IronBlock

A .net core interpreter for blockly, allowing you to execute blockly programs in .NET.

Installation

Via nuget:

PM> Install-Package IronBlock

or

> dotnet add package IronBlock

Basic Usage

Firstly, in JavaScript save your blockly workspace as an XML file:

var xml = Blockly.Xml.workspaceToDom(workspace);

The blockly code demo allows you to view the XML of your workspace.

The XML will look something like this:

<xml>
  <block type="text_print">
    <value name="TEXT">
      <shadow type="text">
        <field name="TEXT">Hello World</field>
      </shadow>
    </value>
  </block>
</xml>

You'll need to pass this XML to your .NET server using an Ajax call or similar.

You can then parse the XML, and execute the Blockly program in .NET.

using IronBlock;
using IronBlock.Blocks;

// create a parser
var parser = new Parser();

// add the standard blocks to the parser
parser.AddStandardBlocks();

// parse the xml file to create a workspace
var workspace = parser.Parse(xml);

// run the workspace
var output = workspace.Evaluate();

// "Hello World"

// you can optionally pass in a dictionary of variables
var args = new Dictionary<string,object>();
args.Add("message", "Hello!");
workspace.Evaluate(args);

// if your program sets any variable values,
// you can read then out of the args dictionary 

Custom Blocks

Blockly has a block designer allowing you to create your own blocks very easily.

Custom blocks can be implemented in C# by inheriting IBlock:

public class MyCustomBlock : IBlock
{
    public override object Evaluate(Context context)
    {
        // read a field
        var myField = this.Fields.Get("MY_FIELD");
        
        // evaluate a value
        var myValue = this.Values.Evaluate("MY_VALUE", context);
        
        // evaluate a statement
        var myStatement = this.Statements.Get("MY_STATEMENT");
        myStatement.Evaluate(context); // evaluate your statement

        // if your block returns a value, simply `return myValue`

        // if your block is part of a statment, and another block runs after it, call
        base.Evaluate(context);
        return null;
    }
}

You can then register your block and run it:

var parser = new Parser();
parser.AddBlock<MyCustomBlock>("my_custom_block");
var workspace = parser.Parse(xml);
workspace.Evaluate();

License

MIT