Communication using port with sidebar library

Question

I'm using Daniel Buchner's Sidebar library.
- https://builder.addons.mozilla.org/package/25177/latest/

Is it possible for the addon to communicate with the sidebar.

/*** main.js ***/

var sidebarPanel = require('sidebar')sidebar({
    header: false,
    width:'200px',
    url: data.url('panel.html'),
    onDomReady: function(){
        this.injectAssets({
            css: [data.url('panel.css')],
            js: [data.url('panel.js')]
        });
    }
});
sidebarPanel.port.on('msg', function(sidebarmessage){
    console.log(sidebarmessage);
});
sidebarPanel.port.emit('msg', 'hello sidebar');

/*** panel.js ***/

self.port.on('msg', function(addonmessage){
    console.log(addonmessage);
});
self.port.emit('msg', 'hello addon');

I have read the "using port" docs but cannot figure out a solution. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/sdk/1.12/dev-guide/guides/content-scripts/using-port.html

I tried to modify the page-mod example for using port but was unsuccessful. Any help here would be appreciated.

Answer 1

The sidebar module you linked to is not an official SDK api and ( now that I look at the code ) does not feature the typical SDK pattern of being able to comunicate via async message-passing. In it's current state, it just isn't capable of doing that.