uTools

https://www.u.tools/

Dev Docs: https://www.u.tools/docs/developer/welcome.html

Questions
Manifest
Dev
preload.js
Use Third Party Packages
uTools API
注意事项
App Storage

Questions

How does uTools render UI?
How does uTools allow plugins to access system API?

Manifest

plugin.json

{
  "main": "index.html",
  "logo": "logo.png",
  "features": [
    {
      "code": "hello",
      "explain": "hello world",
      "cmds": ["hello", "你好"]
    }
  ]
}

main is the entry point.
features is a list of features
- features.code id code to distinguish features
- features.cmds: command list to trigger the feature (中文会自动支持拼音及拼音首字母，无须重复添加)
"platform": ["win32", "darwin", "linux"] optional

Dev

The dev tools provided by uTools can load plugin for testing and bundle into .ups file which can be installed and shared. Like Alfred's workflow file.

Example: https://github.com/uTools-Labs/utools-tutorials/tree/main/utools-helloworld-example

Doc: https://www.u.tools/docs/developer/debug.html

Set main to a local url for development to achieve hot reload.

{
  "development": {
    "main": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/index.html"
  }
}

preload.js

https://www.u.tools/docs/developer/preload.html

当你在 plugin.json 中配置了 preload 属性，将载入对应的预加载脚本。

在传统的 web 开发中，所有的 javascript 脚本都在浏览器沙盒中运行，权限被严格限制，所能实现的功能非常有限。

通过 preload.js 能够帮你突破沙盒限制，进入一个崭新的 JavaScript 世界。

preload.js is used to preload script and bypass sandbox limitation.

preload.js can access nodejs, electron, uTools API. APIs can be plugged into window object so that other JS code can access these APIs.

// 开发者可以暴露自定义 API 供后加载脚本使用
 
// preload.js 中使用 nodejs
const { readFileSync } = require("fs");
 
window.readConfig = function () {
  const data = readFileSync("./config.json");
  return data;
};
 
// index.html 后加载的内容可以使用 window.readConfig() 方法，但不能使用 Node.js 特性
console.log(window.readConfig()); // 正常执行
console.log(readFileSync("./config.json")); // 报错

function readFileAsync(filePath, encoding) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    require("fs").readFile(filePath, encoding, (error, data) => {
      if (error) {
        reject(error);
      } else {
        resolve(data);
      }
    });
  });
}
 
window.services = {
  readFile: (inputPath, encoding = "utf8") => {
    return readFileAsync(inputPath, encoding);
  },
};

window.services.readFile get's access to read files beyond the constraint by sandbox.

Use Third Party Packages

通过源码方式使用第三方库

Through source code

Download the library into /public

uTools API

This is a wrapper for some common functions.

在插件应用初始化完成时，uTools 会自动在你的 window 对象上挂载 utools 对象。

// 复制单个文件
utools.copyFile("/path/to/file");
// 复制多个文件
utools.copyFile(["/path/to/file1", "/path/to/file2"]);
// 路径
utools.copyImage("/path/to/img.png");
// base64
utools.copyImage("data:image/png;base64,xxxxxxxxx");

uTools DB API

Data persistance.

// 创建
utools.db.put({
  _id: "demo",
  data: "demo",
});
// 返回 {id: "demo", ok: true, rev: "1-05c9b92e6f24287dc1f4ec79d9a34fa8"}
 
// 更新
utools.db.put({
  _id: "demo",
  data: "demo",
  _rev: "1-05c9b92e6f24287dc1f4ec79d9a34fa8",
});
 
