Viewmodels
When implementing frontend components, you’ll sooner or later want to define your own KnockoutJS view models in order to provide custom functionality.
Registering custom viewmodels
Register your view model with OctoPrint’s web app by pushing a config object unto the global array OCTOPRINT_VIEWMODELS
.
Possible properties in this config object are:
- construct
Function to use for constructing the view model instance. Usually that will be the view model class, which acts as a constructor. This property is mandatory.
- name
Name to register the view model under. If not provided, the name of the
construct
function will be used, turning the first letter lower case. If a view model under the same name already exists at time of construction, an error will be logged and the view model will not be instantiated.- additionalNames
A list of additional names to also register the view model under. Only those that do not already exist will be registered.
- dependencies
List of dependencies the view model needs injected. If any of the view models in this list cannot be found, initialization of the view model will fail. The parameters injected on instantiation will consist of first the
dependencies
, then theoptional
list concatenated.- optional
A list of optional dependencies the view model needs injected. If any of the view models in this list cannot be found, they will be
null
in the parameter list injected to the constructor on instantiation. The parameters injected on instantiation will consist of first thedependencies
, then theoptional
list concatenated.- elements
A list of UI elements to bind to. Each binding target can be either a string which will then be passed to jQuery’s
$(...)
method to resolve the target, or alternatively directly a jQuery element
Example:
$(function() {
function MyCustomViewModel(parameters) {
var self = this;
self.loginState = parameters[0]; // requested as first dependency below
self.settings = parameters[1]; // requested as second dependency below
self.someOtherViewModel = parameters[2]; // requested as first optional dependency below
// more of your view model's implementation
}
// we don't explicitly declare a name property here
// our view model will be registered under "myCustomViewModel" (implicit
// name derived from constructor name) and "yourCustomViewModel" (explicitly
// provided as additional name)
OCTOPRINT_VIEWMODELS.push({
construct: MyCustomViewModel,
additionalNames: ["yourCustomViewModel"],
dependencies: ["loginStateViewModel", "settingsViewModel"],
optional: ["someOtherViewModel"],
elements: ["#some_div", "#some_other_div"]
});
})
You might also come across a different approach to view model declaration, providing not a config object but instead a 3-tuple of constructor, dependencies and elements to bind to. Additional names, different names than the default name and optional dependencies cannot be specified with this format. It should be considered deprecated. Still, an example of how that would look in practice is provided here as well:
$(function() {
function MyCustomViewModel(parameters) {
var self = this;
self.loginState = parameters[0]; // requested as first constructor parameter below
self.settingsViewModel = parameters[1] // requested as second constructor parameter below
// more of your view model's implementation
}
// construct, dependencies, elements
OCTOPRINT_VIEWMODELS.push([
MyCustomViewModel,
["loginStateViewModel", "settingsViewModel"],
["#some_div", "#some_other_div"]
]);
})
Dependencies
OctoPrint will try to inject all view model dependencies requested by your view model. In order to do this it will perform multiple passes iterating over all registered view models and collecting the necessary dependencies prior to construction. Circular dependencies (A depends on B, B on C, C on A) naturally cannot be resolved and will cause an error to be logged to the JavaScript console.
OctoPrint’s core currently comes with the following view models that your plugin can request for injection:
- appearanceViewModel
View model that holds the appearance settings (name, color and transparency flag).
- connectionViewModel
View model for the connection sidebar entry.
- controlViewModel
View model for the control tab.
- filesViewModel
View model for the files sidebar entry. Also available under the deprecated name
gcodeFilesViewModel
.- firstRunViewModel
View model for the first run dialog.
- gcodeViewModel
View model for the gcode viewer tab.
- gcodeFilesViewModel
Deprecated in favor of
filesViewModel
.- logsViewModel
View model for the logfile settings dialog.
- loginStateViewModel
View model for the current login state of the user, very interesting for plugins that need to evaluate the current login state or information about the current user, e.g. associated roles.
- navigationViewModel
View model for the navigation bar.
- printerProfilesViewModel
View model for the printer profiles settings dialog.
- printerStateViewModel
View model for the current printer state, very interesting for plugins that need to know information about the current print job, if the printer is connected, operational etc.
- settingsViewModel
View model for the settings dialog, also holds all settings to be used by other view models, hence very interesting for plugins as well.
- slicingViewModel
View model for the slicing dialog.
- temperatureViewModel
View model for the temperature tab, also holds current temperature information which might be interesting for plugins.
- terminalViewModel
View model for the terminal tab, also holds terminal log entries.
- timelapseViewModel
View model for the timelapse tab.
- usersViewModel
View model for the user management in the settings dialog.
- userSettingsViewModel
View model for settings associated with the currently logged in user, used for the user settings dialog.
- wizardViewModel
View model for the wizard dialog.
Each plugin’s view model will be added to the view model map used for resolving dependencies as well, using
the view model’s class name with a lower case first character as identifier (so “MyCustomViewModel” will be registered
for dependency injection as “myCustomViewModel”) or an alternative name provided in the name
property of the
config object, plus any configured additionalNames
.
Callbacks
OctoPrint’s web application will call several callbacks on all registered view models, provided they implement them. Those are listed below:
- onStartup()
Called when the first initialization has been done. All view models are constructed and hence their dependencies resolved, no bindings have been done yet.
- onBeforeBinding()
Called per view model before attempting to bind it to its binding targets.
- onAfterBinding()
Called per view model after binding it to its binding targets.
- onAllBound(allViewModels)
Called after all view models have been bound, with the list of all view models as the single parameter.
