Communication between firefox addon and dev/panel

Question

I need to call high-level API functions when I click on a button in my dev/panel interface. I implemented it this way. When addon will be onReady state, addon send postMessage to panelSide.

// index.js
onReady: function() {
    // in this function you can communicate
    // with the panel document
    this.postMessage("add-on-ready", [panelSide]);
    //this.postMessage("add-on-ready2", [panelSide]); // This message may be received in logic-panel.js
}

The panel will add the received message in the textarea and reply addon just by pressing a certain button:

//logic-panel.js
window.addEventListener("message", function(event) {
    var toAddon = event.ports[0];
    toAddon.start();

    $(document).ready(function(){
        $('#log').append(event.data + '\n');
    });

    switch(event.data){
        case "add-on-ready":
            $(document).ready(function(){
                $("#inspect").click(function(){
                    toAddon.postMessage("inspect");
                });
                $("#exit").click(function(){
                    toAddon.postMessage("exit");
                });

            });
            break;

        default:
            toAddon.postMessage("event.data = " + event.data);
            alert("event.data = " + event.data);
    }
});

Addon handles the response. If button "inspect" was pressed, then will be involved the high-level API (namely, PageMod in handleClick function):

//index.js
addonSide.onmessage = function(event) {
    console.log(event.data);
    switch(event.data){
        case "inspect":
            console.log("run inspect");
            handleClick();
            console.log("run inspect end");
            break;

        case "exit":
            console.log("push exit =(");
            break;

        default:
            MyPanel.postMessage("add-on-ready", [panelSide]);       //not work
    }
}


function handleClick() {
    console.log("xpath");
    var data = require("sdk/self").data;

    var pageMod = require('sdk/page-mod').PageMod({
        include: ['*'],
        contentScriptFile: data.url("./addonside/xpath.js"),
        onAttach: function(worker) {
            worker.on('message', function(message) {
                console.log('mouseclick: ' + message);
                ////////////////////////////////
                // this.postMessage('mouseclick: ' + message, [panelSide]); // This message not may be received in logic-panel.js
                ////////////////////////////////
            });
        }
    });
}

Q: How can I send postMessage to panel in handleClick () function? Maybe there is a more appropriate way to call a High-Level APIs using dev/panel?

Answer 1

In index.js declare var _MyPanel;

In onReady:

onReady: function() {
    _MyPanel = this;
    _MyPanel.postMessage("add-on-ready", [panelSide]);
}

And handleClick():

function handleClick() {
    console.log("xpath");

    var data = require("sdk/self").data;

    var pageMod = require('sdk/page-mod').PageMod({
        include: ['*'],
        contentScriptFile: data.url("./addonside/xpath.js"),
        onAttach: function(worker) {
            worker.on('message', function(message) {
                console.log('mouseclick: ' + message);
                _MyPanel.postMessage("mouseclick: " + message, [panelSide]);
            });
        }
    });
}