Will Dart support the use of existing JavaScript libraries?

Question

I understand Dart compiles to JavaScript, and I read the Dart Language Spec on Libraries, although I didn't see an answer there. Also a search on their discussion form for the word 'existing' turns up 3 results that are not related.

Does anyone know if Dart will support the use of existing JavaScript libraries such as jQuery or Raphael?

Answer 1

The answer is now Yes! Dart now ships a JS-interop library to use existing JavaScript code with your Dart app. Learn more here: https://www.dartlang.org/articles/js-dart-interop/

Answer 2

You will not be able to call javascript directly from dart code. The native directive is reserved for the core libraries of dartc (dart:core, dart:dom, dart:html, dart:json, etc), which itself compiles to javascript.

Answer 3

There is now a new simpler way https://pub.dartlang.org/packages/js (currently version 0.6.0-beta.6)

Make JS classes and functions available to Dart like:

@JS("JSON.stringify")
external String stringify(obj);

@JS('google.maps')
library maps;

// Invokes the JavaScript getter `google.maps.map`.
external Map get map;

// `new Map` invokes JavaScript `new google.maps.Map(location)`
@JS()
class Map {
  external Map(Location location);
  external Location getLocation();
}

// `new Location(...)` invokes JavaScript `new google.maps.LatLng(...)`
//
// We recommend against using custom JavaScript names whenever
// possible. It is easier for users if the JavaScript names and Dart names
// are consistent.
@JS("LatLng")
class Location {
  external Location(num lat, num lng);
}

for more see the readme of the package

Answer 4

See this thread from the discussion forum: Calling old javascript code.

Answer 5

There is also a dart:js library. And here is an article explaining how to use this library for interoperating with JavaScript.