JS types

Dart values and JS values belong to separate language domains. When compiling to Wasm, they execute in separate runtimes as well. As such, you should treat JS values as foreign types. To provide Dart types for JS values, dart:js_interop exposes a set of types prefixed with JS called "JS types". These types are used to distinguish between Dart values and JS values at compile-time.

Importantly, these types are reified differently based on whether you compile to Wasm or JS. This means that their runtime type will differ, and therefore you can't use is checks and as casts. In order to interact with and examine these JS values, you should use external interop members or conversions.

JS types form a natural type hierarchy:

• Top type: JSAny, which is any non-nullish JS value
  • Primitives: JSNumber, JSBoolean, JSString, JSSymbol, JSBigInt
  • JSObject, which is any JS object
    • JSFunction
      • JSExportedDartFunction, which represents a Dart callback that was converted to a JS function
    • JSArray
    • JSPromise
    • JSDataView
    • JSTypedArray
      • JS typed arrays like JSUint8Array
    • JSBoxedDartObject, which allows users to box and pass Dart values opaquely within the same Dart runtime
      • From Dart 3.4 onwards, the type ExternalDartReference in dart:js_interop also allows users to pass Dart values opaquely, but is not a JS type. Learn more about the tradeoffs between each option here.

You can find the definition of each type in the dart:js_interop API docs.

To use a value from one domain to another, you will likely want to convert the value to the corresponding type of the other domain. For example, you may want to convert a Dart List<JSString> into a JS array of strings, which is represented by the JS type JSArray<JSString>, so that you can pass the array to a JS interop API.

Dart supplies a number of conversion members on various Dart types and JS types to convert the values between the domains for you.

Members that convert values from Dart to JS usually start with toJS:

String str = 'hello world';
JSString jsStr = str.toJS;

Members that convert values from JS to Dart usually start with toDart:

JSNumber jsNum = ...;
int integer = jsNum.toDartInt;

Not all JS types have a conversion, and not all Dart types have a conversion. Generally, the conversion table looks like the following:

In order to ensure type safety and consistency, the compiler places requirements on what types can flow into and out of JS. Passing arbitrary Dart values into JS is not allowed. Instead, the compiler requires users to use a compatible interop type, ExternalDartReference, or a primitive, which would then be implicitly converted by the compiler. For example, these would be allowed:

@JS()
external void primitives(String a, int b, double c, num d, bool e);

@JS()
external JSArray jsTypes(JSObject _, JSString __);

extension type InteropType(JSObject _) implements JSObject {}
​
@JS()
external InteropType get interopType;

@JS()
external void externalDartReference(ExternalDartReference _);

Whereas these would return an error:

@JS()
external Function get function;

@JS()
external set list(List _);

These same requirements exist when you use Function.toJS to make a Dart function callable in JS. The values that flow into and out of this callback must be a compatible interop type or a primitive.

If you use a Dart primitive like String, an implicit conversion happens in the compiler to convert that value from a JS value to a Dart value. If performance is critical and you don’t need to examine the contents of the string, then using JSString instead to avoid the conversion cost may make sense like in the second example.

The runtime type of JS types may differ based on the compiler. This affects runtime type-checking and casts. Therefore, almost always avoid is checks where the value is an interop type or where the target type is an interop type:

void f(JSAny a) {
  if (a is String) { … }
}

void f(JSAny a) {
  if (a is JSObject) { … }
}

Also, avoid casts between Dart types and interop types:

void f(JSString s) {
  s as String;
}

To type-check a JS value, use an interop member like typeofEquals or instanceOfString that examines the JS value itself:

void f(JSAny a) {
  // Here `a` is verified to be a JS function, so the cast is okay.
  if (a.typeofEquals('function')) {
    a as JSFunction;
  }
}

From Dart 3.4 onwards, you can use the isA helper function to check whether a value is any interop type:

void f(JSAny a) {
  if (a.isA<JSString>()) {} // `typeofEquals('string')`
  if (a.isA<JSArray>()) {} // `instanceOfString('Array')`
  if (a.isA<CustomInteropType>()) {} // `instanceOfString('CustomInteropType')`
}

Depending on the type parameter, it'll transform the call into the appropriate type-check for that type.

Dart may add lints to make runtime checks with JS interop types easier to avoid. See issue #4841 for more details.

JS has both a null and an undefined value. This is in contrast with Dart, which only has null. In order to make JS values more ergonomic to use, if an interop member were to return either JS null or undefined, the compiler maps these values to Dart null. Therefore a member like value in the following example can be interpreted as returning a JS object, JS null, or undefined:

@JS()
external JSObject? get value;

If the return type was not declared as nullable, then the program will throw an error if the value returned was JS null or undefined to ensure soundness.

From Dart 3.4 onwards, both JSBoxedDartObject and ExternalDartReference can be used to pass opaque references to Dart Objects through JavaScript. However, JSBoxedDartObject wraps the opaque reference in a JavaScript object, while ExternalDartReference is the reference itself and therefore is not a JS type.

Use JSBoxedDartObject if you need a JS type or if you need extra checks to make sure Dart values don't get passed to another Dart runtime. For example, if the Dart object needs to be placed in a JSArray or passed to an API that accepts a JSAny, use JSBoxedDartObject. Use ExternalDartReference otherwise as it will be faster.

See toExternalReference and toDartObject to convert to and from an ExternalDartReference.