// 异步方式更新
utools.db.promises.put({
  _id: "demo",
  data: "demo",
  _rev: "1-05c9b92e6f24287dc1f4ec79d9a34fa8",
});
 
utools.db.get("demo");
// 返回 {_id: "demo", _rev: "3-9836c5c68af5aef618e17d615882942a", data: "demo"}
 
utools.db.remove("demo");
// 返回 {id: "demo", ok: true, rev: "2-effe5dbc23dffc180d8411b23f3108fb"}

uTools Browser API

uTools browser 简称 ubrowser，是根据 uTools 的特性，量身打造的一个可编程浏览器。利用 ubrowser 可以轻而易举连接一切互联网服务，且与 uTools 完美结合。

ubrowser 拥有优雅的链式调用接口，可以用口语化的数行代码，实现一系列匪夷所思的操作。例如：

RPA 自动化脚本
网页魔改
网页抓取

// 打开"必应" 并搜索 "uTools"
utools.ubrowser
  .goto("https://cn.bing.com")
  .value("#sb_form_q", "uTools")
  .click("#sb_form_go")
  .run({ width: 1000, height: 600 });

This is interesting. This should be very simple. The browser window is loaded in a electron window, the API is just a wrapper around DOM APIs.

There is also setCookies(cookies) and removeCookies(name) API.

evaluate(func, ...params) allows developers to eval JS function.

.evaluate((param1, param2) => {
  return document.querySelector('div').innerText
}, 'param1', 'param2')

uTools Server API

通过 uTools 的服务端 API，可以将你的应用和 uTools 用户关联，实现帐号互通、接收支付通知、查询用户支付记录等，为保护密钥安全，请仅在服务端调用接口。

APIs for account and payment. Regular API wrapper for web requests, skip.

注意事项

uTools 插件应用中不受跨域影响，可以访问任意网址。
无需网页考虑兼容性问题，基于（Chromium 91 和 Node 14）
在插件应用开发模式中，可以使用 http 协议加载远程资源（ js、css ）。当打包成 uTools 插件应用后，所有的静态资源都应该在包内，否则会加载失败。
在打包目录中，请勿包含 .git .js.map .css.map 文件。

App Storage

On Mac, the app data is stored in /Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/uTools.

Clipboard data stored in clipboard-data/1715136702505/data. The number is the timestamp.

In the data file, there is encoded (and potentially encrypted clipboard data).

Here is the tree structure with 2 layers of folders.

.
├── Cache
│   └── Cache_Data
├── Code Cache
│   ├── js
│   └── wasm
├── Cookies
├── Cookies-journal
├── Local Storage
│   └── leveldb
├── Network Persistent State
├── Partitions
│   └── %3Cutools%3E
├── Preferences
├── SingletonCookie -> 11472625255256702255
├── SingletonLock -> f4d488789185-8643
├── SingletonSocket -> /var/folders/f7/7c6q0gh121vdyh86bv192wpc0000gn/T/scoped_dirCsNUE2/SingletonSocket
├── blob_storage
│   └── 37646b27-ee51-41e8-a51d-91b911b09c42
├── clipboard-data
│   └── 1715136702505
├── database
│   └── default
├── plugins
│   ├── 170c1ee16af97ded0bdde9e7eb60294b.asar
│   ├── 5522e367c63f3d5490807c01b442211d.asar
│   ├── 668b903f4bcdf240dd228aab904f3892.asar
│   ├── 6ee51b94a1ffd0d90edfc1f3c2460f06.asar
│   ├── 6ee51b94a1ffd0d90edfc1f3c2460f06.asar.unpacked
│   ├── 878f2055a6213f3e8f4c38a8109e077c.asar
│   ├── 878f2055a6213f3e8f4c38a8109e077c.asar.unpacked
│   ├── 9325e4f7566857c5e4633eb2b1b564fc.asar
│   ├── b5a1343f92233a09aa4499f1a3389a12.asar
│   ├── b5a1343f92233a09aa4499f1a3389a12.asar.unpacked
│   ├── d030e1e61e13bf54f1b393938e80242c.asar
│   ├── e332887c9a7b922489ee3dba816901b1.asar
│   └── installs
└── settings

WASM is used, node addons are used. The app is built on Electron.

uTools

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