- onStartupComplete()
Called after the startup of the web app has been completed.
- onServerDisconnect()
Called if a disconnect from the server is detected.
- onDataUpdaterReconnect()
Called when the connection to the server has been reestablished after a disconnect.
- fromHistoryData(data)
Called when history data is received from the server. Usually that happens only after initial connect in order to transmit the temperature and terminal log history to the connecting client. Called with the
data
as single parameter.- fromCurrentData(data)
Called when current printer status data is received from the server with the
data
as single parameter.- onSlicingProgress(slicer, modelPath, machineCodePath, progress)
Called on slicing progress, call rate is once per percentage point of the progress at maximum.
- onEvent<EventName>(payload)
Called on firing of an event of type
EventName
, e.g.onEventPrintDone
. See the list of available events for the possible events and their payloads.- fromTimelapseData(data)
Called when timelapse configuration data is received from the server. Usually that happens after initial connect.
- onDataUpdaterPluginMessage(plugin, message)
Called when a plugin message is pushed from the server with the identifier of the calling plugin as first and the actual message as the second parameter. Note that the latter might be a full fledged object, depending on the plugin sending the message. You can use this method to asynchronously push data from your plugin’s server component to its frontend component.
- onUserLoggedIn(user)
Called when a user gets logged into the web app, either passively (upon initial load of the page due to a valid “Remember Me” cookie) or due to an active completion of the login dialog. The user data of the just logged in user will be provided as only parameter.
- onUserLoggedOut()
Called when a user gets logged out of the web app.
- onUserPermissionsChanged(user)
Called when a change in the permissions of the current user is detected. The user data of the just logged in user will be provided as only parameter. Note that this may also be triggered for not logged in guests if the guest group is modified. In this case
user
will be undefined.- onBeforePrintStart(callback)
Called before a print is started either by clicking the “Print” button in the state panel or the select & print icon in the file list. The callback to actually proceed with starting the print is provided as the only parameter. By returning
false
from this, plugins may prevent a print from actually starting, optionally starting it at a later date by callingcallback
themselves. This can be used for example to implement an additional confirmation dialog.- onTabChange(next, current)
Called before the main tab view switches to a new tab, so before the new tab becomes visible. Called with the next (changed to) and current (still visible) tab’s hash (e.g.
#control
). Note thatcurrent
might be undefined on the very first call.- onAfterTabChange(current, previous)
Called after the main tab view switches to a new tab, so after the new tab becomes visible. Called with the current and previous tab’s hash (e.g.
#control
).- getAdditionalControls()
Your view model may return additional custom control definitions for inclusion on the “Control” tab of OctoPrint’s interface. See the custom control feature.
Note
Controls injected from a view model do not support feedback controls (as defined by
regex
andtemplate
).- onSettingsShown()
Called when the settings dialog is shown.
- onSettingsHidden()
Called when the settings dialog is hidden.
- onSettingsBeforeSave()
Called just before the settings view model is sent to the server. This is useful, for example, if your plugin needs to compute persisted settings from a custom view model.
- onUserSettingsShown()
Called when the user settings dialog is shown.
- onUserSettingsHidden()
Called when the user settings dialog is hidden.
- onUserSettingsBeforeSave()
Called just before the user settings view model is sent to the server. This is useful, for example, if your plugin needs to compute persisted settings from a custom view model.
- onWizardDetails(response)
Called with the response from the wizard detail API call initiated before opening the wizard dialog. Will contain the data from all
WizardPlugin
implementations returned by theirget_wizard_details()
method, mapped by the plugin identifier.- onBeforeWizardTabChange(next, current)
Called before the wizard tab/step is changed, with the ids of the next (changed to) and the current (still visible) tab as parameters. Return false in order to prevent the tab change, e.g. if the wizard step is mandatory and not yet completed by the user. Take a look at the “Core Wizard” plugin bundled with OctoPrint and the ACL wizard step in particular for an example on how to use this.
- onAfterWizardTabChange(current)
Called after the wizard tab/step is changed, with the id of the current tab as parameter. The id of the previous tab is sadly not available currently.
- onBeforeWizardFinish()
Called before executing the finishing of the wizard. Return false here to stop the actual finish, e.g. if some step is still incomplete.
- onWizardFinish()
Called after executing the finishing of the wizard and before closing the dialog. Return
reload
here in order to instruct OctoPrint to reload the UI after the wizard closes.- onWebcamVisibilityChange(visible)
Called when the webcam stream visibility changes, with the new visibility state as parameter.
- onWebcamRefresh()
Called when the webcam refresh button in the UI is clicked. Implement this to allow refreshing the webcam stream on demand.
In order to hook into any of those callbacks, just have your view model define a function named accordingly, e.g.
to get called after all view models have been bound during application startup, implement a function onAllBound
on your view model, taking a list of all bound view models:
$(function() {
function MyCustomViewModel(parameters) {
var self = this;
// ...
self.onAllBound = function(allViewModels) {
// do something with them
}
// ...
}
OCTOPRINT_VIEWMODELS.push({
construct: MyCustomViewModel,
dependencies: ["loginStateViewModel"],
elements: ["#some_div", "#some_other_div"]
});
})
Lifecycle diagrams
Web interface startup
Web interface reconnect
See also
- OctoPrint’s core viewmodels
OctoPrint’s own view models use the same mechanisms for interacting with each other and the web application as plugins. Their source code is therefore a good point of reference on how to achieve certain things.
- KnockoutJS documentation
OctoPrint makes heavy use of KnockoutJS for building up its web app.