Dispatcher

A multi-purpose dispatcher for easy cross-boundary and internal communication. This is, from an external point of view, fully typesafe! Internally it's quite garbage but it works..

Installation

You can install this using npm or any package manager of your choice. Simply run npm i @rbxts/dispatcher

Setup

You will need a file that defines your operations. It can be placed anywhere, though it's recommended to be placed in ReplicatedStorage so warnings don't appear. An example is as follows:

// remoteData.d.ts (/shared/remoteData.d.ts)

export type DefinedServerOperations = {
    serverOperation(text: string): void;
}

export type DefinedClientOperations = {
    clientOperation(text: string): void;
}

export type DefinedServerEvents = {
    serverEvent(text: string): void;
}

export type DefinedServerFunctions = {
    serverFunction(text: string): boolean;
}

Then, you'll need to create dispatchers for the server and client, as you can't require cross-boundaries.

// serverDispatcher.ts (/server/ServerDispatcher.ts)
import { BaseServerDispatcher } from '@rbxts/dispatcher';
import { DefinedClientOperations, DefinedServerEvents, DefinedServerFunctions, DefinedServerOperations } from 'shared/remoteData';

export const serverDispatcher = new BaseServerDispatcher<
    DefinedServerOperations,
    DefinedClientOperations,
    DefinedServerEvents,
    DefinedServerFunctions
>();

// clientDispatcher.ts (/client/clientDispatcher.ts)
import { BaseClientDispatcher } from '@rbxts/dispatcher';
import { DefinedClientOperations, DefinedServerEvents, DefinedServerFunctions } from 'shared/remoteData';

export const clientDispatcher = new BaseClientDispatcher<
    DefinedClientOperations,
    DefinedServerEvents,
    DefinedServerFunctions
>();

Server Usage

import { serverDispatcher } from 'server/serverDispatcher';

// Listen to a server event
serverDispatcher.on('serverEvent', text => {
    print(text);
});

// Handle a server function
serverDispatcher.on('serverFunction', text => {
    print(text);

    return true;
});

// Handle a server dispatch
serverDispatcher.listen('serverOperation', text => {
    print(text);
});

// Fire a client event
serverDispatcher.emit('clientOperation', 'Hello world!');

// Dispatch a event for the server
serverDispatcher.dispatch('serverOperation', 'Hello world!');

Client Usage

import { clientDispatcher } from 'client/clientDispatcher';

// Listen to a client operation
clientDispatcher.on('clientOperation', text => {
    print(text);
});

// Dispatch a client operation
clientDispatcher.dispatch('clientOperation', 'Hello world!');

// Invoke a server event
clientDispatcher.emit('serverEvent', 'Hello world!');

// Invoke a server function
const result = clientDispatcher.invoke('serverFunction', 'Hello world!');