Dart News & Updates

Three weeks ago , I wrote about the stream_channel package. Two weeks ago , I wrote about the json_rpc_2 package which is built on top of stream_channel . This week I’ll complete the trifecta by writing about the vm_service_client package, which uses json_rpc_2 in turn—and is a really cool package in its own right! One of the lesser-known corners of the Dart VM is its service protocol , but it’s one of its most powerful components. It uses JSON-RPC 2.0 over WebSockets to allow clients to connect to the VM, inspect its internal state, set breakpoints, and all sorts of neat stuff. If you’ve ever used Observatory for debugging or profiling your Dart code, you’ve been using the service protocol under the hood: that’s how the Observatory web app talks to the VM’s internals. Because the protocol is fully documented and based on a standard underlying protocol, it’s possible for anyone to use from their code. And the vm_service_client package makes it downright easy: it provides a Da...

Last week I wrote about the stream_channel package for two-way communication, so this week it seemed natural to move to a package that uses it: json_rpc_2 . This is an implementation of the JSON-RPC 2.0 specification, which is a popular protocol for providing structure and standardization to WebSocket APIs. Although it’s most commonly used with WebSockets, the protocol itself is explicitly independent of the underlying transport mechanism. This makes it a great fit for stream channels, which can be used to represent a two-way stream of JSON objects in a way that works with any underlying mechanism. Thanks to stream channels, JSON-RPC 2.0 can be used across WebSockets , isolates , or any channel a user chooses to wrap. Shared APIs There are three main classes in json_rpc_2 : Client makes requests and receives responses, Server handles requests and returns responses, and Peer does both at once. Because all of these involve two-way communication, they all have the same two ...