Kephas.Scripting 11.0.0-dev.5

Scripting

Introduction

The scripting area in Kephas handles dynamic code execution. The entry point is the IScriptProcessor singleton service, which returns a result through the ExecuteAsync method, provided with a script, execution arguments, and globals.

Check the following packages for more information:

• Kephas.Injection

Packages providing scripting implementations:

• Kephas.Scripting.CSharp
• Kephas.Scripting.Python
• Kephas.Scripting.Lua

Usage

// normally you would get the processor injected into the service constructor.
var processor = injector.Resolve<IScriptProcessor>();

// the next line uses C# scripting, so you will need also to reference Kephas.Scripting.CSharp.
var result = processor.ExecuteAsync(new CSharpStringScript("name[..4] + age.ToString()"), new { name = "Johnny", age = 42 }));
Assert.Equals("John42", result);

// the next line uses Python scripting, so you will need also to reference Kephas.Scripting.Python.
// additionally, instead of using typed arguments, it used an Expando - it could use as well a IDictionary<string, object?>.
var result = processor.ExecuteAsync(new PythonStringScript("name[..4] + str(age)"), new Expando { ["name"] = "Johnny", ["age"] = 42 }));
Assert.Equals("John42", result);

The IScriptProcessor service

This service is the central piece providing the ExecuteAsync method through which a script is executed. The script return value is, in turn, returned by the method.

DefaultScriptProcessor is the default implementation of the IScriptProcessor. Just like the other default implementations provided by the Kephas framework, it declares a low override priority, so that it can be easily overridden. By default, it delegates the template processing to a specific ILanguageService handling the provided script. It identifies the language service based on the script's language, which the service declares using the [Language(...)] attribute.

Passing arguments

The arguments passed to the execution can be referenced in the scripts directly by their name. However, if the DeconstructArgs scripting context options is set to false, the arguments can be accessed through the Args global variable.

Example

var processor = injector.Resolve<IScriptProcessor>();
var script = new CSharpStringScript(
    "int Power(int a) => a * a;" +
    "return Power((int)Args.a);");
var result = await processor.ExecuteAsync(script, new { a = 2 }, ctx => ctx.DeconstructArgs(false)); 

Language services

These services implement the ILanguageService contract and handle specific languages. By default, the framework does not provide any language service in the Kephas.Scripting package due to the heavy overhead it brings. However, there are several language services provided in separate packages:

• Kephas.Scripting.CSharp
• Kephas.Scripting.Python
• Kephas.Scripting.Lua

Controlling the script execution

The scripting context

Additional to the script and the arguments, the processing methods receive also a context which can be used to further control the operations. Just like all the other context instances, it is a dynamic expandable object (IExpando) and it aggregates the provided template and the model. Through the Result and Exception properties, the behaviors (see below) can control the processing output.

The scripting behaviors

The DefaultScriptProcessor uses also IScriptingBehavior services to further control the execution. Just like the ILanguageService services, they declare the language they support, and are invoked before and after the selected language service executes the script. They can cover various purposes: authorization, pre-processing/post-processing, audit, and whatever other functionality may be required.

The scripts

A script implements IScript, basically providing a Language (string), a Name (string), and source code (GetSourceCodeAsync(), GetSourceCode()). By default, the framework supports these script sources:

• StringScript: constructed using a string.
• StreamScript: constructed using a Stream.
• FileScript: constructed using a file path. If not provided, the Language is considered to be the file extension.