body.innerText = await callFunction("greet_js", [value]) to get the output of the backend javascript function greet_js with parameter of js variable value
  • alternatively use window.document.body.innerText = window.__TAURI__.deno.callFunction("greet_js", [value.value]) directly, if you want to use old style javascript without using imports

This is just an example of how to modify client side content. You may just set some value or a local variable.

Security considerations

This plugin has been created with security in mind. No network server or client is started by this plugin. By default, this plugin cannot call javascript backend code. Backend functions can only be called if registered, for example by using the _tauri_plugin_functions variable in the backend javascript code.

There are following additional permissions available that can be added to by using the permissions file tauri-app/src-tauri/capabilities/default.json:

• allow-call-function (allows callFunction; calls function in backend; enabled by default)
• allow-read-variable (allows readVariable; read variable from backend)
• allow-register-function (allows registerFunction; client side way of allowing additional functions)
• allow-run-code (allows runCode; call code directly in backend)