Does TypeScript support events on classes?

Question

I am just wondering if in TypeScript you can define custom events on your classes or interfaces?

What would this look like?

Answer 1

How about this simplified event to be used as a property? Stronger typing of the owning class and no inheritance requirement:

interface ILiteEvent<T> {
    on(handler: { (data?: T): void }) : void;
    off(handler: { (data?: T): void }) : void;
}

class LiteEvent<T> implements ILiteEvent<T> {
    private handlers: { (data?: T): void; }[] = [];

    public on(handler: { (data?: T): void }) : void {
        this.handlers.push(handler);
    }

    public off(handler: { (data?: T): void }) : void {
        this.handlers = this.handlers.filter(h => h !== handler);
    }

    public trigger(data?: T) {
        this.handlers.slice(0).forEach(h => h(data));
    }

    public expose() : ILiteEvent<T> {
        return this;
    }
}

used like so:

class Security{
    private readonly onLogin = new LiteEvent<string>();
    private readonly onLogout = new LiteEvent<void>();

    public get LoggedIn() { return this.onLogin.expose(); } 
    public get LoggedOut() { return this.onLogout.expose(); }

    // ... onLogin.trigger('bob');
}

function Init() {
    var security = new Security();

    var loggedOut = () => { /* ... */ }

    security.LoggedIn.on((username?) => { /* ... */ });
    security.LoggedOut.on(loggedOut);

    // ...

    security.LoggedOut.off(loggedOut);
}

Improvements?

A gist for this

Answer 2

I think you are asking if a class instance can implement addEventListener() and dispatchEvent() like a DOM element. If the class is not a DOM node, then you would have to write your own event bus. You would define an interface for a class that can publish events, then implement the interface in the your classes. Here is a naive example;

interface IEventDispatcher{
  // maintain a list of listeners
  addEventListener(theEvent:string, theHandler:any);

  // remove a listener
  removeEventListener(theEvent:string, theHandler:any);

  // remove all listeners
  removeAllListeners(theEvent:string);

  // dispatch event to all listeners
  dispatchAll(theEvent:string);

  // send event to a handler
  dispatchEvent(theEvent:string, theHandler:any);
}

class EventDispatcher implement IEventDispatcher {
  private _eventHandlers = {};

  // maintain a list of listeners
  public addEventListener(theEvent:string, theHandler:any) {
    this._eventHandlers[theEvent] = this._eventHandlers[theEvent] || [];
    this._eventHandlers[theEvent].push(theHandler);
  }

  // remove a listener
  removeEventListener(theEvent:string, theHandler:any) {
    // TODO
  }

  // remove all listeners
  removeAllListeners(theEvent:string) {
    // TODO
  }

  // dispatch event to all listeners
  dispatchAll(theEvent:string) {
    var theHandlers = this._eventHandlers[theEvent];
    if(theHandlers) {
      for(var i = 0; i < theHandlers.length; i += 1) {
        dispatchEvent(theEvent, theHandlers[i]);
      }
    }
  }

  // send event to a handler
  dispatchEvent(theEvent:string, theHandler:any) {
    theHandler(theEvent);
  }
}

Answer 3

If you are looking to get intelli-sense type checking using the standard emitter pattern you can now do the following:

type DataEventType = "data";
type ErrorEventType = "error";
declare interface IDataStore<TResponse> extends Emitter {
    on(name: DataEventType, handler : (data: TResponse) => void);   
    on(name: ErrorEventType, handler: (error: any) => void);    
}

Answer 4

This solution allows you to directly write the parameters in the function call instead of needing to wrap all your parameters in an object.

interface ISubscription {
   (...args: any[]): void;
}

class PubSub<T extends ISubscription> {
    protected _subscribed : ISubscriptionItem[] = [];

    protected findSubscription(event : T) : ISubscriptionItem {
        this._subscribed.forEach( (item : ISubscriptionItem) =>{
            if (item.func==event)
              return item;
        } );
        return null;
    }

    public sub(applyObject : any,event : T) {
        var newItem = this.findSubscription(event);
        if (!newItem) {
            newItem = {object : applyObject, func : event };
            this._subscribed.push(newItem);
            this.doChangedEvent();
        }
    }
    public unsub(event : T) {
        for ( var i=this._subscribed.length-1 ; i>=0; i--) {
            if (this._subscribed[i].func==event)
                this._subscribed.splice(i,1);
        }
        this.doChangedEvent();
    }
    protected doPub(...args: any[]) {
        this._subscribed.forEach((item : ISubscriptionItem)=> {
            item.func.apply(item.object, args);
        })
    }

    public get pub() : T {
        var pubsub=this;
        var func=  (...args: any[]) => {
            pubsub.doPub(args);
        }
        return <T>func;
    }

    public get pubAsync() : T {
        var pubsub=this;
        var func =  (...args: any[]) => {
            setTimeout( () => {
                pubsub.doPub(args);
            });
        }
        return <T>func;
    }

    public get count() : number {
        return this._subscribed.length
    }

}

Usage:

interface ITestEvent {
    (test : string): void;
}

var onTestEvent = new PubSub<ITestEvent>();
//subscribe to the event
onTestEvent.sub(monitor,(test : string) => {alert("called:"+test)});
//call the event
onTestEvent.pub("test1");

Answer 5

You can find an event dispatcher declaration at YouTube. Following the video you will be able to have a fully typed version of the event dispatcher

Answer 6

Here's a simple example of adding custom-type events to your class, using sub-events:

class MyClass {

    readonly onMessage: SubEvent<string> = new SubEvent();
    readonly onData: SubEvent<MyCustomType> = new SubEvent();

    sendMessage(msg: string) {
        this.onMessage.emit(msg);
    }

    sendData(data: MyCustomType) {
        this.onData.emit(data);
    }
}

And then any client can subscribe to receive those events:

const a = new MyClass();

const sub1 = a.onMessage.subscribe(msg => {
    // msg here is strongly-typed
});

const sub2 = a.onData.subscribe(data => {
    // data here is strongly-typed
});

And when you no longer need the events, you can cancel the subscriptions:

sub1.cancel();

sub2.cancel();