Widgets using `grist-plugin-api.js` and API limits

Developers
1

Hi everyone, thanks for making grist such a great and flexible tool to use!

I have a question regarding the data flow when using `grist-plugin-api.js` from a widget. For example when using `fetch` to get the content of a table.

Does the data exchange happen purely locally to the browser, by using iframe’s “postMessage” or custom events capabilities, or does it transit via the server ?

In the later case, do these requests count against the API usage limits ?

Thanks in advance for the clarifications. I am working on rather complex widgets that need to fetch the entire document to work, and I am wondering whether that’s a reasonable use…

2

Hi @Odysseus_Trentehin, custom widget calls like that do in general transit to the server, but don’t count as API usage against any existing or planned limits.

3

Thanks a lot for the fast answer.

I started digging a bit, and it looks like queries are forwarded to the host page ( grist-core/app/plugin/grist-plugin-api.ts at 506c093a228cac59040bbaf45fb7df573a2bacf3 · gristlabs/grist-core · GitHub ), but then I guess according to your answer that the host page performs an API call to answer instead of using it’s current known state.

4

Calls cross to the host page using postMessage, and then (depending on the exact call, but typically) across a websocket to the server.