Electron automating webview with multiple js scripts

Question

I want to create a desktop app using Github's Electron. Essentially, the app will open external webpages, like google.com and perform various automation tasks such as clicking, typing, etc.

So far my index.html file has a webview with a preloader and requires a renderer js file.

<webview
id="webview"
preload="./preload.js"
src="https://google.com"></webview>

<script>
require('./renderer');
</script>

Here is renderer.js

const { ipcRenderer: ipc } = require('electron');

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(event) {
  const webview = document.getElementById('webview');
  const btn = document.getElementById('devtools');

});

Here is preload.js

const { ipcRenderer: ipc } = require('electron');

console.log('Hey, this is being run in the context of the webview renderer process');

Ideally I would have a separate js file that would act as a script for a specific site. Example, google.js might automate google, while facebook.js might automate facebook. google.js, for example, will have code looking something like this:

function loadHomepage () {
webview.loadURL(https://google.com);
}
function clickGoogleSearchButton () {
$('#googleSearchButtonId').click()
}

1. How would I include these various script files? Would they be included in my index.html? If the user clicks a button to automate google, how can I load the automation script for google and have it act on the webview? Each script should obviously have access to the webview variable I created in the render.js file so that the scripts can do things like webview.loadUrl(...)

2. Ideally the user would select a script and then be able to start and stop that script. How exactly can I communicate from the index.html file to the selected script that it should start/stop?

TL;DR Overall, I want to accomplish something like this:

-user clicks a button to select the current automation script

-a start and stop button appear

-the user clicks the start button

-the selected script begins running that performs various actions on the webview

-the user clicks stop and the current script is unloaded

Nimantha · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-19 02:33:37Z

It's been a while since this was asked, but you need to look into IPC messages to the webview. I have my preload script listening for various messages and taking actions based on the message sent. Something like this:

processInboundMessage(data: WebViewMsg) {
    switch (data.operation) {
      case WebViewOperation.GetElementText:
        this.processMessageGetElementText(data);
        break;
      case WebViewOperation.GetSelectedText:
        this.processMessageGetSelectedText(data);
        break;
      case WebViewOperation.SetElementValue:
        this.processMessageSetElementValue(data);
        break;
      case WebViewOperation.TriggerEvent:
        this.processMessageTriggerClick(data);
        break;
      case WebViewOperation.HttpGet:
        this.processMessageHttpGet(data);
        break;
      case WebViewOperation.HttpPost:
        this.processMessageHttpPost(data);
        break;
      case WebViewOperation.GetJsVariableValue:
        this.processMessageGetJsVariableValue(data);
        break;
      case WebViewOperation.AddBorder:
        this.processMessageAddBorder(data);
        break;
      case WebViewOperation.RegisterListener:
        this.processMessageRegisterListener(data);
        break;
    }
  }

When the action is complete, the preload script replies to the host:

respondToHost(data: WebViewMsg) {
    ipcRenderer.sendToHost(data.returnChannel, data);
  }

Where data is the payload to be sent back to the host and data.returnChannel is a GUID that the host checks for whenever a message is received.

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