How does the Tauri plugin system work

The Tauri plugin system allows extending framework functionality and creating reusable modules:

Plugin Architecture

Tauri plugins consist of two parts:

• Frontend part: JavaScript/TypeScript API
• Backend part: Rust extension

Creating a Plugin

1. Initialize Plugin Project

bash
cargo create-tauri-plugin --name my-plugin

2. Rust Implementation

src-tauri/plugins/my-plugin/src/lib.rs:

rust
use tauri::{plugin::Plugin, Runtime};

#[tauri::command]
async fn my_command(name: String) -> Result<String, String> {
    Ok(format!("Hello, {}!", name))
}

pub struct MyPlugin<R: Runtime> {
    phantom: std::marker::PhantomData<R>,
}

impl<R: Runtime> Plugin<R> for MyPlugin<R> {
    fn name(&self) -> &'static str {
        "my_plugin"
    }

    fn initialize(&mut self, app: &tauri::AppHandle<R>, config: serde_json::Value) -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
        // Initialization logic
        Ok(())
    }
}

pub fn init<R: Runtime>() -> MyPlugin<R> {
    MyPlugin {
        phantom: std::marker::PhantomData,
    }
}

3. Register Commands

rust
impl<R: Runtime> MyPlugin<R> {
    pub fn commands() -> Vec<Box<dyn tauri::command::CommandItem<R>>> {
        vec![
            tauri::command::CommandItem::new(my_command)
        ]
    }
}

4. Frontend API

src-tauri/plugins/my-plugin/src-js/index.ts:

typescript
import { invoke } from '@tauri-apps/api/tauri';

export async function myCommand(name: string): Promise<string> {
    return invoke('plugin:my_plugin|my_command', { name });
}

5. Use Plugin

Configure in tauri.conf.json:

json
{
  "plugins": {
    "my_plugin": {
      "enabled": true,
      "config": {}
    }
  }
}

Common Official Plugins

tauri-plugin-clipboard

typescript
import { writeText, readText } from 'tauri-plugin-clipboard-api';
await writeText('Hello');
const text = await readText();

tauri-plugin-fs-extra

typescript
import { copyFile, moveFile } from 'tauri-plugin-fs-extra-api';
await copyFile('src.txt', 'dest.txt');

tauri-plugin-store

typescript
import Store from 'tauri-plugin-store-api';
const store = new Store('.settings.dat');
await store.set('key', 'value');
const value = await store.get('key');

tauri-plugin-sql

typescript
import Database from 'tauri-plugin-sql-api';
const db = await Database.load('sqlite:test.db');
const result = await db.select('SELECT * FROM users');

Plugin Best Practices

1. Error Handling: Use Result type for error handling
2. Async Operations: Use async/await for time-consuming operations
3. Type Safety: Use TypeScript to ensure type safety
4. Complete Documentation: Provide clear API documentation and usage examples
5. Test Coverage: Write unit tests and integration tests

Publishing Plugins

bash
# Publish to crates.io
cd src-tauri/plugins/my-plugin
cargo publish

# Publish to npm
cd src-tauri/plugins/my-plugin/src-js
npm publish

Community Plugins

The Tauri community provides a rich collection of plugins, which can be found in awesome-tauri.