Cross-origin payments

This is the flow the window channel exists for, so let’s do it properly. The scenario: a checkout on shop.example.com opens a payment window on pay.example.com. The user pays there; the payment page must report back to the checkout that opened it.

BroadcastChannel can’t help — it’s strictly same-origin, and pay.example.com is a different universe. The only bridge between windows on different origins is postMessage, and hand-rolling it safely means handshakes, origin checks, nonces, and window-close polling. use-everywhere ships all of that as a dedicated 1:1 window channel. We’ll build both sides.

Define the contract

Three types, shared between the two codebases (a tiny shared package, or just copied — it’s the contract that matters):

export type ToPayment = { order: { orderId: string; amount: string } };
export type FromPayment = { progress: { step: string } };
export type Receipt = { receiptId: string; last4: string };

Read them as: what the shop sends, what the payment page sends, and the one result the whole flow produces.

The opener side (the shop)

import { useEffect } from 'react';
import { openWindow, useOpenedWindow } from 'use-everywhere';
import type { ToPayment, FromPayment, Receipt } from './payment-contract';

function Checkout({ order }: { order: ToPayment['order'] }) {
  const pay = useOpenedWindow<ToPayment, FromPayment, Receipt>(() =>
    openWindow('https://pay.example.com/checkout', {
      peerOrigin: 'https://pay.example.com', // required — '*' throws
      features: 'popup,width=440,height=640',
    }),
  );

  // Send the order as soon as the handshake lands. (Posting earlier is fine
  // too — posts queue while the child loads.)
  useEffect(() => {
    if (pay.status === 'connected') pay.post('order', order);
  }, [pay.status]);

  if (pay.status === 'done') return <ReceiptView receipt={pay.result!} />;
  if (pay.status === 'closed-early') return <p>Window closed — try again.</p>;

  return (
    <button onClick={pay.open} disabled={pay.status !== 'idle'}>
      Pay in secure window
    </button>
  );
}

pay.open must be called from the click handler — popup blockers require a user gesture. From there, status walks idle → opening → connected → done, and your UI is just a render of it. The full status table is in useOpenedWindow.

The child side (the payment page)

The payment page uses connectToOpener from core — framework-free, so it works whatever renders that page. Note it names the shop’s origin: each side declares exactly who it will talk to.

import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import { connectToOpener } from '@use-everywhere/core';
import type { ToPayment, FromPayment, Receipt } from './payment-contract';

// Create the connection once, at module level. (It throws when the page is
// opened directly, without an opener — catch that for users who bookmark
// the URL and show a "return to the shop" screen.)
const conn = connectToOpener<ToPayment, FromPayment, Receipt>({
  peerOrigin: 'https://shop.example.com',
});

function PaymentPage() {
  const [order, setOrder] = useState<ToPayment['order'] | null>(null);
  useEffect(() => conn.on('order', setOrder), []); // on() returns its unsubscribe

  const chargeCard = async () => {
    conn.post('progress', { step: 'charging' });
    const receipt = await submitToPaymentProcessor(); // your payment logic
    conn.finish(receipt); // resolves the opener's result → status 'done'
    conn.close();
  };

  if (!order) return <p>Loading order…</p>;
  return <CardForm amount={order.amount} onSubmit={chargeCard} />;
}

finish(value) is the whole point of the flow: one result, delivered to the opener’s result, flipping its status to 'done'.

What just got handled for you

Every item in this list is a classic hand-rolled postMessage bug:

The slow-loading child. window.open returns immediately; the child takes seconds to load; naive postMessage calls in that window are silently dropped. Here, the child announces ready every 250ms until the opener acks, and everything either side posts before that is queued — never lost. You stop caring how slow the payment page loads.
The trust problem. Every incoming message must pass four gates — exact origin, the library’s envelope brand, a per-connection nonce carried in the child’s URL, and (on the opener) the exact source window — before your handler runs. Fail any gate and the message is dropped silently. Details in the security model.
The user closing the window. The opener polls child.closed (~400ms) and listens for the child’s pagehide goodbye, so status lands in 'closed-early' promptly whether the window closed cleanly or crashed — and your UI can unlock.
Popup blockers. If window.open returns null, you land in 'error' with a clear message instead of a mystery.

Because two origins are two trust domains, and state merging is automatic — whatever arrives with a newer clock wins, no questions asked. Automatic writes from a foreign security principal into your application state is a confused-deputy bug waiting to happen. Messages only do what your explicit, typed handler does. Across trust boundaries, explicit beats magic — and the payment flow is request/result shaped anyway.

Try it without two domains

The demo app fakes two origins on one Vite server: you browse http://localhost:5173 and the payment window opens http://127.0.0.1:5173. Same server — but the browser treats them as genuinely different origins, so the real handshake, nonce, and origin gates all run. pnpm dev in the repo and click “Pay in secure window”.

Where to next

useOpenedWindow — every option, the full status machine, and the gotchas.
Security model — the four gates, one by one.
Testing — drive this whole flow with fake windows in a unit test.