Importing a class from JS

Just like with functions after we've started exporting we'll also want to import! Now that we've exported a class to JS we'll want to also be able to import classes in Rust as well to invoke methods and such. Since JS classes are in general just JS objects the bindings here will look pretty similar to the JS object bindings describe above.

As usual though, let's dive into an example!

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
#[wasm_bindgen(module = "./bar")]
extern "C" {
    type Bar;

    #[wasm_bindgen(constructor)]
    fn new(arg: i32) -> Bar;

    #[wasm_bindgen(js_namespace = Bar)]
    fn another_function() -> i32;

    #[wasm_bindgen(method)]
    fn get(this: &Bar) -> i32;

    #[wasm_bindgen(method)]
    fn set(this: &Bar, val: i32);

    #[wasm_bindgen(method, getter)]
    fn property(this: &Bar) -> i32;

    #[wasm_bindgen(method, setter)]
    fn set_property(this: &Bar, val: i32);
}

fn run() {
    let bar = Bar::new(Bar::another_function());
    let x = bar.get();
    bar.set(x + 3);

    bar.set_property(bar.property() + 6);
}
}

Unlike our previous imports, this one's a bit more chatty! Remember that one of the goals of wasm-bindgen is to use native Rust syntax wherever possible, so this is mostly intended to use the #[wasm_bindgen] attribute to interpret what's written down in Rust. Now there's a few attribute annotations here, so let's go through one-by-one:

#[wasm_bindgen(module = "./bar")] - seen before with imports this is declare where all the subsequent functionality is imported from. For example the Bar type is going to be imported from the ./bar module.
type Bar - this is a declaration of JS class as a new type in Rust. This means that a new type Bar is generated which is "opaque" but is represented as internally containing a JsValue. We'll see more on this later.
#[wasm_bindgen(constructor)] - this indicates that the binding's name isn't actually used in JS but rather translates to new Bar(). The return value of this function must be a bare type, like Bar.
#[wasm_bindgen(js_namespace = Bar)] - this attribute indicates that the function declaration is namespaced through the Bar class in JS.
#[wasm_bindgen(static_method_of = SomeJsClass)] - this attribute is similar to js_namespace, but instead of producing a free function, produces a static method of SomeJsClass.
#[wasm_bindgen(method)] - and finally, this attribute indicates that a method call is going to happen. The first argument must be a JS struct, like Bar, and the call in JS looks like Bar.prototype.set.call(...).

With all that in mind, let's take a look at the JS generated.

import * as wasm from './foo_bg';

import { Bar } from './bar';

// other support functions omitted...

export function __wbg_s_Bar_new() {
  return addHeapObject(new Bar());
}

const another_function_shim = Bar.another_function;
export function __wbg_s_Bar_another_function() {
  return another_function_shim();
}

const get_shim = Bar.prototype.get;
export function __wbg_s_Bar_get(ptr) {
  return shim.call(getObject(ptr));
}

const set_shim = Bar.prototype.set;
export function __wbg_s_Bar_set(ptr, arg0) {
  set_shim.call(getObject(ptr), arg0)
}

const property_shim = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(Bar.prototype, 'property').get;
export function __wbg_s_Bar_property(ptr) {
  return property_shim.call(getObject(ptr));
}

const set_property_shim = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(Bar.prototype, 'property').set;
export function __wbg_s_Bar_set_property(ptr, arg0) {
  set_property_shim.call(getObject(ptr), arg0)
}

Like when importing functions from JS we can see a bunch of shims are generated for all the relevant functions. The new static function has the #[wasm_bindgen(constructor)] attribute which means that instead of any particular method it should actually invoke the new constructor instead (as we see here). The static function another_function, however, is dispatched as Bar.another_function.

The get and set functions are methods so they go through Bar.prototype, and otherwise their first argument is implicitly the JS object itself which is loaded through getObject like we saw earlier.

Some real meat starts to show up though on the Rust side of things, so let's take a look:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
pub struct Bar {
    obj: JsValue,
}

impl Bar {
    fn new() -> Bar {
        extern "C" {
            fn __wbg_s_Bar_new() -> u32;
        }
        unsafe {
            let ret = __wbg_s_Bar_new();
            Bar { obj: JsValue::__from_idx(ret) }
        }
    }

    fn another_function() -> i32 {
        extern "C" {
            fn __wbg_s_Bar_another_function() -> i32;
        }
        unsafe {
            __wbg_s_Bar_another_function()
        }
    }

    fn get(&self) -> i32 {
        extern "C" {
            fn __wbg_s_Bar_get(ptr: u32) -> i32;
        }
        unsafe {
            let ptr = self.obj.__get_idx();
            let ret = __wbg_s_Bar_get(ptr);
            return ret
        }
    }

    fn set(&self, val: i32) {
        extern "C" {
            fn __wbg_s_Bar_set(ptr: u32, val: i32);
        }
        unsafe {
            let ptr = self.obj.__get_idx();
            __wbg_s_Bar_set(ptr, val);
        }
    }

    fn property(&self) -> i32 {
        extern "C" {
            fn __wbg_s_Bar_property(ptr: u32) -> i32;
        }
        unsafe {
            let ptr = self.obj.__get_idx();
            let ret = __wbg_s_Bar_property(ptr);
            return ret
        }
    }

    fn set_property(&self, val: i32) {
        extern "C" {
            fn __wbg_s_Bar_set_property(ptr: u32, val: i32);
        }
        unsafe {
            let ptr = self.obj.__get_idx();
            __wbg_s_Bar_set_property(ptr, val);
        }
    }
}

impl WasmBoundary for Bar {
    // ...
}

impl ToRefWasmBoundary for Bar {
    // ...
}
}

In Rust we're seeing that a new type, Bar, is generated for this import of a class. The type Bar internally contains a JsValue as an instance of Bar is meant to represent a JS object stored in our module's stack/slab. This then works mostly the same way that we saw JS objects work in the beginning.

When calling Bar::new we'll get an index back which is wrapped up in Bar (which is itself just a u32 in memory when stripped down). Each function then passes the index as the first argument and otherwise forwards everything along in Rust.

The `wasm-bindgen` Guide

Importing a class from JS