Kaolin’s Javascript API

When using the Kaolin viewer in a Plotly Dash application, the javascript utilities below are exposed in the browser under the window.kaolin namespace. Some functionality (such as behaviors) is configured from the Python API, while other functions are designed to help you implement client-side callbacks for custom Dash applications directly in javascript.

Note

The following API is in Javascript and will be available in the browser, under window.kaolin.

Key client-side functions

The most useful entry points for client-side development, grouped by their window.kaolin namespace. Full signatures and the complete API are in the embedded reference below.

kaolin.io – message encoding for client-server communication

JSON is fine for small messages but inefficient for large tensor data such as images. These helpers provide compact binary (and JSON) serialization of custom messages; the sister functions on the python side live in io. Messages carry a Map (javascript) / dict (python) of simple values or arrays; numeric arrays decode to typed arrays (e.g. Float32Array) carrying an extra shape attribute, and image payloads decode to Blob instances.

  • kaolin.io.encodeMessage(tag, content, binary=true) – encode a tagged message ready to send over the WebSocket / Dash bridge.

  • kaolin.io.toBinary(value) / kaolin.io.fromBinary(buffer) – (de)serialize an arbitrary value to/from a binary ArrayBuffer.

  • kaolin.io.toJSON(value) / kaolin.io.fromJSON(text) – Map-aware JSON variants, consistent with the binary forms.

  • kaolin.io.downloadURL(filename, url) – trigger a browser download.

kaolin.core.event – drive the viewer and behaviors from callbacks

Use these from client-side Dash callbacks to control a running viewer by id (viewerId defaults to 'kaolin-viewer'):

  • kaolin.core.event.requestBehaviorSetOption(behaviorId, name, value, viewerId?) – change a behavior option at runtime (the preferred, schema-validated path).

  • kaolin.core.event.requestBehaviorActiveStatus(behaviorId, active, viewerId?) – enable or disable a behavior.

  • kaolin.core.event.requestBehaviorReset(behaviorId, value?, viewerId?) – reset a behavior to a clean state.

  • kaolin.core.event.requestMode(modeName, viewerId?) – switch the viewer’s active mode (modes are declared at build time via ViewerBuilder.add_mode).

kaolin.core.behavior – build and register custom behaviors

  • kaolin.core.behavior.BehaviorRegister.register(name, cls, description) – register a behavior class under the name you pass to add_behavior from Python.

  • Base classes to extend: Behavior, InteractiveBehavior, CanvasBehavior, CameraControllerBase, MessageHandlerBase.

See Custom behaviors for a complete, runnable example.

Full reference